Medieval Art Research

New Publication: Color in Cusanus, by Jeffrey F. Hamburger

The great scholar, theologian, and church politician of the 15th century, Nikolaus von Kues (Nicholas of Cusa), was convinced that diagrams can help convey the highest and divine truth. That is why he himself had colored graphics for symbolization in the center of his De Coniecturis. During the implementation of the early printing process – a quantum leap for the distribution of the works – this dimension of meaning was lost with the reduction to black and white representation. Research, too, has so far completely overlooked their relevance. For Nikolaus, and like the panel painting of his time, color represents the penetration of space with and through light: light and dark gripping in Cusanus, and God’s recognizability and concealment in one another, were the two central axioms of his theology. The color in the diagrams is, as Jeffrey Hamburger deciphers for the first time, an invitation to the viewer to search for the same truth that the symbols exemplify.

Jeffrey F. Hamburger is the Kuno Francke Professor of German Art & Culture at Harvard University and an internationally renowned expert on sacred art of the high and late Middle Ages, in particular on the function of images in theology, mysticism and piety, as well as for manuscript illumination.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: Thinking Through Diagrams
Chapter 2: Color as Vector
Chapter 3: Cusan Speculation
Chapter 4: Diagrams in Action
Chapter 5: Color in De coniecturis
Chapter 6: An Orb in the Hand of God
Color Plates
Manuscript Index
Subject Index

For complete information and to purchase this title, please visit Hiersemann Verlag: https://www.hiersemann.de/color-in-cusanus-9783777221212#.

Symposium: ‘The Medieval Wall Paintings at St. Mary’s, Chalgrove, Oxfordshire’, 16 October 2021, 10am–5pm (BST)

This day-long event will provide attendees with the unique opportunity to hear new information concerning the medieval wall paintings at Chalgrove Church in the presence of the paintings themselves. Aspects of the scheme’s content, dating, patronage, and connection to contemporary works will be explored by notable scholars.

Speakers:

Professor Paul Binski (Professor Emeritus of the History of Medieval Art, University of Cambridge & Fellow Librarian, Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge)
Professor Miri Rubin (Professor of Medieval and Early Modern History, Queen Mary University of London)
Dr. Ellie Pridgeon (Director of Consultant Archivist & Associate Lecturer, Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, & Leicester)
Sommer Hallquist (PhD Candidate, University of Cambridge)
Madeleine Katkov (Wall Paintings Conservator)
Bob Heath-Whyte (Specialist, Chalgrove wall paintings & St. Mary’s Lay Minister)

Members of the Chalgrove Local History Group

Date: Saturday, 16th October, 2021, 10am – 5pm

Location: Church Lane, Chalgrove, Oxford OX44 7SD

Registration fee: £20 (Includes on-site lunch) | Proceeds fund the parish & their continued upkeep of the wall paintings

*Concessions for students & parish members. To receive a discount code, please email ChalgroveSymposium@gmail.com.

Questions about the event? Please email ChalgroveSymposium@gmail.com.

Follow us on Twitter & Facebook! @ChalgroveSympo1

Website for St. Mary’s, Chalgrove: https://chalgrovechurch.org/

This symposium is organized by Sommer Hallquist, Madeleine Katkov, and Bob Heath-Whyte.

Find out more and get your tickets here.

Call for Papers: Reusing Medieval Sculpture: Ideology, Meaning, and Aesthetics of a Process over Time, ICMS Kalamazoo (9-14 May 2022) (Deadline 15 September 2021)

Historical sites, as palimpsests of material and symbolic elements, are characterized by the re-functioning of spaces and buildings and also by the re-use of artistic materials. The session aims to analyse cases of reuse of medieval sculpture in modern contexts (roughly 15th-18th centuries) inspired not by practical and material purposes but by the need to communicate messages of high symbolic value. Papers will focus on episodes that allow to recover the “long life” of medieval sculptures over the centuries, in contexts similar or, on the contrary, completely different to the original ones and related phenomena of re-working and re-functionalization. The session is part of the activities of the two-years MemId (Memory and Identity. Reuse, rework and rearrangement of the Medieval sculpture in the Modern Age, between historical research and new technologies) project funded by the Italian Ministry for University and Research, led by Clario Di Fabio, Laura Cavazzini and Paola Vitolo, which is conducting in various regions of Italy a systematic and in-depth study of the topic, with a team of young researchers. The session will be an opportunity to discuss the topic with a wide range of international scholars of different geographical and cultural areas.

