Exhibition | Winckelmann and Curiosity
From Christ Church:
Winckelmann and Curiosity in the 18th-Century Gentleman’s Library
Upper Library at Christ Church, Oxford, 29 June — 26 October 2018
Curated by Amy Smith, K. C. Harloe, and Cristina Neagu
To commemorate the Winckelmann anniversaries 2017/2018, Christ Church Library is preparing an exhibition and series of events in collaboration with the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, University of Oxford and the Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology, University of Reading (a particularly appropriate partnership, since the University of Reading owes its origins to an extension college—University Extension College, Reading—founded by Christ Church in 1892).
Like many antiquarians of his day, the German art historian and archaeologist Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–1768) first learned about the ancient world through immersion in literature. As a teacher and then librarian in his native Germany, Winckelmann encountered the classics primarily through literary texts, as well as the souvenirs—coins, gems, and figurines—that grand tourists and other travellers had brought north from their visits to Italy. Once he arrived in Rome, where he rose to prominence at Prefect of Antiquities in the Vatican, Winckelmann studied the remains of Greek, Graeco-Roman, and Roman art on a larger scale. Through personal contacts, letters, and other writings, Winckelmann influenced his and subsequent generations of scholars, aesthetes, collectors, craftsmen and artists both within and beyond Italy.
Winckelmann and Curiosity in the 18th-Century Gentleman’s Library explores the scholar’s varied influence on the arts in Britain, through printed media, architecture, and decorative arts. This exhibition is part of the anniversary celebrations of the work of Winckelmann and particularly his impact on the reception of classical art in Britain. The exhibition will be launched with a symposium on Ideals and Nations: New perspectives on the European Reception of Winckelmann’s Aesthetics.
More information on the series of Winckelmann celebrations is available here»
Symposium | Ideals and Nations: Reception of Winckelmann’s Aesthetics
From Christ Church (with a PDF file of the program available here). . .
Ideals and Nations: New Perspectives on the European Reception of Winckelmann’s Aesthetics
Sir Michael Dummet Lecture Theatre, Christ Church College, University of Oxford, 29 June 2018
Organized by Fiona Gatty and Lucy Russell
To commemorate the Winckelmann anniversaries 2017/2018, Christ Church Library is preparing an exhibition and series of events in collaboration with the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, University of Oxford and the Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology, University of Reading. Winckelmann and Curiosity in the 18th-Century Gentleman’s Library explores the scholar’s varied influence on the arts in Britain, through printed media, architecture, and decorative arts. The exhibition will be launched with a symposium on Ideals and Nations: New Perspectives on the European Reception of Winckelmann’s Aesthetics.
Registration information is available here»
Anton von Maron, Portrait of Johann Joachim Winckelmann, 1767, oil on canvas, 136 × 99 cm (Weimar: Stadtschloss).
P R O G R A M M E
9.30 Registration
10.15 Welcome from Martyn Percy (The Dean of Christ Church), Fiona Gatty (Oxford), and Lucy Russell (Oxford)
10.30 Session 1: Keynote Lecture
• Alex Potts (Michigan), Winckelmann: Historicity and Multiple Temporalities in the Art of Antiquity
11.15 Coffee and Biscuits
11.45 Session 2: France and Italy
• Fiona Gatty (Oxford), Clothing the Ideal: Winckelmann and the Costume Dictionaries of Late 18th-Century France
• Lucy Russell (Oxford), The Winckelmann Dilemma: Italy’s Nationalistic Response, 1755–1834
13.00 Lunch
14.30 Session 3: Germany and England
• TBC, From Winckelmania to the Wehrmacht: Receptions of Winckelmann in the German-Speaking World
• Helen Slaney (Roehampton), Winckelmann in English Travel Writing
15.45 Tea and Biscuits
16.15 Session 4: Keynote Lecture
• Elisabeth Décultot (Halle), History of Art and Ethnology: Winckelmann’s Panorama of the Ancient Peoples and Its Reception in the 18th Century
17.30 Drinks reception to launch the Ure Museum (University of Reading)/Christ Church Library collaborative exhibition Winckelmann in Italy: Curiosity and Connoisseurship in the 18th-Century Gentleman’s Study
19.30 Conference Dinner
Enfilade 
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