Online Lecture: “Masters in Miniature”, SIMS Lecture Series, Bryan C. Keene, February 11th 2022, 1-2:30pm EST

The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies is pleased to announce the next lecture in its Online Lecture Series, presented in partnership with Center for Italian Studies and the Italian Studies section of the Department of Romance Languages at the University of Pennsylvania:

Masters in Miniature: Future Horizons for Italian Manuscript Studies
Bryan C. Keene, Riverside City College 

Friday, February 11, 2022
1:00 – 2:30 pm via Zoom

This lecture centers on the historiography and future of Italian manuscript illumination with the goal of suggesting new methods of attribution and assessment for art historians, dealers, and collectors. The Philadelphia area collections and BiblioPhilly initiative provide ample inspiration for scholars of this material and will form a cornerstone of this presentation. Within the corpus of Giorgio Vasari’s Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (1550 and 1568), one reads the biographies of several illuminators, including Lorenzo Monaco, Fra Angelico, the painters of service books for the Sistine Chapel, and Giulio Clovio, the last of whom Vasari called “Michelangelo in miniature.” A present-day counterpart to the Lives is the Dizionario biografico dei miniatori italiani (ed. Milvia Bollati, 2004), which provides biographies of nearly four hundred named artists working from the 9th through 16th century. About one third are documented as illuminators, while another third are recorded as painters and as illuminators, separately, and the final third are assigned by art historians (based on signatures, connoisseurship, or other means). In addition, there are over two hundred and fifty anonymous maestri christened by scholars. Many studies have been informed by the Dizionario and dozens of new artists have since come to light.  

A specific focus of this paper will be an assessment of the geographic organization by “schools” in the published catalogues of various collections, such as Cambridge (UK), the Cini Foundation, and Kupferstichkabinett collections, and several private holdings. In each, the collaborative nature of manuscript production—by artists, scribes, and other craftspeople from different neighborhoods or regions—is often overshadowed by the career of individual illuminators. A discussion of exhibitions will also be offered, and a vision for future digital collaborations will form the conclusion.

For more information and to register, please visit the link.

Online Lecture: Imagining Jerusalem in late Medieval Nuremberg – Adam Kraft & Albrecht Durer, Dr Dilshat Harman, April 1st 2022, 12:00-13:30 CT

“Imagining Jerusalem in Late Medieval Nuremberg: Adam Kraft and Albrecht Durer”
Dr. Dilshat Harman, Center for Visual Studies of the Medieval and Early Modern Culture, Russian State University for the Humanities in Moscow

Friday, April 1st, 2022 | 12:00–1:30 PM CT | via Zoom: https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/96410986654

The lecture will deal with Jerusalem in late medieval imagination, focusing on the reconstruction of Jerusalem in Nuremberg. Recent research shows that imagining Jerusalem played a crucial part in many late medieval devotional practices – virtual pilgrimages to Jerusalem, reconstructions of its topography and sacred places in European cities, visualizations of one’s own city as Jerusalem. In her lecture Dr. Harman would explore how the overlapping of Nuremberg and Jerusalem cityscapes was activated by the imagination of the citizens participating in the walking the Nuremberg Way of Cross and what artistical devices Nuremberg artists Adam Kraft (c.1460–1509) and Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) used to make these spaces overlap even more for the viewers of their reliefs and prints.

This public lecture is sponsored by the Anonymous Fund, Medieval Studies Program, History Department, Art History Department, Institute for Research in Humanities, Middle East Studies Program, and Center for Religion and Global Citizenry.

Medieval Studies Program | Imagining Jerusalem in Late Medieval Nuremberg: Adam Kraft and Albrecht Durer

CFP: CRUX TRIUMPHALIS – Calvaries and Rood Beams between the Middle Ages and the Council of Trent, Deadline 31st March 2022

The 1st Colloquium on Art and Liturgy: CRUX TRIUMPHALIS. Calvaries and Rood Beams between the Middle Ages and the Council of Trent will take place in Cádiz during 13-15 October 2022.

We invite the academic community to submit abstracts in Spanish, English, Italian and French consisting of a 500-700 words summary highlighting the innovative nature of the paper together with the chosen session and a brief curriculum vitae before the 31st of March 2022 to the following address: crux.triumphalis@uca.es.

The organising committee shall acknowledge receipt of submissions and select those considered most closely aligned with the meeting objectives. The selection will be made public before the 15th of May. Following peer review, these papers will be published in a monograph. Texts should be sent by the 15th of November 2022.

During the Middle Ages and even the Early Modern period, the biggest eye-catcher for those who entered into a church was an image of Christ crucified, frequently flanked by the Virgin and Saint John, supported by a beam. This beam, located on the triumphal arch’s imposts, became -together with the altar steps- the element that pointed out the frontier between the space for the faithful and the one intended for the clergy. Due to its prominent position at the entrance of the presbytery, the crucifix became a focus for the faithful’s gaze. This image increased their spiritual involvement in liturgical celebrations, particularly during Mass, because they were persuaded through the transcendence of the mystery that occurred at the altar. That mystery, which was the miraculous and bloodless repetition of the Calvary’s sacrifice, also was the very same iconographical depiction that the faithful could distinguish at the top of the beam.
Like any other church furniture, the origin of the rood beams can be traced back into the early Middle Ages or even Late Antiquity through Archaeology and documentary evidence that go back to the patristic literature or the Liber Pontificalis. The High Medieval sources that mention these wooden structures and their calvaries are even more numerous, for instance, Sicard of Cremona or Guillaume Durand treatises, which not only had a significant impact but were also strongly connected with this kind of works.
It is still possible to locate many rood beams throughout Europe, showing their past abundance. However, the Hispanic reality is much different. Scarcity of preserved examples, together with the lack of academic interest in this topic, could lead to a false image of a past where these structures would have been irrelevant. Nevertheless, documentary evidence and sculptural remains permit us to reconstruct a different reality where the visual power of these beams would have decayed only at the end of the 15th Century, in parallel with the extraordinary development of the great altarpieces. The unprecedented growth of altarpieces in the Iberian Peninsula and the consequences of certain theological developments would became catalyst that provoked both the fall into disuse of rood beams and also their academic oblivion.
The aim of the first Expert meeting on Art and Liturgy, to be held in the University of Cádiz with a commitment to continuity, is to restore the memory of these singular pieces in its architectural, sculptural and pictorial dimension within the visual and functional context for which they were conceived. In order to provide a forum for debate on these issues, the Colloquium will count with renowned experts such as Teresa Laguna, Justing Kroesen or Eduardo Carrero, among others.

Session I. The Triumphal Cross in liturgical and historical sources. Study of patristic texts and medieval liturgical books, pastoral visits, other literary sources such as periegesis and chorography, as well as contractual and accounting documentary sources. In addition, graphic evidence of beams and calvaries: drawings, engravings, descriptive painting and historical photography.

Session II. Spanish Calvaries and Rood Beams in the European Context. Origins and typological relations with similar elements: screens, retrochoirs, jubé… Spatial configuration and formal development. Iberian world. Local particularities.

Session III. The decline of a typology. The emergence of the great altarpieces and the last beams. Disuse and dismantling of beams and calvaries. Functional, liturgical and maintenance issues involved in the disappearance process. Singular examples preserved: survival and revival.

Session IV. Image, piety and devotion. Devotional implications in the cult of medieval crucifixes and calvaries after their descent. Altars, altarpieces and chapels devoted to “Beam Christs”. Medieval prestige in the baroque context.

For more information, please click here.

New Publication: A Medievalist’s Gaze: Christian Visual Rhetoric in Modern German Memorials (1950-2000) by Galit Noga-Banai

‘This book makes a strong case that memorials are embedded in local visual and historical traditions. While its comprehensive and detailed references make it a must-read for specialists, it will appeal not only to the many specialists working on memory and memorials, but also to general audiences interested in questions of visual culture and memorialization. Beautifully and engagingly written and illustrated.’ (Professor Harold Marcuse, University of California, Santa Barbara)


This study offers an unconventional reading of modern and postmodern German memorials from a medievalist perspective. Beginning with a memorial for German soldiers in El Alamein and continuing with memorials for victims of the Nazis in Germany, the book challenges the visual differences between modern and medieval art and transforms the interactions between the two into six productive conversations. The examples discussed move from Christian themes or visual practice directly connected to medieval art in the surrounding local urban landscape, to secular or abstract projects that seem disconnected from premodern forms and formats. The wide variety of techniques, materials, iconography, layouts, and styles demonstrates that medievalism is a method of observation, one that can underscore the links between several works of art, offer a broader context, add layers of meaning, and explore relationships with nearby visual and social environments, physical and mental landscapes, conflicts and memories. The medieval association may also contribute to a project’s potential to arouse empathy and to stand the test of time and distance from the events it is meant to recall. The book’s medieval prism will afford the reader greater insight into these works of art and a better understanding of their contribution to modern and contemporary memory culture in Germany.

Galit Noga-Banai is Professor of Art History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she lectures and writes on early Christian and medieval art. She is the author of The Trophies of the Martyrs: An Art Historical Study of Early Christian Silver Reliquaries (Oxford University Press, 2008), and Sacred Stimulus: Jerusalem in the Visual Christianization of Rome (Oxford University Press, 2018). In recent years she has also become interested in modern and contemporary medievalism.

Medievalist’s Gaze Christian Visual Rhetoric in Modern German Memorials (1950–2000) by Galit Noga-Banai, Monographs XX, 284 Pages, German Literature & Culture Series: German Visual Culture, Volume 10 is available now at https://www.peterlang.com/document/1160461

CFP: ‘Mapping Eastern Europe’, deadline 15 February 2022

The Mapping Eastern Europe website is a platform intended to promote study, teaching, and research about Eastern Europe between the 13th and 17th centuries through historical and thematic overviews, case studies and videos of monuments and objects, ongoing projects, as well as reviews of books and exhibitions.

This year, we are expanding our content with more Byzantine-related entries! If you are interested in contributing to this project with a case study and/or a historical or thematic overview, let us know by completing this form by 15 February 2022.

Please enter your name, affiliation, and email. In the comments section, specify the topic, title, and entry type (long-form case study, video case study, historical overview, or thematic overview) that you would be interested in submitting. Entries are in the range of 1000-2000 words, and video case studies are 10 minutes long.

We will make final decisions and will be in touch with each author by 1 March 2022. Authors will them be asked to follow a template, and entries will be thoroughly reviewed and edited prior to publication. Each author will receive a modest honorarium for each contribution. Final submissions will be due 1 May 2022.

Maria Alessia Rossi, PhD | Princeton University
Alice Isabella Sullivan, PhD | Tufts University

New publication: ‘Illuminating Metalwork. Metal, Object, and Image in Medieval Manuscripts’, edited by Joseph Salvatore Ackley and Shannon L. Wearing

The presence of gold, silver, and other metals is a hallmark of decorated manuscripts, the very characteristic that makes them “illuminated.” Medieval artists often used metal pigment and leaf to depict metal objects both real and imagined, such as chalices, crosses, tableware, and even idols; the luminosity of these representations contrasted pointedly with the surrounding paints, enriching the page and dazzling the viewer. To elucidate this key artistic tradition, this volume represents the first in-depth scholarly assessment of the depiction of precious-metal objects in manuscripts and the media used to conjure them.

From Paris to the Abbasid caliphate, and from Ethiopia to Bruges, the case studies gathered here forge novel approaches to the materiality and pictoriality of illumination. In exploring the semiotic, material, iconographic, and technical dimensions of these manuscripts, the authors reveal the canny ways in which painters generated metallic presence on the page. Illuminating Metalwork is a landmark contribution to the study of the medieval book and its visual and embodied reception, and is poised to be a staple of research in art history and manuscript studies, accessible to undergraduates and specialists alike

Author information: Joseph Salvatore Ackley, Wesleyan Univ., Middletown, USA; Shannon L. Wearing, Pontifical Inst. of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto, Canada.

