Exhibition: Raphael. Gold & Silk, Kunst Historisches Museum Wien, 26 September 2023 - 14 January 2024

Exhibition

Raphael. Gold & Silk

26 September 2023 - 14 January 2024

Kunst Historisches Museum Wien

Maria-Theresien-Platz, 1010 Wien (Vienna), Austria

The School of Athens Series title: Tapestries after Frescoes by Raphael in the Vatican; Design: Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (Urbino 1483–1520 Rome), 1509/11; Woven under the direction of Pierre-François Cozette (1714–1801) and Michel Audran (1701–1771) in the Manufacture Royale des Gobelins, Paris, 1765–1771; Wool, silk; Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Kunstkammer, inv. no. T XIII/2

The large autumn exhibition at Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna is devoted to tapestries.

The momentous painter Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, called Raphael (1483–1520), was commissioned by Pope Leo X. to create the famous series depicting the life and acts of the apostles St Peter and St Paul for the Sistine Chapel in Rome. His designs set Flemish tapestry art on a new course.

For more information, https://www.raffael-gold-seide.at/en/

Exhibition: Graphic Design in the Middle Ages, GETTY CENTER, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 29 August 2023 - 28 January 2024

Exhibition

Graphic Design in the Middle Ages

August 29, 2023–January 28, 2024

GETTY CENTER, The J. Paul Getty Museum

Medieval scribes and artists were some of the world’s first graphic designers. They planned individual pages and entire books in creative ways, using handwritten text and painted decoration. From layout to script to images, a wide variety of different design elements influenced how medieval books were read and interpreted. This exhibition explores the role of page design, text, and ornament in the organization of books to surprise, delight, and inform their viewers.

This exhibition is presented in English and Spanish. Esta exhibición se presenta en inglés y en español.

For more information, https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/manuscript_design/index.html

Exhibition: New on the Bookshelf: Expanded Narratives, Walters Art Museum 07 June 2023 - 07 December 2023

Exhibition

New on the Bookshelf: Expanded Narratives

June 07, 2023–December 07, 2023

Walters Art Museum

Centre Street Building, Level 3, Medieval Gallery

With New on the Bookshelf: Expanded Narratives, the Walters Art Museum invites visitors to our new, permanent book gallery to explore some of the most recent additions to the Walters collection of Rare Books and Manuscripts. This intimate installation showcases new acquisitions on view at the Walters for the first time.

The installation features 17 works, including stunning Judaica, illustrated Japanese books, manuscripts made for children, rediscovered pages from one of our 12th-century manuscripts, Ethiopian prayerbooks, and later manuscripts created during the era of print.

The installation provides an exciting and rare opportunity for visitors to see how the collection is intentionally expanding and celebrates recently acquired books with insights into the curatorial strategy for growing the collection in meaningful ways. Visitors will encounter themes of accessibility, religion and spirituality, fables, and the oftentimes deeply personal nature of books. More, these works introduce new voices into the collection and elevate underrepresented cultures and makers.

Curated by Lynley Anne Herbert, Robert and Nancy Hall Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts, this installation is part of a series exploring updates to the collection of Rare Books and Manuscriptsllection of Rare Books and Manuscripts.

For more information, click here.

Call For Papers: Owning Gothic Ivories: Buying, Giving, Circulating, British Museum and V&A (25-26 October 2024), Due By 15 January 2024

Call For Papers

Owning Gothic Ivories: Buying, Giving, Circulating

British Museum and V&A (25-26 October 2024),

dUe by 15 January 2024

Full: Front - Casket; ivory. Rectangular plaques carved with scenes relating to courtly life and romance; lid: siege of Castle of Love and tournament; front: medieval legend of Aristotle succumbing to charms of Campaspe or Phyllis while Alexander looks on; Fountain of Youth, group of infirm men and women approach fountain in which four youthful figures bath; back: Lancelot attacks phantom lion and crosses Sword-Bridge; Gawain(?) sleeps on magic bed; left end: hunter transfixes unicorn running to seated lady beneath tree; Tristram and Isolde converse beneath tree in which King Mark is concealed; right end: knight greets hooded figure who advances from gateway holding a key, Parceval receiving his talisman. 1325-1350, Paris. © The Trustees of the British Museum (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/1027900001

Over the last three decades, research on Gothic ivories has seen a significant shift from studies concerned with stylistic attribution and classification towards the investigation of their materiality, iconography, function, and – last but not least – patronage. Although we now have a much better understanding of the social, devotional, and cultural contexts in which especially religious ivories were commissioned and produced, overall, we still know comparatively little about the owners of Gothic ivories. This is especially true for the secular sphere, where it has not yet been possible to link any surviving fourteenth-century carving to its first owner.

This conference aims to return to the question of the ownership of Gothic ivories, an area which offers great potential for further discoveries, particularly (but not only) through the combination of art historical object analysis with evaluations of contemporary written sources such as inventories, wills, and other documents. Illuminating the stories of historic owners, be they individuals or institutions, and their Gothic ivories is the first aim of this two-day conference, while the second is to shed light on the later life of these objects, and on their transition into new ownership contexts and uses.

We welcome proposals for 20-minute papers exploring material across these themes that deal with either case studies or broader methodological questions. Papers which take an interdisciplinary approach, breaking the traditional boundaries between art history, history of collecting, museum studies or conservation, are particularly welcome. Topics of interest may include but are not limited to:

Individual patrons and collectors of Gothic ivories.

• Commissioning, buying, and trading Gothic ivories.

• Gothic ivories in written sources.

• Gothic ivories in their archaeological contexts.

• The circulation of Gothic ivories.

• The adaptation, restoration and/or change of function of Gothic ivories over time.

• Object biographies of Gothic ivories in a conservation context.

• The provenance of Gothic ivories.

• The changing status and perception of Gothic ivories.

• The reproductions of Gothic ivories, i.e. fictile ivories, electrotypes, photography etc.

• The role of museums and curators as the custodians of Gothic ivories.

• The display of Gothic ivories through time in treasuries, private collections, and museums.

