Hannah Iterbeke

KU Leuven, Art History, Department Member

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Illuminare - Centre for the Study of Medieval Art | University of Leuven, Belgium

Dra. Hannah Iterbeke
Junior Researcher

Hannah Iterbeke is a PhD student in Art History at Illuminare – Centre for the Study of Medieval Art (KU Leuven). Her research concerns the production, reception and function of sixteenth-century mixed-media devotional objects, known as the Enclosed Gardens (supervisor: prof. dr. Barbara Baert; co-supervisor: prof. dr. Lieve Watteeuw).

In 2015, Hannah completed her Master’s of Art History with a thesis on the making and meaning of silk flowers in the Enclosed Gardens. In the same year, she started working as a scientific associate at Illuminare - Centre for the Study of Medieval Art (KU Leuven), funded by the Chair of Medieval Sculpture. In January 2017, Hannah joined the ArtGarden research project, a study on the significance and preservation of historical mixed-media ensembles. ArtGarden is a collaboration between the preventive conservation unit of the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA), KU Leuven and the University of Antwerp.

Hannah has published in Textile: Cloth and Culture and IKON – Journal for Iconographic Studies. Furthermore, she has written several contributions for exhibition catalogues on early modern art and religion. Currently, she is assisting prof. dr. Lieve Watteeuw with an edited volume on the Mechelen Enclosed Gardens which will appear in the summer of 2018.

Title of PhD project:
The Making and Meaning of Enclosed Gardens: An Interdisciplinary Perspective on Historical Mixed Media (1450-1600)

http://illuminare.be/staff/hannah-iterbeke
Supervisors: Prof. dr. Barbara Baert and Prof. dr. Lieve Watteeuw
Address: Leuven, Vlaams-Brabant, Belgium

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Papers by Hannah Iterbeke

Barbara Baert, Lieve Watteeuw & Hannah Iterbeke, Late Medieval Enclosed Gardens of the Low Countries, in “The Agency of Things in Medieval and Early Modern Art, eds, Grażyna Jurkowlaniec, Ika Matyjaszkiewicz, Zuzanna Sarnecka, Routledge, 2017, p. 19-33.

by Hannah Iterbeke, barbara baert, and Lieve Watteeuw

In what follows, we discuss these gardens as a threefold type of horticulture: a symbolization of... more In what follows, we discuss these gardens as a threefold type of horticulture: a symbolization of Paradise and a sanctuary for interiorization (Barbara Baert) (1), a sublimation of the sensorium in reference to the making of the flowers (Hannah Iterbeke) (2), and as a complex conservation process (Lieve Watteeuw) (3).
NOTE: pdf enclosed = first proof

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Hannah Iterbeke, “Cat. nos 26, 32, 33, 34 (on the Mechelen and Antwerp Enclosed Gardens)” in In Search of Utopia: Art and Science in the Era of Thomas More, ed. Jan Van der Stock (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2016): 188-91; 214-19; 220-23; 224-27.

Hannah Iterbeke, “Leven in het besloten hof: De beeldcultuur en leefwereld van vrouwelijke religieuze gemeenschappen in de middeleeuwen en vroegmoderne tijd,” in Van de wereld. Beelden van beslotenheid en bevrijding, ed. Liesbet Kusters (Leuven: Davidsfonds, 2017): 42-8.

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Hannah Iterbeke, “Cultivating Devotion: The Sixteenth-Century Enclosed Gardens of the Low Countries,” IKON. Journal of Iconographic Studies 10 (2017): 237-250.

The Enclosed Gardens of Mechelen are extraordinary 16th-century reliquaries that frame not only r... more The Enclosed Gardens of Mechelen are extraordinary 16th-century reliquaries that frame not only relics but also papier-mâché seals, jewelry, poupées de Malines, glass beads and pilgrim badges against a background of silk vegetation. Together, these objects compose a garden enclosed by a gate as praised in the Song of Songs. These mixed-media shrines were assembled and organized by religious women during the 15th and 16th centuries. Seven of these Enclosed Gardens were cherished by the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw Gasthuiszusters of Mechelen. The Gardens are a unique expression of the spiritual 'horticulture' of the female convent. This horticulture is deeply rooted in the devotion to the Virgin Mary. This article not only explores the iconography of the Enclosed Gardens, but also the techniques and materials used for the making of the Enclosed Gardens and, additionally, how these influenced the devotional experience of religious women.

Keywords: Enclosed Gardens, Song of Songs, the Holy Hunt, silk flowers, spiritual labour, Imitatio Mariae, female religious, Unio Mystica.

Barbara Baert (with the collaboration by Hannah Iterbeke), Revisiting the Enclosed Gardens of the Low Countries (15th century onwards). Gender, Textile, and the Intimate Space as Horticulture; in Textile. Journal of Cloth and Culture, 2016.

by Hannah Iterbeke and barbara baert

Late medieval convents in the Low Countries saw the emergence of a unique form of mixed-media art... more Late medieval convents in the Low Countries saw the emergence of a unique form of mixed-media art, involving recycled and readymade items that, in a very specific way, articulated the feminine devotional identity and maintained a layered relationship with sacral topography. By wrapping the stone and bone fragments in fine textiles, the nuns lifted these objects out of their inert mundanity so that they came to represent, instead, vigorous life itself. In the present article, I approach the topic of Enclosed Gardens from a broad perspective that combines a variety of methodologies with a view to attaining a renewed understanding of these exceptional pieces of cultural heritage. I deal with the gardens consecutively as a symbolisation of Paradise and the mystical union, as a sanctuary for interiorisation, as a sublimation of the sensorium (particularly smell), as a web of handwork, as an example of tectonics that touch upon the longue durée of the lozenge, and finally as a pars pro toto for the sublimated eros and the phantasma of the nest.

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Conference Presentations by Hannah Iterbeke

Tracing the source: Enclosed Gardens in Late Medieval and Early Modern Texts

On the Making and Meaning of Sixteenth-Century Enclosed Gardens

Cultivating Devotion: the Sixteenth-Century Enclosed Gardens of the Low Countries

Enclosing and Reframing Past Devotion: The Sixteenth-Century Enclosed Gardens as Redefining Structures

The Enclosed Gardens of Mechelen are extraordinary sixteenth-century reliquaries that frame not o... more The Enclosed Gardens of Mechelen are extraordinary sixteenth-century reliquaries that frame not only relics but even wax seals, jewellery, poupées de Malines, glass beads and pilgrim badges against a background of silk vegetation. Together, these objects compose a garden enclosed by a gate as praised in the Song of Songs. These mixed-media shrines seem to be religious wunderkammers assembled and organised by the nuns of the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw Gasthuis of Mechelen around 1500-1520. However, many of the objects framed in these wooden boxes previously functioned in different devotional circumstances. One of the Enclosed Gardens for instance, houses a tiny, framed print behind glass depicting the Temptation of Saint Anthony. Several ornamental elements indicate that this ensemble previously functioned as a scapular. Consequently, this piece does not only represent the virtues of the depicted saint but it also embodies the meditation of its previous owner. This case is just a small example and many others can be given. Therefore, this paper will focus on the unique quality of the Enclosed Gardens to recycle objects with previous owners and uses, and to recontextualise devotional and artistic remnants in a mixed media setting that longs to recreate earthly paradise. Not only were these objects able to adapt and acquire new meanings beyond their original production circumstances, they could even be recharged with different spiritual and sacred powers.

De Besloten Hofjes in de zestiende-eeuwse Lage Landen: tussen geestelijke arbeid en wezenlijke ambacht

Studiedag Voorbij de kloosterpoort. Kloostererfgoed in Vlaanderen. Sint-Baafshuis, Ghent, 24 Nove... more

Devotion to the Silk Flower: The Making and Meaning of Silk Flowers in Sixteenth-Century 'Enclosed Gardens' of Northern Europe

Leuven-Lille-London Study Days (LLL). The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, 30 March-1 April 2015.

Talks by Hannah Iterbeke

Zorg in het kwadraat. De gasthuiszusters en hun Besloten Hofjes (with Joke Vandermeersch)

Omstreeks 1198 vestigden de Onze-Lieve-Vrouwgasthuiszusters zich in Mechelen. Eeuwenlang bekommer... more Omstreeks 1198 vestigden de Onze-Lieve-Vrouwgasthuiszusters zich in Mechelen. Eeuwenlang bekommerden deze zusters-augustinessen zich om de ziekenzorg in de stad. Welke ziekten ze allemaal behandelden, is niet volledig bekend, maar vast staat dat ook pestlijders bij hen terecht konden.

De behandeling van deze epidemie leidde wellicht onrechtstreeks tot het overleven van zeven unieke mixed-media reliekschrijnen, bekend als de Besloten Hofjes. De angst voor besmetting zorgde er immers voor dat het erfgoed van het klooster de beeldenstorm van 1572 en vele andere invallen deels doorstond. Hoewel we nog niet weten of de Besloten Hofjes ook in het klooster zelf werden gecreëerd, is het wel duidelijk dat de gasthuiszusters ze vijf eeuwen lang koesterden.

In 2014 startte de conservering van de Hofjes door een multidisciplinair team van acht conservators-restaurators en wetenschappers in een speciaal ingericht atelier in het Mechelse Hof van Busleyden. Nieuwe onderzoekstechnieken en conservatiemethodes worden toegepast om het merkwaardig aura van de paradijstuintjes voor de toekomst te bewaren. Vandaag is de eerste fase van deze conservering afgerond en kunnen we de eerste resultaten delen.