Adrien Palladino

Reapproaching Conques from new contexts is the basis of the present volume, a product of the international project “Conques in the Global World. Transferring Knowledge: from Material to Immaterial Heritage” (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange H2020). Although it is an important location of cultural heritage and has been consequential historiographically and in the formation of art history, there has never been a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach to this momentous site. Thus, this volume publishes the first results of the interdisciplinary and international project, which were initially presented at a conference and enriched by workshops held in New York City in the summer of 2022. The collected essays open with reflective and historiographic work on Conques in the nineteenth century. These segue into essays reconsidering specific integral elements of extant medieval materials at the site. Finally, the volume concludes with a series of essays devoted to placing Conques in a broader context. The entire volume aims to open to as yet unaddressed questions in scholarship on Conques, with the hope that this work will provide a foundation for future studies.

Is it possible to reconstruct the feeling of a medieval pilgrim walking towards the sacred? No, it is not. And yet, the experimental project Migrating Art Historians sought to delve into this impossibility. Journeying by foot over more than 1500km, twelve modern pilgrims – students and scholars from Masaryk University – reached some of the most impressive artistic monuments of medieval France.
One year later, this book presents their intellectual, human, and art historical theoretical know-how, transformed by the experience of their bodies. In this context, exhausted and activated bodies became instruments asking new questions to medieval artworks and sources. Structured as a walk along pilgrimage routes, this book presents firstly the landscape, followed by liminal zones, before leading the reader inside medieval churches and ultimately towards the sacred. Original scientific art historical research combines with personal engagement. What emerges is the subject confronted with the experience of medieval art.

https://www.viella.it/libro/9788833130903

Plotinus and the Origins of Medieval Aesthetics, an iconic essay of byzantinist André Grabar, first published in 1945 in French, is here presented to the reader for the first time translated in English. It is preceded by an historiographical introduction by Adrien Palladino, presenting the genesis of the text, replacing it within the opus of the scholar, and assessing its relevance within the new horizons of the field of art history.

The city has always been, and remains, the ideal place of collective rituality. It is the city that has hosted, since Antiquity, collective celebrations of victory, important religious ceremonies, but also ritual consecrations of the elite. Based on these essential notions, the aim of this book is to reflect on a specific issue: the interaction between ritual and city space. Our wish is to understand, in a multidisciplinary and cross-epochal approach, how a collective liturgy, civic or religious, can unfold within the public space and transform it. In addition to sacred buildings and seizures of power, the square and the streets become in this sense important identity-shaping loci. Bringing places of power to the street or the square – which are by definition liminal spaces – means entering into a dialogue constructed between those who organise the ritual, those who perform it and those who witness it. It seems that it is in compromise between the different components of society that collective rituals can happen within the public space. Therefore, it is no surprise that the crucial question for this book is the way in which this same space is adapted to the requirements of the ritual, or, on the contrary, how the ritual adapts to the space.

The idea of displacing bodies or body-parts for the Christian cult of saints and relics represented a fundamental departure from the ancient relationship with bodies and bodily remains. Promoters of the cult in the fourth century, such as Ambrose of Milan, thus had to justify these new practices within a network of rhetorical and material realities, creating an ideological “frame” that mirrored the physical one – the reliquaries housing the relics themselves. Two centuries later, in the age of Gregory of Tours, these accepted practices were reframed in yet another geographical and cultural realm, paving the way for the medieval cult of relics. Against the backdrop of this classical narrative, this article aims to understand the tension between the intellectual and ideal setting of the cult of relics promoted by Ambrose and his circle and its actual material reality and transformations over the two centuries leading up to Gregory’s time. Specifically, the paper focuses on the new practices around martyrs’ relics put into place by the bishop of Milan, and how they spread via the contemporary networks of the ecclesiastic and intellectual elite. Secondly, based on the analysis of selected objects from the fourth-century Italian Peninsula such as the San Nazaro casket and the small capsella at Garlate, as well as on sources describing the performance of relics, the article examines the actual effectiveness of the cult’s material implementation as opposed to its rhetorical framing. Ultimately, it questions the efficacy and longevity of the initial networking promoted by Ambrose, especially when implemented in a place and time where Romanization and Christianization underwent a different set of parameters than in Milan.

