History of Art and Film

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Dr Sophie Oosterwijk

	Honorary Research Fellow Currently Teaching Fellow, School of Art History, University of St Andrews (2008-09) Contact Details: Email: so4@le.ac.uk Tel: +44 (0)1334 462399

Research Summary Current Research Projects Recent Publications Teaching & Admin

Research Summary Dr Sophie Oosterwijk publishes widely on medieval sculpture, drama, iconography and tomb monuments, addressing in particular the wider socio-historical and cultural context of art and literature. Her research interests also include the history of childhood and its presentation in art, and the question of representation v. likeness in portraiture. She is currently studying the history and development of the danse macabre (see list of publications below). Portrait of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (1592-1628), by the Dutch artist Michiel van Mierevelt (1567-1641) at Lamport Hall, reproduced by kind permission of the Trustees. Personal profile The focus of her teaching is on medieval, Early Netherlandish and Dutch seventeenth-century art. She was employed as a lecturer in History of Art and as Acting Director of the Centre for the Study of the Country House at the University of Leicester (October 2006-December 2007), where she also teaches on the Certificate in History of Art. She has given a number of study days at Lamport Hall (see video HERE) and in the autumn of 2007 she organised the public lecture series 'The Country House and the Arts' at the University of Leicester. She previously held a temporary lectureship in medieval art at the University of Manchester. She is a tutor for Continuing Education at the University of Cambridge and an established NADFAS lecturer. She has also taught for the University of Nottingham, Sotheby's Institute of Art, WEA, U3A, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and other organisations. Born in Gouda (the Netherlands), she has an MA in English literature (University of Leiden) and an MA in Medieval Studies (University of York, with a British Council Scholarship). Her MA research into late twelfth-century sculpture in Yorkshire formed the basis of the opening exhibition 'Romanesque - Stone Sculpture from Medieval England' at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds in 1993. In 2000 she obtained her doctorate in History of Art at the University of Leicester with a thesis on the image of the infant in medieval art and culture, which has resulted in many articles in international journals and edited volumes. In 2002-3 she researched and inventoried the non-British pre-1900 paintings in the collection of the Art Gallery at Royal Leamington Spa, which contains many Dutch and Flemish works of the seventeenth century. She has been Hon. Secretary of the Church Monuments Society and Council member for the Monumental Brass Society. Since 2004 she has been the Hon. Editor of the refereed academic journal Church Monuments. In 2007 she co-organised a joint CMS/MBS/MEDATS study day on 'Medieval Civilian Dress on Tomb Effigies and Brasses 1300-1550' in London. She was elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 2003. Detail of the brass of Dame Margaret Chute, née Welford (d. 1614), St Mary the Virgin church, Marden, Herefordshire. Rubbing by Janet Whitham.

Current Research Projects Current research is focussed on the danse macabre in late-medieval culture, and in particular on the early history of the theme in France and in England; the impact of the danse on literature, drama and art; and its development and spread to other parts of Europe. Influences of the theme on tomb iconography can be found not just in cadaver or transi monuments throughout northern Europe but also on later allegorical memorials. A monograph is in preparation. Death and the Antiquaries, print from Thomas Rowlandson's series The English Dance of Death (1816).

