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Art History Professor Appointed to Cathedral Restoration Group

a stone sculptural group in high relief
A sculpture group depicting “Job on the Dung Heap” from Notre-Dame about which Dr. Feltman presented a paper at the 14th Annual Imago Conference, University of Haifa, Israel. Photo courtesy Jennifer Feltman.

Assistant Professor Dr. Jennifer Feltman has had a busy couple of months. In January she presented her paper, “The Afflicted Body and the Aesthetic of Wholeness in Gothic Sculpture,” at the virtual 14th Annual Imago Conference, University of Haifa, Israel. In addition to organizing UA’s 26th Annual Graduate Student Symposium, which entailed duties from inviting the respected medievalist Dr. Jacqueline Jung to be keynote speaker, to setting up and chairing an elaborate, multi-speaker and multi-breakout-room online meeting, Feltman has also been appointed to positions in two committees in her field of study. This month she begins a four-year term as chair of the Advocacy Committee of the International Center of Medieval Art. And she was also recently appointed to a new team of the Chantier scientifique Notre Dame – Sculpture décorée, a team of 14 international researchers who will study the sculpted décor of the fire-ravaged Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris. After the historic monument was engulfed in flames in April 2019, Feltman joined a grassroots organization of international experts involved in the cathedral’s restoration, the Scientifiques au service de la restauration de Notre-Dame de Paris, for which she made a study of its painted sculptures.

As part of this new group, Feltman said that, as soon as COVID travel bans are lifted, she will have access with team members to study the cathedral itself from the surrounding scaffolding. Until then she will participate virtually. Feltman said that she is the only non-French citizen on this team, led by Prof. Dany Sandron of the Université Sorbonne. “I have previously been on the team focused on stone materials, but this new team has been developed to focus specifically on stones that were carved and often painted. The researchers include historians, cultural specialists, restorers and scientists who study properties of stones and paint.”

For more information about The University of Alabama’s programs in art history and studio art, visit our Degree Programs page.