Exhibition Programming | The ‘Westmorland’
A posting here at Enfilade noted the exhibition last November. Here we include details on the programming at The Ashmolean.
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The English Prize: The Capture of the Westmorland, an Episode of the Grand Tour
The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 17 May — 27 August 2012
The Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 20 September 2012 — 6 January 2013
Curated by Scott Wilcox, Elisabeth Fairman, and María Dolores Sánchez-Jáuregui Alpañés
The story of the Westmorland, an armed merchant ship sailing from Livorno to London in January 1779, is one of colourful 18th-century personalities and modern detective work. Consigned to the ship, by a cast of characters that included artists, aristocrats and dealers, was a precious cargo of art and antiquities, books, and luxury goods such as 32 wheels of Parmesan cheese. Captured by two French warships on 7 January 1779 and declared a ‘prize of war’, the Westmorland and the goods on board were acquired by King Carlos III of Spain who presented many of the works of art to the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid. Other items were eventually scattered across Spanish museums; one painting ended up as far away as St Petersburg. Reconstructed with archival discoveries and research in Spanish collections, The English Prize presents 120 objects including paintings, drawings, sculptures, books and maps from the fateful voyage, in a vivid recreation of the Grand Tour and the high seas.
The exhibition is the result of an extraordinary research project begun in the late 1990s, with gaps in the story filled by discoveries made in recent years. It was found, for instance, that the mysterious marking ‘P. Y’ on books and drawings in the Academia indicated ‘Presa Ynglesa’ (‘The English Prize’). The original inventories of the ship’s crates which survive in the archives in Madrid are remarkably thorough and have allowed the identification of many items which were on the Westmorland when it was captured. Using these records and studying the notes and marginalia scribbled on books and maps by their owners, it is now possible to link the objects and works of art to the individuals who were sending them home to Britain.
Amongst the highlights of the exhibition are portraits of Grand Tourists Francis Bassett and George Legge (Viscount Lewisham), by Pompeo Batoni; a group of amazingly fresh watercolours by John Robert Cozens made on his first trip to Italy; and portrait busts by Irish sculptor Christopher Hewetson who was working in Rome. Of the tourists, collectors and dealers who had consigned works of art and souvenirs to the Westmorland, we find the Scottish painter Allan Ramsay; the diplomat and dealer John Udny; a Scottish landowner and lawyer, Sir John Henderson of Fordell; and such a high ranking aristocrat as the Duke of Gloucester, brother of George III.
The exhibition website is available here»
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From The Ashmolean:
P U B L I C S T U D Y D A Y
The Experience of Italy: Travel, Collecting and the Grand Tour
Headly Lecture Theatre, Friday, 8 June 2012, 10am–5pm
This special one-day event looks at the cultural context of the Westmorland and its story. As a rare time-capsule, the ship can help us uncover the concerns and interests of British tourists, collectors and artists, from their musical education to their fascination with volcanoes and excavations. Over the day, six distinguished speakers deliver lectures with the opportunity to ask questions and discuss the varied topics.
The Westmorland and the Mechanics of the Grand Tour in the 1770s
Jonathan Yarker, University of Cambridge
Vases and Volcanoes: Sir William Hamilton and Collecting for Posterity
Kim Sloan, British Museum
Enjoying the Souvenirs of Travel: Art and Antiquities at Home
Clare Hornsby, author of Digging and Dealing in 18th-Century Rome
Music and the Musical Outcomes of the Grand Tour
Roderick Swanston, former Professor, Royal College of Music
Women at Grips with the Grand Tour: Adventure, Authority and Anomaly
Chloe Chard, independent scholar
British Artists in Rome
Martin Postle, Paul Mellon Center for Studies in British Art
Free, spaces limited, to book contact: education.service@ashmus.ox.ac.uk T 01865 278 015
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L E C T U R E S
Uncovering the Westmorland, Step by Step
José María Luzón Nogué, Real Academia de Bellas Artes, Madrid
Thursday, 31 May, 2–3pm
We can reconstruct the extraordinary story of the Westmorland and its cargo thanks to fascinating detective work that began in the 1990s. In this lecture, Prof Luzón, who led the original research project, will take you on the journey which led to the rediscovery of the ship. Free, spaces limited, to book contact E education.service@ashmus.ox.ac.uk T 01865 278015
Marble Mania: Why Was Antique Sculpture So Desirable?
