Approaching Portraiture across Medieval Art

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Special Session

Organizer Name

Maeve Doyle

Organizer Affiliation

Bryn Mawr College

Presider Name

Maeve Doyle

Paper Title 1

Identity, Reproduction, and Embodied Legacy in the Life of Saint Albinus of Angers

Presenter 1 Name

Sasha Gorjeltchan

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Univ. of Toronto

Paper Title 2

Portraying Monks in Medieval Service Books

Presenter 2 Name

Kyunghee Pyun

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Fashion Institute of Technology

Paper Title 3

Portraits in Perpetuity

Presenter 3 Name

Catherine Walden

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Independent Scholar

Start Date

14-5-2015 1:30 PM

Session Location

Schneider 1360

Description

Figural representations of specific, contemporary people served numerous purposes in medieval societies, from commemorative and memorial functions to assertions of political power or social status, markers of ownership and use, and enactments of piety. Portraits, furthermore, proliferate across media, in stained glass, manuscript, and sculpture both monumental and miniature. This variety of historical, religious, and material contexts inflects the function of medieval portraits and their reception. While portraiture had long been considered an essentially modern genre, recent scholarship has worked to establish terms for considering portrait forms within the social, artistic, and theological contexts of the Middle Ages. In his book on royal representations in late medieval France, Stephen Perkinson situated the rise of veristic portraiture within the social and artistic concerns of the Valois court. Scholars such as Brigitte Bedos-Rezak and Alexa Sand, on the other hand, have approached the question of portraiture through medium-specific studies of personal seals and illuminated manuscripts, respectively. These studies emphasize the extent to which the creation and reception of a portrait depends upon its specific historical and material contexts. This panel seeks to explore the degree to which such focused studies can inform one another. In order to further investigation into medieval portraiture (or portraitures), this panel spotlights studies of portraiture across contexts and across media and places them into dialog with one another.

Maeve Doyle

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS
 
May 14th, 1:30 PM

Approaching Portraiture across Medieval Art

Schneider 1360

Figural representations of specific, contemporary people served numerous purposes in medieval societies, from commemorative and memorial functions to assertions of political power or social status, markers of ownership and use, and enactments of piety. Portraits, furthermore, proliferate across media, in stained glass, manuscript, and sculpture both monumental and miniature. This variety of historical, religious, and material contexts inflects the function of medieval portraits and their reception. While portraiture had long been considered an essentially modern genre, recent scholarship has worked to establish terms for considering portrait forms within the social, artistic, and theological contexts of the Middle Ages. In his book on royal representations in late medieval France, Stephen Perkinson situated the rise of veristic portraiture within the social and artistic concerns of the Valois court. Scholars such as Brigitte Bedos-Rezak and Alexa Sand, on the other hand, have approached the question of portraiture through medium-specific studies of personal seals and illuminated manuscripts, respectively. These studies emphasize the extent to which the creation and reception of a portrait depends upon its specific historical and material contexts. This panel seeks to explore the degree to which such focused studies can inform one another. In order to further investigation into medieval portraiture (or portraitures), this panel spotlights studies of portraiture across contexts and across media and places them into dialog with one another.

Maeve Doyle