Medieval Art Research

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.

Medieval Conferences in Paris, December 2014

A reminder of all that’s going on in Paris in a couple of weeks!

Róisín Astell

Sculpture of Saint Louis, photograph taken by myself at the Saint Louis Exhibition

This December, Paris will host two exciting Medieval conferences, with esteemed historians travelling to the capital to give papers. Not only will these be great opportunities to meet fellow art historians and hear interesting talks, but they are free! I will be attending both, and will blog about the contents of each.

Conférences et colloques Saint-Louis et les arts en Europe, Louvre, 6th December 2014 – 10am – 18pm

http://www.louvre.fr/saint-louis-et-les-arts-en-europe

In conjunction with the current exposition at the Conciergerie, on Saturday 6th December, the Louvre will present a conference pertaining the artistic patronage of Saint Louis, and his potential influence and relationships throughout Europe. Many may already be aware of the intense artistic patronage of King Louis IX during his reign, and it is often interpreted that his patronage was a means of asserting political agendas (this is part…

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Conference: Religion, Art and Conflict: Disputes, destruction and creation (Courtauld Institute, 5-6 December 2014)

Although not a medieval conference per se, we think our readers will enjoy these two days on Religion, Art and Conflict at the Courtauld Institute in December, with sessions on manuscripts, historiographical reception of medieval art, and more besides.

Tickets (£26, £16 students, Courtauld staff/students and concessions) can be ordered here.

Throughout history religion and belief have been the catalyst for the creation of great buildings and works of art. However, religious art has frequently been disputed, despised and destroyed. Members are sought for a research group that will examine the role of reform, ideology and conflict in the destruction and preservation of religious art and architecture. The group will also investigate how theological disputes and religious conflicts have been the impetus for new intellectual and creative approaches to the visual and material arts.

The papers presented at the conference will cover 600 years of art history, from fifteenth-century Florence to depictions of Islam after 9/11, and a breadth of topics from medieval monasticism to William Blake’s theology of art, from Bhutanese seventeenth century art to the Vatican’s relationship with contemporary art, and much more.

Friday, 5 December
13.30 – 14.00 Registration

14.00 – 14.05 Introduction and Welcome

14.05 – 15.30 Session 1: Cultural Interaction or Conflict?

María Molina Fajardo (University of Granada): Building a ‘Catholic Site’: Spaces of Encounter, the Aggression and the Creation of the Village of Nigüelas (Granada) after
the Castilian Conquest

Ariana Maki (University of Colorado Boulder): Lines and Lineages: Depicting History and Religion in 17th-Century Bhutan

David Low (The Courtauld Institute of Art): The Ruins of Ani: the Rediscovery, Destruction and Reconstruction of an Armenian City

15.30 – 16.00 COFFEE/TEA BREAK (tea /coffee provided)

16.00 – 17.00 Session 2: Word, Image and Conflict – Liturgical Books in Late Medieval and
Reformation-era England

Jayne Wackett (University of Kent): Liturgical Images in the English Reformation:
Lost, Found and Altered

Michael Carter (The Courtauld Institute of Art): Tuppence Worth: an Annotated Missal
from a Cistercian Abbey

17.00 – 17.15 COMFORT BREAK

17.15 – 18.15 Keynote Lecture: James Carley (York University, Toronto / University of Kent): ‘So myserably peryshed in the spoyle’: John Leland and John Bale on the Dissolution of the English Religious Houses

18.15 – 18.30 Summary and discussion

18.30 RECEPTION

Saturday, 6 December

09.30 – 10.00 Registration

10.00 – 11.30 Session 3: Violence, Destruction and Creation in Renaissance and Counter-
Reformation Italy

Scott Nethersole (The Courtauld Institute of Art): ‘Art came to an end’: Making and Destruction in Fra Filippo Lippi’s Medici Altarpiece

Anna Marazuela Kim (University of Virginia): Idols of Art and of the Mind: Sculptural and Spiritual Iconoclasm in Michelangelo’s Rondanini Pietà

Eva Papoulia (The Courtauld Institute of Art): The Cappella Gregoriana in St. Peter’s: a Catholic Response to Protestant Claims

11.30 – 12.00 COFFEE/TEA BREAK (tea /coffee provided)

12.00 – 13.00 Keynote Lecture:
Sussan Babaie (The Courtauld Institute of Art): ‘Holy’ Wars and the Visual Poetics of
Innocence; Iran-Iraq, then (1980-89)

13.00 – 14.00 BREAK FOR LUNCH (not provided, except for speakers)

14.00 – 15.30 Session 4: Religion, Conflict and Identity
Lloyd De Beer (The British Museum / University of East Anglia): Burial and Belief:
Alabaster Sculpture in Context

Ágnes Kriza (University of Cambridge): Representing Destruction: Medieval Russian
Visualisations of Byzantine Iconoclasm

Emily Pegues (The Courtauld Institute of Art / National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.): To die for an ideal’: Three Wars, One Retable and the Foundations of a Belgian History of Art

15.30 – 16.00 COFFEE/TEA BREAK (tea /coffee provided)

16.00 – 17.30 Session 5: Religion, Art and Conflict in the Modern and Contemporary World

Naomi Billingsley (University of Manchester): Knock, Knock, William Blake’s Here: Creative Conflict in Blake’s Illustrations of Edward Young’s Night Thoughts

Anna Messner (University of Munich): In Search of Jewish Art and Identity: The Munich Artist Rudolf Ernst (1896-1942)

Lieke Wijnia (Tilburg University): Religion’s Reclaim of Contemporary Art: The Vatican
at the 2013 Venice Biennale

17.30 – 17.45 Concluding comments and discussion

17.45 END

Visit here for further information and abstracts of the papers.

CFP: Agency of Things: New Perspectives on European Art of the Fourteenth–Sixteenth Centuries (Warsaw, 11 – 12 June 2015)

Call for Papers:
Agency of Things: New Perspectives on European Art of the Fourteenth – Sixteenth Centuries
Warsaw, 11 – 12 June 2015
Deadline: 30 November 2014

Co-organized by Institute of History of Art, University of Warsaw and National Museum in Warsaw.

Invited speakers:
Prof. Susie Nash (The Courtauld Institute of Art, London)
Prof. Andrew Morrall (The Bard Graduate Center, New York)
Prof. Miri Rubin (Queen Mary University of London)
Prof. Wim François (KU Leuven)
Prof. Elina Gertsman (Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland)
Prof. Jacqueline E. Jung (Yale University)
Dr. Peter Dent (University of Bristol)
Dr. Robert Maniura (Birbeck, University of London)
Dr. Kathryn Rudy (University of St Andrews)

This two-day interdisciplinary conference seeks to investigate whether agency of things as a new research model more accurately than traditional theories and methods informs our understanding of religious, social, political and ideological systems or networks which shaped various communities (court, city, convent, pilgrim) during the period under investigation. We invite proposals from a variety of disciplines and perspectives, provided that they present innovative insights into the realm of agency of artistic and non-artistic objects. Acceptable topics may include, but are by no means limited to, the following topics:

* Scale and size of things as conditions of their agency
* Physical and sensory agency of things
* Animated things and things for manual handling
* Objects actively defining and operating within a space
* Things used in performances, rituals, recitations and sermons
* Craftsmanship and its role in agency of things
* Human subjects in a process of dissemination of objects
* Emotional and psychological agency of things.

Papers should be twenty minutes in length and will be followed by a ten-minute Q&A session. Please e-mail an abstract of no more than 300 words to Ika Matyjaszkiewicz and Patrycja Misiuda-Ramlau to agencyofthings@uw.edu.pl. Along with your abstract please include your name, institution, paper title and a brief biography of no more than 150 words.

The conference proceedings will be published after the event, therefore please indicate whether you would be interested in further developing your paper for a publication.

Deadline: 30 November 2014. Successful applicants will be notified by 30 January 2015.