Medieval Art Research

CFP: Romanesque and the Monastic Environment, International Romanesque Conference, Deadline: 30th June 2023

The British Archaeological Association will hold the eighth in its series of biennial International Romanesque conferences in Valladolid from 8-10 April, 2024.

The theme of the conference is Romanesque and the Monastic Environment, and the aim is to examine how and why monastic spaces were created, embellished and used in the 11th and 12th centuries. While a particular approach to monastic planning can be observed in Carolingian Benedictine circles in the early 9th century – one in which ranges were organized on three sides of a garden with the church on a fourth – the extent to which this type of arrangement was widely adopted before the second half of the 11th century is unclear. Nor was it the only type of monastic plan in circulation. Semi-coenobitic orders, such as the Carthusians, had little use for ranges, even if the adoption of a garden surrounded by covered walks on four sides became more or less de rigeur in Latin monastic planning by c. 1100. When cloisters, chapter-houses, refectories, dormitories and work-rooms were established with clear relationships to each other and to the monastic choir, it becomes possible to speak of a core precinct, but what of other facilities, or precincts; infirmaries, outer courts, cemeteries, secondary cloisters, kitchens and gatehouses?

We welcome proposals for papers concerned with the design and functioning of monastic space in architectural, iconographical and liturgical terms, along with proposals which address choirs, their furnishings (stalls, pavements, altars), definition (screens, pulpita, railings), liturgical provision, and accessibility. Is processional use widely shared or locally specific? How and where is imagery used, or avoided? Should symbolic significance be attached to the appearance of buildings in monasteries beyond the church? Where and how was artistic production arranged? What are the preconditions for change?

Proposals for papers of up to 30 minutes in duration should be sent to Fernando Gutiérrez Baños and John McNeill on romanesque2024@thebaa.org by 30 June, 2023. Papers should be in English. Decisions on acceptance will be made by the end of July.

The Conference will be held at Valladolid University’s Palacio de Congresos ‘Conde Ansúrez’ from 8-10 April, with the opportunity to stay on for two days of visits to Romanesque buildings in the surrounding area on 11-12 April.

Lecture: “From Simone Martini (briefly) to Donatello: Recreating the Objects of the Goldsmith’s Art” by Amy Bloch, The Courtauld Institute of Art, 17:00 GMT

Donatello’s background and apparent training in goldsmithing make it unsurprising that he often represented examples of the goldsmith’s art in his large-scale sculptures. This lecture will consider, in reliefs and statues Donatello fashioned for Florentine, Sienese, and Paduan contexts, his recreation of objects typically produced by goldsmiths, including miters, chalices, processional crosses, parade armor, and framed and unframed medallions worn as personal adornment. It will explore how attention to Donatello’s representations of items crafted by goldsmiths can deepen our understanding of his art. Such items enrich the meaning of his sculptures through their iconography and, this lecture will suggest, because they can be experienced not only as constituent parts of artworks but also as independent objects. In the latter sense, their significance relies on the figures and/or the decoration that embellish them and on knowledge of how they were assembled, of the rich variety of materials employed in their production, and of how and when they were used. This lecture will begin with a brief discussion of several paintings by Simone Martini, who engaged in a variety of ways the art of goldsmithing and, in one conspicuous case, crafted an object that likewise straddles the line between representation and actuality.

Amy Bloch is a scholar of Italian Renaissance art whose current research focuses on the practice and regulation of goldsmithing in early Renaissance Italy. She has published, in addition to essays and a book on Lorenzo Ghiberti and his Gates of Paradise (Cambridge, 2016), articles and chapters on Donatello (including several contributions to the V&A exhibition catalogue), Jacopo della Quercia, Fra Angelico, Michelangelo, and on the decoration of the Florence Baptistery. She has also co-edited, and contributed to, two volumes of essays, the most recent (Cambridge, 2020) a collection of original studies of fifteenth-century Italian sculpture. She is Associate Professor of Art History at the State University of New York in Albany.

