Free registration is now open for on-site attendance at the upcoming Index conference. “Unruly Iconography?” opens a new conversation about medieval images that don’t follow the rules. Speakers will challenge their listeners to rethink the unspoken paradigms that have decided when iconographic motifs should be considered canonical and which are instead “singular,” “exceptional,” or even “mistakes.” They will interrogate the value and limitations of the unspoken binaries that often underlie such labels: tradition versus invention, canon versus exception, or center versus periphery. Their wide-ranging papers will demonstrate the value of a more critically aware, contextually sensitive, and historically informed approach to the study of images and image-making in the Middle Ages. The conference will take place on November 9, 2024 in the Louis A. Simpson Building, A71, at Princeton University. Although the conference will not be recorded, a live stream link will provide digital access to those who cannot attend in person. Only those attending on site are asked to register, using the form below.
This constitutes the first of two internationally linked conferences, the second of which will be a site-based seminar at the Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities “La Capraia” in Naples in June 2025, which makes southern Italy a laboratory for exploring the relationships between iconography and place within a geographically expanded Middle Ages. Details and a call for participation for the field seminar can be found here.
8:45–9 am: Coffee and pastries
9:00–10:15 am
Welcome
Diliana Angelova (UC Berkeley), “Lawless, Hilarious, Black: Eros and Companions in Byzantium.”
Krisztina Ilko (University of Cambridge), “The Chessmen of the Hunt.”
10:15 am: Coffee break
10:45–12:15 pm
Heidi Gearhart (George Mason University), “A Poem, a Scribe, a Saint, and a Scriptorium: Evoking Multiple Presences in Arras Bibliothèque Municipale MS 860.”
Julie A. Harris (Independent Scholar, Chicago), “Indicate, Illustrate, Decorate, or Comment? Iberian Hebrew Bibles and Their Unruly Paratextual Marks.”
Q&A
12:15–2:00 pm: Lunch Break
2:00–3:00 pm
Alexander Brey (Wellesley College), “Iconography Between Empires: The Red Hall at Varakhsha.”
Mark H. Summers (University of Kentucky), “Dressed to Impress: Reconsidering Roger II of Sicily and the Iconography of Kingship.”
3:00–3:30: Coffee break
3:30–4:30 pm
Nicole C. Paxton (John Cabot University), “Iconographic Innovation and Political Subversion in the Medieval Serbian Akathistos Cycle.”
Patricia Simons (University of Michigan/University of Melbourne), “The Goldfinch: Flights of Fancy.”
4:30-5:15 pm
Q&A and Closing
Reception to follow in Weickart Atrium, Louis A. Simpson Building
