Medieval Art Forum, Institute of Fine Arts (New York University)
Early Carolingian Gospels: Giving Form and Substance to God’s Word
Isabelle Marchesin
Professor, University of Poitiers, and Medieval Research Coordinator, Institute National d’histoire de l’art, Paris
Date: Tuesday, March 3rd
Time: 6.30p
Place: Institute of Fine Arts, Lecture Hall (1 E. 78th Street, New York 10075
The so-called "Evangelist portraits” in Carolingian Gospels have been widely studied as masterpieces of Early Medieval illumination. However, the simplicity of the figures, the seemingly repetitive pattern of those representations, and the stylistic interest of such paintings, setting aside the purpose of images, differ from each other much more than expected. This lecture studies the illuminations of Godescalc’s Gospels and of the Gospel Book of Saint-Riquier in order to show how paintings and calligraphy fundamentally question the nature and function of visual representation (from mimesis to imago) and are shaped according to specific spatial dimensions and ratios so to reflect the human and divine natures of God’s Word.
To reserve a seat, please use the following link to the IFA calendar and click on “March” and then the lecture link.
https://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/fineart/events/index.htm
