Bringing the Holy Land Home

Bringing the Holy Land Home: The Crusades, Chertsey Abbey, and the Reconstruction of a Medieval Masterpiece (Jan. 26 – April 6, 2023)
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery, Prior Performing Arts Center, the College of the Holy Cross, 1 College St., Worcester, MA

“Bringing the Holy Land Home” explores the impact of art objects manufactured in the eastern Mediterranean on the visual culture of medieval England and western Europe. At its center are an iconic set of mold-made tiles, discovered at Chertsey Abbey outside of London, but probably commissioned for London’s Westminster Palace around 1250. These include a famous pair of roundels showing the English king Richard the Lionheart and the Ayyubid sultan Saladin (Salah al-Din) in combat. Excavated from the ruined site of Chertsey Abbey in the 19th century, the original composition of the fragmented tiles has been reconstructed, including their lost Latin texts. The reconstruction has demonstrated not only that the entire mosaic addressed the theme of the crusades, but also that its design evoked that of imported Byzantine and Islamic silks.

Carried home by crusaders, Byzantine and Islamic silks as well as ceramics, metalwork and other items were highly valued by European audiences, who incorporated them into sacred objects, displayed them in places of esteem, and imitated their designs – as was the case with the Chertsey tiles. The composition of the Chertsey floor relies on visual traditions of textiles developed by Muslim and Orthodox Christian artists in the eastern Mediterranean, even while the iconography attends to the theme of English victory over foreign opponents. By pairing the Chertsey tiles with contemporaneous European and eastern Mediterranean objects, this exhibition endeavors to illuminate the specific and complex contexts that informed the tiles’ production and design.

Along with the Chertsey tiles, on loan from the British Museum, this exhibition also displays the Morgan Library’s Crusader Bible and medieval objects from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, the Worcester art Museum, Dumbarton Oaks, and Harvard Art Museums.

Exhibition website at https://chertseytiles.holycross.edu

Exhibition catalogue with contributions from Michael Wood (OBE), Andrea Achi, Paroma Chatterjee, Meredith Fluke, Eurydice Georganteli, Sean Gilsdorf, Sarah Guerin, Cynthia Hahn, Eva R. Hoffman, Richard A. Leson, A. L. McClanan, Nina Masin-Moyer ’22, Grace P. Morrissey ’22, Suleiman Mourad, David Nicolle, Scott Redford, Euan Roger, Alicia Walker, and Elizabeth Dospel Williams, available at

https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9781912554942-1

Thurs. Jan 26, Opening Lecture & Reception
Thurs. Jan 26, 4pm, Rehm Library
Dr. William Purkis, “Bringing the Holy Land Home: Crusaders, Relics, and the Transformation of Latin Christendom’s Sacred Material World.” Dr. Purkis is Head of School of History and Cultures at the University of Birmingham.
5:30pm, Opening Reception, Cantor Gallery
Sat. March 25, 8:30am-7pm, “Bringing the Holy Land Home” conference, held in association with the NEMC (New England Medieval Consortium) 

Registration details will be posted at https://chertseytiles.holycross.edu/events/ in the coming weeks.

Speakers:
Lloyd de Beer, the British Museum
Paroma Chatterjee, University of Michigan
Paul Cobb, University of Pennsylvania
Matthew Gabriele, Virginia Tech
Sarah Guerin, University of Pennsylvania
Cynthia Hahn, Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York
Eva Hoffman, Tufts University
Richard Leson, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Amanda Luyster, College of the Holy Cross
Suleiman Mourad, Smith College
Nicholas Paul, Fordham University
Matthew Reeve, Queen’s University
Euan Roger, National Archives, Kew
Naomi Speakman, the British Museum
Elizabeth Williams, Dumbarton Oaks

Finally, if you would like to bring a group to visit the show on any date that the gallery is open (M-F 10 a.m. – 5 pm | Sat noon – 5 pm, Jan. 26-April 6), just email me to make arrangements.  Admission and parking are free.

The Oxford Byzantine Graduate Seminar: Hilary Term 2023

The Oxford Byzantine Graduate Seminar is designed to showcase the breadth of graduate research in modern Late Antique and Byzantine Studies and to foster academic collaboration across institutions and sub-disciplines.

