Joseph Ackley
I study the "radiant aesthetic" in medieval art, ca. 800-1450, most especially in metalwork (e.g., chalices, reliquaries, statuettes, and jewelry), but also in book painting, panel painting, and polychrome wood sculpture. I am interested in questions of matter, medium, reception, cultural contingency, and the relationship between material presence and pictorial representation, among other issues. A second research interest is the medieval church treasury and the manifold ways in which the Christian divine, made tangible, was cradled, cocooned, and harnessed across the medieval world. Upon receiving my doctorate I held fellowships and visiting positions at Columbia University, Barnard College, and the University of Arkansas before coming to Wesleyan University in 2019.
Ph.D., Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 2014
- dissertation: “‘Offer him gold; that is true love’: Ottonian gold repoussé and the Western medieval church treasury” (adviser: Jonathan J. G. Alexander)
Address: New Haven, Connecticut, United States
Ph.D., Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 2014
- dissertation: “‘Offer him gold; that is true love’: Ottonian gold repoussé and the Western medieval church treasury” (adviser: Jonathan J. G. Alexander)
Address: New Haven, Connecticut, United States
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CFPs by Joseph Ackley
43rd Annual Saint Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies, Vatican Film Library,
Saint Louis University, St. Louis MO, October 14–15, 2016
Submission deadline: May 1, 2016
Manuscript illuminations frequently place special emphasis on precious-metal objects both sacred and secular, such as chalices, reliquaries, crosses, tableware, and figural sculptures. Artists typically rendered these objects using gold, silver, and metal alloys, " medium-specific " materials that contrasted dynamically with the surrounding color pigments. The visual characteristics of these depicted metal objects — lustrous yet flat, almost anti-representational — could dazzle, but perhaps also disorient, the viewer: they catch the eye while creating a fertile tension between the representation of an image and the presentation of a precious stuff, between the pictorial and the material. A gold-leaf chalice signals its real-world referent both iconically, via its shape, and indexically, via its metal material, a doubled representation unavailable to the remainder of the painted miniature. Such images can take on added complexity if intended to represent known real-world objects. This panel seeks to take inventory of how these precious-metal objects were depicted and how they generated meaning. Possible themes include: chronological/geographical specificities in the representation of metalwork in manuscript illuminations; depictions of precious-metal figural sculpture, including idols; technique (e.g. pigment vs. leaf); the semiotics of metal on parchment; and whether we can speak of " portraits " of particular objects and/or visual " inventories " of particular collections. We welcome proposals that consider Western, Byzantine, and/or Islamic manuscript illumination from the early through the late Middle Ages. Please send (1) an abstract of no more than one page, and (2) a c.v. with current contact information by Sunday, May 1, 2016 to both panel organizers: Joseph Salvatore Ackley (ja2998@columbia.edu) and Shannon L. Wearing (slwearing@gmail.com). Selected papers are to be twenty minutes in length.
Conferences by Joseph Ackley
43rd Annual Saint Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies, Vatican Film Library,
Saint Louis University, St. Louis MO, October 14–15, 2016
Submission deadline: May 1, 2016
Manuscript illuminations frequently place special emphasis on precious-metal objects both sacred and secular, such as chalices, reliquaries, crosses, tableware, and figural sculptures. Artists typically rendered these objects using gold, silver, and metal alloys, " medium-specific " materials that contrasted dynamically with the surrounding color pigments. The visual characteristics of these depicted metal objects — lustrous yet flat, almost anti-representational — could dazzle, but perhaps also disorient, the viewer: they catch the eye while creating a fertile tension between the representation of an image and the presentation of a precious stuff, between the pictorial and the material. A gold-leaf chalice signals its real-world referent both iconically, via its shape, and indexically, via its metal material, a doubled representation unavailable to the remainder of the painted miniature. Such images can take on added complexity if intended to represent known real-world objects. This panel seeks to take inventory of how these precious-metal objects were depicted and how they generated meaning. Possible themes include: chronological/geographical specificities in the representation of metalwork in manuscript illuminations; depictions of precious-metal figural sculpture, including idols; technique (e.g. pigment vs. leaf); the semiotics of metal on parchment; and whether we can speak of " portraits " of particular objects and/or visual " inventories " of particular collections. We welcome proposals that consider Western, Byzantine, and/or Islamic manuscript illumination from the early through the late Middle Ages. Please send (1) an abstract of no more than one page, and (2) a c.v. with current contact information by Sunday, May 1, 2016 to both panel organizers: Joseph Salvatore Ackley (ja2998@columbia.edu) and Shannon L. Wearing (slwearing@gmail.com). Selected papers are to be twenty minutes in length.