CFP: ‘En femenino: Art and Women in the Middle Ages’, XVI Jornadas Complutenses de Arte Medieval, deadline 30 April 2023

During the last decades, references to women’s participation in medieval artistic processes have ceased to be the story of an absence. Similarly, studies of medieval female iconography have transcended their mere representation as wives, mothers, lovers, sinners and sin-inducers, or nuns. Throughout the Middle Ages, women projected, enjoyed and created art; there is no doubt about it. An increasing number of works focus on female patronage, sometimes shared with her husband but often practised autonomously and with incalculable value as a self-affirmation mechanism. Other proposals highlight female identities hidden among the list of male practitioners of any of the arts or give names to faces represented in sacred and profane episodes. Through the testimonies of material and visual culture linked to women, social realities different from the power relations established in those times are being outlined more straightforwardly and precisely. Even so, artistic studies still lag behind those focused on other disciplines such as history, philosophy or literature.

In its sixteenth edition, the Conference will be devoted to highlighting the role of Women in medieval artistic creation. This role will be understood in the broadest possible way: from patronage to creation and reception, as a channel for power strategies, a transmitter of science or a generator of specific iconographic types, regardless of their active or passive role in all this creative dynamic. Women and Gender will serve as the priority vectors to articulate the scientific content of Conference sessions.

We invite the academic community to submit abstracts in Spanish, English, Italian and French consisting of a 500 words summary highlighting the innovative nature of the paper together with the chosen session and a brief curriculum vitae (max. 300 words) before the 30th of April 2023 to the following address: enfemenino@ucm.es

Proposed topics:
● Women and artistic creation: artists, trades, textiles
● Depictions and portraits, identity
● Female spaces and architecture
● Art and female spirituality
● Patronage and Memory management
● Costume and textile trade
● Cross-cutting gender issues: prostitution, transsexuality, marginalisation, otherness, old-age
● Science, techné, art and women

Confirmed keynote speakers: Verónica Abenza (UCM), Jessica Barker (The Courtauld Institute of Art), Bárbara Boloix (Universidad de Granada), Irene González (UCM), Jitske Jasperse (CCHS-CSIC), Elizabeth L’Estrange (University of Birmingham), Diana Lucía (UCM), Therese Martin (CCHS-CSIC), Ana Maria Rodrigues (Universidade de Lisboa), and Marta Poza (UCM).

The organising committee shall acknowledge receipt of submissions and select those considered most closely aligned with the meeting objectives, responding before the 25th of May. Following peer review, these will be published in a monograph.

Scientific-organising Committee: Marta Poza, Elena Paulino, Laura Rodríguez, Alexandra Uscatescu, Irene González, Diana Lucía, Diana Olivares, Verónica Abenza, Ángel Fuentes and Alba García-Monteavaro.

More information: https://www.ucm.es/historiadelarte/en-femenino

Call for submissions: ‘The frontiers of art history and visual studies: Thoughts on their object of study’ (Eikón Imago Vol. 13, 2024), deadline for submissions 30 June 2023

Special Guest Editor: Gorka López de Munain (UNED – Vitoria-Gasteiz)

The journal Eikón / Imago, indexed in Scopus and awarded with the Quality Seal of Scientific Journals by FECYT, is open to receive original contributions for its monographic issue until June 30, 2023.

In recent decades, reflections on the nature of the object of study of art history and visual studies have intensified in an extraordinary way. Parallel to this, numerous disciplines have undertaken a profound theorization of the status of the image that, with the advent of digital images, has questioned the very essence of many of these branches of knowledge. However, as Mieke Bal has already warned, while the object of study of a given field of knowledge is constantly changing, the way in which it is carried out –the disciplinary methodology– is not being updated at the same pace.

