Medieval Art Research

Donald Bullough Fellowship in Mediaeval History, St Andrews (deadline 30 April 2015)

St Andrews Cathedral, the interior looking east

The St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies invites applications for the Donald Bullough Fellowship in Mediaeval History, to be taken up during either semester of the academic year 2015-2016.

The Fellowship is open to any academic in a permanent university post with research interests in mediaeval history. The financial aspect of the fellowship is a subsidy (up to £3000) towards the cost of travel to St Andrews and accommodation during your stay. Previous Fellows have included Dr Christina Pössel, Professor Cynthia Neville, Dr Ross Balzaretti, Dr Marlene Hennessy, Professor Warren Brown, and Dr Edward Coleman The fellowship is currently held by Professor Richard Kaeuper.

The Fellowship carries with it no teaching duties, though the Fellow is expected to take part in the normal seminar life of the mediaeval historians during their stay in St Andrews. Weekly seminars, held on a Monday evening, run from September–December, and February–May. You will also be invited to lead a workshop on your chosen research theme during your stay. Fellows are provided with computing facilities and an office alongside the mediaeval historians in the Institute. The university library has an excellent collection for mediaeval historians.

You should send a letter of application by the advertised closing date, together with a scheme of research for the project on which you will be engaged during your time in St Andrews. You should also enclose a CV, together with the names of two academic referees, who should be asked to write by the closing date. All correspondence should be addressed to saimsmail@st-andrews.ac.uk

The closing date for applications is 30 April 2015.

Further enquiries may be addressed to the Co-Director, Dr James Palmer (saimsmail@st-andrews.ac.uk) or to colleagues in the Institute, whose contact details may be found on www.st-andrews.ac.uk/saims

Call for Papers: Seals and Status 800 – 1700 (British Museum 4-6 Dec 2015)

Silver seal matrix set with a red jasper Roman intaglio showing the emperor Antoninus Pius. Acquired with the assistance of Dr. John H. Rassweiler.

Quo asserente se sigillum habere, subridens vir illustris, ‘Moris’, inquit, ‘antiquitus non erat quemlibet militulum sigillum habere, quod regibus et precipuis tantum competit personis…’

He answered that he had a seal. The great man smiled. ‘It was not the custom in the past’, he said, ‘for every petty knight to have a seal. They are appropriate for kings and great men only’.

—Chronicle of Battle Abbey, 1180s or 1190s, ed. and trans. Eleanor Searle (1980)

The aim of this conference is to foster discussions about seals and status, concentrating on three principal themes:
I. Seals and social status
II. Seals and institutional status
III. The status of seals as objects
The famous exchange quoted on the left captures in a few biting words the close and significant connections between seals and status. It evokes the perception that sealing related to social status, that this relationship changed over time, and that such historical developments were both recognized and highly charged. Finally—and perhaps one reason why the Battle anecdote has been so often quoted—these words suggest an important status for seals themselves within the medieval world of objects. If anything, this importance increased with their proliferation: seals eventually belonged to all kinds of people and institutions, and many individuals, corporations, and chanceries had several. Ultimately, seals’ forms and functions came both to articulate and to construct social as well as institutional and administrative hierarchies.
Possible topics for papers include: Seals and heraldry; seals and inequality; seals and villeinage; seals of institutional office; seals and gender; non-heraldic personal seals; seals and status as represented in medieval and early modern texts; corporate seals and the status of institutions; the historiography of seals; the organization of chanceries; the development of sealing practices within and across social groups; relationships of seals to other works of art.
Proposals are welcomed from a wide range of perspectives, such as: archaeology, history, art history, archival studies, literature. Submissions will be accepted in English, French, and German and should be no more than 300 words in length. Send to Lloyd de Beer (ldebeer@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk) by 30th January 2015.
The conference will be held at the British Museum from the 4th – 6th December 2015.
This conference is co-organised with John Cherry and Jessica Berenbeim in collaboration with Sigillvm, a network for the study of medieval European seals and sealing practices.

Call for papers: Ninth International Conference of Iconographic Studies: Icons and iconology (June 1-4, 11-13 2015, Rijeka, Croatia and Clinton, MA)

Deadline for paper proposals: February 15, 2015

University of Rijeka, Center for Iconographic Studies (Croatia) Museum of Russian Icons, Clinton, MA (USA) The American University of Rome (Italy) The Institute for the Study of Culture and Christianity, Belgrade (Serbia) in cooperation with Harvard University (USA) Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) Gregorian Pontifical University Rome (Italy) are pleased to announce a CALL FOR PAPERS for the Ninth International Conference of Iconographic Studies ICONS & ICONOLOGY

It is a two-part trans-continental conference that will be held in Rijeka (Croatia), June 01 – 04, 2015 and in Clinton (Massachusetts), June 11 – 13, 2015.

