Dumbarton Oaks will be hosting a Museum Study Day on September 23, 2022.
In conjunction with the special exhibition Lasting Impressions: People, Power, Piety (https://www.doaks.org/visit/
All applications should be submitted to museum@doaks.org by August 7, 2022.
Byzantine Tradition in the Barnes Collection
Tuesday, July 19, 10am – 4pm
Dr. Albert C. Barnes announced in 1925 that “Modern painting developed out of mosaics,” referring to the glittering glass and stonework of the Byzantine Tradition. The arrangement of his collection seems to support this bold claim. Modern and Byzantine objects are often displayed together—including a 16th- or 17th-century icon of the Nativity in an ensemble with paintings by Renoir—highlighting their shared visual qualities and connecting past and present experiences of art. This one-day workshop explores the art of the Byzantium, its role in Dr. Barnes’s collection, and the profound impact it had on modern artists like Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse, and Giorgio de Chirico.
Instructors
Amy Gillette is a research associate at the Barnes. She earned her PhD in art history from Temple University, specializing in late medieval art and architecture. Her publications address the music of angels in Gothic and Byzantine art and the formation of medieval collections in Philadelphia during the Gothic Revival movement.
Kaelin Jewell is a member of the adult education faculty at the Barnes. She holds a PhD in late Roman and early medieval art history from Temple University and has worked as a field archeologist. In addition to her work at the Barnes, Jewell is the art historian for an underwater archaeology project near the Sicilian town of Marzamemi.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Artificial Light in Medieval Churches between Byzantium and the West
Online workshop | Tufts University & Accademia di architettura di Mendrisio | 9-10 February 2023
Organizers:
Alice Isabella Sullivan, PhD, Tufts University
Vladimir Ivanovici, PhD, University of Vienna | Accademia di architettura di Mendrisio
Throughout the Middle Ages, artificial illumination was used to draw attention to and enhance the symbolism of 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 invites papers on the economy of artificial light in medieval churches across Eastern Europe, from the Balkans to the Baltic Sea. Whether innovative or inspired by the more established traditions on the margins of the Mediterranean, local customs are to be examined in order to understand how artificial light was used in ecclesiastical spaces, and how it brought together the architecture, decoration, objects, and rituals.
Following the workshop, select papers will be revised and published in a volume that will complement the edited collection that resulted from the workshop on natural light, which is currently in print with Brill.
Proposals for 20-min. papers in English should include the following: an abstract (300 words max.) and a brief CV (2 pages max.). Proposals should be emailed to the organizers of the workshop at alice.sullivan[at]tufts.edu and vladimir.ivanovici[at]usi.ch by 1 September 2022. Please include in the email subject line “Artificial Light Proposal.”
Late Byzantine Metrical Metaphraseis, June 23, 2022 9:00–17:30 (hybrid form)
To participate in the workshop online or in person, please contact Dr Ekaterini Mitsiou via email: ekaterini.mitsiou@oeaw.ac.at. Registration is mandatory.
The field school is designed for students and young specialists in heritage, archaeology and conservation as well as artists, but we also welcome anyone interested in:
International Workshop – The Holy Book of the Ishmaelites in the World of Eastern Christianity
May 11-12, 2022 | University of Copenhagen
The Holy Book of the Ishmaelites was the name commonly used by Eastern Christians of various traditions to refer to the Qur’an. Since the emergence of Islam in Late Antiquity, Eastern Christians speaking Arabic, Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopic, Georgian, Greek, Church Slavonic, Russian and Syriac came in contact with Islam and its Holy Scripture. From the Mediterranean lands to Russia via the Balkans, Anatolia and Caucasus, the experience of Eastern Christians with their Muslim neighbors and/or rulers was shaped by diverse multicultural and multiconfessional contexts in which their approach to the Qur’an played a significant role in defining religious identity and the dynamics of communal life.
This international workshop will explore how Eastern Christians engaged with the Qur’an and its Islamic interpretations from the medieval period until the end of the eighteenth century. Bringing together different religious traditions, one of the main scopes of the workshop is to build a platform of discussion between scholars working with source material from Arabic, Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopian, Georgian, Greek, Church Slavonic, Russian and Syriac contexts, with a focus on how these milieus shaped Eastern Christian responses to Islam and its Holy Scripture.
How did texts on Islam and Qur’an circulate within groups and networks? How did they cross confessional boundaries? Who were their authors and intended audiences? These and similar questions will guide the discussions, and will generate – we hope – new debates for the entangled history and cross-cultural history of the Eastern Christian communities from the medieval to the dawn of modernity.
