Holy Bodies, Sacred Spaces
International Conference

Saturday, 2 May 2015
University of York
Berrick Saul Building
Bowland Auditorium

The praesentia of holy bodies, the material remains of saints, is a seminal aspect of late antique and medieval Christianity and has long received scholarly attention. The art-historical debate on the eleventh and twelfth centuries has focused, in particular, on pilgrimage, from the monumental 1923 monograph by Arthur Kingsley Porter to the most recent studies that examine the relationship between architecture and pilgrims’ pathways in approaching holy bodies and venerated relics.
The idea of pilgrimage, however, unveils only a part of the richness of the topic. In this conference, sponsored by the Department of History of Art and the Centre for Medieval Studies of the University of York, and funded by a British Academy/Leverhulme Foundation Small Grant, speakers are invited to reflect on the different layers of meaning associated with the praesentia of holy bodies. What was, for example, the ecclesiological relevance of the possession of holy bodies at a given site? To what extent did the praesentia of a saint have an institutional, or even political importance? And, finally, in which ways have these aspects been materialised in architectural structures or visualised in images?

Programme

10.30 Introduction
MICHELE LUIGI VESCOVI (University of York)

Image, Architecture and Memory
Chair: M. L. Vescovi

10.45 Transformative sculptures: the ‘graven image’ and the human figure in Anglo-Saxon sculpture
JANE HAWKES (University of York)

11.15 Architectural provision for secondary saints, prospective saints and the blessed
RICHARD PLANT (Christie’s Education)

11.45 Inscribing memory: Bernward and Saint Michael of Hildesheim
WILFRIED E. KEIL (Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg)

12.15 Discussion

Locating Holy Bodies
Chair: T. Ayers

14.00 Moving the body of a saint: St John of Beverley and the architecture of Beverley Minster
CHRISTOPHER NORTON (University of York)

14.30 Absent body, double bodies: visualizing Bologna’s civic cults
JESSICA N. RICHARDSON (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut)

Holy Bodies and Pilgrimage

15.00 The Apostle is present! A new setting for pilgrims in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela
MANUEL CASTIÑEIRAS (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

15.30 Ubi populo, qui huius miraculi fama magnus in ecclesia confluxerat, omnia hec sunt narrata. Saint-Gilles-du-Gard and Saint-Trophime at Arles: recent archaeological investigations on two major Romanesque pilgrimage churches in Southern France
ANDREAS HARTMANN-VIRNICH (Laboratoire d’Archéologie Médiévale et Moderne en Méditerranée, LA3M UMR 7298 Aix-Marseille Université AMU/CNRS)

16.00 Discussion

For further queries please contact the organiser, Michele Luigi Vescovi (micheleluigi.vescoviyork.ac.uk).