Call for papers--Forum on painting and polychrome sculpture

Call for papers
Painting and polychrome sculpture, 1100-1600: Interpretation,
    material histories and conservation
Museum of Cultural History (UiO)
26-27 November 2010

Conservation Studies at the University of Oslo will host a forum
around the theme of medieval and late-medieval painting and
polychrome sculpture. Conservators, conservation scientists,
historians of visual culture and historians of the medieval and
early-modern European economy are invited to contribute.

We welcome papers and discussion points on issues related to the
interpretation and conservation of northern-European liturgical
furniture, circa 1100 to 1600.

Funding for this event includes provision for the publication of
papers.

Background: The University of Oslo owns a rich collection of altar
frontals and polychrome objects. Those that pre-date the 1340s are,
with few exceptions, the products of Norwegian workshops, while the
objects from the period after the first wave of Bubonic plague and
through the Reformation are thought to be imported. Over the past 30
years, scholarship on Norwegian medieval painting techniques has
focused on the meaning of the materials found in the frontals and
sculptures that date between 1100 and 1350. A major study of 31
painted altar frontals dating from 1250 to 1350 was completed in
2006.  The mapping of materials in surviving sculptures from this
era is in progress.

The objects that date between 1350 and 1600 are far less homogenous,
though, and the material histories of this group have yet to be as
fully explored. Because the majority of these works are thought to
have been imported to Norway from the Low Countries and north
German/Baltic regions, there are many questions about their origins,
circumstances of production and materials, as well as their current
state of preservation.

This part of the collection will be the focus of a new research
project led by Noelle Streeton, based in Conservation Studies of
UiO. However, before proceeding with this work, we invite others to
share their experiences and insight into the history, materials and
conservation of late-medieval Northern painting and polychrome
sculpture.

We hope to encourage a dialogue about:

    The object as an historical source

    Documentary sources

    Original setting and function

    Medieval painting and polychromy techniques

    Histories behind an object's physical state (e.g., evidence of
    overpainting)

    Exchange and import of objects and artists' materials to
    Scandinavian lands

    Tools that lead to informed interpretation

    Sharing research results: e.g., social media, 3-D emulations and
    reconstructions

Selected speakers should prepare a presentation of 15-20 minutes. An
equal amount of discussion time (15-20 minutes) will follow each
paper.

Organisers: This forum is organised by Noelle Streeton (Associate
Professor, Conservation Studies, Institute of Archaeology,
Conservation and History, UiO) and Kaja Kollandsrud (Senior
Conservator, Museum of Cultural History, UiO)

Submissions: Please submit an abstract (c. 300 words) by 1 July 2010
to

    Noelle Streeton
    +47 22 85 93 23
    n.l.w.streeton<-at->iakh<.>uio<.>no

More details and updates can be found on

    <URL:http://kollandsrud.wordpress.com/>


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 24:3
                  Distributed: Wednesday, June 2, 2010
                        Message Id: cdl-24-3-011
                                  ***