International Conference.
Southeast European Silversmithing:
Artisans, Donors, and the Concept of Piety during the Early Modern Period.

On 17th and 18th October 2024 in Sofia (Bulgaria) will be held the international scientific conference "Southeast European Silversmithing: Artisans, Donors, and the Concept of Piety during the Early Modern Period." The conference aims to gather specialists studying sacral silver objects from the early modern period who, through their research, contribute to the field of applied arts with religious use. The scientific forum will enable the presentation of sacral silver objects still far unpublished and unknown to the academic community. It will stimulate the comparative analysis of silversmiths’ works in wide geographic regions, which will also help improve the methodological means of their interpretation. A more meticulous approach to this field will represent a valuable contribution to art historical scholarship and a more comprehensive understanding of the visual culture of the early modern period.
At the conference, 26 specialists from prestigious scientific organisations, universities, and cultural institutions from Austria, Armenia, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, the USA, Serbia, and Hungary will discuss issues related to the production and circulation of liturgical objects, as well as their role in shaping the pious image of the faithful in Southeastern Europe between the 15th and 19th centuries.

Academic Committee
Darina Boykina, PhD, Institute of Art Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria
Mateja Jerman, PhD, Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia and Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Rijeka, Croatia
Vuk Dautović, PhD, University of Belgrade, Serbia

Venues:

17 October, Thursday
Sofia, 6A Moskovska Str., Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Conference Hall 19

18 October, Friday
Sofia, 21 Krakra Str., Institute of Art Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Conference Hall 1

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Conference Program

THURSDAY, 17 OCTOBER
Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
6A Moskovska Str.
Conference Hall 19

9:30–10:00 h:Registration
10:00–10:15 h: Welcoming Address

10:15–11:30 h: Constructing piety
Chair: Vuk Dautović

Dimitris Liakos, Constructing the Pious Image in Southeastern Europe at the Turn of an Era. Valuable Objects as Gifts to Athonite Monasteries from the 15th to the 16th Century
Miljana Matić, Monks as Authors and Donors of Applied Art Objects (15th – 17th Centuries) from the Serbian Orthodox Church Museum Collection
Darina Boykina, Artisans’ Patronage. The Case of the Guild of Silversmiths in Tatar Pazardzhik during the Early Modern Period

11:30–11:50 h: Coffee Break

11:50–13:30 h: Personal and collective patronage
Chair: Teodor Lucian Lechintan

Nikolaos Mertzimekis, The Silver Cover of the Gospel of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (1645–1676) in the Sacristy of the Iviron Monastery
Paschalis Androudis, On a Pair of Candlesticks from the Metropolitan Church of Kastoria, 1708
Nicoleta Bădilă, Donors’ Portraits from the Silver Liturgical Fans from Wallachia
Nona Petkova, Examples of Faith and Community Belonging: Eucharistic Chalices from the National Church Museum of History and Archaeology in Sofia

13:30–15:00 h: Lunch

15:00–16:15 h: Influential objects: Appearance and morphology
Chair: Livia Stoenescu

Mila Santova, Once Again About the Gospel Covers from the Teteven Monastery of Prophet Elijah (Teteven Gospel Covers from 1675)
Georgi Parpulov, Two Romanian Ciboria at the Sinai Monastery
Mariam Vardanyan, Innovative Tendencies in the Art of Armenian Book Binding: Myrophores Gospels Bindings

16:15–16:30 h: Coffee Break

16:30–18:10 h: Silver Objects as emissary: Circulation, Diplomacy and Gifts
Chair: Paschalis Androudis

Mateja Jerman, Goldsmiths’ Works as Gifts to Our Lady of Trsat (Croatia)
Milena Ulčar, Collective Patronage of St. Tryphon’s Head Reliquary in Venetian Kotor
Arijana Koprčina, Gifts of Bishop Emerik Esterházy to Zagreb (Arch)diocese
Francesca Stopper, La Serenissima and the Papal States: Liturgical Objects as Diplomatic Gifts in the 18th Century

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FRIDAY, 18 OCTOBER
Institute of Art Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
21 Krakra Str.,
Conference Hall 1

9:30–10:45 h: Patrons and Silversmith creating Visual Culture
Chair: Darina Boykina

Dragoş Năstăsoiu, Cross-confessional Artistic Negotiation: Transylvanian Saxon Silversmith Masters and Their Orthodox Patrons in 14th to 17th-Century Wallachia and Moldavia
Teodor Lucian Lechintan, On Some Early Modern Silver Revetments of Romanian Icons: Donors, Techniques, Horizons
Vuk Dautović, Silver Votive Offerings of 19th-Century Serbian Rulers: Shaping Church Visual Culture and their Role in Changing Cultural Models

10:45–11:00 h: Coffee Break

11:00–12:15 h: Silversmithing centers and production of the liturgical object
Chair: Mila Santova

Stavroula Sdrolia, Paschalis Androudis, 17th-Century Goldsmiths’ Enamelled Production in Thessaly
Barbara Kamler-Wild, Silversmithing in Vienna in the Golden Age of Empress Maria Theresia
Livia Stoenescu, To Be Worth a Potosí: Mines, Wealth, and Global Crafting of Silver Liturgical Objects in Early Modernity

12:15–12:30 h: Coffee Break

12:30–13:20 h: Silver embodying sanctity
Chair: Milena Ulčar

Konstantinos Dolmas, Like a Second Skin: The Head-Reliquary of St. Kliment of Ohrid
Simeon Tonchev, The Reliquary from the Church “Mother of God the Fountain of Life” in Svilengrad and its context

13:20–15:00 h: Lunch

15:00–16:40 h: Imagery and Iconography
Chair: Mateja Jerman

Anna Mária Nyárádi, Images Between the Latin and Greek Worlds. Prints and Book Illustrations as Models for Gospel Covers
Iglika Mishkova, Bread Stamps
Carmen Tănăsoiu, Behold the Lamb of God: About a Certain Iconographic Type Found on Diskoi from the Collection of the National Museum of Art of Romania
Ruth Bryant, Analyzing the Torah Shield: Understanding the Abundance of Animal Imagery through the Zohar

16:45–17:00 h: Closing remarks
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The conference is organised within the framework of the project "Liturgical Objects in the Context of Silversmiths’ Art during the Ottoman Period (Based on Materials from the Diocese of Plovdiv),"  funded by the Bulgarian National Science Fund, Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Bulgaria (contract No. КП-06-М80/2/7.12.2023).

For more information
liturgicalobjectsproject.artstudies.bg
southeasteuropeansilversmithing.wordpress.com