Symposium – Tracing Jewish Histories: The Long Lives of Medieval Hebrew Manuscripts, Judaica, and Architecture

When: 19 May – 20 May, 2025, 10:00 – 17:00
Where: Courtauld Institute of Art – Vernon Square Campus, Lecture Theatre 2
Free, Booking essential – To book your ticket, please follow this link

Works of art and architecture made by or for Jewish communities in the medieval period are often examined through the lenses of persecution and expulsion, or are contrasted against Christian or Muslim“styles.” This symposium seeks to expand and nuance these narratives in order to highlight how works of art and architecture can uniquely trace the history of particular Jewish communities by mapping their movements and traditions across generations and geographies. Medieval Jewish objects and spaces can also serve as loci to examine ideas related to collective memory and cultural identity. To that end, the symposium seeks to open new dialogues regarding the “afterlives” of medieval Jewish art more broadly, initiating discussions regarding the ways in which works of art and architecture continued to bear witness to the richness of Jewish life and culture long after they were created.

Organised by Laura Feigen and Reed O’Mara, this symposium is supported by Sam Fogg and the Mellon Foundation with additional support from The Department of Art History and Art at Case Western Reserve University.

Programme:

Monday 19 May

10.00 – 10.30: Registration opens
The Courtauld, Vernon Square Campus

10.30 – 11.00: Opening remarks, and introduction to the day
Tom Nickson, The Courtauld; Laura Feigen, The Courtauld, and Reed O’Mara, Case Western Reserve University

11.00 – 12.30: Session I – Manuscripts and movement
Chaired by Claudia Haines, Case Western Reserve University

Judith Olszowy-Schlanger, University of Oxford,
“Palaeography and the Tracing of the Origins and History of a Bilingual Psalter (MS Oxford, Corpus Christi College 10)”
Katrin Kogman-Appel, University of Münster,
“Illustrated Books, their Makers and Owners in an Age of Migration”
Javier del Barco, Universidad Complutense de Madrid,
‘“From Northern Italy to Dublin: The Journey of a Hebrew Bible at the Chester Beatty Library”

12.30 – 13.30: Lunch Break
Provided for speakers and organisers  only

13.30 – 15.00: Session II – Making and remaking
Introduced by Allison Boroff, Case Western Reserve University
Chaired by Sarah Frisbie, Case Western Reserve University

Leor Jacobi, Bar Ilan University,
“Bound in Catalonia: Jewish Bookbindings Produced for Christians as Historical Witnesses”
Hila Manor, Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
“The Long Lives of the Oldest Pair of Torah Finials”
Roni Cohen, Goethe University,
“Manuscripts, Gamblers, and Medieval Hebrew Hits”

15.00 – 15.30: Break

15.30 – 17.00: Session III – New lives of architecture
Introduced by Darren Helton, Case Western Reserve University
Chaired by Natalia Munoz-Rojas, The Courtauld

Ilia Rodov, Bar-Ilan University,
“ ‘A Time to Gather Stones’: Spolia, Sacredness, and Memory in Ashkenazi Synagogues”
Eva Frojmovic, University of Leeds,,
“A Second Life in the Museum: Jewish Tombstones After the Black Death”
Franziska Kleybolte, University of Münster,
“The Synagogue-Church of Santa María la Blanca in Toledo: A Site of Jewish-Christian Memory Between Entanglement and Disentanglement”

17.00 – 18.00: Drinks reception
Open to all

———————————

Tuesday 20 May

10.00 – 11.30: Session IV – Collecting practices at large
Introduced by Olga Morgalyuk, The Courtauld 
Chaired by Tess Artis, Case Western Reserve University

William Diebold, Reed College,
“The Darmstadt Haggadah’s Turbulent 1950s”
Abby Kornfeld, City University of New York
“The Róza Gomperz Endowment: Rethinking the Kaufmann Collection of Illuminated Hebrew Manuscripts”
Anna Nizza-Caplan, The Israel Museum,
“ ‘Accessible to All’: The Most Detailed Illustrated Manuscript of the Mishneh Torah”

