Medieval Art Research

New Publication: ‘Inventing Late Antique Reliquaries. Reception, Material History, and Dynamics of Interaction (4th-6th Centuries CE)’ by Adrien Palladino

The cult of saints, their relics, and devotion to their shrines is a phenomenon born in Late Antiquity that durably shaped medieval and modern practices across a broad geographical and cultural area spreading first throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. How was the creation of vessels for the holy remains of saints implemented during a culturally heterogenous period? Indeed, how could boxes of various shapes, sizes, and materials become containers to shelter sacred matter? What materials could be used in reliquaries’ making, and what images should adorn them? And how did reliquaries, with their geographical and social portability, contribute to the translocation of site-bound sanctity and the spread of saints’ and shrines’ networks across the Late Antique world?

Tracing the medieval reliquary’s “pre-history”, this volume examines boxes bearing Christian images and patterns made between the fourth to the sixth century CE. It investigates how vessels adorned with images acquired meaning and power, exploring the dynamics of transformation that accompany both the creation of these objects and their long history of reuse, marginalization, and rediscovery.

To purchase, visit Viella.

Call for Papers: ‘Lacunae’, 33rd Annual Medieval Studies Colloquium (MSSC), 11 March 2023 (Deadline 15 December 2022)

The Medieval Studies Program at Cornell is pleased to announce the 33rd Annual Medieval Studies Student Colloquium (MSSC), which takes the idea of “Lacunae” as its theme. The conference will be held virtually over Zoom on Saturday, March 11th, 2023.

We invite proposals for 20-minute papers investigating the various lacunae present in the Middle Ages or later understandings of or scholarship on the medieval period. Such papers are encouraged to approach this theme from an expansive range of disciplines and perspectives, especially–as the theme suggests–those which have been absent or underrepresented within medieval studies. “Lacunae” can refer to unfilled spaces, gaps, cavities, holes, or absences. For the purposes of this conference, papers may address lacunae in medieval archives or records (i.e., what materials or knowledge about the Middle Ages are we missing or have we lost?) or lacunae in research and other later engagements with the Middle Ages. What strands of theory or scholarship have not been applied to medieval studies? What voices are absent in the field? What medieval works or aspects of medieval culture (material or immaterial) have been overlooked by postmedieval thinkers or reconstructions/re-imaginings of the ‘medieval’? What are the ramifications of medieval lacunae in our current or past understandings of the Middle Ages? Papers may respond to, but are certainly not limited to, these questions.

Papers from underrepresented fields and backgrounds are particularly welcome, and we strongly encourage papers that look beyond Christian, Eurocentric, and Anglocentric contexts. We invite submissions from all fields and disciplines adjacent to Medieval Studies, including but not limited to Asian Studies, Africana Studies, anthropology, archaeology, art history, Asian Studies, classics, Critical Race Studies, gender and sexuality studies, history, Indigenous Studies, literature, Near Eastern Studies, philosophy, and theology. While we will consider all abstracts that are submitted, we will give priority to those aligned with the colloquium’s theme.

Please send abstracts to Lars Johnson at loj6@cornell.edu by December 15th, 2022.

Lecture: ‘A Beautiful Lie: Medieval Art Forgeries in Catalonia’, Alberto Velasco, Murray Seminar at Birkbeck, 6 December 2022 17:00 GMT

A forgery, regardless of the criteria we may apply when studying it – evaluating its artistry or establishing its significance as an illustrative document of a given period – is a deception. The reasons for the production and commercialization of medieval fakes in Catalonia during the first half of the twentieth century are unique and specific, and they are explained by cultural, political and social conditions that, nevertheless, find points of contact in other parts of Europe. Similarities are found especially in those regions and states where medieval past forms a significant part of national historical roots. Catalan nationalism, the fascination with the Middle Ages and the general interest of the Barcelona bourgeoisie in medieval art has led to the appearance in Catalonia of a market for fakes that attempted to meet the growing demand. These are some of the issues addressed in the lecture, where we will deal with some of the most successful forgers, such as the Junyer brothers, and with fake works which, in their day, were certified as genuine by important scholars. Today some of them are in museums, while others make stellar appearances on the art market.

Fellowship: Kay Fellow in Premodern Disability Studies, Brandeis University (Deadline 15 December 2022)

Brandeis University invites applications for a two-year, non-renewable Florence Levy Kay Fellowship in Premodern Disability Studies. We seek a Fellow who takes a multicultural and intersectional approach to disability in the global, ancient world. An ideal candidate would examine disability and disabled persons within a premodern context by drawing upon robust theoretical frameworks to embrace an intersectional approach to disability history and redress the discriminatory traditions of scholars of the past. The area and period of specialization is open, but we are specifically seeking a Fellow whose research and teaching interests explore the cross-cultural experiences around disability in a global context. The Fellow would use interdisciplinary methods in their research but may have specialized training in history, linguistics, art, literature, or material culture. We welcome applications from PhDs in ancient Afro-Eurasian history or other related fields in the global premodern world.

Kay Fellowships are interdisciplinary appointments. The Kay Fellow in Premodern Disability Studies will hold a joint appointment as a faculty member at the rank of lecturer in the Departments of Classical Studies and English. The Kay Fellow will teach one course per semester and actively pursue their own research interests. The Fellow will receive a 2023-2024 salary of $62,000, plus benefits, with moving expenses (around $1,500), and a research fund of up to $4,000 per year. PhD should be in hand by the commencement of the fellowship.

Applications, which should be submitted through AcademicJobsOnline at https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/23381, should include the following:

● Curriculum Vitae

● Writing sample (under 30 pages)

● Cover letter to include brief statement of research and teaching interests (no longer than two pages)

● Three References (no actual letters, just names and email addresses)

● And anything else requested in the position description.

Letters of recommendation will be solicited for a short list of candidates. First consideration will be given to applications received by December 15, 2022. Questions about the position may be directed to Darlene L. Brooks Hedstrom at brookshedstrom@brandeis.edu.

We plan to conduct the first round of virtual interviews in January 2023 via Zoom.

At Brandeis, we believe that diversity, equity, and inclusion are essential components of academic excellence. Brandeis University is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer that is committed to creating equitable access and opportunities for applicants to all employment positions. Because diversity, equity, and inclusion are at the core of Brandeis’ history and mission, we value and are seeking candidates with a variety of social identities, including those that have been underrepresented in higher education, who possess skills that spark innovation, and who, through their scholarly pursuits, teaching, and/or service experiences, bring expertise in building, engaging and sustaining a pluralistic, unified, and just campus community.

Study Days: ‘Conques en Rouergue: constructions mémorielles’, 18 and 21 November 2022

Center for Higher Studies in Medieval Civilization, Poitiers
German Center for Art History – DFK Paris

As part of the Conques project in the global world supported by the European Research Council
(Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions: Research and Innovation Staff Exchange, 2021-2024)

Please find the programme for the two days below:

Friday November 18

Poitiers, Center for Higher Studies in Medieval Civilization
Crozet Room

10am
Word of welcome
Cécile Voyer (CESCM, Poitiers)

Introduction
Ivan Foletti (Masarykova University, Brno)

Moderation: Émilie Kurdziel (CESCM, Poitiers)

10:30 a.m.
The written sources of Conques in their regional environment
Sébastien Fray (Jean-Monnet-Saint-Étienne University)

11:20 a.m. Break

11:40 a.m.
Conques: a stage on the Way of Saint Jacques de Compostela?
Adeline Rucquoi (School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences, Paris)

12:30 p.m.
Pause

Moderation: Philippe Cordez

2 p.m.
Conques, pilgrimage church. From the historiographical construction to the medieval construction site (19th-11th century)
Eric Sparhubert (University of Limoges)

2:50 p.m.
Amassing gold in Conques: the “new” Sainte Foy and its trousseau
Ivan Foletti (Masarykova University, Brno)

3:40 p.m.
Conches and its enamels: between Silos, Limoges and “Byzantium”
Adrian Palladino (Masarykova University, Brno)

Public lecture

6 p.m.
Inventing France in Conques: from Viollet-le-Duc to Prosper Mérimée and Charlemagne
Ivan Foletti (Masarykova University, Brno)

