Skip to main content

IMC 2018: Sessions

Session 730: Memory as a Tool in Medieval Art: Creation, Depiction, and Heritage

Tuesday 3 July 2018, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:Institute of History of Art & Culture, Pontifical University of John Paul II, Kraków
Organiser:Dariusz Tabor, Institute of History of Art & Culture, Pontifical University of John Paul II, Kraków
Moderator/Chair:Arnold Otto, Erzbischöfliches Generalvikariat Erzbistumsarchiv, Paderborn
Paper 730-aMemory of Scripture and Church Fathers in the Iconophile Polemics: The Case of Chresis
(Language: English)
Piotr Łukasz Grotowski, Institute of History of Art & Culture, Pontifical University of John Paul II, Kraków
Index terms: Art History - General, Biblical Studies, Byzantine Studies, Rhetoric
Paper 730-bThe Flowers of Memory: (Re)Collecting the Church Fathers' Thought in Medieval Florilegia
(Language: English)
Justyna Słowik, Institute of History of Art & Culture, Pontifical University of John Paul II, Kraków
Index terms: Art History - General, Byzantine Studies, Ecclesiastical History, Theology
Paper 730-cThe Memorial of St Hedvig (and Duke Henry): Sainthood from Heroic Death or Sainthood from Virtuous Life - Reinterpreting Miniatures from Hedvig Codex (Malibu, CA, J. P. Getty Museum 83. MN. 126)
(Language: English)
Dariusz Tabor, Institute of History of Art & Culture, Pontifical University of John Paul II, Kraków
Index terms: Art History - Painting, Hagiography, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Rhetoric
Paper 730-dAgainst Tragic Memory: Allegory and Historiosophy in 19th-Century Polish Historical Painting - The Example of Jan Matejko's Defeat at Legnica - Revival
(Language: English)
Barbara Ciciora, Institute of History of Art & Culture, Pontifical University of John Paul II, Kraków
Index terms: Medievalism and Antiquarianism
Abstract

Piotr Grotowski focuses on the problem of the biblical and taken from Church Fathers' quotations used as an argument in the debate on the images and their function in the Orthodox Church. Such paradigmatic sayings from scripture or from other authoritative writers - in the theory of rhetoric called chresis – were used not only to strengthen position of the disputants, but also influenced the final solutions concerning icons as objects of veneration. Two examples of such frequent quotations (from Ex. 25: 17–22 and from Basil of Caesarea, On the Holy Spirit, XVIII, 45) are analyzed in the paper.

Justyna Słowik analyzes excerpts from the polemical writings which were employed by both parties to discredit the opponents' arguments during the Council of Hieria, summoned to support the iconoclast position in the Byzantine iconoclasm controversy. Florilegia – systematic but interpreted in an unconstrained and individual fashion, collections of quotations from the works of the Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers, compiled with a view to serve dogmatic or ethical purposes – were first used during the Council of Ephesus in 431, but obtained a fully developed and definite form in the 7th century, subsequently contributing to the ultimate condemnation of the cult of images.
Dariusz Tabor studies the famous Book of Hedwig and its 67 miniatures. In fact this book remembers and memorizes the personage of Saint Hedwig from Silesia. Paradoxically, her model of sainthood was predeceased by the shape of sainthood of her son, the duke Henry II, fallen in the battle at Legnica and transferred into the heaven. Two different models of sainthood has been remembered, but in two different ways.
Barbara Ciciora – Czwornóg takes in relief the historiographical tradition of defeat in the battle of Legnica and the death of Henry II. Following this tradition there were two iconographical types – representation of battle and image of died body of duke. Jan Matejko, master of polish historical painting, broke this tradition presenting the funeral of Duke Henry. Reshaping medieval historical moment in the allegory Matejko created a deep, full of hope and historiosophical treatise in look for consolation of contemporary Poles.