Wed 18 Nov, 2020 Event Recording, Medieval Work In Progress, Research Forum, Research Seminars

[ONLINE] The Elephant in the Room, at Gourdon in Burgundy

This talk explores the fragmentary twelfth-century mural depicting an elephant, situated in the lowermost zone, or dado, of the choir wall in the church of Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption at Gourdon, a small village in the Charolais district of Burgundy. This painting is unique in France, but its presence has attracted little attention, let alone any further consideration of its meaning…

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Find Out More[ONLINE] The Elephant in the Room, at Gourdon in Burgundy

Wed 28 Oct, 2020 Event Recording, Medieval and Renaissance, Medieval Work In Progress, Research Forum

[ONLINE] A Rock-Hewn Revolution in Early Medieval Ethiopia

Following the collapse of the late antique empire of Aksum, northern Ethiopia entered a “dark age” period, wherein little is known of the region. However, around the year 1000, a triad of cruciform churches were hewn out of rock in East Tigray, unparalleled in scale, form and the use of vaulting. This…

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Wed 12 Jun, 2019 Event Recording, Medieval Work In Progress, Research Forum, Research Seminars

Historical Present: Collective Misremembering, Material C...

We live in history, scurrying along streets with ancient names, past old buildings and historic landmarks, through protected landscapes, amidst plaques and statuary memorialising achievement and catastrophe. While the commemoration industry is focused on events that actually happened in the past – births, deaths, discoveries, battles, calamities – an important…

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Find Out MoreHistorical Present: Collective Misremembering, Material Culture, and Albion’s Indigenous Giants

Wed 22 May, 2019 Medieval Work In Progress, Research Forum, Research Seminars

Trecento Stories

This joint seminar includes two presentations: Dr John Renner: Trecento Glories: Two Frescoes of St Francis In the early fourteenth century the Franciscan order in Italy felt the need to glorify its founder, St Francis, in unprecedented ways. The new iconography – showing St Francis enthroned, surrounded by rays of…

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Wed 26 Jun, 2019 Medieval Work In Progress, Research Forum, Research Seminars

Text, Textile, Blood: Mary under the Cross in an Illumina...

This talk considers an image in an illustrated manuscript of the Meditationes Vitae Christi (Oxford Corpus Christi, MS 410, dated ca. 1350) in which Mary parts her mantle to collect Christ’s blood at his Crucifixion. By the later Middle Ages, an interest in Mary’s bloody veil emerged in central Europe.…

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Find Out MoreText, Textile, Blood: Mary under the Cross in an Illuminated ‘Meditationes Vitae Christi’ (Oxford, Corpus Christi College, MS 410)

Wed 13 Feb, 2019 Medieval Work In Progress, Research Forum

Consolation in the Labyrinth: A Picture Poem in Cambridge...

The final leaf of a glossed copy of Boethius’ De Consolatione Philosophiae made at Abingdon Abbey c.1000 bears an elaborate compass-drawn labyrinth in red ink. Within its winding paths, the labyrinth contains an acrostic poem on the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. While previous studies have focused on its significance for understanding the Anglo-Saxon cult…

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Find Out MoreConsolation in the Labyrinth: A Picture Poem in Cambridge University Library, MS Kk.3.21

Wed 23 Jan, 2019 Book launch, Medieval Work In Progress, Research Forum, Research Seminars

Speaking Sculptures

Many statues and works of sculpture made in the late Gothic and Renaissance period are represented with mouth open, as if caught in a mid-utterance. These ‘speaking sculptures’ have received remarkably little comment from art historians. What are these speaking statues meant to be saying? And what, as viewers, are…

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Wed 14 Nov, 2018 Medieval Work In Progress, Research Forum, Research Seminars

The Breslau Psalter: a thirteenth-century Paduan-Silesian...

