BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Santa Maria della Scala: A Byzantine treasury for the medieval cit
 y of Siena - Stefania Gerevini (Courtauld Institute of Art)
DTSTART:20090126T173000Z
DTEND:20090126T184500Z
UID:TALK16397@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Clare Vernon
DESCRIPTION:In 1359\, the Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala in Siena acq
 uired from a Tuscan merchant resident in Venice and working in Constantino
 ple a group of Byzantine relics and reliquaries of the Passion of Christ\,
  of the Virgin Mary\, and of a number of apostles and saints. \nThese item
 s\, accompanied by two fourteenth-century documents testifying to their Co
 nstantinopolitan and imperial origin\, constituted the earliest and prime 
 nucleus of the treasury of the Hospital. The celebrations for their arriva
 l in town\, the artistic commissions prompted by their acquisition and the
  age-long public cult developed around them\, are testament to the key rel
 igious and cultural role played by these objects in Siena\; a role\, in tu
 rn\, largely dependent on their Byzantine provenance\, repeatedly emphasis
 ed and consistently promoted in the city-state. \nMy paper will consider s
 ome aspects of the elaborate process of translation of these relics and re
 liquaries from Byzantium to Siena. Their acquisition and incorporation int
 o the highly specific Sienese cultural\, religious and political context i
 mplied a significant reinterpretation of the meaning and function of the o
 bjects\, the result of which\, I will argue\, was the transformation of a 
 group of holy items meant for the private devotion of an individual into a
  unified\, comprehensive and organised treasury for the Hospital of Santa 
 Maria della Scala\, and into a public religious and civic asset for the wh
 ole city of Siena. \n
LOCATION:The History of Art Graduate Centre - 4a Trumpington Street
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR