27 October

Franka Horvat, independent scholar, Zadar, Croatia

lecture of 40 minutes followed by q & a plus discussion

Not Set in Stone: A Reinterpretation of Stonework from the Elaphiti Islands
The Elaphiti Islands off the coast of Ragusa (mediaeval Dubrovnik), are well attested in archival documents and are rich in mediaeval material remains. They  preserve fifteen churches dated from the ninth to the thirteenth century, as well as architectural traces of settlements. In previous scholarship these small single-aisle structures were analysed in the context of ethnogenesis and Christianisation, and attributed to wealthy landowners from the mainland. Conversely, I consider the churches from the islanders’ perspective and study them through the changing social conditions and cultural connections of the islands. In this talk I focus on the sculptural program of the Elaphiti churches, which were found in and around all of the churches, as well as scattered around the islands and reused as building material in secular contexts. I examine the collection from the Parish church on Koločep, which houses some of the best-preserved examples of liturgical furniture of the archipelago: the fragments which come from the church of Saint Nicholas on the aforementioned island. The exhibits include pieces of a reconstructed altar screen which contains the only preserved donor inscription in any of the Elaphiti churches, which has been link to Queen Helena of Hungary. I propose a different interpretation of the inscription and a re-evaluation of patronage patterns on the islands.

Franka Horvat is an art historian specialising in medieval art in the Mediterranean, particularly the intersection of art and socio-economic conditions in the periphery of the Byzantine Empire, with a special focus on archipelagos, insularity and small islands. Using an interdisciplinary approach which integrates art, architecture, archaeology, archival records, ethnographic evidence, literary and cartographic sources, she reevaluates the roles that small islands played in medieval Mediterranean networking systems. Her work includes the study of non-elite and marginalised people, village men and women, foreigners, and enslaved people – in short, the “other” ninety five percent who so often fall between the cracks in historical analyses. Franka completed her PhD dissertation “Insular Power: Reconstructing the Social, Economic and Artistic Networks of the Elaphiti Islands, Croatia,” at the Department of Art History at UCLA in June 2022, after which she taught six courses on medieval art at the same institution. She currently conducts research as an independent scholar.

1 December

Evgeniya Ravtsova, V & A, London

presentation of ca. 20 minutes followed by q&a plus discussion

Sacred Treasures from Kyiv

This presentation will explore the development of Sacred Treasures from Kyiv, a collaboration between the V&A and the National Preserve ‘Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra’, which brought seven exceptional works of Ukrainian sacred art from the Lavra’s collections to the UK for the first time. It will trace the relationship between the two institutions from its beginnings in collaborative research into the V&A’s eighteenth-century Ukrainian Holy Gates through to the development of the display, reflecting on the opportunities and complexities of building an international museum partnership in the context of Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine.
The presentation will consider how curators and colleagues in Kyiv and London worked together to select, research, interpret and present the objects, and how the display was integrated into the V&A’s permanent galleries alongside related Ukrainian material already in the collection. It will examine the curatorial choices involved in telling a story that connected sacred art, craftsmanship and religious practice with histories of displacement, dispersal, and survival, while foregrounding Ukrainian expertise and cultural context.
Finally, the presentation will situate the display within the wider programme of research, public events and professional exchange developed around the partnership, considering how a focused collections collaboration grew into a broader platform for engagement with Ukrainian cultural heritage, contemporary creativity and the role of museums in supporting international cultural relationships during wartime.

Evgeniya Ravtsova has been International Programmes Manager at the V&A since 2016, where she oversees the development and delivery of the Museum’s international partnerships and programmes, working with museums, cultural organisations, governments, and diplomatic partners around the world. Her work spans international strategy, cultural diplomacy, collections-based collaboration, and major cross-institutional projects. She was co-curator of Sacred Treasures from Kyiv and its accompanying public programme, developed in partnership with the National Preserve ‘Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra’. Alongside her museum work, Evgeniya is undertaking a PhD examining museums and knowledge production in the context of Russian imperial rule, with a particular focus on Georgia and the Caucasus. She also serves on the Board of Pushkin House in London.

15 December

Andrea M. Gáldy, CCE, C&D, Munich University

presentation of ca. 20 minutes followed by q&a plus discussion

The Collections of the Counts of Oldenburg 2.0

The Counts of Oldenburg were a prominent princely family in the northern reaches of the Holy Roman Empire. During the early modern period, their dynastic connections extended far beyond Oldenburg: they ascended the Danish throne and forged close ties with the Wettins of Saxony and with Duke Augustus the Younger of Brunswick.
While the later Oldenburg Dukes and Grand Dukes have attracted scholarly attention, the collections assembled by the Counts themselves remain comparatively overlooked. Yet these collections offer fascinating insights into the cultural ambitions and networks of a princely family. They followed the collecting practices and ideals of their fellow princes across the Empire, while also establishing themselves as patrons of artists from across northern Europe.
Drawing on recent archival research, this presentation takes a detailed look at the Oldenburg collections and the rooms in which they were displayed, exploring not only what the Counts collected, but also how and why they chose to present it.

Andrea M. Gáldy is the founder of Collecting Central Europe. She gained her PhD in Art History and Archaeology from the University of Manchester in 2002. The focus of her research is on early modern European collections and on how trends and standards were then advertised and followed by collectors.
She has extensively published on the Medici collections of antiquities, naturalia and armour. Her research interests include the phenomenon of the kunst- and wunderkammer as well as the opportunities offered by the digital humanities to contemporary academic investigation and museological application. As a founding member of the international forum Collecting and Display, Andrea is the main editor of the series Collecting Histories with CSP (Newcastle). She also is editor of the Collectors and Dealers series with Brepols. She currently lectures at the Institute of Art History at the Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich.