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 (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 currently pursuing my research on the links between religious literature and devotional imagery during the Late Middle Ages at the Institute for Cultural Disciplines (Oud Nederlands L&C) of Leiden University, as an Intra-European Fellow (Marie Curie Actions) : my postdoctoral research project 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.

Post-doctoral project

How can Images drive out images ? The Use and Function of Devotional Imagery in Heinrich Seuse’s Exemplar: A Reassessment
Henry Suso († 1366) was one of the most influential mystic writers in the Rhineland during the Middle Ages. In the Exemplar – a compilation of his texts accompanied by drawings – Seuse offers a theory of devotional imagery based on a key phrase: Daz man bild mit bilden ûs tribe (« Drive out images with images »). Oft-quoted, but generally misunderstood, this concept needs to be reassessed in order to fully understand Seuse’s conception of devotional imagery. Scholars often state that for medieval mystics, images were important at the beginning of the meditative process but that they were simply tools to be left behind in order to move beyond the sensory world. Yet, with his key phrase, Seuse offers a subtle vision of the place of images in the meditative process: images should not be dispensed with entirely, instead each image must be replaced by another so that they complete and correct each other. This continual interchanging fundamentally modifies our understanding of the contemplative theory described in the Exemplar. Furthermore, the drawings contained in the extant manuscripts seem to describe this process. During this research fellowship I will engage in the study of this image theory in an interdisciplinary way, by taking into account textual and visual studies in order to better understand the role of images in late medieval religious practices and the relationship between texts and images in the Exemplar.

Abstract of the thesis

Academic responsibilities