11.30 – 11.45: Refreshment Break
Coffee and Tea provided

11.45 – 13.05: Curatorial Panel – Problems and Priorities: the acquisition and display of Jewish material culture in museums
Introduced by Sam Truman, Kress Fellow at The Courtauld 
Response by Elizabeth Morrison, J. Paul Getty Museum

Simona Di Nepi, Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Riva Arnold, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Alice Minter, Victoria & Albert Museum

13.05 – 13.30: Closing Remarks
Elina Gertsman, Case Western Reserve University

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: Juan Facundo Riaño Essay Prize, deadline 30th April 2025

ARTES is excited to announce the call for applications to the Juan Facundo Riaño Essay Prize of 2025, funded by the generous support of the Embassy of Spain, for the best art-historical essay on a Hispanic Theme. Please consult the Award section for the full description of the application requirements and the awards.

ONLINE EVENT – ‘The Spanish Gallery Collection Studies’ Series on March 11th at 6pm, UK Time


The Zurbarán Centre is looking forward to celebrating the inaugural publications in ‘The Spanish Gallery Collection Studies’ series, produced by the Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica (CEEH) in Madrid. This series commences with four volumes authored by distinguished experts on Spanish art, who conducted their research during a CEEH-funded fellowship at the Zurbarán Centre between 2021 and 2023:

Murillo’s True Portrait of the Holy King Ferdinand III by Xanthe Brooke
Artistic Exchanges between Spain and Italy, 1516-1621: Orrente Maíno, Tristán, and Cavarozzi by Piers Baker-Bates
Damaged Soul. Visual Cultures of the Repentant Mary Magdalene by Marta Cacho Casal
The Sculptural Works in the Spanish Gallery by Holly Trusted

To join the event, please use the Zoom link below (or copy and paste it into your browser).
https://durhamuniversity.zoom.us/s/99261572629

Copies of the four books can be purchased via the CEEH website: https://www.ceeh.es/en/colecciones/publications/spanish-gallery-en/

REMINDER: 29th January 6pm GMT: Goya’s Caprichos in Nineteenth-Century France: Politics of the Grotesque

The Artes and Zurbarán Center for Spanish and Latin American Art would like to remind members of the upcoming Seminar Series to be held over zoom on January 29th at 6pm GMT, by Dr. Paula Fayos Pérez. Fayos Pérez will be sharing with us her research for the her recent book, Caprichos in Nineteenth-Century France: Politics of the Grotesque (2024), published by the CEEH.

Goya’s Caprichos in Nineteenth-Century France: Politics of the Grotesque
Goya’s impact on 19th-century French art was immense and multifaceted. In Spain, he was known for the royal portraits, while in France he became celebrated for the Caprichos, which were obsessively studied by artists like Eugène Delacroix. French Romantics saw them as a satire of late 18th-century Spain, ignoring Goya’s universalism; his work holds a mirror up to humanity, and even his monsters and witches are nothing but the deformed reflection of humans. In a sort of two-way influence, Goya contributed to shaping French Romantic art–hence the beginning of modern art–while the Romantics modelled his critical image. The established interpretation of Goya is therefore partly based on Romantic stereotypes, many of which have been perpetuated to this day.

Paula Fayos Pérez received a PhD in History of Art from the University of Cambridge in 2019 with a dissertation on the influence of Goya on nineteenth-century French art and literature. She worked as a researcher in the Duke of Wellington’s private collection at Apsley House (London) and Stratfield Saye House (Hampshire). Before receiving a ‘Leonardo’ scholarship from the BBVA Foundation she held a ‘Margarita Salas’ postdoctoral fellowship to teach and conduct research at the Universities of Strasbourg and Madrid (Complutense). In 2023 she organised the international seminar Goya: grotesco / coleccionismo. She has written articles for The Burlington Magazine (2019, 2020), Boletín del Museo del Prado (2022) and Print Quarterly (2023).

