New Publication: ‘Out of Bounds: Exploring the Limits of Medieval Art’, Edited by Pamela A. Patton and Maria Alessia Rossi

Pamela A. Patton, and Maria Alessia Rossi, eds. Out of Bounds: Exploring the Limits of Medieval Art. Signa: Papers of the Index of Medieval Art at Princeton University. Penn State University Press, 2023.

Find out more and buy the book here.

Where are the limits of medieval art as a field of study? What happens when conventionally trained art historians disregard the chronological, geographical, or cultural parameters that both direct and protect their scholarship? Beginning with Thelma K. Thomas and Alicia Walker’s acute assessment of the need for a “medieval art history for now,” the essays in Out of Bounds ask what happens when the study of medieval art disregards boundaries that it once obeyed. The volume focuses on questions surrounding the production of knowledge and on how scholarly investigation beyond the conventional thematic boundaries of medieval art history is changing, demonstrating how the field can address the ethics of scholarship today by positing a global turn in response to growing demands for socially responsible medieval studies. Collectively, the contributors demonstrate how “going out of bounds” can transform modern understanding of the people, traditions, and relationships that gave rise to medieval works. As such, this book argues for the necessity of reshaping scholarly discourse about the nature and significance of medieval art and generates fresh scholarly interpretations and important new critical tools for teaching and researching the Middle Ages.

The contributors to this volume are Suzanne Conklin Akbari, Michele Bacci, Jill Caskey, Eva Frojmovic, Sarah M. Guérin, Christina Maranci, Alice Isabella Sullivan, Thelma K. Thomas, Michele Tomasi, and Alicia Walker.

“Out of Bounds is a timely and valuable contribution to the growing body of works on global perspectives for the study of art history and on the place of medieval art in this global discourse. It is a welcome addition to the category of anthologies, which are among the most useful resources enabling us to grasp the expanded and reconfigured landscape of the field of medieval art.”

—Eva R. Hoffman, Tufts University, Emerita

“Out of Bounds is a compelling body of essays providing access to new concepts on the breadth of the medieval world in time and place and ways to study it in global, non-Eurocentric terms. Patton and Rossi stress the importance of what can be learned from regions and peoples that were once considered the nearly irrelevant periphery and recognize the challenges in seeking such new understandings.”

—Helen C. Evans, Mary and Michael Jaharis Curator for Byzantine Art Emerita, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Table of Contents

1. Shifting Boundaries: Medieval Art History for Now, Thelma K. Thomas and Alicia Walker

2. On Account of the Rotundity of the Earth: Steps Toward an Inclusive Medieval Art, Jill Caskey

3. Medieval Masks? Meditations on Method Out of Bounds, Sarah M. Guérin

4. Along the Art-Historical Margins of the Medieval Mediterranean, Michele Bacci

5. Looking at the “Center” from the “Border”: An Exchange of Franco-Ottoman Gifts and the Perception of Art Around 1400, Michele Tomasi

6. Alexander the Great’s Encounters with the Sacred in Medieval History Writing: From the Shahnameh to the Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César, Suzanne Conklin Akbari

7. Fashioning the Gendered, Classed, and White Self: A Sephardi Cultural Project, Eva Frojmovic

8. Beyond Traditional Boundaries: Medieval Art and Architecture in Eastern Europe, Alice Isabella Sullivan

9. “The Summit of the Earth”: What Armenian Texts Can Do for the History of Medieval Art and Beyond, Christina Maranci

Biography of editors

Pamela A. Patton is Director of the Index of Medieval Art at Princeton University. She is the author of Art of Estrangement: Redefining Jews in Reconquest Spain and coeditor of The Lives and Afterlives of Medieval Iconography, both published by Penn State University Press.

Maria Alessia Rossi is Art History Specialist at the Index of Medieval Art at Princeton University. She is the coeditor of Byzantium in Eastern European Visual Culture in the Late Middle Ages and Late Byzantium Reconsidered: The Arts of the Palaiologan Era in the Mediterranean.

