In the second half of the twentieth century, great efforts were made in art historical research to get a better and more comprehensive understanding of the visual culture of the Mediterranean in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, periods which previous scholarship pejoratively labelled the dark ages. Among excellent scholars who contributed immensely to shed light on this field, was the Norwegian art historian Hjalmar Torp (1924- 2023). His fundamental research contributions, published in five languages (English, Italian, French, German and Norwegian), ranges from Byzantine mosaics in Greece, Langobard architecture and painting in Italy, to Coptic sculpture and architecture in Egypt. Hjalmar Torp never shied away from painstaking fieldwork, turning every stone, quite literally, to scrutinize his objects of study. A main interest was the exploration of sacred spaces and their ornamentation’s meaning-production, another was the study of proportions and measurements of the human figure. His scholarship was solidly rooted in traditional art historical methods; still he developed a contextual methodology which proved most rewarding.
The Norwegian Institute in Rome, an institution owing its existence to Hjalmar Torp, wants to honour its former Director and his scholarly achievements by organizing a two-days symposium in his name on the centenary of his birth. We invite papers on any subject pertinent to the study of sacred spaces and figuration in late antique and early medieval Mediterranean culture, encouraging focus on methodological and principal questions for the future of this field of study.
Program for the symposium will eventually be published here.