• The dispersal of Gothic ivories such as fragments, ensembles, and collections.

Please submit your abstracts of 250 – 300 words and a short biography of 100 words in one PDF document to Manuela Studer-Karlen (manuela.studer-karlen@unibe.ch), Naomi Speakman (nspeakman@britishmuseum.org) and Michaela Zöschg (m.zoschg@vam.ac.uk ) by 15 January 2024. Please note that travel and accommodation costs for speakers will be covered, and that the conference papers will be published.

Conference and Publication Timetable:

• 15 January 2024: Deadline for submission of abstracts and biography.

• 15 February 2024: Feedback on abstracts.

• 25-26 October 2024: Conference.

• 31 January 2025: Submission of papers for publication.

Organised by Manuela Studer-Karlen (University of Bern), Naomi Speakman (British Museum, London) and Michaela Zöschg (Victoria and Albert Museum, London). This conference is supported by the project “Love and War. Secular images on Gothic ivories”, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Online Cambridge Medieval Art Seminar: Binski, Guerry, Wrapson: The Wall Paintings of Angers Cathedral, Paul Binski, Emily Guerry, and Lucy Wrapson, 27 Nov 2023 17:00-19:00 GMT (12:00 - 14:00 EST)

Online Cambridge Medieval Art Seminar

Binski, Guerry, Wrapson: The Wall Paintings of Angers Cathedral

Professor Paul Binski, Dr Emily Guerry, and Dr Lucy Wrapson

Mon, 27 Nov 2023 17:00-19:00 GMT (12:00 - 14:00 EST)

To register, click here.

This online lecture focuses on the Gothic Wall paintings of Angers Cathedral, their story, date and significance.

British Archaeological Society and Universidad de Valladolid Conference: Romanesque and the Monastic Environment, Valladolid, 8-10 April 2024 (Scholarships Due 31 January 2024)

Conference

British Archaeological Society and Universidad de Valladolid

Romanesque and the Monastic Environment

Valladolid, 8-10 April 2024

A Three-Day International Conference in Valladolid on the relationship between material culture and monasticism during the 11th and 12th centuries. There is also an opportunity to stay on for two days of visits to Romanesque buildings. For a booking form send an email to conference@thebaa.org

The British Archaeological Association will hold the eighth in its biennial International Romanesque conference series in conjunction with the Universidad de Valladolid on 8-10 April, 2024. The theme is Romanesque and the Monastic Environment, and the aim is to examine the design and functioning of monastic space as found in the Latin West between c.1000 and c.1200. The Conference will be held at the University of Valladolid with the opportunity to stay on for two days of visits to Romanesque buildings on 11-12 April.

While a particular approach to monastic planning can be observed in Carolingian Benedictine circles in the early 9th century – one in which ranges were organized on three sides of a garden with the church on a fourth – the extent to which this arrangement was widely adopted before the second half of the 11th century is unclear. Nor was it the only type of monastic plan in circulation. Semi-coenobitic orders had little use for ranges, even if the adoption of a garden surrounded by covered walks on four sides became more or less de rigeur in Latin monastic planning by c. 1100. When cloisters, chapter-houses, refectories, dormitories and work-rooms were established with clear relationships to each other and to the monastic choir, it becomes possible to speak of a core precinct, but what of other facilities, or precincts; infirmaries, outer courts, cemeteries, kitchens, gatehouses, and monastic choirs?

Speakers include Dustin Aaron, Verónica Abenza, Kirk Ambrose, Claude Andrault-Schmitt, Peter Scott Brown, Eric Cambridge, Eduardo Carrero Santamaría, Mañuel Castiñeiras, Kathleen Doyle, Barbara Franzé, Alexandra Gajewski, Richard Gem, Cecily Hennessy, Wilfried Keil, Nathalie Le Luel, Javier Martínez de Aguirre, John McNeill, Juan Antonio Olañeta, Julia Perratore, Neil Stratford, Béla Zsolt Szakács, Elizabeth Valdez del Álamo, Rose Walker, Tomasz Weclawowicz and Angela Weyer.

CONFERENCE (8-10 APRIL)

The conference will open at 09.30 on Monday, 8 April with lectures in the University of Valladolid’s Palacio de Congresos Conde Ansúrez. Teas, coffees and lunch will be provided on all three days, in addition to dinner on two evenings. The conference will also include an evening reception. More information will be provided in the joining instructions.

Participants will need to arrange their own travel and accommodation. Valladolid is well provided with hotels and bed and breakfasts, and the conference organisers will send a list of hotels and B&Bs when they acknowledge receipt of your booking form.

VISITS (11-12 APRIL)

We will also organise two days of visits to Romanesque sites for those who wish to stay on. These will include major surviving Romanesque monuments in Salamanca along with Santa Maria la Mayor in Toro, and a special out-of-normal-hours visit to the monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos.

SCHOLARSHIPS

A limited number of scholarships for students are available to help cover the cost of the conference. Please apply by 31 January 2024, attaching a short CV along with the name and contact details of one referee. Applications should be sent to: jsmcneill@btinternet.com or fbanos@fyl.uva.es

It would not be possible to mount this conference without John Osborn, and the British Archaeological Association wishes to take this opportunity to thank him for the boost to Romanesque scholarship afforded by his great generosity.

Conference Convenors: Fernando Gutiérrez Baños and John McNeill

Conference Secretary: Kate Milburn

For more information, https://thebaa.org/event/romanesque-and-the-monastic-environment-valladolid/

Call for Applications: Franklin Research Grants, American Philosophical Society, Due By 1 December 2023

Call for Applications

American Philosophical Society

Franklin Research Grants

Due By 1 December 2023

The Franklin program is particularly designed to help meet the costs of travel to libraries and archives for research purposes; the purchase of microfilm, photocopies, or equivalent research materials; the costs associated with fieldwork; or laboratory research expenses.

Franklin grants are made for noncommercial research. They are not intended to meet the expenses of attending conferences or the costs of publication. The Society does not pay overhead or indirect costs to any institution, and grant funds are not to be used to pay income tax on the award. Grants will not be made to replace salary during a leave of absence or earnings from summer teaching; pay living expenses while working at home; cover the costs of consultants or research assistants; or purchase permanent equipment such as computers, cameras, tape recorders, or laboratory apparatus.

