2021 International Center of Medieval Art, Forsyth Lecture: “Representing Medieval Spain at The Met Cloisters”

Join us on Thursday, October 14, for an online lecture by Julia Perratore, Assistant Curator of Medieval Art at The Met Cloisters. Her talk, “Representing Medieval Spain at The Met Cloisters,” was organized by Art History alumna Jennifer Feltman (PhD ’11) and Professor Erika Loic, and is sponsored by the International Center of Medieval Art, Forsyth Lecture series. It will be delivered as a webinar; registration is open to the public here.

Communities of Christians, Muslims, and Jews lived side by side in Spain for centuries, creating vibrant artistic traditions that often intersected. At The Met Cloisters, however, interactions between faiths in the medieval Iberian Peninsula have not always been visible. In this lecture, Julia Perratore will discuss the process of planning and implementing Spain, 1000–1200: Art at the Frontiers of Faith, an exhibition that addresses this aspect of the museum’s permanent display.

For the first time since its inauguration at The Cloisters in 1961, the Fuentidueña Chapel gallery, which typically focuses on the Christian tradition, presents a group of works that testify to the diversity of Spanish medieval art. By telling a more nuanced story in this space, the exhibition demonstrates the ease with which objects and artistic ideas transcended differences of belief. Placed in dialogue with each other, the silk textiles, ivory carvings, illuminated manuscripts, frescoes, and monumental sculptures featured in the show reveal a dynamic, interconnected past that often mirrors the present. The exhibit opened on August 30, 2021 and will continue through January 30, 2022.

Local Organizer: Jennifer M. Feltman, The University of Alabama, Department of Art and History,
in collaboration with Erika Loic, Florida State University, Department of Art History