OWNING GOTHIC IVORIES: BUYING, GIVING, CIRCULATING
London, British Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum, 25-26 October 2024
Over the last three decades, research on Gothic ivories has seen a significant shift from studies concerned with stylistic attribution and classification towards the investigation of their materiality, iconography, function, and – last but not least – patronage. Although we now have a much better understanding of the social, devotional, and cultural contexts in which especially religious ivories were commissioned and produced, overall, we still know comparatively little about the owners of Gothic ivories. This is especially true for the secular sphere, where it has not yet been possible to link any surviving fourteenth-century carving to its first owner.
This conference aims to return to the question of the ownership of Gothic ivories, an area which offers great potential for further discoveries, particularly (but not only) through the combination of art historical object analysis with evaluations of contemporary written sources such as inventories, wills, and other documents. Illuminating the stories of historic owners, be they individuals or institutions, and their Gothic ivories is the first aim of this two-day conference, while the second is to shed light on the later life of these objects, and on their transition into new ownership contexts and uses.
Organised by Manuela Studer-Karlen (University of Bern), Naomi Speakman (British Museum, London) and Michaela Zöschg (Victoria and Albert Museum, London).
This conference is supported by the project "Love and War. Secular images on Gothic ivories", funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Venue
25th October: The British Museum, Stevenson Lecture Theatre, Great Russell Street, London
26th October: Victoria & Albert Museum, Hochhauser Auditorium, Cromwell Road, London
Registration
Online registration for this in-person event will open soon via the British Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum websites. Please note that attendees will need to book a separate ticket for each day. If you would like to receive a notification when booking is activated, please email Michaela Zöschg at m.zoschg@vam.ac.uk