Beate Fricke’s research focuses on the history of images, objects and places, using perspectives from philosophy, cultural anthropology, history of the sciences, of economy and theology. Her research interests include theories of perception and animation, the history of allegory and mimesis, the prehistory of aesthetics and political participation, cultural and mercantile exchange, as well as the materiality of minor arts, decorative arts and reliquaries.
Research Interests
- History of sculpture, image theory and the veneration of images in the Middle Ages
- Relics, reliquaries, and treasure objects in Early and High Medieval Art
- Objects as archives of a history of applied arts, materiality, knowledge transfer and trade in the global “Middle Ages”
- Art and Science in the Middle Ages
- Manuscript illuminations of Genesis
- Pictorial space and horizon – representation and perception in the Middle Ages
- Non-Western pre-modern objects in Swiss collections and their provenance
- Principal Investigator of the research project Global Horizons in Pre-Modern Art, Universität Bern, funded by the European Research Council (ERC Consolidator Grant (2018-2024) (link: www.global-horizons.eu)
- Editor-in-chief of the journal 21: Inquiries into Art, History, and the Visual. Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte und Visuellen Kultur (link: https://21-inquiries.eu/en) in collaboration with arthistoricum.net at the Universitätsbibliothek of University of Heidelberg, Germany.
- SNF Open Access Ambassador (https://oa100.snf.ch/de/engagement/open-access-botschafter/)