CFP: ‘Wisdom as Purpose: Ways of Learning, Skill Acquisition, and Knowledge Visualisation in the Middle Ages’, deadline 31 January 2024

6th ARDIT International Congress (15th-17th May 2024, Barcelona University, Barcelona)

With its many ways of expression, knowledge has led, since the dawn of humanity, to the transformation of society. Discovering, understanding and trying to reconstruct, from a broad and diverse perspective, the way in which individual and collective learning situations occurred in the Middle Ages is the purpose of this meeting. In this sense, it aims to become an opportunity to find answers and to learn new points of view on fundamental questions such as who were the transmitters of knowledge, how and where this transmission took place, or who were the receptors.

Starting from these wide conceptions of knowledge and learning, on this occasion, we consider the presentation of proposals related to the following thematic clusters:

  • Studies about the institutions involved in the dissemination of knowledge in the Middle Ages
  • Research regarding the organization of regulated and/or secular learning
  • Education in the Muslim world and in Hebrew communities
  • Tools and methodologies for measuring knowledge
  • Literacy and illiteracy in society
  • Issuers and receivers of knowledge
  • Materials and ways of knowledge
  • Educational training of women

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

We welcome all researchers interested in the various ways of manifesting knowledge and learning during the Middle Ages to take part in the 6th edition of the ARDIT International Congress. Those who wish to participate need to indicate their target thematic cluster, send a 250-word-limited summary of their proposal, and a short curriculum vitae not exceeding 100 words before January 31st, 2024. All proposals for papers should be sent to the following email address: arditcongress2024@gmail.com.

Contributions will be sent in Catalan, Spanish, English, French, Italian and Portuguese will be accepted. Feedback on abstracts will be communicated by the Organizing Committee to all participants before the 29th February 2024.

Find more information here.

Organizing Committee:

  • Anahí Álvarez Aguado
  • Helena Casas Perpinyà
  • Tamar Mejías Guillén
  • Carlos Prieto Espinosa

Lecture: ‘The Power of Blue: Didactic models in text and image in Christine de Pizan’s Epistre Othea’, Dr Charlotte Cooper-Davis, University of York, Wednesday 6 December 2023, 6-7pm (GMT)

History of Art Research Seminar

Christine de Pizan’s Epistre Othea is a unique work: each of the 100 sets of glossed verse imparts a lesson through an exemplary figure or didactic model and is accompanied by an image that was created in collaboration with the author. The 101 images featured in one of the Othea author manuscripts (British Library, Harley MS 4431) were prepared by a master known as the Master of the City of Ladies and, although copied from an earlier source, the images in this manuscript set out to enhance women’s power in a way that the earlier manuscript did not. This talk will analyse some of this artist’s depictions of the didactic models who are present in the text to reveal his predilection with representing female didactic figures in blue, especially in verses evoking wisdom, chastity, and motherhood. The Master of the City of Ladies thereby creates a network of intervisual connections that enhance the power of the individual women represented, and of women as a collectivity. 

About the speaker

Charlotte Cooper-Davis has carried out extensive research into the visual programme of Christine de Pizan’s manuscripts and the relationship between text and image in manuscripts of her works. She is the author of the biography, Christine de Pizan, Life, Work, Legacy (Reaktion 2021) and of Christine de Pizan: Empowering Women in Text and Image (Arc Humanities, 2023).

Event location: In-person only; Room BS/005, Berrick Saul Building, Campus West, University of York (Map)

Find out more and register here.

CFP: ‘Connecting stucco in the Mediterranean (c. 300 BCE – 1200 CE): Methodological approaches and the state of research’, deadline 31 January 2024

Bilkent University, Ankara, 16th-18th May 2024

Organisers: Dr Agnieszka Lic (Polish Academy of Sciences), Dr Flavia Vanni (Università degli Studi di Salerno) and Dr Luca Zavagno (Bilkent University).

