CFP: Workshop: Shades of Purple – Purple Ornament in Medieval Manuscripts
We invite paper proposals for a two-day workshop on purple ornament in medieval manuscripts, scheduled to take place at the Chair of Medieval Art History at the University of Zurich on 25 and 26 November 2021. Proposals should be submitted by 30 April 2021.
Recent advances in the technical analysis of purple colorants have spurred new interest in the aesthetics of purple ornament in medieval manuscripts. This most prestigious embellishment associated with imperial splendor underwent stunning transformations between the 8th and the 11th century. Purple dyes (mostly produced from lichens) were not only used to color the entire parchment surfaces of sacred books, but purple colorants were also used selectively to highlight specific texts, pages and miniatures corresponding to the content, topology, imagery, and script of individual manuscripts. Various techniques and methods were employed to create multi-sensory purple textures, combining shades of purple from red to dark blue and evoking different purple-colored materials such as silks and porphyry.
The workshop welcomes proposals that consider the whole range of these aesthetic possibilities and analyze their specific contexts and semantics throughout the Middle Ages, with a special focus on Carolingian and Ottonian manuscripts. Broader theoretical approaches are also welcome. Topics of particular interest are:
- Shades of purple: techniques, aesthetics and semantics of different purple hues
- Purple-ground: images on, in or framed by purple
- Purple ornament and script
- The topology of purple ornament in manuscripts
- Transcultural comparisons and exchange processes (i.e. Byzantine purple manuscripts, documents and silks as well as southern Italian and Spanish purple-colored manuscripts)
- Material evocations: imitating purple textiles and stones
- Purple topoi in rhetoric and poetry and their relationship to material ornament
- Interactions between liturgical use and purple-colored manuscripts
- Purple manuscripts as gifts: patronage and donations