XV Complutense Sessions on Medieval Art

Homo Viator. Artistic expressions and round trip itineraries. Tribute to Juan Carlos Ruiz Souza

The XV Complutense Conference on Medieval Art is organized this year in memory of our colleague Juan Carlos Ruiz Souza, who died prematurely in 2021. The scope of study is based on the multiple readings to which artistic works can be subjected, taking into account the place and period in which they were made, but also the various influences to which the creation processes are subjected. In some cases these links are direct, but in other cases formulas can be seen that reinterpret the artistic uses of distant places interconnected by cultural, commercial, political relations, etc. Professor Ruiz Souza, in his research, dealt with the interconnections between peninsular art and the medieval Mediterranean from a new paradigm, proposing contrasting visions that have caused, at least, a greater study and knowledge of the works based on his reflections, and new glances at significant buildings such as the Alhambra, the Tordesillas palace or the Las Huelgas de Burgos monastery, to name a few. Based on his legacy, these Conferences will address different artistic dynamics that distinguish the Iberian Peninsula and Mediterranean environments. Applying his gaze and using his terminology, the works will be analyzed far from watertight compartments and the supremacy of some creations over others, basing the analysis on the "evolutionary convergence" of forms, their "reinteriorization" and the "resunization" of language. artistic. The interrelationships occur in the south-north and east-west directions, but also in the opposite direction. Based on these postulates, research will be presented in which the artistic work is analyzed with new perspectives from a formal, technical and symbolic point of view, contemplating the common places in the creation process from the circulation of patterns and ideas, a constant in the area of ​​the medieval Mediterranean.

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