Published by De Gruyter, 2022. Volume 4 in the series Sense, Matter, and Medium

For more information and for the contents visit the De Gruyter website.

Image: Vision of the Son of Man, The Cloisters Apocalypse, ca. 1330, f.3v. Metropolitan Museum

CFP: Fenestella. Inside Medieval Art, Thematic Issue 3/2022: ‘Configuring Monastic Architectural Settings: Early Medieval Experiments’, deadline: 30 June 2022

Fenestella is a scholarly, multilingual, and peer-reviewed open access journal. Fenestella publishes scholarly papers on medieval art and architecture, between Late Antiquity and c. 1400, covering the Latin West, the Byzantine East and medieval Islam.

We are now accepting proposals for the 2022 Thematic Issue: CONFIGURING MONASTIC ARCHITECTURAL SETTINGS: EARLY MEDIEVAL EXPERIMENTS

The planimetric and functional standardisation of monastic architectural settings is an achievement of the Romanesque period, and of Cistercian complexes in particular. During the early Middle Ages, monastic settlements were shaped in a pragmatic manner through the progressive aggregation of spaces; pre-existencing structures and different levels of resources or skills often affected constructions. This approach led to a diversity of forms, sizes, site plans, and functions, though the latter also reflected differing liturgical customs.

The third issue of Fenestella will explore this architectural experimention, seeking to identify, and to contextualize, similarities, differences, and trends. We welcome submissions that address specific case studies as well as broader territorial frameworks.

Proposals should be uploaded to the Fenestella website. The deadline for submissions is 30 June 2022.

Submissions on different topics to be published in the section Varia will also be considered.

For more information contact redazione.fenestella@unimi.it.

New publication: ‘An Artful Relic. The Shroud of Turin in Baroque Italy’, by Andrew R. Casper

In 1578, a fourteen-foot linen sheet bearing the faint bloodstained imprint of a human corpse was presented to tens of thousands of worshippers in Turin, Italy, as one of the original shrouds used to prepare Jesus Christ’s body for entombment. From that year into the next century, the Shroud of Turin emerged as Christianity’s preeminent religious artifact. In an unprecedented new look, Andrew R. Casper sheds new light on one of the world’s most famous and controversial religious objects.

Since the early twentieth century, scores of scientists and forensic investigators have attributed the Shroud’s mysterious images to painterly, natural, or even supernatural forces. Casper, however, shows that this modern opposition of artifice and authenticity does not align with the cloth’s historical conception as an object of religious devotion. Examining the period of the Shroud’s most enthusiastic following, from the late 1500s through the 1600s, he reveals how it came to be considered an artful relic—a divine painting attributed to God’s artistry that contains traces of Christ’s body. Through probing analyses of materials created to perpetuate the Shroud’s cult following—including devotional, historical, and theological treatises as well as printed and painted reproductions—Casper uncovers historicized connections to late Renaissance and Baroque artistic cultures that frame an understanding of the Shroud’s bloodied corporeal impressions as an alloy of material authenticity and divine artifice.

This groundbreaking book introduces rich, new material about the Shroud’s emergence as a sacred artifact. It will appeal to art historians specializing in religious and material studies, historians of religion, and to general readers interested in the Shroud of Turin.

For more information, and to buy a hardback copy or e-book, click here.

Recorded lecture: ‘Leonardo da Vinci at the Louvre: how to organise an impossible exhibition’, by Vincent Delieuvin, hosted by the Research Forum, The Courtauld

In 2019-2020, the Louvre organized an exhibition to celebrate the 500-year anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci in France, of particular importance for the museum, which holds the largest collection in the world of da Vinci’s paintings, as well as 22 drawings. The retrospective of da Vinci’s painting career wanted to illustrate how he placed utmost importance on painting, and how his investigation of the world, which he referred to as “the science of painting,” was the instrument of his art, seeking nothing less than to bring life to his paintings.

