IMC 2011: Sessions

Session 604: Images in Action: Processions, Feast Days, and Other Ecclesiastical Celebrations

Tuesday 12 July 2011, 11.15-12.45

Sponsor:	International Center of Medieval Art
Organisers:	Melanie Hackney, Department of French Studies, Louisiana State University Michele Luigi Vescovi, Università di Parma
Moderator/Chair:	Michele Luigi Vescovi, Università di Parma
Paper 604-a	Dressed to Process: Ritual Costume, Display, and Reception of Il Volto Santo (Language: English) Carey Fee, Department of Art History, Florida State University Index terms: Art History - General, Art History - Sculpture
Paper 604-b	Iam Servus Allato Capite: About the Use of the Johannesschüssel (Language: English) Georg Geml, Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Technische Universität Wien Index terms: Art History - Sculpture, Liturgy, Performance Arts - General
Paper 604-c	Circling the City: Rogations Processions and Religious Devotion in Late Medieval Le Puy-en-Velay (Language: English) Elisa Foster, Department of the History of Art & Architecture, Brown University Index terms: Archaeology - General, Art History - Sculpture
Paper 604-d	Image in Action: Funeral Processions (Language: English) Renée Del Porto Ortuzar, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Index terms: Art History - General, Social History
Abstract	Throughout the Middle Ages, images played a crucial role within ecclesiastical celebrations. From reliquaries in Rogation processions to statues in feast day celebrations to representations of corpses in funeral processions, images engaged pilgrims, church officials, and the local laity within the context of carefully choreographed performances. Scholarly attention on this class of images has tended to focus on questions of attribution, iconography, and artistic technique. The layered social function of these images, by contrast, remains largely unexplored territory. Through a series of considered case studies, this proposed panel explores this rich field from the perspective of theories of performance and ritual.