American Art, Fall 2022
The latest issue of American Art includes eight essays aimed at ‘Seeing the Survey Anew’. I was particularly intrigued with the piece by K. L. H. Wells on the Index of American Design, a WPA Federal Art Project (1936–1942) that produced thousands of illustrations documenting decorative arts before 1900; the article specifically addresses the “treatment of Shaker and Southwestern design as prime examples of how this government survey of American art helped codify White racial formation” (10). Katherine Fein’s essay is also fascinating, though now I’ve ventured into the dangerous shoals of recommendations. By all means, have a look at all of these thoughtful essays. –CH
American Art 36.3 (Fall 2022)
Commentaries: Seeing the Survey Anew
• Kirsten Pai Buick, “Seeing the Survey Anew: Introduction,” pp. 2–4.
• Jessica L. Horton, “Seeing the National Museum of the American Indian Anew as a Diplomatic Assemblage,” pp. 5–9.
• K. L. H. Wells, “Indexing Whiteness to American Design,” pp. 10–14.
• Michael Lobel, “Reframing Illustration,” pp. 15–19.
• Katherine Fein, “Picturing White Skin on Elephant Tusk,” pp. 20–23.
• Zoë Colón, “Material Absence, Relational Presence: Courtney M. Leonard and the Shinnecock Whales,” 24–27.
• Alexis Monroe, “Whiteness and the West before the Transcontinental Railroad,” pp. 28–32.
• Tanya Sheehan, “Where to Begin: Marking Race in Surveys of American Art,” pp. 33–37.
New Book | Connected Mobilities
From Amsterdam UP:
Paul Nelles and Rosa Salzberg, eds., Connected Mobilities in the Early Modern World: The Practice and Experience of Movement (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2022), 282 pages, ISBN: 978-9463729239, €122.
Connected Mobilities in the Early Modern World offers a panorama of movement, mobility, and exchange in the early modern world. While the pre-modern centuries have long been portrayed as static and self-contained, it is now acknowledged that Europe from the Middle Ages onwards saw increasing flows of people and goods. Movement also connected the continent more closely to other parts of the world. This book challenges dominant notions of the ‘fixed,’ immobile nature of pre-modern cultures through study of the inter-connected material, social, and cultural dimensions of mobility. The case studies presented here chart the technologies and practices that both facilitated and impeded movement in diverse spheres of social activity such as communication, transport, politics, religion, medicine, and architecture. The chapters underscore the importance of the movement of people and objects through space and across distance to the dynamic economic, political, and cultural life of the early modern period.
Paul Nelles is Associate Professor of early modern history at Carleton University. His research focuses on the history of books, writing, and religion in early modern Europe. His study of Jesuit communication, The Information Order: Writing, Mobility and Distance in the Making of the Society of Jesus (1540–1573), is forthcoming.
Rosa Salzberg is Associate Professor of Early Modern History, University of Trento. Her research focuses on communication, urban history and the history of migration and mobility in early modern Europe, with a focus on Venice. She is the author of Ephemeral City: Cheap Print and Urban Culture in Renaissance Venice (2014).
C O N T E N T S
Paul Nelles and Rosa Salzberg, Movement and Mobility in the Early Modern World: An Introduction
Moving Bodies
1 John Gallagher, Linguistic Encounter: Fynes Moryson and the Uses of Language
2 Gerrit Verhoeven, Wading through the Mire: Mobility on the Grand Tour, 1585–1750
3 Carolin Schmitz, Travelling for Health: Medicine and Rural Mobility in Early Modern Spain
Crossing Borders
4 Irene Fosi, Mobility and Danger on the Borders of the Papal States, 16th–17th Centuries
5 Paola Molino, News on the Road: The Mobility of Handwritten Newsletters in Early Modern Europe
6 Darka Bili., Quarantine, Mobility, and Trade: Commercial Lazzarettos in the Early Modern Adriatic
Global Networks
7 Paul Nelles, Devotion in Transit: Agnus Dei, Jesuit Missionaries, and Global Salvation in the Sixteenth Century
8 Felicita Tramontana, Getting to the Holy Land: Franciscan Journeys and Mediterranean Mobility
9 Sebouh Aslanian, From Mount Lebanon to the Little Mount in Madras: Mobility and Catholic-Armenian Alms-Collecting Networks during the 18th Century
Index
Conference | Boiseries: Decoration and Migration
From the conference website:
Boiseries: Decoration and Migration from the Eighteenth Century to the Present
Camden Place, Chislehurst (Kent), 12–13 January 2023
Organized by Lindsay Macnaughton and Laura Jenkins
This two-day conference investigates the cultural and commercial migrations of French eighteenth-century boiseries from their places of production in Paris and the Bâtiments du Roi to the drawing rooms of Britain and the United States. It will be the first major study of boiseries in the context of transatlantic cultural history and will build on the landmark studies of panelling as architectural salvage by Bruno Pons (1995, 2001) and the late John Harris (2007). The conference will bring together international experts and emerging scholars in the fields of art, architecture, history, and museums and heritage management and will form part of a programme of events marking the 150th anniversary of the death of Napoleon III at Camden Place.
Camden Place, where the conference will be held, is an English country house whose history and interiors have been shaped by the migration of people and decoration for over 300 years. Home to Chislehurst Golf Club, the Grade II* listed building features architectural elements by the British architects George Dance the Younger (1741–1825) and James ‘Athenian’ Stuart (1713–1788), and played host to the French Imperial court after the fall of the Empire in 1870. French chimney pieces, boiseries from the eighteenth-century Château de Bercy (demolished in 1862), and heavily carved oak panelling are among the elements that make up the house’s many layers, testifying both to the eclectic tastes of its nineteenth-century occupants and to the multifaceted, and multinational, histories of many English country houses.
Organised by Dr Lindsay Macnaughton (University of Buckingham) and Laura C. Jenkins (The Courtauld Institute of Art), with support from Chislehurst Golf Club, The Chislehurst Society, The University of Buckingham, and The Society for the Study of French History.
Tickets are available here. For enquiries, please contact lindsay.macnaughton@buckingham.ac.uk or laura.jenkins@courtauld.ac.uk.
T H U R S D A Y , 1 2 J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 3
10.00 Registration
10.30 Introduction by Lindsay Macnaughton
10.45 Session 1 | The Cultural Impact of French Émigrés in Britain
Moderated by Lindsay Macnaughton
• Camden Place as a Headquarters of Bonapartism, 1870–1879 — Thomas C. Jones (Senior Lecturer, The University of Buckingham)
• The French Imperial Family in Exile: The Display of Collections in Camden Place, 1870–1880 — Rebecca Walker (Independent Scholar)
• Lord Hertford’s Room from the Château de Bercy — Félix Zorzo (Curatorial Assistant, The Wallace Collection)
12.45 Lunch
1.45 Session 2 | Moving Rooms: Markets and Merchants
Moderated by Mark Westgarth
• The Valued Fragment: Georges Hoentschel as Dealer in Historic Interiors — Ulrich Leben (Independent Scholar)
• Decorating on a Grand Scale: British Professional Decorators of the Early 20th Century — Pat Wheaton (Independent Scholar)
• Saviours or Gravediggers of Panelling? Some Thoughts on the Role of Merchants — François Gilles (PhD Candidate, Université de Versailles St-Quentin-en-Yvelines)
3.45 Tea and Coffee Break
4.15 Keynote Lecture
• The Archaeology of Camden Place: An Architectural Conundrum — Lee Prosser (Curator of Historic Buildings, Historic Royal Palaces)
5.15 Closing Remarks
6.00 Drinks Reception
F R I D A Y , 1 3 J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 3
9.30 Tours of Camden Place (Registrants)
10.00 Registration
10.30 Opening Remarks by Laura Jenkins
10.45 Session 3 | Staging the Past: Boiseries and ‘Period Rooms’
Moderated by Laura Jenkins
• History of the Paneling of the State Bedroom of the Hôtel de Chevreuse et de Luynes in Paris, 1765–2014 — Frédéric Dassas (Senior Curator, Musée du Louvre)
• The ‘Roman’ Petit Salon of the Duc d’Aumont and the 18th-Century Origins of the Period Room — Gabriel Wick (Lecturer, NYU Paris)
• ‘Un Décor Authentique et Harmonieux’: Framing and Aestheticising the Cognacq-Jay Collection — Barbara Lasic (Lecturer, Sotheby’s Institute of Art)
12.45 Lunch
1.45 Session 4 | Franco-British Collectors of Boiseries
Moderated by Helen Jacobsen
• British Duc d’Aumale: The Boiseries of Orleans House, from Twickenham to Chantilly — Mathieu Deldicque (Director, Musée Condé, Château de Chantilly)
• Contextualising the Rothschild Collection of Panelling at Waddesdon Manor (provisional title) — Mia Jackson (Curator of Decorative Arts, Waddesdon Manor)
• Uncovering Identity and a Nationalist Narrative: The Imported Interiors at Harlaxton Manor — Carter Jackson (PhD Candidate, Boston University)
3.45 Tea and Coffee Break
4.15 Session 5 | Reuse and Reinterpretation
Moderated by Caroline McCaffrey-Howarth
• Past Lives: The Mona Von Bismarck House, 34 Avenue de New York, Paris — Melany Telleen (Independent Scholar)
• Boiserie Alternatives: Wallcoverings in Glass Beads, Straw, Lacquer, Porcelain, and Feathers — Maureen Cassidy-Geiger (Independent Scholar)
5.45 Closing Remarks
6.00 Tours of Camden Place (Registrants)
Michelangelo as Pan?
Joseph Vernet, detail of a sketch showing the statue of Pan (with fig leaf), by the Aurelian Walls that bounded the Villa Ludovisi to the north, 1737. From D. Cordellier, P. Rosenberg, and P. Märker, Dessins français du musée de Darmstadt (2007), 459.
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I suspect many readers will find this series of postings about a Pan sculpture from Rome’s Villa Ludovisi of interest. Whatever the status of the attribution (itself intriguing), the statue clearly was linked with Michelangelo in the eighteenth century. –CH
Hatice Köroğlu Çam, “A New Self-Portrait of Michelangelo? The Statue of Pan at the Casino dell’Aurora in Rome,” 4 parts, Archivio Digitale Boncompagni Ludovisi (2022–23).
“Part 1: Correspondences” (20 March 2022).
“Part 2: Testimonia: Sketches and Earlier Inventories” (12 September 2022).
“Part 3: Reception” (5 November 2022).
“Part 4: Physical Condition and Conservation Mandates” (5 May 2023), a good place to start as it summarizes the earlier essays.
From Part 1, at the Archivio Digitale Boncompagni Ludovisi:
Pan, attributed to Michelangelo at the Casino dell’Aurora. Collection †HSH Prince Nicolò and HSH Princess Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi, Rome (Photo by T. Corey Brennan, October 2022).
A statue of Pan, for centuries located in the garden of Rome’s Villa Ludovisi, since 1901 has stood unprotected outside the southwest wing of the Casino dell’Aurora. Traditionally attributed to Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564), and once deemed of great monetary value (4000 scudi in a 1749 Boncompagni Ludovisi inventory), it undoubtedly exhibits characteristic features of the master’s sculptural language.
Yet most surprisingly there is no detailed study focusing on this statue. The most recent treatment, that of Maria Elisa Micheli (Museo Nazionale Romane: Le Sculture I.6 I marmi Ludovisi dispersi [1986]), fills not quite a page and a half. Micheli dismisses seventeenth- and eighteenth-century attributions of the Pan to Michelangelo, considering it instead “a modern work of the late sixteenth century.”
The verdict strikes me as too hasty. After comparing the stylistic language of the Pan to that of Michelangelo in a wide range of his sculptures, paintings, and drawings, I have come to the conclusion that even if the sculpture is not by Michelangelo, it highlights many features of his style to a remarkable extent. And those attributes are recognizable even given the fact that the Pan today shows an unfortunate loss of details, especially the face—clear when comparing historic photos of the statue (from 1885) with its present state. . . .
