Search

Begun in 2021, the first team encounter of the project “Conques in the Global World”generated an innovative reinterpretation of the site. Departing from the nineteenth- and twentieth-century explication of Conques as the ideal image of the Romanesque Middle Ages, the site is here envisaged as a space of memorialization of the past for the present. This memorialization, we argue, began in fact at the church’s conception, with the founders’ decision to reflect the character and significance of Carolingian antecedents. This Carolingian echo is evident in the material and epigraphic culture created at Conques around 1100, from the portal inscriptions to the reliquaries held below ground in the treasure. What is postulated here, and proposed for future research, is the understanding that Conques has been a memory space since it was conceived the eleventh century – a space in which a specific memory of an authoritative past is reinvented for the longue durée to confer legitimacy to a place and its religious community. Begun in 2021, the first team encounter of the project “Conques in the Global World”generated an innovative reinterpretation of the site. Departing from the nineteenth- and twentieth-century explication of Conques as the ideal image of the Romanesque Middle Ages, the site is here envisaged as a space of memorialization of the past for the present. This memorialization, we argue, began in fact at the church’s conception, with the founders’ decision to reflect the character and significance of Carolingian antecedents. This Carolingian echo is evident in the material and epigraphic culture created at Conques around 1100, from the portal inscriptions to the reliquaries held below ground in the treasure. What is postulated here, and proposed for future research, is the understanding that Conques has been a memory space since it was conceived the eleventh century – a space in which a specific memory of an authoritative past is reinvented for the longue durée to confer legitimacy to a place and its religious community.

Reconstruction of the basilica that preceded the present abbey church at Conques lends itself to exploring the notion of “sacred space”. Like its successor, the original basilica, probably built around 900, was dedicated to St Foy and held her remains. Textual evidence, augmented with (albeit scarce) archeological data, enables a reconstruction of what emerges as an unusual building containing a “physical” sacred space clearly conceived as a place into which the whole cult of St Foy could be “condensed”. At the same time, textual evidence, mainly in the Liber miraculorum sanctae Fidis, hints at the existence of a “mental” sacred space in which specific movements performed in venerating the saint, as well as the comings and goings of pilgrims and other worshippers, formed a sacred space that was more fluid but no less central to understanding Conques as a place of devotion. Going farther, the analysis here suggests a notion of “sacred space” that includes the terrain surrounding a place of devotion: once worshippers’ senses of hearing, sight, and touch were activated, the natural setting itself became a place of holiness and protection. Reconstruction of the basilica that preceded the present abbey church at Conques lends itself to exploring the notion of “sacred space”. Like its successor, the original basilica, probably built around 900, was dedicated to St Foy and held her remains. Textual evidence, augmented with (albeit scarce) archeological data, enables a reconstruction of what emerges as an unusual building containing a “physical” sacred space clearly conceived as a place into which the whole cult of St Foy could be “condensed”. At the same time, textual evidence, mainly in the Liber miraculorum sanctae Fidis, hints at the existence of a “mental” sacred space in which specific movements performed in venerating the saint, as well as the comings and goings of pilgrims and other worshippers, formed a sacred space that was more fluid but no less central to understanding Conques as a place of devotion. Going farther, the analysis here suggests a notion of “sacred space” that includes the terrain surrounding a place of devotion: once worshippers’ senses of hearing, sight, and touch were activated, the natural setting itself became a place of holiness and protection.

The Migrating Art Historians project (2017) was a challenging one. It provoked a strong reaction from a non-academic audience while stimulating a vivid discussion – both printed and informal – within academia itself. Starting with the academic debates it is worthwhile to admit that the project was – as well as its outputs – rather nonconformist. It was unprecedented in the field of Art History, which is not always accustomed to the experimental collecting of data. Furthermore, its hierarchical structure challenged the habitus of academia, when masters students were invited to participate in the same scholarly event and publication as established scholars such as Hans Belting, Michele Bacci, Sible de Blaauw, and Cynthia Hahn. At first glance, the project may have been misunderstood as an attempt to create an event of “living history.” In the world where a book is reduced to an introduction, abstract, keywords, or even just the title appearing on social media, such a misunderstanding can easily be made. Looking closer, it is clear that this was never the intention nor the outcome of the project.

In 1925, Nikodim Kondakov died in emigration in Prague. During his last years in Czechoslovakia, the Byzantinist had been asked to teach on nomadic art, a topic to which he had devoted only his early career. This essay aims to understand why Kondakov returned to these interests. Kondakov was indeed not the only scholar drawn to the material culture of nomadic peoples, a topic which became fundamental in Czechoslovakia, a new “nation-state” seeking its identity. This movement was further fostered by the presence of numerous Russian émigrés in Czechoslovakia, who developed the idea of “Eurasia”. These notions came to be explored by scholars from diverse backgrounds, living in Mitteleuropa, a space then shattered by the rise of totalitarianisms and WWII.

The present contribution aims to introduce different types of evidence in the field of Late Antique visual studies. On several examples of objects and monuments, the authors try to present different methodological approaches employed in the research on dating, patronage, functions, or perception of Late Antique works of art. Given the fragmentary nature of the objects themselves as well as the coeval reports preserved, the art historians are usually forced to gather the evidence at the crossroad of several fields, including not only the disciplines of humanities, but also of nature sciences. Thus, in the authors’ opinion, the future of the field lies in the interdisciplinary collaboration, which could help to better understand the artistic production of Late Antiquity.

The study of medieval Armenian art in the Soviet Union demonstrates a close interaction between historiography and history. Through the 70 years of the USSR’s existence, the method of studying the artistic monuments of the southern Caucasus seems to follow the large waves of the question of nation within the Soviet empire., Eurasiatica