Please submit abstracts no later than 15 September through the ICMS Confex site at https://icms.confex.com/icms/2022am/cfp.cgi. Please direct all questions or concerns to paola.vitolo@unina.it

Call for Papers: Mary-Anne: Iconographies and Layers of Meaning (Deadline 10 October 2021)

The proposed volume concentrates on representations of the Virgin Mary and Saint Anne in the Middle Ages by bringing into discussion new approaches on their iconographies. In certain instances, Mary’s life incorporates episodes of Saint Anne’s allowing, thus, multiple readings and multiple layers of meaning in the same (visual) representation.

The volume is dedicated to the iconography of the Virgin Mary and Saint Anne, generally speaking, from any geographic area. This implies that any aspect of Marian or Saint Anne’s iconography is accepted, starting with general or particular episodes of Mary’s/Anne’s life, development(s) of iconographic details or specific iconographies.

The volume aims at approaching such representations in a comparative manner either by focusing on the visual-textual relationship or by highlighting influences and movements of iconographies from one geographic area to the other.

Please submit a 600-800 word abstract celarly underlying the main argument and potential outcomes of the essay. Proposals should have an abstract format written either in a PDF file or Word document and be accompanied by a short CV, including email, current affiliation, rank and title/name. Please submit all relevant documents by 10 October 2021 to Andrea-Bianka Znorovsky, Ca’Foscari University, Venice, Italy, andrea.znorovsky@unive.it.

From the organiser:

While some of the abstracts have been secured, I am still looking for ones that address the below topic for a volume being considered for publication with Brepols Publishers.

I am looking for very clear, specific case studies (not a general view on a topic). This can be either iconographic or textual study (or text and image, etc.) which does not rephrase previous research, but rather presents new aspects, new interpretations, other perspectives/approaches. Please, clearly underline the main argument and potential outcomes of the essay.

Call for Papers: ‘Restoring Medieval Art and Architecture I, II, III: Technology in Documentation and Research; Technology and Concepts of Authenticity; Technology and Access’, ICMS Kalamazoo (Deadline 15 September 2021)

“Restoring Medieval Art and Architecture I, II, III: Technology in Documentation and Research; Technology and Concepts of Authenticity; Technology and Access” (AVISTA sessions at ICMS Kalamazoo, 9th-14th May 2022)

Critical discourse surrounding the conservation and restoration of Notre-Dame of Paris following the disastrous 2019 fire indicates the continued existence of a nostalgic desire to experience medieval buildings “as they were.” Paradoxically, to conserve or restore medieval buildings and objects “authentically,” cultural heritage practitioners increasingly rely on contemporary technological tools. Such tools, long recognized for their scholarly and pedagogical value, have become crucial for engagement with medieval sites and objects in a time of enforced distance. AVISTA’s sessions at ICMS 2022 will explore the uses and impacts of technology emerging from the contexts of restoration and conservation campaigns; examine ties between technology and concepts of authenticity as they intersect with the conservation or restoration of medieval art and architecture; and consider how technology connects to accessibility and how access may in turn alter our understanding of medieval cultural heritage.

Topics to be considered might include, but are not limited to, the use of contemporary technologies to document, investigate, conserve, and/or restore medieval structures and objects, the use of medieval technologies in contemporary conservation or restoration practice, technology as a means of crossing geographical and/or chronological boundaries between medieval objects and contemporary audiences, and technology and the accessibility of medieval cultural heritage in relation to issues of economics or geographical or cultural dissemination.

Please contact Sarah Thompson (setfaa@rit.edu) for further information, and submit proposals through the Congress’s website:
https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/call

The deadline to submit is 15th September 2021.

Call for Papers: Ninth Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 20-22 June 2022 (Deadline 31 December 2021)

The Ninth Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies (20-22 June 2022) is a convenient summer venue in North America for scholars to present papers, organize sessions, participate in roundtables, and engage in interdisciplinary discussion. The goal of the Symposium is to promote serious scholarly investigation into all topics and in all disciplines of medieval and early modern studies.

The plenary speakers for this year will be David Abulafia, of Cambridge University, and Barbara Rosenwein, of Loyal University, Chicago.

The Symposium is held annually on the beautiful midtown campus of Saint Louis University. On campus housing options include affordable, air-conditioned apartments as well as a luxurious boutique hotel. Inexpensive meal plans are also available, although there is a wealth of restaurants, bars, and cultural venues within easy walking distance of campus.

While attending the Symposium participants are free to use the Vatican Film Library, the Rare Book and Manuscripts Collection, and the general collection at Saint Louis University’s Pius XII Memorial Library.

The Ninth Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies invites proposals for papers, complete sessions, and roundtables. Any topics regarding the scholarly investigation of the medieval and early modern world are welcome. Papers are normally twenty minutes each and sessions are scheduled for ninety minutes. Scholarly organizations are especially encouraged to sponsor proposals for complete sessions. The deadline to submit is 31 December 2021. You should submit a title and abstract of no more than 250 words.

