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College Art Association CAA2020 annual conference

Chicago, Illinois, USA

12-15 February 2020

 

Kitsch and Craft in the Middle Ages: Making Medieval Art Popular

 

From its academic foundations in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,
the art historical discipline has always relied on various forms of
connoisseurship to determine "masterpieces" as the exemplars of stylistic
movements, iconographical foundations, or even entire historical periods,
and the history of medieval art and architecture is certainly no exception.
Privileging this model of elite patronage and viewing (royal,
ecclesiastical, aristocratic) has often marginalized the aesthetic
concerns-and by extension, historical realities-of large numbers of
consumers of the visual or material arts in the premodern world.

 

This session is designed to highlight nonelite patronage and viewing
practices in the Middle Ages, how workshops catered to the aesthetic
sensibilities of the masses, and how art and artifacts designed for
lower-class consumption can inform the history, politics, theology,
economics, anthropology, or culture of specific people groups or
geographical regions in ways that traditional art historical methodologies
have ignored. How did workshops or individual artists adapt stylistic or
iconographical trends from more elite spaces, or commissioned by elite
patrons, for a general public of eager consumers? How did the acquisition of
art or artifacts by lower-class patrons affect social stratification and
mobility? How did popular aesthetics affect shifts in medieval viewing,
craftsmanship, or materiality in the Middle Ages? Papers addressing any of
these social concerns in production and reception of nonelite medieval art,
from late antiquity to the long Middle Ages in Europe, North Africa, or
Western Asia are welcomed.

 

Completed submission forms and 2-page CVs can be sent directly to Nathan
Dennis [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>  and Rachel Danford
[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>  up to Tuesday, July
23rd. Please find the submission form at this link:
https://caa.confex.com/caa/f/tnxbicijhcpp

 

 

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