Medieval Art Research

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.

‘An Artful Relic: The Shroud of Turin in Baroque Italy’ Wins Bainton Book Prize

Andrew Casper (Miami Univeristy) was awarded the 2022 Roland H. Bainton Book Prize by the Sixteenth Century Society and Conference (SCSC) for Best Book in Art and Music History.

His book An Artful Relic: The Shroud of Turin in Baroque Italy, published by Penn State University Press in 2021, examines the controversial Shroud of Turin as a religious image from the late 1500s through 1600s.

The Roland H. Bainton Book Prizes are awarded yearly for the best books written in English within the time frame of 1450-1660 in four categories: Art and Music History, History and Theology, Literature, and Reference Works. Criteria for selection include quality and originality of research, methodological skill and/or innovation, development of fresh and stimulating interpretations or insights, and literary quality.

Fellowship: Tucher Fellowship at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg (Deadline 1 February 2023)

Every two years the Tucher’sche Kulturstiftung and the Germanisches Nationalmuseum award a fellowship to a doctoral candidate for research on a topic in German art and/or cultural history and, if possible, with a connection to the history of the patrician family Tucher. Applications from abroad receive priority.

The fellowship pays a monthly stipend of € 1,500 and makes possible a six-month research stay at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum. The earliest possible start date for the next fellowship is 6th June 2023.

While at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum (GNM), the fellow will:
• be supported by the museum’s curatorial and research staff,
• will have open access to the museum’s facilities,
• be welcome to participate in the museum’s various events.
Furthermore, they will be involved in the museum’s trainee program.

Prerequisites for a fellowship application are a master’s degree (or equivalent) with high marks, candidacy for a doctoral degree, and a very good and proven knowledge of the German language.

Required application materials (preferably in German):
• Research proposal (3 pages, 1.5 spaced), explaining one’s own interest in the topic, sketching the current state of the questions, describing preliminary work already completed, explaining how a stay at the GNM would advance the dissertation project and how it relates to the von Tucher family.
• Abstract of the research proposal (10–15 lines), which, if the fellowship is awarded, may be posted on the website of the GNM.
• Curriculum vitae, list of publications, study and work certificates (as applicable)
• 2 letters of recommendation

The fellow is required to present their findings at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum and also to present a final report at a meeting of the Tucher’sche Kulturstiftung, to which the Stiftung will invite guests and, as the case may be, the press. Furthermore, they agree to provide both the Germanisches Nationalmuseum and the Tucher’sche Kulturstiftung with a written final report and a copy of the dissertation (paper or electronic).

A travel allowance can be requested from the Tucher’sche Kulturstiftung.

Fellows from abroad must be in possession of a health insurance policy that covers possible costs of medical treatment in the Federal Republic of Germany. Proof of coverage must be submitted before the start of the fellowship period. The fellowship cannot be commenced without health insurance coverage.

A residence permit, if required, must be applied for by the fellow themself. The responsible authority in Nuremberg is the foreigners’ registration office (Ausländerbehörde) in the residents’ registration office. (Contact: Einwohneramt/Ausländerbehörde, Äußere Laufer Gasse 29, 90403 Nürnberg, Tel.: 0911/231-45000; https://www.nuernberg.de/internet/auslaenderbehoerde-/aufenthaltstitel.html)

Please submit applications with the requested materials via e-mail (as a single PDF file) by 1st February 2023 to one of the following addresses:

Germanisches Nationalmuseum
Personalabteilung
Kornmarkt 1
90402 Nürnberg
Germany

E-Mail: Bewerbungen@gnm.de

The decision to award a fellowship lies with the Tucher’sche Kulturstiftung and the Germanisches Nationalmuseum. Applicants have no legal claim to a fellowship.