Ruth Guilding, art historian and curator
Wednesday, 20 June, 2–3pm
The Westmorland’s cargo included 23 crates of marble statues, and the ship was one of many which brought the souvenirs of British travellers back to London in the 1770s. Dr Guilding explores the way that antique sculpture was imagined, understood and used by collectors in England at the time. Free, spaces limited, to book contact E education.service@ashmus.ox.ac.uk T 01865 278015
The First English Prize: The Story of the Arundel Marbles
Susan Walker, Keeper of Antiquities, Ashmolean Museum
Wednesday, 27th June, 2–3pm
Dr Susan Walker, Keeper of Antiquities, explores the history of the earliest collection of classical sculptures and inscriptions in Britain, a treasure of the Ashmolean Museum. Free, spaces limited, to book contact E education.service@ashmus.ox.ac.uk T 01865 278015
‘Magick Land’: British Landscape Painters in Italy in the 1770s
Scott Wilcox, Chief Curator of Art Collections and Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings, Yale Center for British Art
Wednesday, 4th July, 2–3pm
Oil paintings and watercolors on the Westmorland by John Robert Cozens, Jacob More, and Solomon Delane point to a community of British landscape painters active in Italy. This lecture examines that community and the impact of Italy, particularly the Roman Campagna, on the development of British landscape art. Free, spaces limited, to book contact E education.service@ashmus.ox.ac.uk T 01865 278015
Carrying off the Colosseum: The Westmorland and Architecture
Frank Salmon, Head of the Department of History of Art, University of Cambridge
Wednesday, 18 July, 2–3pm
The personal treasures that were being shipped by Grand Tourists on the Westmorland included both real and fictitious drawings of Roman antiquities, as well as design drawings intended for building work back in Britain. This lecture will examine those drawings in the light of the wider culture of Neoclassical architecture and interior design in the second half of the eighteenth century. Free, spaces limited, to book contact E education.service@ashmus.ox.ac.uk T 01865 278015
In Conversation — New Discoveries: The Secret Cargo of Relics
Catherine Whistler, curator of the exhibition, and Barry Williamson
Thursday, 19 July, 11.30am –12.30pm
Just before the exhibition catalogue went to press, the Ashmolean was contacted by Barry Williamson who is an authority on the Arundell family of Wardour Castle. The Westmorland had a secret cargo, a box of saint’s relics carefully concealed in a plinth of coloured marbles. This was a gift from the Pope to Henry Arundell, eighth Baron Arundell of Wardour. The international research project had tracked these relics in Madrid in early 1789, but the trail had gone cold. Barry Williamson will talk about his discoveries in the family archives and his quest to find the relics. Free, spaces limited, to book contact E education.service@ashmus.ox.ac.uk T 01865 278015
Exhibition | ‘Fashioning Fashion’
This exhibition from LACMA (on display there from 2 October 2010 to 6 March 2011) is currently on view in Berlin and will travel to Paris in the fall. From the German Historical Museum:
Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700-1915
Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, 27 April — 29 July 2012
Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 13 December 2012 — 14 April 2013
With Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700-1915 the German Historical Museum is presenting – exclusively in Germany – a unique collection of historical garments and accessories from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. More than 200 years of European fashion history are on display. The renowned Belgian scenographer Bob Verhelst has specially designed the exhibition architecture for Berlin. Glamorous women’s costumes and elegant men’s suits are adorned with elaborately fashioned trimmings. Luxurious clothing of the wealthy haute-bourgeoisie and nobility are shown, including such highlights as the gold-embroidered dress of a Portuguese queen and the turban of the designer Paul Poiret. Fascinating fabrics, exquisitely tailored raiments and precious décor are all to be seen in the museum’s show.
