Dr Felicity Harley
Fellow, Art History
Qualifications
BA Hons (Adelaide), PhD (Adelaide)
Biography
Felicity is a graduate of the Classics Department at the University of Adelaide. She specializes in early Christian iconography and the art of medieval Italy, with specific expertise in the representation of the Crucifixion (c. 200 -early Renaissance) and the early development of Christian imagery on engraved gems. While undertaking her doctorate, Felicity worked in the Museum of Classical Archaeology, University of Adelaide, and taught there within undergraduate courses on Greek, Roman and Byzantine art.
On completion of her PhD, she was awarded a Frances A. Yates Fellowship at the Warburg Institute, University of London. Several grants, including a Fellowship from the Australian Academy of the Humanities, enabled her to remain in Europe to work closely on collections of early Christian art in Rome, and specifically in London in the British Museum. In 2004 she was awarded the Ralegh Radford Rome Fellowship at the British School at Rome to commence a study of the origins and development of Church decoration in Rome. Felicity was appointed as Lecturer in Medieval Art History at the University of Melbourne in 2006.
Research projects
The Maskell ivories (British Museum, London) and the ivory Capsella of Samagher (or ŒPola Casket‚; Museo Archeologico, Venice).
Type of Project: journal article
Study of an early Renaissance processional cross by Bernardo Daddi (?), National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
Type of Project: journal article (and gallery floor talk)
Investigation into the relationship between early Christian art and text
Collaborative venture with colleagues at the Trinity College Theological School, University of Melbourne.
Type of Project: research
Participant in Acts of Consolation from Homer to the Early Modern Ages [Co-ordinator: Dr Han Baltussen, University of Adelaide]
Type of Project: Collaborative International Research (Publication; Conference)
Recent grants and awards (from 2002)
- 2004-2005 The Ralegh Radford Rome Fellow in Archaeology, History and Letters, The BritishSchool at Rome.
- 2003 Humanities Fieldwork Fellowship, AustralianAcademy of the Humanities.
- 2002-2003 Frances A. Yates Fellowship, The Warburg Institute (The University of London).
- 2003 Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, Postdoctoral Award.
- 2003 Society for the Study of Early Christianity, Research Grant, Ancient History Research Centre, Macquarie University.
- 2001-2002 University of South Australia, Teaching and Learning Grant, Division of Education Arts and Social Sciences
Knowledge transfer
Current Professional Activities include:
- Member of the Executive Committee of the Australian Association for Byzantine Studies
- Reviewer of articles for publication in various journals (previously: The Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes; Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies)
- Research Consultant (previously having included: the Madrid Skylitzes Project, AHRB Centre for Byzantine Cultural History, The Institute of Byzantine Studies, Queen's University, Belfast)
Felicity has previously held honorary positions as Research Fellow or Associate in the following institutions:
- Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity, University of Birmingham
- Department of Art History Department, La Trobe University
- Department of Classics, University of Melbourne
- Centre for Early Christian Studies, Australian Catholic University
- Centre for European Studies and General Linguistics, University of Adelaide
Publications
Monograph
- Crucifixion Iconography: Beginnings and Development ca. 200-600 [Studia Antiqua Australiensia, Brepols, Belgium: forthcoming]
Commissioned writing
- Entries in: Picturing the Bible: The Earliest Christian Art, ed. Jeffrey Spier, Kimbell Art Museum, London: Yale University Press, 2007.
- 'Art of Late Antiquity', chapter in Blackwell Companion to Late Antiquity, ed. Philip Rousseau [forthcoming]
- "The Interpretation of the Bible in Visual Art", entry in Dictionary of Biblical Criticism and Interpretation, Routledge (London, 2006)
- "Crucifixion", and "Shepherd", entries in P. C Finney (ed), Encyclopaedia of Early Christian Art and Archaeology, W. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Michigan [in-press]
- 'Nell', catalogue entry in Academici: The First Five Years of the Australia Council Visual Arts/Crafts Board Rome Studio Residency, 1999-2004. Exhibition Catalogue, ed. Kit Wise (Monash, 2005), pp. 30-31.
- Book Review: Gary Vikan, "Sacred Images and Sacred Power in Byzantium" (Ashgate 2003), in Art History, vol. 28.5 (2005), 802-804.
- Book Review: Charles Barber, "Figure and Likeness. On the Limits of Representation in Byzantine Iconoclasm" (Princeton 2002), Prudentia [forthcoming]
- Research Report, Papers of the British School at Rome,vol. 74 (2006)
Journal articles and book chapters
- 'The Narration of Christ's Passion in Early Christian Art', Byzantine Narrative. Proceedings of the XIV Conference of the Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, ed. J. Burke et al., (Melbourne, 2006), 221-232.
- "Resurrection in Jewish-Christian Apocryphal Gospels and Early Christian Art", (with B. Pearson), in S. Porter & B. Pearson (eds), Christian-Jewish Relations through the Centuries, [Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series 192, Roehampton Papers 6], Sheffield Academic Press (2000), 69-92.
- "Invocation and Immolation: the supplicatory use of Christ's name on crucifixion amulets of the early Christian period" in P. Allen et. al (eds), Prayer and Spirituality in the Early Church: Vol. II, Australian Catholic University (1999), 245-257.
Presentations (from 2002)
In prospect:
- 12 November, 2007. The University of Chicago Divinity School, Early Christian Studies Workshop: The earliest images of the Crucifixion
Other
- 15 October, 2006. Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University. Conference: "The Reign of Justinian and Theodora": Magi, Martyrs and Maidens: iconographic models for ritualised procession in the Justinianic mosaics at S. Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna
- 15th August, 2006. Fine Arts Network, University of Melbourne: Annual Post-Doctoral Lecture, Crucifixion: An image without precedent
- 10th October 2005. Trinity College, University of Melbourne: The Shock of the New: The beginnings of Christian iconography.
- 19-21 July, 2005. 6th Maynooth Patristics Conference, Queens University, Belfast: From Golgotha to Paradise: developing an iconography of salvation in the fourth century.
- 25 May, 2005. The British School at Rome, Lecture Series 2005: The Survival of the Pagan Gods? Fourth Century Rome and the genesis of Christian Iconography.
- 13-15 August 2004. 14th Conference of the Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, University of Melbourne: The Narration of Christ's Passion in Early Christian Art.
- 11-12 July, 2003. 13th Biennial conference of the Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, University of Adelaide: The representation of Christ's body and blood as the food of immortality in Byzantine Crucifixion iconography.
- 30 October, 2002. Director's Seminar, The Warburg Institute, University of London: Images of the Crucifixion: 3rd-13th centuries.
- 4 November, 2002. Byzantine Seminar, Department of Art History, University of Sussex, UK: Nudity on the cross in early Byzantine Crucifixion iconography.
- 10-13 July 2002. Prayer and Spirituality in the Early Church III, International Triennial Conference, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne: Christ Among the Apostles: A new variation on a theme in 4th C Christian art.
- 26-28 January 2002. Australian Association for Research in Early Childhood Education, University of Canberra: Classical Studies in Early Childhood Education.