The 28th Postgraduate Medieval Symposium 2023
Intersections: Encounters with Medieval and Renaissance Textiles, 1100-1550
MonDAY, 22 May 2023 09:00 - 18:30 BST
Lecture Theatre 2, The Courtauld Institute of Art, Vernon Square Campus, Penton Rise, London WC1X 9EW United Kingdom
During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, textiles wrapped up and coated walls, people, furniture, and objects. They provided omnipresent, and often complex, symbolic and visual demarcations of spaces. Diplicare, the root of display, is in unfolding: so much of the frameworks of how we surround ourselves are rooted in practices using cloth. The value of these textiles, both in their materiality and craftsmanship, exceeded that of many other artforms which have been privileged by scholars. Textiles were often disregarded in art historical study, considered to be visually unappealing or discredited in previous centuries as part of the decorative arts. In addition, only a fraction of the textiles that functioned in these spaces survive, many of which are in a fragmented state.
In recent years, textiles have received more attention in art historical studies, and block buster exhibitions on tapestries have made the importance of textiles clear to a wider public. There are, however, still many new angles from which we can interrogate and discuss textiles which can enrich, connect, and reframe not only textile history but wider research subjects in Medieval and Renaissance studies.
In this symposium we would like to draw together varying angles of research through their intersections with textiles, in whatever capacity. The theme of this symposium centres on how Medieval and Renaissance textiles, real and depicted, combine, overlap or intersect in different ways. In short, it aims to interrogate how textiles get entangled with other people, arts, materials, objects and functions.
Organised by Jessica Gasson (The Courtauld) and Julia van Zandvoort (The Courtauld).
Generously supported by Sam Fogg.
To register: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/postgraduate-medieval-symposium-2023-tickets-627081496637
Programme:
9.00 - Opening remarks
Secular Textiles
9.15 - 10:40 Panel 1 – Networks and trade /collecting of textiles
Key Note
Textiles, Piety, and Memory in Late Medieval Tuscany, Samuel Cohn
‘Per la gran furia di compratori’: Obtaining Flemish Tapestries in Sixteenth-century Italy, the case of the Van der Molen firm (1538-1544), Julia van Zandvoort
The ‘intersecting geographies’ of the tapestries of the Trojan War – tapestry production between Paris and Tournai, Nina Reiss
10.40-11.00 Panel discussion
11.00-11.30 Tea Break
11:35 - 13:00 Panel 2 – Textiles in secular settings
(Re-)Weaving Ritual Paths: Silk Textiles as Markers of Ceremonial Space in Late Medieval Venice, Chiara Stombellini
The stink of the cities - secondary scenting of domestic textiles in Europe, Pauline Devriese
Textile and glass interweaved. Entanglements of two arts in Renaissance Venice, Karina Pawlow
13.00-13.20 Panel discussion
13.20-14.20 Lunch break
Religious Textiles
14:25 - 15:50 Panel 3 – Textiles and ritual function / iconography
Tapestries on the altar: exploring the design and use of the Louvre Virign of the Living Water and the Sens Three Coronation tapestries, Jessica Gasson
Overlapping Incarnation and Consecration Textiles, Images and Gestures around the Cluny Museum’s Corporal Case (13th century), Julie Glodt
“The Garden of the Incarnation and the Conversion of the Heart: The Mass of Saint Gregory”, Aimee Clark
15.50-16.10 Panel discussion
16.10-16.30 Coffee break
16:35 - 17:55 Panel 4 – Reassembling Religious Textiles
Fragmentation and reconstruction of an embroidered altar frontal, Mireia Castano Martine
Many layers of textiles. The relic treasure of Herkenrode in Hasselt (Belgium) revealed through material technical research, Jeroen Reyniers
At the Intersection of Political and Ritual functions of textiles: Sensory Experiences of Textiles in the Sumtsek at Alchi, Ladakh, Jordan Quill
17.55-18.15 Panel discussion
18.15-18.25 Closing remarks
18.30 Wine reception