They Who Gathered Much:
Artists, Audiences, and Collectors of Biblical Imagery
Symposium

Organized in conjunction with Sacred Visions: Nineteenth-Century
Biblical Art from the Dahesh Museum Collection, on view at the Museum of
Biblical Art (MOBIA) from October 17, 2013, to February 16, 2014, this
symposium will interrogate the intersection of two dramatic shifts in
nineteenth-century culture: first, the reconfiguring of biblical
representation amid shifts in Bible historicism. Second, the emerging
markets for buying, selling, and exhibiting biblical art amid a rise of
a new middle-class art patronage and the opening of the first modern
museums for the public.

The objective of recent art historical analyses of religious art has
been to study the influence of shifting biblical hermeneutics and
expanding patronage in order to determine modules of innovation. Proof
of the shift in these spheres was manifested in the growth of galleries,
commissions and the changing role of the church around mid-century.
Throughout the long nineteenth century, political partisanship also
helped to influence biblical imagery, either to support or subvert
members of the artistic avant-garde. As secularization became a
dominating force in the nineteenth century (as sociologists Emile
Durkheim and Max Weber argued in the twentieth century), evidence
suggests that patronage contributed to reshaping a "modern religious
imagery." Since the Enlightenment, the historical validity and
relevance to modern life of the Bible has been a source of intense
debate, challenging artists to explore Christian concepts amid competing
cultural forces.

In America as well as in Europe, the historical shift in patronage in
terms of kinship structures and patterns of collecting was linked to
conserving religious symbolism and to economic concerns. Patronage
contributed to expanding a religious repertoire for romantic or
topographical subjects but not solely as new subjects for religious
paintings. Patronage was one factor that helped to shape how artists
understood biblical subjects. The most important expression of these
religious subjects synchronized with critical responses.

Organizers invite papers for 20-minute presentations that address any
aspect of this topic, including, but not limited to:
- consideration of questions about patronage and purchase of biblical
art;
- the market for contemporary nineteenth-century biblical art in
relation to the market for biblical art in past eras;
- the role of cultural institutions (museums, churches, public
collections) have played in maintaining the importance of biblical art;
- the significance or validity of spiritual conviction on the part of
the buyer and/or artist.

Deadline for Paper Proposals: November 29, 2013
- Abstract of proposed papers (300 words maximum)
- Include C.V. and home and office mailing addresses, e-mail address,
and phone number.

All proposals & inquiries should be directed to:
Joyce C. Polistena (joyce.polistenagmail.com)
Sarah Schaefer (schaefer.scgmail.com)