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Murray Seminar: Power – Friendship – Faith. Christoph Brachmann, 4 November 2020 – 5pm

Click here to register for the Murray Seminar, 4 November 2020

Nowadays located in the backwaters of Eastern France, the monumental Sépulcre in Saint-Mihiel is certainly one of the most remarkable works of sixteenth-century sculpture. Crafted in ca. 1560 by the Lorraine artist Ligier Richier it is among the few artifacts of the region that have attracted art historical interest at all. Mostly scholars interpreted it as a fragment of a much bigger project that included not only an entombment but also a crucifixion and a lamentation. It was assumed that these scenes have remained unfinished because the sculptor—interestingly a Calvinist—had to flee the country for religious reasons in 1564.

In contrast, this talk will reveal that the idiosyncrasies of the indeed highly unusual program have very different reasons. With a surprisingly prominent background, it can be regarded as one of the most sophisticated of the time that contains much more than just a religious message in the context of rising conflicts between Catholics and Protestants. Combining influences of a multitude of prominent artifacts of the period the Sépulcre also becomes almost a key work for the understanding of some important political aspects of sixteenth-century France.

We hope that you can join us.

The History of Art Department,

Birkbeck, University of London

If you would like to subscribe from this Mailing List, please contact l.jacobus@bbk.ac.uk with the subject-line ‘SUBSCRIBE MURRAY’. Alternatively, if you know of anyone who might find these research seminars interesting, ask them to write with ‘SUBSCRIBE MURRAY’ in the subject line.

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Murray Seminar: Luca Palozzi, The Holy-Water Basin of San Giovanni Fuorcivitas in Pistoia, – 12 June 2019 5pm

On Wednesday, 12th June, Luca Palozzi will be speaking about his latest research on a strange and little-known work by Giovanni Pisano. We’ll return to our usual location in the History of Art Department at Birkbeck (43, Gordon Sq., London WC1H 0PD) in The Keynes Library (Room 114) at 5pm.  The talk will finish by 5.50pm (allowing those with other commitments to leave) and will then be followed by discussion and refreshments.

Luca Palozzi

The Holy-Water Basin of San Giovanni Fuorcivitas in Pistoia,

c. 1270: Petrography, Materiality and Function

Giorgio Vasari writes in his Lives of the Artists that Giovanni Pisano “carved in marble the holy-water font of the Church of San Giovanni Evangelista in Pistoia,” and that this work, “by reason of its having then been held very beautiful, was placed in the centre of that church as a remarkable thing (come cosa singolare).” Despite Vasari’s mention in his Lives, the Pistoia holy-water basin remains little-known. The scant literature focusses on issues of style, date and authorship, failing to address the reasons why contemporary observers considered the Pistoia holy-water basin a truly beautiful and remarkable object. This paper explores this object’s surprising materiality, considering Nicola and Giovanni Pisano’s daring technical and artistic experimentations with stones and minerals scarcely used in monumental sculpture from the period. Their knowledge of materials, as well as their awareness of liturgy, crucially informed the making of this extraordinary object. The basin casts light on the ‘material turn’ of the 1260s and 1270s in Italian sculpture–a phenomenon whose magnitude and importance still await to be assessed.

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Murray Seminar: Emmanuele Lugli – Tuesday 13 February 5pm

Dear Student,

I’m writing with details of next week’s Murray Seminar on Medieval and Renaissance Art at Birkbeck. These advanced research seminars are open to all, and attract interested members of the public, staff and students from other London colleges and beyond.  They are an opportunity to hear and contribute to cutting-edge research, often at the very early stages of work in progress.  The timing allows you to attend and still go to classes on the same evening.  All this term’s seminars take place in the History of Art Department at Birkbeck (43, Gordon Sq., London WC1H 0PD) in Room 114 (The Keynes Library) at 5pm.  Talks finish by 5.50pm (allowing those with other commitments to leave) and are then followed by discussion and refreshments.  We hope to see you there.

