WV Press Release Sharing
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Dr. Rachel Danford, an associate professor in Marshall University’s School of Art and Design, was accepted to present her paper titled “Reimagining Artist Workshops in Lombard Italy” at the International Medieval Congress, which takes through July 6 in Leeds, United Kingdom.
The event is Europe’s largest conference dedicated to medieval studies
Danford’s research attempts to recover the experiences of artists in the early medieval Lombard Kingdom, during the years 568-774 in northern Italy. Through the study of extant literary sources, examination of high-resolution photographs, and technical analyses, Danford reconstructs the tools and materials used by artisans in the process of creating works for wealthy patrons.
“The unnamed artist is frequently discussed in the history of medieval art,” Danford said. “With a few notable exceptions, most makers of elite objects were low status, and their names and lives are not documented in the historical record. This paper explores methodological approaches that can provide researchers access to the lived experiences of medieval makers even when they are not explicitly described in the written record.”
Danford joined Marshall in 2017 and teaches introductory courses to the visual arts, the art history surveys and special topics courses on ancient and medieval art. She earned her Ph.D. in the history of art from Johns Hopkins University (2016) and holds a B.A. in art history, with a minor in archaeology, from Stanford University (2008). From 2014-2016, Danford was a predoctoral Samuel H. Kress Institutional Fellow at the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte in Munich, Germany.
The College of Arts and Media, and the John Marshall University Scholars Award Program supported Danford’s research and presentation at IMC in Leeds.
For more information about Marshall’s School of Art and Design, visit www.marshall.edu/art.