The illuminated Psalter of c. 1259-66, Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum 36-1950, has long been known as a manuscript involving the Master of the Padua Epistolary dated 1259, also called the Gaibana Master after the name of the scribe of the Epistolary. The Psalter was made for a Duchess of Breslau (Wrocław)…

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Find Out MoreThe Breslau Psalter: a thirteenth-century Paduan-Silesian collaboration for a Duchess of Breslau

Wed 24 Oct, 2018 Medieval Work In Progress, Research Forum, Research Seminars

Netherlandish Altarpieces in the North: Ulkebøl, Ringsake...

Due to the well-known Beelderstorm on the continent, the around sixty preserved Netherlandish carved altarpieces in Scandinavia comprise valuable information about the development of techniques, styles, forms and iconography of altarpieces made in the fifteenth and sixteenth century. Apart from addressing this ‘material reservoir,’ this talk also venture into how Netherlandish altarpieces…

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Find Out MoreNetherlandish Altarpieces in the North: Ulkebøl, Ringsaker and Botkyrka

Wed 10 Oct, 2018 Medieval Work In Progress, Research Forum, Research Seminars

Indicating the Present in the Fifteenth-Century Low Count...

When and where is the now? And what is the now anyway? This paper seeks out the possible presents created in and through images made in the fifteenth-century Low Countries. Critical to the construction of the present in the fifteenth century were visual techniques designed to bring distance and foreground,…

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Wed 13 Jun, 2018 Medieval Work In Progress, Research Forum

Medieval Work-in-Progress Seminar

‘From Two to Three Dimensions: Drawings and Design Processes in Medieval Vaulting’, Dr Sophie Dentzer  Medieval masons did not have Auto-CAD and other programmes to plan the erection of vaults three-dimensionally. Yet the successful erection of a vault required considerable planning. For instance, the junctions of ribs had to be…

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Wed 23 May, 2018 Medieval Work In Progress, Research Forum, Research Seminars

A Tomb for All Seasons: The Cenotaph of St Audomarus at S...

In his Das handelnde Bildwerk in der Gotik (1998; revised edition 2000), Johannes Tripps made a compelling case for what he called ‘active images’ in the context of late medieval ecclesiastical art and their period-specific metamorphoses in response to the changing needs of the liturgical year. Riding the wave of the recent…

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Find Out MoreA Tomb for All Seasons: The Cenotaph of St Audomarus at Saint-Omer and the Performative Mutability of Art in the Late Middle Ages

Wed 28 Feb, 2018 Medieval Work In Progress, Research Forum, Research Seminars

CANCELLED (adverse weather): The Breslau Psalter: a thirt...

The illuminated Psalter of c. 1259-66, Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum 36-1950, has long been known as  a manuscript involving the Master of the Padua Epistolary dated 1259, also called the Gaibana Master after the name of the scribe of the Epistolary. The Psalter was made for a Duchess of Breslau (Wrocław)…

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Find Out MoreCANCELLED (adverse weather): The Breslau Psalter: a thirteenth-century Paduan-Silesian collaboration for a Duchess of Breslau

Thu 11 Jan, 2018 Medieval Work In Progress, Research Forum, Research Seminars

Commemorating the Black Prince: Work-in-Progress

Following the major conference on the Black Prince recently held at Canterbury Cathedral, some of the speakers have kindly agreed to deliver their papers at the Courtauld for the benefit of those unable to attend.   ‘Facture and Image: The Tomb Effigy of the Black Prince.’ ·      Jessica Barker (Lecturer…

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Wed 14 Feb, 2018 Medieval Work In Progress, Research Forum, Research Seminars

CANCELLED: Light made and light received: Architectural p...

