A conference organized under the auspices of the research programme "Art and Social Identities in Late Antiquity" funded by the Danish Research Council.
The conference will focus on the active role of art and architecture in Late Antiquity and situate the use of images in the period's dynamic political, religious and social life. The seminar aims to cross interdisciplinary boundaries and arrive at an original and comprehensive view of late antique society. Through images and the responses to them, we ask the invited contributors to focus on questions such as : Why were works of art made ? Who commissioned them, and how were they looked at ? The papers should try to illuminate the contexts in which works of art were created, and how they were valued and viewed. These questions could be applied to the various places of exchange (sacred and secular) where identities were taken on and transformed, often through the mediation of images.
Preliminary list of speakers :
Johanna Auinger (Vienna, Austria)
Sarah Bassett (Wayne State, USA)
Franz Alto Bauer (Munich, Germany)
Hendrik Dey (Aarhus, Denmark)
Katherine Dunbabin (McMaster, Canada)
Niels Hannestad (Aarhus, Denmark)
Ine Jacobs (Leuven, Belgium)
Troels Myrup Kristensen (Aarhus, Denmark)
Paolo Liverani (Florence, Italy)
Simon Malmberg (Swedish Institute, Italy)
Arnaldo Marcone (Roma Tre, Italy)
Trinidad Nogales (Merida, Spain)
Birte Poulsen (Aarhus, Denmark)
Stine Birk Toft (Aarhus, Denmark)
Eric Varner (Emory, USA)
John Weisweiler (Cambridge, UK)
Source : Art and Social Identities in Late Antiquity, A Research Programme at the University of Aarhus. Photo : Accademia di Danimarca in Roma, Entrance and staircase to library by Seier+Seier+Seier (see photo gallery on flickr).