UPDATE: Full programme

Tuesday, 02.06.2015.
09:30 Opening of the Conference
Greetings and introductory speeches

10:00 – 11:00
Communications – invited speakers (anticipated time for each paper is
30 minutes)

Maria Vassilaki (University of Thessaly, Greece)
Painting Icons in Venetian Crete at the Time of the Council of
Ferrara-Florence (1438/1439)

Elena Draghici-Vasilescu (University of Oxford, UK)
Twentieth Century Developments in European Icon-Painting

Alexei Lidov (Lomonosov State University, Moscow, Russia)
Iconicity as Spatial Notion. A New Vision of Icons in Contemporary Art
Theory

Discussion

11:45 BREAK

12:00-13:30

Olga Gratsiou (University of Crete and Institute of Mediterranean
Studies, Greece)
From Heaven to Earth. Perceptions of Reality in Icon Painting

Davor Džalto (The American University of Rome, Italy)
Icon as Image and Word: Modes of Representation or Modes of Being?

Ding Ning (School of Arts, Peking University, China)
Re-reading Li Gonglin’s Country Retreat at Villa I Tatti

Discussion

14:00 LUNCH

Izlaganja (predvieno vrijeme svakog izlaganja je 20 minuta)
Communications (anticipated time for each paper is 20 minutes)

16:00 – 17:00
Jelena Erdeljan – Branka Vraneševi (University of Belgrade, Serbia)
Eikon and Magic: Solomon’s Knot on Floor Mosaic in Herakleia Lynkestis

Maria Cristina Carile (University of Bologna, Italy)
Imperial Icons in Late Antiquity and Byzantium: the Iconic Image of the
Emperor(s) between Representation and Presence

Maria Lidova (British Museum / Oxford University, UK)
Empress, Virgin, Ecclesia. On the Perception of the Icon of St. Maria
in Trastevere
in the Early Byzantine Context

Discussion

17:15 BREAK

17:30 – 18:30
Gaetano Curzi (University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy)
The Two Triclinia of Pope Leo III as “Icons of Power”

Sotiria Kordi (University of Leeds, UK)
Corporeal Perceptions of the Immaterial: Agency and Rhythm in
Palaeologan Monumental Painting

Discussion

19:00 Presentation of the Eighth Volume of the Conference of
Iconographic Studies of 2014 – IKON 8

Wednesday, 03.06.2015.

Communications (anticipated time for each paper is 20 minutes)

9:30 – 10:30
Zoraida Demori Stanicic (Croatian Conservation Institute, Zagreb,
Croatia)
Miracle Performing Icons in Dalmatia

Valentina Živkovic (Institute for Balkan Studies, Belgrade, Serbia)
Icons as Mental Images at the Deathbed. The Preparations for a Good
Death in the Late Medieval Devotional Practices of Kotor (Montenegro)

Snežana Filipova (University of Cyril and Methodius, Skopje, Republic
of Macedonia)
Examples of Icons with Western Influences in Iconography in the Art of
Macedonia

Discussion

10:45 BREAK

11:00 – 11:45
Liv Deborah Walberg (Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, USA)
Religious Propaganda and Manipulation of Tradition in the Madonna della
Pace, Venice, Italy

Giuseppe Capriotti (University of Macerata, Italija)
Defining the Boundaries of the Lawful Cult. History of an Adriatic Icon

Discussion

12:00 BREAK

12:15 – 13:15
Claudia Cieri Via (Sapienza University of Rome, Italy)
The Invisible in the Visible. The Annunciation by Antonello da Messina
from Narrative to Icon

Lasse Hodne (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim,
Norway)
Aeiparthenos. Icons and the Iconography of the Annunciation in the
First Decades of the 15th Century

Donald Ostrowski (Harvard University, USA)
Iconographic Influences on the Litsevoi Letopisnyi Svod (Illustrated
Chronicle Compilation) of the Sixteenth Century

Discussion

14:00 LUNCH

15:30 – 16:15
Laura Stagno (University of Genoa, Italy)
Embedding Byzantine Icons in Baroque Splendour: Reception and
Celebration of Eastern Cult Images in the Republic of Genoa, 17th-18th
Century

Yvonne zu Dohna (Pontifical University Gregoriana, Rome, Italy)
Saint Ignatius and Jean Luc Marion: Two Dialogical Views

Discussion

16:30 BREAK

16:45 – 17:45
Elena Kashina (University of York, UK)
The Iconography of the Folk Icon in Russia in the 18th and 19th
Centuries

Branka Gugolj – Danijela Tešic-Radovanovic (University of Kosovska
Mitrovica, Serbia)
The Žica Altar Screen Icons

Ana Šeparovic (Miroslav Krleža Institute of Lexicography, Zagreb,
Croatia)
Icons and Croatian Painting in the Early Twentieth Century

Discussion

18:00 BREAK

18:15 – 19:15
Charlotte Gill (Durham University, UK)
A “Direct Perception of Life”: How the Russian Avant-Garde Utilised the
Icon Tradition to Form a Powerful Modern Aesthetic

Zvonko Makovic (University of Zagreb, Croatia)
Icons of Power: Constructing and Deconstructing the Icon of V. I. Lenin

Karen von Veh (University of Johannesburg, South Africa)
Contemporary Iconoclasm in South Africa: Transgressive Images of the
Madonna and Christ in Response to Social Politics

Discussion

Closing remarks

20:00 DINNER FOR PARTICIPANTS

Thursday, 04.06.2015

09:30 – 13:30

Half-day tour of Rijeka (visit to the Orthodox church St Nicholas in
Rijeka and its icons collection, medieval castle, the Franciscan
monastery and town center).

–

Icons, iconography and iconology represent some of the most prominent concepts and research topics of art history. They refer both to a particular artistic practice, to liturgical objects, and to methods of art historical interpretations. Given this multitude of meanings and functions that the concepts of icon, iconic, iconography and iconology imply, it is not surprising that all of them have been interpreted as objects of theological reflection, didactic instruments, media of transmitting visual, aesthetic and metaphysical content, and, finally, as artworks in the modern sense of the word. The conference seeks to explore and discuss recent development in the dialogue between theology, art history, philosophy and cultural theory concerning the ways we can perceive and interpret icons, iconography and iconology. It is also our objective to offer an insight into the development of iconographic studies and related disciplines, and to reflect upon their future development in the broader context of the humanities. We welcome academic papers that will approach icons, iconography and iconology in an interdisciplinary and methodologically diverse way. The themes and subjects can include the following:
• Icons, iconography and iconology: “Western” and “Eastern” perspectives
• Sacred and profane icons
• Reverse perspective: formal and metaphysical dimensions
• Icons as a medium and metaphor
• Icons of power, icons as power
• Icon and modern culture
• Icons and film and digital media
• Icons and the “canon” of modern art • Modern and contemporary icon painting
• Theological and philosophical reception of icons
• Iconoclasm(s)

Paper proposals should be submitted for both parts of the conference electronically to cis@ffri.hr

Contact person: Petra Predoević Center for Iconographic Studies
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
University of Rijeka Sveucilisna avenija 4 51 000 Rijeka Croatia E-mail: cis@ffri.hr
A paper proposal should contain: 1. full name, institution, affiliation, address, phone number(s), e-mail address 2. title 3. abstract (maximum 2 pages – 500 words)

Deadline: February 15, 2015

Fees for conference:
RIJEKA – there will be NO registration fee CLINTON – there will be a 100 USD fee Administration and organizational costs, working materials, lunch and coffee breaks during conference as well as all organized visits are covered by the organizers. All presented papers will be published in the thematic issue of the IKON journal in May 2016.
Please contact us for any additional information.
web page: http://ikon.ffri.hr

Call for Papers: The Influences of the Dominican Order in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 10-12 September 2015)

Traini - St Dominic altarpiece, 1344-5, Pisa, Museo di San Matteo — Traini – St Dominic altarpiece, 1344-5, Pisa, Museo di San Matteo

CFP DEADLINE: 1st March 2015

From the modest group of St Dominic and his sixteen followers, the Dominican Order grew rapidly in the first century of its existence, establishing itself across Europe as a learned Order of Preachers. This interdisciplinary conference will seek to explore the influences of the Dominican Order on all aspects of medieval life. The conference theme of ‘influence’ can be interpreted in its broadest sense, encompassing the large-scale influences of the Order and the legacy of its prominent figures, or can be examined on the personal level, such as the impact that the Order had on those that came into contact with it, both within and outside the Order.

Papers might address topics such as:

how the Dominican Order influenced other religious orders and medieval life more generally (papers may consider this influence with regard to art, architecture, universities and education, book-making, theology, liturgy, legislation, or other relevant disciplines);
influential Dominicans, such as St Dominic, Humbert of Romans and Thomas Aquinas, and their legacy to the Dominican Order or the use of their teachings outside of the Order;
preaching and other means by which Dominicans sought to influence the local populations they encountered;
controversies resulting from Dominican influence (e.g., in the universities, in ecclesiastical government, etc.);
Dominican education and the training of novices: the shaping of the Dominican religious life. The conference will be held at Lincoln College, Oxford and Blackfriars, Oxford from Thursday 10^th to Saturday 12^th September 2015. This conference is interdisciplinary and open to scholars working in any field of medieval studies. Papers of 20 minutes are welcomed, although other formats may be considered. Please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words, and include with it your paper title, name and affiliation (if any), contact email, AV requirements, and a short biography (this has no bearing on the evaluation; it is simply for distribution to chairs). All abstracts should be submitted by 1^st March 2015. All enquiries and proposals should be sent to Eleanor Giraud: eleanor.giraud@lincoln.ox.ac.uk

Conference review: Microarchitecture and Miniaturized Representation of Buildings (INHA, Paris 8-10 Dec 2014)

Search for “microarchitecture conference” on Google, and you will mostly be returned results concerning gatherings of computer programmers. This would doubtless make the concept of a conference on medieval microarchitecture entertaining to many. Even ignoring this parallel nomenclature, the sort of microarchitecture art historians are interested in is not an easy concept to explain, and perhaps one of the primary goals of the conference held at the Institut Nationale d’Historie d’Art in Paris was to actually work out what we had all come together for. I doubt wasn’t the only one who wondered whether my own material actually qualified.

