Enfilade

From the Call for Papers:

The Africa of European Scholars, 17th–20th Centuries
Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar (Senegal), 5–7 February 2018

Proposals due by 30 August 2017

The production of knowledge about Africa was not left to the sole initiative of merchants, missionaries, soldiers, or editors of travel narratives. Contrary to what one might think, Africa and Africans were at the heart of scholarly concerns in the 17th and 18th centuries. The scholars of the great European Academies were also constructing their own Africa. Although this Africa did not represent a split from the common contemporary prejudices of the time on Africans, it could fashion its own existence, borne out of the epistemological demands of scholarly disciplines. Thus, from the Maupertuis’s Dissertation physique à l’occasion du nègre blanc (1744) to Buffon’s theories on the color of Blacks (A. Curran), Africa and the Africans inspired all sorts of intellectual constructs animated by a certain « will to truth » (Foucault).

Nevertheless, although the issue of skin color was the main focus of attention (the nature of which to be scientifically explained), preoccupations about Africa began to shift. The imagined and theorized Africa of the past would gradually be replaced by an Africa drawn from exploration and in situ scientific investigation, in direct contact with the African environment. Detailed memories of learned travelers trained in the methods of scientific observation were added to the preliminary data reported by the ‘surgeons’—who were the best qualified, among those travelling with the commercial Companies, for such work of erudition.

In its simplest sense, the Africa of scholars refers to a tradition of writing that claims to break with an imaginary Africa to propose a “concrete” Africa. Within the framework of a “reorientation of the scientific esprit” (Gusdorf, Foucault), it tends to build upon the African experience of scholarly travelers, and it confers an increasing importance to African societies. No part of the fauna, the flora, nothing relating to the peoples, their languages, their customs, their religious beliefs and rites, was neglected by these “explorers of the unknown” (A. Bailly).

This Africa at the crossroads of western scientific theory and practice is the proposed object of our study. Depending on a periodization structured both by scientific mutations and the evolution of historical contexts, the Africa of European scholars is not one but many. Be they Michel Adanson (1727–1806), considered in the French milieu as the first scientist of formation to have traveled in Africa and to be interested in all fields of knowledge, or Theodore Monod (1902–2000), considered by the French as the first educated naturalist, motivations and the results of scientific research continue to be influenced by political and ideological contexts.

Although initiated by GRREA 17/18, a research group dedicated to the study of European representations of Africa in the 17th and 18th centuries [Groupe de Recherche sur les Représentations Européennes de l’Afrique aux 17e et 18e siècles], this interdisciplinary reflection will be open to researchers in the sciences and in the humanities specialized in the subsequent two centuries (19th and 20th centuries). The geographical areas studied will cover the Francophone, Anglophone, and Lusophone fields.

Paper proposals may include one of the following four areas of study:

I. Training of European scientists
• What kind of scholars contributed to the construction of knowledge on Africa?
• What were their main motivations?

II. Information channels of scholars
• First hand information: letters and field notes of the scholarly traveler
• Second-hand information: printed or informal travel accounts (reports, lectures, and handwritten communications)
• Third-hand information: collections of travel stories

III. Channels of diffusion of learned knowledge
• Academies of sciences in Europe
• Scholarly journals
• Museums (Natural history museums and cabinets of curiosities)
• Obstacles to the diffusion of knowledge
• Science and colonization

IV. What knowledge of Africa can we learn from this past scholarly literature?
• In natural history (fauna, flora…)
• Cultural history (languages, manners…)
• History of religions (religious and cultural practices, polytheisms and monotheisms)
• Political and economic history (evolution and dissolution of great empires, wars of succession, wars and economic co-operation)

Paper proposals (in English or French), of a length not exceeding 500 words, and followed by a short Curriculum Vitae, are to be sent before August 30, 2017, to David Diop diop.david@wanadoo.fr and Ousmane Seydi oumane.seydi@unibas.ch.

