Eco-Critical Approaches to Medieval Art, East and West I: Landscapes

Sponsoring Organization(s)

International Center of Medieval Art (ICMA)

Organizer Name

Anne F. Harris

Organizer Affiliation

DePauw Univ.

Presider Name

Anne F. Harris

Paper Title 1

Deserts, Rivers, and Mountains: Nature and Divinity in Byzantine Pilgrimage Art

Presenter 1 Name

Anastasia Drandaki

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Benaki Museum

Paper Title 2

Fresco at Kaminaria: A Donor Portrait Set in the Cypriot Landscape

Presenter 2 Name

Barbara McNulty

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Lebanon Valley College

Paper Title 3

Painting Paradise: The Use of Terra Verde in the Chiostro Verde, Santa Maria Novella (Florence)

Presenter 3 Name

Amber McAlister

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Univ. of Pittsburgh-Greensburg

Start Date

12-5-2013 8:30 AM

Session Location

Bernhard 209

Description

This panel seeks to reassert and explore the agency of natural matter upon its human “interactors” through both devotional and secular works of art. It explores the materiality of works of art as it relates to the natural world, analyzes the representation of nature as it conceptualizes nature, and localizes works of art within cultural constructions of the natural. Beyond being curious about the ability of works of art to “reflect” attitudes to nature, this panel asks how works of art in the European and Byzantine Middle Ages shaped conceptions of the natural, made nature present within a devotional context, and evoked the divine agency of nature through their materiality.

Anne F. Harris