Acknowledgments

Bryda, Gregory C.

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Acknowledgments

Gregory C. Bryda

Description: The Trees of the Cross: Wood as Subject and Medium in the Art of Late Medieval...

The Trees of the Cross: Wood as Subject and Medium in the Art of Late Medieval Germany

I embarked on this journey in college. The three-hour studio art classes I wished to take conflicted with other mandatory coursework my freshman year at Penn. So I abandoned the making of art—drawing, a lifelong hobby— for the study of historical art. I must first thank Susan Sidlauskas, a master of ekphrasis, for persuading me to take on a...

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Gregory C. Bryda

PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-31675

Acknowledgments

I embarked on this journey in college. The three-hour studio art classes I wished to take conflicted with other mandatory coursework my freshman year at Penn. So I abandoned the making of art—drawing, a lifelong hobby—for the study of historical art. I must first thank Susan Sidlauskas, a master of ekphrasis, for persuading me to take on a bachelor’s degree in art history in addition to the one in economics I had already begun at the Wharton School. Ultimately my interest in the former would trump that in the latter. The tipping point was my senior thesis on French gothic ivories, an odyssey of academic and personal discovery that would not have been possible without Robert Maxwell, Nina Rowe, and Larry Silver. Nina graciously co-advised me from Fordham University; she has since become a dear colleague and friend.

It was also during my college years that I started my relationship with The Cloisters as a summer intern. Since 2004 the staff and fellow lecturers have become a family and supportive network throughout the trajectory of graduate school and my preparation of this book. I owe a large debt of gratitude to Leslie Tait and Nancy Wu for their wisdom and encouragement over the years and for welcoming me to their world of lecturers and curators, many of whom would become some of my most beloved interlocutors in the field, including Joe Ackley, Katherine Boivin, Julien Chapuis, Timothy Husband, Deirdre Larkin, Lauren Mancia, and Michele Marincola. In 2015 I interned for Julien Chapuis after he relocated to head Berlin’s Bode Museum, where I studied the works of Tilman Riemenschneider also under the tutelage of his predecessor, the late Hartmut Krohm. Riemenschneider also occasioned a reunion with my cherished Cloisters colleague, Katherine Boivin, with whom I had the privilege of co-organizing the “Riemenschneider in Situ” conference in 2017. Ambitious and at times grueling, the traveling event convened experts on Riemenschneider from across the world and resulted in a collection of influential essays on the artist—dedicated in Krohm’s honor—that are cited throughout this book.

Thanks to the Connecticut-Baden-Württemberg Exchange program, I took an unorthodox “study abroad” semester at Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg during my doctoral studies and enrolled in courses in medieval art taught by Tobias Frese, David Ganz, and Johannes Tripps. Under their guidance and with the generosity of numerous gift-giving foundations, I visited what felt like every nook and cranny of southern and western Germany by train, bicycle, and Mitfahrgelegenheit. Through these research jaunts, I forged relationships with local scholars who continue to advise me on my research today. I thank Oliver Gußmann, Manuel Hagemann, Claudia Lichte, Ludwig Schnurrer, and finally the inimitable Hanns Hubach, who generously proofread this book’s chapter on Grünewald and my article on the Isenheim Altarpiece in the Art Bulletin (2018)—which represents the only previously published portion of this book.

I was fortunate to participate in two back-to-back research clusters with art historians of like-minded methodological interests. During the Getty Research Institute’s Art and Materiality year (2015–16), my work was profoundly influenced by conversations, lectures, and seminars with Natalie Adamson, Hannah Baader, Patrick Crowley, Shawon Kinew, Elizabeth Morrison, Alan Phenix, Kate Rudy, Niko Vicario, and Bert Winther-Tamakai. Frank Fehrenbach graciously received me as a postdoc in his Images of Nature program at the University of Hamburg, where my project was pushed in new and exciting directions thanks to him, Isabella Augart, Anita Hosseini, Margit Kern, Maurice Saß, and, in particular, Matthew Vollgraff—the greatest friend and collaborator a scholar could ask for. It was also in that Hamburg year that conversations with U.S.-based art historians on leave in Berlin—Eliza Garrison, Aden Kumler, Christina Neilson, and Ittai Weinryb—left an indelible mark on my work.

