Conference | Decorative Arts of the Middle East and North Africa
From ArtHist.net:
Interiors Reconfigured: Changing Materiality and Craftsmanship in the Decorative Arts of the Middle East and North Africa, 18th–20th Centuries
Vitrocentre Romont, Switzerland, 3–4 November 2023
Organized by Francine Giese, Sarah Keller and Mercedes Volait
This international conference is dedicated to the decorative arts of the Middle East and North Africa with a special focus on material aspects and local practices. In the course of profound changes since the 18th century, local tastes and craftmanship began to mutate under Ottoman and Western influence. The conference will address these changes and emphasise the growing importance of material-based analysis in the field of Middle Eastern and Maghrebi décors. Participation is free of charge; registration is required by 30 October 2023 at claudine.demierre@vitrocentre.ch.
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9.30 Opening Remarks
• Francine Giese (Vitrocentre Romont) and Mercedes Volait (CNRS/InVisu)
9.45 Keynote Lecture
• The Manifold Dynamics of Domestic Space and Architectural Fashion: Glimpses from Beirut, Sidon, and Cairo between the 18th and 20th Centuries — Ralph Bodenstein (German Archaeological Institute Cairo)
10.45 Coffee
11.15 Transformations
Chair: Francine Giese (Vitrocentre Romont)
• Cairene Interiors as Dynamic Spaces: The Successive Refurbishments of Manzil al-Sadat in the 19th Century — Mercedes Volait (CNRS/InVisu)
• Réorientaliser l’architecture « mauresque »: Intérieurs algériens recomposés aux XIXe et XXe siècles — Claudine Piaton (CNRS/InVisu)
• Ramsès Wissa Wassef et la rénovation de la kamariya — Leïla el-Wakil (University of Geneva)
13.00 Lunch
14.15 Materiality
Chair: Doris Behrens-Abouseif (SOAS University of London)
• A Changing Preference for Textile in Ottoman Interiors, 1705–1755 — Nazlı Songülen (Kadir Has University)
• Furnishing Fabrics: The Qalamkar Textiles in the Domestic Interiors of the Qajar, Iran — Fahimeh Ghorbani (University of Toronto)
• The Materiality of Stucco-Glass Windows in 19th-Century Egypt — Francine Giese, Sarah Keller, and Sophie Wolf (Vitrocentre Romont)
• Technical Heritage of Making Stucco and Glass Lattice Works in Iran — Amir-Hossein Karimy and Afsaneh Sobhani (Art University of Isfahan)
16.15 Coffee
16.45 Reconstructions
Chair: Sarah Keller (Vitrocentre Romont)
• František Schmoranz in Budapest: Reconstructing the Interior of the Oriental Pavilion at the 1885 National Exhibition in Budapest — Péter Nagy (Qatar Museums, Doha) and Ajla Bajramović (University of Vienna)
• The Railway Station of Bosanski Brod: A Historical and Visual Reconstruction of a Major Work of Orientalist Design in the Balkans — Maximilian Hartmuth (University of Vienna) and Malka Dizdarević (Vienna University of Technology)
• 3D Restitution of Saint-Maurice Residence in Cairo: 3D as a Tool to Monitor and Study Architectural Reuses — Vincent Baillet (Archeosciences Bordeaux)
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9.00 Nationalism, Part I
Chair: Nadia Radwan (University of Bern)
• The Reception of Glass Stucco Windows as Vernacular Element of «Turkish» Interior Decoration — Franziska Niemand (Vitrocentre Romont/University of Fribourg)
• The Bait Al-Naboodah in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates: A 19th-Century Pearl Merchant’s House between Tradition and Globalisation — Martin Nixon (Zayed University, Dubai)
10.00 Coffee
10.30 Nationalism, Part II
Chair: Ralph Bodenstein (German Archaeological Institute Cairo)
• Variations sur céramiques bleues: Concevoir l’intérieur oriental — Nadia Radwan (University of Bern)
• A Tale of Three Perspectives: Local Authenticity, Colonial Interference, and Hybridity within the Construction Methods of at-Tastīr – Moroccan Geometric Arts — El Fasiki (Craft Draft)
• Back to the Future? The 1927 ‹Arab Style› Interior of Hoda Shaarawy’s ‹House of the Egyptian Woman› as a Display of the Nation — Philipp Zobel (University of Regensburg)
12.15 Lunch
13.00 Presentation of Original Documents at Vitromusée Romont
• La Maison Tarazi: A Family-Run Furnishing Company from Beirut — Camille Tarazi (Maison Tarazi)
Workshop | Images in Comparative Anatomy, 1500–1900
Next month at the Bibliotheca Hertziana, as noted at ArtHist.net:
Drawing Comparisons: Images in Comparative Anatomy, 1500–1900
In-person and online, Bibliotheca Hertziana, Villino Stroganoff, Rome, 20 October 2023
Comparison of the skeleton of a bird and a man; from Pierre Belon, Histoire de la nature des oyseaux (Paris: Guillaume Cavellat, 1555).
