Medieval Art Research

CFP: Presence and InVisibility – Sign-bearing Artefacts in Sacral Spaces (Heidelberg, 23-25 February 2015)

Call for Papers:
Presence and InVisibility – Sign-bearing Artefacts in Sacral Spaces
International research conference
Heidelberg, 23-25 February 2015
Deadline: 15 September 2014

For many cultures sign-bearing artefacts are an immanent component of sacral spaces, which constitute themselves through their presence. This applies to actual specific places, as well as to cultural space in its broadest sense. In the latter case, sacral space is to be understood as social instead of architectural.

The conference will focus on the interaction of mobile or immobile sign-bearing artefacts – ranging from smallest objects to entire buildings – and the protagonists of sacral spaces in Europe and the Near East. By analysing material residues of advanced civilizations from antiquity to the middle ages, the entire spectrum of religions within this temporal and geographical margin shall be investigated, including phenomena generally termed as “magical”. An important point of investigation within this context will be the correlation of presence and InVisibility of these artefacts, as well as cultural or religious changes and transcultural relations.

The term “sign” includes all signs found on artefacts that aim to communicate in any way, may it be in characters, in pictographic signs or other undetermined forms.

Questions of interest in the context of presence and visibility/invisibility of sign-bearing artefacts could include: Are all these sign-bearing artefacts aimed at a specific group of people? Could their messages be received by others? Do authors, scribes, or commissioners put effort in reaching a specific circle of people, and if so, how? Is the visibility of such an artefact or a sign necessary to ensure the delivery of the intended message? Are artefacts or signs of restricted visibility actually to be seen as visually restricted or are they simply intended for a specific group of recipients? Do visible and invisible artefacts or signs differ in their effect on protagonists of sacral spaces? What about artefacts or signs that are visible but bear messages that cannot be understood without further means? Is an artefact always a mere medium of a message or can it be a message itself?

What practices were performed in this context and with these artefacts? Could the knowledge of presence be more important than the actual presence? Is presence exclusively provided through visibility? In what way could the material properties or conditions influence the visibility/invisibility or presence of an artefact?

The conference shall address these questions and attempt to answer them through lectures by national and international researchers. Contributions from all disciplines are welcome. The length of a lecture should not surpass 30 minutes and can be held in English or in German.

Accommodations in Heidelberg will be provided; travelling costs will be refunded (in case of complete financing of the conference). A publication of a conference transcript is intended.

The conference is conducted by Wilfried E. Keil (Art History), Sarah Kiyanrad (Islamic studies), Christoffer Theis (Egyptology), and Laura Willer (Papyrology).

Lecture proposals consisting of an abstract (1/2 page), a short curriculum vitae, and a list of previous publications can be sent as an email attachment to w.keil@zegk.uni-heidelberg.de up until September 15th 2014. The conference committee will then choose from all proposals.

Younger researchers are explicitly encouraged to contribute.

Call for Papers/Sessions: International Medieval Congress “Reform and Renewal” (Leeds 2015)

Call for Papers/Call for Sessions:
Reform and Renewal
International Medieval Congress, Leeds, 6-9 July 2015
Deadline for paper proposals: 31 August 2014
Deadline for session proposals: 30 September 2014

The IMC seeks to provide an interdisciplinary forum for the discussion of all aspects of medieval studies. Papers and sessions on any topic or theme in the European Middle Ages are welcome. Each Congress has one particular special thematic strand on an area of interdisciplinary study in a wider context. However, this strand is not intended to be exclusive and submissions from all spheres of medieval research, in any major European language, are welcome.

The IMC seeks to provide an interdisciplinary forum for the discussion of all aspects of Medieval Studies. Paper and session proposals on any topic related to the European Middle Ages are welcome. However, every year, the IMC chooses a specific special thematic strand which – for 2015 – is ‘Reform and renewal’. The theme has been chosen for the crucial importance of both phenomena in social and intellectual discourse, both medieval and modern, as well as its impact on many aspects of the human experience.

