Romanesque Art: Patrons and Processes, Third International Romanesque Conference, BAA-MNAC, Barcelona, 7-9 April, 2014 (original) (raw)
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Romanesque Patrons and Processes Publication (2018)
The twenty-five papers in this volume arise from a conference jointly organised by the British Archaeological Association and the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona. They explore the making of art and architecture in Latin Europe and the Mediterranean between c. 1000 and c. 1250, with a particular focus on questions of patronage, design and instrumentality.
Romanesque Patrons and processes.pdf
The twenty-five papers in this volume arise from a conference jointly organised by the British Archaeological Association and the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona. They explore the making of art and architecture in Latin Europe and the Mediterranean between c. 1000 and c. 1250, with a particular focus on questions of patronage, design and instrumentality.
UNTIL the middle of the 12th century, Catalonia was not a centre but a periphery. Being outside the orbit of the major royal powers, and therefore without a courtly art, the former Marca Hispanica remained distant from the artistic foci of Carolingian and Post-Carolingian art. Besides, it was without a metropolitan see until the conquest of Tarragona. Hence, from the very outset the local Church, together with the lay magnates, exerted artistic agency in an attempt to shore up their ecclesiastical and political status, based on their alliance with the Papacy. In this regard, Oliba, abbot of Ripoll and Cuixà and bishop of Vic, along with his comital family, were leaders in what many authors have defined as the Catalan mini-renaissance of the 11th Century, while Saint Ot of La Seu d’Urgell and his relatives, the counts of Pallars, were one of the driving forces in the transformation of the monumental arts during the late 11th and early 12th centuries. The distinctive role of aristocratic women in the promotion of the minor arts (metalwork and embroidery) during the comital period is also a topic that deserves detailed analysis
Romanesque Patrons and Processes (2014) Barcelona - Abstracts
The third in the BAA’s biennial International Romanesque conference series was held in conjunction with the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC) in Barcelona on 7-9 April, 2014. The theme was Patrons and Processes, and the aim was to examine patronage – and agency - in their broadest senses during the Romanesque period. Thus, in addition to more traditional prosopographical approaches to patronage and papers on individual patrons, there were papers dealing with institutional patronage. Does institutional patronage differ from individual patronage, and was it understood by contemporaries as being different? The conference also addressed the people and processes involved in commissioning buildings or works of art – the mechanics of design – authorship - intermediaries and agents – and the extent to which patrons are designers. The conference convenors were Manuel Castineiras and Jordi Camps
Review of Spanish Medieval Art: Recent Studies, Princeton University, 2010
Bulletin of Spanish Studies, 2010
This volume is a collection of eight essays by a new generation of scholars from the United States, Spain and Great Britain. Given its sponsorship by the Index of Christian Art at Princeton University, the scope of the papers is narrower than its generic title suggests, since it is limited to iconography and Christian art. Fortunately, however, the essays break away from the artificial boundaries between Christian, Islamic and Jewish art in medieval Spain, to examine the art works within their complex multi-cultural and multi-religious reality. This historical contextualization provides new insights into the culture of medieval Iberia, as well as on how art could become a highly sophisticated tool for the ideology of their patrons. All the essays either challenge traditional interpretations of well known works, or present the readers with novel materials previously overlooked by the literature in English. Another important common denominator is the attention paid to the intended audiences of the art works as well as to their complex and multilayered meaning. The essays offer an exciting variety of methodologies and interests to which one cannot do justice in a few lines. The first essay, by James D'Emilio, looks into a little known but numerous group of inscriptions in Romanesque buildings in Galicia. His study advocates a holistic approach that incorporates such disparate issues as the design of the inscriptions, their value as a source of knowledge about building history, patrons and artists, relationships between the cultural centres and surrounding countryside, the system of property, or the implementation of the Gregorian Reform. The essay by Therese Martin focuses on two little known secular Romanesque palaces in Huesca and Estella. Besides arguing for a new dating for both works, and a female patronage for the one at Huesca, (Queen Petronila), Martin provides new readings of some of the capitals that decorate them. Disregarding traditional boundaries between secular and religious in Romanesque art, she argues that some of the religious scenes were conveniently altered in order to reinforce the dynastic rights and royal authority of their patrons. The essay by Manuel Castiñ eiras proposes alternative lines of inquiry for the understanding of the Romanesque painted altar-frontals from Catalonia, ranging from technical issues linking the altar-frontals to wall painting, to their role in liturgical celebrations, their iconographical sources, and their connection to Byzantine art. Three other essays illustrate the rich field of research that Romanesque cloisters has become. Pamela Patton deciphers the many layers of meaning present in the capital representing the Meeting of the Temple Priests and Pharisees in the House of Caiphas, from the cloister at Santa Maria la Mayor, in Tudela. Her focus is on the visual representation of the Jews, and the attitude it reveals not only about Judaism but about the generic non-Christian other, be it from the Old Testament, contemporary Jews or Muslims. She also places this capital within contemporary polemics about the Talmud, and concerns about promoting the Christian faith among the Jewish population of Tudela. The well known pillar from the cloister of Santo Domingo de Silos with the Incredulity of St Thomas and the Journey to Emmaus is the subject of the essay by Elizabeth Valdez del Alamo. Taking into account the experience of the cloister by the monks, and their particular interests, she unveils a multi-layered interpretation that
Romanesque and the Past (2010) Abstracts
The first in the British Archaeological Association’s international Romanesque conference series was entitled Romanesque and the Past: Retrospection in the Art and Architecture of Romanesque Europe, and was held in London from 9-11 April, 2010. The aim was to examine how and why a concern for the past manifested itself in the art and architecture of the Latin Church during the Romanesque period. This took many forms, from the casual, even careless, reuse of Antique material, to a specific desire to re-present or emulate earlier objects or buildings. The papers at the conference are therefore concerned with the revival of classical or earlier medieval forms, spolia, selective quotation, archaism, and the construction of histories. For certain institutions the past was the future in more than a theological or universal sense - it was a concern for immediate and local reasons. On a more mundane level Roman and early medieval forms, particularly ornamental and geometric forms, were used in new combinations in the 11th and 12th centuries. The manner and reasons whereby particular forms are selected can throw light on how a local sense of Romanitas intersects with a sense of Romanitas elsewhere. Is what passes for the past in Romanesque Ireland or Hungary very different from the past as viewed from southern Italy?
The Making of Romanesque Art from the Romans to the Early Middle Ages by Rose Walker
Early Romanesque art in Spain and Portugal is hotly contested territory. It has proved almost impossible for scholars to avoid the arguments over style and precedence that were first raised by those with a nationalist stance. ‘Spain or Toulouse’ has remained either an explicit or implicit agenda in many studies, a question that is accompanied by assumptions around pilgrimage, reconquest, and the flow of ‘influence’ down the roads from France into Spain.
2018