This spectacular exhibition takes us through four chapters focusing on the aesthetic and technical developments of fashion history:
Timeline shows in chronological sequence the changes in the silhouette of women’s dresses and the evolution of men’s suits from brightly coloured to their traditional dark hue.
Textiles informs us about the variety of surfaces that come about through complex weaving, colouring and printing techniques.
Tailoring deals with the process of turning plain material into clothing, with special emphasis on forming, bracing and constricting techniques.
Trim presents the finery of fashionable clothes: delicate laces, magnificent fine-wire embroidery, artful silk trimmings and colourfully patterned and sequined accessories.
Call for Papers | RSA Panel on Confraternities, 1350-1750
This session at next year’s meeting of the Renaissance Society of America could include eighteenth-century topics — and good to know there’s a group dedicated to confraternity studies. Coming from the Midwest, I think April in San Diego sounds lovely. -CH
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RSA Session: Confraternities and Urban Performance, 1350-1750
San Diego, 4-6 April 2013
Proposals due by 1 June 2012
The performances staged by confraternities in the streets and squares of medieval and early modern cities have been the focus of considerable scholarly attention in recent years. The Society for Confraternity Studies seeks to further this conversation by soliciting submissions for a series of panels that examine the relationship between corporate devotion and urban theatre.
Possible topics include, but are not limited to, devotional theatre, sacre rappresentazioni, execution rites, miracle plays, charitable performances, alms collections, relic translations, funeral ceremonies. Submissions are especially welcome from scholars using innovative methodologies to frame and characterize the role of confraternal performance, broadly conceived, in popular devotion. Submissions from all geographical areas and through the time period of 1350 to 1750 are welcome. Please email a brief abstract (maximum 250 words) and a CV to Diana Presciutti (dpresciutti@wooster.edu). The submission deadline is 1 June 2012. The session is sponsored by the Society for Confraternity Studies.
Exhibition | 1740, Un Abrégé du Monde
On at the INHA in Paris this summer, as noted by Hélène Bremer:
1740, Un Abrégé du Monde: Savoirs et Collections autour de Dezallier d’Argenville
Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art, Paris, 4 May — 27 July 2012
Alexandre Isidore Leroyde Barde (1777-1828), Choix de coquillages, encre noire et gouache, 125cm × 90cm (Paris: Musée du Louvre)
Naturaliste et historien de l’art, Antoine-Joseph Dezallier d’Argenville (1680-1765) fut membre de nombreuses académies scientifiques, auteur d’une théorie du jardinage, de traités sur les pierres et les coquillages (1742), et de l’Abrégé de la vie des plus fameux peintres de toutes les écoles… (1745-1752). Il fut aussi un grand collectionneur qui possédait plus de cinq cents dessins et de rares spécimens naturels. Pour interroger cette figure symptomatique de la dynamique entre arts et savoirs au XVIIIe siècle, l’Institut national d’histoire de l’art a voulu retrouver la fonction première de l’un des espaces-clefs de la Galerie Colbert, une ancienne boutique, car les savants-collectionneurs du siècle des Lumières étaient étroitement liés aux marchés de l’art et des curiosités naturelles.
L’exposition s’organise donc autour d’un comptoir qui évoque non seulement le long meuble à surface plane sur lequel les marchands échangeaient coquillages, estampes, tableaux et dessins, mais aussi les implantations commerciales sur les côtes des colonies d’où provenaient ces étranges objets naturels, lesquels manifestaient à la fois la soif de découverte du monde et l’ambition encyclopédique de ces amateurs.
Les curieux français du XVIIIe siècle furent avant tout des collectionneurs d’objets, que leur goût portait indistinctement sur les produits de l’Art ou de la Nature. Ils prêtaient également une attention remarquable à l’arrangement, la disposition dans l’espace des choses naturelles et artificielles constituant leurs cabinets. À cet égard, il faut noter que Dezallier fut l’un des premiers auteurs français à théoriser, dans un article de 1727, l’arrangement idéal d’un cabinet de curiosités, tout comme il fut le premier à employer en français le terme muséographie, en 1742.
