Research

Dr. Wendelien van Welie wrote her PhD-dissertation on the earliest illuminated manuscripts of Brunetto Latini’s Livre dou Trésor. She published on a variety of topics such as the representation of Jews in Quaerendo, the representation of power. She is specialized in early medieval art, especially early Christian art, Byzantine art and Karolingian/Ottonian art. Last year, dr. Van Welie  cooperated with dr. Klara Broekhuijsen and Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht in organising an exhibition marking the retirement of prof. dr. Claudine Chavannes-Mazel. This exhibition was accompanied by an exhibition catalogue, also edited by dr. Van Welie.

The Body in Medieval art

Currently dr. Van Welie is working on a larger research project on the body in Medieval art, resulting in an exhibition and congress. The way a body is clothed, hairstyle, headgear, physiognomy, nudity, the mutilated body, the way a body is looked after: lots of information can be destilled from the medieval world of thought when studying these medieval bodies.

Teaching

Dr. Van Welie works at the department of Art History of the Middle Ages where she lectures in both the bachelor and master on  medieval Western and Byzantine art, iconography and historiography. Her well-received courses include  Main Themes of Medieval Art, the excursion seminar to Istanbul and several lectures for the first-year introduction to Art History. Dr. van Welie also organizes an MA-seminar related to the theme of the  International Medieval Congress in Leeds, allowing excellent students to present their research at the congress to prepare for their future academic career. Her thematic approach to (research)-seminars, such as the representation of power, the outsider in art, the depiction of miracles are always well evaluated by students, who are given the opportunity to do original research on specific topics within these themes. Besides guiding many BA and MA-theses, dr. Van Welie also guided many (personal) tutorials on topics provided by the students themselves. Dr. Van Welie was awarded Teacher of the Year 2014-2015 for the Faculty of Humanities.