The changes brought about by deliberate individual and collective interventions demonstrate the impact of reform and renewal on the development of spirituality, ideologies, institutional and socio-economic realities, literary and artistic expression, and a sense of shared identity amongst communities. Change could be justified by referring rhetorically to a ‘restoration’ or ‘renewal’ of a perceived former reality. Monastic and ecclesiastical groups regarded spiritual and institutional reform as closely interconnected. Secular rulers invoked divine will and natural order to validate interventions in political and socio-economic structures. Innovators in literary and artistic spheres referred to a desire to return to a more ‘authentic’ or ‘original’ intellectual, spiritual, or aesthetic experience. In reality, reform and renewal could be profoundly radical but could also be more ambiguous, remaining virtually unnoticed by contemporaries. Medieval commentators’ tendency to append positive and negative connotations to accounts of reform and renewal continues to impact upon modern discussions of both phenomena and their rhetorical uses.

Areas of discussion could include:

Justifications for reform by ruling or dissident groups (e.g. oligarchies, heretics, parliaments)
Memories of reform: historiographical justifications
Changing evaluations of reform and renewal: medieval commentaries and modern scholarship
Relevance of reform and renewal as terms to describe change across different periods, regions, social layers, and landscapes
Renewal without reform: intentional change that was not presented as a reform
The individual as agent of reform/renewal: charismatic leaders, innovators, and bureaucratic reformers
Collectivities as agents of reform and renewal
Significance and/or impact of individual, social, political, and institutional reform/renewal as well as impact on individuals and societies
Religious and/or ideological renewal
Reform and renewal in literary and artistic production: genre and style reforms, reformist literature
Reform and renewal in manuscript production, translation, and dissemination
Medieval rhetorics of reform and renewal
Physical remains of reform or renewal: architecture, texts, iconography
Reform as renovation or continuity: maintaining continuation of structures, continuation of knowledge, or ‘Back to basics’
Reform in education / moral renewal

Proposals should be submitted online at www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc/imc2015_call.html
The online proposal form will be available from 1 May 2014. Paper proposals must be submitted by 31 August 2014; session proposals must be submitted by 30 September 2014.

The IMC welcomes session and paper proposals submitted in all major European languages. For further details please contact:

Axel E. W. Müller
International Medieval Congress
Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds
Parkinson Building 1.03, LEEDS LS2 9JT U.K.
Tel.: +44 (113) 343-3614 Fax: +44 (113) 343-3616
email: imc@leeds.ac.uk
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/imc

International Symposium: Artista anònim, artista amb signatura. Identitat, estatus i rol de l’artista en l’art medieval (Barcelona, 7-8 November 2014)

International Symposium
Artista anònim, artista amb signatura. Identitat, estatus i rol de l’artista en l’art medieval
Facultat de Filosofia i Lletres de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the Museu Episcopal de Vic, 7-8 November 2014

The team of the Research Project Magistri Cataloniae is delighted to invite you to attend the International Symposium “Artista anònim, artista amb signatura. Identitat, estatus i rol de l’artista en l’art medieval”, that will be held on 7-8 November 2014 at the Facultat de Filosofia i Lletres de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the Museu Episcopal de Vic.

This Symposium has been organized by the Research Project “Artistas, patronos y público. Cataluña y el Mediterráneo. Siglos XI-XV. MAGISTRI CATALONIAE” (MICINN HAR2011-23015) of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the Museu Episcopal de Vic, with the collaboration of the Facultat de Filosofia i Lletres of the UAB.

Please see here for the complete programme.

Registration payment is still unavailable. In order to book a place, fill in the form. Registration will take effect only after the payment. For further information on the Symposium and registration please consult the website: www.simposi-magistricataloniae.org

Call for Session Proposals: Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture Sponsored Session (IMC Leeds 2015)

Call for Session Proposals
Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture Sponsored Session
22 International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, 6-9 July 2015
Deadline: 31 August 2014

MMA_Nile_cropped — Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

To encourage the integration of Byzantine studies within the scholarly community and medieval studies in particular, the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture seeks proposals for a Mary Jaharis Center sponsored session at the 22nd International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, July 6–9, 2015. We invite session proposals on any topic relevant to Byzantine studies.
The thematic strand for the 2015 IMC is “Reform and Renewal.” See the IMC Call for Papers (http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc/imc2015_call.html) for additional information about the theme and suggested areas of discussion.

