On 17th and 18th October 2024 in Sofia (Bulgaria) will be held the international scientific conference “Southeast European Silversmithing: Artisans, Donors, and the Concept of Piety during the Early Modern Period.” The conference aims to gather specialists studying sacral silver objects from the early modern period who, through their research, contribute to the field of applied arts with religious use. The scientific forum will enable the presentation of sacral silver objects still far unpublished and unknown to the academic community. It will stimulate the comparative analysis of silversmiths’ works in wide geographic regions, which will also help improve the methodological means of their interpretation. A more meticulous approach to this field will represent a valuable contribution to art historical scholarship and a more comprehensive understanding of the visual culture of the early modern period.
At the conference, 26 specialists from prestigious scientific organisations, universities, and cultural institutions from Austria, Armenia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, the USA, Serbia, and Hungary will discuss issues related to the production and circulation of liturgical objects, as well as their role in shaping the pious image of the faithful in Southeastern Europe between the 15th and 19th centuries.
Academic Committee
- Darina Boykina, PhD, Institute of Art Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria
Mateja Jerman, PhD, Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia and Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Rijeka, Croatia
Vuk Dautović, PhD, University of Belgrade, Serbia
Conference locations:
Thursday 17 October 2024
- Sofia, 6A Moskovska Str., Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Conference Hall 19
Friday 18 October 2024
- Sofia, 21 Krakra Str., Institute of Art Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Conference Hall 1
Conference Programme
Thursday, 17 October 2024
Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 6A Moskovska Str. Conference Hall 19
9:30–10:00: Registration
10:00–10:15: Welcoming Address
10:15–11:30: Constructing Piety
Chair: Vuk Dautović
- Dimitris Liakos, Constructing the Pious Image in Southeastern Europe at the Turn of an Era. Valuable Objects as Gifts to Athonite Monasteries from the 15th to the 16th Century
- Miljana Matić, Monks as Authors and Donors of Applied Art Objects (15th – 17th Centuries) from the Serbian Orthodox Church Museum Collection
- Darina Boykina, Artisans’ Patronage. The Case of the Guild of Silversmiths in Tatar Pazardzhik during the Early Modern Period
11:30–11:50: Coffee Break
11:50–13:30: Personal and collective patronage
Chair: Teodor Lucian Lechintan
- Nikolaos Mertzimekis, The Silver Cover of the Gospel of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (1645–1676) in the Sacristy of the Iviron Monastery
- Paschalis Androudis, On a Pair of Candlesticks from the Metropolitan Church of Kastoria, 1708
- Nicoleta Bădilă, Donors’ Portraits from the Silver Liturgical Fans from Wallachia
- Nona Petkova, Examples of Faith and Community Belonging: Eucharistic Chalices from the National Church Museum of History and Archaeology in Sofia
13:30–15:0: Lunch
15:00–16:15: Influential Objects: Appearance and Morphology
Chair: Livia Stoenescu
- Mila Santova, Once Again About the Gospel Covers from the Teteven Monastery of Prophet Elijah (Teteven Gospel Covers from 1675)
- Georgi Parpulov, Two Romanian Ciboria at the Sinai Monastery
- Mariam Vardanyan, Innovative Tendencies in the Art of Armenian Book Binding: Myrrophores Gospels Bindings
16:15–16:30: Coffee Break
16:30–18:10: Silver Objects as Emissary: Circulation, Diplomacy and Gifts
Chair: Paschalis Androudis
- Mateja Jerman, Goldsmiths’ Works as Gifts to Our Lady of Trsat (Croatia)
- Milena Ulčar, Collective Patronage of St. Tryphon’s Head Reliquary in Venetian Kotor
- Arijana Koprčina, Gifts of Bishop Emerik Esterházy to Zagreb (Arch)diocese
- Francesca Stopper, La Serenissima and the Papal States: Liturgical Objects as Diplomatic Gifts in the 18th Century
Friday, 18 October 2024
Institute of Art Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences 21 Krakra Str., Conference Hall 1
9:30–10:45: Patrons and Silversmiths Creating Visual Culture
Chair: Darina Boykina
- Dragoş Năstăsoiu, Cross-confessional Artistic Negotiation: Transylvanian Saxon Silversmith Masters and Their Orthodox Patrons in 14th to 17th-Century Wallachia and Moldavia
- Teodor Lucian Lechintan, On Some Early Modern Silver Revetments of Romanian Icons: Donors, Techniques, Horizons
- Vuk Dautović, Silver Votive Offerings of 19th-Century Serbian Rulers: Shaping Church Visual Culture and their Role in Changing Cultural Models
10:45–11:00: Coffee Break
11:00–12:15: Silversmithing Centres and Production of the Liturgical Objects
Chair: Mila Santova
- Stavroula Sdrolia, Paschalis Androudis, 17th-Century Goldsmiths’ Enamelled Production in Thessaly
- Barbara Kamler-Wild, Silversmithing in Vienna in the Golden Age of Empress Maria Theresia
- Livia Stoenescu, To Be Worth a Potosí: Mines, Wealth, and Global Crafting of Silver Liturgical Objects in Early Modernity
12:15–12:30: Coffee Break
12:30–13:20: Silver Embodying Sanctity
Chair: Milena Ulčar
- Konstantinos Dolmas, Like a Second Skin: The Head-Reliquary of St. Kliment of Ohrid
- Simeon Tonchev, The Reliquary from the Church “Mother of God the Fountain of Life” in Svilengrad and its context
13:20–15:00: Lunch
15:00–16:40: Imagery and Iconography
Chair: Mateja Jerman
- Anna Mária Nyárádi, Images Between the Latin and Greek Worlds. Prints and Book Illustrations as Models for Gospel Covers
- Iglika Mishkova, Bread Stamps
- Carmen Tănăsoiu, Behold the Lamb of God: About a Certain Iconographic Type Found on Diskoi from the Collection of the National Museum of Art of Romania
- Ruth Bryant, Analyzing the Torah Shield: Understanding the Abundance of Animal Imagery through the Zohar
16:45–17:00: Closing remarks
The conference is organised within the framework of the project “Liturgical Objects in the Context of Silversmiths’ Art during the Ottoman Period (Based on Materials from the Diocese of Plovdiv),” funded by the Bulgarian National Science Fund, Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Bulgaria (contract No. КП-06-М80/2/7.12.2023).
For more information
Medieval Art Research 