The latest research, news, and reviews from the world of Medieval Art History
The next Royal Holloway University of London history postgraduate seminar will take place on Wednesday 5 March, 5.15pm, room G3, 11 Bedford Square.
Cristian Ispir, a PhD student at KCL, will be giving a paper entitled ‘Exigens obsides ab eis: hostageship under King John of England’.
All welcome, refreshments afterwards!
Dr. Michael Fleming, of the University of Huddersfield, and Chairman of the Viola da Gamba Society will be giving a talk on “Musical Instrument Making in Early Modern England”. The talk will be presented on Saturday, 8 March at 2:00 pm at The Warburg Institute (University of London), Woburn Square, London. The venue is a convenient walk from Euston, Euston Square, and Russell Square stations.
See here for flyer: SHMTS-poster-March2014
MEDIEVAL NEW YORK – The Annual Graduate Student Colloquium, Friday, March 14, 2014 – 9:30 – 4:30
At Stony Brook Manhattan (101-113 East 27th Hosted by SUNY Stony Brook street at Park Avenue South)
9:15: Coffee and Danish
Welcome: Joel Rosenthal, Stony Brook, this year’s chair
9:45 – 11:15: Sessions I, Chair: Brigitte Bedos-Rezak, NYU
Katerina Robert Harris, NYU, “The Space of Death in the Late Middle Ages”
Hugo Marquez, Rutgers, “The Sodomies of Dante’s Comedia.”
Claire Wilson, CUNY Graduate Center, “Troubadours in War: Occitainia, the Levant, and Latin
Greece, 1095-1229”
11:00 – 11:15, coffee break
11:30 Faculty panel: “What’s New: Current Work and Current Interests.”
Chair: Joel Rosenthal, Stony Brook
Elizabeth A. R. Brown, Brooklyn College: French History: Marguerite Porete
Chris Given-Wilson, St Andrew’s: English History: Biography
Cynthia Hahn, Hunter and CUNY Graduate Center: Art and Art History: “Why Reliquaries Matter”
1:00 – 2:15 – Lunch
2:15 – 3:45: Session II, Chair: Maryanne Kowaleski, Fordham
Jennifer Jordon, Stony Brook, “Interactions among Christina, Muslim, and Jewish Women in Norman Sicily and Southern Italy”
Samantha Sagui, Fordham, “The Capital Pledges of Medieval Norwich”
John Lansdowne, Princeton, “Broken but Not Divided: The Mosaic Man of Sorrows between Rome and Byzantium”
Aled Roberts, Columbia, “Is Piers Present? The Problems of the Real Presence in Passus XV of the C-text”
4:00 Wrap Up and Reception
There is NO REGISTRATION FEE
For flyer, please see here: Medieval New York
Call for Papers
VIII Jornadas Complutenses de Arte Medieval. Alfonso VIII and Eleanor of England, Artistic Confluences Around 1200.
Madrid, Faculty of Geography and History (University Complutense of Madrid) – Casa de Velázquez, November 12-14, 2014
Deadline: 25 May 2014
October 6, 1214. The Castilian monarch, Alfonso VIII, died on his way to Plasencia. Before the month had ended, his wife Eleanor Plantagenet followed him in the monastery of Las Huelgas in Burgos. To celebrate the eight-hundredth anniversary of their passing, the UCM’s Department of History of Art I (Medieval) organises the VIII edition of their International Seminar-Complutense Conference in Medieval Art (12-14 November 2014), under the title “Alfonso VIII and Eleanor of England, Artistic Confluences Around 1200”
There are four scheduled sessions:
Session I: Alfonso VIII, culture and image of a Kingdom
This first session will explore the memory of the Castilian royal family and its repercussions on cultural and artistic manifestations linked to the regal environment. It will accommodate contributions related to the figure of the monarch and his lineage, his image, or his role as an artistic patron.
Session II: Eleanor of England, women’s artistic patronage
Starting with the figure of Eleanor as queen and patroness of the arts, we suggest a reflection on the role of women in the field of artistic promotion, both in regal and aristocratic spheres.
Session III: Artists, workshops and exchanges
During Alfonso VIII’s time, figurative arts experimented a deep transformation encouraged by workshops and artists’ mobility, sharing knowledge and using the same solutions in often distant territories. The third session will address all figurative artistic expressions during this long reign (1158-1214).
