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Author: Medieval Histories
Medieval Histories is a News site where anyone - professionals or just generally interested - can read about new exhibitions, books, research, excavations, finds, treasures... and much more! The site is created and owned by Karen Schousboe (http//:www.karenschousboe.com)
The Eastern Mediterranean Frontier of Latin Christendom
New book focus on how pilgrims and crusaders pushed the frontier forward in the Eastern Mediterranean after the millennium
Jewish Culture and Society in Medieval France and Germany
These studies explore the history of the Jewish minority of Ashkenaz (northern France and the German Empire) during the High Middle Ages
The North-Eastern Frontiers of Medieval Europe
By the mid-twelfth century the lands on the Eastern Coast of the Baltic Sea, from Finland to the frontiers of Poland, were Catholic Europe’s final frontier
The North-Eastern Frontiers of Medieval Europe. The Expansion of Latin Christendom in the Baltic Lands
Edited by Alan V. Murray, University of Leeds, UKSeries : The Expansion of Latin Europe, 1000-1500
Ashgate Variorum 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4094-3680-5
ISBN Short: 9781409436805
ABSTRACT:
By the mid-twelfth century the lands on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea, from Finland to the frontiers of Poland, were Catholic Europe’s final frontier: a vast, undeveloped expanse of lowlands, forest and waters, inhabited by peoples belonging to the Finnic and Baltic language groups. In the course of the following three centuries, Finland, Estonia, Livonia and Prussia were incorporated into the Latin world through processes of conquest, Christianisation and settlement, and brought under the rule of Western monarchies and ecclesiastical institutions. Lithuania was left as the last pagan polity in Europe, yet able to accept Christianity on its own terms in 1386. The Western conquest of the Baltic lands advanced the frontier of Latin Christendom to that of the Russian Orthodox world, and had profound and long lasting effects on the institutions, society and culture of the region lasting into modern times. This volume presents 21 key studies (2 of them translated from German for the first time) on this crucial period in the development of North-Eastern Europe, dealing with crusade and conversion, the establishment of Western rule, settlement and society, and the development of towns, trade and the economy. It includes a classified bibliography of the main works published in Western languages since World War II together with an introduction by the editor.
CONTENTS:
- Introduction.
- Part One Historiographical Approaches:
Crusades and colonisation in the Baltic: a historiographic analysis, Sven Ekdahl
Approaches to the conversion of the Finns: ideologies, symbols, and archaeological features, Derek Fewster; - Part Two Crusade, Conquest and Conversion:
Sweden’s conquest of Finland: a clash of cultures?, Philip Line
From Fulco to Theoderic: the changing face of the Livonian mission, Peep Peter Rebane
The military activity of the Order of the Sword Brothers (1202-1236), Ēvalds Mugurēvičs
Military orders and the beginning of crusades in Prussia, Maria Starnawska
Prussian mission and the invitation of the Teutonic Order into Kulmerland, László Pósán
The arrival of Christianity in Lithuania: baptism and survival (1341-1387), Michal Giedroyć. - Part Three State Formation:
Acquisition of the acquired: the establishing of a real administration in Livonia, Muntis Auns; The military occupation of Semgallia in the 13th century, William Urban
Estonia under Danish rule, Niels Skyum-Nielsen
The Teutonic Order in Prussia, Karol Górski. - Part Four Population and Society:
Finns as aliens and compatriots in the late medieval kingdom of Sweden, Marko Lamberg
Genesis of the Livonian town in the 13th century, Enn Tarvel; Interactions between indigenous and Western culture in Livonia in the 13th to 16th centuries, Ēvalds Mugurēvičs
Languages in a medieval North European city: an example from medieval Tallinn, Tiina Kala
The Teutonic Order and the non-German population of Prussia, Reinhard Wenskus - Part Five Economy: The profits of the Cross: merchant involvement in the Baltic crusade (c. 1180-1230), Mark R. Munzinger
The Hanseatic League and the Eastern Baltic: towns, trade and politics in medieval Livonia from the 13th to the mid-16th century, Andris Šnē - Index.
ABOUT THE EDITOR:
Dr Alan V. Murray is Senior Lecturer in Medieval Studies and Editorial Director, International Medieval Bibliography, University of Leeds, UK.
The Emperor Theophilos and the East, 829–842
Theophilos, 829 -842, was the last emperor of Byzantium adhering to iconoclasm. New book reinterprets major xplores the role of his Oriental politics.
Denmark and Europe in the Middle Ages
Professor Michael H. Gelting is both renowned for his wide-ranging achievements as a medieval historian as well as kindness towards students. A recent collection of studies celebrate his inspirational work.
Animals and Early Modern Identity
Animals were everywhere in premodern times. From mighty horses to humble sparrows princes as well as paupers were obliged to live with and interact with animals of all sorts. A new book explores these intimate interrelations between persons and animals.
Animals and Early Modern Identity
By Pia F. Cuneo (Ed.)
Ashgate 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4094-5743-5
ISBN Short: 9781409457435
ABSTRACT:
Animals were everywhere in the early modern period and they impacted, at least in some way, the lives of every kind of early modern person, from the humblest peasant to the greatest prince. Artists made careers based on depicting them. English gentry impoverished themselves spending money on them. Humanists exercised their scholarship writing about them. Pastors saved souls delivering sermons on them. Nobles forged alliances competing with them. Foreigners and indigenes negotiated with one another through trading them.
The nexus between animal-human relationships and early modern identity is illuminated in this volume by the latest research of international scholars working on the history of art, literature, and of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Germany, France, England, Spain, and South Africa. Collectively, these essays investigate how animals – horses, dogs, pigs, hogs, fish, cattle, sheep, birds, rhinoceroses, even sea-monsters and other creatures – served people in Europe, England, the Americas, and Africa to defend, contest or transcend the boundaries of early modern identities.
Developments in the methodologies employed by scholars to interrogate the past have opened up an intellectual and discursive space for – and a concomitant recognition of – the study of animals as a topic that significantly elucidates past and present histories. Relevant to a considerable array of disciplines, the study of animals also provides a means to surmount traditional disciplinary boundaries through processes of dynamic interchange and cross-fertilization.
CONTENTS:
- Introduction, Pia F. Cuneo.
- Man’s best friend? Dogs and pigs in early modern Germany, Alison G. Stewart
- Every living beast: collecting animals and art in early modern Munich, Susan Maxwell
- Where the sun don’t shine: animals and animality in Louis XIV’s royal labyrinth of Versailles (1668-74), Peter Sahlins
- ‘For amusement, merry-making and good company’: horse racing at a German princely court, Miriam Hall Kirch
- Breeding nobility: raising horses at early modern German courts, Magdalena Bayreuther
- Horses and elite identity in early modern England: the case of Sir Richard Newdigate II of Arbury Hall, Warwickshire (1644-1710), Peter Edwards.
- Horses as love-objects: shaping social and moral identities in Hans Baldung Griens’ Bewitched Groom (circa 1544) and in 16th-century hippology, Pia F. Cuneo
- On the bit: Prince Maurits, Simon Stevin, and the Spanish warhorse, Ingrid Cartwright
- The tusked hog: Richard III’s boarish identity, Karen Raber; Who are the animals in the Geese Book?, Corine Schleif
- Settler stock: animals and power in the mid-17th-century contact at the Cape, circa 1652-62, Sandra Swart.
- Individuality and the understanding of animals in the early modern Spanish empire, Abel A. Alves
- World of wonders: exotic animals in European imagery, 1515-1650, Larry Silver
- French early modern sea-monsters and modern identities, via Bruno Latour, Louisa Mackenzie
- Ways of being, ways of knowing: fish, fishing, and forms of identity in 17th-century English culture, Elspeth Graham
- Pedagogy and the art of dressage in the Italian Renaissance, Juliana Schiesari
- Index.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Pia F. Cuneo is Professor of Art History at the University of Arizona, USA. Her current work focuses on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century hippology, and she competes locally in dressage.
The Medieval and Renaissance Family
CFP until 01.05.2015 for the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association 2015 Conference: “The Functions and Dysfunctions of the Medieval and Renaissance Family”
The Jagiellonians
In 2012 a huge exhibition of the art and culture of the Jagiellonians circulated between Poland and Germany. Now the time has come to focus on the history proper of the dynasty of the “Tudors of Central Europe”.
Sweets for Souls
Here are the recipes for cakes of all sorts, which seem to have been part of the early celebrations of All Saints and All Souls
Medieval Truck-Stop excavated
Archaeologists have found the remains of a long-haul truck-stop near Peissen in Sachsen –Anhalt on the road between Hannover and Dresden.
Luther and the Princes
2015 a major exhibition on Luther and the Princes will be mounted. The idea behind the exhibition is to tell the story of the political side of the reformation.
