Maine Folklife Center Marshall Dodge Lecture Wednesday
Contact: Joe Carr at (207) 581-3571
ORONO — The Maine Folklife Center will feature Maria Agozzino from Ohio State University on Wednesday, November 12 at noon in the F.F.A. Room in Memorial Union.
Her lecture, “Divining King Arthur: The Calendric Significance of Twelfth Century Cathedral Depictions in Italy,” is a Marshall Dodge Lecture.
The legendary figure of King Arthur appears on the Italian Romanesque cathedral of Modena and in the Byzantine basilica of Otranto –a paradox of secular and sacred art, explained in part as Christian appropriation of pre-existing folklore.
However, the evidence suggests a figurative changing of the seasonal guard.This metaphor for the annual transition as summer supplants winter and the cosmological balance is restored is well documented throughout medieval Europe in genres such as folk narrative and festival, and is here etched in stone.
Though several centuries have passed since Modena’s and Otranto’s conception and execution, the multilayered and complex relationship between word and image has ramifications and relevance beyond twelfth-century Italy.
A close examination and comparison of artistic symbolism and folkloric evidence, reflects a complex folk belief system.
The transition between seasons parallels the transition between data and interpretation, creating opportunities to understand cryptic medieval material and encourage discourse complementing both Folkloristics and the Celtic canon.