In this dynamic, as agitated as it is stimulating, art history has been shaken and questioned, offering answers in different directions. On the one hand, the impulse of other ways of thinking about images, with pioneering studies such as those of David Freedberg, Margaret Olin, Svetlana Alpers, Michael Camille or Hans Belting, widened the field of interest towards new practices, many of which had hitherto remained relegated to the margins. On the other hand, the impetus with which Visual Studies or the German Bildwissenschaft emerged seemed to threaten the very foundations of art history, offering alternative ways of approaching images. A narrative was thus emerging in which this longed-for opening of the disciplinary field towards new objects of study seemed to be possible only from these innovative proposals. However, other thinkers such as Horst Bredekamp strove to reclaim an “abandoned tradition” of art history as Bildwissenschaft (science of the image), of Warburgian inspiration, in which the newly created media have always had a place. An approach to art history that not only focused on the great masters, but looked with scholarly interest at photography, advertisements, film, video, political iconography and also at the so-called minor arts through a broad chronological framework ranging from the earliest prehistoric productions to the present day.

In all this torrent of conflicting and even contradictory forces scholars are faced with several questions: What is the role of art history? What is its responsibility with respect to the emergence of new digital media? How should it adapt to the demands that seek to interrogate the objects of the past from updated optics and methodologies? What links should it draw with other emerging fields and disciplines such as visual studies or the science of the image? How can we address the rupture of the epistemological differential, as José Luis Brea stated, between the extended field of visual culture and that of artistic practices?

Faithful to the spirit of Bredekamp, this volume aims to reflect on the place of art history in the present, on its boundaries and, ultimately, on the nature of its object of study. The arrival of artificial intelligences such as Dall-E, Midjourney or Stable Diffusion, capable of creating progressively more complex and challenging images, the increasingly solid impulse of immersive experiences with which we relate in totally new ways (virtual, expanded or mixed reality), or the development of new artistic practices such as bio-art, pose an extraordinary challenge that forces Winckelmann’s old discipline not only to update itself permanently, but also to establish unavoidable interdisciplinary working guidelines.

But this monographic issue does not only seek to analyze how new media and digital technologies impact art history and the reflection on its object of study. It also seeks to question this problem from a broader chronological perspective, addressing the way in which other images (both past and present), traditionally considered minor or non-artistic and which have been relegated to the margins, should be fully integrated into the discipline’s field of interest, either by posing new questions or by approaching historic debates through new methodologies. This opening of the framework of study is justified not only because these forgotten images can be the pieces that improve our understanding of the visual cultures of the past, but also because their incorporation constitutes the only way to enter the thresholds of an authentic experiential culture.

In addition, our Miscellany section is available for all interested authors who want to submit contributions related to all areas of the journal’s thematic coverage and remains open all year round.

This complete issue will be published on January 2024 and it will be the first in which our journal adopts the continuous publication model, in which articles will be available on our open access platform right as they successfully pass our double-blind peer review evaluation and the editorial process, without waiting for the publication of the full issue.

More information: https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/EIKO/index

Proposals can concentrate on the following subjects, as well as other related themes:

  • Theoretical reflections on the actuality of Visual Studies, Bildwissenschaft, Bildanthropology or similar fields and their relationship with art history.
  • The role of interdisciplinarity in art history studies.
  • The relationship between artistic practices, biology and technology (bio-art, immersive images and experiences, images created by artificial intelligences, etc.).
  • The development and assessment of new methodologies oriented to the integration of the so-called minor arts or non-artistic works within the fields of interest of art history and visual studies.
  • The chronological framework of this monograph does not contemplate closed limits, since it seeks to know and explore the current state of disciplinary reflections on the object of study through the widest possible perspective; from the remote prehistoric artistic manifestation, through classical antiquity and the medieval and modern ages until contemporary productions.

Symposium: ‘Bringing the Holy Land Home’, Rehm Library College of the Holy Cross, Saturday 25 March 2023

In conjunction with the Cantor Art Gallery exhibition, explore the cross-cultural impact of the Crusades on medieval western Europe.

The Crusades, Chertsey Abbey, and the Reconstruction of a Medieval Masterpiece

In conjunction with the Cantor Art Gallery exhibition, Bringing the Holy Land Home, this daylong symposium explores the impact that the Crusades had on medieval western Europe. At the heart of the exhibition are digitally reconstructed medieval floor tiles depicting the Crusades unearthed at Chertsey Abbey in England. Created during the time when the Holy Land was actively occupied by crusader kingdoms—the tiles are unexpectedly rare and a valuable witness to a significant historical event.

The Crusades were marked both by brutal violence, much of which was directed against people who were not European (Latin) Christians, and by sustained cross-cultural encounters which, for many Europeans, affected their sense of self for centuries to come. It can be difficult to process both of these truths simultaneously, yet essential to develop this more complex and more accurate understanding of the Crusades.