The Reformation may have started when Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the church-door in Wittenberg in 1517. However, without the backing of the German princes the Reformation would never have taken place. Center of this movement was the small renaissance town, Torgau, where the castle of Hartenfels was home t
o the Duke of Saxony. Here the first protestant church was built (in the chapel of the castle) and here the wife of Luther was buried.
The exhibition is mounted in the castle, which has undergone a series of restorations in the last decade.
The Reformation permanently altered not only the religious landscape of Europe but also its political map. The publication in 1517 of the 95 Theses affected every aspect of life and every section of society. Its impact was due in no small part to the Protestant princes who championed Luther’s teachings. The picturesque Renaissance town of Torgau on the Elbe, with its castle, Schloss Hartenfels, was the political centre of the Reformation. Martin Luther preached here and consecrated the castle chapel as one of the very first new Protestant church buildings. Once the residence of the electors of Saxony, Torgau is the authentic setting for the first national special exhibition to commemorate the Reformation.
On the occasion of the Luther Decade the exhibition connects this historical location with unique objects that illustrate the Reformation period. In an exhibition space measuring more than 1,500 m², it explores various aspects of the political history of the princes and their self-image during the Reformation, extending from 1515, when the plenary indulgence was proclaimed, up to 1591, when the Union of Torgau was formed. Paintings, treasury objects and ornate suits of armour, along with numerous other historical exhibits, provide a vivid impression of the interplay between politics and the Reformation and open a window on the age of confessional division.
The exhibition is organised by the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden in cooperation with the “City of Torgau. Federal President of Germany, Joachim Gauck is protector of the exhibition.
VISIT:
Luther and the Princes. The Public Portrayal and Self-Image of Rulers in the Age of Reformation
Torgau 15.05.2015 – 31.05.2015
Christoph of Württenberg – a Renaissance Prince in the Age of the Reformation
Stuttgart, 24.10.2015 – 04.03.2016
Christoph of Württemberg 1515 – 1568
2015 Stuttgart celebrates the birth of the renaissance duke, Christoph of Württemberg, who invoked the reformation there.
Ways to Cranach
Cranach the Younger was in his own right a remarkable painter of the reformation. This year a series of exhibitions throws a spotlight on his work.
Cranach the Elder is known as the artist, who through his friendship with Luther turned into the “visualizer” of the reformation. His son, Cranach the Younger, was also a painter. Born in 1515 in Wittenberg he continued the work of his father.
In memory of his birth in 1515 one of the major exhibitions in Germany (one of the so-called “Landes-ausstellungen”) will be mounted by Sachsen-Anhalt and Thüringen next summer.
It is the first worldwide exhibition, which dedicates itself to the life and work of this painter. The exhibition will open at 7 different original locations: Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Dessau, Wörlitz, Eisenach, Gotha, Weimar and Erfurt. Other places may also be included in the itinerary.
Wittenberg
In Wittenberg the exhibition tells the story of the life and work of Lucas Cranach the Younger. It presents him as a facet-rich personality: as prudent head of the family, as city treasurer, intelligent mayor and an energetic entrepreneur. Above all, however, it presents the artist Lucas Cranach as a royal contractor, as painter of reformatory altars and epitaphs, as an excellent portraitist and a highly talented draughtsman. In the years of the confessional conflicts after Luther’s death he made an important contribution for the propagation of the new faith. His societal portraits show how calculated he knew to utilize his pictorial possibilities. Up to his death in 1586 Lucas Cranach the Younger led one of the largest and most productive work of art studios of Europe in Wittenberg. He was a skillful artist who understood his craft and acted in the midst of a large personal and vocational network. Great works of art from German and international collections as well as exciting medial representations convey these connections. They enable the long time overdue discovery of Cranach the Younger as a widely unknown master from Wittenberg. The exhibition is to be seen at the Augusteum, the front building of the Lutherhaus.
Cranach’s Church and the Reformation Altar
Another venue in Wittenberg is the church of St. Mary, which holds numerous original paintings of Lucas Cranach the younger. For the exhibition in “Cranach’s Church”, Cranach’s works of the Town Church St. Marien are extravagantly restored, first of all the well-known Reformation Altar, on which Lucas Cranach the Younger together with his father worked. Further important works are the epitaphs for Johannes Bugenhagen and Paul Eber, the latter better known by his title “Der Weinberg des Herrn” (“The vineyard of the Lord”). The works are considered as particularly important testimony of Reformation history. Additional elucidations and texts complete the exhibition. The Cranach Altar in the church of St. Mary in Wittenberg has recently been restored. The result will be unveiled in Wittenberg on the 31st of October.
