Heidi Catherine Gearhart

Heidi Catherine Gearhart

Heidi Catherine Gearhart

Director of Undergraduate Art History Programs

Associate Professor

Art History: Art History: medieval European art; medieval art theory; craft and manufacture; museum histories

Heidi Gearhart received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, and specializes in the art of Medieval Europe. Her research focuses on sacred arts and manuscripts, artists, and medieval art theory, and she is especially interested in issues of memory, craft, and manufacture. Prior to coming to Mason, she taught at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Assumption College, and the University of Michigan. Her first book, Theophilus and the Theory and Practice of Medieval Art (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2017) examines the only complete treatise on art to survive from the High Middle Ages, Theophilus’ On Diverse Arts, and won Honorable Mention for the International Center of Medieval Art Book Prize. She has published in journals including Gesta, Studies in Iconography, Viator and Word & Image. Her latest book looks at how artists were remembered in the Middle Ages and is entitled Names to Remember: Medieval Artists in Word and Image, ca. 700–1200 (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2026). She is also the editor of A History of Craft in the Medieval Age (Bloomsbury, 2026) and co-editor, with Achim Timmermann of Tributes to Elizabeth Sears: Activating the Eye and Mind (Brepols, 2026).

Gearhart teaches courses in medieval art of Europe, Byzantine art, and art of the Islamic world.

Selected Publications

Books

Names to Remember: Medieval Artists in Word and Image, ca. 700–1200. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2026.

Theophilus and the Theory and Practice of Medieval Art. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2017.

 

Edited Volumes

Editor, A Cultural History of Craft in the Medieval Age, vol. 2 of A Cultural History of Craft. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2026.

Co-editor, with Achim Timmermann, Tributes to Elizabeth Sears, Activating the Eye and Mind. Turnhout: Brepols, 2026. 

 

Selected Articles

“A Matter of Time: Goderannus and the Lobbes Bible Colophon (Tournai, Bibliothèque du Seminaire MS 1).” Viator 56 / 2 (2026): 131–175. 

“Anonymity Rules? An Unknown Abbot in the Martyrology and Rule of Gladbach (Morgan MS M 563).” Power, Patronage, and Production: Book Arts from Central Europe (ca. 800–1500) in American Collections. Jeffrey F. Hamburger, Beatrice Kitzinger, and Joshua O’Driscoll, eds. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2026. 

“The Lure of Absence: Process as a Site of Memory.” The Object as Process: Essays Situating Artistic Practice. Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen and German A. Duarte, eds. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2023. 155–170.

“Simulation and the Sacred in the Siegburg Lectionary.” Illuminating Metalwork: Metal, Object, and Image in Medieval Manuscripts. Joseph Salvatore Ackley and Shannon Wearing, eds. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2022. 247–73.

“Authorship and Memory in Theophilus’ De Diversis Artibus.” Vom Wort zur Kunst: Künstlerzeugnisse vom frühen Mittelalter bis zur gegenwart. Helen Barr, Dirk Hildebrandt, Ulrike Kern, and Rebecca Müller, eds. Berlin: Edition Immorde, 2020. 45–65.

“Memory, Making, and Duty in the Remaclus Retable of Stavelot.” Gesta 58/2 (Fall 2019) 137–155.

“From Divine Word to Human Hand: Negotiating Sacred Text in a Medieval Gospel Book.” Word & Image: A Journal of Verbal/Visual Inquiry 32/4 (2016) 430–458.

 “Work and Prayer in the Fiery Furnace: The Three Hebrews on the Censer of Reiner in Lille and a Case for Artistic Labor.” Studies in Iconography 34 (2013) 103–132.

“Transforming the Natural World: Hierarchies of Material in Theophilus’ On Diverse Arts.” Art and Nature. Laura Cleaver and Kathryn Gerry, eds. London: Courtauld Institute, 2009. 81–94.

 

Other 

The Busch-Reisinger Museum Visitor Tour, Harvard Art Museums, Harvard University, 2014.

Grants and Fellowships

New Foundation for Art History Publication Grant (2025)                                           for Names to Remember: Medieval Artists in Word and Image, ca. 700–1200 (Penn State Press, 2026)

 

Elizabeth and J. Richardson Dilworth Fellowship, with funding from the Ruth Stanton Foundation, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, 2019–2020

 

Honorable Mention, International Center of Medieval Art Book Prize, 2018, for Theophilus and the Theory and Practice of Medieval Art (Penn State Press, 2017)

 

Kress / International Center of Medieval Art Publication Grant, 2015, for Theophilus and the Theory and Practice of Medieval Art (Penn State Press, 2017)                   

 

Stefan Engelhorn Curatorial Fellowship in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Harvard University, 2012–2014                                                  

 

Residential Postdoctoral Fellowship, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, 2011–2012

                                                                                                   

                                                                                                                                                           

Courses Taught

ARTH 200 History of Western Art I

ARTH 320 Art of the Islamic World

ARTH 333 Early Christian and Byzantine Art

ARTH 334 Western Medieval Art

ARTH 335 Arts of Medieval England

ARTH 430/599 Advanced Studies in Medieval or Islamic Art

 

Education

Ph.D., History of Art, University of Michigan

M.A., Art History, Tufts University

Museum Studies Certificate, Tufts University

B.A., Pomona College