Centre for Medieval Studies
- Centre for Medieval Studies
- Events
- 2023
- Barker Lecture May 9
- Speaker Biography
Dr Jessica Barker
Jessica Barker is a specialist in medieval art, with a particular emphasis on sculpture. She studied at the University of Oxford and the Courtauld Institute of Art, where she was subsequently Henry Moore Postdoctoral Fellow. She joined The Courtauld in 2018, after two years as a lecturer in world art at the University of East Anglia.
Jessica’s research ranges across northern Europe and the Iberian peninsula, addressing questions of the macabre, gender, materiality and the body. Her prize-winning monograph, Stone Fidelity: Marriage and Emotion in Medieval Tomb Sculpture, explores the intersection of love and death in funerary art. She has published widely on death and commemoration, with articles in journals including Art History, The Burlington Magazine, Gesta, and The Sculpture Journal.
Her current projects include co-curating an exhibition exploring measurement and regulation in medieval and contemporary art, entitled The Rule: Shaping Lives, Medieval and Modern, which will open at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Art in 2026. This lecture relates to her next book project on time and materiality in late-medieval art, part of which is due to be published in Art Bulletin in autumn 2023.
Her current projects include co-curating an exhibition exploring measurement and regulation in medieval and contemporary art, entitled The Rule: Shaping Lives, Medieval and Modern, which will open at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Art in 2026. This lecture relates to her next book project on time and materiality in late-medieval art, part of which is due to be published in Art Bulletin in autumn 2023.