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• 15 jan 2019

  Call for papers - Religion

  Iconotrop

  Symbolic and Material Changes to Cult Images in the Classical and Medieval Ages

  Iconotropy is a Greek word which literally means “image turning.” William J. Hamblin (2007) defines the term as “the accidental or deliberate misinterpretation by one culture of the images or myths of another one, especially so as to bring them into accord with those of the first culture.” In fact, iconotropy is commonly the result of the way cultures have dealt with images from foreign or earlier cultures. Numerous accounts from classical antiquity and the Middle Ages detail how cult images were involved in such processes of misinterpretation, both symbolically and materially. Pagan cultures for example deliberately misrepresented ancient ritual icons and incorporated new meanings to the mythical substratum, thus modifying the myth’s original meanings and bringing about a profound change to existing religious paradigms. Iconotropy is a fundamental concept in religious history, particularly of contexts in which religious changes, often turbulent, took place. At the same time, the iconotropic process of appropriating cult images brought with it changes in the materiality of those images...The conference hopes to generate new research questions and creative synergies by initiating conversation and the exchange of ideas among scholars in the arts and humanities.

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• 31 oct 2016

  Rome

  Call for papers - History

  Meanings of rituals

  Incense and religion in ancient societies

  Although several studies have drawn attention to the role of incense as an ingredient in ritual and a means of communication between men and gods, there remains no comprehensive examination of the practical functions and cultural semantics of incense in the ancient world, whether as a purifying agent, a performative sign of a transcendent world, an olfactory signal to summon the deity, a placatory libation, or food for the gods. Moreover, recent archaeological research has provided evidence (alongside literary, epigraphic and iconographic evidence) that the physical origins and chemical constituents of incense are complex and diverse, as are their properties : resins, vegetable gums, spices, and a welter of aromatic products that could be exhibited and burned before ancient eyes and noses. These were components of a multi-sensory religious experience in which music, colourful costumes, lavish banquets and tactile encounters defined the ritualsensibilities of the community.

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• 18 oct 2012

  Brno

  Study days - Middle Ages

  The Face of the Dead and the Early Christian World

  The theme chosen for this meeting is the study of funerary images in the transition between late antiquity and the Middle Ages. The central question will a reflection on the function of the funerary images in a broad sense, but also their impact on the early christian world. The choice of the chronological time also shows the second intention of the colloquium: this is an attempt to explain why the ancient funerary tradition of the image will eventually disappear, replaced by other figures of the representative functions. Through various media - from the mosaic and painting, through sculpture and ending with gilded glasses - there will be presented one of the nodal representation of the self: the human face on the border between life and death.

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