The history of art and the practice of anatomy have long depended upon similar acts of comparison: identifying, visualizing, and describing likenesses. This workshop investigates the role of images in developing comparative anatomy—the study of anatomy across species—in early modern Europe.
Visual or formal analysis entails a search not only for forms but for likenesses. To look closely is, in other words, to look across. Anatomy, likewise, depends upon comparison. From Leonardo to Linnaeus, early modern anatomical knowledge materialized through bodies conceived as similar. The discipline of comparative anatomy emerged, specifically, as generalizations occurred across the human/nonhuman divide. The history of the anatomical image is also a history of violence, as those anatomical procedures allowing comparison (dissection and vivisection) often proceeded through the forceful manipulation, observation and depiction of the (non)human body. Scholars from various disciplines (history of art, history of science and medicine, philosophy, fine arts, paleontology) will consider the use of images in generating comparison and in both formulating and challenging comparative anatomical knowledge.
p r o g r a m m e
10.30 Introduction
• Alejandro Nodarse (Bibliotheca Hertziana / Harvard University) A Guide to Looking Across
11.00 Session One | Drawing Order
• Martin Clayton (Royal Collection Trust, Windsor Castle), ‘Describe the Jaw of a Crocodile’: Leonardo da Vinci’s Animal Anatomies
• Katrina van Grouw (University of Cambridge) Linnaeus Organized: Illustrating Convergence in Comparative Anatomy
12.30 Lunch Break
13.30 Session Two | Languages of Likeness
• Maria Conforti (Sapienza Università di Roma), Fruits, Mushrooms, and Trees: Botanical Imagery in Early Modern Surgery and Anatomy
• Paul North (Yale University), Likeness Looks Both Ways
15.00 Coffee Break
15.30 Session Three | Violence in the Comparative
• Thomas Balfe (Courtauld Institute), Skin Deep? Visualizing Human and Animal Violence in Early Modern Still Life Painting
• Rose Marie San Juan (University College London), Anatomical Violence and the Pain of Resemblance
17.00 Pause
17.15 Roundtable Discussion
Online Symposium | J. M. W. Turner: State of the Field
From ArtHist.net and YCBA:
J. M. W. Turner: State of the Field
Online, 22–23 September 2023
J.M.W. Turner, Staffa, Fingal’s Cave, 1831–32, oil on canvas, 91 × 121 cm (New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection).
This symposium will consider the state and meaning of scholarship on J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851), one of Britain’s most celebrated artists. Thinking through the extensive Turner historiography, this symposium will explore some of the key ideas, underlying assumptions, and future directions of research. Panelists will consider the place of their research within the broader field of British studies.
To join us on September 22, please register here»
To join us on September 23, please register here»
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All times Eastern Standard Time
9.00 Welcome by Courtney J. Martin (Yale Center for British Art)
9.10 Introduction: Turner in 2025 at the Yale Center for British Art — Lucinda Lax (Yale Center for British Art)
9.25 Keynote Conversation
• Amy Concannon (Tate Britain) in conversation with Richard Johns (University of York), moderated by Tim Barringer (Yale University)
10.25 Break
10.35 Panel 1 | Works on Paper and in the Environment
• Turner’s Pencil: Graphite Landscapes and Extractive Industry — Tobah Aukland-Peck (The Graduate Center, CUNY)
• ‘To Be Broken Up’: Turner, English Landscape, and the Anthropo(s)cenic — Frédéric Ogée (Université Paris Cité)
• A Historiographical Lacuna: Turner’s Prints — Gillian Forrester (independent scholar)
11.55 Break
12.05 Panel 2 | Sharing Turner
• Technical Studies for Turner: How Well Do We Share Knowledge? — Joyce Townsend (Tate Britain)
• The J. M. W. Turner Database: New Approaches to Documenting Turner for the 21st Century — Ian Warrell (independent scholar) and David Hill (University of Leeds)
• Cataloging Turner’s Sketchbooks, Drawings, and Watercolours — Turner Cataloging staff (Tate Britain)
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9.00 Panel 3 | Early Turner
• Whither Early Turner? — Leo Costello (Rice University)
• Turner and the Landed Estate — John Bonehill (University of Glasgow)
10.05 Break
10.15 Panel 4 | Curating Turner
• Turner at Petworth: Past Approaches and Future Directions — Emily Knight (National Trust)
• The Young Turner: Ambitions in Architecture and the Art of Perspective — Helen Cobby (Bath Spa University)
11.15 Break
11.25 Panel 5 | Varied Approaches: Language, Economy, and Ecology
• The Ecological Turn(er) — Sarah Gould (Université Paris 1, Panthéon Sorbonne)
• ‘The Sun is God’: Turner, Angerstein, and Insurance — Matthew Hunter (McGill University)
• Translating Turner: The French Edition of the Correspondence — Aurélie Petiot (Université Paris Nanterre)
Printmaking for Change: Past and Present
