Boundaries and Connections

Abstract

To what extent and how are today's increasingly interconnected and porous real and virtual worlds conditioning and even determining research in Art History? Several art historians have pointed out that, as the globe becomes hyper-connected, the discipline is shifting its focus from local and national questions to global or worldwide issues. This paper aims to analyze this shift in the historiography of medieval Iberian art. I argue that research is indeed being reshaped by the removal or the crossing of physical, epistemic and virtual boundaries as well as by pushing forth an increasing interest in connectivity. Additionally, I propose to cross or remove surviving rigid boundaries still further, to construct more flexible and fluid epistemic limits, and to establish additional connections at several levels.