To join the event, please use the Zoom link below (or copy and paste it into your browser).

https://durhamuniversity.zoom.us/s/96498831113

CALL FOR PAPERS – Who Ruled the World? Queen Urraca and Her Contemporaries in the Early Twelfth Century

International Conference
Dates: 3 – 5 March 2026
Place: Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid
Organization:
Research Grant: Intersections of Gender, Transculturalism, and Identity in Medieval Iberia:
The Recycling and Long Life of Objects and Textiles (Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation,
and Universities, PID2023-151143NA-I00, 2024-2027), PI: Verónica Carla Abenza Soria,
Universidad Complutense, Madrid

Organizer: Therese Martin, Instituto de Historia, CSIC, Madrid

This conference marks the 900th anniversary of the death of Queen Urraca of León-Castile (born
1079/80, r. 1109-1126) by investigating issues of ruling power and its material display in the early
twelfth century. Previous historiography has tended either to downplay Urraca’s seventeen-year
reign or at best to compare it with that of other queens, especially Matilda of England (d. 1167),
Melisende of Jerusalem (d. 1161), and to a lesser degree Petronila of Aragón (d. 1173). These
reigning queens, while instructive comparisons, were born respectively in 1102, 1105, and 1136;
they were from the generations after Urraca, more properly contemporaries of her son Alfonso
VII (born 1105, r. 1126-1157). Therefore this conference seeks instead to call attention to rulers
– male or female, of any religion – whose reigns were strictly contemporary to Urraca’s in the
first quarter of the twelfth century, in order to understand how her rule played out in its day, not
in hindsight.

We welcome paper proposals investigating the artworks and material culture that can be
associated with early twelfth-century rulership, including coins, seals, textiles, manuscripts,
metalworks, sculptures, buildings, etc., as well as written evidence. Of particular interest are
studies focused on objects and texts that demonstrate cross-cultural or long-distance networks, as
well as analyses of the concepts of gender and religion in the construction of power and authority
in the early twelfth century. We encourage both individual case studies and larger inquiries, for
Europe and beyond, that consider figures whose rulership, like Urraca’s, made an impact on the
social and material culture of this period.

Paper proposals are sought on rulers and the display of rulership from Urraca’s lifetime, especially
those that will contribute to clarifying the larger framework of her reign.
Send title with abstract and author bio, in English or Spanish (not more than 500 words
each), and any queries, by 1 April 2025 to: Urraca2026@gmail.com

ICDAD Talk (In Spanish, Online) – Miquel Barceló: una conversación sobre su viaje con la arcilla / Miquel Barcelón: A Conversation about his Journey with Clay

Miquel Barceló exhibition at Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera in Barcelona
Miquel Barceló speaking at the exhibition at Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera in Barcelona

ICDAD Talk en Español
Monday, July 29, 2024 
(16:00 London ||17:00 Paris || 9:00 Mexico City || 11:00 New York || 00:00 Tokyo)
Online Zoom Meeting (approx. 1 hour program)

Miquel Barceló: una conversación sobre su viaje con la arcilla

Esta charla del ICDAD reúne al escritor y comisario Enrique Juncosa y a la comisaria Margaret Connors McQuade para hablar de la obra menos conocida de Miquel Barceló en cerámica, objeto de una exposición retrospectiva en la Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera de Barcelona (sede de la popular casa de Antonio Gaudí) desde el 8 de marzo hasta el 30 de junio de 2024.

La conversación comenzará con una breve introducción de la rica historia de la cerámica en España, que abarca desde el tercer milenio a.C. hasta principios del siglo XX, a partir de los fondos del Hispanic Society Museum & Library de Nueva York. El estudio se centrará en la materialidad de la cerámica a lo largo de los siglos y servirá para estimular el debate sobre la importancia de la alfarería como primer gran avance tecnológico de la humanidad. Seguidamente, se abordará la trayectoria artística de Miquel Barceló (Felanitx, Mallorca, 1957), pintor, dibujante y uno de los artistas más internacionales de su tiempo (su obra se ha expuesto en los principales Museos de Boston, Montreal, París, London, Dublín, Roma, Madrid, Barcelona, México, Río de Janeiro o Tokio).  Comenzó a trabajar con cerámica a finales de 1994, casi por casualidad. Sin embargo, desde entonces, la cerámica se ha convertido en una práctica esencial. Destacan sus enormes murales de cerámica para una de las capillas de la Catedral gótica de Mallorca, terminados en 2004.

