Sub-project A6 of the CRC 1391 Different Aesthetics - First Funding Period
Seven-branched Candelabra in Churches: Semantics – Contexts – Practice 

The subject of the art-historical project A6 are monumental seven-branched candelabra made of bronze or brass, which were produced in the Middle Ages in appropriation of the Jewish menorah for installation in Christian churches. They were widespread between the 10th and 16th century, especially in north-western Central Europe. Such candelabra can reach a height of up to six metres; they are therefore impressive artefacts of high material value and elaborate artistic design that dominate the room.

In the project, the seven-armed candlesticks of the High and Late Middle Ages are understood for the first time as media of aesthetic reflection and crystallisation of a 'different' aesthetic. The aim of the project is to work out the dynamic entanglements between autological qualities (materiality, design and iconography) and heterological aspects (spatial, socio-cultural and performative). The interactions between the candlesticks and other objects and pictorial programmes within the space of the church will be examined, as well as the liturgical and ritual contexts in which the candlesticks were integrated.

By applying the SFB's praxeological model, it is possible to show how the seven-branched candelabra are inscribed with their respective specific 'different' aesthetic and semantics through the dynamic interaction of autological and heterological factors.

Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Andrea Worm
Duration: 01/2021 bis 06/2023

Sub-Project B4 of the CRC 1391 Different Aesthetics - First Funding Period
 Acting personifications as figures of aesthetic reflection in medieval literature and art

The interdisciplinary project B4 explores personification in literature and visual art of the Middle Ages. For the first time, the rhetorical figure frequently used in texts and images is examined in reference to its actions. As a phenomenon of language and imagination, personification operates at an intermedial intersection from which it opens up towards a reflection of poetological and pictorial aspects. According to the project’s underlying hypothesis, a representational potential unfolds from a personification’s actions creating a distinctly aesthetic surplus of meaning. The aim is to examine personification with regard to its potential as a reflexive figure within the framework of pre-modern aesthetics.

Principal Investigators: Dr. Daniela Wagner and apl. Prof. Dr. Sandra Linden

Sub-Project C2 of the CRC 1391 Different Aesthetics - First Funding Period
Creative appropriation: A ‘different’ aesthetics in pre-modern architecture and the arts north of the Alps

The interdisciplinary project C2, linking archaeology and the history of the arts, focuses on different forms of creative appropriation of Italian art in pre-modern architecture and painting north of the Alps. Against the background of contemporary research in the humanities on cultural transfer, the conceptual hybridity of the relevant works of art will be explored systematically for the first time, as well as analysed in the context of social history and with a view to their potential for aesthetic reflection. The approach via the CRC’s praxeological model allows for a re-evaluation of these hybrid creations in comparison to earlier research in the field.

Principal Investigators: Prof. Dr. Anna Pawlak and Prof. Dr. Johannes Lipps

Sub-Project C4 of the CRC 1391 Different Aesthetics - First Funding Period
Intermediality as a starting point of aesthetic reflection in Dutch graphic prints of the early modern period

Project C4 analyses intermedial relations in Dutch graphic prints around 1600, with a particular focus on the works of the so-called Haarlem Academy around Hendrick Goltzius. This is a first systematic exploration of the conceptual interplay of Latin epigrams and visual elaboration in graphic prints. The project aims at understanding collaborative authorship and intermediality as generators of aesthetic reflection during the early modern period. Both aspects allow us to foreground central components of a ‘different’ aesthetics. Using the praxeological model, the technical conditions, aesthetic conceptualizations and frames of reception of the Haarlem graphic prints can be comprehensively evaluated.

Principal Investigators: Prof. Dr. Anna Pawlak and Prof. Dr. Anja Wolkenhauer

Initial Project - Duration: 01.01.2023 bis 31.12.2025
https://fit.uni-tuebingen.de/Project/Details?id=10031

In view of the complexity of biblical history – „considerans sacrae historiae prolixitatem“ – the 12th century Parisian scholar Peter of Poitiers formulated the goal of his Compendium historiae in genealogia Christi as a concise overview. As a novel visualisation of salvation history in the form of a linear synopsis with brief textual explanations, this work is of groundbreaking importance. The sequence of generations from Adam to Christ forms the chronological leading axis with which the lines of biblical ruling families are correlated, so that synchronous and diachronic relationships of persons and events can be read simultaneously. Furthermore, the Compendium historiae visualises suggestively the basic assumption of a history that is ordered by God and can be grasped by the human mind in its order, that proceeds according to plan and teleologically. The synopsis developed by Peter of Poitiers quickly spread throughout the Latin West. Between the late 12th and early 16th centuries, several hundred copies have survived. Despite its relevance and formative effect, the Compendium historiae has so far neither been edited nor studied with regard to the specificity of multilinear graphics as a metastructure. 
The proposed interdisciplinary and international research project brings together the fields of art history, Latin philology, medieval history, edition studies and digital humanities. The aims are (1) a comprehensive overview of the tradition of the Compendium historiae, (2) an analysis of the graphic metastructure as well as the texts, diagrams and images embedded in it (and the recording of variants), (3) a critical scholarly edition (based on selected witnesses), and (4) an exploration of relevant contexts. The project will result in (1) a codicological database, (2) a navigable visualisation of the graphic metastructure (and its elements), (3) a critical edition of the text, and (4) individual and case studies for in-depth research of important witnesses of tradition, socio-cultural contexts and other aspects. The publication will be digital, permanent and freely accessible. 
With the development of the digital edition, new methodological ground is being broken in terms of the adequate representation of diagrammatic structures through a formalised and navigable knowledge graph that represents the variants of the work as individual forms of realisation and transmission through innovative visualisation technologies. The project will make accessible one of the most visually innovative and influential works of the Middle Ages and shed new light on the history of the visualisation of knowledge. It will also provide a model with which works of complex graphic structure can be edited and made accessible in the future.

Manager: Prof. Dr. Andrea Worm
Compendium historiae

Second Funding Period beginning 2026:: https://fit.uni-tuebingen.de/Project/Details?id=13424

Project in Tübingen and Marbach with a duration from May 2009 until April 2012. The sub-project „Bilder in der Literatur“ (Images in Literature) was conducted at the Institute of Art History.
Information about the project can be found here
This link leads you to the project homepage.