New Book | Dangerous to Show: Byron and His Portraits
Distributed in the US and Canada by The University of Chicago Press:
Geoffrey Bond and Christine Kenyon Jones, Dangerous to Show: Byron and His Portraits (London: Unicorn Publishing Group, 2020), 160 pages, ISBN: 978-1912690718, £25 / $38.
“Don’t look at him. He is dangerous to look at,” said Lady Liddell to her daughter in 1817. Handsome, charismatic, aristocratic, and allegedly “mad, bad and dangerous to know,” Lord Byron (1788–1824) is one of the most captivating and recognizable figures of the Romantic Age. His face, figure, and appearance added to the appeal of his poetry, and the close association of the man with his poetic creations encouraged a wide range of artists to create portraits during his lifetime and to memorialize him after his heroic death in Greece.
The first work on the subjects of the portraits of the poet, and written by two authorities on the subject, Dangerous to Show explores Byron’s life through the intriguing stories behind one hundred of these images. Reproduced in color for the first time, we can explore the key paintings, miniatures, sculptures, drawings, and sketches, along with a selection of prints, cartoons, engravings, and other representations of the artist. The book uses Byron’s own wit with words to recount his attempts to manage his own image through the way he was presented in his portraits, as well as through fashion, weight control, and the disguise of his lameness.
Christine Kenyon Jones is a writer and lecturer, and an expert on Lord Byron and the Romantic period. She has been published widely on Byron’s image and his portraiture; on his politics and his pronunciation; on his disability and his dieting; on his relationship with his publisher John Murray, his religious background and his afterlife as a science-fiction character. Her book Kindred Brutes is a study of animals in the Romantic period, in which Byron figures largely. She has also written, lectured and broadcast widely about the Regency period and Jane Austen. She is a Research Fellow in the Department of English at King’s College London.
Geoffrey Bond is a polymath, having had careers as a solicitor, businessman, and broadcaster. His special interests now are the creation and promotion of education initiatives for young people in the heritage, law and engineering sectors. He has written and lectured on heritage matters and chaired a variety of heritage organisations at regional and national level. A collector and antiquarian, living in an historic house, he is a Fellow and former member of the council of the Antiquaries Society of London. He has one of the best collections of Byron first editions and Byron memorabilia in the country.
Call for Papers | Discovering Dalmatia VII, Travel Stories
From the Call for Papers for this conference, envisioned to include both in-person and online components:
Discovering Dalmatia VII — Travel Stories: The Grand Tour, Travellers, Itineraries, Travelogues
The Institute of Art History – The Cvito Fisković Centre in Split, 9–11 December 2021
Abstracts due by 15 July 2021
A call for papers for an international conference organized as part of a week of events in scholarship and research
Over the course of time, the aims of the journeys discussed in travel writing underwent numerous changes. This, in turn, had an impact on the creation of travel itineraries. At times, the factors driving these changes were the dominant layers of a history that travellers wished to read in a particular space, such as that of antiquity or the Middle Ages. At others, itineraries were shaped by the limits of the journeys undertaken, which over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries gradually extended ever further towards the East. Between the eastern and the western portions of the Grand Tour itinerary lies Dalmatia, a historical region through which—due to centuries of Venetian-Ottoman wars—the border between the eastern and western worlds ran. The spatial features that had a strong pull on travellers to Dalmatia, drawing them to this region to capture it in words and images, frequently remained the same; nevertheless, travellers recognised and uncovered new layers of interest within them.
The Grand Tour in Dalmatia is the central theme of this conference, but it is not the only one. In addition to inviting researchers working on travel writing, travel itineraries, and travelogues that shed light on the role that Dalmatia played as a destination for study trips, we also invite all those working on the topics of travellers-researchers and study trip itineraries. We also invite researchers undertaking comparative studies that consider various records of a particular space through a range of different media. Finally, this call for papers is also open to those working on the development of digital research tools and resources for travelogues, as well as the visualization of study trip itineraries.
We therefore invite professionals of various backgrounds, whose research addresses the topics this conference covers, to send a 250-word abstract (for a 20-minute paper) and a short CV, both in English, to discoveringdalmatia@gmail.com. The closing date is 15 July 2021.
In the light of current uncertainties, we plan to host the conference both live in Split and via online platforms to facilitate international participation. Registration will take place on the evening of the 8th of December, the closing address will take place on the 11th of December, and the hosts will organise coffee and refreshments for the conference participants during breaks. No participation fee will be charged for this conference. The organisers do not cover travel and accommodation costs. The organisers can help participants to find reasonably-priced accommodation in the historical city centre. The duration of a spoken contribution should not exceed 20 minutes. Contributions will be divided into sections according to topics. Each section will be followed by a discussion. We propose to publish a collection of papers from the conference.
Scientific Committee
• Joško Belamarić (Institute of Art History – Cvito Fisković Centre Split)
• Katrina O’Loughlin (Brunel University London)
• Ana Šverko (Institute of Art History – Cvito Fisković Centre Split)
• Colin Thom (The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London)
• Elke Katharina Wittich (Leibniz Universität Hannover)
Organizing Committee
• Joško Belamarić (Institute of Art History – Cvito Fisković Centre Split)
• Ana Ćurić (Institute of Art History)
• Matko Matija Marušić (Independent Researcher)
• Sarah Rengel (Independent Researcher)
• Ana Šverko (Institute of Art History – Cvito Fisković Centre Split)
Enfilade 
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