IMC 2011: Sessions

Session 813: A Wealth of Values: Exploring the Multivalent Values of Relics and Reliquaries

Tuesday 12 July 2011, 16.30-18.00

Sponsor:	British Museum, London
Organiser:	Anna Harnden, Department of Prehistory & Europe, British Museum, London
Moderator/Chair:	James Robinson, Department of Prehistory & Europe, British Museum, London
Paper 813-a	Local Color: The True Cross Refracted, Reified, Abstracted (Language: English) Laura Veneskey, Northwestern University / Kunsthistorisches Institut, Florence Index terms: Art History - General, Byzantine Studies, Religious Life
Paper 813-b	Dual Veneration: A Relic of Christ/A Relic of a Queen (Language: English) Anna Harnden, Department of Prehistory & Europe, British Museum, London Index terms: Art History - General, Religious Life
Paper 813-c	The Gloss of Glossy Pages: The Reliquary in Exhibition Catalogues (Language: English) Jack Hartnell, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London Index terms: Art History - General, Historiography - Modern Scholarship
Abstract	A Wealth of Values will look at the multivalent values of relics and reliquaries from the Byzantine and Medieval world to the present day. Explorations will be made into how the value of a relic is in constant flux, conditioned by its containers, surroundings and owners. How relics imply both spiritual and material wealth and how relics have been used as validations and symbols of power will be considered. The session will also discuss how relics are continually 're-valued' ie: enshrined, translated, and re-enshrined, both physically and conceptually. Each paper will focus on objects and ideas relating to the exhibition Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics and Devotion in Medieval Europe providing new insights through object led discussion.