Session proposals should be submitted through the Mary Jaharis Center website site (http://maryjahariscenter.org/sponsored-sessions/22nd-international-medieval-congress/). The deadline for submission is August 31, 2014. Proposals should include:

-Title
-100-word session abstract
-Session moderator and academic affiliation
-Information about the three papers to be presented in the session. For each paper: name of presenter and academic affiliation, proposed paper title, and 100-word abstract
-CV

Successful applicants will be notified by mid-September if their proposal has been selected for submission to the International Medieval Congress. The Mary Jaharis Center will submit the session proposal to the International Medieval Congress and will keep the potential organizer informed about the status of the proposal.

If the proposed session is approved, the Mary Jaharis Center will reimburse session participants (presenters and moderator) up to $500 maximum for EU residents and up to $1000 maximum for those coming from outside Europe. Funding is through reimbursement only; advance funding cannot be provided. Eligible expenses include conference registration, transportation, and food and lodging. Receipts are required for reimbursement.

The session organizer may act as the moderator or present a paper. Participants may only present papers in one session.

Please contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture with any questions.

Monumental and Miniature, Light and Sound: Pacino di Bonaguida at Santa Croce

The Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence

Italian Renaissance churches and the museums connected to them house impressive but often overlooked treasures in a variety of media: paint, stone, textile, glass, parchment, and precious metals and gems. Within the walls of the Museum, Archive, and Church of Santa Croce in Florence is a group of artworks created by Pacino di Bonaguida (about 1303-about 1347) and his workshop. Once one looks past the impressive fresco cycles by Giotto, Taddeo Gaddi, Bernardo Daddi and others, and after using a bit of imagination to envision what the church looked like before Giorgio Vasari’s renovations in the 16^th century and the Neoclassical revolution of the 18^th and 19^th centuries, one finally encounters sets of stained glass windows and a pair of choir books that have survived the Black Death, floods, and a world war. In the…

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Conference: Monuments of Power, Canterbury, 5-7 September 2014

This Symposium is to be held jointly by the Church Monuments Society and the Centre for Medieval and Modern Studies, University of Kent. The Symposium will focus on the monuments in the cathedral together with related high status tombs. We will begin on Friday afternoon with an optional visit to the cathedral’s mason’s yard and with an evening reception and dinner, followed by the keynote lecture. Lectures will begin on Saturday morning, and after lunch we will take the coach to the cathedral when delegates will have their own free time to look around or visit the cathedral library. After evensong we will have sole access to the cathedral together with talks on the monuments. On Saturday evening there is a drinks reception and dinner, followed by members’ contributions. On Sunday a varied lecture programme will be delivered, and the Symposium will close with afternoon tea at 4.00. The event is also open to those who wish to attend on a daily basis.

List of speakers

Kent Rowland
Henry VIII’s influence at Canterbury Cathedral

Tim Tatton Brown
The late Medieval monuments and shrines in the eastern arm of Canterbury Cathedral

David Green
The Black Prince

Kenneth Fincham & David Shaw
The Boys monument

Jessica Barker
Margaret Holland and her two husbands

Kim Woods
Effigies in alabaster in Canterbury Cathedral

Sophie Oosterwijk
Copper-alloy tombs in Medieval Europe

Melanie Caiazza
Expeditions and effigies: (re)locating death, burial and family narratives – a closer look at the case of Sir James Hales

Barbara Tomlinson
Commemorating Admiral Sir George Rooke (1650-1708) and his naval contemporaries

Jean Wilson
Lies, damned lies and monuments: two military memorials in Canterbury Cathedral

Anyone wishing to give a short paper under members’ contributions should contact the organiser, Mark Downing.

