IMC 2011: Sessions
Session 613: Something for Nothing: Pictorial and Material Austerity in the Visual Arts of the Middle Ages, II - The Mendicant Orders
Tuesday 12 July 2011, 11.15-12.45
| Sponsor: | Walters Art Museum, Baltimore |
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| Organiser: | Kathryn Gerry, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore |
| Moderator/Chair: | Federico Botana, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London |
| Paper 613-a | The Medieval Wall Painting in the West Tribune of St Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna: Some New Considerations about Iconography and Function (Language: English) Index terms: Art History - Painting, Religious Life |
| Paper 613-b | Visual Splendor, Textual Poverty: A 14th-Century Illuminated Meditationes Vitae Christi (Oxford Corpus Christi College, Ms 410) (Language: English) Index terms: Art History - Painting, Manuscripts and Palaeography |
| Paper 613-c | Transcendence of the Material at San Marco (Language: English) Index terms: Art History - Painting, Religious Life |
| Abstract | The use of lavish materials to manifest invisible spiritual truths has long been a prominent theme in discussions of medieval art, but medieval artists and patrons also turned to visual austerity and representations of poverty in order to convey their spiritual ideals, and an emphasis on forsaking worldly goods for the greater riches of salvation played a significant role in defining the subject matter and shaping the pictorial strategies of the visual arts. Objects, paintings and other visual arts were skillfully used to promote ideals of poverty, to mediate tensions between earthly and spiritual wealth, or to manipulate the perception of wealth. The papers in this session will offer new perspectives on how artists, patrons, and viewers understood and used austerity as a tool in visual communication. |