The use of plaster reliefs (stuccoes) as architectural decoration is a well-known phenomenon in the Mediterranean, with roots already in ancient Egyptian architecture. However, it has been mainly studied within the boundaries of specific disciplines and chronological specialisations. While this allowed scholars to recognise the relationship of stucco with specific architectural traditions and technologies, it did not allow to spot long-term trends and cross-cultural interactions. This is due to the lack of coordination of scholarship on the study of stucco, which appears to develop at different speeds and aim at different goals depending on the field of study. For example, in the field of Islamic art and archaeology, stucco has mainly been studied in terms of stylistic and iconographic aspects in order to spot cultural exchanges within the Islamicate world; the technological aspect has only recently started to be addressed with archaeometric analyses. At the same time, research on Western Medieval stuccoes benefitted from a more holistic approach, which started to answer the changes in iconography, style, and technologies from the Late Antique to the Early Medieval period. However, the last comprehensive publications on the subject date to the early 2000s and little has been done since then, especially on the archaeometric analyses and their interpretation. The study of stucco makers, their legal and social status have been analysed for Roman stucco and partially for the Western Medieval world, while it is largely missing for the other fields of study on stucco in the period of interest here. The knowledge of Byzantine stucco is still in its infancy, lacking archaeometric analysis and not going beyond the single case studies, except for a limited number of studies.


Despite this dispersed character of research on stucco, many important studies on this material have been produced in the recent decades and the academic community has had multiple occasions to discuss stucco at various conferences and workshops. Therefore, we feel it is time to connect these efforts and address common questions that can help to see long-term phenomena and cross-cultural exchanges in the Mediterranean.

We encourage papers submission on the following (but not exclusively) topics:

  1. Technology and makers: what do we know about the technology of stucco production and how it differed in various regions and throughout time? Did technological advances spread from one region to another? Who were the stucco workers? What was their place in past societies, and how did their status change through time?
  2. Patterns of transmission: to what extent did stucco workshops, styles, iconographic motifs, and formal features overcome geographical, political, and confessional boundaries? How knowledge about stucco-making was transmitted? What was the relationship between stucco produced in the Mediterranean with stucco traditions of other regions, such as the wider Iranian world?
  3. Perception by past societies: What was the perception of stucco by past societies? How did people perceive it in relation to marble and other media? Was it perceived as a material worthy of preservation? Was it considered a cheap material?
  4. Stucco and modern discipline boundaries: does stucco production fit modern boundaries of academic discourse? For example, do we have “Byzantine” and “Islamic” stucco production? How does it relate to other materials (marble, limestone, wood), and what do we know about workshops? Did stuccoists work alongside stone sculptors, whitewashers, and/or painters?
  5. The state of studies: What is the place of research on stucco in modern academia? What are the practices related to excavations, displays, publishing, etc.? Does it have a place on its own, or is it seen as a part of studies on sculpture or architectural decoration? What are the methodological approaches used to date and study stucco?

We encourage an in-person presence to facilitate the discussion and dissemination of knowledge, even though the conference will be available in hybrid form.

Papers of approximately 20 minutes are welcome. We also invite posters on specific case-studies.
The language of the conference is English.

Please submit abstracts of no more than 300 words byWednesday 31st January 2024 to: connectingstucco@gmail.com.

Find out more here.

Timeline:

  • Applicants will be notified of selection by Thursday 29th February 2024.
  • For posters, please send an abstract of the topic of no more than 250 words by Wednesday 28th February 2024.
  • Applicants will be notified of selection by Sunday 31st March 2024.

If you need a letter by the Organising Committee for visa purposes, please state it in your application.
For any questions please contact: connectingstucco@gmail.com. Publication of the conference proceedings is planned.

Conference: ‘New Developments in Dendrochronology and its impact on the study of Vernacular Architecture’, Vernacular Architecture Group, Leicester, 6-7 January 2024

Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th January 2024, College Court Conference Centre, Knighton Road, Leicester, LE2 3UF

There have been significant developments in dendrochronological dating over the past 10 years and much of this has had important implications for vernacular building research. New complementary techniques have opened up opportunities to date other wood types and timbers derived from short-lived trees and increased the number of buildings that can be accurately dated. This has allowed dendrochronology to contribute to vernacular building studies in a wider number of areas, moving beyond the dating of individual buildings to contribute to studies of settlements and regions and contribute to other debates.

The Vernacular Architecture Group winter conference will cover new techniques, dating of other timber types, including imported timbers, and the contribution of dendrochronology to wider studies on vernacular building. The emphasis throughout the conference will be on case studies and practical applications of techniques to vernacular buildings.