The Symposium is to be held at the University of Kent, Canterbury, which is about 20 minutes walk from the city centre. Accommodation is in single en-suite bedrooms. The cost for the full Symposium is £250 (£270 for non-members), full board. Alternatively, delegates may choose to attend on a non-residential basis: Saturday – morning lectures, lunch, coach travel to the cathedral and entry (fee: £60, non-members £70), and/or Sunday – lectures including lunch (fee: £45 non-members £55).

For further information on how to book, visit the Church Monuments Society’s website.

Call for ICMA Sponsored Session Proposals (CAA 2016)

Call for ICMA Sponsored Session Proposals
College Art Association, Washington DC, 3-6 February 2016
Deadline: 15 August 2014

The International Center of Medieval Art (ICMA) seeks proposals for sessions to be held under the organization’s sponsorship in 2016 at the annual College Art Association. Session organizers and speakers must be ICMA members. Proposals for ICMA sponsorship should consist of a title, an abstract, and a CV. Thanks to a generous grant from the Kress Foundation, funds may be available to defray travel costs of sponsored session speakers. Please direct all session proposals and inquiries by Aug. 15, 2014 to the Chair of the Programs Committee: Elina Gertsman, Department of Art History and Art, Case Western Reserve University, email: elina.gertsman@case.edu.

CFP: The Cross in Medieval Art (Kalamazoo 2015)

Call for Papers: The Cross in Medieval Art
International Center of Medieval Art Sponsored Session (Kalamazoo 2015)
Deadline: 15 September 2014

Recent art-historical research has brought us new understandings of the central symbol of Christianity, the Cross, in different places, at different times, in different media, and with different theoretical and conceptual foci. The Cross, its representations and significations, and the appearance and materiality of those representations, features in many areas of current research, but not often as a central subject to be dealt with thematically and comparatively. This session invites considerations of images depicting, representing or referring to the Cross in any media, and across the middle ages, from early to late. The aim of the session is to consider what can be gained at this particular moment in scholarship from a common concentration on the theme of the Cross. Therefore, proposers are invited especially to consider their subject matter in light of theoretical perspectives that have been prominent in recent art-historical scholarship, such as (but not limited to) affect, emotion, movement, medium and materiality.

Please send paper proposals (consisting of a abstract of up to one page, and a completed Participant Information Form (http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/index.html#Paper)) to Beth Williamson, University of Bristol (Beth.Williamson@bristol.ac.uk), by September 15, 2014.

Conference: Invention and Imagination in British Art and Architecture, 600-1500

Conference:
Invention and Imagination in British Art and Architecture, 600-1500
London, The British Museum, 30 October – 1 November 2014
A collaborative event organised by the Paul Mellon Centre and The British Museum

This conference will explore the ways in which artists and patrons in Britain devised and introduced new or distinctive imagery, styles and techniques, as well as novel approaches to bringing different media together. It is concerned with the mechanisms of innovation, with inventive and imaginative processes, and with the relations between conventions and individual expression. The conversation will therefore also address the very notions of sameness and difference in medieval art and architecture, and how these may be evaluated and explained historically.   

Topics for discussion can include authorship, creativity, experimentation, envisaging, representation, and regulation by guilds or patrons, as well as casestudies of particular objects, buildings, commissions or practices.

The conference will take place on 30th October – 1st November at The British Museum; it will include collaborations with the museum’s Department of Prehistory & Europe and opportunities to see works from the collection.

List of participants and speakers’ titles & abstracts (A-Z)

Jessica Barker (PhD Candidate : Courtauld Institute of Art)
Effigies of Husband and Wife at Bredon and Lowthorpe: Investigating Unique Iconography on Fourteenth-Century Funerary Sculpture

Paul Binski, Keynote Speaker (Professor of the History of Medieval Art History : University of Cambridge)
Medieval Invention and its Potencies

Kerry Paul Boeye (Assistant Professor of Art History : Loyola University Maryland)
Iconographic Invention in Thirteenth- and early Fourteenth-Century English Psalters

Alexandrina Buchanan (Lecturer in Archive Studies : University of Liverpool)
Gained in Translation: Architectural Drawing and Three-Dimensional Geometry

Andrew Budge (PhD Candidate, Birkbeck College : University of London)
The Fourteenth rebuilding of the Collegiate Church of St Mary Warwick: Risk-taking Innovation or Simple Fashion Statement?