Contact persons:
For questions relating to research: Herr Dr. Markus T. Huber (m.huber@gnm.de)
For administrative questions: Frau Rita Wolkersdorfer (r.wolkersdorfer@gnm.de)

New Publication: ‘Frankish Manuscripts: The Seventh to the Tenth Century’ by Lawrence Nees

Frankish Manuscripts covers the earliest period in this series devoted to manuscripts illuminated in France. The two volumes explore those manuscripts that originate in the period before the kingdom of France emerged at the end of the tenth century. From the seventh to the tenth century most of modern France was ruled by kings of the Franks, from dynasties known as Merovingian and Carolingian, whose territories also included significant portions of other modern nations, especially the Low Countries, Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

The introductory essay in Volume I offers an overview of salient issues in this creative period, formative for later medieval manuscripts produced in France and elsewhere, in the former Frankish territories and beyond; the volume includes 341 photographs from the manuscripts in the catalogue, the great majority reproduced in colour. Volume II comprises a detailed catalogue of 100 manuscripts from this large region, each with a detailed description, an interpretive commentary focused on the decoration of the text as well as illustrations, and a survey of previous scholarly literature, including digital access when available. The catalogue includes some of the most famous early medieval manuscripts, decorated with luxury materials and exceptionally beautiful script, ornament and illustrations. In the spirit of a survey intended to show the range of Frankish illumination, it also includes manuscripts of ancient and contemporary poems, scientific works, commentaries, a cookbook, and one manuscript in a vernacular language. Together, these two volumes provide the most comprehensive survey of manuscript illumination in Francia, its large corpus of illustrations making the manuscripts more readily available for study not only by scholars of illumination but also by others interested in early medieval culture.

Lawrence Nees is Professor in the Department of Art History and H. Fletcher Brown Chair of Humanities at the University of Delaware. He is a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

To purchase, visit Brepols.

Lecture: ‘Dynastic Change, Family Networks and Female Genealogies in Medieval Armenia (11th-13th C.), by Zara Pogossian, University of Florence, East of Byzantium Lecture, 15 November 2022, 12:00 EST

This lecture will focus on a period of medieval Armenian history – eleventh to late thirteenth centuries – that was characterized by a gradual deterioration and break-down of its until then traditional social structure based on land-holding military families known as nakharars. In this context a number of new military men, mostly with no illustrious lineage and/or previous connection to certain specific regions, rose to power. As they sought ways of legitimizing their control of recently conquered land and resources in various parts of historical Armenia, marriage alliances and, hence, the building of new family networks via women acquired increasing importance. This is especially true in the case of wives that came from older, prestigious dynasties which had lost or were about to lose their significance. There are also cases of women who were themselves from ‘new families’ but who played a key role in entering local networks of power in different ways. These general considerations will be illustrated on specific cases bringing to the audience’s attention the significance of women from (new or old) élite families, particularly from the end of Bagratid rule, and through Seljuk and Mongol (particularly Ilkhanid) periods. The inter-religious aspects of such family networks will be equally highlighted. Although the talk will address various regions of historical Armenia, greater attention will be paid to Syunik‘, reflecting my on-going research-in-progress.

Zara Pogossian is a specialist in medieval Armenian history, culture and religion, especially in relation to other peoples, cultures and religions in the Near East and Asia Minor. She is Associate Professor of Byzantine Civilization at the University of Florence, and the Principal Investigator of the ERC Project ArmEn: Armenia Entangled: Connectivity and Cultural Encounters in Medieval Eurasia 9th–14th Centuries. In her research, Professor Pogossian has explored such diverse topics as female asceticism and ascetic communities in early Christian Armenia, the role of women in the spread of Christianity in Armenia, monastic establishments and territory control, hagiography and cult of relics, and inter-religious (Jewish-Christian-Muslim) dynamics in medieval Armenia, among others. She has contributed significantly to the study of apocalyptic traditions in Armenian, especially between the 11th and 13th centuries. Her critical edition, with comments and a thorough historical study of Agat‘angel, On the End of the World, an anonymous Armenian apocalyptic text which reflects aspects of Late Antique Jewish-Christian debates, is forthcoming. She is the author of a book acclaimed by reviewers (The Letter of Love and Concord, Brill 2011), as well as numerous articles and book reviews. She has been the recipient of several prestigious fellowships, such as from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Käte Hamburger Collegium at the Center for Religious Studies (University of Bochum, Germany) and the International Consortium for Research in the Humanities (University of Erlangen, Germany). Dr. Pogossian is on the editorial board of the on-line journal Entangled Religions and a co-founder and co-editor-in-chief of Armeniaca: International Journal of Armenian Studies (first issue forthcoming in September 2022). She is one of the founding members and general editors of the series Eastern Christian Cultures in Contact (Brepols editors). She regularly serves on the evaluation committees of the European Institutes for Advanced Study (EURIAS), European Science Foundation, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).

