Fragments, Art, and Meaning in the Middle Ages

Seven speakers will consider the role played by fragments and fragmentation in the medieval and modern understanding of works of art. Their half-hour papers will address such topics as the use or reuse of fragments in the creation of new works; quotation and replication as a kind of fragmentation; fragmentation of the perceptual or conceptual experience of a work; deliberate fragmentation or fragmentariness in works such as pilgrims’ tokens or votive objects; and the modern engagement with fragments as an attempt to reconstruct lost works of art, lost visual traditions, or lost cultural practices.

Full details can be found on the Index of Medieval Art website.