Emmanuele Lugli  Tuesday 13 February

Chasing Absence: The Body of Christ and the Measures to Enter in Touch with it

This talk focuses on the singular devotion for the ‘mensura Christi,’ or the act of praying with objects that reproduced the height of Christ. It explores the reasons for its phenomenal success, from its diffusion in the twelfth century up to its ban in the seventeenth, and the motives for its marginalization in historical accounts today. The talk asks questions about what turns an orthodox veneration into a mere superstition, an inversion that is all the more puzzling given that the ‘mensura Christi’ relies on measuring, one of the methods to fight credulity. The lecture thus reconsiders the relationships of measuring practices, visual belief, and religious orders, thus contributing to discussions on representations, faith, and material studies.

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Murray Seminar: Mary Magdalene in Byzantium – 6 December 2018 5pm

A reminder that Cecily Hennessy will be speaking on Wednesday 6th December at the Murray Seminar at Birkbeck (43, Gordon Sq., London WC1H 0PD) at 5pm.  As ever, the talk will finish by 5.50pm (allowing those with other commitments to leave) and is then followed by discussion and refreshments.  Details of her talk  are below, and we hope to see you there.

Mary Magdalene in Byzantium

While Mary Magdalene’s relics were housed from about 900 in a most splendid church built by Leo VI in Constantinople, she is often thought to be an insignificant saint in the east, although several indications suggest a more complex situation. This paper examines the Early Christian and Byzantine imagery of Mary, explores some eastern texts that contributed to forming her identity and endeavours to understand why the two traditions, east and west, are so distinct. 

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Murray Seminars – Autumn Term 2017

Please see details of this term’s Murray Seminars below:

Murray Seminars – Autumn Term 2017

18 October: Kim Woods Speaking Sculptures 

13 November: Zoe Opacic From Sacroscape to Cityscape: Images of Central European Towns in Late Medieval Sources

6 December: Cecily Hennessy Mary Magdalene in Byzantium

All this term’s seminars take place in the History of Art Department at Birkbeck (43, Gordon Sq., London WC1H 0PD) in Room 114 (The Keynes Library) at 5pm.

Talks finish by 5.50pm (allowing those with other commitments to leave) and are then followed by discussion and refreshments.  We hope to see you there.

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Murray Seminar – Wednesday 28th June 2017

Our final Murray Seminar of the year takes place this Wednesday, 28th June at 5pm, in the History of Art Department at Birkbeck (43, Gordon Sq., London WC1H 0PD) in Room 114 (The Keynes Library).  As ever, the talk will finish by 5.50pm (allowing those with other commitments to leave) and it will then be followed by discussion and refreshments.  We hope to see you there.

Robert Maniura

Jaume Huguet, decoration and innovation 

huguet

Art in the Iberian peninsula in the fifteenth century is still neglected, especially compared to the Italian and Netherlandish traditions which remain the benchmark for the standard narratives of artistic development. Robert Maniura considers the output of Jaume Huguet, the most prominent painter in Barcelona in the later fifteenth century, whose elaborate and heavily gilded works conspicuously depart from these familiar patterns. He argues that his paintings reveal a sensitivity to and creative exploitation of his materials every bit as noteworthy as that of his more famous contemporaries.

 

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Murray Seminars – Summer Term 2017

Please see details below:

Murray Seminars Summer Term 2017

10 May Joanna Cannon

Second Thoughts: Redating the Frescoes by the Maestro di San Francesco at Assisi

The mid-thirteenth-century murals in the Lower Church of San Francesco at Assisi mark a key moment in the construction of the narrative of the life of St Francis.  But when, precisely, was that moment? Joanna Cannon revisits her often-quoted article of 1982, ‘Dating the Frescoes of the Maestro di San Francesco at Assisi’, to argue against some of her earlier conclusions, and to explore the implications of this change of mind.  Were the Franciscans always the artistic innovators in thirteenth-century Italy, or did the Dominicans sometimes lead the way?

