New Book | Painting with Fire
From The University of Chicago Press:
Matthew C. Hunter, Painting with Fire: Sir Joshua Reynolds, Photography, and the Temporally Evolving Chemical Object (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2019), 304 pages, ISBN: 978-0226390253, $50.
Painting with Fire shows how experiments with chemicals known to change visibly over the course of time transformed British pictorial arts of the long eighteenth century—and how they can alter our conceptions of photography today. As early as the 1670s, experimental philosophers at the Royal Society of London had studied the visual effects of dynamic combustibles. By the 1770s, chemical volatility became central to the ambitious paintings of Sir Joshua Reynolds, premier portraitist and first president of Britain’s Royal Academy of Arts. Valued by some critics for changing in time (and thus, for prompting intellectual reflection on the nature of time), Reynolds’s unstable chemistry also prompted new techniques of chemical replication among Matthew Boulton, James Watt, and other leading industrialists. In turn, those replicas of chemically decaying academic paintings were rediscovered in the mid-nineteenth century and claimed as origin points in the history of photography.
Tracing the long arc of chemically produced and reproduced art from the 1670s through the 1860s, the book reconsiders early photography by situating it in relationship to Reynolds’s replicated paintings and the literal engines of British industry. By following the chemicals, Painting with Fire remaps familiar stories about academic painting and pictorial experiment amid the industrialization of chemical knowledge.
Matthew C. Hunter is associate professor in the Department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University. He is the author of Wicked Intelligence: Visual Art and the Science of Experiment in Restoration London, also published by the University of Chicago Press.
C O N T E N T S
Introduction: Slow-Motion Mobiles
1 ‘Pictures . . . in time petrify’d’
2 Joshua Reynolds’s ‘Nice Chymistry’ in the 1770s
3 ‘Rend’rd Imortal”: The Work of Art in an Age of Chemical Reproduction
4 Space, Time, and Chemistry: Making Enlightenment ‘Photography’ in the 1860s
Conclusion: Art History in/as an Age of Combustion
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Symposium | Houses of Politicians
From the conference website:
Houses of Politicians
Manchester Metropolitan University, 29–30 November 2019
As politics and the idea of politician evolved throughout the long eighteenth century—from landed aristocracy to new money and career politicians—and the empire became increasingly more complex, the building of country houses remained a constant. This symposium brings together established and early career scholars who explore the correlation between politics and the country house within this protean political environment. Case studies and dialogue sessions will discuss design and style, as well as collecting, display, patronage, networking, dissemination, and the relationship between London and the country. The symposium also involves an (optional) tour of Wentworth Woodhouse, built by the marquises of Rockingham and now the focus of a major heritage restoration initiative. Key outcomes will be a publication of scholarly essays and a Politics and Country House Toolkit intended for the professional heritage sector.
F R I D A Y , 2 9 N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 9
Friends Meeting House, 6 Mount St, Manchester
9.00 Morning Session
Moderator: Jon Stobart (Manchester Metropolitan University)
• Joan Coutu (University of Waterloo), Introduction
• Peter Lindfield and Jon Stobart (Manchester Metropolitan University), Powerhouse or Home: Different Readings of the British Country House in Recent Symposia
• Oliver Cox (University of Oxford), Writing Political Histories
• Fiona Candlin (Birkbeck, University of London), When Is a Historic House a Museum? (and Why Might It Matter)
10.45 Break
11.00 Wentworth Woodhouse in Focus
• Dylan Spivey (PhD candidate, University of Virginia), Thomas Wentworth and Wentworth Woodhouse
• Joan Coutu (University of Waterloo), Burke’s Exemplum: The ‘Natural Family Mansion’ and Wentworth Woodhouse
• John Bonehill (University of Glasgow), Painting for Portland: George Barret and Welbeck
12.45 Coach departs for Wentworth Woodhouse; box lunch provided for eating on the coach. Tour followed by a reception at Wentworth Woodhouse.
