Moving Images: The Badge in Medieval Christendom
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Special Session
Organizer Name
Lloyd de Beer
Organizer Affiliation
British Museum
Presider Name
Amy Jeffs
Presider Affiliation
Univ. of Cambridge
Paper Title 1
The Holy Land in Paris: Embroidering, Depicting, and Molding the Passion in a Fifteenth-Century Book of Hours (Paris, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, MS 1176)
Presenter 1 Name
Loretta Vandi
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Scuola del Libro, Urbino
Paper Title 2
Political Instability and the Badge as Unstable Object
Presenter 2 Name
Sonja Drimmer
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Univ. of Massachusetts-Amherst
Paper Title 3
Share a Same Sign: The Uses of Emblematic Badges at the End of Middle Ages: The Case of the Armagnac-Burgundy War
Presenter 3 Name
Laurent Hablot
Presenter 3 Affiliation
École Pratique des Hautes Études
Start Date
9-5-2019 10:00 AM
Session Location
Schneider 1325
Description
Medieval badges helped define communities: they marked and traversed territorial boundaries; they were worn by religious devotees, military retainers and groups that shared the same jokes and stories. What do badges reveal about medieval visual culture? What is the impact of scale, variety and proliferation on our understanding of these emblems’ multifarious purposes?
The term “medieval badge” is ambiguous. Is it a pewter token worn on clothing, such as a livery badge or a pilgrim souvenir? Does it not also describe the prestigious Dunstable Swan Jewel at the British Museum or the image of the white hart worn by the figures of the Wilton Diptych? Likewise, it can mean an emblematic image, in any medium. These often appear in manuscripts, paintings, architecture, sculpture, and a host of more fragile objects, such as embroidered banners. Larger works of art could become miniature signs, such as the depiction of St Thomas Becket’s head reliquary reproduced on Canterbury pilgrim souvenirs. Inversely, emblematic metal badges appear as trompe-l’oeil in virtuosic paintings. Their geographical and material flexibility calls out for scholarly exploration.
This session will consider the medieval badge in its widest theoretical contexts, using ideas of motion and mobility as a starting point. Lloyd de Beer
Moving Images: The Badge in Medieval Christendom
Schneider 1325
Medieval badges helped define communities: they marked and traversed territorial boundaries; they were worn by religious devotees, military retainers and groups that shared the same jokes and stories. What do badges reveal about medieval visual culture? What is the impact of scale, variety and proliferation on our understanding of these emblems’ multifarious purposes?
The term “medieval badge” is ambiguous. Is it a pewter token worn on clothing, such as a livery badge or a pilgrim souvenir? Does it not also describe the prestigious Dunstable Swan Jewel at the British Museum or the image of the white hart worn by the figures of the Wilton Diptych? Likewise, it can mean an emblematic image, in any medium. These often appear in manuscripts, paintings, architecture, sculpture, and a host of more fragile objects, such as embroidered banners. Larger works of art could become miniature signs, such as the depiction of St Thomas Becket’s head reliquary reproduced on Canterbury pilgrim souvenirs. Inversely, emblematic metal badges appear as trompe-l’oeil in virtuosic paintings. Their geographical and material flexibility calls out for scholarly exploration.
This session will consider the medieval badge in its widest theoretical contexts, using ideas of motion and mobility as a starting point. Lloyd de Beer