CFP Aug 1, 2022

1 Session at IMC (Leeds, 3-6 Jul 23)

Leeds, University of Leeds, International Medieval Congress, Jul 3–06, 2023
Deadline: Sep 12, 2022
www.imc.leeds.ac.uk

ArtHist.net Redaktion

[1]
From: Mazi Kuzi
Date: Aug 1, 2022
Subject: The Scaling Revolution in Western Visual Culture, 1300–1500

Late medieval art was obsessed with scaling: scaling sculptures up to
colossi and down to miniature figurines; scaling-up depictions of the
Cosmos to appear much larger than God and vice versa; miniaturizing
architectural elements into micro-architectural structures and then
magnifying them into monumental artifacts; shrinking sacred history to fit
into prayer nuts; playing with multiple scales within shrine Madonnas; and
oscillating between thumb-sized prayer books and gigantic display volumes.
The preoccupation with scaling was contemporaneous with the invention of
new measuring instruments and standards that could investigate celestial
bodies, fix time, distance, space, or quantities, and classify human
physiognomy.

This session seeks to explore the Late Middle Ages as the stage of an
overlooked turn, even revolution, in scaling that set new norms for
reconceptualising all aspects of life, science, and ethics. While
measuring, using set units in order to produce “objective” ontological
categorieshas been relatively well explored in recent scholarship, scaling,
as a subjective, relative act and relational phenomenological category, has
been understudied.

Suggested topics on the geographical area and time period should consider
the artistic, technological, cultural, and ethical ramifications of this
transformation. They may include, but are not limited to:

• Monumental artistic media evolved to take on characteristics of
miniature art and vice versa
• Artifacts that have demonstrably undergone fluctuations in their
scale
• Colossi artifacts, statues, and prayer books
• Spectacular sculpture adopts the esthetics of miniature portable
objects
• Micro-architectural elements magnified/minaturized
• Prayer nuts
• Giant versus miniature bibles and prayer books
• Giants in Art, literature, and theology
• Miniaturization of artifacts
• Artifacts composed of multiple scales simultaneously

Please submit your proposal by 12 September 2022 to
mazikuzimail.tau.ac.il. Submissions should include a 250-word proposal for
a 15-20-minute paper. Proposals should have a title, an abstract format,
and should be accompanied by a short CV including current affiliation and
full contact information.

The “Scaling Revolution” is a project led by Prof. Assaf Pinkus and
Dr. Einat Klafter from Tel Aviv University.

Reference:
CFP: 1 Session at IMC (Leeds, 3-6 Jul 23). In: ArtHist.net, Aug 1, 2022 (accessed Mar 28, 2024), <https://arthist.net/archive/37268>.

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