Conference | The Future of the Antique
From Eventbrite:
The Future of the Antique: Interpreting the Sculptural Canon
Institute of Classical Studies, Senate House and Warburg Institute, London, 10–12 December 2025
Organized by Adriano Aymonino and Kathleen Christian
Celebrating the publication of the new, expanded edition of Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny’s seminal Taste and the Antique (3 vols, Harvey Miller/Brepols, 2024), this conference explores the interpretation and reception of classical sculpture.
The original edition of Taste and the Antique was a landmark study that established a canonical list of ninety-five ancient sculptures that were widely admired, collected, and copied between 1500 and 1900. It traced how these works—from the Apollo Belvedere to the Laocoön—shaped artistic taste, collecting practices, and artistic discourse by defining a classical aesthetic and pedagogy. As one of the most influential texts in the history of art history, Taste and the Antique has profoundly shaped scholarship and curatorial practice on the reception of ancient sculpture. The revised three-volume edition of 2024 substantially updates the original text with recent research. It broadens the discussion of the reception of the classical canon, incorporates decades of intervening scholarship, and brings the conversation into the realm of contemporary art, opening new perspectives on the afterlives of Greek and Roman sculpture. Taking the new edition as a point of departure, the conference assesses the state of the field, explores emerging methodologies, and considers future directions. It aims to foster dialogue across generations, traditions, and methodologies of scholarship.
Sessions will address how classical statues shaped visual culture beyond replication, including:
• Shaping and Transmitting the Canon | Examining the establishment, radical alteration, and dissolution of the sculptural canon in the early modern era.
• The Canon and the Body in the Age of Empire | Exploring the role of classical statuary in the conception of ‘proportionate’ and ‘disproportionate’ bodies, in the representation of non-European populations, and in colonial educational and social policies.
• Restoration and Display | Considering reconfigurations of the antique and notions of authenticity; situating the antique within modern museum contexts.
• Changing and Rethinking Canons | Rethinking the antique within modern and postmodern theoretical frameworks and practices.
The conference is organised by Adriano Aymonino (University of Buckingham) and Kathleen Christian (Census of Antique Works of Art and Architecture Known in the Renaissance, Humboldt University of Berlin). It is supported by Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; Center for Palladian Studies in America; Trinity Fine Art; and Istituto Italiano di Cultura.
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6.00 Doors open
6.20 Introduction — Katherine Harloe (Director, Institute of Classical Studies)
6.30 Keynote
• Salvatore Settis (Accademico dei Lincei) — Only Connect: Dionysus and Christ
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10:00 Registration
10.30 Introduction — Adriano Aymonino (The University of Buckingham) and Kathleen Christian(Census-Humboldt University of Berlin)
10.45 Session 1 | Shaping and Transmitting the Canon
Chair: Katherine Harloe (Institute of Classical Studies)
• An Antiquity of Plants and Animals? Towards a Non-Human Canon — Katharina Bedenbender (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
• Piranesi and the Classical Body — Clare Hornsby(British School at Rome)
• Art, Historiography, and Connoisseurship: The Specimens of Antient Sculpture (1809) — Vivien Bird (The University of Buckingham)
12.00 Lunch break
2.00 Session 2 | The Canon and the Body in the Age of Empire
Chair: Caroline Vout (University of Cambridge)
• Living Antiquities? Anthropological/Travel Imagery and the Sculptural Canon in the Late Eighteenth Century — Annette Kranen (Universität Bern)
• The Bodies of Gods: Drawing from the Antique in Colonial India — Eva Ehninger (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
• A Black Apollo? John Quincy Adams Ward’s The Freedman and the Belvedere Torso — Anna Degler (Freie Universität Berlin)
• Between Plaster and Stone: Reframing the Classical Canon in Bourbon New Spain — Rebecca Yuste (Columbia University)
3.35 Tea and coffee break
4.05 Introducing the Updated Census — Kathleen Christian(Census-Humboldt University of Berlin)
4.25 Introducing the New Edition of Haskell and Penny, Taste and the Antique — Adriano Aymonino (University of Buckingham) and Eloisa Dodero (Capitoline Museums, Rome)