Professor Timmermann with his pocket cathedral

Achim Timmermann (University of Michigan), a man who could indeed be dubbed “Mr. Microarchitecture”, gave an exciting overview of the concept in Early, High and Late Middle Ages, so epic in its scope of fantastic structures that the screen ought to have expanded into Imax proportions. His account demonstrated how microarchitecture transformed from the idea of a “pocket cathedral” into such an isolated ontological sphere that it crossed into convolute monstrosity with its self-mimesis by the late fifteenth century. An alternative and quite staggeringly rich oration, based on his new book Gothic Wonder, was given by Paul Binski among the medieval statuary in the ancient Roman baths of the Museé de Cluny. For Paul, the medieval intellectual aesthetic condensed great and small, magnificent and minificent, into an idea characterised by a single playfulness of embellishing surface with ornament. A more formal account, jointly delivered by Javier ibàñez Fernandez (Universidad de Zaragozza) and Arturo Zaragozá Catalán (Universidad de Valencia), introduced a 7-part taxonomy of microarchitecture in Spain: from functional maquettes to decorative miniaturisation of large-scale forms.

Sebastian Fitzner and some extraordinary medieval tile ovens

In this framework of ideas of categorisation, many new genres of object were introduced to the conference room. The present writer, of course, had packed a selection of sedilia, which by now I am certain always prove novel to continental audiences. But we also had stone tile ovens like traceried office blocks from Sebastian Fitzner (LudwigMaximilians-Universität München), Orthodox chivots for Eucharist reservation that mimic the forms of their parent building from Anita Paolicchi (Università di Pisa) and Renaissance elevation drawings that were originally intended to be folded and constructed into paper models from Giovanni Santucci (Università di Pisa).
These models are sort of things we would love to have more evidence for in the Middle Ages to explain the transmission of ideas, but alas, even presentation drawings and plans are difficult to come by. The miniaturisation of large forms into the decorative or representational was covered in papers by Sabine Berger (Sorbonne) on votive churches in the hands of donor statues and Peter Kurmann (ETH, Zurich) on relationship of tabernacle canopies to the geometry and form of great chevets.

Matthew Sillence with cardinals' seals — Matthew Sillence with cardinals’ seals

P1940231 — Final panel with Alexander Collins, Julian Gardner (chair), Sophie Cloart-Pawlak and Sarah Guérin

There was also consideration of the desirability of microarchitecture and its meaning beyond the artists’ play with novel forms. Matt Ethan Kalaver’s (University of Toronto) account of the earliest transmission of classical forms into the Netherlands by the high nobility on their tombs was reflected in the earlier centuries considered by Julian Gardner (University of Warwick) and Matthew Sillence (University of East Anglia). Their papers both focused on how influential medieval prelates and cardinals were for spreading new forms on their seals, which, quite thankfully, was a big part of my paper where also bishops seem the first to stick pointy gables over sedilia in chantry chapels they have endowed.
Perhaps one drawback about the novelty of much of the material is that it is only in retrospect to draw many of these parallels across sessions. One panel however that held together very well that at the end of the final day, between Sophie Cloart-Pawlak (IRHiS, Lille), Alexander Collins (University of Edinburgh) and Sarah Guérin (University of Montréal) who all explored the function and symbolism of microarchitecture on the spectator.
This was my first international conference, and it was a highly convivial experience with high-quality papers throughout. There was a healthy mix of postgraduates, early career researchers, established scholars and some legendary old hands. It is planned that the proceedings will be published, and therefore it should provide a much-needed general framework for the minificent microcosm of the fiddliest bits of the decorative arts.

The international conference Micro-architecture et figures du bâti au Moyen-Âge: l’échelle à l’épreuve de la matière was at the Institut Nationale d’Historie d’Art from the 8-10 Dec 2015. Here is our original post of the call for papers, the full programme and the INHA’s official page.

We also had a bit of fun tweeting the conference because we’re so Web 3.0.

CFP: The Fifteenth-Century Conference (University of Kent, Canterbury 10-12 September 2015), deadline 1 February 2015

The annual Fifteenth Century Conference has been the UK’s premier academic conference for late medieval historians for more than forty years. Submissions for papers are now invited for the 2015 Conference which will be held at the University of Kent. Papers concerned with any aspect of fifteenth-century studies are welcome, but those that relate to England’s relationship (diplomatic, military and cultural) with continental Europe and those that take a multi-disciplinary approach (exploring the literary, cultural and material history of the fifteenth century) are especially welcome.

Proposals for both 40-minute and 20-minute papers are welcome, as are proposals for themed sessions of three papers. Proposals should reach the conference organisers by 1 February 2015. Please contact Dr David Grummitt (D.I.Grummitt@kent.ac.uk), Dr Phil
Slavin (P.Slavin@kent.ac.uk) or Jon-Mark Grussenmeyer (jg482@kent.ac.uk) for further
details.

Proposals for papers (including an abstract of 100-200 words) should be
submitted to fifteenthcenturyconference@gmail.com by 1 February 2015.