Pottery Bowl / Cuenco, Manises, ca. 1370. Tin-glazed earthenware with cobalt and luster decoration / loza vitriada al estaño con cobalto y lustre. Diam. 45.7 cm. Hispanic Society Museum & Library, New York.  Fotografía Schecter Lee

Miquel Barceló: a conversation about his journey with clay

This ICDAD talk joins writer and curator, Enrique Juncosa, and curator, Margaret Connors McQuade, to discuss the lesser known work of Miquel Barceló in ceramic, the subject of an exhibition at Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera in Barcelona (the famous apartment building designed by Antoni Gaudí in Barcelona) from March 8 until June 30, 2024.

The conversation will begin with a brief introduction of the rich ceramic history of Spain spanning from the 3rd millennium BC through the early twentieth century drawn from the holdings of the Hispanic Society Museum & Library in New York. The survey will be centered on the materiality of ceramic ware over centuries and serve to stimulate discussion on the importance of pottery as the first major technological breakthrough of humankind.  Next, it will analyze the career of a Spanish artist Miquel Barceló (born 1957). He became internationally known in the early 1980s as a painter and draughtsman, having had by now museum shows in Boston, Montreal, Paris, London, Dublin, Rome, Madrid, Barcelona, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo, among other cities. He started making ceramics at the end of 1994, almost by chance. Since then, however, ceramics have become a major part of his work. He built huge ceramic murals for one of the chapels of Mallorca gothic Cathedral finished in 2004.

This talk will be moderated by Mariàngels Fondevila, Conservadora, Art Modern i Contemporani / Curator, Modern & Contemporary Art, Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya. 

Enrique Juncosa (Palma de Mallorca, España, 1961) es escritor y curador. Fue director del Museo Irlandés de Arte Moderno en Dublín entre 2003 y 2012, tarea por la cual recibió la Orden del Mérito Civil del Gobierno de España. Anteriormente, había sido Subdirector del Museo Reina Sofía de Madrid y del IVAM de Valencia. Juncosa ha publicado dos libros de relatos, nueve colecciones de poemas y numerosos ensayos sobre arte contemporáneo. Ha comisariado cerca de 80 exposiciones en museos de todo el mundo.

Enrique Juncosa (Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 1961) is a writer and a curator. He was director of the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin between 2003 and 2012, task for which he was granted the Order of the Civil Merit by the Spanish Government. Before, he had been Deputy Director of Museo Reina Sofía Madrid and IVAM, Valencia. Juncosa has published two books of short stories, nine collections of poems, and many essays on contemporary art. He has curated near 80 exhibitions in museums all over the world.

Margaret E. Connors McQuade es una conservadora independiente de Nueva York.  Hasta hace poco era Directora Adjunta y Jefa de Colecciones del Hispanic Society Museum & Library, donde desempeñó diversas funciones durante casi 31 años.  Se doctoró en Historia del Arte por el Graduate Center de la City University de Nueva York en 2005. Además de una serie de exposiciones a pequeña escala en la Hispanic Society, Margaret fue comisaria de las exposiciones Talavera Poblana: Four Centuries of a Mexican Ceramic Tradition (Americas Society 1999), y Alcora en Nueva York: La colección de cerámica de Alcora en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Castellón de la Plana y en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia, 2005. Actualmente es comisaria, junto con Alexandra Frantischek Rodriguez-Jack, de la exposición, A Room of her Own: The Estrados of Viceregal Spain, que se inaugurará en la Hispanic Society el 7 de noviembre de 2024.

