Iconophilia and Ornamenta Ecclesiae in Global Rome, AD 600-900. Patterns of Papal Patronage concerning Images, Objects and Ornaments

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The research project aims at a contribution to a sustainable intercultural update of art and image-making research perspectives, through a conceptual reorientation and expansion of current narratives on the question of images of the early Middle Ages. Against the background of criticism rooted in the Old Testamtent's ban on images, iconophilic positions of the popes (AD 600-900) are released from the previous graecocentric perspective and examined as an independent, culturally dynamic tradition within the broader use of ornamenta ecclesiae. Two thematic focal points are connected:Part I Iconophilia and Critical Response to Images. The Textual Tradition offers a systematic investigation of written documents of papal statements and activities on the question of images, both directly and indirectly handed down. Based on an analysis of the terminology of ornamenta ecclesiae and its conceptual background, Part II Ornamenta Ecclesiae: Patterns of Papal Patronage concerning Images, Objects and Ornaments examines the pictorial, object and ornamental repertoire of church furnishings (altars, imagines sacrae, vasa sacra, images of the emperor and the pope) with regard to their topography and sacral-aesthetic dimensions.