The full posting is available here»
Hatice Köroğlu Çam studied journalism for three years with a double major in art history at Istanbul University in Turkey and then received her BA in art history at Rutgers University (2022), where she wrote her honors thesis on “Decoding Michelangelo’s Passion: Laocoön and Tityus.” She interned at the Archivio Digitale Boncompagni Ludovisi in the Spring and Summer of 2022, which made possible a visit to the Casino dell’Aurora, the home of Princess Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi, in July 2022. Hatice is currently on the staff of the museum store of the Princeton University Art Museum and plans to pursue her academic journey towards a PhD, including further research into the Pan project.
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More information about the Archivio Digitale Boncompagni Ludovisi—initiated by T. Corey Brennan (Rutgers University) while Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the American Academy in Rome (2009–12)—is available here.
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Note (added 5 May 2023) — The posting was updated to include a link to Part 4 of the series of essays.
Call for Papers | The Mutability of Collections
From ArtHist.net and the Seminar on Collecting and Display:
The Mutability of Collections: Transformation, Contextualisation, and Re-Interpretation
Seminar on Collecting and Display
Institute of Historical Research, University of London, 7–8 July 2023
Proposals due by 30 November 2022
We invite proposals for papers reflecting on the ways in which the contents of collections are not permanent but may be subject to numerous mutations. Objects in collections are added, exchanged or disposed of, translated and transformed. Items can be moved to new surroundings and different decorative settings, resulting in altered contexts of display, meaning, and significance. The history of collections is more than a history of objects brought together by acquisitive owners; it is also a history whereby collectors and owners may re-interpret an inherited or purchased collection and re-arrange and complete it in accordance to their taste.
As is well known, the Medici amassed a collection that grew, was looted, regained, distributed over palaces and villas, and finally bequeathed to Tuscany as part of Anna Maria Louisa’s family pact in 1737. Obviously, the Medici’s treasures were not the only collection with a fragmented biography and that of Rudolf II would provide another famous example.In the nineteenth century, William Beckford added new layers of interpretation as he amassed his collections from a variety of different sources. Further translations and reinterpretations ensued when the first collection was dispersed and Beckford created a new collecting environment in Bath.
This session aims to explore the various issues underlying the mutability of collections, including
• the ways in which intentionality, taste, and the periodically fluctuating finances of collectors influenced the composition and display of a collection, sometimes more than once within a collection’s biography
• the ways in which fashion may have directed a collector towards particular groups of objects, as well as their alteration according to the taste of the time
• the ways in which collections may be reinterpreted and take on new meanings according to the spaces in which they were displayed
• the different associations and meanings given to individual objects through their changing representations, displays, or associations
We invite paper proposals of no more than 250 words, investigating the mutability of early-modern collections during their creation, transfer to new locations, transformation, or re-interpretation. Please send your proposals, along with a short bio (no more than 200 words) to collecting_display@hotmail.com by 30 November 2022.
Colloquium | Historical Interiors and Digital Reconstructions
From the conference programme:
Historical Interiors and the Digital: The Possibilities and Limits of Virtual Reconstructions
Les intérieurs historiques et le numérique: possibilités et limites des reconstructions virtuelles pour la recherche
Online and in-person, Paris and Versailles, 17–18 November 2022
Colloque international organisé par Centre allemand d’histoire de l’art Paris, le Mobilier national et le Centre de recherche du château de Versailles
The virtual reconstruction of historical interiors—from architecture to wall decoration and furniture to textiles—has been a proven instrument of cultural mediation in recent years, particularly in museums, exhibitions and/or for the study of historical monuments (for instance in archaeology). Questions of spatial proportions and fundamental architectural units are today at the forefront, with emphasis often placed on the possibility of visiting these spaces virtually, either on a 2D screen or with an immersive headset.
However, when it comes to the recreation of the aesthetic characteristics of interiors, which are one of the key issues for their understanding, the possibilities of these new models seem limited. Depending largely on the harmonious interaction of different materials such as woods, metals, and textiles, as well as the structures of their respective surfaces, the nuances of colour or gold, or even the traces of artisanship, the existing solutions in rendering the materiality of an historic interior remain insufficient, both aesthetically and scientifically. The hope to swiftly overcome the excessively sanitized surfaces of digital models, expressed in 2013 (Kohle 2013, p. 166), has not yet come to fruition. Nevertheless, there is more to it than that, as the possibilities of using virtual reconstruction effectively for researching historical interiors—for example, through the virtual insertion of materials that are no longer ethically justifiable or prohibited today—are not fully exploited.