17.30 Coach departs Wentworth Woodhouse, returning to Manchester at approximately 19.00
S A T U R D A Y , 3 0 N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 9
Manchester Metropolitan University, Business School, All Saints Building, Manchester
8.30 The House, the Style, the Contents, the Message
Moderators: Kate Retford (Birkbeck, University of London) and Anne Bordeleau (University of Waterloo)
• Amy Lim (DPhil candidate, University of Oxford and Tate Britain), Executive or Exile? The Art and Architecture of Country Houses after the Glorious Revolution
• Juliet Learmouth (PhD candidate, Birkbeck, University of London), Holding Court at Marlborough House: The London Residence of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough
• Jon Stobart, Competing Cultures of Consumption: Politics and Taste at Shugborough
• Dale Townshend (Manchester Metropolitan University), Tory Gothic / Whig Classicism: Chiasmus, Architecture, and the Politics of Style in the Long Eighteenth Century
• Matthew Reeve (Queen’s University, Canada), Gothic Architecture and the Liberty Trope
• Peter Lindfield (Manchester Metropolitan University), A Gothic Houghton: Pelham’s Forgotten Country House
12:45 Lunch
13:30 The Empire at Home
Moderators: Dana Arnold (University of East Anglia) and Anne Bordeleau (University of Waterloo)
• Elisabeth Grass (DPhil candidate, University of Oxford and the National Trust), St. Kitts in Norfolk: The Country House Network of Crisp Molineux
• Jocelyn Anderson (University of Toronto, Mississauga), The ‘Fine House’ of a Caribbean Planter: Public Responses to the Alderman Beckford’s Fonthill
• Kieran Hazzard (University of Oxford), The Clives and India: Collecting, Display, and Colonialism
• Rowena Willard-Wright (freelance curator), William Pitt the Younger and How to Make a Political Home
16:30 Post-Graduate Students Roundtable – Sources and Reflection, Building the Toolkit
Moderator: Oliver Cox
18:00 Concluding Remarks: Reflecting on the Political House
Chaired by Jon Stobart, with Joan Coutu, Oliver Cox, and Peter Lindfield
Call for Papers | Prints in Their Place
From The Courtauld:
Prints in Their Place: New Research on Printed Images in Their Places of Production, Sale, and Use
Research Forum, Courtauld Institute of Art, Vernon Square, Kings Cross, London, 19–20 June 2020
Proposals due by 15 January 2020
Organized by Sheila McTighe, Paris Spies-Gans, and Anita Viola Sganzerla
Jacques Callot, Title page to Varie figure, etching, ca. 1621/22 (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art).
We solicit papers that address printed images in relation to their early modern and modern contexts in the broadest sense. We hope to include papers that cover the full span of the history of prints, and the range of disciplines in which print is now studied, from art history, the history of the book and print culture studies, to the history of science and ideas.
We open up the terms ‘place’ or ‘context’ to include a variety of approaches to the study of prints and of print. To look at prints in their place might concern the relation between prints and their place of production—how did the spaces and formats of artists’ workshops shape their creative process and affect the prints produced? How did the entrepreneurship of print producers in workshops and publishing houses affect the print materials that were bought by their customers? How were the places in which cheap prints were sold—on the street, in the piazza, the book fair, the market table—reflected in their format, imagery, and functions? Equally rich contexts include the places in which printed materials were collected, stored, and used: how did the formats and conventions for looking at prints, pamphlets and books, in libraries, kunstkammer, galleries, chapels, schools, kitchens, laboratories, bedrooms, coffee shops and salons, affect the way prints were made as well as what they portrayed? More broadly, when print shops and book shops were clustered into certain streets or districts in the city, and/or when a locality became associated with the print trade, what effects did the character of this site have on the culture of print in that place? We also encourage topics that consider gender as well as women artists—Were these places gendered? Did women cultivate their own spaces of print production? When and where did women actors navigate the spaces above? What was the place of print, literally or figuratively, for aspiring or established women artists or publishers? The places for prints might also be considered as metaphoric or imagined spaces, such as the international arena for news and political debate. Finally, we invite studies of such real or imagined places for prints that extend beyond western Europe.
If you are interested in presenting a paper at this conference, please send a proposal with your name and institutional affiliation (if you have one), your paper’s title, an abstract of no more than 200 words, and a brief cv, to sheila.mctighe@courtauld.ac.uk. Deadline for submissions is 15 January 2020.
Organizers: Dr. Sheila McTighe (Senior Lecturer, Courtauld Institute), Dr. Paris Spies-Gans (Harvard University Society of Fellows), Dr. Anita Viola Sganzerla (Independent scholar)
Fellowships | Lewis Walpole Library, 2020–21
The Lewis Walpole Library invites applications to its 2020–21 fellowship program:
Fellowships and Travel Grants in Eighteenth-Century Studies
The Lewis Walpole Library, 2020–21
Applications due by 6 January 2020
The Lewis Walpole Library, a department of Yale University Library, invites applications to its 2020–2021 fellowship program. Located in Farmington, Connecticut, the library offers short-term residential fellowships and travel grants to support research in the library’s rich collections of eighteenth-century materials (mainly British), including important holdings of prints, drawings, manuscripts, rare books, and paintings. Scholars pursuing postdoctoral or advanced research, as well as doctoral candidates at work on a dissertation, are encouraged to apply.
Recipients are expected to be in residence at the library, to be free of other significant professional obligations during their stay, and to focus their research on the Lewis Walpole Library’s collections. Fellows also have access to additional resources at Yale, including those in the Sterling Memorial Library, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and the Yale Center for British Art. Residential fellowships include the cost of travel to and from Farmington, accommodation for four weeks in an eighteenth-century house on the library’s campus, and a per diem living allowance. Travel grants cover transportation costs to and from Farmington for research trips of shorter duration and include on-site accommodation.
Applications are accepted beginning the first Monday in November. The application deadline is January 6, 2020. Awards will be announced in March.
Fellowships | Tyson Scholars in American Art
From Crystal Bridges:
Tyson Scholars Program: Fellowships in American Art
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2020–21
Applications due by 15 January 2019
Apply now for a fellowship to support your research. Crystal Bridges invites applications addressing a variety of topics including American art history, architecture, visual and material culture, Indigenous art, Latin American Art, American studies, craft, and contemporary art that expand traditional categories of investigation into American art. Projects with an interdisciplinary focus are encouraged.
The program is open to scholars affiliated with a university, museum, or independent holding a PhD (or equivalent) and PhD candidates. Scholars are selected based on potential to advance understanding of American art and intersect with Crystal Bridges’ collections, architecture, or landscape.
Terms range from six weeks to nine months. Tyson Scholars have access to the art and library collections of Crystal Bridges and the University of Arkansas library. Housing is provided near Crystal Bridges. Workspace at the museum is also provided. Stipends vary depending on duration of residency and experience, and range from $15,000 to $30,000 per semester. Additional funds for relocation and research travel funds are also available. The deadline for the 2020–2021 academic year is January 15, 2020.
New Book | Ancient Marbles in Naples in the Eighteenth Century
From Brill:
Eloisa Dodero, Ancient Marbles in Naples in the Eighteenth Century: Findings, Collections, Dispersals (Leiden: Brill, 2019), 630 pages, ISBN: 978-9004362857, €139 / $167.
In Ancient Marbles in Naples in the Eighteenth Century Eloisa Dodero aims at documenting the history of numerous private collections formed in Naples during the 18th century, with particular concern for the ‘Neapolitan marbles’ and the circumstances of their dispersal. Research has thus made it possible to formulate a synthesis of the collecting dynamics of Naples in the 18th century, to define the interest of the great European collectors, especially British, in the antiquities of the city and its territory and to draw up a catalogue which for the first time brings together the nucleus of sculptures reported in the Neapolitan collections or coming from irregular excavations, most of which shared the destiny of dispersal, in some cases here traced in definitive fashion.
Eloisa Dodero is curator archaeologist at the Capitoline Museums, Rome. She is involved in the publication of the Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo (Brepols) and in a new, revised edition of Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture (Brepols).
C O N T E N T S
List of Figures
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
1 The Collections of Antiquities in Naples in the 18th Century: A Changing Scenario
2 Sources for a Knowledge of the Neapolitan Collections of Antiquities in the 18th Century
• The Descrizioni of Naples and the Travel Literature in the 17th and 18th Century
• Erudite Works, Epigraphic Sylloges and Corpora
• The Correspondence of Antiquarians
• Catalogues of Collections
• Private Archives, Inventories and Auction Catalogues
• The Evidence Offered by the Paintings
• The Townley Archive, the Townley Drawings and the Topham Collection of Drawings
3 Collections of Antiquities in Naples between the End of the 17th and the Closing Years of the 18th Century
• Sculptures as Furniture: Ancient Marbles in Old Palaces and Stately Homes
• The Leading Collectors
• Small Collections of Vases, Inscriptions, Coins, Gems
• Wunderkammern in Naples
• The Collections of the Religious Orders
• The Collections of the Foreigners
4 The Channels of Dispersal of the Neapolitan Marbles from the Viceregal Period to the End of the 18th Century
• The Spanish Viceroyalty and the Austrian Viceroyalty
• The Age of the Bourbons
• Marbles of Neapolitan Origin in 18th-Century British Collections
Conclusions