Margaret E. Connors McQuade is an independent curator from New York.  Until recently, she was Deputy Director and Head of Collections at the Hispanic Society Museum & Library, where she worked in a number of roles for nearly 31 years.  She received her Ph.D. in art history from the Graduate Center at the City University of New York in 2005. In addition to a series of small-scale exhibitions at the Hispanic Society, Margaret curated the exhibitions, Talavera Poblana: Four Centuries of a Mexican Ceramic Tradition (Americas Society 1999), and Alcora en New York: La colección de cerámica de Alcora at the Museo de Bellas Artes de Castellón de la Plana and Museo de Bellas Artes, Valencia, 2005. She is currently co-curating with Alexandra Frantischek Rodriguez-Jack the exhibition, A Room of her Own: The Estrados of Viceregal Spain, which opens at the Hispanic Society on November 7, 2024.

Register Here! 
You will be sent a link shortly before the program. 

This ICDAD organized talk is the fifth in a series of online conversations with decorative arts and design professionals. 

CALL FOR PAPER: Medieval Iberia in a Connected World – The Raw-Materials Record (2025 International Congress on Medieval Studies)

Session Title: Medieval Iberia in a Connected World – the Raw-Materials Record

Importance:
This session aims to contribute to the production of knowledge about the Global Middle Ages by analyzing the role that the Iberian Peninsula played in the trade of raw materials. On the one hand, the aim is to advance the knowledge of the Iberian Peninsula as a point of arrival/departure of raw materials from not only extra-peninsular but also extra-European territories. In addition, it is also intended to address the representations and symbolism of those raw materials from outside the peninsula that they acquired when they arrived there.

Method:
This session will create a space for methodological reflection. It thus aims to bring together researchers from very different disciplinary perspectives, here including not only the Humanities but also scholars from the Experimental and Natural Sciences. This session will highlight the need for cross-cultural approaches to a more comprehensive approach to Medieval Iberia.

Description for Call for Papers:
We invite papers for one session that might contribute to understand Medieval Iberia in a connected world by addressing the raw-materials record. Papers may delve into issues of short, medium and long distance trade; the subsequent use of these raw materials in the production of objects, artifacts or buildings; as well as the meaning and symbolism that can be identified from them in visual and literary culture. Proposals for papers will be accepted through September 15 and need to be submit at: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2025/paper/papers/index.cgi?sessionid=6341

Delivery Mode: Hybrid session

Organizers:
Erika Loic (eloic@fsu.edu)
Alicia Miguélez (amiguelez@fcsh.unl.pt)

Sponsoring Organization:
Instituto de Estudos Medievais, Univ. NOVA de Lisboa

Keywords:
Medieval Iberia, Global Middle Ages, Raw-Materials, Trade, Reception and Symbolism

Upcoming ARTES Trip: Visit to Valladolid and Madrid

ARTES is excited to plan an enthralling short trip to Spain in early December to visit two major exhibitions: One monographic shjow at the Museo Nacional de Escultura in Valladolid, dedicated to the Baroque Sculptor Luisa Roldán (1652-1706), and the other to a major show on sculpture at the Museo Nacional del Prado: Hand in Hand. Sculpture and Colour in the Golden Age.

Proposed Itinerary:

Tuesday 3 December: Museo Nacional de Escultura (Valladolid) – Luisa Roldán exhibition with curators, and the renowned Roldán Expert Catherine Hall-van den Elsen and ARTES President, Holly Trusted.

Wednesday 4 December: Museo del Prado (Madrid) – Visit the exhibition Hand in Hand with the curator Manuel Arias, followed by a visit at 5pm to Factum Arte Madrid, an interesting company specialising in reproductions. (Glass of wine included).

Thursday 5 December: Royal Collections Madrid; details to be confirmed.

As usual, ARTES members are advised to book their own transport and accommodation. Valladolid is approximately two hours from Madrid by train. If you wish to attend the visit, please notify Piers Baker-Bates via email (piers.baker-bates@open.ac.uk) by 30th June.

