New Approaches to Altars and Altarpieces Session at SECAC 2019:

A quick glance at a standard textbook demonstrates the prominent place of altarpieces in the history of art. This is not surprising since the study of the altarpiece as a category of European art goes back to Jacob Burckhardt in the 1890s.
However, the ubiquity of the altarpiece can cause its specific function and context to be glossed in scholarship rather than continually interrogated.

This session seeks to reconsider the altarpiece, highlighting new approaches to the subject and to the relationship between an altarpiece and the space it occupies.
Of particular interest are papers that complicate established thinking about the material culture made to interact with altars that go beyond the traditional Christocentric interpretation of altarpiece iconography and that consider altarpieces as elements within multimedia, multitemporal and performative spaces.

Papers on topics from all religious traditions, locations and time periods are welcome. Please direct any questions to Ashley Elston (elstonaberea.edu) or Joseph Silva (joseph_silvaalumni.brown.edu)

Please submit abstract by April 1 at the following website: https://secac.secure-platform.com/a