Cranach in Anhalt
The city of Dessau was closely connected with the reformation and the Cranach family often visited the town, which lies 35 km. from Wittenberg
With the impressive epitaphs in the Church of St. John, with the famous Dessauer “Fürstenaltar“ (“Princes’ Altar”) and other major works of Cranach the Elder as well as other masterpieces of old German painting and graphics from the Anhalt Art Gallery in Dessau, the exhibition draws a multifaceted image of the background for the art of the younger Cranach.
Cranach in the Gothic House in Wörlitz
Prince Franz of Anhalt-Dessau (1751 – 1817) was an avid collector of the work of both Cranach the Elder and Younger. All in all he acquired 20 works, which will be displayed in accordance with the original hanging scheme.
The Luther Portraits of the Cranach Workshop at Wartburg
Between 1520 and 1546 seven different graphic and painted portrait models of Martin Luther developed in the workshop of Cranach the Elder and Younger.
All these portraits served as both propaganda and documentary and were deliberately used for didactic purposes. The portrait of Luther thereby assumed a substantial function as ambassador for the reformatory program and a complete illustration of his biographical background.
The exhibition presents this typology but is also concerned with the organization of the Wittenberg workshop. Painted and graphic portraits of the monk and reformer were focal points, which were supplemented by portraits of other contemporaries. The exhibition aims to show that the Luther portrait has remained current in contemporary art up to today.
Cranach in Weimar
The focus of the Cranach exhibition in Weimar are the particular rich collection of paintings, designs, prints, graphics, book art and much as well as the unique winged altar in in the church St. Peter and Paul (Herderkirche). Completed in 1555 it represents one of major works of reformatory art. The exhibition especially explores this altar donated to the memory of Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous and Sibylle von Cleve and other works from the Cranach workshop created for the Ernestinian court.
Cranach in the service of the Court and the Reformation in Gotha
Within the decade of Luther the 500th Birthday of Lucas Cranach the Younger provides the opportunity to delve into the early modern period and the beginning of the Reformation. Emphasis of the prodigious special exhibition in the Herzoglichen Museum (Ducal Museum Gotha) will be the official character of the Cranach workshop in the service of the Elector of Saxony and the Reformation. The exhibition explores how political messages of the Ernestinian dynasty and the teachings of Luther were illustrated. The extremely productive Cranach workshop developed new image concepts. By means of top-notch works from international collections the productivity and innovative strength of Cranach family will be demonstrated. An exciting look at an early form of “picture propaganda” that allows a new view of old German painting.
Controversy and Compromise in Erfurt
The museum in Erfurt highlights the pictures in the Erfurter Cathedral, which originated in 1506. In Erfurt a unique dual-confessional culture developed between town councillors and the prince bishop. This lead to a dispute carried out not only through to word and scripture, but also through “images”. The exhibition explores the theological, liturgical and culturally historical background and places them in the context of the emerging reformation.
VISIT:
Lucas Cranach the Younger – Discovery of a Master
Wittenberg 26.06.2015 – 01.11.2015
Lucas Cranach and the Old German Painters
Johannbau in Dessau-Rosslau, 26.06.2015 – 01.11.2015
Cranach in the Gothic House in Wörlitz
Wörlitz, 16.05.2015 – 04.10.2014
The Luther Portraits of the Cranach Workshop
Wartburg 02.04.2015 – 19.07.2015
Controversy and Compromise
Angermuseum Erfurt 16.05.2015 – 23.08.2015
Cranach in the service of the Court and the Reformation
Gotha 20.03.2015 – 19.07.2015
Cranach in Weimar
Schiller Museum 03.04.2015 – 14.06.2015
SEE MORE:
In connection with the focus on Cranach twelve German cities have come together to develop a Cranach-Route: Kronach, Coburg, Nuremberg, Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Dessau-Rosslau, Meissen, Neustadt and der Orla, Gotha, Erfurt, Schneeberg, Eisenach, Weimar.
In connection with the route a booklet has been made available:
In the Footsteps of Cranach. A Journey of Discovery.
READ MORE:
Serpent and the Lamb. Cranach, Luther and the Making of the reformation
By Stephen Ozment
Yale University press 2011
The Cranach Digital Archive (cda) is an interdisciplinary collaborative research resource, providing access to art historical, technical and conservation information on paintings by Lucas Cranach (c.1472 – 1553), his sons and his workshop. The repository presently provides information on more than 1,100 paintings including c. 10,400 images and 790 pdf documents from 146 contributing institutions as well as 150 digitized and transcribed archival documents and 2,750 literature references.
Started in 2009 the project is in its second phase (2012 – 2014). In this period the CDA aims to expand the existing network, to develop the shared infrastructure and to increase its content in order to build the foundations for an innovative, comprehensive and collaboratively produced repository of knowledge about Lucas Cranach and his workshop that will be significantly different from the traditional model of the single-author catalogue raisonné.
The Cranach Digital Archive is a joint initiative of the Stiftung Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf and Cologne Institute of Conservation Sciences / Cologne University of Applied Sciences in collaboration with nine founding partner institutions, 19 associate partners and many project contributors. The project is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Cranach.net is the interdisciplinary research-wiki, which functions as a virtual Cranach Institute. The aim is to further research into the work of Lucas Crananch the Elder, his sons and their workshops. Another project is directed towards developing a comprehensive catalogue of their works (Corpus Cranachs).
Catalogues and Books published in connection with the Crananch-Jahr
Bild und Botschaft: Cranach im Dienst von Hof und Reformation
By Stiftung Schloss Friedenstein Gotha
Morio 2015
ISBN-10: 3945424097
ISBN-13: 978-3945424094
Lucas Cranach the Elderer belongs among the most important German artists of the Renaissance. Hundreds of works bear witness to the many topics, which were touched upon by Cranach and his workshop For more than five decades the painter was in the service of the powerful Electors of Saxony, for which he decisively visualized the Protestant ideas. This richly illustrated catalogue explores the question of how Cranach came to characterize the triumph of the Reformation in such a decisive manner. The catalogue presents more than 100 major works from international collections. It also presents numerous essays from internationally renowned Cranach-experts.The catalogue is published on the occasion of the exhibitions mounted by the Foundation Schloss Friedenstein Gotha and the Museums in Hessen Kassel in the Cranach-year 2015.
Lucas Cranach der Jüngere: Und die Reformation der Bilder
By Anne Eusterschulte, Gunnar Heydenreich and Elke A. Werner (Eds.)
Hirmer 2015
ISBN-10: 3777423688
ISBN-13: 978-3777423685
To celebrate the 500th birthday of Lucas cranach the Youngerer , international experts gathered at a symposium in order to trace a comprehensive as nuanced picture of the life and work of the artist . This book documents the results and opens up for new perspectives on the innovative artist, businessman and politician, who with great insight responded through his portraits, profane histories and religious themes to the profound changes of his time.
Lucas Cranach: Im Gotischen Haus in Wörlitz
By Kulturstiftung Dessau Wörlitz and ed. Dr. Wolfgang Savelsberg
Hirmer 2015
ISBN-10: 377742398X
ISBN-13: 978-3777423982
Leopold III, prince of Anhalt – Dessau (1740 – 1817) collected almost 600 old master paintings, called the Gothic house collection. This collection was hung in the Gothic House in the Wörlitzer Park.The core was one of the first Cranch collections in the world. This collection has been carefully reconstructed and hung in its original surroundings. This volume contains articles by art historians, who provides an insight into the reception of the paintings and their dynastic and religious significance, which is stressed by the original context.
Cranach, Luther und die Bildnisse: Thüringer Themenjahr “Bild und Botschaft”
By Günter Schuchardt and Grit Jacobs
Schnell & Steiner 2015
ISBN-10: 3795429773
ISBN-13: 978-3795429775
In 1520 the Wittenberg Cranach workshop created 46 portraits of Martin Luther. The volume presents the different portraits and how the workshop organized itself in order to take on this job. The book focuses on portraits of the reformer and how they came to visualize the reformer for centuries to come. In the 1520s radical movements led to widespread iconoclasm directed against idolatry and the practice of the veneration of saints. Martin Luther, however, did not rejected images but found them useful, when they contributed to the understanding of the texts and his teachings. His own portrait served to enforce the Reformation as an instrument of propaganda and documentary image and didactic purposes. The portraits of Luther took over as ambassador of the reformatory program and illustration of his biographical career an essential function. The book appears as a contribution to the Cranach-year 2015
Popes 2017
New exhibition - Popes 2017 - is being planned in Mannheim. The point is to make room for Catholic presence at the reformation festivities 2017.
Head of Jeanne de Bourbon for sale
The Maison de Piasa in Paris announces an auction of a marble head of Jeanne de Bourbon (1338 – 1378), wife of King Charles V