Last Judgment portal, Reims Cathedral, north transept facade, east portal.
Dr. Jennifer M. Feltman, Associate Professor of Medieval Art and Architecture at The University of Alabama, is a specialist in French gothic sculpture with research interests in the design, construction, and preservation of façade sculptures.
She received her PhD with distinction in the History and Criticism of Art from The Florida State University (2011). She is editor of and contributor to the volume, The North Transept of Reims Cathedral: Design, Construction, and Visual Programs (Routledge, 2016). This interdisciplinary volume brings into dialog the latest French and American scholarship on the north transept's archaeology, architecture, sculpture, and stained glass. She is co-editor of The Long Lives of Medieval Art and Architecture, (Routledge, 2019). In addition to modern reception of medieval art and architecture, the essays in this book consider subjects such as the prehistories of sites, the enduring essence of works, restoration campaigns, and the narration of works in museum and digital contexts.
Her latest book, Moral Theology and the Cathedral: Sculptural Programs of the Last Judgment in France, c. 1200-1240 (under contract, Brepols) illuminates the ways in which Parisian moral theology was disseminated through clerical networks across the dioceses of France and made visible in sculptural programs at the cathedrals of Chartres, Paris, Reims, and Amiens. The companion website can be accessed under the Last Judgment tab on this page. Both the website and book were supported by the National Endowment of the Humanities.
Feltman’s current project, “Notre Dame in Color,” uses 3D digital technologies to document and analyze the layers of paint (polychromy) on the sculptures of the Last Judgment portal of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. She is conducting with support from a FACE Foundation Transatlantic Research Partnership and as a member of the Chantier scientifique de Notre Dame, Centre national de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), a team of scientists and historians authorized by the Ministère de la Culture to study the fire-ravaged cathedral as it is being restored.
Dr. Feltman enjoys introducing students to the history of art and encouraging them to think deeply about the ways in which works of art and architecture from the past continue to shape our world today. With seed funding from the Whiting Foundation, she is the directing the development of a VR app for the Meta Quest. Designed for ages 13 and up, this app will allow individuals to discover elements of Gothic architecture through exploration. Importantly, it will make an experience of the scale of Gothic architecture possible no matter where one lives. Her research and teaching have been supported by the FACE Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Whiting Foundation, the Kress Foundation, the Medieval Academy of America, the International Center for Medieval Art, and the Association Villard de Honnecourt for the Interdisciplinary Study of Technology, Science, and Art (AVISTA).
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