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 (Penn 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, and Word & Image, and is currently working on a new book that looks at how artists and art-making were remembered and recorded in pre-modern Europe. Gearhart teaches courses in medieval art of Europe, Byzantine art, and art of the Islamic world.
Book
Theophilus and the Theory and Practice of Medieval Art. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2017.
Selected Articles
“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.
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
ARTH 200 History of Western Art I
ARTH 320 Art of the Islamic World
Ph.D., History of Art, University of Michigan
M.A., Art History, Tufts University
Museum Studies Certificate, Tufts University
B.A., Pomona College