The Sacred Image Between Revealing and Concealing
New Directions in the Interpretation of the Sacred in Ancient and Medieval Art

International Conference at Harvard University

The conference “The Sacred Image between Revealing and Concealing: New directions in the interpretation of the sacred in ancient and medieval art” will bring together scholars from a variety of disciplines at the nexus of the history of art, visual culture, and aesthetics. In a field that has attracted enormous attention over the last three decades (propelled particularly in Europe by the so-called “iconic turn”, or, in Germany, “Bildwissenschaft”, which provided a new paradigm in the Humanities), the conference aims to deepen the understanding of current methods for the interpretation of sacred images, question their continued applicability in light of new models, and, in particular, to foster debate among scholars on both sides of the Atlantic whose work remains rooted in very diverse academic traditions which too frequently talk past, rather than with, each other. 

Classical archaeology and medieval art history—the archaeological and art-historical disciplines dealing with pre-modern societies in the western and Mediterranean traditions—were at the forefront in successfully adopting the new methodological challenges raised by the “pictorial turn” and “Bildwissenschaft.” Both disciplines had a long tradition of interpreting images in light of contextual and cultural-historical perspectives rather than analyzing them solely in terms of artistic or aesthetic considerations. In this respect, the subject of the sacred images emerged as a paradigmatic case for investigating visual media as systems of visual representation rooted in and intertwined with interactive, performative, somatic and emotional experiences in which images served as communicative devices permitting and merging aesthetical with spiritual dimensions. By allowing for a confluence of the rich and innovative scholarly research traditions on the sacred image from both sides of the Atlantic, our conference should serve as an ideal starting point for discussions of methodology and future areas of research. 

The conference will feature papers on the representation of the sacred in general and specifically on sacred images in the European world from Greek and Roman antiquity to the Middle Ages under a broad variety of perspectives, including the question of the cult image and the visual representation of god(s), in relation and contrast to other, namely poetic and philosophical, means of representation, the iconography of the sacred in visual media, the role of images and language in creating sacred spaces and in framing rituals, religious participation and performative actions of the experience of the sacred (cult) and the presence of the divine (epiphany). Especially the latter (how to mediate the essentially inhuman irruption of the divine) is a primary reason for the existence of a deeply rooted polarity of revealing and concealing in premodern poetic and pictorial modes of conveying meaning. The participants will be asked to address explicitly the methodological approaches which lead and guide their research. Moreover, the conference aims at promoting an in-depth understanding of how different methodologies enable innovative research and generate new pathways of investigating the function and the use of images and specifically of the use of imagery in the context of the experience of the sacred. 

The conference is organized by Adrian Stähli and Jeffrey F. Hamburger (both Harvard) and Gerald Wildgruber (Graduate School “Eikones”, Basel University), and is sponsored by the Graduate School “Eikones” at Basel University, Swissnex Boston, Harvard’s Provostial Fund for Art and Humanities, the Harvard Art Museums, the Department of the Classics and the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard, and Harvard’s Standing Committee on Medieval Studies.

Image: Two-faced gold-plated bronze sheet depicting Athena 530 B.C., Acropolis Museum Athens

Program

The conference – but neither the keynote lecture on Thursday nor the panel discussion and evening reception at Swissnex on Friday – will take place in the Naumburg Room at the Fogg Museum. The Naumburg Room is part of the Fogg Museum and is itself, as a historical room ensemble, a museum exhibit; its wooden wall revetments, panels, and fireplaces have to be respected with the utmost care.

Admission to the Fogg Museum will be waived for conference speakers and participants. When conference attendees arrive, they will receive a black sticker and a daily tag from the admission desk, so that security knows they are in the Fogg for the conference. As the Naumburg Room offers only a limited capacity of seats, all conference attendees – with the exception of invited speakers – will have to register for attending the conference; the online registration portal will be available at the beginning of April. Registration will also be required for the Swissnex event on Friday, but not for the keynote lecture on Thursday.

Travel luggage is not permitted and cannot be stored anywhere in the museum; please leave it at the hotel. There is no attended wardrobe in the museum, and the cloakroom in the courtyard has only small lockers with very limited space, but conference speakers are allowed, at the discretion of museum guards and staff members, to bring purses and laptop bags into the Naumburg Room; also, you will find a coat rack in the Naumburg Room for your coats. No food or drinks can be brought into the museum, but we will provide drinking water in bottles in the room throughout the conference, and there will be coffee breaks. Unfortunately, no exceptions to these policies established by the Harvard Art Museums can be granted.

Bathrooms and drinking water dispensers can be just outside the Naumburg Room.