December 1, 2023, for a March 2024 decision for work beginning April 2024 through January 2025

Contact Information

Questions concerning the eligibility of a project, applicant, or use of funds, as well as requests to confirm receipt of the application and required two letters of support, should be directed to Linda Musumeci, Director of Grants and Fellowships, at LMusumeci@amphilsoc.org, or 215-440-3429.

Deadlines

For applications and two letters of support.

For application information, FAQ, and current and past recipients, https://www.amphilsoc.org/grants/franklin-research-grants

Online Workshop: Beginner’s Guide to the Index of Medieval Art Database, 14 November 2023, 10-11 AM EST, Zoom

the Index of Medieval Art, Princeton University

Online Workshop: Beginner’s Guide to the Index of Medieval Art Database

Tuesday, 14 November 2023, 10:00 – 11:00 am EST

Zoom

Fox preaching to birds, Book of Hours, ca. 1440, New York, Morgan Library and Museum, M.358, fol. 110v, left margin.

Please join us for our second training session to learn more about the Index database! It will take place via Zoom on Tuesday, November 14, 2023 from 10:00 – 11:00 am EST.

Have you been wondering if you are getting the best results for your searches? Are you unsure about how to use our Browse Lists? This session, led by Index specialists Maria Alessia Rossi and Jessica Savage, will demonstrate how the database can be used with advanced search options, filters, and browse tools to locate works of medieval art. We will also look at the new subject taxonomy search tool that encourages further discovery of the online collection. 

There will be a Q&A period at the end of the session, so please bring any questions you might have about your research! To register for the workshop and receive the Zoom link, please fill out this form. Please note that this session will not be recorded.

Call For Papers: 7th Forum Kunst des Mittelalters: Light: Art, Metaphysics, and Science in the Middle Ages (Jena, 25-28 Sept. 2024), Due By 15 Nov. 2023

Call for Papers

7th Forum Kunst des Mittelalters

Light: Art, Metaphysics, and Science in the Middle Ages

Jena, Germany, September 25–28, 2024

DUe BY 15 November 2023

(organized togehter with Juliane von Fircks, Svea Janzen, Department for Art History and Film Studies, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany)

In numerous creation myths, light stands at the beginning of the cosmos. In the Middle Ages, the concepts of light, beauty, and the good were inseparable. Darkness, ugliness, and the evil formed the opposite pole. The degree of perfection of nature, people, and artifacts could be measured by their beauty, which was essentially determined by brightness, brilliance, and luminosity. This concept applied to Byzantium as well as to the Christian West, Judaism, and Islam. To communicate this idea and to enable its experience was not only the highest goal of religious art in the Middle Ages, but also shaped secular and courtly culture. Centering around the topic of light, the 7th “Forum Kunst des Mittelalters” (Jena, September 25–28, 2024) will focus on the multifaceted connections between art, metaphysics, and science in the Middle Ages.

By emphasizing the light-related properties of materials (transparency, reflectivity), medieval artists imbued their creations with an aesthetic quality that pointed beyond the beautiful to the divine as the origin of all things. Questions about the relationship between luminous or light-reflecting materials (gold, silver, gemstones, alabaster, bronze, ivory, silk) and objects, as well as the connection between material, light, and aura were of highest significance across cultures and genres. Rock crystal objects between East and West have recently been the focus of several exhibitions and scholarly studies. Glass as a translucent material par excellence also raises transcultural questions, ranging from the significance of the material as a substitute for gemstones to the realm of its allegorical readings and its function in making the sacred visible.

In architecture, the topic of artists working with and manipulating light can be addressed with reference to cathedrals, castles, and palaces as well as mosques, madrasas, and synagogues. Possible fields of investigation are the relationship between light and built space, the role of light in the design of facades, wall openings, and windows, or the function of dark, windowless spaces in the staging of the sacred.

Luminiferous objects such as candles, chandeliers, and other sorts of lamps served to mark meaningful places or to stage prominent persons and ritual actions, thus offering great potential for further studies. Questions about illumination and light design at masses, coronations, or funerals as well as about lights in motion, for example at processions and festive entries, could contribute to a more precise understanding of the performative potential of light in the Middle Ages.

In encyclopedias, diagrams, and calendars, Western art of the Middle Ages dealt with the connection between light, cosmos, and man. From the 13th century onward, the rational exploration of light and the optical knowledge imported from the Arab world increasingly shaped medieval art. Deepened knowledge of the human vision influenced linear perspective and the representation of light in the arts of the late Middle Ages.

Painters and sculptors now devoted themselves to studying and depicting light phenomena. It remains intriguing to examine how painting and sculpture react to the lighting conditions at their place of installation, how an artwork’s gilding combines aesthetic and theological aspirations, and how the painterly representation of light may reference the divine or may simply be profane surface gloss.

Finally, the topic of light and the sciences builds a bridge to radiation-based art-technological investigation methods of the present day, such as X-ray fluoroscopy, UV or infrared reflectography, which can make the process of the creation of an artwork visible.  

We now invite applicants – senior and junior researchers alike – to submit paper proposals (preferably in German or English) to these individual sessions. Sessions include one chair and a maximum of three speakers. Presentations usually last 20–30 minutes. Paper proposals of max. 200 words (+ contact details) may be submitted to kontakt@dvfk-berlin.de by November 15 2023. Please note that only one person is scheduled per presentation at a time. The results of the selection and the programme will be published in the first quarter of 2024 at www.dvfk-berlin.de and through other relevant online channels.