5.00 Keynote Introduction — Bill Sherman (Director, Warburg Institute)
5.10 Keynote
• The Invention of the Classical — Nicholas Penny (Former Director of the National Gallery, London)
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Warburg Institute – Auditorium
10.00 Registration
10.30 Introduction — Adriano Aymonino (The University of Buckingham) and Kathleen Christian (Census-Humboldt University of Berlin)
10.45 Session 3 | Restoration and Display
Chair: Chiara Piva (Sapienza Università di Roma)
• Zooming In: The Social Lives of Statues — Jeffrey Collins (Bard Graduate Center)
• Zooming Out: Restoration as Taste — Elizabeth Bartman (Former President of the Archaeological Institute of America)
• Restoration, De- and Re-restoration of Ancient Sculptures in the Munich Glyptothek, Nineteenth to Twenty-First Century — Astrid Fendt (Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart)
11.45 Tea and coffee break
12.15 Session 3 | Restoration and Display, continued
• The Braccio Nuovo in the Vatican Museums: Display and Restorations of the Antique in the Nineteenth Century — Eleonora Ferrazza (Vatican Museums) and Claudia Valeri (Vatican Museums)
• Revealing Restorations: Assessing the Presentation and Reception of Restored Roman Sculptures from the Torlonia Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago — Lisa Ayla Çakmak (Art Institute of Chicago) and Katharine A. Raff (Art Institute of Chicago)
1.30 Lunch break
3.00 Session 4 | Changing and Rethinking Canons
Chair: Flora Dennis (Warburg Institute)
• The Head of an Etruscan: Alternative Antiquities and the Physiognomies of Modern Sculpture — Joanna Fiduccia (Yale University)
• The Fragmented Marble Body: Surrealism, Political Phantoms, and the Canon Recast — Domiziana Serrano (Université Jean Monnet -Saint-Étienne)
• From the Cortile to the Cosmos: Interpreting the Sculptural Canon in the Context of US Space Travel — Tilman Schreiber (Friedrich Schiller University Jena)
4.15 Tea and coffee break
4.45 Closing Paper | Historiographic Perspectives on the Canon
• Fear Revealed: Jacob Burckhardt on Classical Anthropomorphism and Demonic Hybridity — Mateusz Kapustka (Freie Universität Berlin – Zurich)
5.05 Final Remarks
Exhibition | Turner & Constable
Opening soon at Tate Britain:
Turner & Constable: Rivals and Originals
Tate Britain, London, 27 November 2025 — 12 April 2026
Curated by Amy Concannon, with Nicole Cochrane and Bethany Husband
The definitive exhibition of two pivotal British artists in the 250th year of their births
Two of Britain’s greatest painters, J.M.W. Turner and John Constable were also the greatest of rivals. Born within a year of each other—Turner in 1775, Constable in 1776—the art critics of the day compared their paintings to a clash of ‘fire and water’.
Raised in the gritty heart of Georgian London, Turner quickly became a young star of the art world despite his humble beginnings. Meanwhile Constable, the son of a wealthy Suffolk merchant, was equally determined to forge his own path as an artist but faced a longer, more arduous rise to acclaim. Though from different worlds, both artists were united in their desire to transform landscape painting for the better.
With the two painters vying for success through very different but equally bold approaches, the scene was soon set for a heady rivalry within the competitive world of landscape art. Turner painted blazing sunsets and sublime scenes from his travels, while Constable often returned to depictions of a handful of beloved places, striving for freshness and authenticity in his portrayal of nature.
Marking 250 years since their births, this landmark exhibition explores Turner and Constable’s intertwined lives and legacies. Discover unexpected sides to both artists alongside intimate insights seen through sketchbooks and personal items. Experience many of the artists’ greatest works, with over 170 paintings and works on paper. Highlights include Turner’s momentous 1835 The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, not seen in Britain for over a century and The White Horse 1819, one of Constable’s greatest artistic achievements. This is a one in a lifetime opportunity to explore the careers of the two greatest British landscape painters, seen—as they often were in their own time—side by side.
Amy Concannon, ed., Turner and Constable: Rivals and Originals (London: Tate Publishing, 2025), 240 pages, ISBN: 978-1849769853, £32. With additional contributions from Thomas Ardill, Nicole Cochrane, Sarah Gould, Katharine Martin, Nicola Moorby, Nick Robbins, Emma Roodhouse, and Joyce Townsend.
