Skip to main content

IMC 2018: Sessions

Session 1129: The Meditationes Vitae Christi and Visual Constructions of Memory, II

Wednesday 4 July 2018, 11.15-12.45

Organisers:Renana Bartal, Department of Art History, Tel Aviv University
Holly Flora, School of Liberal Arts, Tulane University, Louisiana
Moderator/Chair:Renana Bartal, Department of Art History, Tel Aviv University
Paper 1129-aThe Writer as Viewer: Recollecting Art in the Text of the Meditationes
(Language: English)
Joanna Cannon, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London
Paper 1129-bMemory and Female Agency in Illustrated Manuscripts of the Meditationes
(Language: English)
Holly Flora, School of Liberal Arts, Tulane University, Louisiana
Paper 1129-cThe Meditationes Vitae Christi in a New Light
(Language: English)
Péter Tóth, British Library, London
Abstract

Drawing on diverse literary traditions ranging from apocryphal gospels to the sermons of Bernard of Clairvaux, the author of the late medieval Meditationes Vitae Christi transformed the terse gospel accounts into an emotionally charged and vivid narrative, constructing memories of the events of Christ's life in the mind of the medieval reader. Art historians have long believed that this experiential aspect of the Meditationes inspired trends in late medieval visual culture, such as the innovative iconography and emotional expressiveness of Trecento art. This interdisciplinary double session seeks a new, integrated understanding of the Meditationes focused specifically on how its visual and textual traditions functioned in the shaping of devotional memories, both personal and social.