Monday November 21

Paris, German Center for Art History – DFK Paris
Julius Meier-Graefe Hall
And online: https://dfk-paris-org.zoom.us/j/82187307877

2:30 p.m.
Word of welcome
Philippe Cordez (DFK Paris)

Introduction
Ivan Foletti (Masarykova University, Brno)

Moderation: Cécile Voyer (CESCM, Poitiers)

3:00 p.m.
Conques and the idea of Byzantium
Adrian Palladino (Masarykova University, Brno)

3:45 p.m.
Conques in the 19th century
Ivan Foletti (Masarykova University, Brno)

4:30 p.m.
Modern and postmodern conches
Philippe Cordez (DFK Paris)

5:15 p.m.
Aperitif

Concept and organization
Philippe Cordez (DFK Paris)
Ivan Foletti (Masarykova University, Brno)
Eric Sparhubert (University of Limoges)
Cécile Voyer (CESCM)

For more information please contact: pcordez@dfk-paris.org, cecile.voyer@univ-poitiers.fr

Call for Applications: Mary Jaharis Center Grants 2023–2024 (Deadline 1 February 2023)

The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture is pleased to announce its 2023–2024 grant competition.

Mary Jaharis Center Co-Funding Grants promote Byzantine studies in North America. These grants provide co-funding to organize scholarly gatherings (e.g., workshops, seminars, small conferences) in North America that advance scholarship in Byzantine studies broadly conceived. We are particularly interested in supporting convenings that build diverse professional networks that cross the boundaries of traditional academic disciplines, propose creative approaches to fundamental topics in Byzantine studies, or explore new areas of research or methodologies.

Mary Jaharis Center Dissertation Grants are awarded to advanced graduate students working on Ph.D. dissertations in the field of Byzantine studies broadly conceived. These grants are meant to help defray the costs of research-related expenses, e.g., travel, photography/digital images, microfilm.

Mary Jaharis Center Project Grants support discrete and highly focused professional projects aimed at the conservation, preservation, and documentation of Byzantine archaeological sites and monuments dated from 300 CE to 1500 CE primarily in Greece and Turkey. Projects may be small stand-alone projects or discrete components of larger projects. Eligible projects might include archeological investigation, excavation, or survey; documentation, recovery, and analysis of at risk materials (e.g., architecture, mosaics, paintings in situ); and preservation (i.e., preventive measures, e.g., shelters, fences, walkways, water management) or conservation (i.e., physical hands-on treatments) of sites, buildings, or objects.

Mary Jaharis Center Publication Grants support book-length publications or major articles in the field of Byzantine studies broadly conceived. Grants are aimed at early career academics. Preference will be given to postdocs and assistant professors, though applications from non-tenure track faculty and associate and full professors will be considered. We encourage the submission of first-book projects.

The application deadline for all grants is February 1, 2023. For further information, please visit the Mary Jaharis Center website.

Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center, with any questions.

Funding Opportunity: VAG Winter Conference Bursaries (Deadline 3 December 2022)

This year’s conference is to taking place in person on Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th January 2023.

The Vernacular Architecture Group is able to offer two 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. There is no application form, but candidates will be expected to
write:

showing evidence of an active interest in historic buildings, ideally vernacular architecture,
including a list of relevant courses undertaken
showing evidence that they are active in the field, e.g. by membership of the VAG or other
relevant groups, or through relevant work experience
explaining 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 must 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 Saturday 3 December. The bursary will cover the
full cost of the £190 conference fee but will not cover travel 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 booked and paid for a place at their own expense 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 whom you consider would benefit from attending the conference.

Online Conference: ‘Medieval Coming Attractions’, International Center of Medieval Art, 15 November 2022 12:00 ET

Please join the Friends of the ICMA for the latest in a series of special online events on Tuesday, November 15, 2022 at 12:00 pm ET (9:00 am PT; 5:00 pm GMT; and 6:00 pm CET). The hour-long program will preview three medieval exhibitions scheduled to open in 2023, each introduced by its curator in charge.