Conference Programme

Saturday 6 January 2024

14.00 – Welcome & Introduction

Session 1

  • 14.05 – Nat Alcock (Independent researcher) – The Tree-ring Database: 1978-2023: 4,000 dates and counting
  • 14.35 – Cathy Tyers (Dendrchronologist, Historic England) – Scientific Dating and vernacular architecture
  • 15.05 – Robert Howard (Nottingham Tree Ring Dating Laboratory) – Case study: Calverley Old Hall

15.35 – 16.05 – Tea and coffee

Session 2: Oxygen isotope analysis and Radiocarbon dating

  • 16.05 – Neil Loader (Prifysgol Abertawe/Swansea University) – An introduction to stable isotope dendrochronology
  • 16.45 – Dan Miles (Oxford Dendrochronology Laboratory) – Stable isotope dendrochronology. Application to vernacular buildings
  • 17.25 – Alex Bayliss (Head of Scientific Dating, Historic England) – Using radiocarbon dating to understand historic buildings

18:00 – 18:30 – Break

18:30 – Dinner

20.00-20.30 – AGM

Evening lecture

  • 20.40 – Danny McCarroll (Prifysgol Abertawe/Swansea University) – Welsh Houses and the climate of the past

21:30 – Bar

Sunday 7 January 2024

Session 3 – Beyond oak – dating from other wood species

  • 9.00 – Ann Crone (AOC Archaeology Group) and Coralie Mills (Dendrochronologie) – Home and away; the dendrochronology of pine in Scottish buildings
  • 9.30 – Rob Wilson (School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of St. Andrews) – Blue Intensity and historical dating: Not just for conifers!
  • 10.10 – Dr Martin Bridge (Oxford Dendrochronology Laboratory) – Elm and dating prospects with additional analysis methods

10.50 – 11.20 – Tea and coffee

Session 4 – Dendro and its application to settlements and areas

  • 11.20 – Steven J Allen (Conservation Dept, York Archaeology) – Dates and the details: Constructing Anglo-Scandinavian Buildings in York
  • 11.50 – Duncan James (Insight Heritage) – Pembridge village, Herefordshire in the light of dendro
  • 12.20 – Stephen Price (Independent researcher) – The impact of dendro on understanding urban development in the Worcestershire towns of Droitwich and Bewdley

13.00 – 14.00 – Lunch

Session 5

  • 14.00 – Ann Crone (AOC Archaeology Group) – American oak imports to Britain and Ireland in the 18th and early 19th centuries; the dendrochronological evidence
  • 14.40 – Vincent Debonne (researcher, built heritage, Flanders Heritage Agency, Belgium) – Towards tree-ring based chronologies of historical building materials and techniques. The example of Bruges (Belgium)
  • 15.20 – Chris Dyer (University of Leicester) – The importance of tree ring dates in changing our understanding of the past

16.00 – Close

Full booking details are being circulated to members during week beginning 13 November 2023, and are also available in the Members’ Area. Booking closes on 15 December 2023.

We are offering two bursaries to assist registered full or part-time students, recent graduates or professionals in the early years of their career to attend the conference; for more information please see the bursary details. The closing date for bursary applications is 8 December 2023.

Find out more here.

Full information about the conferenceDownload
Conference bursary Download

Conference: ‘The Many Lives of Medieval Manuscripts Symposium’, The Library of Trinity College Dublin, 30 November to 1 December 2023

‘The Many Lives of Medieval Manuscripts’ Symposium will take place in-person on Thursday 30th November and Friday 1st December 2023 at Trinity College Dublin.

The Symposium will showcase manuscripts digitised as part of the ‘Manuscripts for Medieval Studies’ Project, supported by Carnegie Corporation of New York.

The Symposium aims to highlight the research outputs arising from the digitisation of these manuscripts, including bibles, books of hours, chronicles, histories, and music manuscripts.

Join us in exploring the many lifecycles of the Library’s medieval manuscripts, from their production and use by contemporaries to their present-day conservation, digitisation, and dissemination.

Find out more and get tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/the-many-lives-of-medieval-manuscripts-symposium-tickets-743479195287?aff=oddtdtcreator

Conference programme

Thursday 30th November

Registration

Welcome address

Session 1: The Manuscripts for Medieval Studies Project

Estelle Gittins (Curatorial lead) and Dr Claire McNulty (Postdoctoral Research Fellow): Introduction to the Project and Overview of Manuscripts Digitised.  

Angelica Anchisi: Conservator, TCD. Paper: ‘Conserving Medieval Manuscripts in the Library’s Collection’. 

