After the Middle Ages (Reception, Remnants, Revival): Architecture and Medievalism

An “architectural history of medievalism” presents the conundrum of grappling with responses to the Middle Ages while diverting emphasis away from the historical medieval era. By taking the medieval as a lens of refraction through which to delve into the post-medieval, this subject matter demands acceptance of its variety, complexity, and contradictions. Acknowledging tensions and uncomfortable friction with classicism, alongside intimate connections to broader histories and historiographies, the conference deals with:

- Reception: how the medieval has been received within architectural theory and historiography, and how medieval architecture has been received in related fields;

- Remnants: the afterlives of the medieval built environment;

- Revival: architecture’s distinct capacity to imbue spatial qualities into the resurgence of the medieval.

What are the stakes, modes, and attitudes surrounding the entanglements of architecture and medievalism? What responsibilities does architectural history bear in advancing knowledge on responses to the Middle Ages, including their topical resurgence and interaction with the great challenges of our time?

Scientific Organization by Tommaso Zerbi and Tanja Michalsky

Programme

Monday, 18.11.2024

09:30–10:00

Greetings by Tanja Michalsky (Bibliotheca Hertziana)

Introduction by Tommaso Zerbi (Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rom)

Session I: Reception

Chair: Elisabetta Scirocco (Bibliotheca Hertziana)

10:00–10:45

Maximilian Sternberg (University of Cambridge)

“Heitere Baukunst: Hans Döllgast’s Dialogical Reception of Classical and Medieval in Post-War Germany”

10:45–11:30

Dominik Müller (ETH Zurich)

“Mapping Change: The ‘Character’ of Norman Architecture in Sicily, 1780–1840”

11:30–12:00

Coffee break

12:00–12:45

Guido Vittorio Zucconi (Università di Padova)

“The Venetian Search for Medieval Roots”

12:45–13:30

Daniela Roberts (University of Würzburg)

“Castellar Stronghold versus Monastic Splendor: Gothic Revival Interpretations of the Middle Ages in England around 1800”

13:30–14:30

Lunch break

Session II: Revival (part I/II)

Chair: Adrian Bremenkamp (Bibliotheca Hertziana)

14:30–15:15

Tancredi Bella (Università di Catania), Luis Javier Cuesta Hernández (Universidad Iberoamericana), and

Alison Locke Perchuk (California State University Channel Islands)

“Medieval Italian Architecture in the Lands of New Spain: Reception, Transmission and Revival in California and Mexico”

15:15–16:00

Tonje Haugland Sørensen (University of Bergen)

“A Discovery of Dragons: The Case of Norse Revival Architecture in Nineteenth-Century Scandinavia”

16:00–16:45

Tommaso Zerbi (Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rom)

“The Empire(s) at Rome: Architecture and the Cultural Politics of Medievalism”

16:45–17:15

Coffee break

17:15–18:30

Keynote lecture

Alex Bremner (University of Edinburgh)

“Carboniferous Creations: Victorian Gothic Revivalism and the Ecocritical Turn”

Tuesday, 19.11.2024

Session III: Remnants

Chair: Tanja Michalsky (Bibliotheca Hertziana)

09:30–10:15

Marcus van der Meulen (RWTH University Aachen)

“Recovery and Reconstruction: The Nexus of Medievalism and Post-War Rebuilding of Churches in Twentieth-Century Belgium”

10:15–11:00

Alexandrina Buchanan (University of Liverpool)

“The ‘Monastic Oeconomy’ and Historical Reconstruction, 1750-c.1900”

11:00–11:30

Coffee break

11:30–12:15

Giulia Pollini (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) and Kai Kappel (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

“Antichità e Medioevo: Mettere in scena storia e tradizione nell'Italia meridionale della prima età moderna”

12:15–13:00

Irene Ruiz Bazán (Politecnico di Torino)

“Aragón tu Reino: Aspects of Architectural Restoration from Francoism to Present Days in Aragon, Spain”

13:00–14:00

Lunch break

Session IV: Revival (part II/II)

Chair: Tommaso Zerbi (Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rom)

14:00–14:45

Umberto Longo (Sapienza Università di Roma) and Geraldine Leardi (Galleria Borghese) 

“Medioevo Coppedè”]

14:45–15:30

Jan Galeta (Masaryk University) and Adrien Palladino (Masaryk University)

“Eclectic in Form and Meaning? Contrasting Theories and Practices of ‘Neo-Byzantine’ Architecture in Austria-Hungary and France in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century”

15:30–16:00

Coffee break

16:00–16:45

Barbara Borngässer (independent scholar) and Bruno Klein (Technische Universität Dresden)

“Memorie costruite, modificate e distrutte: Chiese neo-medievali nel mondo coloniale e postcoloniale”

16:45–17:30

Stephen Gage (University of Reading)

“American Collegiate Gothic Universities and the Democratisation of the Middle Ages”

17:30–18:00

Final discussion