New Book | Turner & Constable: Art, Life, Landscape
From Yale UP (with a paperback edition scheduled for publication in January) . . .
Nicola Moorby, Turner and Constable: Art, Life, Landscape (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2025), 352 pages, ISBN: 978-0300266481, $35.
Born just fourteen months apart, one in London and the other in rural Suffolk, J.M.W. Turner and John Constable went on to change the face of British art. The two men have routinely been seen as polar opposites, not least by their peers. Differing in temperament, background, beliefs, and vision, they created images as dissimilar as their personalities.
Yet in many ways they were fellow travellers. As children of the late eighteenth century, both faced the same challenges and opportunities. Above all, they shared common cause as champions of a distinctively British art. Through their work, they fought for the recognition and appreciation of landscape painting—and in doing so ensured their reputations were forever intertwined and interlinked. Nicola Moorby offers us a fresh perspective on two extraordinary artists, uncovering the layers of fiction that have embellished and disguised their greatest achievements. For Turner & Constable is not just a tale of two artists; it is also the story of the triumph of landscape painting.
Nicola Moorby is an independent art historian and curator specialising in British art of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, particularly J.M.W. Turner, British watercolour, and early British modernism.
New Book | Patriots Before Revolution
From Yale UP:
Amy Watson, Patriots Before Revolution: The Rise of Party Politics in the British Atlantic, 1714–1763 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2025), 344 pages, ISBN: 978-0300263213, $65. Series: The Lewis Walpole Series in Eighteenth-Century Culture and History
A new history of the Patriot movement before the American Revolution, tracing its origins to reform movements in British politics
The American revolutionaries—George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John and Abigail Adams—called themselves Patriots. But what exactly did it mean to be a Patriot? Historian Amy Watson locates the origins of Patriotism in British politics of the early eighteenth century, showing that the label ‘Patriot’ was first adopted by a network of British politicians with radical ideas about the principles and purpose of the British Empire. The early Patriots’ ideological mission was not American independence but, rather, imperial reform: Patriots sought to create a British Empire that was militant, expansionist, confederal, and free.
Over the course of the next half century, these British reformers used print media and grassroots mobilization efforts to build an empire-wide political party with adherents in London, Edinburgh, New York City, and the new colony of Georgia. While building this party, the Patriots’ advocacy drew Britons into a series of violent political conflicts over taxes and civil liberty, as well as three expansive global wars, the War of Jenkins’ Ear (1739–48), the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48), and the Seven Years’ War (1756–63). Patriot ideas and organizations came to divide Britons on increasingly sharp political lines, laying the groundwork for the revolutionary decades to come.
Amy Watson is assistant professor of history at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
New Book | The Zorg
Reviewing the book for The New York Times, Marcus Rediker highlights successes—broadly describing it as “a model of sophisticated research, lucid writing and engaged conscience”—as well as moments of overreach. From Macmillan:
Siddharth Kara, The Zorg: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2025), 304 pages, ISBN: 978-1250348227, $30.
In late October 1780, a slave ship set sail from the Netherlands, bound for Africa’s Windward and Gold Coasts, where it would take on its human cargo. The Zorg (a Dutch word meaning ‘care’) was one of thousands of such ships, but the harrowing events that ensued on its doomed journey were unique. By the time its journey ends, the Zorg would become the first undeniable argument against slavery.
When a series of unpredictable weather events and navigational errors led to the Zorg sailing off course and running low on supplies, the ship’s captain threw more than a hundred slaves overboard in order to save the crew and the most valuable slaves. The ship’s owners then claimed their loss on insurance, a first for slaves who had not been killed due to insurrection or died of natural causes.
The insurers refused to pay due to the higher than usual mortality rate of the slaves on board, leading to a trial which initially found in their favor, in which the Chief Justice compared the slaves to horses. Thanks to the outrage of one man present in court that day, a retrial was held. For the first time, concepts such as human rights and morality entered the discourse on slavery in a courtroom case that boiled down to a simple yet profound question: Were the Africans on board people or cargo?
What followed was a fascinating legal drama in England’s highest court that turned the brutal calculus of slavery into front-page news. The case of the Zorg catapulted the nascent anti-slavery movement from a minor evangelical cause to one of the most consequential moral campaigns in history―sparking the abolitionist movement in both England and the young United States. The Zorg is the astonishing yet little-known true story of the most consequential ship that ever crossed the Atlantic.
