Making/Matter: The Aetiology of Miraculous Images in Venice, ca. 1200–1700

CREMS & CMS Research Seminar

This talk explores the creation of miraculous images, focusing on two sculptures in medieval and Renaissance Venice. It excavates the making of these images and their originary legends—linked to their materiality—with particular attention to the unfinished (non finito in later art-historical terminology). Furthermore, it investigates cultic accretions and the visual arguments constructed at the shrines through the diachronic dialogue between images. Ultimately, it considers how different agencies work together to generate knowledge and substantiate claims about the creation of these sculptures, challenging our understanding of the entanglements between artistic practices, aesthetics, and devotion.

Jessica Richardson is Lecturer in Early Modern Art in the Department of History of Art at the University of York. Prior to joining the department in 2021, she held positions at the Centre for the Advanced Study of the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC and in Florence at Villa I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies and the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz. Recent publications include the co-edited volume The Aesthetics of Marble (2021) and a special issue of Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics titled Fashioned from Holy Matter (2021). Her current work focuses on miraculous images, materiality and the reworking of medieval images in Renaissance and early modern Italy.

After Jessica’s talk drinks and nibbles will be provided