Exhibition | Maria Sibylla Merian
Opening this week at the Städel Museum:
Maria Sibylla Merian and the Tradition of Flower Depiction
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 7 April — 2 July 2017
Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, 11 October 2017 — 14 January 2018
Maria Sibylla Merian, Shrub Rose with Gracillariidae, Larva and Pupa, 1679 (Frankfurt: Städel Museum)
Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717), a native of Frankfurt, was not only a highly prominent naturalist but also one of the most renowned artists of her time. The year 2017 marks the 300th anniversary of her death. On this occasion, the Städel Museum is presenting the special exhibition Maria Sibylla Merian and the Tradition of Flower Depiction from 11 October 2017 to 14 January 2018. The show will acquaint visitors with the fascinating and filigree world of flower and plant depiction in drawings and prints of the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries.
Developed in collaboration with the Kupferstichkabinett of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and the Technische Universität Berlin, the exhibition will feature major works by Maria Sibylla Merian in the context of flower depictions by her forerunners, contemporaries and successors, among them the famous Hortus Eystettensis by the pharmacist Basilius Besler (1561–1629) of Nuremberg, ornament engravings by Martin Schongauer (ca. 1445–1491), pharmacopeia of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, plant studies from the circle of Albrecht Dürer, and studies of nature by Georg Flegel (1566–1638) and Joris (Georg) Hoefnagel (1542–1600/01) of the period around 1600. Flower drawings by Bartholomäus Braun will also be on view, as will floral compositions by Barbara Regina Dietzsch (1706–1783) and her circle of the eighteenth century. Maria Sibylla Merian and the Tradition of Flower Depiction will present more than 150 works in all: sheets from the collections of the Städel and the Kupferstichkabinett, but also valuable loans from the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the Sächsische Landes- und Universitätsbibliothek in Dresden, the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, and the Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg in Frankfurt.
Call for Session Proposals | SAH 2019, Providence
From SAH:
Society of Architectural Historians 72nd Annual Conference
Rhode Island Convention Center, Providence, 24–28 April 2019
Proposals due by 16 January 2019
Conference Chair: Victoria Young (University of St. Thomas)
Local Co-Chairs: Dietrich Neumann (Brown University) and Itohan Osayimwese (Brown University)
The Society of Architectural Historians will offer a total of 36 paper sessions at its 2019 Annual International Conference in Providence, Rhode Island. The Society invites its members, including graduate students and independent scholars, representatives of SAH chapters and partner organizations, to chair a session at the conference. As SAH membership is required to chair or present research at the annual conference, non-members who wish to chair a session will be required to join SAH next August 2018 when conference registration opens for Session Chairs and Speakers.
Since the principal purpose of the SAH annual conference is to inform attendees of the general state of research in architectural history and related disciplines, session proposals covering every time period and all aspects of the built environment, including landscape and urban history, are encouraged.
Sessions may be theoretical, methodological, thematic, interdisciplinary, pedagogical, revisionist or documentary in premise and ambition and have broadly conceived or more narrowly focused subjects. Sessions that embrace cross-cultural, transnational and/or non-Western topics are particularly welcome. In every case, the subject should be clearly defined in critical and historical terms. Proposals will be selected on the basis of merit and the need to create a well-balanced program. Topics exploring the architecture of the Providence and the greater region are encouraged.
Since late submissions cannot be considered, it is recommended that proposals be submitted well before the deadline. Last-minute submissions that fail posting in the online portal or are sent in error via email cannot be considered. Session proposals must be submitted online by 5:00pm CST, Tuesday, January 16, 2018. The submission portal will close automatically at this time, and no further proposals will be accepted. Proposals will be reviewed and selected by a committee chaired by SAH Conference Chair Victoria Young.
Additional information is available here»
New Book | Consumptive Chic
From Bloomsbury Academic:
Carolyn Day, Consumptive Chic: A History of Beauty, Fashion, and Disease (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017), 208 pages, ISBN: 978 135000 9387 (hardcover), $94 / ISBN: 978 135000 9370 (paperback), $32.
During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, there was a tubercular ‘moment’ in which perceptions of the consumptive disease became inextricably tied to contemporary concepts of beauty, playing out in the clothing fashions of the day. With the ravages of the illness widely regarded as conferring beauty on the sufferer, it became commonplace to regard tuberculosis as a positive affliction, one to be emulated in both beauty practices and dress. While medical writers of the time believed that the fashionable way of life of many women actually rendered them susceptible to the disease, Carolyn Day investigates the deliberate and widespread flouting of admonitions against these fashion practices in the pursuit of beauty.
Through an exploration of contemporary social trends and medical advice revealed in medical writing, literature, and personal papers, Consumptive Chic uncovers the intimate relationship between fashionable women’s clothing and medical understandings of the illness. Illustrated with over 40 full color fashion plates, caricatures, medical images, and photographs of original garments, this is a compelling story of the intimate relationship between the body, beauty, and disease—and the rise of ‘tubercular chic’.
Carolyn A. Day is Assistant Professor at Furman University where she teaches British History and the History of Medicine. She received a BA in History and a BSc in Microbiology from Louisiana State University, an MPhil in History and Philosophy of Science from Cambridge University, and a PhD from Tulane University in British history.
C O N T E N T S
Introduction
1 The Approach to Illness
2 The Curious Case of Consumption: A Family Affair
3 Exciting Consumption: The Causes and Culture of an Illness
4 Morality, Mortality, and Romanticizing Death
5 The Angel of Death in the Household
6 Tragedy and Tuberculosis: The Siddons Story
7 Dying to Be Beautiful: The Consumptive Chic
8 The Agony of Conceit: Clothing and Consumption
Epilogue: The End of Consumptive Chic
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Enfilade 
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