‘Remarkable women’: Female patronage of religious institutions, 1300-1550

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOs264Z_C40&t=19s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVP6QiWiAZQ&t=9s

This conference seeks to explore the ways in which women patronised and interacted with monasteries and religious houses during the late Middle Ages, how they commissioned devotional and commemorative art for monastic settings, and the ways in which these donations were received and understood by their intended audiences. The artistic donations of lay patrons to religious institutions has become a fruitful area of study in recent years, but the specific role played by women in these networks of patronage has been subject to less thorough scrutiny.ÌýSimilarlyÌýtoo, the interests of female patrons have often been considered separately from the contexts of the places to which they made their donations, without a thorough consideration of their very different status from their male counterparts and how this shaped their pursuit for commemoration and memorial after death and their reception as patrons by monastic houses and religious institutions.Ìý

The speakers will consider these issues and to think about the placement of objects and works of art commissioned by women within religious buildings, the devotional practices and beliefs of various religious orders, the physical materials of donations, and the ways in which female patrons situated themselves within monastic spaces. Was there a dialogue between these benefactors and the religious institutions they patronised? What can such donations tell us about the role and position of women in late medieval society and the ways in which they used religious patronage to articulate their own status? By examining a category of patrons that was clearly highly aware of a variety of devotional and commemorative practices, this conference seeks to gain a better understanding of art commissioned for monasteries by female lay donors, and how this more broadly reflects the position of women in late-medieval Europe.Ìý

Organised by Nicholas Flory (91Ó°ÊÓ)Ìý

10:00ÌýWelcome and Opening Remarks – Nicholas Flory (91Ó°ÊÓ)Ìý

10:05ÌýPANEL 1: Chapels and Devotion – Session chaired by Charlotte Wytema (TheÌýCourtauld)Ìý

Dr.ÌýGiorgia Mancini (University of Cambridge) –ÌýAt the heart of devotion inÌýfifteenth century Ferrara: female donors in San GiorgioÌýfuoriÌýle MuraÌý

MariaÌýLesimpleÌý(University of Grenoble-Alpes/LUHCIE) –ÌýMargaret ofÌýAustria’s ‘Treasure of Brou’: between Arts, Religion and PoliticsÌý

Yeidy Rosa (University of Durham) –ÌýHidden and Revealed: Women’s Power,ÌýFamily Feuds and Jewish-Muslim-Christian Relations through a recently uncoveredÌýmural of the Lamentation in the Cathedral of AlbarracínÌý

11:05 Discussion – Chaired by CharlotteÌýWytema (91Ó°ÊÓ)Ìý

11:30ÌýBREAKÌýÌý

11:45ÌýPANEL 2: Patronage choices – Session chaired by Jessica Gasson (91Ó°ÊÓ)Ìý

Dr. Mija OterÌýGorenÄ�iÄ�Ìý(France Stele Institute of Art History) –Women as Benefactors and Art Patrons in Male Medieval Cistercian and Carthusian Monasteries in Present-Day Slovenia

Dr.ÌýDiana Lucía Gómez-Chacón (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) –ÌýBeyond the Realms of Castile. Queenship, Devotion and Artistic Patronage in theÌýtimes of Queen Violante of Aragon (1236-1300/01)Ìý

12:25 Discussion – Chaired by Jessica Gasson (91Ó°ÊÓ)Ìý

12.55 LUNCHÌý

14:15ÌýPANEL 3 Dynastic Concerns – Session chaired by BellaÌýRadenovicÌý(91Ó°ÊÓ)Ìý

IlianaÌýKandzhaÌý(Central European University) –ÌýWives and Widows inÌýaMonasticÌýSpace: Kunigunde of Austria (1465-1520) and the CarthusianÌýMonasteruÌýofÌý±Ê°ùü±ô±ôÌý

Isabel Barros Felix (±«²Ô¾±±¹±ð°ù²õ¾±³ÙéÌýCatholique de Louvain) –ÌýThe funeraryÌýmonument of prince Afonso of Portugal (1390-1400): A 15th century commission byÌýduchess Isabel of Portugal (1397-1471)?Ìý

Dr.ÌýRichard A. Leson (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) –ÌýRemembering Enguerrand of Coucy: Jeanne of Flanders’ Memorial Campaigns atÌýLongpontÌýand LaonÌý

15:15 Discussion – Led by BellaÌýRadenovic (91Ó°ÊÓ)Ìý

15:45ÌýBREAKÌý

16:00ÌýPANEL 4 Objects of Devotion – Session chaired by Susannah KingwillÌý(TheÌýCourtauld)Ìý

Dr. Bryony Coombs(University of Edinburgh) –Devotion in Text and Stone: Female Authority and Agency in Margaret of Scotland’s Foundation of a Royal Chapel at Thouars and her ‘Speciosissimas’ Book of Hours

Dr.ÌýJoni M. Hand (Southeast Missouri State University) –ÌýPlaying by theÌý“Ruleâ€�: Monastic Order and Identity in the Psalter of Bonne of LuxembourgÌý

Amy Neff, Professor Emerita (University of Tennessee) and AnneÌýDerbes, Professor Emerita (Hood College) –ÌýWhich Remarkable Woman?ÌýThe Passion Altarpiece for Santa Clara, Palma de MajorcaÌý

17:00 Discussion – Led by SusannahÌýKingwill (91Ó°ÊÓ)Ìý

17:30 Closing RemarksÌý

Citations