IMC 2019: Sessions

Session 336: Reconstituting the Middle Ages: Using Medieval Sources to Recover the Material Past, III - Vulnerable Materials

Monday 1 July 2019, 16.30-18.00

Organisers:	Laura Cleaver, Department of History of Art & Architecture, Trinity College Dublin Kathryn Gerry, Department of Art History, University of Kansas
Moderator/Chair:	Laura Cleaver, Department of History of Art & Architecture, Trinity College Dublin
Paper 336-a	Early Medieval Embroidery and Documentary Sources (Language: English) Alexandra M. Lester-Makin, School of Arts, Languages & Cultures, University of Manchester Alexandra Makin, Independent Scholar, Worsley Index terms: Art History - Decorative Arts, Social History
Paper 336-b	Reweaving the Material Past: Textual Restoration of a Lost Textile from St Albans (Language: English) Kathryn Gerry, Department of Art History, University of Kansas Index terms: Art History - Decorative Arts, Ecclesiastical History, Hagiography
Paper 336-c	Picturing Painting of the 15th Century: Evidence from the Archives (Language: English) Katherine Baker, Department of Art & Design, Arkansas State University Index terms: Archives and Sources, Art History - Painting
Abstract	The material turn has put art history at the forefront of historical and cultural studies. Yet for medievalists the loss of so much material evidence continues to be a frustrating reality. Textual accounts of buildings, interiors, and objects, together with documentation of secular collections and sacred treasuries, appear to offer tantalizing glimpses of medieval life, but these accounts sometimes sit awkwardly with surviving objects. These linked sessions will examine how we can attempt to reconstruct the lost material past and what we might hope to gain by doing so. The third session explores issues raised by the loss of the most vulnerable materials, such as textiles.