The museum tried to seize the opportunity to gather as many of the artist’s paintings as possible around the five core works in its collections, but also a wide array of drawings as well as a small but significant series of paintings and sculptures from the master’s circle.

The exhibition was the culmination of more than ten years of work, notably including new scientific examinations of the Louvre’s paintings, and the conservation treatment of three of them, allowing for better understanding of da Vinci’s artistic practice and pictorial technique. Clarification of his biography has also emerged through the exhaustive reexamination of archival documents. Vincent Delieuvin, one of the two curators of the exhibition, explains in this recorded lecture how he conceived the project and tried to solve the important problems of loans.

Vincent Delieuvin is Chief curator for Italian Sixteenth Century Paintings at the Louvre. He organized several exhibitions on Italian Renaissance: « Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese… Rivals in Venice » in 2009, « The Saint Anne, Leonardo da Vinci’s Ultimate Masterpiece » in 2012 and « late Raphael » in 2012-2013. More recently, he published several articles on Leonardo da Vinci and organized in 2019-2020 the exhibition celebrating the 500th anniversary of Leonardo’s death in France.

Organised by Dr Scott Nethersole (The Courtauld) and Dr Guido Rebecchini (The Courtauld). Watch the video here, on The Courtauld’s YouTube channel, as part of the Research Forum’s Lecture Series.

Click here for a full playlist of recorded lectures on medieval and early modern art from the Research Forum at The Courtauld.

Online lecture: ‘Eroticism, emulation, and censorship: The Two Lovers by Giulio Romano,’ Barbara Furlotti, Murray Seminars on Medieval & Renaissance Art, Birkbeck, 10 February 2022, 4.45pm (GMT)

As part of the Murray Seminars on Medieval & Renaissance Art at Birkbeck, Dr Barbara Furlotti will present her online lecture ‘Eroticism, emulation, and censorship: The Two Lovers by Giulio Romano,’ at 4.45pm (GMT) on 10 February 2022.

Giulio Romano (1492/1499-1546), Raphael’s favourite pupil, played a key role in the awakening of a new approach to eroticism in Renaissance art. Engaging with openly pornographic subjects and more traditional mythological themes, such as the loves of the gods, Giulio became one of the most imaginative and provocative Renaissance painters of erotically charged scenes. This paper focuses on the most puzzling of his erotic paintings: the Two Lovers from the Hermitage. Relying on recent conservation data and primary evidence, it reconstructs the collecting history of the painting from its creation to its arrival in Russia, and the iconoclastic censorship it was subjected to. Moreover, by taking into account Giulio Romano’s antiquarian interests in conjunction with contemporary literary production, especially comedies and poesia burlesca, the paper clarifies the subject of the painting, which has been much-debated over the years but never fully explained.

Dr Barbara Furlotti is Associate Lecturer at The Courtauld, London. She was the recipient of several grants including a post–doctoral fellowship at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles (2009-2010) and a Marie Curie fellowship at the Warburg Institute (2012-2015). Barbara has published extensively on the history of collecting, especially in relation to Rome and Mantua, display practices, the art market, and antiquarianism. Her last book, Antiquities in Motion: From Excavation Sites to Renaissance Collections, on the market for antiquities in sixteenth century Rome, was published by The Getty Publications in 2019. In 2029, Barbara co–curated the exhibition Giulio Romano: Art and Desire with Guido Rebecchini, held in Mantua, Palazzo Te, and is currently working on a new exhibition, Giulio Romano: the Art of Living, on Renaissance design for luxury objects, to be held again in Mantua, in Palazzo Te in October 2022.

Please note: the date of this online lecture has changed to 10 February (from 16 February).

For more information and to register to attend this free online lecture, click here.