In the 19th-century, historicist restoration projects were more than often invested with major stakes and meaning for cities, official figures, and theoreticians alike. The re-Gothicization project of the Church of Saint James the Great in Brno is no different: as a matter of fact, the sources and writings describing the church’s transformation between circa the 1860s and 1880s provide us with a rich array of materials which allow to understand both the historiography of the building, and the intertwining of local and global practices in a Central European town.
With the text on the restoration of the historian Christian d’Elvert as a guideline, and making use of numerous unpublished archive documents, what emerges is a dive into the history of the mentalities of a restoration project involving an entire society – from citizens and local authorities to the German master builder Josef Arnold, and to the famous Viennese architect Heinrich Ferstel. In such a way, the article follows – in three steps – all the major stages of the restoration, from its intellectual conception as a project to “purify” the appearance of the church to practical issues such as the involvement of votive donations in its financing, and to the global dynamics involved behind the idea of a neo-Gothic restoration in the second half of the long 19th century.

Anton Pilgram has been well-known by art historians for several generations. Within art historical narratives, he is often portrayed as one of the prototypical figures of an architect-builder and sculptor at the threshold between the Middle Ages and the early Modern period. The scope of this article is to use the figure of Pilgram as a case study to examine the historiographical tendencies within, and between, German-speaking and Czech-speaking scholarship.

This workshop aims to ask a simple yet complex question: how can a (holy) place becomes mythical through the intersection of its name (echoed by pilgrims, travelers, “policymakers”, texts, and accounts), its topographical features, and its visual representations? Necessarily at the intersection of scholarly traditions and disciplines, this study day wishes to understand this phenomenon by crossing perspectives from scholars studying “Eastern” and “Western” – as far as these categories are relevant. The mythicization of space is, of course, not only the result of these factors playing together: this workshop also wishes to investigate the purposeful fabrication of place by policymakers, from ruling powers to ecclesiastical authorities.

In person: 17 November 2023 at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland)
Online: https://unil.zoom.us/j/95408794847

This workshop and conference are organized as part of the project Conques in the Global World. Transferring Knowledge: From Material to Immaterial Heritage (H2020_MS-CA-RISE 101007770). : 11 13.00-17.00, Rodez Responses to the "Romanesque" (18th-20th Centuries) by Adrien Palladino /Masaryk University/ Visit to the Musée Soulages & churches of Saint-Amans and Sacré-Coeur of Rodez : 12

Keynote lecture by professor Patrick Donabédian (Aix-Marseille University), The Golden Age of Armenian Architecture in the 7th Century – Culmination of a Late Antique Legacy?, which will take place in the Hans Belting Library on the 20th February from 6 p.m.
https://earlymedievalstudies.com/EN/news%20html/2022/event_22.02.20.html

The aim of this conference will be to expand the discussion on Russian emigration in the most interdisciplinary way possible. The impact of emigration on sciences as well as the arts will be explored. The main focus is not only on individual stories, but how these established new dialogues that transformed the cultural, scientific, and artistic world – with notable impact on the world of today. In sum, the aim of the conference is to reflect on the life-changing effects of elite emigration on the national and supranational structures receiving them.

CFP for an international conference which will be held at the Hans Belting Library, Department of Art History, Masaryk University in Brno, from DECEMBER 10–11, 2024. Researchers are invited to send their proposal (title, abstract 300 words, and CV) by MAY 31, 2024.

The workshop aims to explore how Byzantine art history has developed at a key moment in European history, during the 1920s and the 1930s, focusing on the individual stories of Byzantine art historians in that period.
The workshop intends to explore the theoretical and methodological innovations which emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, and how the latter intertwined with the geopolitical and cultural context of that time. We especially seek short papers deepening the biography of pivotal scholars of Byzantine art and to compare how they approached the discipline in different contexts, such as in Western and Central Europe, in the United States, and in the USSR.

Organisers: Ivan Foletti, Universities of Brno and Ca' Foscari Venice Adrien Palladino, Universities of Brno and Fribourg

The aim of this conference is to expand the discussion, through an investigation of this phenomenon in the most interdisciplinary way possible. Specifically, the impact of Russian emigration on hard and soft sciences, as well as the arts, will be explored. The main input is therefore not to focus only on individual stories, but to reflect on how this newly established dialogue transformed the world. Special attention will therefore be given to the particularities of the Russian émigrés' experience as well as the manner in which existing communities were able to integrate with the new arrivals, acquiring their specific knowledge and perceptions. In sum, the aim of this conference is to reflect on the life-changing effects of elite emigration on the national and supranational structures receiving them. And, in turn, the métisse identity of the integrated migrants becoming one of the cornerstones of a new civilisation. Participants are invited to reflect on issues such as the historiography of the sciences, artistic production, from visual arts and literature to theatre and movie-making, interdisciplinary approaches within a particularly broad geographical frame.