Thomas Rowlandson, The Contrast (detail), 1793, hand-coloured etching and letterpress, 25 × 35 cm
(London: The British Museum)
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From the Paul Mellon Centre:
Printmaking for Change: Past and Present
In-person and online, London, 2–12 October 2023
Join us for a festival of free events exploring how different communities have used, and continue to use, printmaking to enact change, share knowledge, and challenge ideas. With talks, workshops, and behind-the-scenes visits, the two-week festival will explore the potential of printmaking as both a means of mass communication and a radical art form. From the fifteenth century to the present day, the programme will cover a broad range of topics from gender, sexuality and race, to politics, activism, and health. The programme is an introduction to the subject and is open to all. Talks and workshops will take place at the Paul Mellon Centre, the British Museum, PageMasters, and the Royal College of Physicians. Talks at the Paul Mellon Centre will be streamed live via Zoom. Off-site workshops will be in person only.
Registration (required) via Eventbrite opens 8 September.
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Monday, 2 October, 6–8pm
Introductory Session | Printmaking for Change, with Ben Thomas and Marcelle Hanselaar at the Paul Mellon Centre
Prints are multiple yet individual, unpredictable and hard to regulate, often critical, funny, ephemeral, frightening, irreverent, angry or just plain weird. They can be popular or obscure, sophisticated or clumsy, beautiful or ugly or, when responding to market demand, repetitive and dull. They are hard to define and categorise and for that reason tend to be ignored by curators in their displays, yet every national art collection will have far more prints than paintings. Prints are also cheap by comparison with other artworks and can be collected by ordinary people, disseminating their message widely. In this introductory session, art historian Ben Thomas and painter and printmaker Marcelle Hanselaar will discuss the properties of prints that challenge our expectations, and how as an artform they can be democratic, undisciplined and consequently forces for change.
Wednesday, 4 October, 2–4pm
Collections Visit | Printmaking and Politics, with Esther Chadwick and Richard Taws at the Prints and Drawings Study Room of The British Museum
Go behind the scenes at the British Museum to experience a selection of prints from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that explore the varied and complex relationships between printmaking and politics. We will look at prints designed to persuade and effect political change and consider printmaking as a link between politics and ‘high art’. Ranging from woodcut to lithography, line engraving to aquatint, our selection will also highlight how print was used around the world at a time of social, political, and economic unrest.
Saturday, 7 October, 10am–12.30pm or 1.30–4pm
Risograph Workshop | Printmaking and Protest at PageMasters, Lewisham
This workshop will introduce you to risograph printing—a technique often described as a cross between screen printing and photocopying, which uses spot colours and stencils to create multiple prints. Taking place at PageMasters in Lewisham, the session will begin with an introduction to risograph and tour of the studio. This will be followed by an exploration of PageMasters’ archive of protest prints and the opportunity to create your own two-colour A4 print to take home.
Monday, 9 October, 10.30am–noon and 1–2.30pm
Collections Visit | Printmaking and Health, with Jack Hartnell and Katie Birkwood at the Royal College of Physicians
Using the fascinating early print collections of the Royal College of Physicians, this session will explore the roles played by printing, printers and print technology in the world of health. From diagrams in surgical manuals to moveable flap books demonstrating the body’s inner anatomical workings, printed objects have long helped medics debate how to care for changing bodies. The Royal College of Physician’s materials will provide us with a window into how bodies past were understood by artists, physicians, midwives and surgeons alike.
Tuesday, 10 October, 6–8pm
Talk | Mezzotint Engraving and the Making of Race, with Jennifer Chuong, Martin Myrone, and Mechthild Fend at the Paul Mellon Centre
How have prints shaped our understanding of bodies and, specifically, our understanding of race as a bodily attribute? In this session we will explore how a particular print technique, mezzotint engraving, contributed to racial theories between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. The mezzotint, which can produce smooth tonal areas with dots or lines, became hugely popular in Britain in the second half of the eighteenth century as a means of reproducing portraits. We will discuss how this technique resonated with new anatomical and racial ideas in this period and subsequently how we can better understand print’s role in developing ideas of race and the body.