The Seminar takes place weekly on Mondays at 12.30-14.00 (UK time), via Zoom. The speaker will present for 40-45 minutes, followed by audience questions and discussion.

To register to attend, please contact the organiser at james.cogbill [@] worc.ox.ac.uk. All are very welcome.

This term’s papers will be:

Monday 23rd January
Rebecca Amendola (La Sapienza Università di Roma)
Manuscripts in Motion: The Parma Gospel Book (Ms. Pal. 5) and Its Journey to Italy

Monday 30th January
Emma Huig (Universiteit Gent)
Stephanites and Ichnelates: recovering the Eugenian recension?

Monday 6th February
Daniel Alford (University of Oxford)
Adults, Children and Other Animals: The Construction of the Zoroastrian Household
Monday 13th February
James Duncan (University of Liverpool)
Mechanical Dragons and Underground Cults: Quodvultdeus’s Hidden Pagans

Monday 20th February
Nathan D. C. Websdale (University of Oxford)
The Humbled Generation: Racial Otherization and Ethnic Contraction in Byzantium in the Witnesses of the Fourth Crusade

Monday 27th February
Ben Morris (Cardiff University)
‘Against All Men’: The Movement of Military Service in Byzantine and English Treaties, 900-1200

Monday 6th March
Juliana Santos Dinoá Medeiros (Uniwersytet Warszawski)
Hagiography and miracle performance in seventh-century Gaul

Monday 13th March
Maria Rukavichnikova (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz)
War Discourse in Times of Crisis: Authorial Strategies in Byzantine Historical Literature of the 14th Century

Artificial Light in Medieval Churches between Byzantium and the West

Virtual Workshop Program

Artificial Light in Medieval Churches between Byzantium and the West

9 February 2023

Register Here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfGj4WxvME6eCOyhpm8Nk8nr-TtT34_LuI6OLaToTd7OrF4vA/viewform

ORGANIZERS:
Alice Isabella Sullivan, Tufts University
Vladimir Ivanovici, University of Vienna | Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, USI

Throughout the Middle Ages, artificial illumination was used to draw attention to and enhance certain areas, objects, and persons inside Christian sacred spaces. The strategies usually found in Latin and Byzantine churches have been analyzed in recent decades. However, the cultures that developed at the crossroads of the Latin, Greek, and Slavic spheres, particularly in regions of the Balkan Peninsula and the Carpathian Mountains, have received less scholarly attention. The uses of artificial light in churches were likely shaped by aspects such as inherited practices, the imitation of other societies, as well as by local climatic, economic, and theological parameters.

Following a similar workshop that focused on natural light, which showed how uses of sunlight reveal patterns of knowledge transfer and cultural interaction between Byzantium, the West, and the Slavic world throughout the Middle Ages, this workshop hosts papers on the economy of artificial light in medieval churches with a focus on examples from Eastern Europe and other regions of the medieval world that developed at the crossroads of competing traditions. Whether innovative or inspired by the more established traditions on the margins of the Mediterranean, local customs are examined to understand how artificial light was used in ecclesiastical spaces, and how it brought together and enhanced the architecture, decoration, objects, and rituals.

Thursday, 9 February 2023 (EST time)

09:00-09:15 Alice Isabella Sullivan, Welcome and Introduction

09:15-09:45 Teresa Shawcross (Princeton University), The Influence of the Jerusalemite Miracle of Holy Light on Medieval
Sacred Space

09:45-10:15 Thomas E.A. Dale (University of Wisconsin–Madison), The Phenomenology of Artificial and Natural Light at San Marco in Venice

10:15-10:30 (make your own) Snack / Coffee Break

10:30-11:00 Anna Adashinskaya (New Europe College Bucharest | The University of Bucharest, Center for Russian Studies), “The Radiance of the Divine”: Lightening Iconography, Its Significance,, Equipment, and Procurement in the Katholikon of Visoki Dečani Monastery

11:00-11:30 Jelena Bogdanović, Leslie Forehand, Magdalena Dragović, Dušan Danilović, Travis Yeager, Debanjana Chatterjee, Jacob Gasper, Marko Pejić, Aleksandar Čučaković, Anastasija Martinenko, Suvadip Mandal, and Charles Kerton
Modeling the Illumination of the Church at Studenica Monastery During
Evening Services

11:30-12:00 Vlad Bedros (National University of Arts Bucharest), “In thy light shall we see light”: The Interplaying of Light, Liturgical Furnishings, and Images in Moldavian Monastic Churches (15th–16th c.)