Glendinng Lecture 2024 – The Islamic monuments in Spain as historical devices (16th to 18th centuries)

When: May 13th, 2024, 6pm UK Time
Where: Instituto Cervantes of London

What history of Spain could be written using the Islamic monuments of Al-Andalus as sources?
Were the Mosque of Córdoba, the Giralda of Seville, and the Alhambra of Granada part of the
nation’s history? What interest could an Arabic inscription or a decorative fragment of
ataurique have at a time when admiration for classical ruins and relics of the martyrs was
prevalent? These questions directly engaged some of the most prominent Iberian historians of
the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. The controversy took shape during the Alpujarras
Rebellion, reached its zenith during the expulsion of the Moriscos, and remained active
throughout the Early Modern Period. On one hand, there was a need to explain these
remnants of the past within a general framework that acknowledged the importance of
historical monuments while seeking to establish cultural and religious homogeneity in conflict
with the recent history of the Iberian Islam. On the other hand, it was understood that the
monumental power of these buildings could be of some use in the historical debates about the
origin of Spain and its ecclesiastical history, even competing with the ruins of ancient Rome. In
this overall context, the lecture will address issues such as tensions between transformation,
preservation, interpretation, and appropriation of monuments in a cross-cultural context,
historical forgeries, techniques of describing and analyzing buildings as historical sources, the
relationship of monuments to the religious conflicts of the time and to the Morisco population,
the impact of buildings on city life, and the doubts of historians when confronted with writing
about controversial matters.

Antonio Urquízar-Herrera (Córdoba, Spain, 1973) is Full Professor at the History of Art
Department of the UNED, Madrid. He has published several works on Early Modern Art in
Spain, among them Admiration and Awe. Morisco Buildings and Identity Negotiations in Early
Modern Spanish Historiography (Oxford University Press, 2017), and Coleccionismo y nobleza.
Signos de distinción social en la Andalucía del Renacimiento (Marcial Pons, 2007). He is PI of
the research group Arte y Pensamiento (https://artepensamiento.hypotheses.org/) and has
been Chair to the COST Action CA18129 IS-LE Islamic Legacy: Narratives East, West, South,
North of the Mediterranean (1350-1750), that has brought together more than 250
researchers coming for 35 European and Mediterranean countries (https://is-le.uned.es/). For
further information, see here

For ONLINE ATTENDANCE, Please register your attendance for this event here.

For IN-PERSON ATTENDANCE, Please send an email to artesiberia@gmail.com to confirm your place, before May 5th.

Seminar Session – Copied Singularities: Tracking Animal Illustrations around the Early Modern World 

Detail of animals, Ferdinand Verbiest, A Complete Map of the World, 1674

When: 17th April at 6pm (UK Time) via Zoom
Zoom Link: https://durhamuniversity.zoom.us/s/95933854468

Artes would like to invite all to the next seminar session as part of the Zurbarán Center for Spanish and Latin American Art-Artes seminar series. In this next session, Dr. Lisa Voigt (Yale University) will be presenting Copied Singularities: Tracking Animal Illustrations around the Early Modern World

Lecture Description:
Knowledge of distant animals was spread, shaped, and transformed through the global circulation of not just travelers and the animals themselves, but also of printed illustrations, all of which moved in multiple directions in the early modern period. In this talk, I will track some of the surprising routes of exotic animals and their images in print (in particular crocodiles and armadillos), and draw connections between the purpose and practice of copying in the early modern period and the ways that Artificial Intelligence generates and sometimes “hallucinates” images based on an existing textual and visual corpus.

Lisa Voigt is Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Yale University. She is the author of Spectacular Wealth: The Festivals of Colonial South American Mining Towns (University of Texas Press, 2016) and Writing Captivity in the Early Modern Atlantic: Circulations of Knowledge and Authority in the Iberian and English Imperial Worlds (University of North Carolina Press, 2009), which won the Modern Language Association’s Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize for an outstanding book in Latin American and Spanish literature and cultures. She is Special Issues Editor of Colonial Latin American Review, and her co-edited special issue on Mapping the Rituals of the Portuguese Empire is forthcoming from Portuguese Literary & Cultural Studies this spring. This talk derives from a collaborative book project on copied travel account illustrations with Prof. Stephanie Leitch (Florida State University).