Early Medieval Art

David L. Balch, Roman Domestic Art & Early House Churches (Wissemschaftlich Untersuchungen Zum Neuen Testament) (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament, 2008).

Allan Doig, Liturgy and Architecture (Liturgy, Worship & Society Series) (Ashgate, 2008).

Annemarie Stauffer, Antike Musterblätter (Spatantike – Fruhes Christentum – Byzanz) (Reichert, 2008).

Rosa Maria Bonacasa Carra & Emma Vital, La Cristianizzazione in Italia tra tardoantico ed altomedioevo.  Atti del IX Congresso Nazionale di Archeologia Cristiana, Agrigento 20-25 novembre 2004 (Saladino, 2007).

Georg Eggenstein et al., Eine Welt in Bewegung unterwegs zu Zentren des frühen Mittelalters: Katalog zur Ausstellung im Historischen Museum im Marstall Paderborn Schloss … Würzburg vom 12. August bis 16. November 2008 (Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2008).

William Lyster, The Cave Church of Paul the Hermit: At the Monastery of St. Paul in Egypt (Yale, 2008).

Noga-Banai Galit, The Trophies of the Martyrs: An Art Historical Study of Early Christian Silver Reliquaries (Oxford Studies in Byzantium)(Oxford, 2008).

Rodo Santoro, Bizantini: L’eridita culturale in Sicilia (Kalos, 2008).

Matthias Exner, Das Guntbald-Evangeliar: Ein ottonischer Bilderzyklus und sein Zeugniswert für die Rezeptionsgeschichte des Lorscher Evangeliars (Schnell & Steiner, 2008).

Lamia Hadda, Tunisia medievale: Architettura e decorazione islamica (IX-XVI secolo) (Liguori, 2008).

Myla Perraymond, Paradigmi di esegesi figurale nell’arte paleocristiana (Aracne, 2007).

Cecilia Proverbio, La Figura dell’Angelo nella civilta paleocristiana (Tau, 2007).

Anke Reiss, Rezeption fruehchristlicher Kunst im 19. und 20.Jahrhundert: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der christlichen Archaeologie und zum Historismus (J.H. Roell, 2008).

The New York Times has a nice review of the new installation of medieval works at the Met, along with a slideshow.

As you may have noticed, I have taken a lengthy hiatus from posting.  Since August I have been working at a local art museum and have been very busy, without the time to update this site.  I intend to return to the classroom next fall, but in the meantime, I will resume posting to this website on a weekly basis, starting this weekend.  I apologize for my prolonged and unexplained absence.

At the Royal Academy of Arts in London, opening in October.

Cross-posted at Caves to Cathedrals.

Did you know that you do not need PowerPoint to make presentations, and that, in fact, better options may exist? I have tried the MDID image viewer, but I needed somewhere to put the translations of inscriptions, so I did not consider it a useful option.

But valid options exist. Slide Rocket looks amazing, but is not yet available to the public. 280 Slides looks less amazing, but is currently available.

Both of these programs make slideshows much easier to share, as well as facilitate greater mobility (no memory stick to forget).

Matthias Exner, Das Guntbald-Evangeliar: Ein ottonischer Bilderzyklus und sein Zeugniswert für die Rezeptionsgeschichte des Lorscher Evangeliars (Schnell & Steiner, 2008).

Lamia Hadda, Nella Tunisia medievale: Architettura e decorazione islamica (IX-XVI secolo) (Liguori, 2008).

Myla Perraymond, Paradigmi di esegesi figurale nell’arte paleocristiana (Aracne, 2007).

Cecilia Proverbio, La figurea dell’Angelo nella civilta paleocristiana (Tau, 2007).

Anke Reiss, Rezeption frühchristlicher Kunst im 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Christlichen Archäologie und zum Historismus (J.H. Roell, 2008).

Unfortunately a news item on fake Coptic reliefs in the Art Newspaper should not surprise anyone. This disclosure comes in anticipation of an exhibition that will open February 2009 at the Brooklyn Museum on “Coptic Sculpture in the Brooklyn Museum”and for which you may only find an old description (on page 7).

I myself wrote an entry on a Coptic medallion with Thekla bound to Two Beasts from the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, Missouri in the catalogue for the 2002-2003 exhibition Byzantine Women and Their World. The article dates the earliest suspicions to Gary Vikan in the 1970s, and at the time of the Byzantine Women exhibit, doubts likewise surrounded the authenticity of the Nelson-Atkins medallion. Most of the fakes entered American collections in the 1960s, and, from the accession number, 48-10, I can only assume that this medallion was acquired in 1948. My earliest scholarly reference to it, however, dates to 1962, so this assumption could be wrong.

Needless to say, I eagerly await determination of its authenticity (so that I can cross the entry off my CV!). I am more curious, however, about what reliefs remain and what they can tell us about Coptic art.

In my previous post, I explained how I would use VoiceThread to accompany the students’ preparation for class through closely looking at the Altar of Duke Ratchis.  It is rather clumsy, but so are most first attempts at something new, so please do not judge me too harshly.

Nevertheless, I will not neglect to post on the altar in my usual manner.

I can offer two of my own photos. First, you see the entire altar from the front,

and then the altar, including its fenestella, from the back:

The best images come from Europe of the Invasions, but the Honors Program at the University of Alabama, Birmingham has some almost usable images on a webpage devoted to the Lombard Renaissance.  The Italian Wikipedia has fuzzy images of the front and sides, but I cannot link to them directly.  You can find them in the entry on the altar by searching for “Altare del duca Rachis”.

I have translated, roughly, the inscription:

[M]AXIMA DONA XPI ADCLARIT SUB(L)EIMI CONCESSA PEMMONI UBIQUE D(E)I REFO/RMARENTUR UT TEMPLA NAM ET INTER RELIQUAS/DOMUM BEATI IOHANNIS ORNABIT PENDOLA TEGURO PULCHRO ALT/ARE DITABIT MARMORIS COLORE RATCHIS HIDEBORHOHLRIT

RATCHIS HIDEBOHOHLRIT MADE KNOWN THE GREATEST GIFTS OF CHRIST GIVEN TO THE EXALTED PEMMO [HIS FATHER] WHEREEVER THE TEMPLES OF GOD WERE RESTORED SO THAT, AMONG OTHERS, HE ORNAMENTED THE HOUSE OF BLESSED JOHN WITH OBJECTS HANGING FROM THE BEAUTIFUL CANOPY AND ENRICHED THE MARBLE ALTAR WITH COLOR.

The reference to Ratchis’s father, Pemmo, becomes more meaningful when one reads what Paul the Deacon has to say about him in his History of the Longobards, in book 6, chapters 26 and 51.