Caroline Harding: Senior Digital Photographer, TCD. Paper: ‘Digitisation of Medieval Manuscripts: Plans, Challenges and Techniques’.

Tea & Coffee

Keynote – Professor James Clark: Professor of History, Exeter. Paper: ‘Matthew Paris’s Miracle Narratives: TCD MS 177’.  

Friday 1st December

Session 1: Manuscript Lifecycles: From Conservation to Performance 

Welcome and Housekeeping  

Dr Niamh Pattwell: Associate Professor, School of English, Drama, and Film, UCD. Paper: ‘Sixteenth-Century Heralds: Guardians of the Manuscripts’ (TCD MS 505). 

Dr Ann Buckley: Medieval History Research Centre, TCD. Paper: ‘The Many Lives of the Medieval Liturgy: The Relevance of the Carnegie Digitisation Project for Irish and Insular Studies’. 

Fiona Baldwin: PhD Candidate, School of Music, UCD. Paper: ‘Dates, Doodles, and Deaths: Fresh Perspectives on Dublin’s Medieval Literati’ (TCD MS 79). 

Tea & Coffee

Session 2: Psalters & Books of Hours 

Dr Laura Cleaver: Senior Lecturer in Manuscript Studies, School of Advanced Studies, University of London. Paper: ‘TCD MS 93: Digitisation and the Potential of Linked Open Data’. 

Dr Claire McNulty: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, TCD. Paper: ‘Mirrors, Morality, and the Virgin Mary: TCD MS 103’. 

Professor Ruth Karras: Lecky Professor of History, TCD. Paper: ‘Gender, Bodily Performance, and the Beatus in TCD MS 53 Winchcombe Psalter’. 

Lunch

Session 3: Chronicles & Chance Encounters 

Conor McDonough: OP, St Saviour’s Priory, Dublin 1. Paper: ‘TCD MS 667: A Manuscript to Change Lives’. 

Dr David Woodman: Associate Professor of History, Robinson College, Cambridge. Paper: ‘John of Worcester’s Chronicula: An Overview and Poetry’ (TCD MS 503). 

Dr Alison Ray: College Archivist and Records Manager, St Peter’s College, Oxford. Paper: ‘Canterbury Connections: Manuscripts from Christ Church Priory and St Augustine’s Abbey in TCD Library’.

Tea & Coffee 

Session 4: Digital Methods: Beyond 2022, Searobend, & Transkribus  

Dr Peter Crooks: Department of History; Academic Director, Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland (virtualtreasury.ie). Paper: ‘No Good Deed Goes Unpunished? Trinity’s Dublin Deeds and The Case for a Meta-Collection’.

Dr Mark Faulkner: Ussher Assistant Professor in Medieval Literature, TCD and Elisabetta Magnanti: PhD Candidate, University of Vienna. Paper: ‘Using AI to Transcribe Trinity’s Manuscripts’. 

Dr Colleen Curran: Marie Curie Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Galway and Dr Lucy McKenna: Postdoctoral Researcher, TCD. Paper: ‘The Searobend Project: Digitising the Resources’.

CFP: ‘Creating Holiness: Books, Scrolls and Icons as Carriers of Sacredness’, deadline 15 December 2023

Creating Holiness: Books, Scrolls and Icons as Carriers of Sacredness, Mainz, June 17–20, 2024

Every written culture has its sacred texts. Through the regular reading of these texts, which is usually guided by a fixed rite in the same direction, a group of people reassures themselves of their community and constructs a place of cultural identity beyond the profane. The sacred text not only defines the respective beliefs, but also represents the physical expression of divine revelation, and is often itself revered as a representative of the divine in ritual. Such a text has a special quality as a manuscript, since its value can be increased not only by the high quality of the material and decoration, but also by the extraordinary virtues of the scribe and the circumstances of the act of writing itself. There are notions of what requirements such a scribe should fulfill and what rituals writing itself is subject to. The process of writing becomes a sacred act, a divine service, or an ascetic practice.

This conference will address the questions of what turns a book – or an icon of the Eastern churches – into a sacred object in Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Buddhist cultures, and how is sacredness connected to the material.

