Monograph by York Alumna to be Published

Posted on 3 March 2016

Congratulations to Dr Magdalena Skoblar, a Research Affiliate with the Department, whose first monograph is to be published by Routledge

The monograph is based on the research undertaken during Magdalena's PhD in Art History at York and its completion was made possible by a post-doctoral scholarship held jointly with the British School in Athens and ‌Rome.

This will be the first study in English of the eleventh-century figural sculpture of Dalmatia and Croatia. Challenging the dependency on stylistic analysis in previous scholarship, Magdalena contextualises the visual presence of the carvings in their local communities, investigates archaeological and textual evidence to establish the historical situation within which the sculptures were produced and received, and considers them as testament to the fragmented and hybrid nature of the Adriatic and the Mediterranean as a whole, where well-connected trade routes and porous boundaries informed artistic production. Moreover, in contrast to elsewhere in Europe where contemporary figural sculpture was spurred on by monastic communities, this book argues that the patronage of these art works in Dalmatia and Croatia was driven by members of the local secular elites. For the first time, these sculptures are being introduced to Anglophone scholarship, and this book contributes to the fuller understanding of the profound changes in medieval attitudes towards sculpture after the year 1000.

For details please see: https://www.routledge.com/products/9781472466037