Catalogue – Part 1: Ancient Marbles in 18th-Century Neapolitan Collection
Sculptures as Furniture: Ancient Marbles in Old Palaces and Stately Homes
• Palazzo Carafa di Colubrano (cat. no. 1–43)
• Villa Mazza (cat. no. 44–50)
• Palazzo Firrao (cat. no. 51–52)
• Palazzo Cellamare (cat. no. 53–64)
• The Gaetani d’Aragona, Dukes of Laurenzano (cat. no. 65–71)
The Leading Collectors
• Giuseppe Valletta (cat. no. 72–122)
• Felice Maria Mastrilli (cat. no. 123–133)
• Giovanni Battista Carafa Duke di Noja (cat. no. 134–138)
Small Collections of Vases, Inscriptions, Coins, Gems
• Ferdinando Galiani (cat. no. 139–140)
Wunderkammern in Naples
• Francesco Antonio Picchiatti (cat. no. 141–145)
The Collections of the Foreigners
• Sir William Hamilton (cat. no. 146–200)
• Vinzenz von Rainer zu Harbach (cat. no. 201–202)
Catalogue – Part 2: Sculptures Found in Naples and Its Surroundings Between the 17th and the 18th Century
Pimentel’s Excavations at Cuma (cat. no. 203–217)
The Dispersal
• Berlin (cat. no. 218–222)
• Paris (cat. no. 223–224)
• Saint Petersburg (cat. no. 225)
• Rome (cat. no. 226–233)
Hadrawa’s Excavations in Capri (cat. no. 234–240)
Neapolitan Marbles in British Collections
• Wilton House
• Other Collections Assembled in the First Half of the 18th Century (cat. no. 241)
• Charles Townley Collection (cat. no. 242–252)
• Lyde Browne Collection (cat. no. 251–253)
• Henry Blundell Collection (cat. no. 254–255)
• Thomas Hope Collection (cat. no. 256)
Archival Sources
Bibliography
Index of Sculptures by Location
General Index
New Book | The Lost Library of the King of Portugal
On 1 November 1755, Lisbon was devastated by a massive earthquake. From PHP:
Angela Delaforce, The Lost Library of the King of Portugal (London: Paul Holberton Publishing, 2019), 208 pages, ISBN: 978-1912168156, £45.
The destruction on the morning of All Saints Day 1755 of the heart of the city of Lisbon by an earthquake, tidal wave and the urban fires that followed was a tragedy that divides the 18th century in Portugal. One casualty on that fatal morning was the Royal Library, one of the most magnificent libraries in Europe at the time. The Lost Library of the King of Portugal tells the story of the lost library—its creation, collection, and significance.
This 18th-century library was founded by the Bragança monarch Dom João V shortly after he came to the throne in 1706 and was housed at the heart of the royal palace, the Paço da Ribeira, in Lisbon. The king’s abiding ambition was to create one of Europe’s great court libraries, and, at the time of his death in 1750, it was reputed to be one of the most magnificent libraries in Europe. The Royal Library was also composed of a Cabinet of Prints and Drawings, medals and scientific instruments as well as a Cabinet of Natural History with specimens from across Portugal’s global empire.
This documented study describes the creation of the library, its cultural significance in 18th-century Portugal, the acquisition of single volumes as well as entire libraries from across Europe, and the role in this of Portugal’s most talented diplomats. It includes the collection of manuscripts from the celebrated library of Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland and the unpublished correspondence exchanged during the negotiations between London and Lisbon. Throughout his reign, the devout Dom João V set out to conjure up his own vision of Rome and the papal court he never saw. Two chapters are devoted to Italy—one to the talented archaeologist Francesco Bianchini at the papal court, including the unpublished correspondence between him and his royal patron Dom João V, as well as the guides to Rome and art and architecture at the ducal courts of northern Italy, both commissioned by the king.
When the library was destroyed in 1 November 1755 by the earthquake, tidal wave, and the fires that followed, only a few books, manuscripts, and albums of prints were saved, and the author traces their final journey with the royal family and court to Brazil on the eve of the invasion by Napoleon’s army in November 1806.
Exhibition | Dutch Masters Revisited
Now on view at the Amsterdam Museum:
Dutch Masters Revisited
Amsterdam Museum, Hermitage Amsterdam, 30 September 2019 — 2 February 2020
Curated by Jörgen Tjon a Fong
Humberto Tan, Ruud-Gullit as Jacob Rühle, photograph.
This fall the Amsterdam Museum wing of Hermitage Amsterdam presents Dutch Masters Revisited. Curated by Jörgen Tjon a Fong (Urban Myth), this exhibition complements the Amsterdam Museum’s permanent exhibition at Hermitage Amsterdam Portrait Gallery of the 17th Century (formerly known as Dutchmen of the Golden Age). Surrounded by the huge group portraits in the grand hall, Dutch Masters Revisited shows thirteen portraits of prominent Dutch citizens posing as people of colour who, based on historical research, are known to have lived in the 17th- and 18th-century Netherlands.