Siddharth Kara is an author, researcher, and activist on modern slavery. Kara has written several books and reports on slavery and child labor, most recently the New York Times bestseller and Pulitzer Prize finalist, Cobalt Red. Kara also won the Frederick Douglass Book Prize. He has lectured at Harvard University and held a professorship at the University of Nottingham. He divides his time between Los Angeles and London.
New Book | Republic and Empire
From Yale UP:
Trevor Burnard and Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy, Republic and Empire: Crisis, Revolution, and America’s Early Independence (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2025), ISBN: 978-0300280180, $35.
A fresh look at the American Revolution as a major global event
At the time of the American Revolution (1765–83), the British Empire had colonies in India, Africa, the Caribbean, the Pacific, Canada, Ireland, and Gibraltar. The thirteen rebellious American colonies accounted for half of the total number of provinces in the British world in 1776. What of the loyal half? Why did some of Britain’s subjects feel so aggrieved that they wanted to establish a new system of government, while others did not rebel? In this authoritative history, Trevor Burnard and Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy show that understanding the long-term causes of the American Revolution requires a global view. As much as it was an event in the history of the United States, the American Revolution was an imperial event produced by the upheavals of managing a far-flung set of imperial possessions during a turbulent period of reform. By looking beyond the familiar borders of the Revolution and considering colonies that did not rebel—Quebec, Nova Scotia, Bermuda, India, the British Caribbean, Senegal, and Ireland—Burnard and O’Shaughnessy go beyond the republican, liberal, and democratic aspects of the emerging American nation, providing a broader history that transcends what we think we know about the Revolution.
Trevor Burnard (1960–2024) was Wilberforce Professor of Slavery and Emancipation at the University of Hull and director of the Wilberforce Institute. He was the author of numerous books on Caribbean plantation history and imperial history and served as editor of the Oxford Bibliography Online in Atlantic History. Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy is professor of history at the University of Virginia. His books include An Empire Divided: The American Revolution and the British Caribbean and the prizewinning The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire.
Documentary | The American Revolution
The series premiers Sunday evening. Jill Lepore addresses it within the larger context of institutions celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Revolution, “Revolutionary Whiplash: Commemorating a Nation’s Founding in a Time of Fear and Foreboding,” The New Yorker (17 November 2025), pp. 14–18. . . . .
The American Revolution: A Film by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein, and David Schmidt, 12 hours, PBS, 2025. With Claire Danes, Hugh Dancy, Josh Brolin, Kenneth Branagh, and Liev Schreiber.
The American Revolution examines how America’s founding turned the world upside-down. Thirteen British colonies on the Atlantic Coast rose in rebellion, won their independence, and established a new form of government that radically reshaped the continent and inspired centuries of democratic movements around the globe.
An expansive look at the virtues and contradictions of the war and the birth of the United States of America, the film follows dozens of figures from a wide variety of backgrounds. Through their individual stories, viewers experience the war through the memories of the men and women who experienced it: the rank-and-file Continental soldiers and American militiamen (some of them teenagers), Patriot political and military leaders, British Army officers, American Loyalists, Native soldiers and civilians, enslaved and free African Americans, German soldiers in the British service, French and Spanish allies, and various civilians living in North America, Loyalist as well as Patriot, including many made refugees by the war.
The Revolution began a movement for people around the world to imagine new and better futures for themselves, their nations, and for humanity. It declared American independence with promises that we continue to strive for. The American Revolution opened the door to advance civil liberties and human rights, and it asked questions that we are still trying to answer today.
Each episode is two hours.
1 | In Order to Be Free (May 1754 – May 1775)
2| An Asylum for Mankind (May 1775 – July 1776)
3 | The Times That Try Men’s Souls (July 1776 – January 1777)
4 | Conquer by a Drawn Game (January 1777 – February 1778)
5 | The Soul of All America (December 1777 – May 1780)
6 | The Most Sacred Thing (May 1780 – Onward)
Geoffrey Ward and Ken Burns, The American Revolution: An Intimate History (New York: Knopf, 2025), 608 pages, ISBN: 978-0525658672, $80.