For more information and to submit a paper, session, or roundtable, visit https://www.smrs-slu.org/.

Call for Papers: The Red Sea as a Space In-Between the Wider Afro-Eurasian World (deadline 31 August 2021)

For a special issue of the The Medieval Globe, to be published in December of 2023 in digital and print versions, we invite proposals for articles on topics related to “Trade, Travels and Transformations: The Red Sea as a Space In-Between the Wider Afro-Eurasian World.”

Job Opportunity: Lecturer in History 300-700 CE, Durham University (Deadline 17 August 2021)

The Department of History at Durham University seeks to appoint a talented individual to the fixed term role of Lecturer in History CE 300-700. They are particularly eager to hear from applicants with a focus on the history of the Mediterranean world.

The primary focus of this role is on research and teaching but there will also be the opportunity to engage in wider citizenship within the University and beyond.

This role of Lecturer is for a fixed term of 12 months and to provide cover for Eleanor Barraclough, who has been awarded an AHRC Leadership Fellowship. It is not anticipated that this period would be extended beyond the initial fixed term.

Applicants must demonstrate research excellence in the field of History CE 300-700, with the ability to teach our students to an exceptional standard and to fully engage in the services, citizenship and values of the University.

The post-holder will be expected to contribute to a new team-taught level 1 module on the late-antique Mediterranean world, to contribute a strand to the core level 1 module ‘Making History’, and to teach a new or existing level 2 module in an aspect of early medieval history. They will undertake some undergraduate and MA dissertation supervision and, where appropriate, carry out other teaching duties specified by the Head of Department.

All applicants are asked to submit:

A CV and covering letter which details your experience, strengths and potential in the requirements set out above;
PDFs of up to two pieces of research focused work;
A personal research plan [of 500-1,000 words, setting out your intended research programme for the coming three to five years, with some indication of possible publications and sources of funding]

You should provide details of 3 academic referees and the details of your current line manager so that we may seek an employment reference (if they are not listed as an academic referee). Please note:

We shall seek the academic references during the application process. We would ask that you alert your academic referees to this application as soon as possible so that we can quickly obtain references should you be progressed to the long list stage. If you do not wish (some or all) of your referees to be approached during the recruitment process; you must clearly indicate this to us at the time of your application.
Academic references sought for long-listed candidates may be made available to the panel during the shortlisting process.
We will seek a reference from your current line-manager if we make you an offer of employment (albeit you may have also nominated your line manager as an academic referee). Please clearly indicate which referee is your current line-manager and please let us know if we should only approach them once an offer has been made.

Applications are particularly welcome from women and black and minority ethnic candidates, who are under-represented in academic posts in the University. The deadline to apply is 17th August 2021. Please apply via the Durham jobs page: https://www.dur.ac.uk/jobs/

Call for Papers: ‘New Approaches to the Art and Architecture of Angevin and Aragonese Naples (1265-1458)’, International Congress on Medieval Studies 2022, deadline 15 September 2021

The city and kingdom of Naples occupied a central place in late-medieval Mediterranean life: it was a powerful kingdom with deep connections to the French throne; it controlled vast territories throughout Italy in service to the papacy; and its many ports welcomed goods arriving from the Levant, north Africa, and western Europe. Despite this importance during the medieval period the city has been, generally, overshadowed by other cities such as Rome, Florence, and Venice in academic discourse. Nevertheless, the city has been interrogated in recent decades by many prominent European and American art historians who have expanded our understanding of Neapolitan art patronage and devotional images during the trecento and quattrocento, including Francesco Aceto, Nicolas Bock, Caroline Bruzelius, Bianca de Divitiis, Stefano D’Ovidio, Janis Elliott, Cathleen Fleck, Adrian Hoch, Pierluigi Leone de Castris, Vinni Lucherini, Tanja Michalsky, Alessandra Perriccioli Saggese, Elisabetta Scirocco, Paola Vitolo, Cordelia Warr, and Sarah Wilkins, to name a few.

This panel invites submissions from students that will build on recent scholarship and examine the relationship between the art, artists, and architecture of late-medieval Naples and the wider connected world. Topics of interest include but are not limited to: the movement of material and visual culture between Naples, the wider Mediterranean, and beyond; the movement of people, including patrons, artists, and craftsmen, between Naples and the wider connected world; the impact of trade to or from Naples; diplomatic, political, commercial, artistic, and cultural exchanges and interactions and their effects within and beyond Naples; the role of women as patrons, rulers, nuns, and powerbrokers in Naples; dress and comportment; the textile arts; portolan atlases; trade between Naples and other cities, including, but not limited to, Florence, London, Paris, Rome, Tunis, or Jerusalem.

Please submit papers through the ICMS Confex site at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/call no later than 15 September. The ICMA Student Committee will send out notifications in the latter half of September. Please direct all questions or concerns to gilbert.jones@gmail.com and elb7cn@virginia.edu .

A good abstract will state the topic and argument and will inform specialists in the field of what is new about the research. Generalities known to everyone, or research that a scholar intends to do but has not yet begun, are not appropriate. Please keep in mind that, if selected, your abstract will be used, as is, for the online program and conference app.

Since the International Congress on Medieval Studies will be run virtually in 2022, the ICMA (via a Samuel H. Kress Foundation grant) will cover the conference fees of those participating in the ICMA-sponsored session(s). Participants will be required to be members of the ICMA at the time of the conference (May 2022).

Janis Elliott and Denva Gallant are organizing two sessions on Naples sponsored by the ICMA, Naples and Beyond: World-Wide Cultural Networks. To promote stronger networks between ICMA student and senior scholars, they will also moderate the Student Committee session.

New Publication: Tributes to Richard K. Emmerson: Crossing Medieval Disciplines, edited by Deirdre Carter, Elina Gertsman, and Karlyn Griffith

Honoring the scholarship of Richard K. Emmerson, this collection interrogates the concept of interdisciplinarity through a set of essays that traverse the traditional boundaries of various fields in medieval studies. This interdisciplinary collection celebrates the scholarship of Richard K. Emmerson, one of the most prominent medievalists of his generation. With contributions to the history of medieval literature, drama, theology, and art, this anthology not only showcases the fields with which Emmerson’s own work engaged, but also demonstrates the fruitfulness of the cross-disciplinary approach that has come to define these fields. Although the essays employ a broad range of source material—from devotional texts to royal chronicles and from architectural sculpture to illuminated manuscripts—the book focuses specifically on four distinct but related topics: word-image relationships, eschatology, identity, and moral argument. The contributions, written by Emmerson’s colleagues and former students, speak to the importance of interdisciplinarity and demonstrate the profound influence of Emmerson’s work on the rich field of medieval studies.

Elina Gertsman is Professor of Art History at CWRU. She is the author and editor of several books, including The Dance of Death in the Middle Ages (2010) and Worlds Within (2015).
Karlyn Griffith is Associate Professor of Art History at Cal Poly, Pomona. She was the recipient of research grants from the American Philosophical Society and Bibliographical Society of the UK. Her work has been recently published in Viator and Pecia.
Deirdre Carter teaches art history at Indiana University—Purdue University Indianapolis. Her research has been supported by the Schallek Fellowship of the Medieval Academy of America and the Richard III Society, American Branch

Table of Contents

Elina Gertsman and Deirdre Carter — Introduction: A Laudarium

Publications by Richard K. Emmerson

Part I: Sites of Reception

Lawrence Nees — Antique and Faux-Antique in Carolingian Manuscripts

Paula Gerson — Early Painted Faade Sculpture: Research and Observations on Perception and Cognition

Jack Freiberg — The Imago Pietatis in Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, Pope Gregory the Great, and Spain

Part II: Imaging and Imagining the Text

Lucy Freeman Sandler — Visions of the Beginning and the End: The Hours of the Angels Added to the Psalter of Yolande of Soissons

Penn R. Szittya — Gods Palimpsest: The Encyclopedia Omne bonum as Sacred Book

Nigel J. Morgan — Word and Image in the Anglo-Norman Prose Apocalypse Fragment London, British Library, MS Add. 38842

Part III: Envisioning the End of Days

Jennifer M. Feltman — Tradition and Innovation in the Sculptural Cycle of the Life of John at Reims Cathedral

Karlyn Griffith — The Spectacle of Violence and Romance in Three English Metrical Apocalypses

David Bevington — The Tegernsee Play of Antichrist

Part IV: Locating Identity

David N. Klausner — Performance Indicators in Two Early Welsh Plays

Robert W. Hanning — Rituals of Identity, Strategies of Desire: How a Servant Becomes King for a Night in Decameron 3.2

Elaine Treharne — The Endurance of the Name, 700–1500

Thomas A. Goodmann — Everywhere & Nowhere: Finding the Friars

Part V: Spirituality and the Moral Argument

Beatrice Kitzinger — The Good, the Bad, and the Ivory: On Moral Distinction in Carolingian Crucifixions

Bernard McGinn — The Ordering of Love in the Twelfth Century

Ronald B. Herzman — Francis, Dante, Iacopone

Sarah Andyshak and Karlyn Griffith — In Place of an Epilogue: What Else Do We See?

Elina Gertsman — Afterword: This Is the End

To purchase, please visit Brepols: http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9781909400993-1