Viewing the subjects depicted in the works presented in Portrait Gallery of the 17th Century, one could easily (and erroneously) assume that at the time the Netherlands’ entire population was white. After all, everyone included in these group portraits is white. But while they may not be depicted in these works, the city of Amsterdam was also home to people of colour. White people and people of colour have been living together in the Netherlands for centuries. And in the 17th and 18th centuries, Amsterdam in particular was a home to people from all corners of the globe.
Theatre maker Jörgen Tjon A Fong, who curated Dutch Masters Revisited notes: “I was amazed to discover this vibrant community of people with non-Western roots living in 17th-century Amsterdam. They could be found in all walks of life. A lot of people aren’t aware of this. So far, these individuals’ stories have been left untold. It’s important that we start doing so—to paint a more complete picture of our past. In the photo exhibition Dutch Masters Revisited various historical people of colour who so far have remained hidden from view are given a face. By doing so, this part of our history can become visible to all citizens of Amsterdam and the rest of the Netherlands.”
In Dutch Masters Revisited, prominent Dutch people of colour—including footballer Ruud Gullit, rapper Typhoon, comedian/presenter Jörgen Raymann, singer Berget Lewis, politician Sylvana Simons, and hospitality tycoon Won Yip—take on the role of historical Dutch citizens of colour. Photographers Humberto Tan, Ahmet Polat, Stacii Samidin, and Milette Raats portrayed their well-known sitters in the style of Rembrandt and his contemporaries, against the backdrop of special locations like the Rijksmuseum, Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, Museum van Loon, Hortus Botanicus, and the Amsterdam Museum’s own building.
The sitters have certain things in common with the individuals they portray. For example, Humberto Tan has photographed footballer Ruud Gullit in the role of Jacob Rühle (1751–1828). Jacob Rühle was the son of WIC employee and slave trader Anthony Rühle and the African woman Jaba Botri. In 1798 the fabulously wealthy Jacob moved to Amsterdam. Here, he eventually headed the family business—with great success. Like Ruhle, Ruud Gullit is the son of a white and a black parent. Dutch Masters Revisited puts a face to Rühle’s name, telling his story together with twelve other people of colour who lived in the Netherlands during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Since November 2014, the Amsterdam Museum and the Rijksmuseum have jointly presented the largest collection of group portraits in the world, in the permanent exhibition Portrait Gallery of the 17th Century at Hermitage Amsterdam. Displayed on the walls of an impressive grand hall, these group portraits of Amsterdam militiamen and regents form the heart of a presentation dealing with life in the Dutch cities and towns of the 17th century. In this setting, the thirteen photo portraits of 17th-century people of colour enter into dialogue with the group portraits, which feature exclusively white men and women.
The grand hall at the Hermitage Amsterdam, where the Amsterdam Museum’s ‘Portrait Gallery of the 17th Century’ is on display; it was formerly called the ‘Portrait Gallery of the Golden Age’ (Photo by Joel Frijhoff, via Amsterdam Museum).
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
Nina Siegal recently wrote about the installation and its larger context in the article, “A Dutch Golden Age? That’s Only Half the Story,” The New York Times (25 October 2019).
New Book | Aquatint Worlds
From Yale UP:
Douglas Fordham, Aquatint Worlds: Travel, Print, and Empire, 1770–1820 (London: The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 2019), 384 pages, ISBN: 978-1913107048, £45 / $60.
In the late 18th century, British artists embraced the medium of aquatint for its ability to produce prints with rich and varied tones that became even more stunning with the addition of color. At the same time, the expanding purview of the British empire created a market for images of far-away places. Book publishers quickly seized on these two trends and began producing travel books illustrated with aquatint prints of Indian cave temples, Chinese waterways, African villages, and more. Offering a close analysis of three exceptional publications—Thomas and William Daniell’s Oriental Scenery (1795–1808), William Alexander’s Costume of China (1797–1805), and Samuel Daniell’s African Scenery and Animals (1804–5)—this volume examines how aquatint became a preferred medium for the visual representation of cultural difference, and how it subtly shaped the direction of Western modernism.
Douglas Fordham is associate professor of art history at the University of Virginia.
Call for Submissions | Percy G. Adams Prize
From SEASACS:
Percy G. Adams Prize, SEASECS
Submissions due by 30 November 2019
The Southeastern American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (SEASECS) awards a biennial prize of $500 for the best article on an eighteenth-century subject published in a scholarly journal, annual, or collection. Eligible publications for this year must have been published between September 1, 2018 and August 31, 2019. Authors must be members of SEASECS at the time of submission. Articles may be submitted by the author or by another member. The deadline for submissions is November 30, 2019. Please send submissions as PDF files, and address any queries about the prize to the Committee Chair, Amanda Strasik, at Amanda.Strasik@eku.edu.
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