Posted by vrcvanderbilt on Thursday, November 14, 2013 in Events, HART, VRC.

Elizabeth Moodey, assistant professor of history of art, presented a paper at an Index of Christian Art conference held October 25-26 at Princeton University. The conference, entitled Manuscripta Illuminata: Approaches to Understanding Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts, focused on illuminated manuscripts and included papers on books ranging from impressive, heavily gilded Ottonian service books to a blockbook narrative version of the Song of Songs.

Moodey’s paper, Variations on Grisaille in a newly acquired Prayerbook (Princeton MS. 223), explored an unpublished prayerbook painted in shades of gray, setting it in the context of better-known grisailles like the Miracles de Notre-Dame leaf from a manuscript made for Philip the Good, now in the Getty Museum. The prayerbook, which was acquired by Princeton this spring, was made for a woman probably in late 15th century Bruges, and includes a portrait of her and her children.

Moodey teaches the history of illuminated manuscripts, the culture of the Burgundian court, and the art of medieval Europe, with an emphasis on materials and technique and questions of patronage. Her book, Illuminated Crusader Histories for Philip the Good of Burgundy (Brepols Publishers, 2012), examines the varieties of history writing and the visual and literary projects initiated at the duke’s court before and after the fall of Constantinople in 1453.