Insculpta imago. The seal as paradigm of a medieval and early modern concept of the image

• Applicant: Dr. Ruth Wolff
• Subject Area: Art History
• Term: from 2011 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 195204110

The project focuses on an image concept that hitherto largely escaped scholarly attention, although it is firmly anchored in different genres of texts from the Antiquity up to early modern times: the insculpta imago. The insculpta imago as three dimensional, relief-carved image is examined with the example of the seal as a visual medium, that only recently became a focus of art historical research. The seal as both, i.e. as in depth carved image of the seal matrix respectively as raised, relief-like imago of the seal impression, appears in writings of the early modern times on art theory, in theological, philosophical, literary and historical writings, as well as in texts, mostly ignored until now by art historians, like Roman and canon Law, legal commentaries, notarial documents or the very early works on sigillography. The project aims at a Corpus of exemplary texts, with an analysis of the qualities and competences assigned to the sculptural image, highlighting central aesthetic categories like beauty, materiality, authenticity, senses and format. In a second step the results of the analysis of these writings are referred back to gems and seals, which are mentioned, described and interpreted in the texts and conserved in archives and museums. The project wants to evince the paradigmatic role of the seal in medieval and early modern discourses on the insculpta imago as three dimensional image and its complex relationship to other plastic media.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants