The Tusk and the Book: The Salerno/Amalfi Ivories in their Mediterranean Contexts

The conference aims to assemble specialists in various fields who can contribute specifically to a better understanding of the most notable ivory ensemble of the Middle Ages, the so-called 'Salerno' ivories, dated between the late eleventh and mid-twelfth century and probably carved in the Norman kingdom of Southern Italy.

Following the exhibition of the ivories in Salerno (2007-08), and scholarly meetings on Late Antique and medieval ivories in Amalfi (2009) and Washington DC (2011), a number of scholars recognized how traditional approaches have been insufficient to account for the complexity of the issues involved in understanding the 'Salerno' ivories and others related to them (conventionally called the 'Grado' and the 'Amalfi' ivories).

The Florence meeting seeks not only radically to review the traditional questions of style, iconography, and program, and the much-discussed - although never fully investigated - function of the object, but also to scrutinize the information conveyed by peculiar carving techniques, to explore the African origin and points of exchange of the raw material, to discuss the possible political and theological impulses in the conception of the Salerno ensemble, to contextualize its deployment within ecclesiastical performance of the time, to frame the attraction it exerted within the long-attested appreciation of ivory throughout antiquity and the medieval period, and to ponder how the Salerno ivories reflect artistic exchange and cultural identity in the Mediterranean basin during the early Middle Ages.

International Conference
Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz - Max-Planck-Institut
29 June - 1 July 2012
Organized by Francesca Dell'Acqua, Herbert L. Kessler, Avinoam Shalem and Gerhard Wolf
Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz - Max-Planck-Institut and Centro di Cultura e Storia Amalfitana

Scientific committee

Beat Brenk, Gudrun Buehl, Anthony Cutler, Francesca Dell'Acqua, Herbert L. Kessler, Avinoam Shalem, Gerhard Wolf, Giuseppa Zanichelli

Program

Friday, June 29th, 2012

15:00
Gerhard Wolf: Welcome speech
Herbert L. Kessler: Introduction

Objects on the move
Chair: Avinoam Shalem

15:30
Holger Klein: Byzantium, Amalfi, and the Vexed Question of Artistic Influence

16:10
Karen Mathews: Objects on the Loose: The Salerno/Amalfi Ivories as Luxury Commodities in Mediterranean Trade and Cultural Exchange

16:50
Mariam Rosser-Owen: "Diverse Precious Merchandise": Amalfitan Relations with Umayyad Córdoba and their Implications for the Ivory Trade

17:30 Coffee Break

The East, Grado and Amalfi
Chair: Anthony Cutler

18:00
Gudrun Buehl: The 'Grado Chair Story' Revisited

18:40
Antonio Milone: Nuove acquisizioni documentarie sugli avori di Grado e di Salerno

Saturday, June 30th, 2012

Before and around the Salerno Ivories
Chair: Herbert L. Kessler

09:30
Fabrizio Crivello: Alle origini degli avori del "gruppo Amalfi/Salerno." Considerazioni sui presupposti, sulla cronologia e la localizzazione

10:10
Anthony Cutler: Fabric and Facture of the Salerno Ivories

10:50
Pietro Baraldi: La policromia superstite di avori medievali di Salerno e oltre

11:30
Gabriella Bernardi – Giovanni Gasbarri: "Tavolette quadrae bislonghe". Note critiche sugli avori salernitani del Museo Civico Medievale di Bologna

12:15 Lunch Break

In the Salerno Ivories
Chair: Beat Brenk

15:00
Francesca Dell’Acqua: The 'B-Side' of the Salerno Ivories and a Hypothetical Reconstruction of the Original Programme

15:40
Herbert L. Kessler: "Veteris Testamenti typos Evangelicae veritati profecisse monstravimus": Realia and Spiritualia on the Salerno Ivories

16:20
Natalia Teteriatnikov: When Art and Ritual Clashed: the Case of the Salerno Plaque with the Women at the Tomb

17:00
Maria Evangelatou: God is in the (Botanical) Details: on the Representation of Plants in the Salerno Ivories

17:40
Maria Cristina Carile: Architectural Illusions and Architectural Representations: Space in the Salerno Ivories

Sunday, July 1st, 2012

Functions and Contexts
Chair: Giusi Zanichelli

09:30
Ruggero Longo – Elisabetta Scirocco: A Scenario for the Salerno Ivories: the Liturgical Furnishings of the Salerno Cathedral

10:10
Jill Caskey: The Salerno Ivories and Church Furnishings: The Cathedral of Salerno and Beyond

10:50
Philippe Cordez: Playing with Images in Norman Italy: the 'Charlemagne' Chess Set before Saint-Denis

11:30 Coffee break

12:00
Gerhard Wolf: Final remarks

12:20
Round table and general discussion
Gudrun Buehl (coordinator)

Location
Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz - Max-Planck-Institut
Photothek
Palazzo Grifoni Budini Gattai
Via dei Servi 51
50122 Firenze

Contact
Ester Fasino
E-mail: dirwolf(at)khi.fi.it

Further information
http://www.khi.fi.it/

 

Quelle: Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz - Max-Planck-Institut