New Book | Versailles Mirrored
From Bloomsbury:
Robert Wellington, Versailles Mirrored: The Power of Luxury, Louis XIV to Donald Trump (London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2025), 256 pages, ISBN: 978-1350451315 (hardback), $100 / ISBN: 978-1350451353 (paperback), $35.
Why has Louis XIV’s Palace of Versailles, defining symbol of hedonistic opulence in 17th-century France and synonymous with the notion of the divine right of kings, continued to shape the aesthetics of cultural capital in the centuries since his death?
In Versailles Mirrored, Robert Wellington tracks this enduring fascination with the Sun King’s palace through eight case studies spanning the 17th to 21st centuries. The book demonstrates how the extravagant palace style began as a symbol of the state in the 17th century; how it was adopted by the nouveau riche to show off their financial success in the 19th century; and, remarkably, how that palace look returned to play a role in statecraft in the hands of US President Donald Trump. Wellington links the aristocratic architectural traditions of France, England, and Germany to North America through the lens of Versailles, French architecture, and the decorative arts. Following a brief overview of the history of Versailles and the political and cultural motivations of its creation, chapters address aristocratic buildings in France and Germany built by the Sun King’s contemporaries; historicism in the 19th century in Britain, Germany, and America; and the present day, with Trump’s buildings and Château Louis XIV, known as the ‘world’s most expensive home’, purchased by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. In uncovering the motivations of those patrons, the book ultimately reveals why Versailles remains a powerful point of reference for those who wish to flaunt their social, cultural, and political capital.
Robert Wellington is Associate Professor of Art History in the Centre for Art History and Art Theory, The Australian National University, Australia. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, London, and co-editor of The Versailles Effect (2021).
c o n t e n t s
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction – World’s End
Part I | The Old Regime
1 Making Versailles: Louis XIV
2 The Inveterate Francophile: Ralph Montagu
3 Reflections of the Sun: John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
Part II | The Age of Historicism
4 Sun King to Moon King: Ludwig II of Bavaria
5 Gilded Age Ambitions: Alva Vanderbilt
6 Frenchified Blenheim: Sunny, 9th Duke of Marlborough
Part III | Generation Wealth
7 Tanned by the Sun King: Donald J. Trump
8 Return to Historicism: Emad Khashoggi
Postscript – A Hermès Scarf
Bibliography
Notes
Index
Exhibition | Enlightenment Princess: Marie Catherine de Brignole-Sale
Now on view at Chantilly:
From Monaco to Chantilly, A Princess of the Enlightenment in Search of Freedom
Château de Chantilly, 18 October 2025 — 4 January 2026
Curated by Mathieu Deldicque and Thomas Fouilleron
Claude Dejoux, The Princess of Monaco (Marie Catherine de Brignole-Sale), 1783, terracotta (Paris: Musée du Louvre).
Following the 2024 exhibition on the romantic destiny of Louise d’Orléans, the first Queen of the Belgians, the Musée Condé now turns its attention to another little-known yet remarkable woman who left a lasting mark on its history: Marie Catherine de Brignole-Sale, Princess of Monaco and later Princess of Condé (1739–1813). Thanks to an ambitious partnership with the Princely Palace of Monaco, this landmark exhibition, a collaborative research project involving the archives of the palace and those of the Condé Museum, sheds new light on the romantic life and artistic patronage of an extraordinary figure whose influence spanned the Age of Enlightenment and the French Revolution.
The Princess from the Sea
Born in Genoa on 16 September 1738, the only daughter of the Marquis of Brignole-Sale and a doge’s niece, Marie Catherine came from one of the most powerful families in this influential Mediterranean republic. Raised in Paris, she was celebrated as “the prettiest woman in France” and soon caught the attention of Prince Honoré III of Monaco (1720–1795). Though significantly older and initially hoping for a more prestigious match within the French nobility, the Prince ultimately opted for a less exalted but more financially advantageous alliance. After the sumptuous wedding on 15 June 1757, which was fraught with formal tensions, the new, young Princess of Monaco lived up to expectations by giving birth to two little princes. She is a regular at Parisian salons and confidently navigates the Hôtel de Matignon, the royal couple’s Parisian residence. The collections from the Prince’s Palace of Monaco will allow visitors to relive the splendour of Monaco and admire, among other treasures, dynastic portraits exceptionally leaving the palace walls to be exhibited at Chantilly.