Scientific Committee for L’Afrique des savants européens
Sylviane Albertan-Coppola (Université d’Amiens, France), Mamadou Ba (Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Sénégal), Alia Baccar (Académie Beït El Hekma, Tunisie), Isabelle Charlatte Fels (Université de Bâle, Suisse), Andrew Curran (Wesleyan University, Etats-Unis), Hélène Cussac (Université de Toulouse, France), Catherine Gallouët (Hobart and Willliam Smith Colleges, États-Unis), Patrick Graille (Wesleyan University, Paris, France) Françoise Le Borgne (Université de Clermont-Auvergne, France), Jean Moomou (Université des Antilles, France), Claudia Opitz-Belakhal (Université de Bâle, Suisse), Ibrahima Thioub (Recteur de l’Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, Sénégal) Izabella Zatorska (Université de Varsovie, Pologne), Roberto Zaugg (Université de Bâle, Suisse).

A day of preliminary work to the conference in Dakar gathering the members of the scientific committee is planned for November 7, 2017, at the Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour.

From The Courtauld:

Recasting Reproduction, 1500–1800
The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, 18 November 2017

Proposals due by 6 July 2017

David Teniers, The Monkey Painter (detail), ca.1660, oil on panel (Madrid: Museo del Prado).

The contested concept of ‘reproduction’ stands at a critical nexus of the conceptualisation of early modern artistic thought. The early modern period has been characterised by the development of novel and efficient reproduction technologies, as well as the emergence of global empires, growing interconnectedness through trade, warfare and conquest, and the rise of new markets and cultures of collecting. This ethos of innovation and exchange was, however, contextualised against myriad contemporary ideologies still rooted in the values and legends of past narratives. Reproduction stood at the centre of this dichotomy. Set against the context of changing cultural tastes and the increasingly overlapping public and private spheres, ‘reproductions’ were involved within changing viewing practices, artistic pedagogy, acts of homage, and collecting.

The idea of reproduction connotes a number of tensions: between authenticity and counterfeit; consumption and production; innovation and imitation; the establishment of archetype and the creation of replica; the conceptual value of the original and the worth of the reproduction as a novel work of art; the display of contextualised knowledge and the de-contextualisation of the prototype. At the same time, production is shaped historically through practices and discourses and has figured as a key site for analysis in the work of, for example, Walter Benjamin, Richard Wolin, Richard Etlin, Ian Knizek, and Yvonne Sheratt. Participants are invited to explore reproduction ‘beyond Benjamin’, investigating both the technical and philosophical implications of reproducing a work of art and seeking, where possible, a local anchoring for the physical and conceptual processes involved.

We welcome proposals for papers that investigate the theme of reproduction from the early modern period (c.1500–1800), including painting, print making, sculpture, decorative arts, architecture, graphic arts, and the intersections between them. Papers can explore artistic exchanges across geopolitical, cultural and disciplinary divides and contributions from other disciplines, such as the history of science and conservation, are welcome. Topics for discussion may include, but are not limited to

• The conceptualisation and processes of reproduction and reproduction technologies before and at the advent of ‘the mechanical’
• Reproduction in artistic traditions beyond ‘the West’
• The slippage between innovation and imitation
• Part-reproduction and the changing, manipulation and developments of certain motifs
• Problematizing the aura of ‘authenticity’ and the ‘value’ of the original, copies and collecting
• Fakes and the de-contextualisation of a work through its reproduction
• Reproduction within non-object based study e.g. architecture
• Theoretical alternatives and the vocabulary used to describe the process and results of reproduction in contemporary texts

Please send proposals of no more than 300 words along with a 150 word biography by 6th July 2017 to kyle.leyden@courtauld.ac.uk and natasha.morris@courtauld.ac.uk.

Organised by Kyle Leyden, Natasha Morris, and Angela Benza

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From H-ArtHist:

Bibliothèques et Musées en Suisse: Histoires Croisées, 18e-19e siècles
Musée historique de Lausanne, 24–25 May 2018

Proposals due by 31 August 2017

La présence d’objets, voire de véritables cabinets de curiosités, dans l’enceinte des bibliothèques caractérise bon nombre de bibliothèques d’Ancien Régime. Depuis le XVIIe siècle, l’interaction entre livres et objets est en effet thématisée comme un enjeu bibliothéconomique primordial : monnaies, médailles, instruments scientifiques, échantillons naturels et artéfacts exotiques sont appelés à dialoguer avec les livres afin de nourrir le projet de connaissance encyclopédique de la bibliothèque. À la fois ornements et compléments du savoir livresque, ils mettent en scène une confrontation entre le discours et la dimension matérielle, voire palpable de ce même discours.

À la suite de la Révolution française, qui décrète le musée espace public aux fins didactique, patrimoniale et civique, ces objets se voient cependant progressivement expulsés de l’enceinte des bibliothèques et soutiennent, dans de nombreux cas, la naissance d’institutions muséales. Entre la fin du XVIIIe siècle et tout au long du siècle suivant, innombrables sont en effet les musées qui se créent sur la base de collections « éjectées » de l’espace de la bibliothèque. Les causes de cette autonomisation forcée sont souvent pratiques, ces collections ayant atteint une ampleur qui ne leur permet plus de demeurer intégrées aux surfaces prévues pour les livres. Mais des raisons d’ordre politique, scientifique voire épistémologique entrent également en ligne de compte. Il n’en reste pas moins que, dans cette perspective, les bibliothèques, et notamment les bibliothèques publiques, apparaissent comme des antichambres des musées et la condition sine qua non de l’émergence d’un panorama muséal régional et national.

La Suisse et ses villes illustrent clairement la fécondité de cette articulation. Les collections des cabinets de la bibliothèque de Genève, de la bibliothèque de l’Académie de Lausanne ou encore de la Bibliothèque de la Bourgeoisie de Berne, pour n’en mentionner que quelques-unes, provoquent et alimentent dans un premier temps la création des muséums d’histoire naturelle de leurs villes respectives, puis dans un second temps celles des musées d’art, d’histoire et d’ethnographie de ces lieux.

Malgré son importance, cette interdépendance ne semble pas avoir stimulé l’intérêt des chercheurs. Au contraire, un certain cloisonnement disciplinaire persiste entre les spécialistes de l’histoire des bibliothèques et de l’histoire des musées. Si les premiers attribuent aux cabinets un rôle fondamentalement mineur dans le programme de connaissance de la bibliothèque des Lumières, les seconds ne concentrent leur regard que sur le musée dès le moment où celui-ci acquiert une existence autonome. C’est cette lacune que le colloque propose de combler. Dans le but d’élaborer une réflexion interdisciplinaire, la rencontre souhaite réunir historiens des collections et professionnels du monde des bibliothèques et des musées pour présenter une série de cas d’étude. Le colloque se focalisera essentiellement sur la Suisse afin de faciliter la délimitation géographique de la problématique. Cependant, des propositions concernant d’autres territoires nationaux seront les bienvenues dans la mesure où elles contribueront à la formulation de principes méthodologiques.

Quatre axes de réflexion structureront les échanges

1. il s’agira d’abord de problématiser le statut des collections d’objets de bibliothèques pour saisir les modalités sous-jacentes de leur arrivée et de leur arrangement. De même, nous chercherons à comprendre comment ces objets négocient leur cohabitation avec les collections livresques.

2. nous soulèverons également la question de leur émancipation par rapport aux livres : qu’est-ce qui motive cette émancipation ? Qui en sont les acteurs ? Qu’est-ce que ces remaniements impliquent au sein même de la bibliothèque ? Comment le rapport entre le musée naissant et la bibliothèque se pense-t-il ? Comment s’entretient-il ? Pourquoi se dégrade-t-il ?

3. nous aborderons ensuite le problème de la perte de sens souvent provoquée par la répartition des objets dans des collections spécialisées, perte qui se répercute sur les politiques de gestion des collections.

