Call for Papers
International Medieval Congress, Institute of Medieval Studies,
University of Leeds
11-14 July 2011
Session Title: Representing Poverty in the Middle Ages: Charitable
Piety and Holy Models
From administering hospitals, to visiting prisoners and feeding the
poor, a sense of collective obligation permeated medieval life. Holy
figures, either recently deceased or long dead, reinforced these
objectives and served as models for charitable behaviour. This panel
seeks to explore how images contributed to this process. For example,
saints and beati founded hospitals (Blessed Andrea Gallerani), provided
dowries for underprivileged brides (Saint Nicholas of Bari) and clothed
the poor (Saint Martin), and such acts were frequently memorialized in
images. We invite paper proposals that address the ways in which
monastic, mendicant and lay communities used images of the life and good
deeds of holy figures to direct their charitable aims. To what extent
did images of exemplary individuals serve as a means of advertising
corporate activities? Did representations of actions such as
distributing alms or feeding the hungry merely serve to reflect or
reinforce behavioural norms within a given community, or might they also
have been intended to incite participation? Moreover, in what ways were
these artistic commissions directed at the poor themselves? We
especially invite paper topics that deal with holy models in
less-studied areas of medieval Europe.
Please send 250-word paper proposals by 25 September 2010 to: Federico
Botana, The Courtauld Institute of Art ([log in to unmask])
and Jessica N. Richardson, CASVA, National Gallery of Art, Washington,
DC ([log in to unmask])
For information on Leeds International Medieval Congress, including
registration fees and accommodation, please consult:
http://leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc
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