The Transmutation of Patterns and the Role of Women in Insular Art

Description

History of Art Seminar Series at the Edinburgh College of Art

Presented research from postdoctoral project, 'The Transmutation of Patterns and the Role of Women in Insular Art', funded by Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship

Abstract:
The Insular artists of early medieval Ireland and Britain (c. AD 600-1100) developed a virtuosic form of ornament referred to in this seminar as ‘transmutation’, in which they physically manipulated different abstract patterns, so that one pattern transformed seamlessly into another pattern that possessed a radically different underlying geometric structure than the first. Transmutation not only appears in manuscript illuminations, carved stone, and metalwork, but also survives in textiles, the latter which were produced by women during the Insular period. In this talk, Cynthia will present her current Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship research on a collection of early English woven and embroidered textiles held in the Sint- Catharinakerk treasury in Maaseik, Belgium. Comparisons of transmutation in the Maaseik textiles with examples from contemporary manuscripts, carved stone, and metalwork will shed light on how women embroiderers and weavers participated in and impacted the Insular creative milieu, as sophisticated geometers and ornament-makers alongside male artists.

Period	1 Feb 2024
Held at	History of Art