4. des questions méthodologiques retiendront enfin notre attention : est-ce qu’une histoire croisée des bibliothèques et des musées est véritablement réalisable ? Quels types de sources peuvent la soutenir ? Et qu’en est-il aujourd’hui de l’articulation bibliothèques/musées dans la gestion d’institutions culturelles ? Conditionne-t-elle les politiques patrimoniales contemporaines ?

La période prise en compte est celle allant du XVIIIe siècle à la fin du XIXe siècle ; des communications portant sur le XXe seront toutefois acceptées si elles dialoguent avec des pratiques ou des discours hérités des siècles précédents.

Les communications individuelles seront limitées à 25 minutes, celles en tandem à 40 minutes. Les propositions, en français, en allemand, en italien ou en anglais comprendront environ 300 mots. Elles sont à adresser à Rossella Baldi (rossella.baldi@unine.ch) et à Valérie Kobi (valerie.kobi@uni-bielefeld.de). Délai pour l’envoi des propositions : 31 août 2017. Les réponses seront envoyées dans le courant du mois d’octobre 2017.

Comité scientifique
Rossella Baldi, Danielle Buyssens, Valérie Kobi, Claude-Alain Kuenzi, Matthias Oberli, Michel Schlup, Martin Schultz.

From H-ArtHist:

‘Num’rous Uses, Motions, Charms, and Arts’: Fans as Images,
Accessories, and Instruments of Gesture in the 17th and 18th Centuries
University of Zurich, 30 November — 1 December 2017

Proposals due by 30 June 2017

This interdisciplinary conference discusses the cultural role of fans in art, fashion, and material culture in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Taking the visual and material diversity of fans as a point of departure, it aims at gaining new insights into the various interrelations between fans, paintings, and printed artworks in this period.

The conference takes painted and printed folding fans as its main focus in order to take a closer view of the pictorial and intermedial interplay of ornamental patterns, figurative elements, and artistic subject matters. From the late seventeenth century onwards, fan depictions were often inspired by or based on Renaissance and contemporary paintings. In the course of the eighteenth century, fan leaves displayed an increasing variety of cultural themes, thereby also functioning as souvenirs as well as conveyors of political and social messages.

Furthermore, the conference seeks to examine fans as gender-specific instruments of gesture and communication. In eighteenth-century Europe, fans became important fashion accessories across the social classes and were almost omnipresent in social interaction. In 1711, Joseph Addison, satirizing social etiquette, describes fans as “modish machines” and powerful “weapons” of their female owners. Later visual and written sources enhanced this attribution of meaning, particularly emphasizing the fan’s expressive movements of opening and closing, of displaying and not displaying, which could hide their owners’ faces while at the same time rendering visible their emotions. On the other hand, painted and printed fans presented a wide variety of social knowledge in fast and fleeting pictures, in this way conveying personal statements of those who carried them.

The conference aims to bring together different perspectives on the cultural importance of fans in order to consider issues such as their production, their material qualities, the visual elements and subject matters in fan painting, as well as the various social uses and the reception of fans in art and literature. We invite discussions of both individual fans as well as visual and written sources which reveal the cultural role of the fan in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

This call addresses art historians, fashion historians, and researchers from related disciplines. Possible topics may include, but are not limited to
• painted and printed fans as conveyors of (political and cultural) information
• fans as souvenirs and conveyors of memory
• the reception of artworks in fan depictions
• fans as/within the context of fashion accessories, dress norms and gender-specific body cultures
• fans in cultures of communication and cultures of feeling
• fans in the visual arts (portraits, genre painting, caricatures, etc.) and in literature
• the manufacture and (global) trade of fans
• case studies in the conservation and restoration of fans

Please send your proposal (max. 300 words, in English, German or French), for a paper (20 minutes), a short CV and a short list of keywords (max 6) no later than June 30, 2017 to Dr Miriam Volmert (miriam.volmert@khist.uzh.ch) and lic. phil. Danijela Bucher (danijela.bucher@uzh.ch). Notification of authors: July 7, 2017. Travel reimbursement depends on the availability of funds.