Conference review: Commemoration of the Dead: new approaches, new perspectives, new material (15 November 2014)

There was a packed conference room in the newly-refurbished Institute of Historical Research at Senate House, as eager members of the Church Monuments and Monumental Brass Societies gathered to hear about new approaches to incised brass memorials. As a sequel of sorts to a conference reconsidering approaches to funerary monuments on the half-centenary of Panofsky’s Tomb Sculpture held at the Courtauld Institute in July, the stakes were high for a day on one of the potentially less-colourful genres of late medieval art production. However, the conference proved that brasses could also produce many novel and intellectually profitable methodologies, rather than inward-looking and basically descriptive case studies.

Heythrop, Oxfordshire — Stained glass commemorating John Ashfield (d. 1521), Heythrop parish church, Oxfordshire – via Flickr Martin Beek

Richard Marks (‘Brass and Glass’: the medieval tomb-window) began the day with some pearls he had discovered in his relentless trawling of late medieval parochial wills, and that “brass and glass” was more than just a rhyme: many church windows acted as surrogate funerary monuments. Without the wills, there would be no way of knowing that the fragments of stained glass were patronised by the memorialised person under our feet. The use of documents to consider individual agency was also explored by Jessica Knowles on All Saints North Street in York (’Controlling the Past’: the Medieval Brasses of All Saints North Street, York), and at the end of the day by Christian Steer on the brasses in the lost London convent of the Friars Minor (’A Melting Pot of Death’: Burials and Brasses in the London Grey Friars). This veritable carpet of memory raised the intriguing questions of why the Franciscans were so popular among well-to-do Londoners, and how the friars themselves – supposedly unable to own property – bought their own brasses.

Brügge, Sint-Jakobsplein, Sint-Jakobskerk, Kupfergrabplatte der Katheline d'Ault (St. James's Church, tomb cover of Catherine d'Ault) — Brass of Catherine d’Ault d.1451, St James, Bruges – via Flickr HEN-magonza

The idea of the importance of patrons’ agency in the design of memorials was raised in the paper by Matthew Ward discussing Chellaston alabaster workshops (Late Medieval Style: the Role of Agency and the Workshop). Michael Carter then showed how an alleged London Type-B brass in Fountains Abbey was almost certainly later than the usual timespan of that workshop; instead the evidence of the iconographical motif of raising a mitre to show off a cleric’s doctoral credentials gave us the identity of the commemorated abbot (The Mysterious Mitre on the Monument). Looking outside of the constraints of the medium continued: Harriette Peel (Women, Children and Guardian Angeles in Late Medieval Flemish Funerary Art) also used novel iconographical analysis to show that a Flemish brass commemorating a young girl may be making appeal to female hagiography through its inclusion of a guardian angel. Sanne Frequin brought colour to proceedings with some technical findings of the polychromy of Tournai Marble monuments: supposedly a “pure” medium like brass (Tournai Stone: an investigation of materiality).

Nijmegen, Sint Stevenskerk — Tomb of Catherine Bourboun (d.1465), St Stephen, Nijmegen – via Flickr Stewie1980

It is often forgotten that England, with its religious rather than social revolution, has a much richer corpus of funerary monuments than much of Europe. Ann Adams used the English corpus of tomb chest-top brasses to creatively illuminate the apparently peculiar choice of the genre over sculpted effigies by some Flemish nobles (‘Revealed and Concealed’: Monumental Brasses on Tomb Chests – the examples of John I, Duke of Cleves and Catherine of Bourbon). Robert Marcoux (The Social Meaning and Artistic Potential of a Medium: Brass and the Medieval Tombs of the Gaignières Collection) reminded us of the importance of the Gaignières collection in the absence of the physical objects, and demonstrated its statistical potential in mapping aesthetic tastes over time. The varied papers, coupled with a lively, knowledgeable and generous audience, made for a day that proved that the humble brass lurking under the carpet in many a parish church can prove a lucrative genre for the modern art historian’s inquiry.

This review was originally published in Medieval Memorial Research newsletter, a free biannual summary on current developments concerning research in memoria of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period (till circa 1600), and is part of Medieval Memoria Online.

Call For Papers: Reconsidering the Origins of Portraiture (The Institute of Art History, Jagiellonian University, Cracow, 16-18 April 2015)

Portrait of John II of France, Louvre Museum, c.1350

Deadline for sending abstracts: 15 January, 2015

Thanks to extensive research and exhibitions in recent years our knowledge and understanding of portraiture in the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance has deepened significantly. Many detailed studies have problematised this genre and departed from a portrait’s simple equation with a mimetically accurate likeness. Current interpretations show that in the later Middle Ages, when more sophisticated tactics of representing nature started to be employed, the individualised likeness was meant not to imitate actual facial features, but rather to be a visual staging, a rhetorical commentary in which the individual’s virtues and qualities were conveyed. Likeness thus understood enriched and offered an alternative for a symbolic and conventional means of representation found in the “poetics of materials”: coats of arms, inscriptions, and so forth. Furthermore, in Rennaissance recording individual physiognomy did not constitute a sufficient mode of identification (spatial context, costume, heraldry, inscriptions etc. still playing a key role) for, as it was commonly believed, a correctly made portrait should perpetuate not only an outward appearance, but most of all, the sitter’s internal qualities.

