Index of Medieval Art

Conference

Whose East? Defining, Challenging, and Exploring Eastern Christian Art

A depiction of the world as a disk surrounded by water, subdivided into three parts labeled ASIA, EUROPIA, and AFRICA
T-O map from Gregorio Dati’s La sfera (New York, Morgan Library, MS M.721, fol. 14v).

Saturday, November 11, 2023

8:45 am to 5:15 pm, with reception to follow

Julis Romo Rabinowitz A17, Princeton University

The Index thanks our conference co-sponsors: The Princeton Department of Art & Archaeology, PIIRS – Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, and The Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies, with the support of The Erric B. Kertsikoff Fund for Hellenic Studies.

Morning Schedule:

8:45 Coffee and Pastries

9:00 Welcome

9:15 Christian Raffensperger, Wittenberg University,  A Third Category: Rus in History and Art 

9:45 Margarita Voulgaropoulou, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Whose Adriatic? Blurring the Boundaries of East and West in the Artistic Production of the Late Medieval and Early Modern Adriatic 

10:15 Break

10:45 Jelena Bogdanović, Vanderbilt University, On Theory and Architecture in the Medieval Balkans 

11:15 Jana Gajdošová, Sam Fogg, Byzantium and the Court of Emperor Charles IV in Prague 

11:45 Mirela Ivanova, University of Sheffield (respondent); Q&A

12:30-2:00 Lunch Break

Afternoon Schedule:

2:00 Anthi Andronikou, University of St. Andrews, Breaking Free from Bias: Eastern Christian Art between the Islamic and Western Worlds 

2:30 Gohar Grigoryan, University of Fribourg, The East-West Paradigm in High Medieval Armenia: The Evidence of Polemical Writings and Visual Sources

3:00 Coffee and Tea Break

3:30 Tolga Uyar, Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli University, Thirteenth-Century Monumental Painting in Cappadocia: The Artistic Bonds between Byzantium, Seljuk Rūm, and the Eastern Mediterranean World 

4:00 Erik Thunø, Rutgers University, Nobody’s East: The Interconnected World of South Caucasian Cross Steles 

4:30 Antony Eastmond, Courtauld Institute of Art (respondent); Q&A

5:15 Reception

2023 Weitzmann Lecture

The day before the Index Conference, the Art & Archaeology Department will be hosting the Weitzmann Lecture by Professor Christine Kondoleon: “‘To put back all the things people cluttered up…To Straighten, like a diligent Housekeeper of Reality…’: The Greek, Roman and Byzantine Collections at MFA Boston Re-imagined.”

Please join us for this event on Friday, November 10, 2023 at 4:30pm.

A manuscript page with a column of Greek text and several men in a sailboat on the water, observed by two other men.

Graduate Student Travel Grant

This year, the Index will offer one graduate student travel grant for a non-Princeton student who wishes to attend the conferences but lacks the financial resources to do so. Review the application process here.