James Alexander Cameron (PhD Candidate : Courtauld Institute of Art)
The Englishness of English Sedilla

Kristen Collins (Associate Curator, Department of Manuscripts : Getty Museum)
Resonance and Reuse: The Reinvention of a Late-Romanesque Vita Christi in Fifteenth-Century East Anglia

Lloyd De Beer (Project Curator, Late Medieval Collections : The British Museum)
The Key of David and the Temple of Justice: An Analysis of the Chichester Seal Matrix

Veronica Decker (Art History Department : University of Vienna)
The Patronage of William of Wykeham: Imagination and Experimentation in Fourteenth-Century Art and Architecture

Emily Guerry (Junior Research Fellow in History of Art, Merton College : University of Oxford)
Picturing the Saints: Relics, Patronage and the “Westminster Court Style” in Gothic Cult Painting

Jack Hartnell (Postdoctoral Fellow, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin/ Victoria and Albert Museum)
The Wound Man and the English Medical Imagination

James Hillson (PhD Candidate : University of York)
Iterative Invention: Delayed Design in Dynastic Gothic at St Stephen’s Chapel Westminster and Norwich Cathedral Cloister

Aden Kumler, Keynote Speaker (Associate Professor of Art History and the College : University of Chicago)
Envisioning Art as Process in Medieval Britain

Helen Lunnon (Tutor in Art History : University of East Anglia)
Inventio Porticus

Julian Luxford (Reader in Art History : University of St Andrews)
Inscribed Churches in Late Medieval England

John Munns (Lecturer in the History of Medieval Art : University of Cambridge)
Seeing Things: from Art to Apparition in the High Middle Ages

Laura Slater (Post Doctoral Researcher and Teaching Assistant, Department of Art History : University of York)
Inventing and Imagining Place: Jerusalems in England and the Case of Westminster

Roger Stalley (Professor Emeritus of the History of Art : Trinity College)
Reason and Imagination in English Gothic Architecture

For further information, see the conference website: http://www.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/146/

Research School: Latin Paleography and Medieval Liturgy, University of Ghent, October 2014

Autumn School
Latin Paleography and Medieval Liturgy
University of Ghent, 20 – 22 October 2014
Application deadline: 31 August 2014

This Autumn School is organised for MA and PhD-students in Medieval Studies (art history, history, philosophy, literature, music, etc.) who are required to work with handwritten medieval documents in Latin or with liturgical sources and texts containing liturgical quotations or references.

The Autumn School starts with two days of parallel courses in Latin Paleography and Medieval Liturgy, taught by leading experts in the field.

The sessions about Medieval Liturgy focus, after an elaborate introduction to the various liturgical books, on the liturgical conventions in France and Germany, on liturgy and music, on liturgy and architecture and on books of hours.

The sessions about Latin paleography explain the interactions between paleography, Diplomatics and Codicology, and will then focus on different scripts, the evolution and layout of the page and reading practices, the organisation of the scriptoria and the position of the scribe.

On the third day of the course, workshops are organized for each theme, in which all topics dealt with during the previous days will be brought together in an interactive session.

In the space of three days, students will thus acquire a basic knowledge of either Latin Paleography or Medieval Liturgy as well the skills to implement this knowledge in their own research projects.

For the course on Latin Paleography, students need to have already a basic knowledge of (classical) Latin grammar and vocabulary. For the course in Medieval Liturgy, no previous knowledge is required.

Both courses are delivered in English. Since both courses are taught at the same time, participants can enrol for only one course.

For further information on programme and registration, see here.