Amanda Luyster is Assistant Professor of Art History at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. She will speak about her exhibition Bringing the Holy Land Home: The Crusades, Chertsey Abbey, and the Reconstruction of a Medieval Masterpiece. The exhibition will be on view at the Cantor Art Gallery at the College, January 26-April 6, 2023, where the Chertsey tiles will be displayed in dialogue with materials from the Byzantine and Islamic worlds.
Gerhard Lutz is the Robert P. Bergman Curator of Medieval Art, Cleveland Museum of Art. He will introduce his upcoming exhibition, Tilman Riemenschneider’s Jerome and Late Medieval Alabaster Sculpture which will be on view from March 26-July 23, 2023. The exhibition examines this understudied material by presenting some of the most extraordinary surviving examples of alabaster work made in continental Europe, including the Cleveland’s own Saint Jerome and the Lion, the only alabaster work in a US collection by Riemenschneider.
Christine Sciacca is Curator of European Art, 300-1400 at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. Her exhibition, entitled, Ethiopia at the Crossroads will be on view December 3, 2023-March 3, 2024. It is the first major art exhibition in America to examine Ethiopian art in a global context. Sciacca will discuss some of the more than 250 objects drawn from the Walters’ world-renowned collection of Ethiopian art, as well as domestic and international loans. The exhibition has received the inaugural Exhibition Development grant from the ICMA and the Kress Foundation.

The panel will be introduced and moderated by Naomi Speakman, Curator of Late Medieval Europe at the British Museum where she has responsibility for the Western European collection, ca. 1050-1500. Most recently, she co-curated the 2021 exhibition Thomas Becket: Murder and the Making of a Saint and co-authored the accompanying exhibition publication.

Please register here.

Please feel free to notify colleagues and friends who may not be ICMA members, about this event. The event will be recorded and accessible via the ICMA website (www.medievalart.org)

Call for Papers: ‘Visualizing Infrastructure in the Middle Ages’, Special Session for the 2023 Midwest Art History Society Conference, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 30 March – 1 April 2023 (Deadline 9 December 2022)

Roads, bridges, aqueducts, canals: all were part of the impressive infrastructural, environmental, and ecological legacy that the Roman Empire left to the medieval world. This session aims to explore that inheritance and subsequent developments in medieval infrastructure through the visual,
material, and textual record. The organisers invite submissions that examine remains or representations of infrastructure as well as related matters including but not limited to political power and symbolism, construction or repair practices, materials and media, financing and taxation, and practicalities of transportation and communication. The organisers welcome papers that deal with any period in the Middle Ages with a focus on Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East.

Proposals from graduate students or early-career scholars are especially welcome. Please send abstracts of no more than 200 works and a two-page CV to leson@uwm.edu by December 9.

The 49th Annual Conference of the Midwest Art History Society will be held from March 30 to April 1, 2023 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Those attending will find an iconic example of contemporary architecture and leading research universities within a vibrant cultural setting along Lake Michigan. On Thursday, March 30, the Haggerty Art Museum at Marquette University will host sessions at the Raynor Memorial Library and will offer tours of the museum. That evening, the Milwaukee Art Museum will host the keynote speaker—internationally recognized multidisciplinary artist and member of the Lac Seul First Nation (Anishinaabe) Rebecca Belmore—and a reception. On Friday, March 31, sessions will be offered at the Art History Department of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and tours will be available of the Art History Department’s Emile H. Mathis Art Gallery. For weekend events and more information, click here for the Fall 2022 edition of MAHS eNews.

New Publication: ‘Transforming the Church Interior in Renaissance Florence’ by Joanne Allen

Before the late sixteenth century, the churches of Florence were internally divided by monumental screens that separated the laity in the nave from the clergy in the choir precinct. Medieval screens were impressive artistic structures that controlled social interactions, facilitated liturgical performances, and variably framed or obscured religious ritual and imagery. In the 1560s and 1570s, screens were routinely destroyed in a period of religious reforms, irreversibly transforming the function, meaning, and spatial dynamics of the church interior. In this volume, Joanne Allen explores the widespread presence of screens and their role in Florentine social and religious life prior to the Counter-Reformation. She presents unpublished documentation and new reconstructions of screens and the choir precincts that they delimited. Elucidating issues such as gender, patronage, and class, her study makes these vanished structures comprehensible and deepens our understanding of the impact of religious reform on church architecture.

To purchase, visit Cambridge.