Session IV: Peninsular architecture around 1200, changes and international connections
Alfonso VIII and Eleanor of England’s reign coincided with a time of change in the religious architecture of the Peninsular kingdoms, both Christian and Muslim. New liturgical necessities, together with artistic exchanges within the Hispanic and European territories, had an impact on the renovation of the Spanish monumental landscape.
Invited speakers: Martin Aurell (CESCM-Université de Poitiers), Claude Andrault-Schmitt (CESCM-Université de Poitiers), Isidro Bango Torviso (UAM), Gerardo Boto Varela (Universitat de Girona), Susana Calvo Capilla (UCM), Eduardo Carrero Santamaría (UAB), Therese Martin (CCHS, CSIC), Javier Martínez de Aguirre (UCM), Dulce Ocón Alonso (Universidad del País Vasco), Olga Pérez Monzón (UCM), Marta Poza Yagüe (UCM), Ana María Rodríguez López (CCHS, CSIC), and Marta Serrano Coll (Universitat Rovira i Virgili).
Paper proposals of about 1000 words -including a brief CV- may be submitted in English, Spanish or French. Only those papers presenting new research or critical contributions will be considered. They must fit within the themes of the above sessions. Proposals should be sent to the email address VIII.jornadas@ucm.es by May 25, 2014. After evaluation, the scientific committee will inform the authors of their acceptance on June 20, 2014. As with previous editions of the Jornadas Complutenses de Arte Medieval, the proceedings of the congress are planned to be published.
For more information, please visit the following website: https://www.ucm.es/artemedieval/8jornadas
Summer Course in Technical Art History: The Artist’s Book: Materials and Processes (June 9-20, 2014)
New York University, Institute of Fine Arts, Conservation Center
Application deadline: Mar 24, 2014
The Conservation Center is pleased to announce the Summer Institute in Technical Art History 2014, a two-week intensive course in technical art history for students currently enrolled in or completing a doctoral program in the US and Canada. This year’s topic will be The Artist’s Book: Materials and Processes. Made possible through the generous support of the Mellon Foundation, the course can accommodate 15 doctoral students for activities that range from lectures, gallery tours, hands-on studio sessions and much more.
Please visit our website for more information, including how to apply, at
http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/fineart/conservation/mellon-summer-institute.htm.
8th Annual Medieval Graduate Student Symposium, University of North Texas, October 2, 2014
“Interdiciplinarity in the era of ‘Relevance:’ Graduate Research across the Disciplines and Beyond.”
Details can be found on the UNT symposium website:
http://art.unt.edu/medieval-symposium/
http://art.unt.edu/medieval-symposium/cfp.php?year=2014
This year the symposium will be held in conjunction with the annual conference of the Texas Medieval Association, October 3-4, 2014. All symposium participants are invited to attend TEMA’s meeting free of charge.
Keynote speakers:
Dr. Barbara Rosenwein, Loyola University, Chicago: “Jean Gerson’s Interdisciplinary Theory of Emotions”
While we will entertain papers on any topic, from any discipline of Medieval Studies—Art History, Religion, Philosophy, English, History, Foreign Languages, Music, we particularly welcome those that engage the multifaceted topic of “Interdisciplinarity in the Age of Relevance.” We encourage submission of papers that have been submitted and/or delivered elsewhere.
Many of us in the academy, even those amongst us who are preparing for a career in the academy, are confronted with the constant refrain of “relevance.” The state of the academy and its public rhetoric profess among its highest goals an emphasis on community engagement, tangible solutions to “real” world problems, and quantifiable results that produce change and progress. Highlighting the value of stem research, and stressing the potential for expansive pools of external funding, we in the Humanities are asked to consider the creative potential and lucrative benefits of interdisciplinary research clusters and cross-campus collaborative partnerships. The underlying suggestion in this none-to-subtle rhetoric is, of course, that the humanities in general, and Medieval Studies in particular, are less-relevant in our current era because we do not on the surface contribute to this over-arching public mission.
Beginning however, with the understanding that all the various disciplines comprising Medieval Studies—English, History, Music/Liturgy, Philosophy/Religion, Archaeology, Art History, Language Studies—are inherently interdisciplinary and in some sense inseparable, we seek papers that explore or exploit the difference between “Interdisciplinary,” “Intra-disciplinary,” Extra-disciplinary,” and even “Super-disciplinary” studies. We are interested in examples of those who are engaging technology in their studies and/or have incorporated a theoretical stance in line with the hard sciences, or perhaps seek to turn the notion of “Relevance” on its head. We ask: What role do Medievalists play in this new age? Where do we see ourselves and our projects in the world of “real solutions?”