Accordingly, it is difficult to agree with the notion of portraiture that was established during the 20^th century which assumed that the independent portrait is linked par excellence to the Renaissance and the birth of the modern individual. Petrarch for instance informs us about a posthumous likeness of the cardinal Napoleone Orsini that John of Arezzo was to deliver to pope Clement VI; records from an inventory of Charles V, king of France, mention four images of John II the Good, Charles IV, Edward III and the king himself that were kept in the Hôtel de St. Pol, and an unusual representation of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV on his personal seal in which his individualised likeness is surrounded by a rectangular frame suggests the presence of an independent panel-portrait. All these, and many other examples, allow us to suppose that independent portraiture existed at least from the mid-14^th century. The famous portraits of Jean le Bon in the Louvre and Rudolf IV in Vienna’s Dom- und Diözesanmuseum could also be viewed in this context, and interpreted not as heralds of modern portraiture – as they were understood by Harald Keller in his famous 1939 study – but rather as symptoms of a broader, albeit difficult to grasp, artistic phenomenon.

To better understand the reasons and conditions under which portraiture developed during this period it does not suffice to step back into the 14^th century. In fact, the birth of individualised portraiture should rather be interpreted as a long and complex process in which both artists and patrons, together seeking innovative ways of representation, played important roles. Stephen Perkinson has revealed how mimetic portraiture started to be appreciated by a late medieval audience as a valuable skill possessed by artists who could thus manifest their own talents and artistry. Portraiture understood in this manner is akin to the early modern concept of artistic practice in which the mind and hand of an artist are fundamental means in conditioning the perceived authenticity of a likeness. At the same time however, in the Quattrocento, at the birth of modern art theory, portraiture of an entirely different sort was being diffused, portraiture that was not based on the artist’s ingenuity but on the technical reproduction of the sitter’s face. The tradition of collecting posthumous masks made from terracotta, and the growing popularity of naturalistic busts, a point recently elucidated by Jeanette Kohl, together with the unabated phenomenon of placing wax figures as votive offerings in churches, indicate that Renaissance culture did not adhere to one particular mode of perpetuating the concept of the individual but rather fostered various, and at first glance, contradictory notions of portraiture.

During this two-day conference we wish to reconsider the origins of portraiture in the heterogeneity and complexity that this issue presents to researchers today. Examining both medieval ways of representation and forms of portraiture that emerged during the Renaissance we would like to break apart the perceived boundary between medieval and Renaissance portrait production. Particularly welcome are those papers in which the issue is discussed in a broader cultural perspective (political, religious, social, etc.).

We invite proposals from scholars and young researchers (PhD candidates). Please submit an abstract (no longer than 500 words) for a 25-minute papers in English.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

the portrait and the individual in the Middle Ages
insignia, costume, accessories as a means of (auto)representation in a portrait
type and/or likeness? Mimesis and portraiture
origins and functions of cryptoportraits/identification portraits
analogy, metaphor, affinity: levels of resemblance in portraiture
the beginnings of physiognomic individualisation in portraiture
portraiture and the interest in nature in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
from representation to art: portraiture and models of artistic patronage
relations and parallels of visual and textual portraits
paradigm of antiquity? Form and function of early busts
image and memoria: portraits in the church environment
portraiture and artists’ social status
form follows function? Independent portraits: their form and purpose
portraiture and the print revolution
methodological concepts of portraiture in art history of the 19^th and 20^th centuries

Please email abstracts to dr hab. Marek Walczak to walczak.ihs[at]poczta.fm and dr Mateusz Grzęda to m.j.grzeda[at]gmail.com. Along with your abstract please include your name, institution, paper title and a brief biography or CV.

Authors of accepted papers will be asked for conference registration fee of 50 €. It will cover the accommodation in guest rooms (two nights of April 16/17 and 17/18).

Call for papers: Between Heaven and Earth: Ecclesiastical Patronage in Europe, 1400-1600 (Courtauld Institute of Art, 9 May 2015)

**Scenes from the Life of a Bishop, panel 1. Before c. 1520. Master of the von Groote Adoration © The Courtauld Institute of Art**

Deadline for CFP, 2 February 2015

Third Annual Renaissance Symposium at the Courtauld Institute of Art

In recent years, the artistic commissions of ecclesiastic and lay patrons – both individual and collective – have been a fruitful area of scholarship. Research addressing issues of sacred space, devotional practice, and the materiality of extant objects has generated new insights into the artistic provisions made for patronal commemoration and salvation. Often, however, the interests of lay and ecclesiastical patrons have been considered separately, with a lesser focus on how the differences in their status mediated a shared pursuit of commemoration in death. Clerical patronage of art in Renaissance Europe allowed for an expression of political identity and dynastic power during life, but how did their status and role in society affect their choices for the afterlife? Were ecclesiastical patrons more acutely aware of a pressing need to make provision for their personal salvation than their lay counterparts? If so, was this reflected when commissioning commemorative or devotional art? Was the desire to secure a wider intercessory audience expressed more consciously or emphatically in the art of the clergy?