The symposium is held under the auspices of the New England Medieval Consortium and is supported by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.

Schedule

8:30 – 9 a.m.: Check-in, coffee & pastries

9 – 10:30 a.m.: Welcome and Introduction

  • “Bringing the Holy Land Home: The Crusades, Chertsey Abbey, and the Reconstruction of a Medieval Masterpiece” | Amanda Luyster, College of the Holy Cross
  • “Paving Over Paradise: The Aristocratic Landscape and the Crusading Experience, 1187-1291” | Nicholas Paul, Fordham University
  • Moderator: Cecilia Gaposchkin, Dartmouth College

10:30 – 10:45 a.m.: Break

10:45 a.m. – Noon: Chertsey Abbey and England

  • “The Middle Ages and the British Museum: Past, Present and Future” | Lloyd de Beer, British Museum
  • “‘So Much National Magnificence and National History’: The Medieval Abbey at Chertsey, Then and Now” | Euan Roger, National Archives, Kew
  • “The Chertsey Tiles and ‘Art and Crusade’ in England: Historical and Historiographical Contexts” | Matthew Reeve, Queen’s University
  • Moderator: Sonja Drimmer, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Noon – 1 p.m.: Lunch

1 – 2 p.m.: Sites

  • “The Place of Relics in the Crusades” | Cynthia Hahn, Hunter College & Graduate Center of the City University of New York
  • “The Visual Arts and the Shaping of the Frankish Experience of the Holy Land” | Eva Hoffman, Tufts University
  • “The Galley as Display Space in the Fourth Crusade” | Paroma Chatterjee, University of Michigan
  • Moderator: Anne Lester, Johns Hopkins University

2:15 – 3:30 p.m.: Objects

  • “How to Move a Mountain: Visual Representations of the Pas Saladin” | Richard Leson, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
  • “Fragments and Wholes: Medieval Textiles across the Indian Ocean” | Elizabeth Williams, Dumbarton Oaks
  • “Material Connections: The St. Eustace Head Relic Wrappings” | Naomi Speakman, British Museum
  • “Ivories Come to England” | Sarah Guerin, University of Pennsylvania
  • Moderator: Alicia Walker, Bryn Mawr College

3:30 – 4 p.m .: Break

4 – 5:30 p.m.: Crusades, Then and Now

  • “A Clash of Civilizations? A Revisionist Reading of the History of Muslim-Frankish Encounters in the Crusader Period” | Suleiman Mourad, Smith College
  • “A Clash of (Academic) Civilizations: The Politics of Studying the Crusades after 9/11” | Matthew Gabriele, Virginia Tech
  • Closing Remarks | Paul Cobb, University of Pennsylvania
  • Moderator: Sahar Bazzaz, College of the Holy Cross

5:30 – 7 p.m.: Exhibition Viewing and Reception | Cantor Art Gallery

Register for tickets here.

Directions

Conference sessions will be held in Rehm Library, 3rd Floor of Smith Hall, at the College of the Holy Cross. Free parking is available in the lots adjacent to the Hogan Campus Center and Prior Performing Arts Center. Directions to campus.

Accommodations

A limited number of rooms have been set aside for symposium attendees at the AC Hotel Worcester Marriott, 125 Front St., Worcester, MA 01608. Reserve by February 22 to receive a special conference rate of $179 per night.

Limited rooms are also available at the Hilton Garden Inn, 35 Major Taylor Blvd., Worcester, MA 01608. Call 508-753-5700 and use the code 2646953 to reserve at the Holy Cross rate of $139 per night.

Review a list of other nearby hotels.

Registration

Registration for the Symposium is $40 plus a processing fee and includes all sessions, lunch, exhibition viewing and reception. Symposium sessions (excluding lunch) are free to Holy Cross faculty, staff and students.

Workshop on Medieval Wall Paintings, 17 May 2023, The Courtuald, Vernon Square Campus, London

17th May 2023, 10am – 4pm, The Courtauld, Vernon Square Campus, London (in person) 

Wall paintings, as one of the only forms of public art surviving from the Middle Ages, are an invaluable resource for art-historians, historians, and literary specialists, among others. However, there are also many challenges to wall painting research: it can be difficult to ‘read’ their imagery, they are often highly degraded, and crucial archival material is often dispersed and difficult to interpret.

