Despite the assertions about simplicity by the founding fathers of the Carthusian Order, charterhouses readily displayed images and works of art, especially during the late Middle Ages and Early Modernity.
This international conference explores innovative lines of research on image-based meditative and devotional practices as well as experiences of art and images in the charterhouse, discourses on images by Carthusian authors, material and visual cultures of Carthusian monasteries, and comparative approaches to Carthusian art, opening up new avenues for understanding the role of works of art and images in Carthusian monasteries (c. 1350- 1700).
The conference will take place in KartHuis, the former charterhouse of Leuven, on 15-17 May 2025 and will be held in the context of the 600th birthday celebration of the universities of Louvain-la-Neuve and Leuven.
Organized with the kind support of the Diocese of Hasselt, the Abbey of Westvleteren, and the Diocese of Bruges
Practical information
Date: 15-17 may
Place: Leuven, KartHuis (Tervuursevest 242c), Belgium
Contact and Information:
ingrid.falque@uclouvain.be
tom.gaens@uantwerpen.be
Organizers:
Ingrid Falque (FNRS/UCLouvain, GEMCA)
Tom Gaens (Ruusbroec Institute, UAntwerpen)
Naïs Virenque (UCLouvain, GEMCA)
Program
Thursday may 15
9.00 – 9.30 Welcome
9.30 – 10.00 Introduction by Ingrid Falque
Session 1 – Carthusians and Art: Discourses and Material Culture
10.00 – 10.20 Thor-Oona Pignarre-Altermatt (UCLouvain) – Carthusian Discourses on Images: A Comparison between Dionysius, Blomevenna, and Lanspergius
10.20 – 10.40 Stephen Molvarec SJ (Boston College) – The Charterhouse of Vauvert, Material Culture, and Eustache Le Sueur’s Images of Carthusian Life
10.40 – 11.00 Discussion
11.00 – 11.20 Coffee break
Session 2 – Images and Carthusian Identity
11.20 – 11.40 Tonino Ceravolo (Deputazione di Storia Patria per la Calabria) – The Carthusian Identity in the Engravings between the 16th and 17th Centuries
11.40 – 12.00 Romeo Pio Cristofori (Civic Museums of Ferrara), with Elisabetta Lopresti & Giuliana Marcolini – The “Golden Century” of Carthusian Art in the Domus Sancti Cristophori prope Ferrariam: Priors and Painters ad maiorem Ordinis Cartusiensis gloriam in the 17th Century
12.00 – 12.20 Discussion
Lunch break
Session 3 – Carved Images for Carthusian Churches
14.00 – 14.20 Marcello Angheben (Université de Poitiers) – Entre spiritualité cartusienne et programme politique : le retable de la chartreuse de Miraflores
14.20 – 14.40 Irene Graziani (Università di Bologna) – ‘Wooden Prayers’: Biagio de Marchi and the Choir Stalls of the Certosa di San Girolamo in Bologna
14.40 – 15.00 Discussion
15.00 – 15.15 Coffee break
Session 4 – Carthusian Images for Communal Use
15.15 – 15.35 Cécile Beuzelin (Université Paul-Valéry-Montpellier 3) – Le cycle de la Passion du Christ pour le grand cloître de la Chartreuse de Galluzzo (1523-1527) : une invention de Jacopo Pontormo ?
15.35 – 15.55 Nicolas Sarzeaud (Villa Médicis) – Vénérer la contrefaçon : un culte à copie du saint Suaire dans la chartreuse de Cologne sous le prieurat de Pierre Blomevenna
15.55 – 16.15 Giovanni Malpelo (Certosa di Farneta) – The Frescoes by Stefano Cassiani in the Vault of the Church of the Certosa di Farneta (Lucca): The Theological Reasons for an Iconographic Choice
16.15 – 16.45 Discussion
Friday May 16
Session 5 – Carthusian Images for Meditation and Devotion
9.40 – 10.00 Zuzana Bolerazká (Charles University) – Hortus conclusus and the Carthusian Devotion
10.00 – 10.20 Harald Goder – The Carthusians as Manufacturers and Commissioners of Art Objects: Three Examples from Jülich, Dülmen and Cologne
10.20 – 10.50 Discussion
10.50 – 11.10 Coffee break
Session 6 – Didactic and Meditative Images in the Charterhouse
11.10 – 11.30 Mitchell Merback (John Hopkins University) – Christ-Wisdom Among the Carthusians
11.30 – 11.50 Sarah Borges (EHESS) – Des roses et du sang : le Rosaire du MS Egerton 1821 de la British Library
11.50 – 12.20 Discussion
Lunch break
Session 7 – Images and Cartusians Nuns
14.00 – 14.20 Sergi Sancho Fibla (Université Clermont Auvergne) – Visual Culture at the Nunnery. Medieval and Early Modern Carthusian Nuns and their Devotional Images
14.20 – 14.40 Thomas Jérôme – Être et s’imaginer : la question de l’identité des moniales chartreuses à travers les sources scripturaires, artistiques et archéologiques
14.40 – 15.00 Discussion
15.00 – 15.20 Coffee break Visit to Alamire Foundation/Park Abbey
15.30 Departure by bus at KartHuis
16.00 – 17.00 Guided visit of the Alamire Foundation/Park Abbey
17.00 – 17.15 Short break
Session 8 – The Leuven Charterhouse: Short Sessions on History, Books, Liturgy and Art (these short sessions will be held at the Mariapoort of the Park Abbey)
17.15 – 17.30 Tom Gaens (UAntwerpen) – The Foundation of the Charterhouse of Leuven and Its Relations with the University
17.30 – 17.45 Ingrid Falque (FNRS-UCLouvain) – The Stained-Glass Windows of the Great Cloister of the Leuven Charterhouse: Memoria and Spiritual Edification
17.45 – 18.00 Pieter Mannaerts (Alamire Foundation) – An Illuminated Carthusian Gradual from Leuven (1506)
18.00 – 18.15 Joseph Bernaer – A Lectern Bible Commissioned by the Carthusians
18.15 – 18.30 Tom Gaens (UAntwerpen) – An Illustrated Meditation on the Lord’s Passion, Printed for the Carthusians of Leuven
18.30 – 19.00 Discussion
19.00 Conference diner at De Abdijmolen (afterwards return to Leuven by bus)
Saturday May 17
Session 9 – Comparative Approaches between the Carthusian and Mendicant Orders
9.30 – 9.50 Claire Bourguignon (Université Clermont Auvergne) – Art, Culture and Devotion. A Comparative Approach Between the Carthusian and the Mendicant Orders (13th-16th Centuries)
9.50 – 10.10 Valentina Baradel & Davide Tramarin (Università degli Studi di Padova) – Contrasting Worlds or Shared Visions? Carthusians, Dominicans, and the Use of Images in Late Medieval Devotional Practices
10.10 – 10.30 Anne-Laure Imbert (Université Paris I-Sorbonne) – Les chartreux et sainte Catherine de Sienne
10.30 – 11.00 Discussion
11.00 – 11.20 Coffee break
Session 10 – The Spiritual, the Curious, and the Profane in Carthusian Art
11.20 – 11.40 Clara Lieutaghi (EHESS) – Trompe-l’œil en Chartreuse, un corpus à décrire ? Le cas du Chevalet du peintre (1686) à la Chartreuse de Villeneuve-lès-Avignon
11.40 – 12.00 Mija Oter Gorenčič (Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts) – Artworks as Witnesses of Carthusian Perfection, Devotion, (Self-) Representation and Pleasure
12.00 – 12.20 Discussion
12.20 – 12.45 Conclusions by Ingrid Falque and Reindert Falkenburg
OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
modernum (15 avril 2025). Conference – Carthusians and Images. New perspectives on religious art and devotional culture in the late medieval and early modern charterhouse. ModerNum - Réseau des modernistes francophones de Belgique - Groupe de contact FNRS. Consulté le 19 juillet 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/13r6u