Dr Sophie Oosterwijk
Position: Teaching Fellow
Telephone: 01334 462376
Email:
so21@st-andrews.ac.uk
Teaching Areas
Medieval and Northern Renaissance art and culture
Dutch art of the seventeenth century, with a special interest in genre painting
Portraiture
Tomb monuments and the art of death and commemoration
Research Areas
Death imagery and the danse macabre in medieval and renaissance culture
The history of childhood and its presentation in art
Medieval iconography, sculpture and tomb monuments
Manuscripts and early printing
Publications
Selected recent articles in exhibition catalogues, books and refereed journals:
‘“Alas, poor Yorick”: Death, the fool, the mirror and the danse macabre’, in S. Knöll (ed.), Narren – Masken – Karneval. Meisterwerke von Dürer bis Kubin aus der Düsseldorfer Graphiksammlung ‘Mensch und Tod’, exhibition catalogue (Regensburg, 2009), 20-32 (essay) and 134-36 (catalogue entries).
‘“For no man mai fro dethes stroke fle”: Death and danse macabre iconography in memorial art’, Church Monuments, 23 (2008), 62-87 and 166-68 (plates).
‘Geen plaats in de hemel? Het lot van de Onnozele Kindertjes van Bethlehem’, Madoc (Tijdschrift voor de Middeleeuwen), 18:3 (2008), 130-43.
‘Of dead kings and dukes: the historical context of the danse macabre in late-medieval Paris’, Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 161 (2008), 131-62.
‘The medieval child: an unknown phenomenon?’, in S.J. Harris and B. Grigsby (eds), Misconceptions about the Middle Ages (Routledge, 2008), 230-35.
‘Children: Europe’, in P.J. Crabtree (ed.), Encyclopedia of society and culture in the medieval world, Facts on File, vol. 1 (New York, 2008), 175-77.
‘“I cam but now, and now I go my wai”: the presentation of the infant in the medieval danse macabre’, in J.T. Rosenthal (ed.), Essays on medieval childhood. Responses to recent debates (Donington, 2007), 124-50.
‘Money, morality, mortality: the migration of the danse macabre from murals to misericords’, in P. Horden (ed.), Freedom of movement in the Middle Ages (2003 Harlaxton Symposium Proceedings) Harlaxton Medieval Studies, 15 (Donington, 2007), 37-56.
‘Swaddled or shrouded? The interpretation of “chrysom” effigies’, in B. Baert and K. Rudy (eds), Weaving, veiling, and dressing: textile in medieval culture (Turnhout, 2007), 307-48.
‘Danse macabre imagery in late-medieval sculpture’, in A. von Hülsen-Esch, H. Westermann-Angerhausen and S. Knöll (eds), ‘Zum Sterben schön!’ Alter, Totentanz und Sterbekunst von 1500 bis heute, exhibition catalogue, vol. 1 (Regensburg, 2006), 167-77.
‘Muoz ich tanzen und kan nit gân?” Death and the infant in the medieval danse macabre’, Word & Image, 22:2 (2006), 146-64.
‘“Long lullynge haue I lorn!”: the Massacre of the Innocents in word and image’, Medieval English Theatre, 25 (2006), 3-53.
‘Food for worms – food for thought: the appearance and interpretation of the “verminous” cadaver in Britain and Europe’, Church Monuments, 20 (2005), 40-80, 133-40.
‘Of corpses, constables and kings: the danse macabre in late-medieval and renaissance culture’, The Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 157 (2004), 61-90.
Forthcoming Publications
Articles:
‘Death, memory and commemoration: John Lydgate and “Macabrees daunce” at Old St Paul’s Cathedral, London’, in C. Barron and C. Burgess (eds), Memory and commemoration in medieval England, 2008 Harlaxton Symposium Proceedings (Shaun Tyas, 2010).
‘“I knew hyr wel.” Medieval child effigies and the perfect age in heaven’, Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, accepted for publication (2009).
‘Cherchez la femme: John Lydgate and the medieval danse macabre mural in Paris’, Word & Image, submitted (2009).
'Sensing death: the danse macabre in early modern Europe', in A.E. Sanger & S. Tove Kulbrandstad Walker (eds), Sense & the senses in early modern art and cultural practice (Ashgate, forthcoming).
Books:
With Sally Badham, (ed.), Monumental industry: carved tomb production in fourteenth-century England (Donington, 2009), forthcoming.
With Stefanie Knöll (ed.), Mixed metaphors. The danse macabre in word and image, in progress (2009).
Activities
Recent and Forthcoming Conferences
‘“Macabrees daunce”: John Lydgate and the Dance of Death at Old St Paul’s Cathedral, London’, Fifteenth Century Conference, University of St Andrews, 4 September 2009.
‘Cleansing power: Baptism and the medieval child’, invited lecture at a one-day conference on ‘Becoming a Person’, Oxford University Centre for the History of Childhood, 4 July 2009.
‘Heaven, hell or limbo? The Holy Innocents and the fate of unbaptised children’, keynote lecture, New research on medieval childhood: an interdisciplinary workshop organised by the Society for the Study of Childhood in the Past and the Society for Medieval Archaeology, University of Sheffield, 12 March 2009.
‘“The sodeyne vyolence of cruel dethe”: Death and danse macabre iconography on late-medieval tomb monuments’, Church Monuments Society Symposium, Bristol, 20 July 2008.
‘A dance for a dead king? Charles VI and the danse macabre mural at Les Innocents in Paris’, 2008 Harlaxton Medieval Symposium, 18 July 2008.
‘Vive l’amour! A woman in the medieval danse macabre mural in Paris?’, 13th international congress of the Danses Macabres d’Europe Society, Metnitz (Austria), 27 October 2007.
‘The danse macabre in Paris: early evidence’, 13th annual ETVconference, Düsseldorf (Germany), 27 April 2007.
‘Bakerkleden en lijkwaden in de middeleeuwse cultuur: een ingewikkelde kwestie?’, keynote lecture, ‘Threads of thought’ symposium, Dept of Art History, University of Louvain (Belgium), 20 October 2006.
‘“I knew hyr wel”: medieval child effigies and the perfect age in Heaven’, conference on ‘Medieval children 1200-1500’, The Canterbury Centre for Medieval and Tudor Studies, University of Kent at Canterbury, 17 June 2006.
Recent and Current Positions of Responsibility
Editor of the annual refereed journal Church Monuments (since 2004).
Acting Director (2006-07) and Steering Committee member (2005-08) of the Centre for the Study of the Country House, University of Leicester.
Council member of the Church Monuments Society (since 2000; Hon. Secretary 2000-04) and of the Monumental Brass Society (2002-05).
Current Activities
I am currently working on a monograph on the origins and development of the danse macabre in late-medieval France, provisionally entitled Poem, painting, print: the danse macabre in fifteenth-century Paris. This monograph explores the genesis of the danse macabre theme and the political circumstances that led to creation of the famous mural in the cemetery of Les Saints Innocents in Paris in 1424-25 and the subsequent popularity and spread of the theme to other parts of Europe.
A longer-term project is a planned monograph on the appearance and spread of the Dance of Death motif in English culture in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Several articles on different aspects of the Dance have already been published and more are forthcoming.
Notice for research students
Dr Oosterwijk is happy for students interested in working on any topic relating to her research areas to discuss their proposals with her.