Ordering Matter: Hierarchies of Material and Medium in Medieval Art
Session at International Congress on Medieval Studies
University of Western Michigan, Kalamazoo, 12-15 May 2016
Organizers:
Joseph Salvatore Ackley, Lecturer and Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow,
Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University
Adam R. Stead, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of
Canada Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Visual Arts, University of
Western Ontario
Questions of the significance of materials now occupy a central place
within medieval art history. Within this material turn, attention has
generally been centered on the importance and meaning of individual
materials, particularly luxury materials, such as gold, silver, ivory,
and gemstones. But how were these—and other—materials evaluated
relative to each other? That is to say, to what extent did material
hierarchies obtain, both in theory and in (artistic) practice? This
session investigates hierarchies of materials and media in medieval art
from Late Antiquity through the end of the fourteenth century. It
seeks to build upon the burgeoning body of work on medieval materiality
and to engage recent interrogations of object ontology and the
relationships between surface and substrate, and between substance and
appearance.
We seek papers that examine objects within the larger discursive
context of medieval matter, ranging from natural philosophy and
theology to political symbolism and earthly economics. While papers
may engage issues of material iconography and iconology, they should
prioritize the larger question of hierarchical value and intersecting
value systems. We are especially interested in papers that address
some or all of the following questions:
• Given that so many medieval artworks are gloriously multimedia
things, what patterns of assemblage (of different media, of objects
from different cultures, etc.) obtained, and how did these patterns
create, reify, or critique hierarchies of material and media?
• How are we to interpret materials that imitate or simulate others
(e.g., glass that resembles gemstones, or gilded surfaces)?
• In what ways do objects, either individually or categorically, align
with or deviate from the media hierarchies promoted by specific
discursive traditions (e.g., the transmission and diffusion of Pliny,
Isidore, and other natural philosophers; the conventions of
hagiography, romance, and other literary genres; and/or something less
textualized, such as economic exchange, etc.)?
• Which types of artistic media, if any, escape rigidly discursive
definition? What are the conditions for such flexible and/or fugitive
materials?
• How can “preciousness” be used as an historically specific analytic
tool?
• In what ways might hierarchies of material and medium have generated
meaning? Can we speak of an “iconography” of material hierarchies,
whether in specific cases or generally?
• What implications do hierarchies of material and medium have for
medieval art history generally (whether in terms of production,
patronage, or reception)?
Materials to be considered may range from the precious, such as gold,
silver, enamel, ivory, gemstones, and textiles, to the semi- or
non-precious, including copper-alloy (copper, bronze, and brass), wood,
paint, glass, and stucco.
DEADLINE FOR PAPER PROPOSALS: 15 September 2015
Paper proposals should consist of the following:
1. Paper proposal (maximum one page)
2. Completed Participant Information Form available at:
http://wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/index.html#PIF
3. CV with home and office mailing addresses, e-mail address, and phone
number
Please direct all proposal submissions and inquiries to the organizers:
Joseph S. Ackley ([log in to unmask]) and Adam R. Stead
([log in to unmask])
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