This conference seeks to shed light on the ways in which ecclesiastical patrons utilised devotional and commemorative art. Was there a dialogue between their individual selves and the institutions in which they chose to locate their foundations? Crucially, how do these foundations comment on ecclesiastical life and afterlife? By examining a category of patrons that was highly aware of devotional and commemorative practice, this conference seeks to gain a better understanding of art commissioned for churches by those appointed to participate in and lead them.
We welcome proposals, exploring material across the stated time span, throughout Europe. Topics might include, but are not limited to:

A re-assessment of the recent historiography and scholarship concerning patronage in an ecclesiastical environment, especially when this contrasts with contemporary lay patronage.
The relationship between patron and artist or patron and religious institution.
Depiction of ecclesiastical donor and votive figures.
The implications of patronal choices of saints and iconography for the intended audience.
The role of inscriptions, signatures and heraldry in commemoration.
Reference to political stance and success in religious art.
Conceptions of heaven and the afterlife as expressed in art.
Ecclesiastical institutions prescribing limits to patrons and patronage.
Positioning of chapels and memorials in churches.
Rituals and liturgy of commemoration.
The impact of the Reformation and Counter Reformation on ecclesiastical patronage.

The Renaissance Symposium offers the opportunity for research students at all levels from universities in the UK and abroad to present their research. Unfortunately, we cannot offer travel subsidies. Applicants from outside London are, therefore, encouraged to apply to other funding bodies for travel bursaries to attend the conference.

Abstracts for 15-20 minute papers, not exceeding 250 words, should be sent with a brief academic CV (100 words) to Lydia Hansell (lydia.hansell@courtauld.ac.uk) and Joost Joustra (joost.joustra@courtauld.ac.uk) no later than 2nd February 2015. Successful applicants will be notified by the 12th February 2015.

Organised by Lydia Hansell and Joost Joustra (The Courtauld Institute of Art)

Call for papers: Villes/Cities – 12th Annual Symposium of the International Medieval Society, Paris (25 -27 June 2015)

Villes/Cities
12th Annual Symposium of the International Medieval Society, Paris
Dates: 25 -27 June 2015, Paris, France

Deadline for Abstracts: 30 January 2015

UPDATE: Programme now available

Centre Malher, 9 rue Malher, 75004 Paris, France, June 25 – 27, 2015
Registration deadline: Jun 12, 2015

Villes/Cities

12th Annual Symposium of the International Medieval Society (Paris),
presented in conjunction with the Laboratoire de médiévistique
occidentale de Paris (LAMOP, Université Paris I – Panthéon-Sorbonne)

Jeudi 25 Juin /Thursday June 25th

9:00-9:30 Welcome / Accueil et inscriptions

9:30-10:00 Introduction: Sarah Long and Fanny Madeline

10:00-11:30
Boris Bove,
“De l’histoire des villes à l’histoire urbaine : état des lieux du
champ historiographique”

11:30-12:00 Pause café

12:00-13:30
Session 1: Acteurs et morphologie urbaine / The Form of the City
Chair: Fanny Madeline
Kathryn E. Salzer, “Creating the Physical Localities of Medieval
Cambrai”
Annarita Teodosio and Simona Talenti, “Salerne, capitale normande”
Catherine Barrett, “Concepts of urban development in town charters of
the counts of Toulouse and their Lieutenants”

Lunch/pause déjeuner

15:00-16:00
Session 2: La pensée politique de la ville / Political thought and the
city
Chair: Julian Führer
Nicole Hochner, “Nicole Oresme (c. 1320-1382) et la ville”
Daniele Dibello, “Aristotelian thought and governance of a medieval
city-state: the case of Venice”

16:00-16:30 Pause café

16:30-18:00
Session 3: La ville représentatée / The City in images
Chair: Anna Russakoff
Caroline Ziolko, “Ville, regard et imagerie médiatique”
Caroline Simonet, “Les villes sigillaires : topographies utopiques et
traces du réel”
Juliette Dumasy, “Plans et vues de villes en France à la fin du Moyen
Age”

18:00-19:00 Assemblée générale / IMS- Paris board meeting

19:30 Dîner/Dinner, remise du prix de l’IMS-Paris 2015

Vendredi 26 Juin/ Friday June 26th

9.30-11:00
Emma Dillon
“Listening to the medieval city: perspectives from musicology and sound
studies”

11-11.30 Pause café

11:30-13:00
Session 4: Les fonctions rituelles de l’espace urbain / Ritual
functions of urban spaces
Chair: Kristin Hoefener
Ewoud Waerniers, “Ritual use of the urban space in times of communal
unrest. Cambrai, c. 1150-1227”
Tova Leigh-Choate, “The Sacred Topography of Medieval Paris: Relics,
Routes, and Song in the City of Saint Denis”
Jeannette D. Jones, “La sainte épine: Ritual at the Bourbonnais Court
in Moulins”

Lunch/ pause déjeuner

14:30-16:00
Session 5: Les usages sociaux et symboliques de la ville / Social and
symbolic uses of the city
Chair: Sarah Long
Nathan A. Daniels, “ ‘Pour un vers de chanson’: Minstrels, Guilds, and
the Social Construction of Urban Space in the Fourteenth Century”
Troy J. Tice, “Penitential Paris: Thomas of Bailly and the Penitential
Anxieties of Medieval Parisians”
Margaret E. Hadley, “French Pilgrims’ Internal Paths through Jerusalem
via Arma Christi Miniatures”