Thursday, 12 October, 6–8pm
Talk | Printmaking and LGBTQIA+ Communities, with Zorian Clayton at the Paul Mellon Centre
Join V&A curator of prints, Zorian Clayton, to explore LGBTQIA+ liberty and visibility through the varied history of printmaking. Via seventeenth-century radicals, eighteenth-century flamboyance, and nineteenth-century scandal, to contemporary understandings around diverse gender and sexuality, prints and ephemera, Zorian will provide a unique snapshot into a rich and radical history. Through looking at portraits and zines celebrating pioneering activists, writers and artists, as well as highlighting significant Queer spaces in Britain through the centuries, this session will provide an overview of the considerable contribution to printmaking made by the LGBTQIA+ community and its many ancestors.
Conference | Rethinking British and European Romanticisms, Part II
From ArtHist.net and the University of York:
Rethinking British and European Romanticisms in Transnational Dimensions, Part II
University of York, King’s Manor, 19–21 September 2023
Organized by Elisabeth Ansel, Johannes Grave, Richard Johns, Christin Neubauer, and Elizabeth Prettejohn
The event is the second part of a cooperative two-part workshop between the History of Art Departments of the University of York and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. Considering the institution’s main research areas, the event aims to discuss the different concepts of Europe present in the art and culture of Romanticism.
In recent years, national tendencies have challenged the European idea, exemplified by the wake of Brexit and its aftermath. In this context, the question arises to what extent European and national identity concepts can be reconciled. Today’s debate between Britain and Europe still roots in the divergent notions of national identity that manifested in several European countries in the 1800s.
Therefore, the workshop addresses the relationship between visual images and constructions of nationality and questions how European Romanticism can be understood. In contrast to literary studies, investigating transnational transfer processes of Romantic movements has been a desideratum in art historical research. Considering transcultural methods, the participants will reflect national patterns of thought and Romantic identities not as fixed but as processual and hybrid phenomena within the framework of the binational exchange. Based on individual case studies, the event aims to reevaluate the complex interplay of alterity and reciprocity of the relations between cultural spaces.
Funded by University of York and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation)
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9.45 Welcome and Introduction — Richard Johns
10.15 Morning Papers
• Marte Stinis (York) — ‘Sound Resounded from All the Treetops’: The Musical Landscape
• Sammi Lukic-Scott (York) — The Language of the Copy
• David Grube-Palzer (Jena) — Copy and Self-Repetition in the Age of Genius: Using the Example of Caspar David Friedrich
13.00 Lunch
14.30 Afternoon Papers
• Christin Neubauer (Jena) — Debts to German Romanticism in Joseph Noel Paton’s Luther: Dawn at Erfurt (1861)
• Miguel Angel Gaete Cáceres (York) — Johann Moritz Rugendas’ Picturesque Slavery: Denounce or Morbid Sublime Pleasure?
17.00 Evening Presentation
• Elizabeth Prettejohn (York) — Romanticism and Renaissance: Ideas for an Exhibition
18.30 Reception at King’s Manor
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10.00 Greeting
10.15 Morning Papers
• Richard Johns (York) — Further Thoughts on the Artist’s Bequest as a Romantic Phenomenon
• Elisabeth Ansel (Jena) — Heroic Femininity and the ‘Joy of Grief’ in Elizabeth Harvey’s Malvina Lamenting the Death of Oscar (1806)
• Mira Claire Zadrozny (Jena) — Emergent Pictoriality: Images of Ruins in 19th-Century France
13.00 Lunch
14.30 Afternoon Papers
• Helena Cox (York) — The Mánes Family: Bohemian Romanticism and (Inter)National Belonging
• Kayleigh Williams (York) — ‘Her Eyes Were Wild’: Transmediation of Gender and Gaze in Rossetti’s La Belle Dame Sans Merci
16.45 York Museum Garden
18.00 Evening Presentation
• Johannes Grave (Jena) — Duality and Temporality: Evocations of the Sublime in Romantic Paintings
20.00 Dinner at House of Trembling Madness
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9.15 Greeting
9.30 Morning Papers
• Johannes Rössler (Jena) — An Imagined Journey? Caspar David Friedrich and Switzerland
• Wanda Sue Warning (Jena) — Romanticising Youth: Sir Henry Raeburn’s Boy and Rabbit (1814) and the Portraiture of Anonymous Children
• Justus Hierlmeier (Jena) — Ligne et couleur in Théophile Thoré’s Des envois de Rome
12.15 Concluding Discussion
14.30 Afternoon Field Trip
• York Art Gallery
• Stroll through York
20.00 Dinner at Côte Brasserie
Conference | Garden Artist Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell (1750–1823)
Carl von Zimmermann, Portrait Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell, detail, ca. 1810 (Münchner Stadtmuseum)
From the website marking the 200th anniversary of the landscape gardener’s death: www.sckell2023.de
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From ArtHist.net:
