'Dynamics of Mediterranean Artistic Interaction in the Late Medieval and Renaissance Periods' will once again be the theme of the second edition of the international conference being organised by the University of Malta’s Department of Art and Art History to be held on the afternoon of Wednesday 10 April at the Auditorium of the University of Malta Valletta Campus.
This promises to be one of the most important local academic conferences to be held on the history of art on Malta. The convener of the conference, Dr Charlene Vella, has once again sought the involvement of distinguished foreign and local academics who were selected from a number of proposals.
All of the speakers will be presenting their recent research. The foreign academics are Dr Donal Cooper from the University of Cambridge, Dr Paola Vitolo from the University of Naples Federico II, and Dr Anthi Andronikou from the University of St Andrews. The local academics are Dr Keith Buhagiar, Dr Martina Caruana and Dr Charlene Vella.
This conference is being organised based on last year’s success as well as the continuing interest in the study of art-historical exchange in the Mediterranean. It is therefore logical for one such conference to take place in Malta, an archipelago that occupies a unique place in the centre of the Mediterranean and which during the late Medieval and Renaissance periods was a frontier region where artists and objets d’art were crossing borders.
This second edition of the Dynamics conference will thus continue to explore the Mediterranean basin and some of the artistic styles that found a home in the lands that border this great sea were there several cultures met.
This conference is aimed at anyone who is interested in the Humanities, the movement of people in the Late Middle Ages across the Mediterranean, the exchange of artistic styles, Melitensia, the Medieval and Renaissance world and Mediterranean history.
This conference will create a forum for the discussion of ongoing research that interprets art related to these periods produced anywhere in the Mediterranean whilst exploring any connections related to Malta. Among the themes to be explored are Late Medieval Aragonese representations of civic and royal power in Catania; cross-cultural influence on Illuminated choral manuscripts extant on Malta; the cultural influences that filtered to Malta from Southern Sicily following the Muslim and Norman conquests; and tracing footsteps of the Lusignan King of Cyprus, Peter I, between medieval Italy and the eastern Mediterranean in the 14th century and the artistic repercussions thereof, and the mendicant churches of Candia (Herakleion), the capital of Venetian Crete. Dr Charlene Vella will herself be presenting the diagnostic results of Antonio de Saliba’s Madonna del Soccorso Triptych that is currently being conserved and restored thanks to funds from the University of Malta and the Malta Airport Foundation.
One of the keynote speakers, Dr Donal Cooper has co-authored of 'The Making of Assisi: The Pope, the Franciscans, and the Painting of the Basilica' that was winner of the 2014 Art Book prize.
The afternoon conference will start at 14:00 and conclude at 19:00.
There will be a coffee break and the event will be followed by refreshments.
For enquiries, contact Dr Charlene Vella. Registration for this conference is essential. The admission fee to this conference will be of EUR 25. A student fee of EUR 15 applies.
Register online.
Programme
13:30 - 14:00 Registration
14:00 Welcome: Dr Charlene Vella, convener
First session (14:15 - 16:00) chaired by Prof. Conrad Thake (University of Malta)
14:15 - 14:45 Anthi Andronikou (University of St Andrews): The Peregrinations of a Cypriot King in Italian material culture (1362-1369)
14:45 - 15:15 Keith Buhagiar (University of Malta): The medieval harbour of Marsa Siklah: a southeastern Sicilian gateway to Malta
15:15 - 15:45 Paola Vitolo (University 'Federico II' of Naples): Artistic culture, dynastic memory and political power in late Medieval Sicily
15:45 - 16:00 question time
16:00 - 16:30 break
Second session (16:45 - 18:30) chaired by Dr Mark Sagona (University of Malta)
16:45 - 17:15 Martina Caruana (MCAST): Illuminated Choral Manuscripts in Malta: a case study on crosscultural influences
17:15 - 17:45 Charlene Vella (University of Malta): New perspectives on Antonio de Saliba’s Madonna del Soccorso Triptych
17:45 - 18:15 Donal Cooper (University of Cambridge): Dynamics of mendicant artistic patronage on Venetian Crete
18:15 - 18:45 question time
18:45 Reception