Conference | The Secularization of Religious Assets

Posted in conferences (to attend) by Editor on November 19, 2024

From ArtHist.net and the Centre André-Chastel:

The Secularization of Religious Assets in Enlightenment Europe: Urban Development, Architecture, and Art Works
La sécularisation des établissements religieux dans l’Europe des lumières: Ville, architecture et œuvres d’art
Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art, Paris, 27 November 2024

Organized by Ronan Bouttier, Gernot Mayer, and Raluca Muresan

The suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773 marks the last step of the Order’s progressive dissolution initiated fifteen years earlier, in Europe and in its colonies. This act of suppression was the culmination of a broader secularisation movement concerning religious congregations across Europe, from the 1760s to the French Revolution. In most cases, the State intended to take over the management of properties belonging to religious congregations described as useless for the common interest. Whether driven by reformatory or by economic interests, all acts of suppression and secularisation had the same consequences: a large number of movable assets and real property, estates and art works were either reallocated to other religious congregations or put on sale, when not confiscated altogether.

p r o g r a m m e

9.00 Welcome of participants

9.15 Welcoming address

9.30 Introduction by the organizers

10.00 Confiscation Procedures
Chair: Raluca Muresan (Sorbonne Université, Paris)
• Paola Benussi (Archivio di Stato, Venise), La sécularisation des patrimoines ecclésiastiques dans les régions « d‘outre-mer » de la République de Venise
• Raffaele Marronne (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pise), ‘Volle entrare per tutte le sagrestie’: The Dispersion of the Artistic Heritage of the Lay Confraternities of Siena following the Leopoldine Suppressions (1785)
• Etienne Couriol (LARHRA, Université Lyon 3), Ce que dit la presse périodique lyonnaise et bordelaise de la vente des biens des Jésuites

11.30 Pause

12.00 Sécularisation et développement urbain / Secularization and Urban Development
Chair: Ronan Bouttier (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)
• Richard Biegel (Université Charles, Prague), Les transformations des édifices sacrés de Prague au siècle des Lumières et leurs conséquences urbaines
• Pierre Coffy (Univ. Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne/Univ. Statale di Milano), Préparer le terrain pour l’essor de la «ville moderne»: Suppression et réemploi des biens religieux dans le Milan des Habsbourg d’Autriche

13.00 Lunch break

14.30 Sécularisations, remplois et dispersions / Secularization, Reuse, and Dispersal
Chair: Gernot Mayer (Université de Vienne)
• Alberto Garin (Universidad Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala), Le couvent des Jésuites de la Antigua Guatemala
• Katia Martignago (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Naples), The Venetian Jesuits’ Convent after 1773
• Sylvia Stegbauer (Belvedere Research Center, Vienne), Architectural Properties of the Marian Congregations in Transition
• Márta Velladics (Université Eötvös Loránd, Budapest), Success or Failure? The Utilisation of the Abolished Monasteries in Hungary between 1782 and 1802

17.00 Final Discussion
• Emilie d‘Orgeix (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris)
• Jean-Philippe Garric (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)
• Olga Medvedkova (CNRS, Centre André Chastel, Paris)

18.00 Thanks from the organizers

Organizers
• Ronan Bouttier, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
• Gernot Mayer, Universität Wien, Vienne
• Raluca Muresan, Sorbonne Université, Paris

Scientific Committee
• Jean-Philippe Garric, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
• Richard Kurdiovsky, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienne
• Olga Medvedkova, CNRS, Centre André Chastel, Paris
• Émilie d’Orgeix, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris