Curtains. Between the Human Gaze and the Mystery of Faith

U sklopu istraživačkog boravka dr. Corinna Mairhanser (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin Spätantike und Byzantinische Kunstgeschichte, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) održat će predavanje naslova „Curtains. Between the Human Gaze and the Mystery of Faith“ u petak, 30. siječnja 2026. s početkom u 12:00 sati u Institutu za povijest umjetnosti (predavaonica 235).

-
From late antiquity through the Byzantine Empire to the present day, the curtain has been – and continues to be – a central yet often overlooked medium. Departing from the question of how seeing and perception are shaped and regulated, this paper examines how practices of concealment and revelation structure knowledge, behaviour, and identity. A case study of late antique church interiors offers insight into a veiled visual world in which curtains function as performative thresholds. By regulating visibility, staging the invisible, and producing moments of mystery, they actively generate meaning and contribute to the legitimisation of religious authority. These strategies of visual control are deeply embedded and enduring. The curtain emerges as a key device of staging and a potent symbol of the tension between knowledge and mystery, visibility and power, offering a lens through which the ways of directing and influencing the gaze can be understood.

Istraživački boravak dr. Mairhanser na Institutu za povijest umjetnosti od 13. siječnja do 3. veljače 2025. ostvaren je u sklopu projekta Arhitektura i likovnost urbanih cjelina Hrvatske, koji financira Europska unija – NextGenerationEU.

#URBARH

Izvor naslovne ilustracije: Bibbia di San Paolo fuori le Mura, Rome, fol. 32v, AD 870