Wow! I can’t believe
I have been home for over a month now!
Where does the time go? It’s so
good to be back with Jeremy, Eleanor, family, and friends. I have been busy getting back into the swing
of regular life in the States, and I’m finally ready to make some more posts
about my last months abroad!
Today, I’d like to write a bit about my week in
Belgium! I was invited to a conference
in Bruges, and decided to make a full week of it in Belgium with Sophia. First, we attended the Sixteenth Century
Studies Conference from August 17-20.
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| Beautiful Bruges |
On Thursday, August 17, I woke up early to catch a series of
trains from Wolfenbüttel that would eventually take me to Bruges. It was so long ago now, but I think I was
supposed to take something like 5 different connections over about 8 hours… After a couple delays and set-backs, I talked
to Corine and Volker (who were driving to Bruges from Corine’s home near
Frankfurt) on the phone. I was stuck at
the train station in Aachen when Corine realized they would be passing through
Aachen shortly, and suggested I just leave the train game behind and hop in the
car! Talk about perfect timing!
So once on the road with my trusty Corine and Volker, we
decided to take a slight detour through Maastricht in the Netherlands for
dinner. We wanted to visit a church and
textile museum there, but it was already closed so we just walked through some
shops, stretched our legs, and fed our bellies instead.
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| Dinner in Maastricht |
We rolled into Bruges Thursday night, and they dropped me
off at mine and Sophia’s Airbnb place.
My presentation was first thing Friday morning, so I ran over the paper
a couple times before trying to get some shut-eye. Every time I have to be up for something
important early in the morning, I don’t sleep well because I’m so afraid of
oversleeping and missing it… So it was a mostly restless night, but I did
manage to get a few minutes of rest.
A brief overview of my presentation: I was invited to participate in a panel with
other scholars associated with the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel
that also work on nuns during the 14
th-17
th centuries in
Germany. It was such an honor to be on a
panel with such prolific and well-respected scholars as Beth Plummer and Julie
Hotchin, and chaired by the one and only Doktormutter Corine Schleif!
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| Pics by Volker! |
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| Bevin the Serious Academic |
For my paper, I chose to explore some issues that will be
central to my dissertation. I looked at
the historiography of the word “Nonnenarbeit” (literally, “nuns’ work”) since
its first use (to my knowledge) in the early 18
th century. The definition, interpretations, and
connotations of Nonnenarbeit have changed drastically since the 18
th
century, and I wanted to consider some of these changes. For example, in the 18
th century
it seemed to be a neutral term referencing textile and mixed-media objects made
by nuns during the 18
th century.
Since the 1900’s, it carries a negative connotation referring mostly to
manuscript illuminations made by nuns during the Middle Ages.
Images commonly referred to as “Nonnenarbeit” since the 1900’s
often include figures with large, round heads, rosy cheeks, and squat
proportions, sometimes accompanied with elaborate, colorful patterning and
decoration. These same characteristics
were employed by nuns at Kloster Lüne around 1500 in a series of large wool
embroideries. In my presentation, I
tried to grapple with the spread of this formal style and its potential
connections with the so-called Observant Reform that spread throughout these
women’s monasteries during the 15
th century. In the end, I interpret these formal
characteristics as an intentional style used by the nuns as opposed to the more
popular interpretation of these images as ugly, or as the result of unskilled
makers.
That same evening, there was a reception for the American
Friends of the HAB at one of the conference hotels. It was a swanky meeting, with great finger
foods and super conversations with the Wolfenbüttel family, and I had the
opportunity to express my thanks to such a giving organization. I was awarded a travel grant from the
American Friends to fund my flights to and from Germany, which lifted the
burden of having to figure out how I would pay for that part of my adventurous
experiences abroad!
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| Pics by Volker again-- He calls this one "Bevin in the Limelight" |
On Friday, I went with a few fellow members of the Extraordinary Scensescapes project (Corine, Volker, and Edmund) to the Historium Museum in Bruges to meet with the man who created the virtual reality experience at the museum. You can read about their VR experience
here. Due to the successful historical sensory re-creation of medieval Bruges in the Historium, we wanted the chance to talk with the man behind it all. He was extremely thorough and generous with all of his feedback, experience, and advice!
We conferenced pretty hard on Friday and Saturday, and I
attended a number of panels with other scholars and friends from the library in
Wolfenbüttel. Saturday afternoon, after
Sophia’s presentation, we explored Bruges.
The architecture, blue skies, and canal around the city were absolutely
incredible! Such a charming town!!
(I also ate a lot of delicious waffles, fries, and fine pralines during these few days...)
Saturday evening, we had a rooftop dinner at another Airbnb
rented by the Dutch contingency at the conference! Klazina and a group of her friends rented an
entire home in Bruges, with a rooftop patio, so we all convened there for more
fellowship and fun! After a late-night
waffle run (literally), we called it a night and toasted to the end of a great
conference experience!
On Sunday, August 21, Sophia and I got up early to do some
tourism in Bruges before continuing our Belgian adventure in Antwerp. We were elite level tourists, and managed to
visit the Basilica of the Holy Blood (they have a relic of Christ’s blood on
some gauzy tissue), the “Bruges Madonna” (Michelangelo’s Virgin and Child in
the Bruges Cathedral—of Monuments Men fame
[watch clip here]), and we saw tons of incredible Hans
Memling paintings at the museum in Sint-Janshospitaal.
Next time on Frau Bevin’s Adventures, I will tell you all
about the rest of our Belgian adventures in Antwerp, Ghent, and Brussels!
