Medieval Images of the Virgin. Materialities, Environments, Ecologies.

Medieval images of the Virgin do not exist in isolation, but as part of living, constantly changing environments. They interact with human and non-human actors. And they possess a specific materiality that deepens their message as artefacts, but can also be in tension with it, complicate it or even call it into question.
A central assumption of the workshop is that both materials and environments of medieval images of the Virgin Mary are meaningful: The materials because of their chemical properties, their histories and cultural encodings. The environments – natural and artificial light, sound, scent, heat, cold, moisture, and the contact with living nature in general – because they have physical effects on the artefact and also determine the conditions for its perception.
The workshop aims to examine these complex interactions and to explore possible references to the multifaceted and changing medieval concepts of Mary – Virgo, Theotokos, Sedes Sapientiae, Queen of Heaven, Mediatrix and many more.

Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation).

May 23rd, 2025

9:00 Katharina Christa Schüppel (Bamberg): Welcome and Introduction

Session 1, Chair: Katharina Christa Schüppel

9:15 Heather Pulliam (University of Edinburgh): Eco-iconography of Eighth-Century Iona: The Virgin Mary, ‘Dark Waters’ and ‘the Tabernacle of the Sun’

10:00 Giulia Bordi (Roma Tre University, Rome): This Must be the Place. Images of the Virgin Mary in S. Maria Antiqua, Rome

10:45 Coffee break

11:00 May Peterson (University of Chicago/INHA, Paris): Linen, Labor, Purity: Materializing the Assumption of the Virgin

11:45 Chiara Croci (University of Lausanne): The Sculpted Virgin in the Lombard Era: An Absent Presence

12:30 Lunch break

Session 2, Chair: Chiara Croci

14:00 Emilia Cottignoli (Stanford University): Reflection, Imprint, and Inspiriting in the Zoodochos Pege of Constantinople

14:45 Charlene Vella (University of Malta): The Mellieħa Cave Church Icon: Materiality, Environment, and Marian Devotion in a Sacred Landscape

15: 30 Coffee break

Session 3, Chair: Chiara Croci and Katharina Christa Schüppel

15:45 Maddalena Vaccaro (University of Salerno): Multimateriality of the Virgin in Medieval Campania: Ancient Practices and New Traditions

16:30 Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky (University of Salamanca): Marian Devotion in the Iberian Peninsula and Beyond from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period

17:15 Diana Rafaela Pereira (CITCEM, Porto): Memory and Materiality: The Clothing and Enshrinement of Our Lady in Early Modern Portugal

18:00 Conclusions/Perspectives: Final panel

Registration open until 21 May 2025: katharina.schueppeluni-bamberg.de