The Camposanto in the centre of Pisa is famous for the destruction, which took place during WW2. However, studies of the remains continue to yield new knowledge about the place. Conference in 2016 aims to shed further light on the sacred topographies of the city.
Multiple Topographies in the Camposanto of Pisa
Pisa
01.09.2016 – 02.09.2016
Recent research projects have emphatically illuminated a widely circulating practice of “site-relics” and “site-transfer” in the medieval West. Pilgrim’s ampoules with lamp oil and stones from the holy sites were media for the creation of composite places which superimposed the local topography and the Terra Sancta sites of memory. Transfer processes and the adoption of foreign locations were already abundant in the older constructions of the cathedral area in Pisa: the Dome itself was built on the occasion of the victory over the Saracens ruling in Sicily and to commemorate the seminal myth of the second Rome. The baptistery begun in the 11th Century cited the forms of the Anastasis in Jerusalem.
The project of the Camposanto can be understood as a further development of this topographic memory. In this context, the narratives about the sacred earth, which was allegedly spread throughout Camposanto, played a central role. The notion that sacred earth could be spread in a cemetery can be understood as an innovative advancement of older models of site transfer. Source evidence suggest that these legends were greatly enriched over the centuries, although they already circulated in nuce at the time the cemetery was founded. These stories also motivated the innovative designation of a cemetery as „campus sanctus“. It is a key purpose of the conference to consider the interplay between the sacred substance of earth, the fictive spaces within the murals and the burial practices within the cemetery.
PROGRAMME:
Thursday, September 1
09:00 Greetings
09.10 Introduction by Michele Bacci (Fribourg) and
David Ganz (Zurich)
PANEL I – THE CAMPOSANTO: ARCHITECTURAL AND PICTORIAL TOPOGRAPHIES
CHAIR: DAVID GANZ
09:30 Neta Bodner (Jerusalem): A Reading of the Camposanto’s Role
among the Monuments of the ‘Piazza’
10:30 Margherita Orsero (Lausanne): La parete dipinta sulla piazza:
sequenze, strati pittorici, incongruenze
11:30 Coffee break
12:00 Lorenzo Carletti (Pisa) and Francesca Polacci (Siena): Senza
cornice: lo spazio dell’arte negli affreschi del Camposanto tra
ricezione e storia materiale
13:00 Lunch break
14:30 Visit to the Camposanto (Carlo Giantomassi/Donatella Zari)
PANEL II – SACRED EARTH. THE TERRA SANCTA-LEGEND
CHAIR: MICHELE BACCI
16:00 Rahel Meier (Florence): Between Flesh and Blood. The Early
Construction History of the Camposanto in Pisa and its Relation to the
so-called Terra Santa Legend
17:00 Coffee break
17:30 David Ganz (Zurich): Sacred Earth, Panoramatic Spaces. The
Early Fresco Decoration of the Campo Santo
19:00 Conference Dinner
Friday, September 2
PANEL III – THE JOURNEY AFTER DEATH
CHAIR: RAHEL MEIER
10:00 Friederike Wille (Berlin): “Mirandoti intorno”: Visual
evidences in Campus sanctus
11:00 Coffee break
11:30 Alessandra Malquori (Florence): L’immagine della morte
e l’edificazione attraverso l’immagine nelle Storie degli anacoreti del
Camposanto di Pisa
12:30 Lunch break
14:00 Visit to the Laboratorio di Campaldo (Carlo
Giantomassi/Donatella Zari)
16:00 Roundtable discussion with Michele Bacci (Fribourg), Ottavio
Banti (Pisa), Antonio Caleca (Pisa), Chiara Frugoni (Pisa), David Ganz
(Zurich), and Mauro Ronzani (Pisa)
17:00 Coffee break
17:30 Conclusion by Michele Bacci
18.00 End of Conference
FEATURED PHOTO:
Camposanto © Martin Cooney – www.martincooney.com