Organised by Dr Guido Rebecchini (The Courtauld)

Fellowship: Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study Residential Fellowships 2024-25 (Deadline 1st June 2023)

The Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS) aims to provide optimal research conditions for curiosity-driven research. The Collegium is a scholarly community where Fellows pursue research of their own choosing in a context of interdisciplinary dialogue, discussion, and co-operation. Since its foundation in 1985, we strive to protect and nurture independent inquiry, collaborative and creative thinking, and to emphasize the importance of academic freedom world-wide. Governmental support and support from major research foundations allow our invited Fellows to engage in focused research and to collaborate across disciplinary boundaries.

Chartered by the Government of Sweden as an institute for advanced study, SCAS is a national scientific institution and resource. The Collegium is open to applications from scholars across the range of the human and social sciences, as well as from the natural sciences. SCAS hosts advanced senior scholars as well as early-career scholars. All candidates are assessed on the basis of their individual achievements and the quality and promise of their research proposal, including those who apply within the framework of a group. Every year presents a novel mixture of Fellows from all over the world who either work on their individual projects or who are part of a cluster of scholars with similar interests.

General Fellowship Programme
The Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS) offers a General Residential Fellowship Programme, mainly in the humanities and social sciences, open to scholars from all countries. The programme gives fellows the opportunity to concentrate on their own research interests, free from the teaching and administrative obligations of ordinary university life. Fellows are, however, expected to be active members of the scholarly community of the Collegium and to participate in seminars and other academic events beyond their own fields of specialization. The Collegium encourages scholars from diverse backgrounds, institutions, and countries to apply.

At the time of application, the candidate must have held a PhD (or equivalent degree) for at least three years. As an applicant, you are not required to hold a university position at the time of application.

Scholars may apply for a full academic year (September – June) or one semester.

Barbro Klein Fellowship Programme
The Barbro Klein Fellowship Programme intends to advance the study of cultural diversity in a global perspective. The fellowship is open to scholars from across disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, with an emphasis on research on cultural and social diversity, cultural heritage and creativity, societal structures and public resistance, and varieties of cultural expressions in local and global perspective.

The programme gives fellows the opportunity to concentrate on their own research interests, free from the teaching and administrative obligations of ordinary university life. Fellows are, however, expected to be active members of the scholarly community of the Collegium and to participate in seminars and other academic events beyond their own fields of specialization.

The fellowship programme encourages, but is not limited to, applications from talented younger scholars in non-Western countries and of underrepresented gender. At the time of application, the candidate must have held a PhD (or equivalent degree) for at least three years. Applicants must have a promising track record of independent achievements beyond the post-doctoral level, including significant publications, and be active in international fora. As an applicant, you are not required to hold a university position at the time of application.

Scholars may apply for a full academic year (September – June) or one semester.

For complete information and to apply, click here.

Fellowship: Census Fellowship, Reception of Antiquity, Berlin, Rome, and London (Deadline 31st May 2023)

The Institut für Kunst- und Bildgeschichte, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History, and the Warburg Institute, School of Advanced Study, University of London, are pleased to announce a fellowship in Berlin, Rome, and London, offered at either the predoctoral or postdoctoral level. These fellowships grow out of the longstanding collaboration between the Humboldt, the Hertziana, and the Warburg in the research project Census of Antique Works of Art and Architecture Known in the Renaissance.

The fellowships extend the traditional chronological boundaries of the Census and are intended for research and intellectual exchange on topics related to the reception of antiquity in the visual arts between ca.1350 and ca. 1900. In the context of the fellowships, the topic of the reception of antiquity is also broadly conceived without geographical restriction. Proposals can optionally include a digital humanities perspective, engage with the database of the Census, or make use of the research materials of the Census project available in Berlin, Rome, and London.

The Humboldt, the Hertziana, and the Warburg co-fund a research grant of 6–9 months for students enrolled in a Ph.D. program, or 4–6 months for candidates already in possession of aPh.D. Fellows can set their own schedule and choose how to divide their time between the three institutes, but they should plan to spend at least one month in residence at each of the three institutions.

The stipend will be set at ca. 1.500 EUR per month at the predoctoral level and ca. 2.500 EUR per month at the postdoctoral level, plus a travel stipend. The fellowship does not provide housing.