Der Gartenkünstler Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell und seine Werke: Geschichte und Aktualität
Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich, 13–14 October 2023
Organized by Jost Albert and Iris Lauterbach
Registration due by 8 October 2023
Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell war der bedeutendste deutsche Gartenkünstler seiner Generation. Seine Ausbildung in Schwetzingen, in Frankreich und in England verhalf ihm zu einem internationalen Netzwerk. Als kurfürstlicher Hofgärtner und seit 1804 bayerischer Hofgartenintendant sowie in privatem Auftrag realisierte Sckell zahlreiche und bedeutende Gartenanlagen. Als weitsichtiger Stadtplaner legte er die Grundlage für die Erweiterung Münchens zur königlichen Residenzstadt. Der Englische Garten und die Umgestaltung des Nymphenburger Schlossgartens sind die Hauptwerke seiner Münchner Phase. Mit klassisch schönen „Bildern der Natur“ entwarf Sckell Landschaftsgärten, die sich durch große Dimensionen, ausgefeilte räumliche Gestaltungen und einen respektvollen Umgang mit dem Vorhandenen auszeichnen. Die Tagung nimmt das Sckell-Jubiläum zu seinem 200. Todestag zum Anlass, um neue gartenhistorische Forschungsaspekte sowie aktuelle gartendenkmalpflegerische Herausforderungen vorzustellen. Anmeldung zur Tagung bitte bis 8. Oktober 2023 unter: sckell@zikg.eu. Die Teilnahme ist kostenfrei.
Konzeption: Jost Albert und Iris Lauterbach, in Kooperation mit dem AK Historische Gärten der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Gartenkunst und Landschaftskultur (DGGL)
Partnerinstitutionen des Webauftritts www.sckell2023.de:
Natur wird Kunst: Auf den Spuren des Gartenkünstlers Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell (1750–1823)
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8.30 Anmeldung zur Tagung
9.00 Iris Lauterbach, München — Begrüßung und Einführung
9.15 Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell: Gartenkünstler, Verwalter, Organisator
Moderation: Iris Lauterbach
• Rainer Herzog, München — Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell als königlicher Beamter: Die Hofgarten-Intendanz unter organisatorischen, personellen und finanziellen Aspekten
• Gabriele Ehberger, München — Corporate Identity für die Hofgartenintendanz: Sckells Entwurf einer Gärtneruniform
• Thorsten Marr, München — Der Publikumsverkehr im Nymphenburger Garten zur Zeit Sckells
• Brigitte Huber, München — Eine Stadt im Umbruch: München 1795 bis 1825
• Heike Palm, Hannover — „Überhaupt ist diese Parthie noch zu erweitern und unter die Gruppen me[h]r Deutlichkeit zu bringen.“ Sckells Begleittexte zu seinen Entwürfen
12.30 Mittagspause
14.00 Zu Sckells Pflanzenverwendung
Moderation: Jost Albert
• Clemens Alexander Wimmer, Potsdam — Die Pflanzenverwendung Sckells in ihrer Zeit und ihre Rezeption
• Hans Joachim Klemmt, München — Sckells Baumartenwahl: Eine forstliche Einwertung aus heutiger Sicht vor dem Hintergrund des Klimawandels
15.00 Kaffeepause
15.30 Gartenkunst in der Nachfolge von Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell
• Michael Schwahn, München — Carl August Sckell und der Englische Garten in Neuburg an der Donau
• Peter Lack, Güstrow — Ein Gärtner auf Grand Tour: Die zweijährige Reise des Fritz Sckell von 1826 bis 1828
• Dietger Hagner, Rudolstadt — Wilhelmsthal bei Eisenach: Die Transformation zum Landschaftsgarten und das Wirken der Thüringer Hofgärtnerfamilie Sckell
17.00 Pause und Ortswechsel
19.00 Abendveranstaltung (Max-Joseph-Saal der Residenz)
• Bernd Schreiber, Präsident der Bayerischen Verwaltung der staatlichen Schlösser, Gärten und Seen — Begrüßung
• Jost Albert, München — Sckells Arbeitsschwerpunkte in den letzten Lebensjahren
• Iris Lauterbach, München — Der Zauberstab des Gartenkünstlers: Sckells „Methode, in der Natur zu zeichnen“
• Udo Weilacher, Freising/München — Die Landschaft von Morgen: Impulse von Sckell
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Sckells Gärten heute: Herausforderungen und Ziele der Gartendenkmalpflege
Exkursionen mit Mitarbeiter:innen der Gärtenabteilung der Bayerischen Schlösserverwaltung. Teilnahme nur für angemeldete Teilnehmer:innen der Tagung
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12.00–16.00 Mitgliederversammlung des AK Historische Gärten der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Gartenkunst und Landschaftskultur (DGGL), nicht öffentlich
19.00 Öffentliche Abendveranstaltung (Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste)
Vergabe des Sckell-Rings durch die Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste und Laudatio
Vergabe der Sckell Students Awards, Preisvergabe durch Udo Weilacher, Technische Universität München
Conference | Dressing the Interior
From the conference programme:
Dressing the Interior in the Early Modern Period: Textiles in Domestic Settings
Dressing the Early Modern Network Conference
Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS), 23 September 2023
Organised by Jola Pellumbi, Sara van Dijk, and Alexander Dencher
Registration due by 20 September 2023
Length of velvet, 16th century, Spanish or Italian; pile on pile cut, voided, and brocaded velvet of silk and gold metallic thread with bouclé details (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 46.156.120).