  • Are there material elements – writing surfaces, inks, colors, letterforms – that are preferred in the making of the sacred artifact? What expectations, memories, or theological concepts are associated with the material?
  • Is the manufacturing process subject to ritual rules? What requirements are imposed on the scribe? Is the scribe distinguished by a certain way of living or a special position within society?
  • What does the special handling of the sacred writings and icons, their veneration and performative choreography within the liturgy or prayer tell us about their functions within the religious community?
  • How are the sacred artifacts received? Are there legends about the scribes and the documents they produced? How are narratives about the magical potential of sacred objects to be assessed?

Travel and accommodation costs can be covered by the organizers on behalf of the ToRoll project.

Please send your abstract (150-200 words) to PD Dr Annett Martini by December, 15th 2023: amartini[at]zedat.fu-berlin.de.

Conference: ‘Nicola and Giovanni Pisano in Colour: Art Conservation and History’, 1-2 December 2023, Università di Pisa

The conference ‘Nicola and Giovanni Pisano in Colour: Art Conservation and History’ will be held in Pisa on 1-2 December 2023, organized by Luca Palozzi of the Department of Civilization and Forms of Knowledge of the University of Pisa.

The conference will take place in two locations: on 1 December at the Polo San Rossore 1938 in the SR A1 room (via Risorgimento, 19) and on 2 December at the GiArA – Gipsoteca di Arte Antica e Antiquarium (Piazza San Paolo all’Orto 20 ). You can also remotely participate and watch the conference via MS Teams: https://cfs.unipi.it/c/231201-02-pisano

Papers will be given in Italian, and the discussion will be in both English and Italian. All times are according to CET.

Find out more here: https://www.cfs.unipi.it/eventi/nicola-e-giovanni-pisano-a-colori-conservazione-e-storia-dellarte-nicola-and-giovanni-pisano-in-colour-art-conservation-and-history/

Conference Programme

Friday 1 December 2023

Biblioteca di Storia delle Arti, via Nicola Pisano 40a

12.00 Apertura della mostra bibliografica Pulpiti di carta: Nicola e Giovanni Pisano nelle collezioni della Biblioteca di Storia delle arti dell’Università di Pisa, in collaborazione con la Biblioteca e il Sistema Bibliotecario di Ateneo

Polo San Rossore, via Risorgimento, Aula SRA1

14.00 Benvenuto e registrazione

14.15 Luca Palozzi (Università di Pisa), Guardare (e pensare) a colori: introduzione ai lavori del Convegno

14.45 Marco Collareta (Pisa), Giovanni Pisano, scultore “politecnico”, nella firma del Pulpito del Duomo di Pisa

15.30 Pausa caffè

16.00 Clario di Fabio (Università di Genova), Nicola de Apulia: disciplina, sperimentazione, ricerca e innovazione

16.30 Gianluca Ameri (Università di Genova), Nicola Pisano e gli smalti: la Cintola pisana

17.00 Pausa caffè

17.30 Sarah Guérin (University of Pennsylvania/I Tatti-Harvard University), Gli avori di Giovanni Pisano: successo o fallimento?

Modera: Luca Palozzi (Università di Pisa)

18.00 Discussione

Saturday 2 December 2023

Gipsoteca, Chiesa di San Paolo all’Orto

9.00 Benvenuto

9.15 Giuliano Romalli (Istituto Centrale per il Restauro, Roma), La conquista dello spazio: illusionismo, policromia e dialettica delle arti tra Arnolfo di Cambio e Giovanni Pisano

9.45 Eleonora Gioventù (Istituto Centrale per il Restauro, Roma), Barbara Salvadori e Silvia Vettori (CNR-ISPC), Indagare per conoscere: modalità di approccio scientifico per la conoscenza delle tecniche e dello stato conservativo delle sculture di Giovanni Pisano nella cappella Scrovegni

10.15 Federica Giacomini (Istituto Centrale per il Restauro, Roma), Tecnica ed espressione: note sulle modalità esecutive delle sculture di Giovanni Pisano nella cappella Scrovegni

10.45 Pausa caffè

11.15 Serena Di Gaetano (Istituto Centrale per il Restauro, Roma), Di oro e di azzurro: la policromia delle sculture Scrovegni di Giovanni Pisano

Modera: Roberto Cela (Opera della Primaziale Pisana)