Les années 1740 sont celles de la métamorphose des lieux de savoirs, puisque l’on passe alors des salles dédiées, dans les demeures privées, à la présentation d’objets de collection, à la création de musées, autrement dit de salles publiques d’exposition, où les visiteurs sont invités à s’instruire. C’est aussi l’époque de la mutation des savoirs livresques, dont les formes et les structures sont alors repensées dans le but de dresser des inventaires totalisants, comme l’Encyclopédie ou les catalogues raisonnés illustrés.
The exhibition press release is available (as a PDF) here»
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From Fage éditions:
Anne Lafont, ed., 1740, Un Abrégé du Monde: Savoirs et Collections autour de Dezallier d’Argenville (Paris: Fage éditions) 304 pages, ISBN: 9782849752609, 35€.
Contributeurs: Nebahat Avcioglu, Lise Bicart-Sée, Sarah Boyer, Sabine Cartuyvels, Pascal Dubourg Glatigny, Jennifer Ferng, Isabelle Flour, Catherine Girard, Martial Guédron, Charlotte Guichard, Pierre-Yves Lacour, Anne Lafont, Gaëtane Maës, Marie-Pauline Martin, Dominique Morelon, Aline Pelletier, Jessica Priebe, Chiara Savettieri, Anke Te Heesen, Isabelle Tillerot
1740 un abrégé du monde traite des modalités de présentation des objets naturels et artificiels au sein des cabinets de curiosités, des relations entre les marchands et les collectionneurs de coquillages, estampes, tableaux, dessins, et des systèmes de classification en vigueur au temps de l’Encyclopédie et de Linné…
Rédigé par vingt spécialistes sous la direction d’Anne Lafont, conseillère scientifique à l’INHA, l’ouvrage gravite autour de la figure du naturaliste, historien de l’art et collectionneur français Dezallier d’Argenville (1685-1765), pivot de la dynamique nature/culture au XVIIIe siècle.
Il est organisé sous la forme d’un abécédaire de vingt-sept articles illustrés abordant des concepts qui sont au cœur de cette enquête sur les arts et les savoirs naturalistes : Abrégé, Amateur, Basseporte, Cabinet, Dessein, École, Fossiles, Grotesque, Histoire naturelle, Illustration, Jardin, Kiosque, Laboratoire, Manière, Numérotation, Ornement, Parterre, Plume, Quartz, Rocaille, Système, Table, Unique, Vernis, Vie, Watteau, Zoomorphose.
Exhibition | Splendeur de la Peinture sur Porcelaine
On at Versailles this summer, as noted by Hélène Bremer:
Splendeur de la peinture sur porcelaine: Charles Nicolas Dodin
et la manufacture de Vincennes-Sèvres au XVIIIe siècle
Château de Versailles, 15 May — 9 September 2012
Du 15 mai au 9 septembre 2012, le château de Versailles présente l’exposition Splendeur de la peinture sur porcelaine. Charles Nicolas Dodin et la manufacture de Vincennes-Sèvres au XVIIIe siècle dans les appartements de Madame de Maintenon et dans la salle des Gardes du Roi.
Cette exposition est consacrée à un des peintres les plus doués de la Manufacture royale de porcelaine au XVIIIe siècle, Charles Nicolas Dodin, dont les œuvres ont été, de son vivant comme au siècle suivant, recherchées par les plus grands amateurs de porcelaine. L’exposition vise à mettre en évidence à la fois l’évolution artistique et la diversité des sources d’inspiration de Charles Nicolas Dodin.
Au long de ses quarante-neuf années à la Manufacture, Dodin a contribué aux plus grandes commandes passées par les rois et leur entourage, en particulier les maîtresses de Louis XV, et par des souverains étrangers, comme Catherine II de Russie. A travers ces œuvres de prestige, l’exposition retrace l’évolution artistique très lisible et éclairante de l’œuvre de Dodin, à l’instar de celle d’un peintre de chevalet contemporain.
Elle met également en lumière la diversité des sources d’inspiration de Dodin, par la présentation des gravures ou des tableaux qui lui ont servi de sources d’inspiration. Ces œuvres permettent de montrer les correspondances très profondes qui, dans la seconde moitié du XVIIIe siècle, existaient entre les arts (peintures, dessins, estampes, sculptures, médailles, arts du feu) et l’extraordinaire émulation artistique qui devait en résulter.
Dodin a essentiellement été, comme on le disait au XVIIIe siècle, un peintre “en miniature”, ou un peintre de figures, c’est-à-dire qu’il a exercé ses talents dans le genre le plus élevé dans la hiérarchie en vigueur à la Manufacture. Dès leur exécution, ses œuvres ont figuré dans les plus grandes collections d’œuvres d’art, notamment au château de Versailles, et y sont demeurées au siècle suivant.
Exhibition | Trompe-l’œil: Imitations, Pastiches, et Autres Illusions
From the Musée de la Mode et du Textile:
Trompe-l’œil: Imitations, Pastiches et Autres Illusions
Musée de la Mode et du Textile, Paris, 2 February 2012 — November 2013
Récipient en forme de chou. Göggingen, Manufacture de Josef I de Hesse-Darmstad, 1748-52, faïence émailée (Paris: Les Arts Décoratifs) Photo: Jean Tholance
In the Musée des Arts Décoratifs’ Study Gallery the public can discover the wealth of its collections via selections of rarely or never previously shown works from its storerooms, shown for an 18-month period. Trompe-l’oeil, as its name indicates, is meant to trick the eye, and originated in painting, in which the illusion created by a painted object relies heavily on perspective and chiaroscuro.
In decorative art, this ‘trickery of the eye’ took very diverse forms. Wallpapers, for instance, proved ideal for this form of expression. From the most modest to the most sumptuous, they all imitate materials: wood, lacquer, tiles, straw, velvet, and even framed pictures. Many imitations were of course done for economic reasons, and in this game of substitutes, one sees that for centuries many materials have been imitated by others: marbled ceramics imitating jasper, glazed ceramics imitating porphyry or gold, paste imitating the diamond, linoleum floorboards, and so on. This game of illusions evolved in the 19th century, when, historicism oblige, it was not only materials that were imitated but motifs too. Owen Jones’ famous The Grammar of Ornament, like its French equivalent, Albert Racinet’s l’Ornement polychrome, provided numerous medieval and Moorish motifs for 19th-century creators.
Fashion was no exception and became the theatre of the most outrageous illusions. In the 18th and 19th centuries, wigs, tournures and faux-cul were worn to give false impressions. In the 20th century, illusion focussed less on form than on the fabric itself, with the appearance of false wears and tears, false pockets, false buttons, etc. Like a treasure hunt traversing centuries and materials, this exhibition invites us into the great game of illusion or the ‘vertigo of imitation’.
More information (in French) is available here»
Colloquium | Mark Catesby’s Third Centennial in America
From the Catesby Commemorative Trust:
Mark Catesby’s Third Centennial in America: Celebrating His Impact
Richmond, Washington, D.C., and Charleston, 4-9 November 2012
Attendees may purchase tickets for the Virginia, Washington, D.C. and Charleston days individually or as a package (ticket prices include tax-deductible contributions to the Catesby Commemorative Trust and hopefully other non-profits involved in the program). The following covers the program as it now stands and may be modified as appropriate. With the few exceptions noted, all locations and speakers are confirmed.
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Sunday, 4 November 2012 — Richmond
Accommodations at the four-star Omni Hotel
5:30 pm Wilton House Museum
- Welcome by Laura Towers, President of NSCDA – VA
- Moderator: Robert Strohm, Executive Director, Wilton House Museum
- Introduction by Cynthia Neal, Producer/Director and showing of The Curious Mister Catesby (2008)
- The museum will display a concurrent exhibition of Catesby’s etchings (25 October 2012 — 3 February 2013)
- Cocktail reception
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Monday, 5 November 2012 — Richmond / Washington, D.C.
Wilton House Museum
9:00 am Catesby’s Influences and Sources
- “Mark Catesby and His Botanical Forerunners,” Dr. Karen Reeds, Independent Scholar (scheduled)
- “William Dampier,” Diana and Michael Preston, authors of A Pirate of Exquisite Mind: Explorer, Naturalist and Buccaneer: The Life of William Dampier
- “Maria Sibylla Merian: Pioneering Naturalist, Artist, and Inspiration for Catesby,” Florence F. J. M. Pieters, Faculty of Biology, University of Amsterdam, and Dr. Kay Etheridge, Professor of Biology, Gettysburg College
10:30 Break
10:45 Catesby’s World
- “England,” Dr. Janet Browne, Chair, Aramont Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University
- “Virginia,” Dr. Sarah Meacham, Associate Professor of History, Virginia Commonwealth University
- “Carolina,” Dr. Suzanne Linder Hurley, Independent Scholar, Davidson, NC
- “Bahamas,” Dr. Robert Robertson, Curator of Malacology, Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences
1:00 Lunch at the Commonwealth Club
2:30 Tour of the Kent-Valentine House, which has a large collection of Catesby’s etchings
Richmond locations will include floral arrangements of plants illustrated by Catesby
3:00 Chartered coach transfer to four-star Hotel Monaco in Washington, D.C.
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Tuesday, 6 November 2012 — Washington, D.C.
9:30 am Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Baird Auditorium, Museum of Natural History. Baird sessions open for free to the public
Welcome: Senior Smithsonian and GCA officials
Moderator: Dr. Nancy Gwinn, Director, Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Catesby’s Art
- “Catesby’s Drawings,” Henrietta McBurney Ryan, Keeper of Fine and Decorative Arts, Eton College, formerly Deputy Keeper, Royal Library, Windsor Castle, and author of a forthcoming book on Catesby’s original paintings
- “The Natural History: Its Printing and Publication,” Leslie Overstreet, Curator, Natural History Rare Books, Smithsonian Institution Libraries
- “Catesby’s Etchings: His Compositional Interests and the Birth of Environmental Science,” Dr. Amy Meyers, Director, Yale Center for British Art
12:00 Ticket holders’ viewing of the Smithsonian’s first edition of The Natural History and other rare natural history books; lunch at the Metropolitan Club
1:30 Catesby’s Science
- “Ornithology (including bird migration),” Shepard Krech III, Professor Emeritus, Brown University
- “Botany,” Dr. Steven A. Harris, Druce Curator of the Oxford University Herbaria (scheduled – possibly given by his delegate)
- “Zoology (other than ornithology),” Dr. Aaron Bauer, Professor & Gerald M. Lemole Chair in Integrative Biology, Villanova University
- “Catesby’s Economic and Ethnobotany,” Dr. W. Hardy Eshbaugh, Professor of Botany Emeritus, Miami University, Oxford, OH
6:00 United States Botanic Garden, Washington, D.C.
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Wednesday, 7 November 2012 – Washington, D.C. / Charleston
Personal transportation to Charleston, SC to be arranged by attendees
Accommodation at the five-star Sanctuary Hotel, on Kiawah Island
Customized Kiawah Island Nature Tours
Banquet dinner at Kiawah Island with keynote speaker, Sir Ghillean Prance, FRS, Director (retired) of the Royal (Kew) Botanic Gardens, previously Research Director and Vice-President of the New York Botanical Garden as well as President of the UK Linnean Society, and currently Scientific Director of the Eden Project
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Thursday, 8 November 2012 — Charleston
Coach transfers from Kiawah to Charleston, within town, and return to Kiawah
9:30 am Addlestone Library Rare Book Collection, College of Charleston
- Welcome to Charleston: The Honorable Joseph P. Riley, Jr., Mayor of Charleston
- Introduction of speakers: John Cay III, Chairman of Friends of the Addlestone Library
- “Catesby The Explorer,” Dr. James L. Reveal, Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland and Adjunct Professor of Plant Biology, Cornell University
10:30 Break
Catesby’s Impact on Natural History
- “Linnaeus and the Relevance of His Use of Catesby’s Botanical Work,” Dr. Charlie Jarvis, Botany Department, Natural History Museum, London
- “Linnaeus and His Use of Catesby’s Zoological Work,” Dr. Kraig Adler, Professor & Department Chair, Department of Neurology & Behavior, Cornell University
- “The Naturalists Who Came after Catesby,” Judith Magee, Special Collections Curator, Library & Archives, Natural History Museum, London and author of Art and Nature: Three Centuries of Natural History Art from around the World
Opportunity to view a second edition Natural History, Alexander Wilson and Audubon double elephant folio (Leslie Overstreet will be available for all viewings of copies of the Natural History to point out their salient features; no two are exactly the same)
1:00 Gibbes Museum of Art
This section of the program honors the memory of Chris Hammond, long-term Director of the Trust to whom it owes much; truly a gentleman and a good friend.
Lunch in the museum garden; viewing the museum collections
3:00 The Charleston Library Society (founded in 1748)
- “The Bartram-Catesby Connection,” Joel T. Fry, Curator, Bartram’s Garden, Philadelphia
- “Catesby and Eighteenth-Century Gardening,” Mark Laird, Senior Lecturer, Department of Landscape Architecture, Harvard University
- Viewing of second and third editions of The Natural History
Visit to the Preservation Society of Charleston
6:00 Cocktail receptions at the historic Miles Brewton House and William Gibbes House
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Friday, 9 November 2012 – Charleston
Optional (currently being developed)
- Catesby-Country Immersion Tour at Middleton Place, including fresh-water swamp, salt marsh, rice fields, ruins of Catesby-era house, free flying demonstration by Charleston Center for Birds of Prey of raptors painted by Catesby plus viewing another first edition of Mark Catesby’s Natural History
- Boat tour of the ACE Basin (arrangements by KIGR)
- Tour of Colonial-Era Charleston Gardens (Preservation Society of Charleston) with an opportunity to see the Charleston Museum’s first edition Catesby’s and related materials
- Golf on Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course (site of the 2012 PGA)
- Kiawah Island Nature Tours
In the May 2012 Issue of ‘Apollo Magazine’
From the current issue of Apollo Magazine:
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Elizabeth Angelicoussis, “An Olympiad’s Portrait,” Apollo Magazine (May 2012)
During excavations at Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli the archaeologist Gavin Hamilton unearthed a classical statue of Hermes. Hamilton’s conservation of the sculpture transformed its identity to create an 18th-century image of an Olympic victor inspired by the ideals of ancient Greece
In the late 18th century, the 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, William Petty-Fitzmaurice (1737–1805), assembled the most impressive collection of classical marbles in the British Isles, which he displayed in Lansdowne House, in London’s Berkeley Square.1 Many prime specimens were sold at a Christie’s auction in London in 1930, but at a Sotheby’s sale in New York in 1972, a very perceptive buyer purchased one choice piece that deserves examination.2
The sculpture represents a life-size youth with a smooth complexion and flawless features (Figs. 1–4).3 The nose is straight and large; from its bridge the razor-sharp ridges of the eyebrows flare out horizontally. The thin-lidded eyes are unmarked and only the rightwards torsion and the slightly parted lips animate the face. The coif is unfinished: at the crown, thick hair clusters, coarsely carved into spiral curls, lack drill holes to define their centres, while the hair at the back is roughly modelled into two large masses divided by a deep furrow. A lump of marble protrudes from the hair at the right, while a branch chiselled into the tresses above the left ear divides into two sprigs bearing a lanceolate leaf and tiny berries – the genus of the foliage remains undetermined. A wide groove encircles the head. The nude bust is ancient, and the uneven fracture around the neck argues for an original connection between the two parts.4 . . .
Elizabeth Angelicoussis specialises in ancient sculptures in private British museums.
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1/ This article is an offshoot from my project of the reconstruction of the Lansdowne collection of classical marbles. For surveys of the Lansdowne collection and the construction of Lansdowne House, with further bibliography, see Adolph Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, Cambridge, 1882, pp. 103–06, 453–71; Jonathan Scott, The Pleasures of Antiquity: British Collectors of Greece and Rome, New Haven and London, 2003, pp. 160–68; Ilaria Bignamini and Clare Hornsby, Digging and Dealing in Eighteenth-Century Rome, New Haven and London, 2010, vol. I, pp. 321–26. For more on the Marquess, see Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn. May 2010, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/22070 (J. Cannon).
2/ Catalogue of the Celebrated Collection of Ancient Marbles, the Property of the Most Honourable the Marquess of Lansdowne, 5 March 1930, p.77, lot 60; Sotheby’s Sales Catalogue of Egyptian, Western Asiatic, Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities, 4 December 1972, p. 30, lot 122.
3/ See Michaelis op cit., Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, Cambridge, 1882, p. 452, no. 62. The restorations include the tip of nose, a section of the left brow and a piece of the right side of the neck at the front.
4/ There is a diagonal break running from the back across the chest. The repairs of the bust include the base and index plate, the patchwork of the spine, and the left breast. The inside and the rim of the support have been smoothed over. . . .
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The full article is available here»
Quince, Then and Now
Michael Tortorello, “In Praise of the Misunderstood Quince,” The New York Times (2 May 2012) . . .
Assorted quince varieties from the germplasm collection at the USDA-ARS National Clonal Germplasm Repository in Corvallis, Oregon. From top down, Van Deman, Cooke’s Jumbo, Ekmek, and Quince A, a rootstock variety used for grafting pears (Wikimedia Commons)
. . . What most Americans know about quince (Cydonia oblonga) — if they know about quince at all — is that it was once a fixture in Grandma’s garden. O.K., Great-Great-Grandma’s garden. As long ago as 1922, the great New York pomologist U. P. Hedrick rued that “the quince, the ‘golden apple’ of the ancients, once dedicated to deities, and looked upon as the emblem of love and happiness, for centuries the favorite pome, is now neglected and the least esteemed of commonly cultivated tree-fruits.” Almost every Colonial kitchen garden had a quince tree. But there was seldom need for two, said Joseph Postman, the United States Department of Agriculture scientist who curates the quince collection in Corvallis, Ore. Settlers valued quince, above all, as a mother lode of pectin for making preserves. And for that task, a little fruit went a long way.
“If you put the seeds in a cup of water, it becomes almost like Jell-O,” Mr. Postman said. This goo doubled as a pomade. (If you try this at home, please post photos.) Like so many American workers, the quince lost its job to a disruptive technology: powdered gelatin, introduced by Charles Knox in the 1890s. Unemployment has been tough. Today the nation’s entire quince crop covers a paltry 250 acres — about the size of the lawns in Central Park. By contrast, farmers this year will
raise some 350,000 acres of apples and 96 million acres of
corn. . .
The full article is available here»
Colloquium | Médiatisation du Littéraire
Notwithstanding the focus on literature, there are art historical offerings, including a talk by Pierre-Henri Biger on hand fans, “L’éventail, moyen de propagation des oeuvres littéraires ou théâtrales.” -CH
Colloquium: La Médiatisation du Littéraire
Bordeaux 3 University, 24-25 May 2012
“Médiatisation” is a term of recent onset, which refers to a reality very contemporary to societies where mass dissemination of information is based on various and often sophisticated technical supports. Literature today, with his “rentrée littéraire,” its prizes schedule, its hypersensitive writers or its institutional celebrations, has become one of the media phenomena. This seems obvious in a world so marked by immediacy of information, constant renewal of astonishment and escalation of surprises, albeit artificial. Applying this term to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is therefore primarily a voluntary anachronism, intended to destabilize our vision of our literary past and to provoke a reassessment of the emphasis on literature in the public and social life of classical Europe.
This colloquium is organized by the centre Europe classique (CLARE-Cultures Littératures Arts Représentations Esthétiques)
The programme is available here»
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