Materia Issue 3: Across Media

Welcome back to Materia: Journal of Technical Art History, for our third and special-themed issue entitled Across Media. In this issue we aimed to broaden our content to focus on objects beyond traditional easel paintings. Such objects are often underrepresented within technical research, as well as art history in general. The result represents a diverse group of objects ranging from decorative metals, painted silk, oil sketches on paper, and stone-carved tomb effigies.

In this issue, we have a returning Materia contributor, Rowan Frame, presenting a feature article on the sketching practices of English landscape painter, John Constable. Frame considers Constable’s prolific sketching output within the context of the growing nineteenth-century movement towards plein air or outdoor painting, which had already begun to flourish amongst European landscapists at the beginning of the century. Drawing upon nineteenth-century aesthetic debates, literature and poetry, she gives an account of the culturally situated idiosyncrasies of Constable’s sky sketches. Through trying her hand at “skying”, Frame explores the artist’s inner motivations and the pleasure such attention to changing sky might have provided. The author’s innovative approach to exploring the artistic process is captured for the reader through time-lapsed videos, Materia’s first exploration of video as a means of exploring technical art history.

In addition, this issue features three technical case studies. The first, presented by art historian Dr. Antje Bosselman-Ruickbie from the University of Giessen, examines the material composition and stylistic details of a Medieval silver casket, currently housed in the collection of the Trier Cathedral Treasury in southwest Germany. Bosselman-Ruikbie reflects on the topic of cultural exchange between Sicily and the broader Mediterranean region during the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, which famously culminated in an amalgam of cultural influences at the Palermitan court.

The second case study features collaborative research of fourteenth-century tomb effigies in the Met Cloisters collection and the monastery of Santa Maria de Bellpuig de Les Avellanes in the Lleida province of Catalonia. Through an international collaboration, Lucretia Kargère and Federico Caró, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and Ramon Solé, José Luis Prada, Núria Guasch-Ferré and Marta Badia Cortada,a group of conservators and architectural scholars from Catalonia, Spain teamed up to study these works which, have remained geographically separate from their original architectural context since the beginning of the twentieth century. This separation has made it difficult to evaluate the material consistencies between the carved stone monuments and their original architectural setting. By bringing together a range of material and stylistic analyses, including geological surveying at the nearby Las Avellanes stone quarries, the research team successfully reconstructs previously obscured links between the effigies and their original historical context.

The final case study, written by Leila Sabouni, Ainslie Harrison and Kristin Moffit, from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, offers an in depth examination of a rare artifact - a Tibetan initiation crown, painted on silk, believed to date to the eighteenth century. Through a collaboration with the analytical laboratory at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the crown was examined using a range of scientific techniques. These results weave together the hitherto unexplored details of a ceremonial crown of this type and date, contributing to a limited, yet steadily growing body of knowledge relating to the technical aspects of Tibetan material culture.

To conclude this issue, the Materia editorial team have put together a special interview article, presenting the perspectives of six different scholars and practicing conservators, from various backgrounds and fields of expertise: Gerry Alabone, Nicholas Eastaugh, Kendall Francis, Anisha Gupta, Ann-Sophie Lehmann and Catherine Nunn. This dialogue, entitled Voices from the Field: Technical Art History Today, aims to be the first in a series of articles, designed to promote and encourage discourse relating to the field of technical art history - How do we define it? What is its relationship with art history? How can it be developed in the future? In this initial discussion piece, focus is placed on the methodologies and epistemological foundations of technical art history, as well the ways in which it can complement broader art historical discourse. In addition, the contributors reflect on examples where technical study has been successfully integrated as part of a broader art historical research project - something which we are always keen to promote as part of our mission here at Materia.

As always, we would like to extend our thanks to the brilliant scholars who submitted their articles to this issue of Materia. Through your contributions our journal continues to grow and inspire new research within our field, creating a dynamic platform where diverse voices can gather and exchange ideas. Thank you also to our hard-working copy editor, Mary Cason, whose continued support is greatly appreciated by our editorial team.

Wishing you all enjoyable reading,
The Materia Team

Anouk Jonker
Bianca Garcia
‍Courtney Books
‍Cynthia Prieur
‍Emma Jansson
‍Julie Ribits
‍LaStarsha McGarity
‍Lucia Bay
‍Morgan Wylder
‍Roxane Sperber
‍Sophie Lamb