7 June   Dorigen Caldwell

‘”There is nothing better than to live after death”: seeking immortality in cinquecento Rome’

Dorigen Caldwell will examine debates in literary and artistic circles in mid sixteenth-century Rome around portraiture and the encapsulation of the individual. Taking as her point of departure a portrait bust of Pope Paul III, she focusses in particular on the highly erudite circles which gathered around the Farnese court, exploring themes of paragone, materiality and the perpetuation of memory.

28 June Robert Maniura

Jaume Huguet, decoration and innovation in fifteenth-century Iberian art

Art in the Iberian peninsula in the fifteenth century is still neglected, especially compared to the Italian and Netherlandish traditions which remain the benchmark for the standard narratives of artistic development. Robert Maniura considers the output of Jaume Huguet, the most prominent painter in Barcelona in the later fifteenth century, whose elaborate and heavily gilded works conspicuously depart from these familiar patterns. He argues that his paintings reveal a sensitivity to and creative exploitation of his materials every bit as noteworthy as that of his more famous contemporaries.

All this term’s seminars take place in the History of Art Department at Birkbeck (43, Gordon Sq., London WC1H 0PD) in Room 114 (The Keynes Library) at 5pm.  Talks finish by 5.50pm (allowing those with other commitments to leave) and are then followed by discussion and refreshments.  We hope to see you there.

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This week’s Murray Seminar: 24 November 2016

This week’s Murray Seminar, which will take place on Thursday 24th November in the History of Art Dept at Birkbeck, in Room 106, 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD.  As ever, the seminar will start at 5pm, with a break at 5.50pm for those who need to leave to attend classes, and will continue with discussion and refreshments until 6.30pm.  Our speaker is Pippa Salonius, who is visiting from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and her topic is as follows:

Authority, Nature and the Image

Medieval culture has been described as a ‘culture of authority’. Kings, princes, and city-states all sought to establish themselves as central figures of authority. The pope, as the earthly representative of divine authority and justice, strived to remain their point of reference. As the ultimate authority, God’s work could be cited in words from the Bible or as images of the natural world. In a society where the word of God reigned supreme, visual reminders of this chain of command were of vital importance. Images, after all, were the lingua franca of medieval Christendom, but given the abstract nature of the message, how was its meaning best conveyed?

 

We look forward to seeing you there.

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Murray Seminars Summer Term 2016

Please find details of the Murray Summer Term seminars listed here:

http://www.bbk.ac.uk/art-history/news/the-murray-seminar-on-medieval-and-renaissance-art

The first of them is on Friday 22nd April at 5pm in the Keynes Library, Birkbeck, 43 Gordon Sq. WC1H 0PD

Prof. Bernd Nicolai  

‘Modes of Artistic Expression and Representation. The facade of Bern Minster and fifteenth-century church building programmes in imperial cities’ 

 

 

http://www.bbk.ac.uk/events-calendar/modes-of-artistic-expression-and-representation-the-facade-of-bern-minster

 

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Murray Seminars Spring term series 2016 at Birkbeck announced

The full Spring term Murray Seminars series at Birkbeck has been announced.

This term promises an interesting and varied programme. The speakers are:

  • Zuleika Murat, sharing discoveries about Guariento and the Tomb of Doge Giovanni Dolfin in Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice (Wednesday 20th January)
  • Tom Nickson, looking at the significance of light and its subsequent obscuration in gothic buildings (Wednesday, 10th February)
  • Paula Nuttall, on dance and low-life subjects in drawings by Verrochio (Monday, 7th March)

Details of individual events can be found at http://www.bbk.ac.uk/events-calendar

All seminars this term are held at 5pm in the Keynes Library at Birkbeck’s School of Arts (Room 114, 43, Gordon Sq., London, WC1H OPD). A break at 5.50pm is followed by discussion and refreshments.

Murray Seminars poster

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