Travel subvention of $300 will be awarded to the best paper.
Deadline for submission of a 300 word abstract is June 1, 2014. Selected full papers will be due September 15th, 2014.
Paper Abstracts of 300 words should be sent to: Mickey.Abel@unt.edu
A summer program entitled, “Things that Matter,” is being organized by the University of Groningen, Netherlands, in collaboration with the universities of Bremen and Oldenburg, addressing the relationship between History and Material Culture Studies.
This summer school aims to map out the vastly growing research field of Material Culture Studies and its methodological and theoretical implications for historians. Since several years text-oriented disciplines such as historical studies, have recognized artefacts and things as important sources for the understanding of complex social relations. The integration of objects in historical research, for instance, has asked for a substantial “re-too- ling” as Karen Harvey has recently pointed out, in order to fully grasp the “complex nature of objects as sources”.
The workshops of the summer school focus on reading key texts, presenting and discussing work in progress of the students under the supervision of the international experts.
See here for more information: defi 3 RUG flyer Summerschools
We’d like to get profiles of all researchers currently working on medieval art and architecture (defined in the broadest possible sense), so please send your details to medievalartresearch@gmail.com! Our Research Profiles page is visited more than any other page on this blog, so this is a great opportunity to get some exposure, and also to find other people working on similar material.
Profiles should be no more than 5 lines, and begin with your name, institutional affiliation, and research project. You may also list other areas of research, together with a link (to your university or Academia.edu page) with further information.
In November the Courtauld group informally known as the “Tomb Raiders” visited the Charterhouse (http://www.thecharterhouse.org/) and St Bartholomew the Great (http://greatstbarts.com/), two Smithfield priory foundations with ancient and architecturally-complicated histories.
Established in Smithfield in 1371 as a Carthusian priory, the Charterhouse today is an almshouse for around 40 single men over the age of sixty, and our visit was kindly guided by one of the newest brothers (an American from Chicago) who genially warned us that as he was still on probation, we had to behave.
We assembled on the grass where the priory church once stood, giving us time to inspect the still-visible remnants of the altar, a modern memorial to the members of the community martyred following the Dissolution, and a squint in the exterior wall absorbed into the Jacobean chapel, where we began the tour. Carved wooden greyhounds, the motto ‘Deo Dante Dedi’ (‘because God has given, I give’) and an elaborate polychromed monument (featuring chubby infant Vanitas blowing golden pipe bubbles, and a relief of the Brothers in chapel) commemorate Thomas Sutton who founded the almshouse and school (thriving today in Surrey) in 1611.
The priory’s cloister, with simple arches of austere stripped brick, preserves a narrow 14th c. cell door and serving hatches through which the monks’ meals were handed. The Brothers today dine in the Great Hall, an airy space with a gallery running around two sides beneath the hammerbeams. An ornate 17th c. chimneypiece decorated with (more greyhounds and) carved cannons and powder kegs alludes to Sutton’s post as Master of Ordance in the north, and a 16th c. wooden screen at one end is a remnant from the Duke of Norfolk’s short-lived use of the property as his London residence.
Ascending a wooden staircase (which replaced the 17th c. original destroyed in the Blitz) we admired the plastered ceiling and Flemish tapestries depicting Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and tried to work out where in the Great Chamber Queen Elizabeth I and James I and VI would have sat. Next we crowded three at a time into the tiny muniments room where archivist Stephen Porter showed us, among other treasures, a crumbling but beautifully-carved late 15th c. stone figure of St Catherine with much original polychromy and gilding still intact, removed from the innards of their central courtyard wall.
Having survived everything between Henry VIII and the Blitz, Charterhouse is one of London’s best-preserved buildings – and secrets. We had the place to ourselves for the most part, and it was wonderful to be in the centre of London and yet enjoy such silent stillness.
Just around the corner and down Cloth Fair, we visited Great St Bart’s, always a treat but particularly so as James had obtained special permission to go upstairs into the clerestory. After signing the obligatory health & safety disclaimers, we squeezed up a tight and twisty stair into the open clerestory. It was exciting, after sitting through many church services staring up at Prior Bolton’s oriel window wondering what was behind it, to finally inhabit the space. We had a wonderful aerial view of the darkening church and the chance to scrutinize fragments of stone ornament littering the floor.
A thorough and illuminating explanation by James Alexander Cameron (armed with Pevsner) of the innumerable architectural campaigns rounded out the church visit, ended by the arrival of a rehearsal wedding party, plus florists.
By Emily Pegues
Medieval Art Research