Read the program:
https://euqu.eu/wp-content/
Register here:
https://ucph-ku.zoom.us/
Panelists include:
Dr. Jennifer Speed, Research Development Strategist at Princeton University
Dr. Anna Siebach-Larson, Director, Rossell Hope Robbins Library and Koller-Collins Center for English Studies at the University of Rochester
Dr. Ross Karlan, World Languages Educator at Geffen Academy
Dr. Rachel Ruisard, Project Editor at Oxford University Press
Cappadocia in Context Summer Program (CAPP)
Date: 20 June – 4 July 2022
Place: Cappadocia, Nevşehir
Application Deadline: 14 April 2022 (GMT+3, Turkey local time)
Organized by Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED), this 2 weeks intensive program is open to the participation of young researchers at the master’s and doctoral level and aims to provide conceptualisation methods of the rich cultural heritage of Cappadocia’s Byzantine and Post-Byzantine past in the historical and artistic context, accompanied by field studies, research and presentations. Within its breathtaking volcanic landscape, Cappadocia preserves extensive rock-cut features from the Byzantine period, including more than a thousand rock-cut churches and chapels (one-third of which preserve significant elements of their painted decoration), as well as monasteries, houses, villages, towns, cemeteries, and fortresses. The region is unrivaled in terms of its material culture, but because it lacks a written history, the monuments of Cappadocia remain poorly known to most Byzantinists.
The language of the program is English. For more information about the program and how to apply please see: https://anamed.ku.edu.tr/en/
Instructor: Prof. Robert OUSTERHOUT (University of Pennsylvania)
Prof. Ousterhout (PhD University of Illinois) is Professor Emeritus in the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania, where he taught 2007-17. A recognized specialist in Byzantine architecture, his research focuses on the documentation and interpretation of the vanishing architectural heritage of the eastern Mediterranean. His current fieldwork concentrates on Byzantine architecture, monumental art, and urbanism in Constantinople, Cappadocia, and Jerusalem. Since 2011 he has co-directed the “Cappadocia in Context” graduate seminar. His most recent book is Visualizing Community: Art Material Culture, and Settlement in Byzantine Cappadocia, Dumbarton Oaks Studies 46 (Washington, DC, 2017). His book Eastern Medieval Architecture (Oxford University Press in 2019), was awarded the 2021 Haskins Medal by the Medieval Academy of America.
Identifying and Describing the Structures of Textiles
The Early Textiles Study Group (https://www.
The 2022 Part 1 sessions will take place in May (9-13 & 16-20) and in July (11-15 & 18-22)
The venue for both will be Britannia Mills, Slaithwaite, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, HD7 5HE. https://en-gb.facebook.com/
The tutors for Part 1 are textile archaeologist Hero Granger-Taylor and weaver Ruth Gilbert. The number of participants is limited to 10 and the charge per participant in 2022 is £350. We have places still open for both May and July. For further details please e-mail
Hero Granger-Taylor, hero@granger-taylor.com and copy your message to
Ruth Gilbert, plainweave879@btinternet.com
Part 1 covers the range of simple weaves. We take a broader view of early textiles than the CIETA course (https://cieta.fr/courses/) and cover in addition linking and looping, twining, pile structures, and weaving to shape. Participants will learn how to analyse and record structures using samples of different fabrics, a standard form and agreed terminology (CIETA supplemented by Emery and Seiler-Baldinger). They will also be introduced to different formats of weave diagram. Types of looms and how these may affect fabric structure will be discussed and some simple weaving undertaken to give a proper understanding of the process. Our aim in particular will be to increase the confidence of participants in their analytical skills, needed especially when faced with unfamiliar or poorly-preserved surviving textiles.
The specific learning outcomes for Part 1 are:
· identify basic weave structures and their variants
· record structures in a standard format
· use internationally-agreed terminology
· explain the relationship between looms and fabric structure
Two Part 2 sessions will take place in London during 2022 People wishing to take Part 2 will be asked to take Part 1 first, unless they can prove they have already the background and experience necessary to follow Part 2.
The tutors for Part 2 will be anthropologist Sophie Desrosiers and historian Lisa Monnas, both specialists in European and Asian medieval textiles. Sophie Desrosiers, who also has experience of archaeological and ethnographical textiles from the Andean region, has in the past been the tutor for the CIETA ‘sessions techniques’.
The workshop is limited to 30 participants. Registration is first come, first served.
Registration closes Monday, March 21 at 1:00 pm (ET).
Who is eligible?
–Graduate students in the field of Byzantine studies who are currently enrolled in a graduate program in North America
–Early career researchers who received their PhD from a North American university and are within 3 years of receiving their degree (i.e., after March 2019). For ECRs who received their degree between 3 and 8 years ago, you may request to be put on a waiting list and will be contacted in the event that there are open spaces in the workshop. To be put on a waiting list, please contact Brandie Ratliff at mjcbac@hchc.edu.
To read a full description of the workshop and register, please visit https://
Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture, with any questions.
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