This interdisciplinary research workshop invites participation from PhD and Early Career Researchers in art-history, history, literature, conservation, and other disciplines whose research projects involve medieval wall paintings. As well as establishing a network of researchers working on related material, we will discuss practicalities and methods of research into wall paintings. You will have the opportunity to see the National Wall Painting Survey held at The Courtauld, which contains a vast archive of material covering almost 8,000 wall paintings in the British Isles. We will also hear from wall paintings conservator Emily Howe (who has worked on the mural schemes at Eton and Westminster) about using conservation reports as part of the study of historic wall paintings.

This workshop offers the opportunity to:

  • Examine different methods of researching wall paintings.
  • Analyse the uses and interpretation of conservation reports for scholars working in other disciplines. 
  • Assess the different types of sources for researching wall paintings.Discuss the issues surrounding the dating of wall paintings, and the various methods for doing so.
  • Consider the distinctive iconographies found in wall painting and their potential relevance to broader historical enquiries. 

As part of the workshop, all participants will be invited to give a ten-minute lightening talk on the role of wall paintings in their research. 

Whilst this workshop places emphasis on English wall painting due to the connection with the National Wall Painting Survey at The Courtauld, we are keen to consider wall paintings as a global phenomenon. Therefore, we encourage submissions from a broad geographical scope pre-1550.

This workshop is supported by the Consortium for the Humanities and the Arts South-East England (CHASE), AHRC.

Travel bursaries available for travel within England, capped at £100 per person.
To apply, please send a CV and a short statement (300 words) on the role of wall paintings within your research to florence.eccleston@courtauld.ac.uk by Friday 14th April 2023.

Lecture: ‘Medieval Stained Glass in the Churches of the Golden Valley’, with Robert Walker in Church of St Michael & All Angels, 11 March 2023, 7pm (GMT)

An evening with Robert Walker talking about his latest book The Medieval Stained Glass of Herefordshire and Shropshire in the Church of St Michael & All Angels in Eaton Bishop.

Robert Walker, is a retired building conservation officer with a life-long interest in historical churches. Copies of his latest book, The Medieval Stained Glass of Herefordshire & Shropshire will be available to purchase at the event for £25.

Tickets are £10 each. Tickets include canapes and a glass of wine. Further drinks are available for purchase. Tickets are available for purchase from Mary Kimber (marykimber@btinternet.com)

Call for Papers: The Early Discovery of Medieval Art by Travelers Looking for Antiquity in South Europe (Deadline: 15 March 2023)

Between the 17th and early 19th centuries, travel played an essential role in the rediscovery of medieval art. Cultured men from all over Europe visited Mediterranean countries to see Greek and Roman monuments, but they were often confronted with artefacts and buildings from later centuries. How did
they perceive medieval monuments that fell before their eyes while they were in search of classical antiquities? What terms did they use to describe them? What interpretative categories did they adopt to define them? What aesthetic or historical opinions they had on the Middle Ages in comparison with Antiquity, which was the main goal of their journey?

This conference wishes to examine the different attitudes towards medieval heritage in authors who were prepared to study Antiquity and verify their impact on the development of a new discipline specifically dedicated to the History of Medieval Art, as it appeared in Europe from 1820’s onward.

Deadline for proposals: 15 March 2023
Conference dates: 20-21 November 2023
Where: University of Naples Federico II

Applicants are kindly requested to send a title and an abstract (max 300 words), together with a short curriculum vitæ, to the e-mail address: diomedaconference2023@gmail.com. Proposals will be evaluated, and the applicants will receive an answer by mid-April 2023. The organization will cover coffee/lunch breaks. Travel and accommodation will be at the charge of the participants.

For more information, click here.