12:00-13:00 Longer Break

13:00-13:30 Vera Henkelmann (University of Erfurt | Max-Weber-Kolleg), The Use of Artificial Light in Medieval Churches of Old Livonia – On the Relationship between Lighting, Ritual, Furnishings and Architecture

13:30-14:00 Anthony Masinton (Independent Scholar), Lux ex Machina: Methodological Approaches to Simulating and Analyzing Light in Medieval Churches

14:00-14:30 Discussion followed by concluding remarks (Vladimir Ivanovici)

Index of Medieval Art Database

Announcement via the Index of Medieval Art:

We are very pleased to announce that as of July 1, 2023, a paid subscription will no longer be required for access to the Index of Medieval Art database. This transition was made possible by a generous grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the support of the Index’s parent department of Art & Archaeology at Princeton University.

We look forward to working with the wide range of new researchers who will gain access to our resources, and in the coming months we will offer several online training sessions to introduce the database to those who may be unfamiliar with it. The schedule and signups for these will be publicized on the Index blog and through the Index social media accounts. For more details: https://ima.princeton.edu/2023/01/12/access-to-the-index-of-medieval-art-database-will-become-free-on-july-1-2023/

We hope that this good new brightens your New Year as much as it does ours, and we look forward eagerly to sharing our resources with students and scholars from high school to retirement, as well as with public learners seeking the reliable information about medieval art and culture that has always been the goal of the Index of Medieval Art.

The Jackson Lecture in Byzantine Art: Byzantium and Africa (4th—15th centuries CE)

You are cordially invited to The Jackson Lecture in Byzantine Art
Dr. Andrea Myers Achi: “Byzantium and Africa (4th—15th centuries CE).”
Friday, February 3, 2023, 3:30 PM EST

Dr. Andrea Achi will speak on the art and visual culture of Africa and Byzantium, the topic of her upcoming 2023 exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The talk is free and open to the public.

This event is hybrid: it will take place in person at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University (Arch Room 104), and simultaneously be streamed via Zoom.  An in-person reception will follow the lecture. Zoom registration is required for virtual attendees: Register here
Andrea Achi is Assistant Curator in the Department of Medieval Art and the Cloisters at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Jackson Lecture in Byzantine Art is generously sponsored by Lynn Jackson. Additional support comes from the University General Activities Fund (GAF), Temple University.

In memoriam: Hans Belting

We share the news that Hans Belting passed away after a long illness.

A record of Dr. Belting’s life has been published online:
https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/kunst-und-architektur/zum-tod-des-kunsthistorikers-hans-belting-18597633.html

Research Fellowship, Cultural Heritage of Ukraine

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
Research Fellowship, Cultural Heritage of Ukraine
Mapping Eastern Europe | North of Byzantium
We invite applications for a three-month remote fellowship to assist with research and writing about the medieval and early modern history and heritage of the regions of modern Ukraine for the Mapping Eastern Europe website (https://mappingeasterneurope.princeton.edu).
Mapping Eastern Europe is an open-access interactive digital platform that focuses on the history, art, and culture of Eastern Europe between the 13th and 17th centuries.
The fellow would research and write 3 case studies on key monuments and objects from the regions of modern Ukraine, as well as 2 historical or thematic overviews that will then be published on the Mapping Eastern Europe website (either in long-form or videos). Contributions may cover topics, or touch upon monuments and their afterlives, such as the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, St. Michael of the Golden Domes, the icon collections in Kyiv’s national museums of art, as well as works of art that have been removed from Ukraine in the modern era. The fellow will also participate in the final stages of the development of a small panel exhibition about Ukraine that is scheduled to open at Tufts University in February 2023. With this project, we aim to raise awareness about the historical and cultural complexity of the regions of modern Ukraine, whose histories and heritage have been entangled in political distortions, a key example being the diverse claims laid to the material culture of Kievan/Kyivan Rus’.
The successful applicant should hold a PhD and be an art historian with a specialty in the medieval and/or early modern visual culture of Eastern Europe. Applicants may be of any nationality, but preference will be given to a scholar whose work has been disrupted by the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. The fellow would need to have a solid knowledge of English and preferably have a reading knowledge of Ukrainian and Russian. The timeline for this work is somewhat flexible but a start date at the beginning of February 2023 would be ideal. There is a $3,000 honorarium for this position, which is tied to the North of Byzantium initiative (www.northofbyzantium.org).
To apply, please send in a single .pdf a letter of interest with details about your research, your skills, and suggest 5 possible contributions to the Mapping Eastern Europe website (no more than 2 pages); a CV; and the names of 2 referees who may be contacted to provide support letters, if needed, to northofbyzantium@gmail.com by January 20, 2023. Please include in the email subject line “Application: 2023 Research Fellowship”.

