Imago – The Israeli Association of Visual Culture in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period, and the Department of Art History, University of Haifa are thrilled to publish the program of the 14th Annual Imago conference:
“In Sickness and in Health: Pestilence, Disease, and Healing in Medieval and Early Modern Art”.
The two-day international conference will be held online, January 12-13, 2021.
We invite you to join us for a rich event that will explore a diverse variety of fascinating subjects, such as “Healing, Humor and Pleasure”, “The Sick and Disabled Body”, and “Gendering Disease”.
Participation is free and there are no registration fees. To attend, please fill out the online registration form (below)
Program:
Day 1 – Tuesday, 12 January 2021
09:00–09:30 Greetings and Opening Remarks
Efraim Lev, Dean – Faculty of Humanities, University of Haifa
Emma Maayan-Fanar, Chairperson – Department of Art History, University of Haifa
Gil Fishhof, Chairperson – Imago, The Israeli Association for Visual Culture in the Middle Ages
09:30–11:00 Session 1. Plague and the Artistic Process: Continuity, Change and Opportunity
Chair: Gil Fishhof, University of Haifa
Daniel Unger, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Carlo Borromeo’s Plague in Bolognese Painting
Cyprien Fuchs, Neuchâtel University
Picturing the Black Death as an Opportunity. The Case of Taddeo Gaddi’s San Giovanni Fuorcivitas Polyptych
Rita Yates, Warburg Institute, University of London
The Sacred Heart of Jesus: Image, Rhetoric, and Practice during the Great Plague of Marseille (1720-22)
11:00–11:30 Coffee Break
11:30–13:00 Session 2. Images and the Codification of Medical Knowledge
Chair: Daniel Unger, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Sivan Gottlieb, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Art of Healing: The Case of a Hebrew Herbal
Elena Berger, Institute of World History, Russian Academy of Science
From Prophecy to Medical Treatises: “Monsters” in Medical Illustrations of Early Modern France
Kathleen Walker-Meikle, King’s College, London
The Zodiac Horse: Animals in Astrological-Medical Diagrams in the Late Medieval and Early Modern Periods
13:00–14:30 Lunch Break
14:30–16:00 Session 3. Healing, Humor and Pleasure
Chair: Gili Shalom, Tel-Aviv University
Dafna Nissim, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Pleasures vs. Plague Fear – Court Scenes in Two Manuscripts of The Decameron Made for Philip the Good
Anne Williams, University of Richmond
Healing Laughter: Death and Humor in Medieval Art
Fabienne Gallaire, Independent Scholar
Looking through the Glass: The Uroscopist Figure as Visual Satire
16:00–16:30 Coffee Break
16:30–18:00 Session 4. The Sick and Disabled Body
Chair: Emma Maayan-Fanar, University of Haifa
Gili Shalom, Tel-Aviv University
Healing of the Disabled in St. Honorius Portal at Amiens Cathedral and Its Reception
Jennifer M. Feltman, The University of Alabama
The Afflicted Body and the Aesthetic of Wholeness in Gothic Sculpture
Sharon Strocchia and Ryan Kelly, Emory University
Picturing the Pox in Italian Popular Prints, 1550-1650
Day 2 – Wednesday, 13 January 2021
09:30–11:30 Session 1. Gendering Disease and Healing
Chair: Jochai Rosen, University of Haifa
Nirit Ben Aryeh Debby, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Female Saints and the Plague in Italy: St. Clare of Assisi and St. Catherine of Siena
Sara Benninga, Tel-Aviv University
Lovesickness and Stone Operations: Gendered Disease and its Artistic Representation
Anastasija Ropa, Latvian Academy of Sport Education
Depicting Disease and Healing in the Early Modern Rus: The Story of St. Pyotr and St. Fevronia
Sharon Khalifa-Gueta, University of Haifa
The Image of St. Margaret Emerging from the Dragon as an Emotional Director for Coping with Childbirth
11:30–12:00 Coffee Break
12:00–13:30 Session 2. The Power of Images: Healing and Apotropaic Functions
Chair: Sharon Khalifa-Gueta, University of Haifa
Giuditta Gentile, Independent Scholar
Sacred Images to Ward off the Plague: The Case of an Early Sixteenth-Century Italian Print
Shir Blum, Tel-Aviv University
Assisting in Childbirth: The Material Variety of Amulets as Obstetrical Aides
Rebekkah C. Hart, University of California, Riverside
‘Against All Unknown Afflictions’: Medicine and Healing in English Alabaster ‘St. John’s Heads’ (c. 1417-1550)
13:30-15:00 Lunch Break
15:00–17:00 Session 3. Sites of Healing: Space, Identity and Trauma
Chair: Assaf Pinkus, Tel-Aviv University
Brittany Forniotis, Duke University
Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Italian Lazzaretti and Collective Trauma in Fourteenth and Fifteenth-Century Italian Cities
Joana Balsa de Pinho, University of Lisbon,
Renaissance Hospitals in Portugal: Art and Architecture Regarding Sickness and Health
Anđela Gavrilović, University of Belgrade
The Scenes of Christ’s Miraculous Healings in the Church of Hagia Sophia in Trebizond: The Meaning and the Reasons of Their Depiction
Emily Jay, Texas Tech University
Hollow, Hallowed Body: Santa Rosalia and the Reconstruction of Identities in Palermo during the 1624 Plague
The conference will be held online via Zoom. For registration and a link to the meetings please register at the link below, or contact gfishhof@staff.haifa.ac.il
The conference is held according to Israel local time (GMT+2).
Organizing committee: Gil Fishhof, Mazi Kuzi, Jochai Rosen, Margo Stroumsa-Uzan