Summer School: Summer Institute for the Study of East Central and Southeastern Europe (SISECSE), 1-15 June 2023 (Deadline 1 December 2022)

The Summer Institute for the Study of East Central and Southeastern Europe (SISECSE) is a two-week residential fellowship, that provides scholars of Eastern Europe time and space to dedicate to their own research and writing in a collaborative and interdisciplinary setting. ACLS in partnership with the Centre for Advanced Study Sofia (CAS) will convene leading scholars from Eastern Europe and North America for a two-week residency in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria from June 1, 2023 to June 15, 2023.

SISECSE will also provide participating scholars with the opportunity to undertake local fieldwork, including archival research, work in museum collections, interviews, site surveys, or other forms of data collection. (Fieldwork is not a requirement for participation in the institute.)

The program will cover travel, accommodation, and per diem expenses for the two-week residential institute. Institute members will be expected to be in residence and to participate in all planned events for the duration of the institute.

In addition to conducting their own research, scholars will also have the opportunity to participate in small group writing workshops, as well as a series of immersive discussions on a broad topic of shared academic interest.

In 2023, discussions will explore “Scholarly Writing in the Digital Age.” Participants will be asked to consider broad questions of accessibility and audience; the democratization of scholarly writing, manifested in the expansion of acceptable writing styles in journals and books; the blur between scholarly writing and creative writing, essays, and memoirs; the implications of digital sources for the way scholars treat their work; the potential of graphics and digital publication; the perceived over-production of articles and books; changing institutional frameworks and cultures of academic writing, and the growing demands for wider impact while retaining intellectual substance; and more.

Eligibility

Applicants must have a PhD degree conferred by an accredited university by December 1, 2022. (An established scholar who can demonstrate the equivalent of the PhD in publications and professional experience may also qualify.)
The competition is open to scholars in any field or discipline in the humanities and interpretive social sciences pursuing postdoctoral or advanced research in the region (Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czechia, Croatia, Hungary, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine).
Applicants must have an affiliation—a long-term regular research or teaching appointment—with a university or college in North America (US, Canada, Mexico) or Central/Eastern Europe (see the list above).
There are no restrictions as to the citizenship of applicants.

Applications must be submitted online and must include:

A completed brief application form including demographic information.
A description of the applicant’s research project (no more than 4 double-spaced pages in Times New Roman 11-point font). The application essay should lay out the research project—what it is about, its location in the current literature, what sources are to be examined, and how the applicant plans to carry out the work.
Up to 2 additional pages of images, musical scores, or other similar supporting non-text materials. [Optional]
A bibliography (no more than 2 pages, double-spaced between entries, Times New Roman 11-point font).
A list of the applicant’s publications (no more than 2 pages, double-spaced between entries, Times New Roman 11-point font). Applicants should indicate if any of their publications resulted from prior ACLS funding.
A statement of interest by the applicant (no more than 1 page, single or double-spaced, in Times New Roman 11-point font) describing the type of research, writing, or fieldwork they intend to carry out in Bulgaria, the impact of this work on their research project, and their interest in participating in interdisciplinary conversations. ACLS is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in all aspects of the fellowship application process. Please use the applicant’s statement to note any relevant information about your personal background and/or ways in which your proposed research addresses issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The deadline for this programme is 1st December 2022. To apply, visit the ACLS website.

