Gaps in Archives
Archival documents do not always record and represent significant parts of past societies. The buildings of the Loge du Mer at Perpignan, the Lonja in Palma and the Lonja de la Seda in Valencia reveal how the construction of market halls and municipal organisations supporting trade can provide insights into the underrepresented histories of Muslims, enslaved people, or labourers. These presences are largely absent from archival records – but do emerge as significant elements in a painted panel for the Loge du Mer (1479). As a way to make sense of this apparent dissonance, this lecture unspools the material quality of the silk traded in these halls. A new reading of the architectural structures of the Lonjas through the lens of the material world of the cloth they contained leads to a reading of the markets’ spiral columns as spines supporting a different history. Shifting the narrative from the mastery of an architect towards the collectives involved in winding the threads of silk histories furnishes a new view of these innovative municipal buildings.
Date: 29 January 2025, 17:00
Venue: St John's College, St Giles OX1 3JP
Venue Details: The Auditorium
Speaker: Professor Beate Fricke (University of Bern)
Organising department: Department of History of Art
Part of: Slade Lectures 2025: Gaps
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=G96VzPWXk0-0uv5ouFLPkfLY1pfbbE1EjMJQlw9BMdxUMUFWWkxTNlY5NEdDM1JVS1JNRUZLSUQ5UC4u
Audience: Public
Editor: Belinda Clark