Convened by Laura Slater and Hanna Vorholt, hosted by the Department of History of Art at the University of York in association with The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in the context of the major ERC-funded-research project ‘SPECTRUM – Visual Translations of Jerusalem’

This conference will consider the political dimensions in the creation and use of architectural copies, visual representations and physical relics of the holy places of Jerusalem in Europe and beyond. Ranging from the medieval period to the present day, papers will cover topics including the importance of Jerusalem for the image of rulers, the role of Jerusalem in public rituals and punishment, the appropriation of Jerusalem sites as war memorials and the role of Jerusalem translations in current political debates.

Speakers include Kristin B. Aavitsland, Carla Benzan, Sophia Brown, Jane Chick, Antony Eastmond (keynote lecture), Cathleen A. Fleck, Catherine E. Hundley, Bob Jobbins, Bianca Kühnel, Betsy Bennett Purvis, Marianne Ritsema van Eck, Elisabeth Ruchaud, Shimrit Shriki, Laura Slater, Nancy Thebaut and Achim Timmermann (keynote lecture).

Friday 20th March

13:15-13:30 Welcome

13:30-15:00 Session 1: Envisaging Jerusalem

  • Jane Chick (University of East Anglia), 'Presenting Jerusalem: Monza and Bobbio Reconsidered'
  • Cathleen A. Fleck (Saint Louis University), 'Symbols of Hegemony: Jerusalem on a Crusader Pilaster'
  • Elisabeth Ruchaud (Institut Catholique de Paris), 'Envisioning the Anastasis: mnemonic and political reconstruction of the holy sites'

15:30-17:00 Session 2: Crusading Identities

  • Catherine E. Hundley (University of Virginia/Warburg Institute), 'Bringing the Anastasis Home: The Architecture and Politics of the Resurrection in Twelfth-Century England'
  • Kristin B. Aavitsland (MF Norwegian School of Theology, Oslo), 'The Fight for Jerusalem in Scandinavian Village Churches (12th-13th Centuries)'
  • Nancy Thebaut (University of Chicago), 'Architectures of Absence: Holy Sepulchre Copies during the First through Third Crusades'

18:00-19:00 First Keynote Address

  • Achim Timmermann (University of Michigan), 'Jerusalem, the Stations of the Cross and Rituals of Capital Punishment, c.1400-1600'

Saturday 21st March

09:30-10:00 Session 3: Jerusalem in the locality: absence and presence

  • Betsy Bennett Purvis (University of Toronto), 'Lamenting the Sepulchre: The Place of the Holy Sepulchre in Visual Rhetoric of the Renaissance Crusades'
  • Carla Benzan (University College London), 'Stabilising the Image of Jerusalem: the politics of the local and global in Varallo’s Scala Sancta'
  • Marianne Ritsema van Eck (University of Amsterdam), 'Visualising St Francis' possession of Jerusalem and the Holy Land during the 17th century: the instances in books by Quaresmio, Calahorra, Surius and Gonsales'

11:30-12.30 Session 4: Conflict and Reconciliation 1

  • Bob Jobbins (University of Essex), 'Entry into Jerusalem: Symbol of Triumph, Source of Conflict'
  • Shimrit Shriki (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), 'The Appropriation of Jerusalem Sites as Places of War Commemoration'

13:30-14:30 Session 5: Conflict and Reconciliation 2

  • Laura Slater (University of York), 'Jerusalem in British War Memorials'
  • Sophia Brown (University of Kent), 'Jerusalem Duplicated- The Radical Reconfiguration of Palestinian Space in Larissa Sansour's Nation Estate'

15:00-16:00 Second Keynote Address 

  • Antony Eastmond (Courtauld Institute of Art), 'Contesting Images of Jerusalem'

16:00-16:30 Concluding Remarks

  • Bianca Kühnel (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

The keynote lectures are free to the public. To register for the conference and for more information please visit https://www.york.ac.uk/history-of-art/. Registration will close on 10 March 2015.