Focusing on the possibilities and limits of virtual reconstructions of historical interiors, of which questions of materiality are only one aspect, this conference highlights the fundamental issues that occupy current research. To attend in person or online on Wednesday, November 16 and Thursday, November 17, please email interieursetnumerique@dfk-paris.org. To attend the day on Friday, November 18 at Versailles (in person or online), registration is compulsory and free here.
W E D N E S D A Y , 1 6 N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 2
Centre allemand d’histoire de l’art Paris, salle Julius Meier-Graefe
18.30 Conférence inaugurale et discussion
Realism or Believability? The Production of Sensation in Animated Films – Bill Kinder, Boxcar Pictures, Berkeley/Paris
T H U R S D A Y , 1 7 N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 2
Centre allemand d’histoire de l’art Paris, salle Julius Meier-Graefe
9.30 Accueil par Peter Geimer, Directeur du Centre allemand d’histoire de l’art Paris
9.45 Présentation du colloque par les organisateurs
10.00 Études de cas et questions de recherche (1)
Modération : Muriel Barbier, Conservateur en chef du patrimoine, Mobilier national
• Digitally Recreating Lost Eighteenth-Century Irish Interiors: Challenges and Opportunities – Andrew Tierney, Department of the History of Art and Architecture, Trinity College Dublin
• De l’outil scientifique à l’« expérience de visite », le numérique à l’épreuve des enjeux de la restauration des appartements des ducs de Lorraine au château de Lunéville – Thierry Franz, Musée du château de Lunéville
• Restituer les palais impériaux napoléoniens : un défi technique et historique – Philippe Le Pareux, lycée de Valognes (Manche)
• ExploVision présente la première plateforme de consultation et d’échange autour du mobilier patrimonial – Philippe Dechenaux, Explovision
14.15 Galeries et artisanat
• La reconstitution 3D des galeries d’exposition du Garde-Meuble de la Couronne : enjeux, difficultés et compréhension d’un espace disparu – Gatien Wierez, CREHS Université d’Artois
• The Virtual Museum: Digital Reconstructions of the Kongl. Museum at the Royal Palace in Stockholm – Johan Eriksson, Department of Art History, Uppsala Universitet
• Réflexions autour de la galerie disparue de l’hôtel de Noailles à Saint-Germain-en-Laye – François Gilles, UVSQ/ENS Cachan, with Paul Feytis; Louis-Joseph Lamborot; Gabriel Wick
F R I D A Y , 1 8 N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 2
Centre de recherche du château de Versailles, Auditorium, aile Dufour
9.00 Accueil par Mathieu da Vinha, Directeur scientifique du G.I.P. Centre de recherche du château de Versailles
9.15 Autres approches et apports de la 3D
Modération : Benjamin Ringot, G.I.P. Centre de recherche du château de Versailles
• Augmented Reconstruction: On Introducing a Novel Reconstruction Method for Simulating Material and Materiality Using Mixed Realities – Clemens Brünenberg, TU Darmstadt, Department of Architecture, Institute of Classical Archaeology
• Au-delà de l’illustration. Quand des étudiants de licence apportent une contribution à la recherche – Nicolas Priniotakis, Cergy-Paris Université
11.00 Études de cas et questions de recherche (2)
Modération : Benjamin Ringot, G.I.P. Centre de recherche du château de Versailles puis Michel Jordan, laboratoire ETIS – CY Cergy Paris Université / ENSEA / CNRS
• Florence4D – Fabrizio Nevola, Chair of Art History and Visual Culture, University of Exeter
• Reconstitution 3D d’espaces intérieurs de trois domaines royaux : Versailles, Marly, Choisy – Hubert Naudeix, Aristeas
• Reconstitution d’un séjour d’Auguste le Fort à Moritzburg à l’hiver 1728 – Edouard Lussa, Histovery
15.15 Au-delà de la reconstitution 3D
Modération : Michel Jordan, laboratoire ETIS – CY Cergy Paris Université / ENSEA / CNRS
• Experimental Virtual Archaeological-Acoustics: Bringing together Physical, Computer, and Social Science Researchers – Brian Katz, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, UMR 7190
• Sacred Sound / Sacred Space: In Search of Lost Sound, Virtual Acoustic-Visual Reconstruction of Sacred Spaces of the Middle Ages – Stefan Morent, Department of the Institute of Musicology, University of Tübingen
• Reproduire l’histoire: Multi-Sensory Reconstructions of Historical Interiors for Virtual Reality – James Hutson and Trenton Olsen, Lindenwood University, Missouri
17.45 Conclusions
New Book | Architectural Type and Character
From Routledge:
Samir Younés and Carroll William Westfall, Architectural Type and Character: A Practical Guide to a History of Architecture (New York: Routledge, 2022), 272 pages, ISBN: 978-1138584037 (hardback), $128 / ISBN: 978-1138584051 (paperback), $36.