16:00-18:00 Visite/visit – Medieval Paris

Samedi 27 juin/ Saturday June 27

9:30-11:00
Carol Symes
“L’espace public à Londres et Arras, 1086-1215: Cultures documentaires,
coutumes urbaines, et libertés civiques”

11:00-11:30 Pause café

11:30-13:00
Session 6: Comparer les villes / Comparing cities
Chair: Mary Franklin-Brown
Martin Schwarz, “Old Paris, New Athens: Translatio Studii in the Vie de
St Denis (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, Ms fr 2090-2)”
Emerson S. F. Richards, “New Jerusalem and Old Manuscripts: Text and
Image Representations of New Jerusalem in 13th century French and
English Manuscripts”
Frans W. G. W. Camphuijsen, “Late medieval law courts and urban space:
the cases of Paris and Utrecht”

Lunch/ pause déjeuner

14:30-16:00
Session 7: Le développement urbain: les villes de Champagne/ Urban
development: the towns of Champagne
Chair: Raeleen Chai-Elsholz
Claire Bourguignon, “Approche de la fabrique d’une ville médiévale:
Troyes (Aube) au tournant du haut Moyen Âge et du Moyen Âge central”
Cléo Rager, “Aménagements municipaux et identité urbaine : voirie et
«voyeurs» à Troyes au XVe siècle”
Julien Briand, “Un théâtre du pouvoir : la ville de Reims en ses
registres (XIVe-XVe siècles)”

16:00-16.30 Conclusions

16.30-17:00 Final discussion

18:00 Closing apéritif

More information: http://www.ims-paris.org/

–

Keynote Speakers: Emma Dillon (King’s College, London), Carol Symes
(University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), and Boris Bove (Université
Paris VIII).

The International Medieval Society, Paris (IMS-Paris) invites abstracts and session proposals for our 2015 symposium on the theme of cities in Medieval France. After the decline of late-antique cities in the course of the fifth and sixth centuries, a revival of cities began in the course of the eleventh century. This phenomenon, which profoundly transformed the dynamics of the West to our day, is a field of research that has been enriched in pace with archeological discoveries and by new technologies that offer original perspectives and approaches. This symposium will approach new lines of investigation that will deepen our knowledge of medieval cities (11th – 15th centuries) not only in their cartographic and monumental dimensions, but also political and cultural ones.

The question of the construction of urban space could be explored in a
variety of ways:

– Through its material dimensions, consisting of different forms of cityscapes, its urbanism, and its architecture.
– Through uses of space and their performative function. For instance,the role of rituals and urban processions, how music and theater contribute to the establishment of urban space in its practical use and representations.

We also wish to explore urban culture, which consists of material, intellectual, or spiritual culture, including:

– The role of writing in the development of a literate, mercantile culture, and new modes of government
– The daily lives of city dwellers: their lifestyles and patterns of consumption, their culinary tastes, etc.
– The development of practices related to the rise of intellectual institutions (schools, universities, patronage, mendicants, etc.)

Finally, we wish to explore the question of visual representations of the city and in the city, notably:
– The ways in which cities were represented in the Middle Ages, and how medieval cities are represented now
– Models for cities and the role of imaginary cities in the construction of urban spaces

Proposals should focus on France between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries, but do not need to be exclusively limited to this period and geographical area. We encourage proposals and papers from all areas of medieval studies, such as anthropology, archeology, history, economic and social history, art history, gender studies, literary studies, musicology, philosophy, etc.

IMS-Paris Graduate Student Prize:

The IMS-Paris is pleased to offer one prize for the best paper proposal
by a graduate student. Applications should consist of:

1) symposium paper abstract/proposal
2) current research project (Ph.D. dissertation research)
3) names and contact information of two academic references

The prizewinner will be selected by the board and a committee of honorary members, and will be notified upon acceptance to the Symposium. An award of 350 euros to support international
travel/accommodations (within France, 150 euros) will be paid at the Symposium.

Proposals of 300 words or less (in English or French) for a 20-minute paper should be e-mailed to communications.ims.paris@gmail.com no later than 30 January 2015. Each should be accompanied by full contact information, a CV, and a list of audiovisual equipment you require.

Please be aware that the IMS-Paris submissions review process is highly competitive and is carried out on a strictly blind basis. The selection committee will notify applicants of its decision by e-mail by February 26th 2014.

Titles of accepted papers will be made available on the IMS-Paris website. Authors of accepted papers will be responsible for their own travel costs and conference registration fee (35 euros, reduced for students, free for IMS- Paris members).

The IMS-Paris is an interdisciplinary, bilingual (French/English) organization that fosters exchanges between French and foreign scholars. For the past ten years, the IMS has served as a center for medievalists who travel to France to conduct research, work, or study.
For more information about the IMS-Paris and the program of last year’s symposium, please visit our website: www.ims-paris.org.