Symposium: ‘The Medieval Treasury in Iberia and Beyond’, CCHS-CSIC Madrid, 28-30 November 2022

Treasuries offer an opportunity for reading evidence over time, weighing the sometimes contradictory conclusions from textual or visual sources against technical analysis. This project delves into the medieval objects once gathered in ecclesiastical treasuries in order to highlight long-distance and transcultural networks, shining a light on issues of broad relevance for scholarship and society today. We investigate multiple collections in the Iberian Peninsula and beyond, carrying out comparative research on medieval metalworks, ivories, hardstones, and textiles, along with their representations in
miniatures and murals.

Monday 28 November 2022
Moderators: Therese Martin, CSIC, Madrid, and Alicia López Carral, UCM/CSIC, Madrid
15.30 Therese Martin, CSIC, Madrid: Introduction
16.00 María Judith Feliciano, independent scholar, New York: Reconsidering the Medieval Treasury: Absence and Transformation in Iberian Cathedrals.
16.30 Ana Cabrera Lafuente, Turespaña/Tourspain, Madrid: Unknown Pieces from Well Known Treasuries: Textiles at the Cathedrals of Ourense, Palencia, and Toledo.
17.00 Discussion
17.15 Break
17.30 Ignacio Montero, CSIC, Madrid, and Xosé Lois Armada, CSIC, Santiago de Compostela XRF Analysis of Treasured Objects.
18.00 Mariam Rosser-Owen, Victoria and Albert Museum, and Therese Martin, CSIC, Madrid: Looking Anew at Nielloed Silverworks in 10th- to 12th-Century Iberia.

18.30 Discussion

Tuesday 29 November 2022
Moderators: Verónica Abenza, CSIC, Madrid, and Teresa Martínez Martínez, University of Warwick
15.30 Laura Rodríguez Peinado, Universidad Complutense de Madrid:El Pendón de San Isidoro en contexto: el valor de los estandartes como reliquias en los tesoros medievales.
16.00 Jordi Camps, Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya: De la mesa del altar a la imagen mural: los cálices en la Plena Edad Media.
16.30 Eduardo Manzano, CSIC, Madrid: The Qur’an Captured at the Battle of Alhandega (939).
17.00 Discussion
17.15 Break
17.30 Alicia López Carral, CSIC, Madrid and Universidad Complutense de Madrid: El otro tesoro de la Catedral de Toledo: los libros litúrgicos a través de los inventarios.
18.00 Shannon Wearing, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto: Louis’s Bible and Alfonso’s Cantigas: Royal Manuscripts in Dialogue.
18.30 Discussion

Wednesday 30 November 2022
Moderators: Therese Martin, CSIC, Madrid, and Hannah Thomson, UCLA
15.30 Silvia Armando, Ministero della Cultura, Italia Treasuries of the Norman South: Gift-Giving in Apulia between Episcopal and Secular Powers.
16.00 Jitske Jasperse, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin Caskets and Croziers: Limoges in Toledo.
16.30 Julie Harris, independent scholar, Chicago A Leap of Faith: Isaac Caro’s “Tefillin Case” and the
Quest for Sephardic Material Culture.
17.00 Discussion
17.15 Break
17.30 Verónica Abenza Soria, CSIC, Madrid: Towards a Corpus of Byzantine Objects in Spain: A
Tale of Travel and Reuse.
18.00 Pierre Alain Mariaux, Université de Neuchâtel, and Romain Jeanneret, Abbaye de St-Maurice
Singular Object, Multiple Views, Complex Response: The Great Shrine of St. Maurice as Paradigm.
18.30 Discussion/ Conclusions

Attendance is free. Please register at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeI%20aEXtErDVg8FXSkPtAs5U9keMym_4GCqARWXgq%20gurfapZJw/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0