Telephone number:	+31 (0)71 527 2702
E-Mail:	i.m.j.falque@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Faculty / Department:	Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen, Institute for Cultural Disciplines, Oude Nederlandse L&C
Office Address:	Witte Singel-complex P.N. van Eyckhof 1 2311 BV Leiden Room number 1.01b
Personal Homepage:	hum.leiden.edu/​icd/​organisation/​members/​falqueimj.html

---

Fields of interest

• History and theory of images (14th-16th centuries)
• History of spirituality (mystical tradition of the Rhineland and the Low Countries, Modern Devotion)
• Text/images issues
• Relations between art and spirituality
• Attitudes toward devotional imagery and visual experience
• Early Netherlandish painting

Research

I first studied Early Netherlandish Painting in its iconographical and stylistic aspects, before focusing my research on the links between these paintings and devotional practises, and more generally on the relations between art and spirituality during the Late Middle Ages.
I dedicated my PhD thesis - entitled "Portraits de dévots, pratiques religieuses et expérience spirituelle dans la peinture des anciens Pays-Bas (1400-1550)(University of Liège, 2009)- to the links between Early Netherlandish religious paintings that include portraits and the meditative practices of the time. I did so by studying these images in conjunction with contemporary spiritual literature (esp. Jan van Ruusbroec and the writers of the Modern Devotion).
I am now pursuing my research on the links between religious literature and devotional imagery during the Late Middle Ages: my postdoctoral research is dedicated to the text/image issue and the image theory in the oeuvre of the mystical writer Henry Suso (Heinrich Seuse), and more precisely in his "Exemplar", a compilation of his vernacular texts accompanied by drawings probably designed by himself.

Abstract of my PhD thesis: the aim of this research was to enlighten the function of religious images in the meditative practices of the time, by focusing on the devotional portrait in Early Netherlandish painting and on the mystical literature of the Low Countries in the Late Middle Ages. In the particular case of paintings that include devotional portraits, the confrontation between text and image necessitated an appropriate methodology which I developed. It is based on an exhaustive corpus of paintings containing devotional portraits (663 items). The first part of my thesis offers a complete presentation of this corpus based on a typological analysis which takes into account both iconographical and formal elements of the images. It aims to describe pictorial conventions, such as the structuring of space and the ordering of sacred and secular zones, that have a particular bearing on the picture's meaning. These elements are then brought to bear on the second, interpretative, part of the thesis, where I argue that these paintings can be understood as visualizations of the contemplative process of the devotee. I also deliver a new interpretation of the place of images in the spiritual process by studying the concept of the ghemeine leven in relation to the writings of Jan van Ruusbroec and Geert Grote. By studying the pictorial/iconographical content of the paintings and the texts of the major writers of the mystical tradition of the Low Countries together, this research showed the strong convergences between pictorial and textual conventions related to the spiritual ascent and the transformation of the soul.

Teaching activities

Between 2005 and 2011, several lectures and lessons at each level of the Art History programme (BA and MA) at the University of Liège.

Curriculum vitae

• 2000-2004: BA and MA in Art History (University of Liège)
• 2004-2005:"Diplôme d'études approfondies (DEA)" in History of the Renaissance (University of Liège)
• 2005-2009: doctoral fellowship from the F.R.S.-FNRS ("Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique", Belgium)
• 2010-2011: research fellowship at the University of Liège
• 2010: annual Prize from the Halkin-Williot Foundation for my PhD Thesis
• 2011-2013: Intra-European Fellowship (Marie Curie Actions) (Leiden Universiteit)
• 2012: Saxl Fellowship, the Warburg Institute, London (one month-stay at the Institute in Spring)

Key publications

- "Restauration ou falsification ? Le Saint Jérôme pénitent attribué à Albert Bouts et conservé au Musée de l'Art wallon à Liège", in Leodium, 118, 2005, pp. 1-28.

- "Un témoignage des rapports entre Ambrosius Benson et l'atelier de Gérard David : la Descente de croix d'Ambrosius Benson conservée à Liège", in Annales d'Histoire de l'art et d'Archéologie, XXXII, 2010, pp. 27-56.

- "Entre dévotion et ostentation. Le frontispice du livre d'heures A20 des Archives et Bibliothèque de la cathédrale de Tournai", in Archives et manuscrits précieux tournaisiens, 4, edited by Jacques PYCKE (Tournai. Art et Histoire. Instruments de travail, 15), 2011, pp. 37-44.

- "Mise en mots et mise en image du processus spirituel : vers une nouvelle approche du portrait dévotionnel dans la peinture flamande de la fin du Moyen", in R. DEKONINCK and A. GUIDERDONI (ed.), Dire, penser, éprouver l'image entre théologie, rhétorique et esthétique durant la première modernité (forthcoming with Peeters, Leuven).

- "Portrait dévotionnel et processus contemplatif dans la peinture flamande du XVe siècle : Le cas de la Vierge d'Exeter de Petrus Christus", in L. BERGMANS, D. RABIER and A. CELESTIN (éd.), La contemplation dans la peinture flamande, 14e-16e siècles. Actes de la journée d'études organisée à Tours, Centre d'études supérieures de la Renaissance de Tours, 21 novembre 2008, (forthcoming with Brepols, Turnhout).