Enfilade

From the symposium programme:

Penser le Rococo (XVIIIe–XXIe siècles) / Reconsidering the Rococo
Université de Lausanne, 5–6 November 2015

Le rococo, en dépit de la méfiance ou de l’ironie qu’il suscite, occupe une place centrale dans l’historiographie. En tant que catégorie stylistique et critique, il structure notre appréhension de l’art du XVIIIe siècle et détermine le regard que l’on porte sur celui-ci. Ce colloque, conçu en écho aux stimulantes recherches de ces vingt dernières années sur le rococo, vise à développer une réflexion épistémologique sur une notion protéiforme. La perspective privilégée pour ce colloque est celle, critique, de l’étude d’une notion devenue catégorie, le rococo, appelant à réfléchir sur son apparition, sa sédimentation, sa diffusion. Quelles sont les premières formulations de ce terme ? Sur quels présupposés se fonde-t-il ? Comment devient-il un canon formel et esthétique ? De quelles sources se nourrit-il ? En fonction de quels enjeux établit-on les frontières et les corpus du rococo ? Comment la situation d’énonciation des exégètes, aux XIXe, XXe et XXIe siècles, a-t-elle orienté la mise en récit de son histoire ? Comment les idées véhiculées dans leurs travaux agissent-elles sur la production tardive d’objets imitant le XVIIIe siècle ? Comment ces revivals agissent-ils en retour sur notre compréhension du rococo ?

Despite the scepticism or irony which it provokes, the notion of the Rococo occupies a central position within the historiography of 18th-century art. It structures our understanding of this epoch and determines the way in which we see it. This symposium, planned as an answer to the stimulating research of the last twenty years on the Rococo, aims at an epistemological reflection on a protean notion which was progressively defined as a style during the 19th century. This symposium therefore favours a critical approach to this notion, urging contributors to reconsider how it emerged, how it was formed and diffused. What were the first manifestations of the Rococo, on what preconceived ideas was it founded, and how did it become a formal and aesthetic canon? Which sources did it draw upon? What ideas and categories have been used to structure it? How were the boundaries of the Rococo established? How has the context in which interpreters have written about the Rococo oriented the formulation of narratives during the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries? How have the ideas upon which their work is founded inflected the production of imitations of 18th-century objects? How have these revivals, in turn, acted upon our understanding of the Rococo?

Organisation scientifique
Carl Magnusson (Université de Lausanne)
Marie-Pauline Martin (Aix-Marseille Université, UMR 7303 TELEMME-CNRS)

Comité scientifique
Jan Blanc (Université de Genève), Frédéric Dassas (Musée du Louvre), Michaël Decrossas (INHA, Paris), Peter Fuhring (Fondation Custodia, Paris), Christian Michel (Université de Lausanne)

Organisation logistique et contact
Geneviève Dutoit (Université de Lausanne) / genevieve.dutoit@unil.ch

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J E U D I ,  5  N O V E M B R E  2 0 1 5

8.30  Accueil

8.45  Introduction par Carl MAGNUSSON et Marie-Pauline MARTIN

9.00  1 | Les champs du rococo, du décor à la sculpture
Président de séance : Peter Fuhring
• Carl MAGNUSSON (Université de Lausanne)—Le rococo, style «décoratif» par excellence
• David PULLINS (Harvard University)—«Quelques misérables places à remplir» : locating chantourné painting in eighteenth-century France
• Malcolm BAKER (University of California)—Reconsidering ‘Rococo’ sculpture

14.00  2 | Pertinence d’une catégorie ?
Président de séance : Frédéric Dassas
• Fabrice MOULIN (Université de Paris X-Nanterre)—Les « mauvais choix » en art et en amour : le rococo mis en fiction dans L’homme du monde éclairé par les arts (1773)
• Marie-Pauline MARTIN (Université d’Aix-Marseille)—Du sobriquet à la catégorie de style
• Floriane DAGUISÉ (Université de Paris-Sorbonne)—De l’usage du rococo dans la recherche en littérature
• Elisabeth FRITZ (Friedrich-Schiller-Unversität Jena)—La fête galante : un genre paradigmatique dans le discours ambigu du rococo

V E N D R E D I ,  6  N O V E M B R E  2 0 1 5

9.00  3 | Mécanismes et composantes du rococo
Présidence de séance : Cyril Lécosse
• Bérangère POULAIN (Université de Genève)—Rococo et fugacité du regard: émergence et modifications de la notion de ‘papillotage’ (XVIIIe–XXIe siècle)
• Melissa HYDE (University of Florida)—Déjà-vu All Over Again ? Rococo, Then and Now
• Aleksandra WOJDA (Université Jagellon, Cracovie)—Du romantique au penseur d’un rococo moderne : Gautier et les ambiguïtés de la concrétion esthétique

14.00  4 | Les géographies éclatées du rococo
Président de séance : Christian Michel
• Jean-François BÉDARD (Syracuse University)—Fiske Kimball, diffuseur de la rocaille
• Étienne TORNIER (Université de Paris X-Nanterre / University of Minnesota)—Rococo revival ou l’élaboration du goût et du style américain (1850–1900)
• Raul C. SAMPAIO LOPES (Seoul National University)—Ce que l’historiographie des manifestations périphériques du rococo nous dit sur la construction de cette notion stylistique

17.30  Discussion et conclusions

From the symposium website:

Asian Gardens in the West
Haus der Universität Düsseldorf and Benrath Palace, Düsseldorf, 1–3 October 2015

Organized by the Department of Japanese Studies, University of Düsseldorf, and the Benrath Palace and Park Foundation

Many people in the West believe that Asian gardens are mystic places indicating a very special and subtle understanding of nature and a refined aestheticism. The symposium traces the history of these notions back to the 18th and 19th centuries and shows how Western and Asian pundits, gardeners and officials together created these visions of Asian gardens. We also ask about current trends in building and interpreting Asian gardens in the West.

Japanese gardens come to mind as a prime example of Asian gardens in the West as they are one of the strongest symbols for Japan. Their long-lasting fashion started in the second half of the 19th century because Japanese governments used gardens to represent the country at world’s fairs, albeit with no clear comprehension of the concept of a ‘Japanese garden’. Only through the international appreciation did the Japanese begin to fully understand the merit of gardens for self-representation. As a consequence Japanese garden experts created a canonized idea of the aesthetic arrangement of Japanese gardens.

However, Japanese gardens are not the only example of the spatial staging of a national Asian identity. Already in the 18th century, Chinese garden art had become fashionable in Europe. Yet Chinese gardeners and garden experts were only very marginally involved in this vogue. Western garden enthusiasts—mostly aristocrats—built Chinese gardens following accounts of Asia which were written by Jesuits and merchants. In the last three to four decades many Chinese gardens have been built in North America and Europe once again.

As leading Asian countries, China and Japan are role models for self-representation through cultural diplomacy. Thus Chinese and Japanese gardens incite other Asian countries as well as Western garden experts to build Korean, Indonesian and Indian gardens.

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1  O C T O B E R  2 0 1 5

13:30  Introduction

14:00  Address by Vice President for International Relations, Andrea von Hülsen-Esch

14:20  Stefan Schweizer, Gardens and National Stereotypes

15:15  Panel I | China / The Representation of Asian Gardens in Asia
• James Bartos, China, Chinoiserie, and the English Landscape Garden Revisited
• Bianca Maria Rinaldi, The Invention of the Chinese Garden
• Christof Baier, Heritage Gardens: Singapore’s Asian Garden Representation at Gardens by the Bay as Third Space?

2  O C T O B E R  2 0 1 5

9:00  Excursion to the Japanese Garden in Leverkusen

13:30  Panel II | India
• Karin Seeber, Imaginary Gardens: Marie Luise Gothein’s Book on Indian Garden History (1926)
• Henry J. Noltie, The Indian Career of Hugh Cleghorn (1820–1895): Economic Botany and the Transfer of Knowledge through Botanical Gardens

15:30  Panel III | Japanese Gardens
• Wybe Kuitert, Context and Praxis: Thoughts on Japan and Gardens
• Tagsold, Christian, Japanese Gardens Unleashed: From Miniatures to Advertising

19:30  Keynote Lecture
John Dixon Hunt, Questions of Authenticity

3  O C T O B E R  2 0 1 5

10:00  Panel IV | Representing Japanese Gardens
• Katahira Miyuki, Constructing the Image of Japanese Gardens: 
Analysis of the Discourse on Japanese Gardens in Japan and the West
• Elisabeth Scherer, Elaborate ‘Contact Spaces’: Staging Japanese gardens for Cinema

12:00 Final discussion

Abstracts are available here»