The Elizabeth Allen Visiting Scholars in Art History Series returns for the spring with an online lecture titled, “When, Where and What is Medieval Art–And Why Does It Matter?” presented by Linda Safran, PhD, Associate Fellow at the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The lecture will be presented on Zoom, Tuesday, February 9 at 2 p.m.
In April 2019 people around the world watched as the cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris was engulfed in flames. Even if they weren’t French, they knew was a shocking loss. But why do we care about the Middle Ages, its architecture and its art? And, if we do care, how do we define that historical period?
Where were its chronological boundaries? What about its geographical borders? Where are the lines on medieval maps and on our own maps of the Middle Ages? And, what counts as medieval art anyway?
We would probably all agree that the French cathedral counts, but what other kinds of buildings and objects? This illustration lecture proposes answers to questions about the what, where and when of medieval art and addresses why we should care about it today.
The lecture is free and open to the public. Participants are asked to register online in advance. After registering, registrants will receive a confirmation e-mail containing information about joining the meeting.
Linda Safran, PhD is Associate Fellow at the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies in Toronto. Safranis writing a textbook on medieval art and architecture (with two colleagues), under contract with Cornell University Press. Another project for this year is an article on Byzantine diagrams of the Trinity, which will appear in a volume on Byzantine, Western Medieval, and Islamic diagrams that she is co-editing with Jeffrey Hamburger and David Roxburgh of Harvard. She earned her PhD from Yale University in the History of Art, she also holds a Master of Philosophy and Master of Art from Yale. She has a Master of Art and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania where she was a Benjamin Franklin Scholar.
She has also held academic appointments at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in Guangzhou, China; York University in Toronto; Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel; University of Cyprus in Nicosia; the University of Toronto; The Catholic University of America in Washington D.C.; and Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C.
