University College Cork(UCC): History of Art People Guest & Visiting Dr. Jennifer O'Reilly

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Name: Dr. Jennifer O'Reilly
Position: Guest Lecturer
T: 353 (0)21 490 2124
F: 353 (0)21 490 3254
E: JOReilly@history.ucc.ie

Biography

Dr. Jennifer O'Reilly played a key role in establishing the BA programme in the history of art in Cork and has, since 2001, taught and co-ordinated modules on Medieval art for the new subject area. In 2005 she was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, while in 2007 she was enrolled as a member of the Royal Irish Academy in acknowledgement of her work in the field of Insular Studies.

Research Interests

1. The transformation of the inheritance of Late Antiquity in the early medieval West, particularly in Irish and Anglo-Saxon monastic culture, including: ideas of Rome and Jerusalem, the centre and the periphery; the literature of conversion and pilgrimage; patristic and Insular biblical exegesis and hagiography; the work of Adomnán and Bede; the Book of Kells and the art of the Insular Gospel-books.

2. Issues of text and image and various iconographic themes in Early Christian, medieval and Renaissance art, including: aspects of the Incarnation and Passion; the Tree of Life; Virtues and Vices; symbolic architecture, maps, diagrams and images of divine order and inner journeys; scribal, author and donor portraits

Recent Publications (2005-09)

1. ‘Islands and idols at the ends of the earth: exegesis and conversion in Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica’, in Stephane Lebecq, Michel Perrin and Olivier Szerwiniack (ed), Bède le vénérable. Entre tradition et posterité (Lille 2005) 119-145.

2. Review of J.F.Hamburger, St John the Divine. The deified Evangelist in medieval art and theology, in Catholic Historical Review 91 (2005) 357-58

3. ‘“Know who and what he is”: the context and inscriptions of the Durham Gospels Crucifixion image’, in Rachel Moss (ed), Making and meaning, Proceedings of the fifth International Conference in Insular Art (Four Courts Press; Dublin 2007) 301-16.

4. ‘Bede on seeing the God of gods in Zion ’, in Alastair Minnis and Jane Roberts (ed), Text, image and interpretation. Studies in Anglo-Saxon liturature and its Insular context in honour of Éamonn ÓCarragáin (Brepols, Turnhout 2007) 3-29.

5. ‘Two pages from the Book of Kells’, in James Elkins (ed), Visual practices across the University (Munich 2007) 164-69.

6. ‘Testo e immagine nella riforma benedettina anglosassone’, chapter in Roberto Casanelli and E.Lopez-Tello Garcia (ed), Benedetto l’Eredità Artistica (Jaca Books, Milan 307) 95-110. Simultaneous publication in Italian, German (Benediktinische Kunst) and Spanish (El arte benedictino).

7. ‘Signs of the Cross. Medieval religious images and the interpretation of Scripture’, chapter commissioned for T.Ayers (ed), The History of British art, 600-1600, (Tate Britain and the Yale Center for British Art 2008) 176-197.

8. ‘“All that Peter stands for”. The romanitas of the Codex Amiatinus reconsidered’, in James Graham-Campbell and Michael Ryan (ed), Anglo-Saxon/Irish relations before the Vikings, Proceedings of the British Academy 157. (Oxford 2009) 367-95.