It has also been through public-facing events that the research for this book has been tested and refined. I thank Freyja Hartzell for inviting me to the German Studies Conference; Ethan Matthew Kavaler and Giancarla Periti for the chance to discuss the Holy Blood Altarpiece at the Renaissance Society of America; Martin Büchsel, Hilja Droste, and Berit Wagner for the opportunity to share my research on Riemenschneider and metalwork at the Mittelrhein Tagung in Frankfurt’s Historisches Museum; Mitchell Merback and Stephen Campbell for allowing me to present my theories about Grünewald and greenery at the Philosophical Image conference; Beatrice Kitzinger for hosting my Princeton workshop on the Kranenburg Cross where feedback from her, Cynthia Hahn, and Justin Wilson remains with me to this day; James Hawkey for the invitation to speak alongside Lord Rowan Williams, former archbishop of Canterbury, on the Isenheim Altarpiece for Westminster Abbey’s Plague and Passion Passiontide seminar series; and Kathrin Müller for sponsoring my Fulbright Guest Professorship at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, where meetings with her, Horst Bredekamp, Juliette Calvarin, Jennifer Chuong, and Jitske Jasperse helped shed new light on my work—and provided tonics during the harsh pandemic winter of 2022.

In my current position at Barnard College and Columbia University, I feel blessed to belong to a community of art historians who inspire and continually challenge me to rise to the occasion. I am particularly grateful to students enrolled in my graduate seminar, “Gothic Nature,” in 2020—specifically Edward Baker, Emma Bruckner, Virginia Girard, Luming Guan, and Isabella Weiss—for helping me shape my thoughts on eco-criticism. Alex Alberro, Rosalyn Deutsch, Anne Higgonet, Elizabeth Hutchinson, Jonathan Reynolds, Elisabeth Sher, Anoo Siddiqi, and Mike Waters were paragon colleagues who were instrumental in shepherding this book across the finish line. I am immeasurably grateful to Holger Klein and Noam Elcott for their comments on drafts of this study—and to Noam for introducing me to cultural techniques and the work of Bernhard Siegert.

It was my hope to publish this research with Yale University Press, to build on the legacy of Michael Baxandall and his groundbreaking work Limewood Sculptors, published by Yale in 1981. I thank my editor, Katherine Boller, for taking on the project, bringing it to life on the page, and soliciting two discerning reviewers who advised me on how best to welcome the reader into the world of medieval wood and plants.

I thank Lisa Regan for helping me find and trust my scholarly voice; her insights on this book have been invaluable.

In graduate school at Yale, where the book started in earnest, I was lucky to have cultivated friendships I will cherish for life. Roland Betancourt, Magdalene Breidenthal, Jamie Gabbarelli, Stephanie Luther, Lindsay Riordan, and Allison Stielau have all proofread drafts and translations at one point or another, not seldom under duress before a deadline. Paul Freedman, Robert Nelson, and Denys Turner played formative roles in the genesis of this study. I was also lucky to have been advised by the best Doktoreltern in the field. For his openness and eagerness to discuss research around the clock, inside and outside the classroom, I heartily acknowledge Christopher Wood, who was indispensable in elevating my study’s wider contribution to the discipline of art history. I thank Jacqueline Jung, whose advisement manifests itself on and off these pages. She taught me how to use words to breathe new life into medieval art. Over the years, as I have progressed in my career, she has always lent me her wisdom and, on a few occasions when I needed it, her shoulder, too.

Finally, I am grateful to my family—Debbie, Tom, Dan, and Lauren—for their unwavering support and patience during the long stretches of time I was out of the country and unable to see them. For their support in New York, I thank Yvonne, Emilia, Michael, Ellie, Ros, Hugh, and Shannon. Because of the years of living abroad that the research for this book required, my family grew in unexpected ways. I gained a family crew of Markus, Nils, Kay, Hanna, Jakob, Jake, Kevin, Phillip, Nici, Maree, Sara, Danny, Josh, Fritz, and reunited with my best friend, Jenna. I met my husband and partner in life, Rudi, without whose love and fortitude this book may never have taken shape. Their and the unconditional love of my children, Leon and Romy, and their mothers, Michal and Yvonne, is imprinted on all of the following pages.

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