A Resounding Split
The marriage did not last. Marie Catherine’s growing boredom, persistent rumours of an affair with the Prince of Condé, her refusal to move to Monaco, and the jealous nature of Honoré III, along with accounts of his mistreatment, gradually led to a deepening crisis. This culminated in the princess petitioning the Parliament of Paris for a legal separation of property and person. Swayed by the influence of the Prince of Condé, the court ruled in her favour on 31 December 1770.
Love and Friendship: The Princess of Monaco and the Prince of Condé
From then on, the Princess of Monaco was emancipated. As a reader of the philosophers of the Enlightenment, she existed in her own right and was free to live out her passions alongside her dear friend, Louis Joseph de Bourbon, Prince de Condé (1736–1818), whom she never left. In Paris, near the Palais Bourbon, which the Prince had expanded at great cost as a reflection of his love for the princess, architect Alexandre Brongniart designed the Hôtel de Monaco for the Princess in the 1770s. Though the residence was destroyed during the Revolution, it was later rebuilt and has housed the Polish Embassy since 1937. Brongniart’s monumental architectural plans reflect the ambition of a princess who was both builder and patron, offering a glimpse into the refined interiors she envisioned.
The Betz Refuge of a Woman of the Enlightenment
Not far from Chantilly, but still at somewhat of a distance, Marie Catherine chose the Château de Betz (now Crépy-en-Valois in the Oise department) as the ultimate refuge and expression of her personal preferences. There, echoing what the Prince of Condé envisioned at the Palais Bourbon and at Chantilly, she championed a new Rousseau-inspired taste: a return to nature and the rise of English-style gardens. At the same time, she embraced the latest Asian exotic trends and supported the early stirrings of a neo-medieval aesthetic destined for a brilliant future. They were surrounded by some of the most innovative and gifted architects, sculptors, landscape designers, painters, and draughtsmen of the final years of the Ancien Régime. From one Temple of Friendship to another, the emotions shared by this aesthetically minded couple were immortalised in stone, marble, and plaster by artists such as Jean-Baptiste Pigalle and Claude Dejoux. Hubert Robert— the great stylist, painter, and garden designer—worked for the princess. Superb leaves from his work illustrate the innovative aesthetic that Marie Catherine deploys in her gardens at Betz: the neo-Gothic style.
The Monaco Migrant in the Revolution
The French Revolution hit the Princess of Monaco and the Prince of Condé hard. The ruthless prince of the blood quickly took command of one of the main armies of the counter-revolution, and the Princess of Monaco followed him on the roads of emigration throughout Europe, from Italy to Russia. The exhibition traces the romantic journey of a couple caught in the upheaval of revolution, torn between despair and a deep sense of honour.
Princess of Condé, at Last
Her hardships only really came to an end during her final years in England (1801–1813), when the now widowed Princess of Monaco was finally able to marry her eternal lover and become, at last, the Princess of Condé, before breathing her last in 1813 at Wimbledon, without ever having had the chance to return to France. The touching marriage contract of a couple over 70 years old, far from their homeland, brings this first monographic exhibition dedicated to the Princess of Monaco to a close. Its aim is to restore this great patron to her rightful place, to better understand her role in the arts, and to bring her hotels, parks, and châteaux back to life through previously unseen sculptures, paintings, drawings, engravings, and archival documents.
Curators
Thomas Fouilleron, Director of the Archives and Library of the Prince’s Palace of Monaco
Mathieu Deldicque, Lead Heritage Conservator, Director of the Condé Museum
Mathieu Deldicque and Thomas Fouilleron, eds., De Monaco à Chantilly, une princesse des Lumières en quête de liberté (Paris: In Fine éditions d’art, 2025), 208 pages, ISBN: 978-2382032336, €35.
