Annemarie Weyl Carr: The Sacred, Visible and Veiled
Now Professor Emerita, Annemarie Weyl Carr was for many years University Distinguished Professor of Art History at Southern Methodist University; she has been Visiting Professor in numerous distinguished universities. Her many teaching awards culminated in receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award for Teaching from the College Art Association in 2006. Much of her research work has centered on Cyprus, but she has touched on many other areas of investigation: among others, the history – and meaning -- of the icon, the rationale of illustration in manuscripts, questions of cultural interchange in the Eastern Mediterranean Levant in the era of the Crusades, medieval women artists, and issues of critical methodology and interdisciplinarity.
Our conversation traces many cherished topics - many of them revolving around the nature of “sacred” (and “holy,” and “spiritual”). Prof. Carr’s deep knowledge, and willingness to explore, think, and rethink, make for an inspired exchange.
One of the images we discuss in this podcast episode is the “Kykkotissa” - the icon of the Mother of God (Virgin Mary) at the Monastery of Kykkos, in Cyprus. The icon itself is nearly always veiled - making it a fascinating topic of conversation about the nature of “sacred art”.
Below is a selected bibliography from among Prof. Carr’s extensive publications:
“Women and Monasticism in Byzantium: Introduction from an Art Historian,” Byzantinische Forschungen 9 (1985): 1-15
Byzantine Illumination 1150-1250: the Study of a Provincial Tradition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987
With Laurence J. Morrocco. A Byzantine Masterpiece Recovered: The Thirteenth-Century Murals of Lysi, Cyprus. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991
“Byzantines and Italians on Cyprus: Images from Art,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 49 (1995): 339-57
“Popular Imagery,” in Helen C. Evans and William Wixom, eds. The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843-1261. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art/ H.N. Abrams, 1997, pp. 112-17
“The ‘Virgin Veiled by God’: the Presentation of an Icon on Cyprus,” in Elizabeth Sears and Thelma Thomas, eds. Reading Medieval Images. Ann Arbor MI: University of Michigan Press, 2002, pp. 215-27
“Images: Expressions of Faith and Power,” in Helen C. Evans, ed. Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557). (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art / New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004), pp. 143-52
“Thoughts on Mary East and West,” in Maria Vassilaki, ed. The Images of the Mother of God: Perceptions of the Theotokos in Byzantium. Farnsworth/ Burlington VT: Ashgate, 2004, pp. 277-92,
Cyprus and the Devotional Arts of Byzantium in the Era of the Crusades. Farnsworth/ Burlington VT: Ashgate/ Taylor Francis Ltd, 2005
“Holy Mountain, Holy Isle,” in Sharon E. Gerstel and Robert Nelson, eds. Holy Image, Hallowed Ground: Symposium on the Exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum. Turnhout: Brepols, 2010, pp. 451-63
“The Byzantine Fresco Chapel: Lysi in the Art of Cyprus,” in Josef Helfenstein and Laureen Schipsi, eds. Art and Activism: Projects of John and Dominique de Menil. Houston: Menil Collection/ New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010, pp. 158-67.
“How Icons Look,” in Annemarie Weyl Carr, ed. Imprinting the Divine: Byzantine and Russian Icons from the Menil Collection. Houston, TX: Menil Foundation/ New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011, pp. 18-33.
With Andréas Nicolaïdès. Asinou Across Time: Studies in the Architecture and Murals of the Panagia Phorbiotissa, Cyprus. Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library, 2012 [D.O. Studies 43]
Davis, Thomas W., Charles Anthony Stewart, and Annemarie Weyl Carr, eds. Cyprus and the Balance of Empires: Art and Archaeology from Justinian I to the Coeur de Lion. American Schools of Oriental Research, 2014
Famagusta: Art and Architecture. Turnhout: Brepols, 2015
“Reflections on the Medium of the Miraculous,” in Sharon Gerstel, ed. Viewing Greece: Cultural and Political Agency in the Medieval and early Modern Mediterranean. Turnhout: Brepols, 2016, pp. 33-52 [Studies in the Visual Cultures of the Middle Ages 11]
FESTSCHRIFT:
Jones, Lynn. Byzantine Images and their Afterlives: Essays in Honor of Annemarie Weyl Carr. Farnham/ Burlington VT: Ashgate, 2014
Includes Bonnie Wheeler, “The Collegial Life of Annemarie Weyl Carr” (pp. 1-8) and “The Publications of Annemarie Weyl Carr” (pp. 251-6)