Architectural Type and Character provides an alternative perspective to the current role given to history in architecture, reunifying architectural history and architectural design to reform architectural discourse and practice. Historians provide important material for appreciating buildings and guiding those who produce them. In current histories, a building is the product of a time, its form follows its function, irresistible influences produce it, and style, preferably novel, is its most important attribute. This book argues for an alternative. Through a two-part structure, the book first develops the theoretical foundations for this alternative history of architecture. The second part then provides drawings and interpretations of over one hundred sites from different times and places.
Samir Younes is Professor of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame where he was Director of Rome Studies and Director of Graduate Studies. He teaches architectural design and theory. His books include: The Imperfect City: On Architectural Judgement; Architects and Mimetic Rivalry; The Intellectual Life of the Architect; and Quatremère de Quincy’s Historical Dictionary of Architecture: The True, The Fictive, and The Real.
Carroll William Westfall’s PhD in the history of architecture from Columbia University was followed by five decades of teaching before retiring from the University of Notre Dame. His scholarly and general articles run from studies of Pompeii to critiques of current practice. His books are In This Most Perfect Paradise, a study of Rome in the 15th century; Architectural Principles in the Age of Historicism, a dialectic exchange with Robert Jan van Pelt; and Architecture, Liberty, and Civic Order: Architectural Theories from Vitruvius to Jefferson and Beyond, a review of architectural theory.
C O N T E N T S
List of Illustrations
Preamble
Introduction
Part I
1 The History of Architecture We Have
2 The Alternative: Type, Character, and Style
3 Urbanism
4 The Components and Types of Good Urban Form
Part II
5 The Tholos
6 The Temple
7 The Theatre
8 The Regia
9 The Dwelling
10 The Shop
11 The Hypostyle
Call for Articles | Race and Architecture in the Iberian World
From ArtHist.net:
Race and Architecture in the Iberian World, ca. 1500–1800s
Special Issue of Arts (2023), guest edited by Cody Barteet and Luis Gordo Peláez
Proposals due by 15 December 2022; finished articles due by 1 June 2023
In the field of art history, previous scholarship has addressed (and continues to address) the contribution of Indigenous, Black, Asian, and mixed-raced artists to the early modern visual culture in the Atlantic world. Frequently scholars are interested in documenting race and its enduring legacy through a variety of cultural artifacts such as paintings, sculptures, manuscripts, featherworks, metalwork, etc. However, much less attention has been given to architectural history, and particularly that of the early modern Iberian world.
Recently, Irene Cheng, Charles L. Davis II, and Mabel O. Wilson edited a ground-breaking volume titled Race and Modern Architecture (2020). Their publication provides an important collection of essays that discuss how the discipline of architectural history has been shaped by racial thought. Likewise, the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians dedicated a short roundtable-style conversation on the subject of race and architecture in the 1400s through the 1800s (Carey, Dudley, Escobar, et. al. 2021). Each short paper considers the role of race in architecture and implores other scholars to investigate this understudied topic. This special issue of Arts is a response to this scholarly call to engagement. Specifically, we will explore the intersection of race, labor, and architectural history and their interconnectivity with the architecture and its accompanying artistic forms in the early modern Iberian world. We do so through considering how race and architecture are activated through construction projects, the building trades, the history of labor, and in plans, pictorial, and print representations, etc., in the vast territories (European, American, African, Asian) that comprised the Spanish and Portuguese empires.