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies Postdoctoral Fellowship

Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies Postdoctoral Fellowship September 2023 – August 2024 

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies (SNF CHS) at Simon Fraser University invites applications for the Hellenisms Past and Present, Local and Global Postdoctoral Fellowship. Our search committee welcomes applications that span disciplinary boundaries from candidates working on comparative approaches on the advertised fellowship theme. Applicants from all fields of the humanities and the social sciences are encouraged to apply.

Situated atop Burnaby Mountain, east of downtown Vancouver, the SNF CHS is a major site for Hellenic Studies in North America. Affiliated faculty are members of the Department of Humanities and have expertise in Ancient, Byzantine, Early Modern and Modern Greek history, archaeology, literature and language. The successful applicant will join the faculty and students who make up our intellectual community and participate in the Centre’s seminar series, offering two formal talks on campus. The SNF CHS Postdoctoral Fellow will also offer one talk for a lay audience as part of the Centre’s outreach activities. While at Simon Fraser University, the SNF CHS Postdoctoral Fellow will have opportunities to engage with the content development activities of the SNF New Media Lab. The salary for this position is $50,000 CAD per year plus benefits. The advertised fellowship has a duration of one year.

All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply. Simon Fraser University is committed to an equity employment program that includes special measures to achieve diversity among its faculty and staff. We particularly encourage applications from qualified women, aboriginal Canadians, persons with disabilities, and members of visible minorities.

Candidates must have completed their Ph.D. within a maximum of FOUR years before the appointment date (September 2023) and submit a cover letter, curriculum vitae, research project outline, and THREE letters of reference. All application materials should be submitted to the Director of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies, Dr. Dimitris Krallis: hellenic@sfu.ca. Please include “Application for Postdoctoral Position” in the subject line of your email.

Applications received by February 17, 2023, will be given priority.

SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies
Simon Fraser University | Academic Quadrangle 6th Floor
8888 University Dr., Burnaby, B.C. V5A 1S6
T: 778.782.8466 | sfu.ca/hellenic-studies

W.D.E. Coulson and Toni M. Cross Aegean Exchange Program

W.D.E. COULSON & TONI M. CROSS AEGEAN EXCHANGE PROGRAM
Deadline: March 15, 2023

W.D.E. Coulson and Toni M. Cross Aegean Exchange Program is offered for Greek Ph.D. students and scholars in any field of the humanities and social sciences, from prehistoric to modern times, to conduct research in Turkey, under the auspices of the American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT) in Ankara and/or Istanbul during the academic year. The purpose of these fellowships is to provide an opportunity for Greek scholars to meet with Turkish colleagues and to pursue research in museums, archives, and library collections and at the sites and monuments of Turkey. Fellowships are funded by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs through the Council of American Overseas Research Centers, which also provides funding for Turkish graduate students and senior scholars to study in Greece, under the auspices of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.

The ARIT library in Istanbul focuses on Ottoman and Byzantine Studies and the American Board of Missions. In Ankara the library collections focus on Mediterranean and Near Eastern Archaeology.  ARIT helps visiting researchers access the many Turkish (and other) libraries, archives, museums, sites accessible to visiting researchers.  ARIT also supports research in fields outside of Turkish studies when significant materials are held in institutions within the country (e.g. Ottoman Egypt, Islamic studies, World War I history, varied archaeology).

Eligibility:  Greek nationals, including staff of the Ministry of Culture and Sport, doctoral candidates, and faculty members of Greek institutions of higher education.

