Call for Papers

The Tusk and the Book: The Salerno/Amalfi Ivories in their Mediterranean Contexts
Conference

Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz - Max-Planck-Institut
29 June - 1 July 2012
Deadline: 15 September 2011

The conference aims to assemble specialists in various fields who can contribute specifically to a better understanding of the most notable ivory ensemble of the Middle Ages, the so-called 'Salerno' ivories, dated between the late eleventh and mid-twelfth century and probably carved in the Norman kingdom of Southern Italy.

Following the exhibition of the ivories in Salerno (2007-08), and scholarly meetings on Late Antique and medieval ivories in Amalfi (2009) and Washington DC (2011), a number of scholars recognized how traditional approaches have been insufficient to account for the complexity of the issues involved in understanding the 'Salerno' ivories and others related to them (conventionally called the 'Grado' and the 'Amalfi' ivories).

The Florence meeting seeks not only radically to review the traditional questions of style, iconography, and program, and the much-discussed - although never fully investigated - function of the object, but also to scrutinize the information conveyed by peculiar carving techniques, to explore the African origin and points of exchange of the raw material, to discuss the possible political and theological impulses in the conception of the Salerno ensemble, to contextualize its deployment within ecclesiastical performance of the time, to frame the attraction it exerted within the long-attested appreciation of ivory throughout antiquity and the medieval period, and to ponder how the Salerno ivories reflect artistic exchange and cultural identity in the Mediterranean basin during the early Middle Ages.

The members of the organizing committee are Beat Brenk, Gudrun Bühl, Anthony Cutler, Francesca Dell'Acqua, Herbert L. Kessler, Avinoam Shalem, Gerhard Wolf, Giuseppa Zanichelli.

One-page proposals by young as well as by established scholars in the fields of history, art-history, conservation, applied sciences, are welcome. The deadline for the submission of proposals, for which please write to:

medieval.ivoriesgmail.com,

is the September 15, 2011 (late proposals will not be considered).