For a PDF of the Call for Papers, the List of Sessions, and more information, https://www.dvfk-berlin.de/en/call-2/

Job Posting! Arthur H. Dadian and Ara Oztemel Chair of Armenian Art and Architectural History, Tenured Full Professor, Tufts University, Application Reviews Begin 15 December 2023

Call for Applications

Arthur H. Dadian and Ara Oztemel Chair of Armenian Art and Architectural History, Tenured Full Professor

Tufts University: School of Arts & Sciences: History of Art and Architecture

Review of Applications Begins 15 December 2023

Description

The Department of History of Art and Architecture at Tufts University seeks an outstanding scholar at the rank of tenured full professor to teach and advise undergraduates and graduate students in the MA in Art History and MA in Art History and Museums Studies programs. The department offers majors in Art History and in Architectural Studies, as well as several minors, including Museums, Memory, and Heritage.

Research focus should be on Armenian art, architecture, and visual culture of any time period, with additional interest and expertise in cultural connections, diasporic relations between Armenia and the wider world, as well as issues of cultural heritage preservation, among others. The successful applicant will be expected to teach art history undergraduate and graduate courses on Armenian art, architecture, and visual culture, on specific topics related to their own research, and broader thematic and/or theoretical threads that place Armenian Studies in larger art historical narratives.

Qualifications

The successful candidate will hold a Ph.D. and be internationally recognized, demonstrate outstanding scholarly accomplishments and promise of research, and exhibit a record of excellence in teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The position seeks a tenured full professor, but applicants at the advanced tenured associate professor level will be considered.

Application Instructions

All application materials are submitted via http://apply.interfolio.com/134542 Please provide a cover letter, a CV, a research statement, a teaching statement that includes evidence of the candidate’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, teaching evaluations from the most recent two years of teaching to be uploaded in a single PDF, and a recently published journal article or book chapter of at least 8,000 words. Finalists will be asked to provide the names and contact information for three references.

For any questions regarding this position, please email amy.west@tufts.edu. Review of applications will begin on December 15, 2023, and will continue until the position is filled.

All offers of employment are contingent upon the completion of a background check.

Tufts University, founded in 1852, prioritizes quality teaching, highly competitive basic and applied research, and a commitment to active citizenship locally, regionally, and globally. Tufts University has also committed to becoming an anti-racist institution and prides itself on the continuous improvement of diversity, equity and inclusion work. Current and prospective employees of the university are expected to have and continuously develop skill in, and disposition for, positively engaging with a diverse population of faculty, staff, and students. Tufts University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. We are committed to increasing the diversity of our faculty and staff and fostering their success when hired. Members of underrepresented groups are welcome and strongly encouraged to apply. See the University’s Non-Discrimination statement and policy here https://oeo.tufts.edu/policies-procedures/non-discrimination/.

If you are an applicant with a disability who is unable to use our online tools to search and apply for jobs, please contact us by calling the Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO) at 617-627-3298 or at oeo@tufts.edu. Applicants can learn more about requesting reasonable accommodations at https://oeo.tufts.edu

16TH ANNUAL LAWRENCE J. SCHOENBERG SYMPOSIUM ON MANUSCRIPT STUDIES IN THE DIGITAL AGE: THE IMAGE OF THE BOOK, 16-18 Nov. 2023, In-Person & Online

16th Annual Lawrence J. Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age

The Image of the Book: Representing the Codex from Antiquity to the Present

16-18 November 2023

Van Pelt-Dietrich Library, the Free Library of Philadelphia
Parkway Central Library, and Online

Free to the Public

To Register: https://libcal.library.upenn.edu/calendar/kislak/image-of-the-book

A great deal of recent research has focused on the objecthood of the pre-modern book and its associated materiality. But only sporadic attempts have been made to understand the role of visual representations of the book in conveying ideas about knowledge. How can our understanding be transformed when the dictum that “a picture is worth a thousand words” is put into practice, when the how of depiction is accorded as much importance as the what of textual content? This symposium will examine the means by which the book, and in particular the manuscript, is described across a wide variety of media, from painting and sculpture to digital media and film. Topics to be addressed include the book as a symbol of authority, wisdom, or piety; the visual archeology of otherwise vanished bookbinding styles, reading practices, and study spaces; and the re-imagining of the physicality of the codex through digital means. The event will also mark the public launch at Penn Libraries of the Books as Symbols in Renaissance Art (BASIRA) project, an innovative, public-access web database of thousands of depictions of books in artwork produced between about 1300 and 1600 CE. The database, like the symposium itself, aims to engage historians of religion, literacy, art, music, language, and private life, as well as book artists, conservators, and interested members of the public. The symposium is organized in partnership with the Rare Book Department of the Free Library of Philadelphia (view on map).

The program will begin Thursday evening, November 16, 5:00 pm, at the Free Library of Philadelphia in the Rare Book Department, with a reception and keynote address by Jeffrey Hamburger, Kuno Francke Professor of German Art & Culture, Harvard University. The symposium will continue November 17-18 at the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts (view on map).

The symposium will be held in person with an option to join virtually. All are welcome to attend. Use the link above to register.

Program and Speakers

Thursday, November 16, 2023 - Rare Book Department, Free Library of Philadelphia, Parkway Central Library, third floor, 5:00 - 7:00 pm

Keynote Address

Avatars of Authorship
Jeffrey Hamburger, Harvard University

With opening remarks by Janine Pollock, Free Library of Philadelphia; Sean Quimby, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Penn Libraries; and Nicholas Herman, Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, Penn Libraries

All registrants are invited to a reception before the lecture. The lecture will begin at 6:00 pm.

Friday, November 17, 2023 - Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, sixth floor

9:30 – 10:00 am: Coffee

10:00 am: Welcome and Introduction

Nicholas Herman, Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, Penn Libraries

10:15 - 11:30 am: Meaning

Book History’s Genesis in Exodus: Revisiting the Round Topped Tablets, Sonja Drimmer, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Under Construction: Making and Metaphor in Medieval Images of Book Production, Beatrice Kitzinger, Princeton University

11:30 - 11:45 am: Coffee

11:45 am - 1:00 pm: Making

Representations of Wax Tablets: Codices in Greco-Roman Art and their Importance for Understanding their Making and Use, Georgios Boudalis, Museum of Byzantine Culture, Thessaloniki

Visual Metaphors: Exploring Bookbinding Structures through Visual Representations, Alberto Campagnolo, University of Udine

1:00 - 2:30 pm: Afternoon Break

A selection of manuscripts real and replica items will be on view during the break.

