IMC 2019: Sessions
Session 620: 'Deformis formositas ac formosa deformitas' / The Ugliness of Beauty and the Beauty of Ugliness, II: Materializing Ugliness and Deformity in the Middle Ages
Tuesday 2 July 2019, 11.15-12.45
Organisers: | Teodora Artimon, Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky, Trivent Publishing, Budapest |
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Moderator/Chair: | Teodora Artimon, Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest |
Paper 620-a | The Canon Law's Category of the Defectus Corporis and Scandal (Language: English) Index terms: Canon Law, Medicine |
Paper 620-b | Trading in Beauty and Ugliness on Medieval Marriage Market (Language: English) Index terms: Law, Women's Studies |
Paper 620-c | Deformity and the Body of the Sinner: Conceptualizing Deformity as Sin in Early Medieval Metaphor and Thought (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Language and Literature - French or Occitan, Mentalities |
Paper 620-d | The Identification of Beauty-Ugliness of Animals in Romanesque Church Capitals through Human Emotions (Language: English) Index terms: Architecture - Religious, Art History - Sculpture |
Abstract | The session debates the gendered aspects of 'ugliness' and its materializations when transferred from one cultural milieu to the other. It concentrates on aspects of beauty/ugliness with regard to the female body in the context of late medieval Italian marriage markets by presenting the circumstances when unmarried unsightly girls were favoured. It presents the defectus corporis of the clerical body as reflected in religious sources, particularly in canon law, in connection to the public's attitude and the solutions offered for such cases. Furthermore, it traces the evolution and connection between sinners and deformity in late 10th century England, into the late 12th century, in the context of the shifts in the conceptualization of ugliness as sinful. Finally, it discusses the dichotomy of beauty-ugliness in the framework of the theological doctrines of Romanesque period and theories of emotions. |