Textiles, wall and furniture coverings played an important role in dressing interiors in the early modern period. From curtains to chairs, tables and beds, a variety of textiles were needed to protect, adorn, and transform rooms, homes, and palaces. They were an important part of the dwelling as they linked the interiors together and showcased the taste and material means of the owners. Different rooms served diverse purposes, from more public spaces such as waiting rooms, reception rooms, and ballrooms, to more private rooms such as the bedroom with its antechambers. In other households, rooms had multiple functions, and in many cases the distinctions between private and public spaces were more flexible. Textiles played an important role in distinguishing and modifying these spaces while giving a glimpse of the relationships that owners had with those interiors.
While extant textiles have been frequently altered to fit new purposes denoting both their durability and the costly aspects of this medium, ledgers provide further examples of repairs and replacements. On the other hand, inventories give a more accurate picture of the changes in fashion over time. Fashions played an important role in the dressing of interiors, from certain more desirable fabrics and colours being favoured over others, while also being altered according to seasons. This conference aims to generate a discussion about the use of various textiles in early modern interiors, focusing on their function, durability, colour, texture and pattern, and how they were made to fit a specific purpose and give meaning to every room.
The conference is organised by Jola Pellumbi and Sara van Dijk of Dressing the Early Modern Network and by Alexander Dencher of Leiden University and the Rijksmuseum.
Registration is available here»
p r o g r a m m e
10.00 Registration
10.30 Welcome
10:45 Session 1 | Interior and Experience
• Dangerous Liaisons Revisited: Drapery and Dress in 18th-Century French Interiors — Mei Mei Rado (Bard Graduate Center, New York)
• Tiny Textiles: Dressing the Interiors of 18th-Century English Baby Houses — Amy Craig (Cambridge University)
• 18th-Century Global Domesticity — Valeria Viola (University of Palermo)
12.15 Lunch Break
13.00 Session 2 | Objects’ Pasts and Futures
• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle ….Restore? A Case Study of Re-Using ‘Original’ Fabrics in the Collection of the Rijksmuseum — Marjolein Koek (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
• Bed of White Satin with Silk Embroidery and Bobbin Made Silver Edgings — Lena Dahrén (affiliated with Uppsala University)
• Title to be confirmed — Alexander Dencher (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
14.30 Coffee and Tea
15.00 Session 3 | Materials and Materiality
• Strong Weave, Soft Texture, Crisp White: The Unravelling of Fustian in Dutch Interiors in the Early 17th Century — Sara Wieman (University of Amsterdam)
• Re-Materialising Walls through Intermedial Design: Chinese Silk and Paper Wall Hangings in 18th-Century European Interiors — Erika Riccobon (Leiden University)
16.00 Keynote Lecture
• The Seemingly Original Interior — Anna Jolly (Abegg-Stiftung, Riggisberg)
16.45 Closing Remarks
Conference | Favorite Palace: Interior Decoration and Collections
Johann Michael Ludwig Rohrer, Favorite Palace (Schloss Favorite), Rastatt (12 km north of Baden-Baden), 1710–30. Located near the primary residential palace at Rastatt, Schloss Favorite was created as a ‘porcelain palace’ for Margravine Sibylla Augusta and used mainly in the summer months for festivities including concerts and banquets. Schloss Favorite now houses the world’s largest collection of early Meissen porcelain.