Duration:  From two weeks to two months.
Terms:  Stipend of $250 per week plus up to $500 for travel expenses.  Four to eight awards are available. ARIT, located in Istanbul and Ankara, will provide logistical support and other assistance as required, but projects are not limited to those two cities. For further information about ARIT: https://aritweb.org/. A final report to ASCSA and ARIT is due at the end of the award period, and ASCSA and ARIT expect that copies of all publications that result from research conducted as a Fellow of ASCSA/ARIT be contributed to the relevant library of ASCSA/ARIT.

Application:  Submit “Associate Membership with Fellowship” application online. The application includes a curriculum vitae, statement of the project to be pursued during the period of grant (up to three pages, single-spaced in length), and two letters of reference from scholars in the field commenting on the value and feasibility of the project. For more information about the application, visit: https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/fellowships-and-grants/graduate-and-postdoctoral#CoulsonCross.

The awards will be announced in late spring.

The American School of Classical Studies at Athens does not discriminate on the basis of age, color, disability, gender identity or expression, genetic information, national or ethnic origin, pregnancy, race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation when considering admission to any form of membership or application for employment.


American School of Classical Studies at Athens
321 Wall Street
Princeton, NJ 08540-1515
Email: programs@ascsa.org
Website: https://www.ascsa.edu.gr

Visiting Fellow, Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies

Application for Visiting Fellow, Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies

The Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies at Princeton University invites applications for a limited number of Stanley J. Seeger Visiting Research Fellowships for scholars based in Greece or other overseas countries, who wish to spend time in residence at Princeton, pursuing research projects in the humanities or the social sciences, free of teaching and other obligations. Individuals based in the United States and Canada are not eligible to apply.

Fall term appointments are from September 1, 2023 through December 15, 2023 (3 months). Spring term appointments are from January 15, 2024 through May 31, 2024 (4 months). Summer appointments are from June 15, 2024 through August 15, 2024 (2 months). These fellowships are residential and as such, fellows are expected to be at Princeton at all times, devoting the major portion of their time to research and writing. They are required to participate in Hellenic Studies activities and the intellectual life of the University. They present their work-in-progress at Hellenic Studies workshops and are encouraged to meet colleagues in their respective academic disciplines. They enjoy full access to the University’s library, archival, and computing resources. Fellows are provided a shared workspace and access to the Hellenic Studies Reading Room in the University Library. Fellows are required to submit a report on their scholarly activities at Princeton.

Eligibility: (a) scholars in all disciplines of the humanities or the social sciences, who are affiliated with Greek academic institutions, including universities and research institutes. Early career scholars with adjunct appointments at Greek institutions will also be considered; (b) professionals who are affiliated with Greek institutions: libraries, museums, the Archaeological Service, governmental agencies, etc.; (c) independent scholars with a Ph.D. (i.e., not affiliated with an institution) who are residents of Greece or other overseas countries, and who have a distinguished record of published work; (d) Hellenists (i.e., scholars in Classical Studies, Late Antique Studies, Byzantine Studies, or Modern Greek Studies), irrespective of nationality, who hold regular faculty or research appointments at academic institutions in overseas countries other than Greece. Fellows are provided a monthly salary of $5,000. In case scholars receive outside funding, the salary level will be adjusted. We offer modestly furnished, one-bedroom, non-smoking, and pet-free apartments.

Fellows are responsible for their own travel expenses and moving arrangements. Qualified candidates are required to apply online via https://www.princeton.edu/acad-positions/position/28741. For applications to be considered, the following material must be uploaded via the online application: (1) a cover sheet with a title and summary (200 words) of the proposed research project and a brief bio (one paragraph); (2) a research statement (five pages; 2,000 words max.), including a detailed description of the project, timetable, explicit goals, and a rationale for why it should be pursued at Princeton; (3) selected bibliography; (4) a standard, detailed curriculum vitae including a list of publications; (5) two samples of recent work (in English); and (6) contact information for two referees who are not current members of the Princeton University faculty. (7) all non-US citizens and non-US permanent residents are required to provide TOEFL results or equivalent, or a letter from their department head on department letterhead confirming certification of language proficiency in English. All submitted documents must be in English.

DEADLINE: All materials submitted by applicants must be received by 11:59 pm EST on Wednesday, February 15, 2023. Fellowship awards will be announced at the end of March 2023. For a more detailed job description, please visit: https://hellenic.princeton.edu/opportunities/stanley-j-seeger-visiting-research-fellowships-2023-2024

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