Ryan Eisenman

Ryan Eisenman is a PhD Candidate and the 2023–26 David E. Finley Fellow at The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts. Specializing in the visual and material culture of the European Middle Ages, Ryan’s research emphasizes the formation of artistic communities and networks, the signification of materials, techniques, and technologies, and the role of art in spreading and solidifying systems of power. His dissertation, “The Limoges Champlevé Enamel Industry, ca. 1180–1280,” bridges art, economic, and social history to elucidate the working processes employed to make enamel “multiples” and to track the acquisition and use of such objects across Europe in the long thirteenth century. His study of production and consumption of “multiples” led him to co-organize “The Medieval Multiple,” a conference hosted at the Index of Medieval Art and supported by a Samuel H. Kress Foundation History of Art Grant. Forthcoming articles in Gesta and postmedieval highlight Ryan’s sustained focus on artistic technique as bearer of meaning, and he maintains active research interests in medieval textiles, wax, and the circulation of art and artists between Languedoc and Catalonia. Ryan has held fellowships at the Barnes Foundation, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Rijksmuseum. From 2023–25, he is a Membre associé at the Institut des sciences sociales du politiques, ENS Paris-Saclay. His research has been supported by the University of Pennsylvania, the International Center of Medieval Art, the Dr. Anton C.R. Dreesmann Fond/Rijksmuseum Fond, and the Chateaubriand Program in Humanities & Social Sciences.