medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Dear All,

I hope you forgive me this "soft" advertisement! In case you are in Central Europe during the summer, I would like to call your attention to the following exhibitions in the Benedictine Abbey, Pannonhalma, Hungary:

Icons and Relics: Veneration of Images between East and West (March 21 – November 11, 2014)

Image and Christianity: Visual Media in the Middle Ages (July 10 – September 30, 2014)

In 2014 the Benedictine Archabbey of Pannonhalma hosts two intertwined exhibitions. Since March 2014 the exhibition Icons and Relics: Veneration of Images between East and West (March 21 – November 11, 2014) can be visited in the in the “old” exhibition hall of the monastery (inaugurated in 2001). In July 2014 opens the inaugural exhibition Image and Christianity: Visual Media in the Middle Ages (July 10 – September 30, 2014) in the new Abbey Manor Visitor Centre. The aim of the exhibitions is to show to the viewer the various forms and media of image-worship in medieval Christianity. The two exhibitions are accompanied by a joint bilingual (Hungarian-English) catalogue entitled Image and Christianity: Visual Media in the Middle Ages, which contains the reproductions and descriptions of the exhibited works and studies discussing the questions of mosaic technique, book illumination or the cult of relics.

The exhibitions not only link the old and new galleries of the abbey, but capitalizing on the advantages of a double museum space they approach the general problem of image-worship in the Middle Ages from two angles. The exhibition Icons and Relics presents the intertwined history of image-worship in the East and West through a comparison of the cult of images and the cult of relics, together with the genesis of the painted panel. The exhibition Image and Christianity focuses on the same development from the perspective of the visual media in the Middle Ages, where the spread of the painted panel in the West is interpreted in the context of mosaics, stained glass, murals and book illumination. The point of intersection between the two is the Latin Sack of Constantinople in 1204, since both the intensified forms of image-worship and the visual medium of the painted panel became central in Western Christianity after that. In this sense the sack of Byzantium set new course for image-history in Latin Christianity, and its repercussions can be detected even on the emergence of modern painting. The exhibitions are accompanied by a documentary by Dénes Nagy shot at two monasteries: in Vézelay (Burgundy, France), where the relics of Mary Magdalene is kept, and in Sucevita (Bukovina, Romania), which is known for the external murals on its church.

In the exhibitions works from 4 countries and altogether from 17 institutions can be seen. The highlights of the exhibition Icons and Relics are the 12th century head reliquary attributed to Saint Coloman (Benedictine Abbey, Melk), and the 14th century reliquaries of Mary Magdalene and Saint John the Baptist (Permanent Exhibition of Religious Art, Zadar). The Western reception of the icon is shown by the outstanding 14th century Venetian diptych (Christian Museum, Esztergom), which no longer displays the icon of the Virgin Mary as an icon, but as an image embedded into a Gothic architectural setting. In the exhibition Image and Christianity the various medieval visual media are presented by 12th century mosaics (Museo Torcello, Torcello), 15th century stained glass windows (Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz), 14th century fresco fragments (Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest), 15th century painted panels (Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest), and 11th-15th century codices (Benedictine Abbey, Sankt Paul im Lavanttal; National Széchényi Library, Budapest; ELTE University Library, Budapest). Insight to the exclusive imagery of the liturgy, among others, is provided by a 9th century Carolingian ivory book cover and a 13th century chasuble (Benedictine Abbey, Sankt Paul im Lavanttal). The collective and public forms of worship are complemented with more private images: 14th century votive panels and private altars (Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest), together with ivory diptychs (Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest).

Best wishes,

Péter

Dr Peter Bokody
Lecturer
Art and Visual History
6 Portland Villas, Room 101
School of Humanities and Performing Arts
Plymouth University
Plymouth PL4 8AA
Tel: +44 (0)1752 585 128
Email: [log in to unmask]
https://plymouth.academia.edu/PeterBokody
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