Publications New and Forthcoming: Book co-edited with Sally Badham, Monumental industry: carved tomb production in fourteenth-century England (Donington, 2009/10), in progress. “For no man mai fro dethes stroke fle”: Death and danse macabre iconography in memorial art’, Church Monuments, 23 (2008), 62-87. ‘Geen plaats in de hemel? Het lot van de Onnozele Kindertjes van Bethlehem’, Madoc (Tijdschrift voor de Middeleeuwen), 18:3 (2008), forthcoming. The medieval child: an unknown phenomenon?’, in S.J. Harris and Bryon L. Grigsby (eds), Misconceptions about the Middle Ages (New York/London, 2008), 230-35. ‘Children: Europe’, in P.J. Crabtree (ed.), Encyclopedia of society and culture in the medieval world, Facts on File, vol. 1 (New York, 2008), 175-77. ‘Of dead kings, dukes and constables: the historical context of the danse macabre in late-medieval Paris’, Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 161 (2008), 131-61 (forthcoming). ‘“Alas, poor Yorick”: Death, the fool, the mirror, and the danse macabre’, in S. Knöll (ed.), Narren – Masken – Karneval. Meisterwerke von Dürer bis Kubin aus der Düsseldorfer Graphiksammlung “Mensch und Tod” (Regensburg, 2009), forthcoming. ‘“The sodeyne vyolence of cruel dethe”. Death and danse macabre iconography on tomb monuments and in other forms of commemorative art’, Church Monuments, forthcoming. Recent: ‘“A swithe feire graue”: the appearance of children on medieval tomb monuments’, in Richard Eales and Shaun Tyas (eds), Family and dynasty in the Middle Ages (1997 Harlaxton Symposium Proceedings) Harlaxton Medieval Studies, 9 (Donington, 2003), 172-92. ‘Of corpses, constables and kings: the danse macabre in late-medieval and renaissance culture’, The Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 157 (2004), 61-90. ‘Totentanzikonographie auf Chorgestühlen und Miserikordien des Mittelalters’, in U. Wunderlich (ed.), L’art macabre 6, Jahrbuch der Europäischen Totentanz-Vereinigung (Dusseldorf, 2005), 199-214. ‘Food for worms – food for thought: the appearance and interpretation of the “verminous” cadaver in Britain and Europe’, Church Monuments, 20 (2005), 40-80, 133-40. ‘Kadavers, wormen, padden en dubbeldekkers. Transi-monumenten in noord-Europa’, Madoc (Tijdschrift over de Middeleeuwen), 16:3 (2006), 146-57. “‘Muoz ich tanzen und kan nit gân?” Death and the infant in the medieval danse macabre’, Word & Image, 22:2 (2006), 146-64. ‘“Long lullynge haue I lorn!”: the Massacre of the Innocents in word and image’, Medieval English Theatre, 25 (2006), 3-53. ‘“I cam but now, and now I go my wai”: the presentation of the infant in the medieval danse macabre’, in J.T. Rosenthal (ed.), Essays on medieval childhood. Responses to recent debates (Donington, 2007), 124-50. ‘Swaddled or shrouded? The interpretation of “chrysom” effigies’, in B. Baert and K. Rudy (eds), Weaving, veiling, and dressing: textile in medieval culture (Turnhout, 2007), 307-48. ‘Money, morality, mortality: the migration of the danse macabre from murals to misericords’, in P. Horden (ed.), Freedom of movement in the Middle Ages, 2003 Harlaxton Symposium Proceedings, 15 (Donington, 2007), 37-56. Articles in exhibition catalogues: Two introductory essays and catalogue entries on sculpture from Gisborough Priory and York Minster in the exhibition catalogue Romanesque – stone sculpture from medieval England (The Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, 1993), 36-44 and 50-60. ‘Danse macabre imagery in late-medieval sculpture’, in A. von Hülsen-Esch, H. Westermann-Angerhausen and S. Knöll (eds), ‘Zum Sterben schön!’ Alter, Totentanz und Sterbekunst von 1500 bis heute, exhibition catalogue, vol. 1 (Regensburg, 2006), 167-77. Recent and forthcoming conference papers: ‘A dance for a dead king? Charles VI and the danse macabre mural at Les Innocents in Paris’, Harlaxton Medieval Symposium (15-18 July 2008). ‘“The sodeyne vyolence of cruel dethe”: Death and danse macabre iconography on late-medieval tomb monuments’, Church Monuments Society Symposium (18-20 July 2008). ‘Heaven, hell or limbo? The Holy Innocents and the fate of unbaptised children’, keynote lecture, New research on medieval childhood: an interdisciplinary workshop organised by the Society for the Study of Childhood in the Past and the Society for Medieval Archaeology, University of Sheffield, 12 March 2009.

Memberships of professional organisations Society of Antiquaries of London (elected Fellow in January 2003) Association of Art Historians (AAH) British Archaeological Association (BAA) Church Monuments Society (CMS: elected Hon. Secretary in 2000; Journal Editor in 2004) Monumental Brass Society (MBS: Council member in 2002-5) Europäische Totentanz-Vereinigung (ETV) National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies (NADFAS: lecturer since 2001)