Areas of expertise
Research field: art history
- medieval art and material culture / materiality of religion
- medieval polychrome sculptures and altarpiece
- technical art history
- ecclesiastical cultural heritage and material life cycles
I am an art historian currently working as a post-doc researcher in a project led by Päivi Salmesvuori and funded by Kone Foundation, Stabat Mater dolorosa – Gender and the Significance of Compassion in the Middle Ages. In this project, I am specifically investigating the use of medieval crucifixes in devotions commemorating the Passion of Christ. In early 2025, I will start Panu Savolainen’s Academy of Finland project La cathédrale engloutie. The medieval architecture, construction phases and artworks of Turku Cathedral interpreted with new methodologies.
My doctoral thesis, Fragmented Objects from a Devotional Past, was completed at the University of Helsinki in 2023. Wooden polychrome sculptures in the diocese of Turku in the 14th century, I mapped and studied Finland’s oldest sacral sculptures. I examined the materials, manufacture, acquisition and use of the sculptures in their visual and devotional context. In addition to traditional art historical methods, such as image analysis and stylistic comparison, I used scientific methods. The research focused on works in the possession of major museums and Evangelical Lutheran congregations.
My current research interests focus on the liturgical and ceremonial use of Christ sculptures in the Middle Ages, the restoration, conservation and display of medieval sculpture in churches and museums as well as the meanings given to medieval art after the Middle Ages.
Selected publications:
Articles on crucifixes and medieval sculpture in the book FiKon – Nya perspektiv på Finlands konsthistoria. Åbo Akademi (forthcoming 2025).
Affective image and iconography (forthcoming). Teologinen aikakauskirja 4/2025.
Memorialising and Witnessing Christ’s Passion: New Perspectives on the 14th-Century Polychrome Wood Crucifix in Marttila, Finland. ICO iconographisk post, 2022(1-2), 7–38. https://ojs.abo.fi/ojs/index.php/ico/article/view/1761
Katri Vuola & Visa Immonen. Radiohiiliajoituksen mahdollisuuksia ja ongelmia keskiaikaisten puuveistosten ajoituksessa: esimerkkeinä Raision krusifiksi ja Jurmon esine. Tahiti, 10(2–3) (2020), 20–31. https://doi.org/10.23995/tht.100179
”Lundomästaren – Från anonymitet till en konstruerad identitet”. Finskt Museum 2015–2016. Finska Fornminnesföreningen: Helsingfors, 2016: 81–104. http://hdl.handle.net/10138/23556