Light in the Gothic period (twelfth and thirteenth centuries) has been the subject of numerous studies. These have drawn heavily on the writings of abbot Suger and focus particularly on stained glasses or liturgical objects. Aniconic polychromy is very rarely considered. This lecture will therefore explore the relationship between light…

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Find Out MoreCANCELLED: Light made and light received: Architectural polychromy in northern France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries

Thu 7 Dec, 2017 Medieval Work In Progress, Research Forum, Research Seminars

Medieval Pictorial Typology: The Contribution of England

After an introductory survey of the rise of pictorial typology, this illustrated lecture will focus on the important role played by England in its development to maturity.  Four examples will be discussed: the late twelfth century typological windows of Canterbury cathedral; the guide to pictorial typology known as Pictor in…

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Wed 29 Nov, 2017 Medieval Work In Progress, Research Forum, Research Seminars

The Colonia dynasty and the art of construction in fiftee...

Since the 19th century scholars have understood the architectural history and discourses of 15th-century Castile according to a theory of national styles. The figure of the German architect Juan de Colonia, whose family worked for three generations as master of works at Burgos cathedral, constituted a fundamental element in the…

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Wed 8 Nov, 2017 Medieval Work In Progress, Research Forum, Research Seminars

The Intellectual World of Late Byzantine Artists

Late Byzantine painting is primarily known for its increasingly elaborate religious iconography. This talk will focus, instead, on a few uncommon images where artists visualised contemporary ideas about the structure of the universe, the nature of space and time, the composition of the human body, and the meaning of life.…

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Find Out MoreThe Intellectual World of Late Byzantine Artists

Wed 7 Jun, 2017 Medieval Work In Progress, Research Seminars

Hidden Treasures

Dr Lesley Milner (The Courtauld Institute of Art) – ‘It made my heart thump for I was certain that it was gold.’ James Wilson Marshall’s 1848 discovery of gold in an American river was unexpected; he was actually building a saw mill. Similarly, in academic terms I found pure gold…

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Wed 24 May, 2017 Medieval Work In Progress, Research Seminars

Frustrated Seeing: Scale, Visibility and a Fifteenth Cent...

This paper considers the tomb of João I, King of Portugal (d. 1434), and his English wife Philippa of Lancaster (d. 1415) in the Founder’s Chapel at the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria de Vitória, Batalha. Recent studies have emphasised the artistic virtuosity and innovative design of the royal effigies.…

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Find Out MoreFrustrated Seeing: Scale, Visibility and a Fifteenth Century Portuguese Royal Monument

Wed 26 Apr, 2017 Medieval Work In Progress, Research Seminars

The Meditationes vitae Christi: a conversation about dati...

Peter Toth (British Library) The Meditationes Vitae Christi, a series of affective meditations on the life of Christ, has long been regarded as one of the most influential medieval works ever. It had decisive influence on literary and religious thought as well as the fine and performing arts of the…

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Find Out MoreThe Meditationes vitae Christi: a conversation about dating, authorship and contexts

Wed 8 Mar, 2017 Medieval Work In Progress, Research Seminars

Islamic past, Christian present

This will be a double session of papers given by two recently-completed Courtauld Institute PhDs. Dr Matilde Grimaldi – Making visible the invisible: understanding the lost Romanesque cathedral of Tortosa The Christian capture of the Spanish town of Tortosa in 1148 marked a crucial moment in the establishment of Catalunya Nova after nearly…

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Wed 25 Jan, 2017 Coll & Cortés Medieval Spain, Medieval Work In Progress, Research Seminars

‘A craving for truthfulness’: the sacred made real in med...

A craving for truthfullness, however repellent, is a characteristic feature of Spanish art: the ideal and the conventional form no part of the genius of this race, which is totally devoid of aesthetic sense’ (Théophile Gautier, Voyages en Espagne, 1843). Gautier’s infamous dismissal was prompted not by the extraordinarily lifelike…

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Wed 23 Nov, 2016 Medieval Work In Progress, Renaissance

Vasari, Arezzo, and the Trecento: Art and the Medieval Tr...

