IMC 2009: Sessions

The proposed papers investigate three sculptural programs and the visual images they employed in the struggle against heresy in 13th-century Provence, 12th-century Languedoc and 13th-century Chartres Cathedral. No profiled iconography or pictorial tradition existed in the Middle Ages in the struggle against heresy. Thus, each paper is concerned with the specific intentions and attitudes of the patrons, the choice of the pictorial schemes, and the literary and visual sources of the programs.
The first paper studies the prominent attributes of King Herod in his two representations within the sculptural cycle of Arles, which point to the plausible contention of his role as a contra-image against heresy.
The second paper considers the series of images on the socles of the church of Saint-Gilles-du-Gard, which have received little scholarly attention. It argues that central motifs of this lower program present images of crusade and of the battle against heresy.