We invite contributors to submit their research in English for consideration. Please note that there is a two-stage submission procedure. We will first collect a title and short abstract (maximum 250 words), five keywords, and a short bio (150 words), by 15 December 2022, via email to Dr. Cody Barteet (cbarteet@uwo.ca) and Dr. Luis Gordo Peláez (luisgordopelaez@csufresno.edu) or Dora Wang from Arts Editorial Office (dora.wang@mdpi.com). Selected abstracts will be invited to submit papers of 7000–9000 words for peer review by 1 June 2023. Journal publication is expected to occur from late spring through fall 2023, depending on the revision time needed after peer review. Each article will be published open access, on a rolling basis after successfully passing peer review.
Guest Editors
Cody Barteet, cbarteet@uwo.ca
Luis Gordo Peláez, luisgordopelaez@csufresno.edu
Special Issue Editor
Dora Wang, dora.wang@mdpi.com
Mark Hallett Departs the Mellon Centre to Lead the Courtauld
From the PMC announcement (11 November 2022) . . .
The Paul Mellon Centre’s Director, Mark Hallett, will be stepping down after more than a decade in post to take up a new role next year as the Märit Rausing Director of the Courtauld Institute of Art.
During his time as Director, Hallett has overseen a major expansion and diversification of the London-based Centre, which is part of Yale University, and a partner of the Yale Center for British Art at New Haven. Under his leadership, the Centre has become celebrated for its support of world-class research on all periods and aspects of British art and architecture, understood in their broadest global contexts. Over the past ten years, the Centre has not only dramatically extended its scholarly reach, but also tripled in size. It has enthusiastically embraced the benefits of online publication and communication, and wholeheartedly committed itself to diversifying the field of British art studies. Over this same period, the Centre has also developed a highly ambitious series of research, teaching, learning, and networking initiatives, all of which have been designed to promote the very best scholarship on British art and architecture, to share knowledge and expertise, and to widen the Centre’s audiences.
Mark Hallett said: ‘’It has been a great honour to have led the Centre over the last decade. During that time, I have worked with a brilliant team of colleagues, both in London and in New Haven, to make the PMC a vital, vibrant, and expansive centre for the study of British art. Today, the Centre is in wonderful shape, and I know it will continue to thrive and develop. At the Courtauld, I look forward to building on the remarkable legacy of the current Märit Rausing Director, Professor Deborah Swallow, and to working with similarly world-class academics, curators, students, and supporters in helping the Courtauld write a new and exciting chapter in its history.’’
Susan Gibbons, Vice Provost for Collections and Scholarly Communication, Yale University, and ex-officio Chief Executive of the Paul Mellon Centre, said: ‘’The transformation of the Centre under Mark’s leadership has been remarkable. He has opened the doors of the Centre wide, not only to London, but to the world, while carefully sustaining the high quality research and scholarship that has been the hallmark of the organization. From the launch of British Art Studies and the British Art in Motion undergraduate film competition, to the formation of networks for researchers and practitioners, to broadening fellowship and grant opportunities, Mark has truly championed new ways to understand and engage with British art history.”
At Bonhams | Fine Clocks
The Old Rectory, in the village of Chilton Foliat, a Queen Anne style home, most of which dates to the mid eighteenth century. It’s located at the West Berkshire/Wiltshire border, two miles north of Hungerford. In May it was, as noted by Country Life, listed for £5.95 million.
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Press release from Bonhams:
Fine Clocks Sale
Bonhams, London, 30 November 2022
The Old Rectory, Chilton Foliat Sale
Bonhams, London, 6 December 2022
Two exquisite timepieces by the father of English clockmaking, Thomas Tompion (1639–1713) from the Elliot Collection of fine English clocks feature in Bonhams Fine Clocks Sale in London on Wednesday, 30 November 2022. The collection also includes an important late 17th-century ebony veneered longcase clock of three-month duration by another great clockmaker of the golden age, Joseph Knibb (1640–1711). In addition to these masterpieces of timekeeping, Old Master pictures, 19th-century paintings, and classic English decorative arts from Alan and Tara Elliot’s historic country home are to be offered in a separate sale—The Old Rectory, Chilton Foliat—at Bonhams on Tuesday, 6 December.
