Institute of Art History

Pre-Modern Art History

Prof. Dr. Beate Fricke

Director

Pre-Modern Art History

E-Mail: beate.fricke@unibe.ch
Office: 168
Postal Address: Institute of Art History
Mittelstrasse 43
3012 Bern
Consultation Hour: by appointment
ORCID No: orcid.org/0000-0002-8612-7744

Editor-in-chief of the journal 21: Inquiries into Art, History, and the Visual. Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte und Visuellen Kultur
Principal Investigator of the research project Inheritance of Medieval Looting - From Medieval Treasures to Modern Museums funded by the Swiss National Research Foundation (SNF) (2023-2026) in collaboration with the Bern University of Applied Arts (HKB), the Bernisches Historisches Museum (BHM) and other institutions and collections.

Research Interests

History of sculpture, image theory and the veneration of images in the Middle Ages
Relics, reliquaries, and treasure objects in Early and High Medieval Art
Objects as archives of a history of applied arts, materiality, knowledge transfer and trade in the global "Middle Ages"
Art and Science in the Middle Ages
Manuscript illuminations of Genesis in Medieval Art
Pictorial space and horizon - representation and perception in Medieval Art
Non-Western pre-modern objects in Swiss collections and their provenance

Team

Beate Fricke, Dr., Full Professor
Irina Dudar, Dr., Research assistant
Elena Filliger, Student research assistant
Lia Schüpbach, Teaching- (Grundkurs) assistant

The Inheritance of Looting: Medieval Trophies to Modern Museums (SNF Project Grant)

Susan Marti, Dr., Research assistant
Sasha Rossman, Dr., Research assistant
Jakob Weber, M.A., PhD Student

21:Inquiries

Katharina Böhmer, M.A., Editor
Alessandra Fedrigo, Student research assistant
Lia Schüpbach, Student research assistant
Joanne Luginbühl, Freelancer
Lisa Leimer, Student research assistant

SNF PRIMA

Manuela Studer-Karlen, Dr., Professor
Lisa Schmid, M.A., Doktorandin

Former members

Finbarr Barry Flood, visiting professor Juli 2023
Adriana Basso Schaub, Teaching assistant (Grundkurs)
Ivan Foletti, visiting professor April 2023
Theresa Holler, Dr., Postdoctoral research/lecturer
Aaron Hyman, visiting professor Dezember 2022 - Juli 2023
Zumrad Ilyasova, M.A., Research assistant
Amélie Joller, Student research assistant
Gregor von Kerssenbrock-von Krosigk, Predoctoral research fellow
Meekyung MacMurdie PhD, Postdoctoral research fellow
Anne McClanan, visiting professor June 2023
Mariko Mugwyler, Student research assistant
Saskia C. Quené Dr., Predoctoral research fellow
Stefanie Lenk, Dr., Predoctoral research fellow
Carlos Rojas Cocoma Dr., Research assistant
Andrew Sears, Dr., Research assistant
Leonie Singer, M.A., Research assistant
Dominique Wyss, Student research assistant

Research Projects

Ongoing Research Projects

Trading Architecture analyses the loci of exchange of merchandise, knowledge and culture in the Mediterranean with the Middle and the Far East in the Middle Ages.
Inheritance of Medieval Looting - From Medieval Treasures to Modern Museums gefördert vom Schweizerischen Nationalfonds (SNF) (2023-2026) in Zusammenarbeit mit der Hochschule der Künste (HKB), dem Bernischen Historischen Museum (BHM) und anderen Institutionen und Sammlungen.

Completed Research Projects

Object Histories. Early Modern Flotsam. For this project she was awarded a collaborative research grant from the American Council of Learned Societies, together with Finbarr Barry Flood.
Global Horizons in Pre-Modern Art. For this project she was awarded a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council.

Publications

Publication	Year	Type

Curriculum Vitae

Curriculum vitae 2023 (PDF, 159KB)

Since 2017	Professor of Medieval Art, University of Bern
2009-2016	Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor of Medieval Art and Architecture, Department of History of Art, University of California, Berkeley
2008-2009, 2011	Swiss National Science Foundation Research Fellow, University of Zurich
2004-2008	Wissenschaftliche Assistentin, University of Zurich
1999-2005	Doctoral dissertation „Götzendienst und Bildkultur. Die Statue der Hl. Fides von Conques, University of Trier, published in German: Ecce Fides. Die Statue von Conques, Götzendienst und Bildkultur im Westen, München 2007, in English: Fallen Idols, Risen Saints. The Statue of Conques and the Revival of Monumental Sculpture in Medieval Art, Turnhout 2015.
1994-1999	Student, University of Karlsruhe