In the 1550s and 1560s Giorgio Vasari renovated the Pieve and cathedral in his hometown of Arezzo and created several new altarpieces for the Pieve, where he established his family funerary chapel. These projects traditionally, and understandably, have been closely associated with Counter-Reformation tenets and treatises. The art and architectural history of…

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Wed 12 Oct, 2016 Medieval Work In Progress, Renaissance

Flemish Manuscript Illumination and Antwerp Mannerism

Although it has been well established that Flemish manuscript illumination of the sixteenth century was deeply entwined with the art of panel painting, most studies have heretofore largely considered individual artists or looked at the cross-over of particular instances of iconography. The recent acquisition by the J. Paul Getty Museum…

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Wed 2 Nov, 2016 Medieval Work In Progress

The Virgin Singing the Magnificat, the Virgin Carrying th...

The message received by the Virgin Mary at the Annunciation led to the conception of the divine Word, the union of God with humans. The dogmatic importance of Salvation related to this event is expressed by the singing of the Magnificat (Luke 1: 44-55) in sequence with the Annunciation and…

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Find Out MoreThe Virgin Singing the Magnificat, the Virgin Carrying the Divine Word: Symbolism and Signs between Byzantine and Western Art

Wed 25 May, 2016 Medieval Work In Progress

Things that Sing: Music and the Material Cultures of Medi...

While notated manuscript sources are the more usual focus of enquiry into medieval song culture, my research proposes an alternative source of sonic record: the objects with which song cohabited in courtly environments of performance. My presentation explores the vernacular song repertories that circulated in Northern France c. 1150-1350 (and…

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Find Out MoreThings that Sing: Music and the Material Cultures of Medieval Romance, 1150-1350

Wed 11 May, 2016 Medieval Work In Progress

A Sermon in Stone: Pictish sculpture at St Vigeans, Angus

The Picts have left no documentary sources to explain their history or beliefs. Instead, they have left behind a rich but mute gallery of magnificent stone sculpture. One of the largest collections was assembled in the 8-9th centuries at the church of St Vigeans. Here, stone No.007 presents an enigmatic sequence of scenes, brutal,…

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Find Out MoreA Sermon in Stone: Pictish sculpture at St Vigeans, Angus

Wed 27 Apr, 2016 Medieval Work In Progress

14th-Century Anatolian Gothic: Thriller or Horror Story?

This talk will examine some examples of Gothic and Gothicising architecture in 14th century Anatolia. Anatolia was largely in the hands of small to medium sized Turko-Islamic principalities, and Islamic architecture of the 14th century is not usually a place to look for the Gothic. But Anatolia was surrounded by…

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Wed 16 Mar, 2016 Medieval Work In Progress

Lux or lumen? Dealing with light in Late Antique and Medi...

In the past years, a growing number of studies have addressed relationship between light, architecture, and ritual at various moments of the Middle Ages. These scholarly efforts have analysed their material from technical, philosophical or phenomenological points of view, revealing new dimensions on Christian culture. Focusing on Late Antiquity, this…

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Find Out MoreLux or lumen? Dealing with light in Late Antique and Medieval studies

Wed 25 Nov, 2015 Medieval Work In Progress, Research Forum, Research Seminars

Duo Libelli

This seminar has two presentations, by Francesca Demarchi and Maria Grasso. A book for an archbishop: Arnulph II of Milan and his Treasured Prayerbook Francesca Demarchi discusses The Prayerbook of Arnulph II (London, British Library, Ms. Egerton 3763), an extremely small book only 115 x 75 mm in size, and a unique example…

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Wed 14 Oct, 2015 Medieval Work In Progress, Research Forum, Research Seminars

Artifice, Nature and the Ascetic Imperative in Gothic Art

In this talk Paul Binski reconsiders Gothic representation from the perspective of what G. G. Harpham called ‘The Ascetic Imperative’. By this he means not institutionalized Christian asceticism (though this plays a role) but rather asceticism considered as the curtailment of conduct or form. He wants to explore this principle…

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