Candidates can apply via the Hertziana recruitment platform by uploading the requested PDF documents in English, German, or Italian by May 31, 2023, with details of their proposed dates for the fellowship during the academic year 2023/24 (July 2023–July 2024).

Funding: British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants (Deadline 31st May 2023)

British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants are available to support primary research in the humanities and social sciences. These awards, up to £10,000 in value and tenable for up to 24 months, are provided to cover the cost of the expenses arising from a defined research project.

Awards are open to postdoctoral scholars (or equivalent) who are ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom. Applications require the approval of the applicant’s employing institution, but are not limited to those of any particular status (e.g. Lecturer, Professor etc). Application may be made by independent scholars. Co-applicants may be from anywhere in the world, but the Principal Applicant must be ordinarily resident in the UK.

Grants are tenable for between 1 and 24 months.

Applications will not be considered for less than £500. The maximum grant is £10,000 over two years. Applications for collaborative or individual projects are equally welcome under this scheme. Applications from international groups of scholars are welcome, provided there is a UK-based scholar as lead applicant.

Funds are available to facilitate initial project planning and development; to support the direct costs of research; and to enable the advancement of research through workshops or conferences, or visits by or to partner scholars.

For complete information and to apply, click here.

Fellowship: Ad Astra Fellow, University College Dublin School of History (Deadline 26th May 2023)

In 2019 University College Dublin launched the UCD Ad Astra Fellowship scheme to welcome early career academics into its community of scholars. The scheme is now looking for the next thirty Fellows to join the Colleges of Business, Arts & Humanities and Health & Agricultural Sciences.

UCD is particularly interested in receiving applications from academics who will contribute to advancing one or more of the four themes identified in its current strategy: Creating a Sustainable Global Society, Transforming through Digital Technology, Building a Healthy World, and Empowering Humanity.

The School of History welcomes applications from excellent candidates whose expertise expands and strengthens the School’s research and its undergraduate and graduate teaching programmes. The School has identified the history of the Middle Ages as a strategic area of interest in which it would particularly like to receive applications.

For complete information and to apply, click here.

Workshop: “Materializing Transparency”, eikones Forum, University of Basel, 26th May 2023

The history of transparency can be summed up as a progression in materials from the mined to the man-made: by the early modern period, rock crystal and alabaster — celebrated in the ancient and medieval worlds for their vitreousness and translucency — could no longer compete with the increasingly reliable clarity of factory-produced flint glass, which would in turn cede its primacy as see-through matter to that of manufactured plastics, made fully synthetic by 1907. Tracing but also challenging such a narrative of technological change and obsolescence, this workshop investigates the possibilities and limitations of transparency in all its material instantiations, and from perspectives both transhistorical and theoretical. Case studies include gauze, celluloid, varnish, openwork caskets, optical lenses, polaroid film, mordants, and witch balls. Taking these examples as starting points for wide-ranging discussion, we will think together about how the physical properties of a clear substrate, glaze, or surface might prompt reflection on concepts such as in/visibility, opacity, transcendency, distortion, obstinancy (Eigensinn), racialization, disclosure, and access.

Scheduled to coincide with the release of two important new books on transparency, The Varnish and the Glaze: Painting Splendor with Oil, 1100-1500 (Chicago, 2023), by Marjolijn Bol, and Transparency: The Material History of an Idea (Yale, 2023), by Daniel Jütte, this workshop engages with current scholarship in the history of art, science, architecture, religion, museology, and conservation.

Supported by eikones, the NOMIS Foundation, and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.

Program: 26 May 2023

Location: Forum eikones, Rheinsprung 11, 4051 Basel

From 08:30 – Welcome – coffee in the foyer

09:00 – Ruth Ezra, Introduction

09:20 – Patrick Crowley, ‘The Wrong Side of Things’: Roman Reverse-Engraved Glass

10:00 – Manuela Beer, Difference in Transparency: Rock Crystal in Medieval Artefacts

10:40 – Coffee break

11:00 – Arne Leopold, Veiling the Gaze, Veiling the Material: Openwork Caskets and the Pretence of Transparency in the 13th Century