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From the conference programme:
Favorite Palace: Interior Decoration and Collections
Schloss Favorite: Ausstattung und Sammlungen
In person and online, Residenzschloss Rastatt, 17–19 September 2023
Registration due by 28 August 2023
Favorite Palace in Rastatt, built between 1710 and 1729 by Margravine Sibylla Augusta of Baden-Baden (1675–1733), is the only almost unchanged Baroque ‘porcelain palace’ in Germany. This conference will present recent scientific findings on the history of the palace, its interior decoration, and its collections. A special focus will be on the chinoiserie furnishings, as well as on Asian and European ceramics. The conference aims to honor the ensemble created by the builder and collector, Sibylla Augusta, in the context of early 18th-century European art.
There is no conference fee, but advanced registration is essential (by 28 August 2023). The conference will be translated by interpreters and streamed online in German and English. Please indicate when registering whether you would like to attend in person or online. You will receive the participation link as well as information on hotels and parking spaces after registration.
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10.00–1.00 Guided tours of Favorite Palace (optional, by appointment)
1.15 Reception Desk Open
2.00 Welcome by Patricia Alberth (Geschäftsführerin der Staatlichen Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg) and Anton Schweizer (Kyushu University, Japan)
2.15 Section 1 | Chinoiseries in the Decoration and Festive Culture of Sibylla Augusta
Moderation: Anton Schweizer (Kyushu University)
• ‘Dan die Chinesisch und Japanische Kajser würden selber in vergnügteste Entzückung gesezet werden’: Zur Chinoiserie in der Favorite — Ulrike Grimm (Oberkonservatorin a. D., Karlsruhe)
• Die japanischen Textilappliken im Schlafzimmer des Erbprinzen Ludwig Georg: Kontext und Bedeutung — Anton Schweizer (Kyushu University, Japan)
• ‘China-Mode’ and Court Culture in Early 18th-Century Europe: Sibylla Augusta’s Chinese Banquet in Ettlingen in 1729 — Kristel Smentek (MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts)
• ‘Admirable Abzeichnungen’: Herstellung, Verbreitung und Überlieferung der Stichserie zum Chinesischen Fest 1729 in Ettlingen von Johann Christian Leopold — Christian Katschmanowski (SSG)
5.45 Refreshments
7.30 Evening Lecture
• Zwischen Botschaft und Typologie: Die Bildprogramme der Decken, Wände und Textilien — Ulrike Seeger (Universität Stuttgart / Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
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8.30 Reception Desk Open
9.00 Section 2 | Porcelain and Stoneware from Asia and Europe
Moderation: Ulrike Grimm (Oberkonservatorin a. D., Karlsruhe)
• Asian Art in the Collections of the Sachsen-Lauenburg Family in the Context of Inventories from Other Collections in the Czech Lands — Filip Suchomel (Regional Gallery, Liberec / UMPRUM, Prague)
• The Redwares of Sibylla Augusta of Baden-Baden and Their Global Context — Errol Manners (E & H Manners Ltd., London)
• Eine Eremitage in Blau: Ostasiatisches Porzellan, Exotismus und Weltflucht à la Chine in Schloss Favorite — Stephan Graf von der Schulenburg (Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt)
• Meissen Porcelain in Schloss Favorite: Revisiting and Rethinking a Legendary Collection — Maureen Cassidy-Geiger (Independent Scholar and Curator, New York)
12.45 Lunch Break
2.00 Section 3 | Special Equipment Pieces in Focus
Moderation: Petra Pechaček (SSG)
• Baden-badische ‘Masquera- und Comodianten Kleyder’: Die Kostümbilder als Ausdruck fürstlichen Ranges und wirtschaftlicher Leistungskraft — Hertha Schwarz (Freie Historikerin, München)
• Mixed media und eine Welt von Bedeutungen: Die textile Ausstattung von Schloss Favorite — Birgitt Borkopp-Restle (Universität Bern)
• Licht ins Dunkel: Der böhmische Kronleuchter aus dem Schlafzimmer des Erbprinzen Ludwig Georg — Käthe Klappenbach (Kustodin a. D., SPSG, Potsdam)
5.00 Guided tour of the palace church accompanied by organ music — Sigrid Gensichen and Jürgen Ochs
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8.30 Reception Desk Open
9.00 Section 4 | The Palace and Its Collections after Sibylla Augusta
Moderation und Einführung: Sandra Eberle (SSG)
• Produkte der kurbayerischen Verwandtschaft: Ein Porzellangarten zur Hochzeit Ludwig Georgs 1755 und eine Parforcejagd aus Terracotta — Katharina Hantschmann (Bayerisches Nationalmuseum München)
• Das Straßburger Fayence-Service aus Schloss Favorite, 1748–1753 — Jacques Bastian (Antiquités Bastian, Straßburg)
10.30 Wrap-up
11.45 Shuttle to Favorite Palace
12.00 Lunch Snack at Favorite Palace
1.00 Tours of Favorite Palace (guided by speakers)
Colloquium | A Multifaceted Rococo
From the conference programme:
A Multifaceted Rococo / Un Rococo Multiforme
Musée de Grenoble and MSH Alpes, Grenoble, 21-22 September 2023
Organized by Marlen Schneider and Michael Yonan, with Joëlle Vaissiere
Né à Paris sous l’Ancien Régime en réponse à la culture artistique du règne de Louis XIV, le rococo semble évocateur de toute une ère de l’histoire française : un art dédié aux surfaces et à la sensualité, doté d’une complexité formelle et visuelle et d’une abondance ornementale. Or, le rococo a eu un impact sur l’évolution de l’art du XVIIIe siècle à une échelle globale, et certaines nations ont même vu naître des variations capables de rivaliser avec les exemples parisiens. Le colloque permettra d’aborder à la fois le rococo dans sa dimension transnationale, mais aussi sa culture matérielle, prenant en compte les formes et usages multiples de l’art rocaille. Cette approche mettra en lumière un large éventail d’utilisations, d’expressions formelles, de choix stylistiques, de significations culturelles et de pratiques, qui dépassent grandement nos connaissances actuelles.
