
Manuscript illumination has often been considered in relation to the texts it accompanies, but rarely in terms of its interplay with other artistic media. Historically, however, the technique was closely associated with other forms of artistic expression and served as a crucial point of contact and transfer for visual motifs across space and time. The goal of this year’s symposium is to examine cases of intermedial exchange through the lenses of technique, style, iconography, social context, and cultural geography, while also posing broader questions about the deep connections between the craft of illumination and other arts more widely. Of special interest will be insights gained from the technical examination of works in different media, new comparisons made possible by digital technology, and the discovery of linkages once obscured by strict historiographical divisions
The program will begin Thursday evening at 5:00 pm on November 15, 2018, at the Free Library of Philadelphia, Parkway Central Library, with a keynote lecture by Professor Susie Nash of the Courtauld Institute of Art. The symposium will continue November 16th-17th at the Kislak Center of Special Collections, Rare Books, and Manuscripts at the University of Pennsylvania.
Registration is $35 ($10 for students with valid student ID). Registration is now open: click here.
For more information on the Schoenberg Symposium Series, click here.
Organized by Nicholas Herman (hermanni@upenn.edu), Curator of Manuscripts, with Lynn Ransom, Curator of Programs (lransom@upenn.edu), Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, University of Pennsylvania.
The symposium organizers wish to acknowledge the generous support of the Williams Fund of the History of Art Department at the University of Pennsylvania, and of the Wolf Humanities Center’s “Humanities at Large” program.
Program
Opening Reception and Keynote Address
Thursday, November 15, 2018
Susie Nash
Deborah Loeb Brice Professor of Renaissance Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art
with introductions by Will Noel and Sarah Guérin, University of Pennsylvania
The Curious Case of the Collins Hours
(Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1945-65-4)
Rare Book Department
Free Library of Philadelphia, Parkway Central Library, 3rd floor
1901 Vine St, Philadelphia, PA, 19103 (map).
Symposium
Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion
Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books, and Manuscripts
University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, 6th floor
3420 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA, 19104 (map).
Friday, November 16, 2018
9:00 – 9:30 am Coffee and Registration
9:30 – 10:00 am Welcome and Opening Remarks
Constantia Constantinou, H. Carton Rogers III Vice Provost and Director of the Penn Libraries, University of Pennsylvania
Nicholas Herman and Lynn Ransom, University of Pennsylvania
10:00 – 11:15 am Session I: Challenging Media Hierarchies
Presider: David Kim, University of Pennsylvania
Laura Weigert, Rutgers University
Sonja Drimmer, University of Massachusetts Amherst
11:15 – 11:30 am Coffee
11:30 am – 12:30 pm Workshop I
Presider: Amey Hutchins, University of Pennsylvania
Frédéric Elsig and Carmen Decu Teodorescu, University of Geneva
12:30 – 2:00 pm Lunch
2:00 – 3:30 pm Session II: Narrativity
Presider: Dot Porter, University of Pennsylvania
Alexandra Green, The British Museum
Christine Sciacca, The Walters Art Museum
3:15 – 3:45 pm Coffee
3:45 – 5:00 pm Session III: Case Studies, between the Exceptional and the Representative
Presider: Katherine Tycz, University of Pennsylvania
Bryan C. Keene, The J. Paul Getty Museum
Roger S. Wieck, The Morgan Library & Museum
Saturday, November 17, 2018
9:00 – 9:30 am Coffee
9:30 – 10:45 am Session IV: Community, Technique, Practice
Presider: Sarah Reidell, University of Pennsylvania
Nancy Turner, The J. Paul Getty Museum
Nandita Punj, Rutgers University
10:45 – 11:15 am Coffee
11:15 – 12:30 pm Workshop II
Presider: Will Noel, University of Pennsylvania
Stella Panayotova and Paola Ricciardi, The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
12:30 – 2:00 pm Lunch
2:00 – 3:15 pm Session V: Ornament across Media and Time I
Presider: Elly Truitt, Bryn Mawr College/University of Pennsylvania
Renata Holod, University of Pennsylvania
Benjamin C. Tilghman, Washington College
3:15 – 3:45 pm Coffee
3:45 – 5:00 pm Session VI: Ornament across Media and Time II
Presider: Robert Ousterhout, University of Pennsylvania
Shreve Simpson, University of Pennsylvania
Medallions in the Margins: the Free Library’s Lewis Oriental ms 1
Georgi Parpulov, Independent Scholar
From China to Byzantium: The Origins of “Flower-Petal” Ornament