11:40 – Leena Crasemann, Veiling Space: Textiles’ Anti-matter

12:20 – Lunch break

13:20 – Elizabeth Rice Mattison, Acid, Water, Rust, and Process in Dürer’s Etchings

14:00 – Phillip Roberts, Richard Reeve and Alice Grove: A Night Language

14:40 – Coffee break

15:00 – Jennifer Y. Chuong, Tricky Transparency: Witch Balls in Nineteenth-Century America

15:40 – Yanning Ma, Can a picture be a terrarium? Transparency, vitality, and confinement in Victorian Britain (presenting online)

16:20 – Coffee break

16:40 – Kirsty Sinclair Dootson, Celluloid Skin: Transparency, Sensitivity, and the Racialization of Film

17:20 – Aïcha Revellat, So Transparent, So Opaque: Hannah Villiger’s Early Polaroid Pictures

18:00 – Comfort break

18:15 – Book talk: Marjolijn Bol, The Varnish and the Glaze (Chicago 2023), in conversation

19:00 – Apéro

NB. The workshop is open to all and no registration is required to join in person; papers will not be streamed online.

New Publication: ‘L’art medieval est-il contemporain? (Is Medieval Art Contemporary)’, ed. by Charlotte Denoel, Larisa Dryansky, Erik Verhagen, and Isabelle Marchesin

L’art médiéval est-il contemporain ?

Is Medieval Art Contemporary?

Edited by Charlotte Denoël, Larisa Dryansky, Erik Verhagen, Isabelle Marchesin

ISBN 978-2-503-59973-1

More Info: https://bit.ly/3Kq5iBk

This publication brings together essays by scholars of both medieval and contemporary art, offering a cross-disciplinary approach of both periods. It investigates how contemporary artists and contemporary art historians perceive medieval art, and, reciprocally, how medieval art historians envisage the echoes of medieval artforms and esthetics in contemporary art. The volume follows on from the symposium organized in conjunction with the exhibition “Make it New: Carte Blanche à Jan Dibbets” that was held at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Paris) in 2019, and which presented side by side Hrabanus Maurus’s De Laudibus Sanctae Crucis (In Praise of the Holy Cross), a masterpiece of Carolingian art, with works by artists associated with conceptual art, mininimal art, and land art.

How and why has medieval art, and particularly early medieval art, inspired contemporary artists since the 1950s? What has medieval art contributed to contemporary art? How has medieval art’s treatment of figures, color, space, geometry, and rhythm provided inspiration for contemporary artists’ experiments with form? In what way does contemporary artists’ engagement with the topics of formatting, writing, semiosis, mimesis, and ornamentation draw inspiration from medieval models? To what extent and in what sense are the notions of authorship and performativity relevant for understanding conceptions of artmaking in both periods? Rather than focusing on medievalism and citational practices, or on the theory of images—both approaches having already produced an important body of comparative readings of medieval and contemporary art—the essays in this volume address the question of medieval art’s contemporaneity thematically, through three trans-chronological topics: authorship, semiosis and mathematics, and performance. Engaging the artists’ works as well as their writings, these studies conflate conceptual and esthetic perspectives.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Préface
Charlotte Denoël, Larisa Dryansky, Isabelle Marchesin et Erik Verhagen

Partie 1. Introduction

Au-delà des périodisations : Parcours passés et futurs potentiels
Nancy Thebaut

Partie 2. Auctoritas/authorship

Qui était Jean Fouquet pour François Robertet ? Une question d’auctorialité dans l’art de la fin du Moyen Âge
Elliot Adam
L’artiste conceptuel à son pupitre
Valérie Mavridorakis
Art conceptuel et scolastique : le Chêne de Michael Craig-Martin est-il thomiste ?
Benjamin Riado

Partie 3. Signe et mathématiques

“All form is a process of notation”: Hrabanus Maurus’s “exemplativist” art
Aden Kumler’
Les nombres de la forme et les formes du nombre. Essai sur les carolingiens et l’abstraction.
Isabelle Marchesin
Abstraction in Medieval Art: The Chiasm in Hagia Sophia
Bissera Pentcheva
Hollis Frampton, médiéval
Larisa Dryansky