Thomas Tompion and Edward Banger, Type 3 Burr Walnut Longcase Clock, London, no. 463, ca. 1707
Tompion’s ebony table clock numbered 198, was made in around 1692, and embodies all that Tompion owners cherish (estimate: £200,000–300,000). The tall rectangular dial with its twin subsidiaries allows the crucial functions (time, winding, date, strike or silent) to be controlled from the front of the clock—an example of perfect industrial design. The exquisitely engraved backplate was created by the craftsman known today only as ‘Engraver 155’. 155’s confident and free engraving is of the highest order. He was responsible for the backplate of the year-going ‘Mostyn Tompion’ in the British Museum and decorated the miniature clock supplied to Queen Mary in 1693, which sold at Bonhams in 2019 for a record price of £1.6 million.
Knibb’s ebony veneered longcase clock of three-month duration with Roman-striking and one-and-a-quarter second pendulum is perhaps the most beguiling clock in the collection (estimate: £120,000–180,000). Knibb had an irrepressibly inquisitive brain and was obsessed by saving power in his clocks’ movements. An ordinary longcase clock hammer strikes its bell 156 times a day; Knibb realised that this was a massive drain on the power of the mechanism and sought different ways to sound the hours. His pièce de résistance was the development of the Roman striking system—as exemplified by this clock—whereby a deep bell represents the numeral 5, while a higher pitched bell represents 1. While one o’clock is marked by a single high hammer blow, five o’clock is a single low blow. Six o’clock, therefore, is one low blow followed by one high blow. This ingenious system saves 96 hammer strikes a day. Over the three months that the Elliot clock runs, 9,216 hammer blows are saved. Although inspired, the system never met with popularity, and it is rare to find a Roman striking clock today. They can always be spotted from a distance however, as the numeral 4 is denoted as IV instead of IIII.
The sale also includes an early 20th-century mahogany two-day marine chronometer by Victor Kullberg used by Ernest Shackleton in 1921, likely as part of the Quest expedition to Antarctica in 1921–22 (estimate: £1,500–2,500). Originally conceived as an Arctic voyage to travel north of Alaska, a last-minute loss of funding meant that the expedition could not go ahead. The entire cost of a replacement voyage was offered by John Quiller Rowett, who had agreed to partially fund the Arctic voyage, on condition that it be south bound to the Antarctic. The chronometer was collected by Shackleton from Greenwich on 21 July 1921, and the voyage began on 17 September of that year. Shackleton was unwell on board the Quest, and unfortunately, by the time the ship reached South Georgia, he was quite ill. He died of a heart attack shortly after arriving on 5 January 1922.
James Stratton, Bonhams Director of Clocks, said: “To own a clock by Thomas Tompion is every clock collector’s dream. Alan Elliot, who put together the wonderful collection we are offering in this sale, was fortunate enough to have two in his stewardship, as well as an important longcase clock by Joseph Knibb. Other Elliot clocks include a lantern clock from 1685 and a table clock by Langley Bradley, the man who made the first clock for St Paul’s Cathedral. Elsewhere in the sale, the marine chronometer taken by Sir Ernest Shackleton to the Antarctic on the Quest expedition is a timely reminder of a true British hero, the centenary of whose death we are marking this year.”
Other highlights include:
• A fine and rare early 18th-century walnut longcase clock by Thomas Tompion and Edward Banger, London, no. 463. This second of Alan Elliot’s Tompion clocks is particularly interesting as it was made when Tompion was in a brief partnership with his niece’s husband, Edward Banger. Estimate: £100,000–200,000.
• An 18th-century walnut striking longcase clock of one month duration by George Graham, London no. 590. Estimate: £30,000–50,000.
• A late 17th-century ebony veneered quarter-repeating timepiece by Langley Bradley, London. It is likely that this clock was used in a bedroom as it doesn’t strike the hours every hour. Anyone waking up in the night and wanting to know the time could pull a cord on the side to sound the hour and the quarters past the hour. This would have been invaluable before the advent of electricity or matches to light a candle. Estimate: £5,000–8,000.
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