Comparing Visual Cultures
Detail from a painting the junior research group is currently studying: The Persian prince Humay catching sight of the image of the Chinese princess Humayun, Herat 1427/28. Source: Kunsthistorisches Institut / Freie Universität
The art historian Dr. Vera Beyer heads one of ten Emmy Noether Junior Research Groups currently based at Freie Universität Berlin. Source: Steffen Jänicke
The Emmy Noether Junior Research Group “Kosmos/Ornatus. Ornament in Persia and France c. 1400 in Comparison” examines the relationship between ornaments and figures in European and Middle Eastern visual cultures.
News from Apr 18, 2013
Contrary to often-held assumptions that Christian art is representational and figurative, while Muslim traditions shun images in art, members of the group are analyzing how certain ancient or Old Testament elements are transformed in various Christian and Islamic visual cultures. Recourse to these common points of reference makes it clear that the alleged opposition or separation of these visual cultures is not an adequate way of looking at these art forms.
The research group was established in 2008 by the German Research Foundation (DFG, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) at the Department of Art History at Freie Universität Berlin. It is headed by the art historian Dr. Vera Beyer, who in 2012 was appointed an Einstein Junior Fellow. She is one of five early-career researchers to be supported by the Berlin Einstein Foundation through a new program designed to promote outstanding research in Berlin.
In 2009 Beyer, who at the time was 34, won the Young Investigator Award conferred by the Mayor of Berlin. It was given to Beyer because she and her colleagues, Simon Rettig and Isabelle Dolezalek, made important contributions to integrating non-European visual culture in art history research in Europe. They have also contributed to cross-cultural and interreligious dialogue. The group’s work has been included in various exhibitions.
The DFG set up the Emmy Noether Programme to support young researchers in achieving independence at an early stage of their academic careers. The program gives young postdocs an opportunity to gain the qualifications required for a university teaching career during a DFG-funded period, usually lasting five years, in which they lead their own independent junior research group. The applicants must have international research experience.
Currently, there are ten Emmy Noether Junior Research Groups at Freie Universität Berlin.