2:30 – 4:00 pm: Format

Artisanal Books: Ceramic and Lacquer Imitations from the Qing Court, Devin Fitzgerald, Yale University

A Sampling of Blooks: A Foray into the Fascinating World of Book-form Objects, Mindell Dubansky, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This session will conclude with a showcase of book-form objects.

4:00 – 4:15 pm: Coffee

4:15 – 5:00 pm: Official Launch of BASIRA, The Books as Symbols in Renaissance Art Database

Barbara Williams Ellertson, Independent Scholar and SIMS
Nicholas Herman, SIMS

5:30 – 6:30 pm: Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies 10th Anniversary Celebration Event

Join us to raise a glass or two of champagne and help us blow out the candles on a cake to celebrate ten years of manuscript studies in the digital age at Penn Libraries!

Sunday, November 18, 2023 - Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, sixth floor

9:30 am: Coffee

10:00 – 11:15 am: Identities

The Image of the Book at the Ottoman Court, Emine Fetvacı, Boston College
Imagining Religious Identity and Difference through Book Formats: Scrolls and Codices in Judaism and Christianity, Thomas Rainer, University of Zurich

11:15 – 11:30 am: Coffee

11:30 am – 12:45 pm: Avatars

Scrolling through Scrolls and Books in Books of Hours, Dominique Stutzmann, Institut de Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes

Virtual Manuscripts in Virtual Spaces, Sabina Zonno, University of Southern California

12:45 – 2:15 pm: Afternoon Break

Demonstration: Experience Manuscripts in VR! 

2:15 – 3:30 pm: Icons

The Medieval Book as Gateway: Contemplation, Meditation, and Image Making in the Lives of the Desert Fathers, Denva Gallant, Rice University

Iconic Books in Renaissance Art, James Watts, Syracuse University

3:30 – 3:45 pm: Coffee

3:45 – 5:00: Transformations

Manuscript Images of the Destruction and Salvage of Books, Lucy Freeman Sandler, New York University

Pop Bibliography: Finding Book History in Popular Media, Allie Alvis, Winterthur Library

5:00 – 6:00 pm: Closing Reception

For More Information and Abstracts of the Presentations: https://www.library.upenn.edu/events/lawrence-j-schoenberg/image-book-representing-codex

Lecture Series: Online Mmmonk School Autumn 2023, Mmmonk and Henri Pirenne Institute for Medieval Studies (UGent), 17 and 24 November and 1 December 2023 (4-6pm CET/10am-12pm ET)

Lecture SEries

Online Mmmonk School, Autumn 2023

Mmmonk and Henri Pirenne Institute for Medieval Studies (UGent)

17 and 24 November and 1 December 2023 (4:00-6:00pm CET / 10:00am-12:00pm ET)

Mmmonk and Henri Pirenne Institute for Medieval Studies (UGent) will host the second edition of Mmmonk school in the autumn of 2023. Mmmonk School offers lessons for advanced beginners about the medieval book. It is an interdisciplinary practice-focused programme about medieval Flemish manuscripts. Six experts introduce the main concepts, skills and methods of their given field of expertise. The lessons are online, free and open for everyone.

Join us on three consecutive Fridays (4-6pm CET) in November and December!

Programme

17 November (4-6pm CET)

• Elaine Treharne (Stanford University): The human experience as an integral part of the history and identity of a book

• Ann Kelders (KBR Royal Library Belgium): An Introduction to Polyphony Manuscripts in Medieval Flanders and Brabant

24 November (4-6pm CET)

• Élodie Lévêque (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne): An Introduction to Biocodicology – The material studies of medieval manuscripts

• Thomas Falmagne (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main): An Introduction to Medieval Cistercian Reading Culture

1 December (4-6pm CET)

• Lisa Demets (Ghent University): An Introduction to Multilingual Manuscripts in Medieval Flanders

• Jeroen Deploige and Wim Verbaal (Ghent University): ‘Spotlight on Mmmonk Research’: Medieval Reading Strategies – The Liber Floridus as a circular enclosure of creation, history and incarnation

To Register: https://brugge.bibliotheek.be/formulier/mmmonk-school-2023

For More Information: https://www.mmmonk.be/en/news/mmmonk-school-2023-programme-and-registration

Call for Proposals: ‘Environmental Narratives and the Eremitic Turn’, Different Visions Journal, Due By 30 November 2023

Call for proposals

‘Environmental Narratives and the Eremitic Turn’

Different Visions Journal

dUE By 30 November 2023

Different Visions invites proposals for contributions to a special issue, “Environmental Narratives and the Eremitic Turn.” This encompasses the locus of eremitic experience, which might be from any religious tradition or geographical location, whether wilderness, mountain, or desert, broadly conceived. It also encompasses the bodies – individual and communal – who chose to inhabit that landscape (as a real or imagined place), and their lived experience. This special issue seeks to explore the diverse ways in which eremitic bodies, ascetic practice, and the landscape of the wilderness, were represented and imagined in visual culture.

We welcome submissions that:

• consider the resonance and meaning of the ascetic tradition across time and space

• investigate the ascetic tradition and its entanglement with notions of the landscape as wilderness and holy mountain

• adopt an environmental or ecocritical approach to the eremitic experience

• explore the tensions between, for example, wilderness and cultivation, inhospitable and fertile landscapes, ascetic practice and the eremitic impulse

• consider the re-imagining or invocation of the historical desert in monastic, mendicant or other contexts

• explore the continuing resonance of the eremitic, in symbolic or ecologic terms, in our contemporary world

• approach the themes above from a global perspective

This special issue engages with urgent contemporary concerns about the impact of human activity on the earth that sustains us. It resonates with recent scholarly interest in the relationship between humanity and nature in the pre- and early modern period, seeking a broad, inclusive, and cross-disciplinary reflection on the visual representation of this interdependence.

Please submit a proposal of no more than 300 words to differentvisionsjournal@gmail.com by Nov 30th. First drafts of accepted essays of no more than 12,000 words will be due August 1, 2024.

For questions please reach out to differentvisionsjournal@gmail.com.

For more information, https://differentvisions.org/calls-for-papers/.

Call for Applications: for Fully-Funded PhD in Art History Project, Medieval Painting and the End of Life: From the Monumental to the Personal, NU London, Due By 31 October 2023

Call for Applications

for Fully-Funded PhD in Art History Project (UK or International Students)

Medieval Painting and the End of Life: From the Monumental to the Personal

Northeastern University London (NU London)

To Start 29 January 2024

Due By 31 October 2023

Supervisors (*lead): Dr Niamh Bhalla* (Northeastern University London) and Dr Emily Guerry (University of Kent)

Northeastern University London

As part of a major investment, Northeastern University London (NU London) has multiple, fully-funded PhD studentships available to accelerate its interdisciplinary research in the humanities, social sciences, and computing, maths, engineering and natural sciences. Each scholarship is fully-funded for three and a half years (UKRI rates) and includes full course fees, an annual stipend (including an additional London allowance) and associated costs, such as training.

NU London is both a UK university governed by UK higher education regulations, and the European campus of Northeastern University – a large, top-tier research intensive, Boston-based institution. Founded in 1898, Northeastern University is known for its high-impact research, aimed at solving problems across the globe. Interdisciplinarity, experiential learning, and connection to partners beyond academia are at the heart of the Northeastern University ethos. Northeastern received $230.7m of external research funding in 2022, and is the recognized leader in experience-driven lifelong learning. It has campuses across the United States and Canada (in Boston; Charlotte, North Carolina; Portland, Maine; Oakland, California; San Francisco; Seattle; Silicon Valley; Arlington, Virginia; the Massachusetts communities of Burlington and Nahant; Toronto and Vancouver). Whilst the PhD will be a UK qualification, students will have the opportunity to engage with and visit the Northeastern University network overseas as part of their London-based doctoral studies, providing a truly unique and highly sought-after dimension to their research training.

The Project

This research will contribute methodologically to current debates across the humanities concerning the importance of visual and material objects within human experience. The student recruited to the research project will be required to work on medieval visual culture pertaining to the end of life, to demonstrate how imagery held agency in medieval people’s navigation of formative moments in the human lifecycle.

The specific regions and materials of focus will be shaped by the candidate.

Areas identified as being of particular interest by the supervisors are:

• The monumental: Medieval wall paintings concerning death and judgement in Europe – an area of great interest that is currently underdeveloped in scholarship. A comparative approach concerning wall paintings of judgement in eastern and western Europe from the tenth to the fourteenth century may be beneficial to exploring the movement of people and the exchange of ideas in the Middle Ages, specifically shared understandings and uses of images that were implicated in the end-of-life process across various regions.

• The personal: Images pertaining to death and the afterlife in manuscripts and on other portable objects where the encounter with the imagery was more personal and the theological treatment of death sometimes different to that of public images. Again, a culturally comparative approach between East and West would be encouraged in this regard. Preference should be given to objects that facilitate access to the experiences of persons often omitted from mainstream historical record.

The research will involve the usual methodological apparatus pertaining to art history, including direct empirical engagement with primary visual and material sources such as paintings and/or illuminated manuscripts, the interrogation of relevant primary written sources pertaining to the topic, regions and artefacts under study, and the application of the critical theoretical apparatus that informs the humanities more generally. This research will lend itself naturally to an interdisciplinary approach touching on gender studies, anthropology, philosophy and theology.

The successful candidates will:

• Have a proven, strong educational background in art history or a related subject (see eligibility criteria)

• Be excited and inspired by the proposed project area

• Be a self-starter

• Have great communication skills

• Have an inquiring mind and be willing to challenge themselves

The successful candidates will benefit from a brand new campus on the banks of the River Thames next to Tower Bridge. This is an interdisciplinary, vibrant research environment with international collaboration and networking opportunities and dedicated research space. It will form the hub of a highly experienced, multi-institution supervisory team from NU London, Northeastern University and the University of Kent. In addition, successful candidates will benefit from the unique connection to the wider Northeastern University network in North America, providing a range of additional research opportunities and learning resources.

Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed in November. Candidates are welcome to contact the NU London supervisor with informal enquiries before the application deadline: niamh.bhalla@nulondon.ac.uk

Eligibility:

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant subject - 2:1 or 1st (essential)

• Master’s degree in a relevant subject (optional)

English Language requirements:

If applicable – IELTS 7 overall (with a score of at least 6.5 in each individual component) or equivalent.

Nationality:

Applications are open to UK and international students. Please indicate if you are likely to require a visa on your application. We are unable to support visa costs.

Funding:

This scholarship covers the full cost of tuition fees, an annual stipend and an additional London allowance (set at UKRI rates) for 3.5 years. For the 2023/2024 academic year the annual stipend is £20,622. Annual increments will be in line with UKRI rates.

International travel:

Students will have the opportunity to optionally travel to Northeastern University in North America to further their research training and experience.

How to Apply:

Please send a CV and a Covering Letter stating how you meet the requirements and why you are interested in the proposed research project via the 'Apply' button above on the website below. Please reference your application “PHDM1023”

https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DDF025/phd-scholarship-fully-funded-in-art-history-medieval-painting-and-the-end-of-life-from-the-monumental-to-the-personal

Online Lecture: Zero Hour for Illuminated Manuscripts? The Acquisition and Alienation of Medieval Art in Post-World-War II Nuremberg, William Diebold, 14 Nov. 2023 (5:30-7:00 PM GMT), Zoom

institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London
London Society for Medieval Studies

Zero Hour for Illuminated Manuscripts? The Acquisition and Alienation of Medieval Art in Post-World-War II Nuremberg

William Diebold (Reed College)

14 November 2023, 5:30-7:00PM GMT

Online - Zoom

This event is free, but registration in advance is required.

This paper examines two decisions regarding medieval illuminated manuscripts made during the 1950s by the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg. The first was to acquire a spectacular Ottonian-era gospel manuscript, a book used in the Christian liturgy.  The other was to sell two late medieval haggadahs (the book used by Jews to celebrate Passover) that had been in the collection of the Nuremberg museum for a century.

This paper documents these stories, one of acquisition and the other of alienation, and locates them in their post-World-War-II German historical context.  Because the Nazis had so heavily capitalized on the Middle Ages, which they saw as the “First Empire” that was reincarnated in their Third Reich, the status of medieval art was fraught in Germany after 1945.  And nowhere was this more true than in Nuremberg, the city that had been the site both of the Nazi Party’s annual rallies and of the postwar trials of the leading Nazis. To try to deal with this impossibly difficult legacy, many Germans viewed the end of the Second World War as the “Zero Hour,” a moment when their country began entirely anew.  This paper argues, however, that the acquisition of the early medieval gospel book and the alienation of the two haggadah manuscripts show that, assertions of a Zero Hour to the contrary, the legacy of the Nazi era was not an easy one to leave behind. Instead, the acquisition and deaccession policy of the Nuremberg museum instead shows more continuities with Nazi practices than breaks from it.

For more information: https://www.history.ac.uk/events/zero-hour-illuminated-manuscripts-acquisition-and-alienation-medieval-art-post-world-war-ii

British Archaeological Association Postgraduate Online Conference, 29 November 2023 12:30PM-17:35PM GMT, Zoom

British Archaeological Association

PostGraduate Online Conference

29 November 2023, 12:30-17:35pm GMT/ 7:30AM-12:35PM ET

On Zoom

We are excited to present a diverse conference which includes postgraduates and early career researchers in the fields of medieval history of art, architecture, and archaeology. The British Archaeological Association postgraduate conference offers an opportunity for research students at all levels from universities across the UK and abroad to present their research and exchange ideas.

Use this link to register for the conference.

Conference Programme

Wednesday 29th November 2022

12:30 pm (GMT) Welcome

Panel 1: Approaches to Overlooked Elements in Medieval and Early Modern Art and Architecture

12.40 – 14.30 pm (GMT)

• Bryony Wilde (University of Warwick, UK), ‘Decoding Medieval Roof Bosses’

• Mats Dijkdrent (Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium), ‘Medieval Commentaries on Aristotle’s Ethics as a lieu for Architectural Thinking’ 

• Nils Hausmann (University of Cologne, Germany), ‘Naming and Meaning – On the Survival and Reuse of Early and High Medieval Book Cases’

• Sophia Feist (University of Cambridge, UK), ‘Extravagant Violations and Visual Tropes: Lucas Cranach the Elder’s Semiotic use of Dress in the Budapest Martyrdom of Saint Catherine’

14.30 – 14.45 pm (GMT) – Break

Panel 2: Intersections of Materiality and Identity: Unpacking the Medieval Landscape and Space

14.45 – 16.05 pm (GMT)

• Theodore Muscillo (Independent Researcher), ‘Jugs, mugs and aquamaniles: pottery and networks on the east coast of England, 1250-1500’

• Sercan Batum (Middle East Technical University, Turkey), ‘Christianization of Urban Topography in Late Antique Histria’

• Eleanor Townsend (University of Oxford, UK), ‘‘All the werkemanship and masonry crafte of a frounte Innying to the Awter of our lady’: the problem of the Jesse reredos in St Cuthbert’s, Wells’

16.05 pm – 16.15 pm (GMT) – Break

Panel 3: Stones and Stories: Interrogating the Art and Gender Dynamics in Religious Commemoration Across Medieval Europe

16.15 pm – 17.25 pm (GMT)

• Nicola Lowe (Independent Researcher), ‘Tears at the Graveside’

• Philip Muijtjens (University of Cambridge, UK), ‘Tombs as Sensory Experiences in Fifteenth-Century Italy’

• Arica Roberts (University of Reading, UK), ‘Gender in Early Medieval Stones and Stone Sculpture in Wales c. 410-1150 CE’

5:35 pm (GMT) Closing remarks

Call for Papers: The Fifth Quadrennial Symposium on Crusade Studies, Saint Louis University, Madrid Campus (3-5 October 2024), Due By 31 March 2024

Call for Papers

The Fifth Quadrennial Symposium on Crusade Studies

October 3-5, 2024, Madrid, Spain
Saint Louis University, Madrid Campus

Due By 31 March 2024

Plenary Speakers
Thomas Asbridge
Queen Mary University of London

Helen Nicholson
Cardiff University

The Symposium on Crusade Studies is a quadrennial conference sponsored by the Crusades Studies Forum of Saint Louis University. The Symposium invites proposals for scholarly papers, complete sessions, and roundtables on all topics related to the crusading movement. Papers are normally twenty minutes each and sessions are scheduled for ninety minutes.

Abstracts of 250 words and session proposals should be submitted online at http://www.crusadestudies.org/symposium-on-crusade-studies.html. The deadline for all submissions is March 31, 2024. Late submissions will be considered if space is available. Decisions will be made by the end of April and the program will be published in June.

For a PDF of the Call for Papers, click here.

Job Posting! Assistant Professor of Art/Architecture of the Middle East, North Africa, and Iberia, 600-1500 CE, Northwestern University Due By 15 November 2023

Job Opening

Assistant Professor of Art/Architecture of the Middle East, North Africa, and Iberia, 600-1500 CE

Northwestern University

Due by 15 November 2023

The Department of Art History at Northwestern University invites applications for a tenure-track position at the Assistant Professor level in the art or architecture of the Middle East, North Africa, and Iberia, from 600–1500 CE. The geographical and temporal fields of specialization within these parameters are open. We particularly welcome scholars whose work engages with transregional and intercultural contexts within and beyond the Islamic world; visual and material culture; architecture, urbanism, and the environment; archaeology, heritage, and preservation; or technical art history. This position is meant to complement areas of departmental strength in ancient, early modern, and modern art of the Middle East and North Africa; the art of Africa and the African Diaspora; Indo-Islamic and Mughal South Asia; and medieval and early modern Europe. The ideal candidate would also complement faculty in other Northwestern departments, including History and Religious Studies, and programs such as Middle East and North African Studies, African Studies, Medieval Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and the Center for Scientific Studies in the Arts. Our department is firmly committed to racial justice and equity, here and across the world, and we welcome candidates whose interests and experiences align with these values.