Call For Papers: Intersections: Entanglements with Medieval and Renaissance Textiles, 1100-1550. (Deadline 20 March, 2023)

The Courtauld Postgraduate Medieval Symposium 2023 – Monday 22nd May 2022, London, UK

During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, textiles wrapped up and coated walls, people, furniture, and objects. They provided omnipresent, and often complex, symbolic and visual demarcations of spaces. Diplicare, the root of display, is in unfolding: so much of the frameworks of how we surround ourselves are rooted in practices using cloth. The value of these textiles, both in their materiality and craftsmanship, exceeded that of many other artforms which have been privileged by scholars. Textiles were often disregarded in art historical study, considered to be visually unappealing or discredited in previous centuries as part of the decorative arts. In addition, only a fraction of the textiles that functioned in these spaces survive, many of which are in a fragmented state.

In recent years, textiles have received more attention in art historical studies, and block buster exhibitions on tapestries have made the importance of textiles clear to a wider public. There are, however, still many new angles from which we can interrogate and discuss textiles which can enrich, connect, and reframe not only textile history but wider research subjects in Medieval and Renaissance studies.

In this symposium we would like to draw together varying angles of research through their intersections with textiles, in whatever capacity. The theme of this symposium centres on how Medieval and Renaissance textiles, real and depicted, combine, overlap or intersect in different ways. In short, it aims to interrogate how textiles get entangled with other people, arts, materials, objects and functions.

To apply, please send a proposal of up to 250 words for a 20-minute paper, or an alternative presentation, with a CV to c1300199@courtauld.ac.uk by no later than Monday 20th March 2023.

The Medieval Postgraduate Symposium will take place at The Courtauld’s Vernon Square campus, in person, on Monday 22nd May 2023.

Organised by Jessica Gasson (The Courtauld) and Julia van Zandvoort (The Courtauld)

For more information, click here.

Call for Papers: Skin and Bone, Wood and Stone: Medieval Animals Heritage Conference 

The NLHF Medieval Animals Heritage Conference organisers invite abstracts for 20-minute academic papers or panel sessions of 90 minutes that explore aspects of research on the theme of medieval and early modern animal studies, green heritage, sustainability, and wellbeing engagement.
Medieval animals traditionally are linked to St Francis, but this conference also discusses how books of beasts were used by St Anselm and his kinsman Honorius to connect spirituality to people’s emotions in what became an important local and international heritage. Anselm told parables about the soaring Eagle, the shy Little Owl, the frightened Hare, and the beautiful Pearl of the oyster while Honorius drew on the early bestiary to create stories to be carved and painted in churches – such as the Lion breathing life into his stillborn cubs as a figure for hope. The NLHF Medieval Animals Heritage Project has used these ideas to promote SEND and community engagement in green heritage. Proposals for papers may include, but are not limited to:

• Medieval and early modern animality and animal studies

• Medieval and early modern animal fables, macers, bestiaries, and De Avibus

• Scholarship on medieval treatises, sermons and parables concerning animals

• Folklore, magic, and ritual involving medieval and/or early modern animals

• Modern medievalism, postcolonialism, and antiracist scholarship linked to animals

• Medieval and early modern animal art and material culture, e.g., parchment and illuminations, bone carvings, and curated collections

• Non-European medieval animal studies

• Engagement with medieval animal heritage themes, digital animalities, activism, restoration, and craft
• Learning and teaching (including SEND activities) involving medieval animal themes 

• Medieval and early modern environmental issues, green heritage, and biodiversity

 As well as a call for papers, the Skin and Bone, Wood and Stone Conference is looking for creative contributions. There will be a gallery exhibition space as part of the conference, and we are keen to exhibit creative responses to the theme of Medieval Animals Heritage. Please get in touch with any questions.

This free and exciting face to face conference will include a tour of Rochester Cathedral and its Textus 900 Exhibition, a wine reception, thanks to the generosity of University of Wales Press Medieval Animals series, and will finish with the Medieval Animal Heritage themed Canterbury Medieval Pageant and Family Trail.  Please send a title, a suitable image for the programme, and a 150-word abstract, plus your contact details and a brief CV to:  
Dr Diane Heath at diane.heath@canterbury.ac.uk by 25th March 2023, thank you.

For more information click here.

Funding Opportunity: VAG Winter Conference Bursaries (Deadline 24 February 2023)

The 2023 Spring Conference of the Vernacular Architecture Group will be held in Stockport,
Greater Manchester, from Tuesday 11 to Saturday 15 April 2023. During the day members
will tour the locality, visiting and interpreting lesser traditional buildings. Lectures and
discussions will be held in the evenings. The visits will cover Stockport’s medieval centre and
the village of Warburton (Wednesday), halls and barns of north Manchester (Thursday) and
Fairfield Moravian settlement and halls south of Manchester (Friday). The conference will be
based at Bredbury Hall Hotel.
The Vernacular Architecture Group is able to offer three bursaries to assist registered
students or professionals in the early years of their career to attend the Conference. The
Committee is aware that the cost often makes attendance difficult for students and others
who might benefit from the lectures and discussions, and from the opportunity to meet
people active in the field. Both full-time and part-time students are welcome to apply.
Applicants must be students of vernacular architecture or a related discipline, or early career
professionals working in the field. Candidates will be expected to:

  1. show evidence of an active interest in historic buildings, ideally vernacular
    architecture, including a list of relevant courses undertaken
  2. show evidence that they are active in the field, e.g. by membership of the VAG or
    other relevant groups, or through relevant work experience
  3. explain how they hope to benefit from attending the conference

Applications from students must be endorsed by a course tutor, and applications from early
career professionals must be supported by a professional referee. Any other financial
support available to the applicant for attending the conference should be declared.
Applications and tutor endorsements/references should be sent by email to the VAG
Secretary, Claire Jeffery, email secretary@vag.org.uk to reach her no later than Friday 24
February. The bursary will cover the full cost of the £600 residential conference fee but will
not cover travel to or from the conference or any other expenses. Applicants who are already
members of the Group and propose to attend the conference with or without the support of a
bursary should ensure a place on the conference by booking in the normal way. Anyone who
has reserved a place at full cost but subsequently obtains a bursary will receive a full refund.

Bursary recipients will be asked to write a resume of the conference for the VAG Newsletter.
We hope that they will be sufficiently inspired by the conference to join the VAG if they are
not already members. The VAG Committee would be grateful if you could bring this item to
the notice of anyone who is eligible and who you feel would benefit from attending the
conference.

Call for Participation: Graduate Lightning Talks, 2nd Annual Symposium, New York City via Zoom and in person, 6 May 2023 (Deadline: 15 March, 2023)

The Consortium Medievalists invite participation from graduate students in all disciplines for a series of lightning talks, which will take place during our forthcoming second annual symposium, “Sensory Experience Across Medieval Communities.” This symposium aims to explore fresh approaches to the “sensory turn” in studies of the Global Middle Ages. How does sensory experience connect cultures and communities across space and time? In what ways were specific cultures and communities sensorily engaged? This broad exploration of the senses supports a variety of methodologies and perspectives. We are honored to announce that Professor Avinoam Shalem (Art History, Columbia) will be the keynote speaker.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• theories of sense perception in various cultures during the Global Middle Ages

• corporeal vs spiritual senses

• multisensory experience in religious practices and ritual

• the relationship between the senses and constructs of gender, class, race, and ethnicity

• medical, theological, and philosophical understandings of the senses

• the role of the senses in inter-cultural encounters

• affect theory, new-materialism, and environmental humanities

We invite submissions for five- to eight-minute short talks. These presentations may be informal discussions of research-in-progress or more formal analyses. Although there is no requirement, slides and other sensory media may be included. Submissions are welcome from but not limited to the following fields: African Studies, Architecture, Art History, Book History, Disability Studies, East Asian Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, History, Islamic and Arabic Studies, Judaic and Hebrew Studies, Languages and Literatures, Law, Manuscript Studies, Musicology, Performance Studies, Philosophy, Religious Studies, and Sociology. Talks focused on non-European regions and cultures in the Global Middle Ages are encouraged. 

The Consortium Medievalists are a collection of 120+ Ph.D. and M.A. scholars from the New York City-area inter-doctoral consortium (Columbia, CUNY Graduate Center, NYU, Princeton, Rutgers, The New School, and Stony Brook) as well as Hunter and Yale. This year’s symposium will take place in person at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus in Manhattan and via Zoom. 

To apply to participate, either in person or virtually, send a short abstract (150-200 words) through the link above by March 15th, 2023.For further information or questions, please contact The Consortium Medievalists at consortium.medievalists@gmail.com. Also, you may find us online at www.consortiummedievalists.com