CALL FOR PAPERS FOR THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON MEDIEVAL STUDIES –
THE MEDIEVAL INSTITUTE - WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY –
May 10-13, 2007 – KALAMAZOO MI

Movement and Meaning in Medieval Art and Architecture

In the Middle Ages, buildings and works of art were often experienced through
ritual actions involving the movement of objects or through the viewer’s own
movements. Movement, thus, is a fundamental category for the interpretation of
art. Closely related to the functional context of medieval works of art or
architecture, it can transmit or even define several layers of meaning. In
these two joint sessions we propose to investigate categories of movement
relevant to the interpretation of medieval works of art and architecture.

Session A, \"The Moving Art Work,\" explores the specific meanings defined by
the ritual movement of both large and small objects. Examples include large
winged altarpieces or shrines (i.e. Flügelaltarretabel and
Flügelaltarschreine), which display a variety of images or relics, and smaller
objects such as books, reliquaries, liturgical vessels, and icons. For this
session, we invite papers that focus on objects for which movement is
intrinsic to their function, or on artifacts that acquire further layers of
meanings once they are set in motion.
Session B, \"The Moving Viewer,\" focuses on larger, works of art, fixed in
location, buildings, or urban settings, whose reception depended on the
movement of the viewer. Reliquaries or shrines more permanently installed in
specially created architectural settings – such as medieval crypts, etc. – are
the motionless centers of attention for flows of pilgrims. Processions, public
ceremonies and ritual movements of individuals within religious buildings and
urban settings convey to these sites and objects meanings, which go beyond
their immediate significance.

The papers in these two sessions are intended to discuss the ways in which
medieval works of art and /or buildings were experienced in their functional
and intellectual contexts. The category of movement provides a broader
framework for art historical research, in which approaches, such as formal
analysis, iconography, social and mental history, religious study, and more
broadly, the study of cultural traditions, find a new synthesis.
Both sessions are complementary and distinct at the same time. They address
the broader theme of movement in art and architecture as a fundamental carrier
of meaning, by covering the two ways of motion relevant to the interpretation
of art: the perception of the moving work of art and the viewer in motion.

Session organizers:
Giovanni Freni, Index of Christian Art, Princeton University
Nino Zchomelidse, Dept. of Art & Archaeology, Princeton University

To submit a 20-minute paper for either session, please, send an abstract with
an abstract cover sheet (downloadable from the congress website:
http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/42cfp/forms/ACS.pdf) via mail or fax to
and/or contact:

Giovanni Freni, Princeton University - Index of Christian Art, Department of
Art and Archaeology - McCormick Hall A9, Princeton NJ 08544
Tel. 609 258 6364; Fax 609 258 0103; email: gfreniprinceton.edu

Only submissions received by September 15, 2006 will be considered.