11.45 Discussione

13.00 Pausa pranzo

14.30 Visita ai pulpiti di Nicola e Giovanni Pisano nel Battistero e nel Duomo di Pisa, e visita al Museo dell’Opera del Duomo (per i soli relatori)

17.00 Franca Sorella (Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Firenze), La tecnica dei vetri dipinti e dorati nel pulpito di Giovanni Pisano in Sant’Andrea a Pistoia: alcune osservazioni critiche

17.30 Andrea Cagnini, Monica Galeotti e Simone Porcinai (Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Firenze), Le analisi scientifiche su dorature, cromie ed elementi vitrei del pulpito di Giovanni Pisano in Sant’Andrea a Pistoia

Modera: Marco Collareta (Pisa)

18.00 Discussione

18.30 Chiusura dei lavori

CFP: ‘Archaeology of Colour: The Production of polychromy’, deadline 15 December 2023

The NOVA School of Science and Technology, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, and the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga are organizing the International Symposium Archaeology of Colour – The production of polychromy in sculpture up to the 16th century. 

The symposium aims to engage scholars from different fields to enrich our understanding of the production of polychromy in sculpture up to the 16th century.

This symposium, to be held online, is organized within the scope of the project Archaeology of Colour (PTDC/ART-OUT/5992/2020), a project dedicated to studying the polychromy of medieval and early modern Portuguese sculpture. 

The symposium aims to engage scholars from different fields to enrich our understanding of the production of polychromy in sculpture up to the 16th century. Communications on subjects related to the production of polychromy on different chronologies, geographies, and technologies are welcome: 

  • Materials and Techniques
  • Documentation
  • The meanings of colour
  • Circulation of materials, techniques, artists, and artworks 
  • Experimental Archaeology
  • Knowledge transmission among neighbourhood chronologies, geographies, and technologies
  • Novel techniques and scientific approaches for studying polychromy
  • Material/Digital reconstructions of past appearances – technical challenges, experience on the public’s response, etc. 

Instructions for submission of abstracts

The language of the symposium will be English (special cases in other languages will be considered). Presentations should be 20 minutes maximum length. Please submit an abstract of approximately 400 words, plus a title and 4 keywords. Proposals should include the name and affiliation of the author(s) and a short biography (c. 150 words) of the presenting author. 

Proposals should be submitted to archaeologyofcolour@campus.fct.unl.pt no later than the 15th of December 2023. The symposium is free of charge.

Find out more here.

CFP: Virtual Islamic Art History Seminar Series, deadline 1 December 2023

The Virtual Islamic Art History Seminar Series (VIAHSS) is pleased to announce the launch of our Call for Proposals for the 2024 program of VIAHSS. We are now inviting proposals for paper presentations on topics related to the history of art, architecture, and visual culture of any time period from the Islamic world for spring and fall of 2024. We welcome submissions from current graduate students, faculty, curators, and independent scholars.

The virtual seminar series will take place on Zoom from mid-January onwards. Each session will include a 20-30 minute presentation followed by a 20 minute discussion in a constructive and friendly manner. In addition to individual proposals we are also open to workshop proposals, which might include moderated discussions of pre-circulated papers, roundtables, discussions with practicing architects or artists, or other formats.

If you are interested, please send an abstract detailing your topic (not more than 500 words) and your CV or resume by Friday, December 1, 2023, to Dr. Alexander Brey (alexander.brey@wellesley.edu) and Rachel Winter (winterr6@msu.edu) with the phrase “VIAHSS 2024 proposal” in the subject line. Please include information about your location and time zone in your email as we will have to find a time that works well for most participants. You may also express a preference or dispreference for a specific month based on your anticipated activities in the spring.

About Virtual Islamic Art History Seminar Series (VIAHSS):

Founded at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in May 2020, the Virtual Islamic Art History Seminar Series (VIAHSS) has brought together a diverse community of researchers from around the world through its virtual seminars and workshops, thereby filling a new niche in academic discourse.

While travel has resumed and in-person events have begun again, the need for a forum which brings together international and intergenerational audiences in an inclusive and supportive fashion still continues to exist. We believe that this is the time to encourage researchers to connect in different ways and to include and pay attention to voices that have been heard less.

We hope to expand our understanding of Islamic art history and discuss those geographical areas and time periods that have previously been defined as marginal.