The successful candidate will teach four courses annually over the course of three academic quarters, at both undergraduate and graduate levels; share in departmental service; and contribute to the vibrant intellectual community within and beyond the department. Applicants must have earned a Ph.D. in art history or an adjacent field by the time of appointment, or shortly thereafter. This is a full-time position starting September 1, 2024.

To apply, please submit 1) a letter of application explaining your research accomplishments and goals, and your teaching ideals, commitments, and strengths; 2) a statement describing how your research and pedagogy contribute to Northwestern’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion; 3) a current CV; 4) one sample course syllabus from within your field; 5) the names of three references, with contact information. Letters of recommendation will not be requested until after the application deadline. Candidates who advance in the search will be asked to submit a writing sample of no more than 10,000 words. Application materials must be submitted electronically at https://facultyrecruiting.northwestern.edu/apply/MTkzNw== by November 15, 2023.

Address any questions about this position to Mel Keiser mel.keiser@northwestern.edu.

NEW VIDEO: ICMA VIEWPOINTS BOOK LAUNCH, Is Byzantine Studies a Colonialist Discipline? Toward a Critical Historiography, edited by Benjamin Anderson and Mirela Ivanova

New Video

ICMA Viewpoints Book Launch

Is Byzantine Studies a Colonialist Discipline? Toward a Critical Historiography, edited by Benjamin Anderson and Mirela Ivanova

Online, 15 September 2023, 12:00-1:00 pm ET

with Benjamin Anderson, Mirela Ivanova, Roland Betancourt, Eleanor Goodman, Nicholas S. M. Matheou, Elizabeth Dospěl Williams, and Alexandra Vukovich 

Is Byzantine Studies a colonialist discipline? Rather than provide a definitive answer to this question, this book defines the parameters of the debate and proposes ways of thinking about what it would mean to engage seriously with the field’s political and intellectual genealogies, hierarchies, and forms of exclusion. In this volume, scholars of art, history, and literature address the entanglements, past and present, among the academic discipline of Byzantine Studies and the practice and legacies of European colonialism. Starting with the premise that Byzantium and the field of Byzantine studies are simultaneously colonial and colonized, the chapters address topics ranging from the material basis of philological scholarship and its uses in modern politics to the colonial plunder of art and its consequences for curatorial practice in the present. The book concludes with a bibliography that serves as a foundation for a coherent and systematic critical historiography. Bringing together insights from scholars working in different disciplines, regions, and institutions, Is Byzantine Studies a Colonialist Discipline? urges practitioners to reckon with the discipline’s colonialist, imperialist, and white supremacist history. In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume include Andrea Myers Achi, Nathanael Aschenbrenner, Bahattin Bayram, Averil Cameron, Stephanie R. Caruso, Şebnem Dönbekci, Hugh G. Jeffery, Anthony Kaldellis, Matthew Kinloch, Nicholas S. M. Matheou, Maria Mavroudi, Zeynep Olgun, Arietta Papaconstantinou, Jake Ransohoff, Alexandra Vukovich, Elizabeth Dospěl Williams, and Arielle Winnik. ICMA Books | Viewpoints aims to engage with and instigate new conversations, debates, and perspectives not only about medieval art and visual-material culture, but also in relation to the critical practices employed by medieval art historians. Books will typically be data-rich, issue-driven, and even polemical. The range of potential subjects is broad and varied, and each title will tackle a significant and timely problem in the field of medieval art and visual-material culture. The Viewpoints series is interdisciplinary and actively involved in providing a forum for current critical developments in art historical methodology, the structure of scholarly writing, and/or the use of evidence. Eleanor Goodman is the Executive Editor at Penn State University Press, and Roland Betancourt is the Series Editor.

The video is available to watch on the Special Online Lectures page.

The Courtauld 2023-2024 Medieval Lecture and Seminar Series, Vernon Square Campus, 25 October 2023 to 15 May 2024

The Courtauld

2023-2024 Medieval Lecture and Seminar Series

Vernon Square Campus, The Courtauld

The Medieval and Renaissance cluster brings together students and researchers interested in art and architecture made between c. 300 and 1500. Although our activities primarily focus on art from Europe (including Byzantium) and the Mediterranean basin, we are committed to expanding the geographic horizons of scholarship in our period, with current projects on art in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caucasus, as well as the interaction between religions and cultures across the medieval world. We seek to share interests and stimulate connections — whether expected or unexpected, whether relating to materials or methods. Our members include faculty, MA students and doctoral students, interested researchers from other UK and overseas institutions, including universities, museums, libraries and heritage sector.

The Medieval Lecture and Seminar series is kindly supported by Sam Fogg. 

25 October 2023: Tom Nickson (The Courtauld): Towers, Travel, and Architectural Habits

15 November 2023: Niamh Bhalla (Northeastern University): Birth, Death and Protective Imagery in a Rock-hewn Church from Tenth-Century Cappadocia

6 December 2023: Assaf Pinkus (Tel Aviv University): Experiencing the Gigantic in Late Medieval Art: Schloss Runkelstein

17 January 2024: Katrin Kogman-Appel (Muenster University): Entanglement in Shared Cultural Spaces: Hebrew Book Art in Iberia, c. 1300

7 February 2024: ICMA lecture: Nina Rowe (Fordham): Dancing in the Streets (and the Courts and the Choirs) of Fifteenth-Century Austria

6 March 2024: Elena Paulino Montero (UNED, Madrid): Architecture in Fourteenth-Century Castile (TBC)

1 May 2024: Margaret Crosland (Washington University & St Louis Art Museum): (TBC)

15 May 2024: Paul Crossley Memorial Lecture: Merlijn Hurx (KU Leuven): Keldermans on Horseback. Five Star Architects in the Medieval Low Countries