Institute for Medieval Studies

Session	1712
Title	Physical and Spiritual Borders within Buildings
Date/Time	Thursday 7 July 2022: 14.15-15.45
Organiser	Tania Kolarik, Department of Art History, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Moderator/Chair	Abby Armstrong Check, Department of Art History, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Paper 1712-a	Seeing through the Veil: The 13th-Century Intarsia Façades of Lucca (Language: English) Tania Kolarik, Department of Art History, University of Wisconsin-Madison Index Terms: Architecture - General; Architecture - Religious; Art History - Decorative Arts; Economics - Trade
Paper 1712-b	Framing the Sacred: Aachen's Relics of the Virgin and Architectural Display (Language: English) Claire Kilgore, Department of Art History, University of Wisconsin-Madison Index Terms: Architecture - Religious; Art History - General; Economics - Urban; Lay Piety
Paper 1712-c	Apocalypse Painting as Ecclesiastic and Liminal Borders in Two 11th-Century Poitevin Churches (Language: English) Karlyn Griffith, Department of Art, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Index Terms: Architecture - Religious; Art History - Painting; Biblical Studies; Liturgy
Abstract	The session explores the materiality and experience of both real (physical) and implied (spiritual) spaces within medieval religious architecture. It addresses the role of art within architecture to delimit and define spaces pertaining to function, from ecclesiastical, eschatological, socio-political, and personal identity. The topics include facades as veils into the kingdom of heaven; textiles as mediators; painting and sculptures as physical and spiritual gatekeepers; female and lay devotion, and the physical Eucharist within Apocalypse. The aim of the session is to explore how visual elements create or enhance spiritual borders that bridge the divine realm with earthly liturgical and devotional practice.