Partie 4. Performance

La conversion du précieux sang : Gina Pane et la mystique médiévale
Janig Bégoc
Automata, Kineticism, and Automation: An Oblique History of Animacy in the Art of the Long 1960s
Roland Betancourt

Coda
Zoe Leonard’s Suitcases
Amy Knight Powell

Liste des contributeurs

Published in the new book series
Reinterpreting the Middle Ages
From Medieval to Neo
Edited by Emma J. Wells and Claire KennanMore Info: https://www.brepols.net/series/NEO

Call for Sessions: Association for Art History 2024 Annual Conference, Deadline: 30th June 2023

3-5 April 2024
University of Bristol
Session proposal deadline: Friday 30 June 2023

2024 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Association for Art History. We are delighted to announce that next year’s conference will be held in collaboration with the History of Art department at the University of Bristol.

The Association for Art History’s Annual Conference brings together international research and critical debate about art history and visual culture. A key annual event, the conference is an opportunity to keep up to date with new research, hear leading keynotes, broaden networks and exchange ideas.

The Annual Conference attracts around 400 attendees each year and is popular with academics, curators, practitioners, PhD students, early career researchers and anyone engaged with art history research. Members of the Association get reduced conference rates, but non-members are welcome to attend and propose sessions and papers.

Scope/Provocation

History of Art at the University of Bristol originally emerged from the Department of Modern Languages, and we continue to be particularly invested in an interdisciplinary approach to transcultural exchange, across a period ranging from the middles ages to the present day. With an increasingly global focus, accounting for histories often marginalised in visual art, our framework includes materials, objects, bodies and institutions. For a ‘history of art’ department not much older than the AAH itself, the association’s fiftieth anniversary represents an opportunity to reflect on the transformation – and diversification – of the field, and to chart its future together. We particularly invite session proposals that address the state of the discipline, as well as those that engage with the broad theme of cross-cultural exchange.

Session Proposals

The 2024 Annual Conference is open to all, members and non-members of the Association for Art History. Anyone can submit a session proposal. Please include in your session proposal:

Title of your session proposals
Brief abstract (max 250 words)
Name of session convenor(s)
Affiliations (or if independent/freelance)
Email of session convenors
Social media accounts (optional)

Please refer to the CALL FOR SESSIONS 2024 guidance for details on what to include in your session proposal, complete the SESSION PROPOSAL FORM 2024 and email it to: conference2024@forarthistory.org.uk by Friday 30 June 2023.

Please find more information here.

Key Dates

Date	Activity
30 June	Sessions proposal deadline
28 July	Sessions confirmed and convenors notified
September	Sessions announced on AAH website and social media
Oct – Nov	Call for papers
December	Session convenors select papers and contact speakers
31 January 2024	Session and paper abstracts deadline
February	Tickets go online
3 -5 April 2024	AAH Conference

Call for Papers: Mary Jaharis Center Sponsored Panel, 7th Forum Medieval Art, Deadline: 29th May 2023

The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture seeks proposals for a Mary Jaharis Center sponsored session at the 7th Forum Medieval Art/Forum Kunst des Mittelalters, Jena, September 25–28, 2024. The biannual colloquium is organized by the Deutsche Verein für Kunstwissenschaft e.V.

The theme for the 7th Forum Medieval Art is Light: Art, Metaphysics and Science in the Middle Ages.

The Mary Jaharis Center invites session proposals that fit within the Light theme and are relevant to Byzantine studies.

Session proposals must be submitted through the Mary Jaharis Center website. The deadline for submission is May 29, 2023.

If the proposed session is approved, the Mary Jaharis Center will reimburse a maximum of 4 session participants (presenters and session chair) up to $500 maximum for participants traveling from locations in Germany, up to $800 maximum for participants traveling from the EU, and up to $1400 maximum for participants traveling 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 Mary Jaharis Center regrets that it cannot reimburse participants who have last-minute cancellations and are unable to attend the conference.

For a complete description of the theme, further details, and submission instructions, please visit https://maryjahariscenter.org/sponsored-sessions/7th-forum-medieval-art.

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

Please click here for more information.