Exhibition | Kids! Between Representation and Reality
Caspar Netscher, A Portrait of Two Boys, Presuambly the Artist‘s Sons Everardus and Constantijn, ca. 1680–83
(Amsterdam: Collection Bob Haboldt)
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
From the press release for the exhibition:
Kids! Between Representation and Reality
Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg, 28 November 2025 — 6 April 2026
The exhibition Kids! Between Representation and Reality at the Bucerius Kunst Forum is dedicated to the representation of children in art from the 16th to the 21st century. Six chapters approach the subject from different perspectives and show not only paintings but also photographs, works on paper, prints, media art, and sculptures. The exhibition includes works by Tizian, Anthonis van Dyck, Oskar Kokoschka, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Nobuyoshi Araki, Thomas Lawrence, Joshua Reynolds, Rineke Dijkstra, Judith Leyster, Christoph Amberger, Gerhard Richter, and many more. The multifaceted nature of the exhibition illuminates the diverse perspectives and functions of children’s pictures over the centuries. Whether as a symbol of power and domination, as an expression of compassion or as snapshots of happy and sad childhoods: The depictions bear witness to the changing understanding of childhood over the centuries and at the same time illustrate the significance phase of life.
Thomas Lawrence, Portrait of the Children of Lord George Cavendish, 1790 (Frankfurt am Main: Städel Museum, Permanent Loan from the Adolf and Luisa Haeuser Foundation for Art and Culture).
The topic of images of children reflects the values and norms of a society and their changes in a special way. Images of children can be used to draw conclusions about social structures and power relations. Origin, status, and sometimes gender play an important role here. At the same time, over the centuries, social groups have influenced each other in the staging of their children and adapted their own representations in the process. How children are shown today is therefore linked to the reception of images of children from earlier times.
The exhibition reveals such cross-references and influences from the past to the present day and also identifies recurring patterns. The exhibition thus begins with a presentation of depictions of Madonna, in which the ideas of mother-child relationships and their influence up to the present day become clear. The father, on the other hand, usually fades into the background. Only when it comes to presenting the progenitor of the family do fathers proudly and consciously show themselves at the side of their young offspring. Until modern times, intimate father-child images were a rarity.
Created in aristocratic circles around 1500, the child portrait was intended to underpin the continuity and claim to power. Against this backdrop, portraits were often created showing the successors to the throne in armor as small adults. In this way, they were prepared for the future role of general and ruler. A playful variant is the portrait historié, in which the children were depicted as ancient gods, for example. Daughters were depicted at a very young age for reasons of marriage policy. Through strategic marriage promises and early marriages, it was possible to expand one’s own political influence and territorial power. In the course of the 16th century, the upper classes also portrayed their children, albeit less elaborately. In the 17th century, however, the representative and extravagant portrait of a child became increasingly popular in wider society.
In the 17th century in particular, Dutch and Spanish genre painters took up the motif of poor children, which still lives on today. The artists were not necessarily interested in taking a socially critical stance. It is not uncommon for children in financially disadvantaged, often precarious life situations to have a smile written all over their faces. Child labor was not fundamentally rejected either. It was seen as a positive contribution that children could make to the family income.
Photographs illustrate how differently children grow up globally and structurally to this day. For many children, the street and not the nursery is the place where they come together, interact socially and play together. How the depiction of children has changed over the centuries is made particularly clear in the exhibition by the works of deceased adolescents. In the past, portraits of deceased children were the only means of preserving their memory. Today, commemoration takes place in a different way—for example through lifelike photographs that show children in happy life situations.
The most serious change, which testifies to a different conception and definition of childhood, took place at the end of the 17th century and in the 18th century. Children were now allowed their own development—as close to nature as possible and away from the adult world. The children’s room also became increasingly important, and toys and special children’s literature were regarded as fundamental elements of its furnishings. The theme of ‘being a child’ is still one of the most popular pictorial themes in the visual arts today: trying things out, pushing oneself to the limits, drawing, playing, and togetherness are characteristic of the most important phase of a person’s life.
For the first time at this exhibition, young visitors can borrow a discovery case free of charge at the ticket office or cloakroom. The kit offers elementary school-aged art explorers the opportunity to experience art in a playful way and contains various viewing tools and materials. A telescope, colored glasses, a prism, and a magnifying glass invite them to explore the exhibition and the museum on their own. The kit also includes exciting tasks that draw attention to details in the art. In this way, they learn more about art in a playful way, actively engage with the works, and develop their own perspectives on them.
Katrin Dyballa, ed., Kinder, Kinder! Zwischen Repräsentation und Wirklichkeit (Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 2025), 288 pages, ISBN: 978-3777444963, €50.
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