The Summer School " Crossing the past " aims for a discussion about different (national) art historical narratives of a specific late medieval corpus in Moravia. It provides the opportunity for young international scholars to meet the material reality of one of the most important medieval centers of the transalpine Europe, often marginal-ized in the research, not only due to the linguistic barrier. Encounter of local participants with those from abroad will lead to discussion of a topic closely related to Central-Euro-pean territory. The goal of the school is, first, a close and direct examination of the on-site monuments and art objects, and secondly a critical reflection about the diverse narratives and meta-narratives existing about these monuments. Originating from different conditions those narratives are the result of regional or national ideologies and accordingly prevailing political, social and cultural paradigms on the one side and the respective art historical studies on the other. A major focus is to be especially on the period from World War I until our present days. We would like to explore how the birth of a modern state of Czechoslovakia, the successive Nazi occupation, the years of communism and the period following the fall of the Wall had determined the development of very different studies dedicated to the same objects and monuments. The cases chosen for this encounter are the medieval and early modern cities of Brno and Olomouc, both in Moravia, which represent truly remarkable centers of the Mitteleuropa at that time. These case studies are particularly important to follow the progressive development of the different historiographies above all within the German and Czech context. The Summer School will be composed of two main parts. During the first one, held in situ, groups of two scholars with various linguistic competences will be invited to present some of the key monuments and objects of the two cities. In a second part, the same groups will present the analyzed monuments once again, focusing on the purely historio-graphical dimension. On a background of the historical events, different " mono-cultural " positions will be probably outlined. Finally, various " lives " of the studied monuments and objects will ideally be exposed and interpreted. Practically speaking, every candidate will be invited to present a monument or certain urban, architectural or art historical aspect of one of the two chosen cities , from the list below. For the application it will be necessary to prove a primary knowledge and understanding of the subject, as well as a particular attention to its historiographical dimension. In essence, we aim to create a space of exchange and of a new dialogue, based precisely on the different positions. In an ideal way, we would like to sketch an outline of historiographical synthesis that would no longer be determined by the Iron Curtain which continues to play, 25 years after the fall of the Wall, an important role. Accommodation and travel expenses will be covered by the organizers for all the European participants. As for the participants from other continents, conditions of the coverage of the travel expenses will be discussed individually.

During the spring semester 2017, a group of eleven stu- dents led by professor Ivan Foletti lived through an astonishing experiment in medieval art. From March to June, the group walked through Switzerland and France, following several ancient pilgrimage roads.
The goal of this experience was not to imitate the medieval pilgrim within a world where everything is different. In particular, the lifestyle of Western culture – radically transformed by means of transport and accelerated by virtual communication – has contributed to the increase of the Cartesian dichotomy between body and mind. The ambition was on the contrary to re ect on the elements that human beings have shared throughout the centuries.

The short documentary movies produced within the project Migrating Art Historians deal with various topics linked to the phenomenon of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages and today. The films 2 to 5 speak about the different perceptions and intellectual constructions about the Medieval art; about the importance of light in the life of a pilgrim and in the life of an artifact; about the perception of time during the pilgrimage and about the alimentation of a medieval and contemporary pilgrim.

This first documentary movie from the cycle produced within the experimental scientific project "Migrating Art Historians".  It deals with pilgrimage in different religious traditions, with the sacral and secular aspects of pilgrimage and with the common points and the differences between the medieval and contemporary pilgrimage. For more information about the project: http://www.migratingarthistorians.com/

The aim of this international conference, organized under the auspices of the "Eurasia in Global Dialogue" Programme, is to offer a better understanding of contemporary developments in Eurasia by looking at their origins in Byzantium. The focus will fall on the history of the reception of the Byzantine heritage in Russia and Eastern Europe. While addressing a wide range of topics in intellectual history, politics, aesthetics, religion, etc., all papers will engage with the contested nature of the concept of "Eurasia."

The workshop will explore the question of why Byzantium was and keeps being marginalized within the western academic canon and to a lesser extent in the public discourse. Instead of resurrecting the 19th and early 20th century academic debate known as the “Byzantine question” (“Byzantinische Frage”), this workshop examines the historiographical mechanisms and turning points that resulted in the marginalization of Byzantium in art history and related fields. In an attempt to move past pinpointing single moments of “influence” from Byzantium to the West, the workshop asks why the one hundred-year search to answer the “Byzantine question” was unsuccessful, failing to secure a prominent place for the Eastern Roman Empire within art historical teaching and scholarship.
Building on these insights, the workshop will delve into practical aspects, seeking possible places for Byzantium after the end of a linear, chronological art historical canon as described by Hans Belting (Das Ende der Kunstgeschichte: Eine Revision nach 10 Jahren) and others. The talks will focus on historiography and scholarly networks, on questions of collecting, artistic production, national and supranational political thought, and on Byzantium’s place within the boundaries of modern academic disciplines.