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14.30 Accueil
15.00 Introduction — Michael Yonan (University of California) and Marlen Schneider (Université Grenoble Alpes/LARHRA)
15.30 Redéfinir le rococo
Modération: Marlen Schneider (Université Grenoble Alpes/LARHRA)
• Carl Magnusson (Université de Lausanne) — Réduire le foisonnement artistique du XVIIIe siècle en style
• Michael Yonan (University of California) — The Ecological Rococo of 18th-Century Bavaria
• Philippe Halbert (Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art) — Canada’s Spiritual Rococo
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9.00 Accueil
9.15 Géographies du rococo
Modération: Michael Yonan (University of California)
• Philippe Bordes (Université Lyon II / LARHRA) — Du Rococo européen à Paris dans les années 1780: Johann Julius Heinsius et Gaetano Merchi
• Vladimir Simic (University of Belgrade) — Transcending Borders: Rococo Artistic Synthesis in Southeast Europe and the Habsburg Influence
• Marlen Schneider (UGA / LARHRA) — Le Rococo frédéricien fut-il français? Les sources et enjeux multiples de l’art de cour sous Frédéric II en Prusse
• Stacey Sloboda (UMass Boston) — Making Lines Matter: Carving in 18th-Century London
14.00 Matérialités
Modération: Sophie Raux (Université Lyon II / LARHRA)
• Thomas Wilke (Universität Greifswald) — Rocaille in the Making: François Antoine Vassé’s Designs for the French Navy
• Agata Dworzak (Jagiellonian University) — Expressive Rococo: Lviv Rococo Sculpture between Emotions and Form
• Sandra Costa Saldanha (Universidade de Coimbra) — The Rise of Rococo: Approaches on a Long-term Sensibility in 18th-Century Portuguese Sculpture
• Joana Mylek (Munich) — An Abundance of Everything: The Bohemian Rococo in the 19th Century
17.30 Conclusions
Conference | Listening In: Architectures, Cities, and Landscapes
From the conference website:
Listening In: Conversations on Architectures, Cities, and Landscapes, 1700–1900
ETH Zürich, Hönggerberg and Zentrum campus, 13–15 September 2023
Who do we listen to when we write histories of architectures, cities, and landscapes? How many women authors can we find among our sources? How many of them are cited by those whose research we read? We argue that women and other marginalised groups have always been part of conversations on architectures, cities, and landscapes—but we have not had the space to listen to them. This conference is an invitation to reconstruct such conversations, real, imagined, and metaphorical ones, taking place in the 18th and 19th centuries, in any region, in order to diversify the ways we write histories. Taking the art of conversation, integral as both practice and form to the period in Western thought, and repurposing it to dismantle the exclusivity of historiography, this conference calls for contributions which bring women into dialogue with others.
Listening In proposes a new approach to the ‘canon’ and its protagonists. Rather than either fighting its existence or expanding it by means of ‘exceptions to the rule’, we call for the setting up of productive conversations. We acknowledge that the canon never exists on its own; instead, it is shaped by what Griselda Pollock has called “that which, while repressed, is always present as its structuring other” (1999, 8). This conference is envisaged as a listening exercise. We regard a conversation as both codified practice as well as a specific act of verbal exchange, spoken or written, on a particular subject—here architectures, cities, and landscapes—occurring in a specific site, from street to salon, kitchen to court, construction site to theatre, field to church, or book to newspaper, to name but a few.
Listening In is organised in the context of two externally funded research projects based at gta, ETH Zurich. Women Writing Architecture, 1700–1900 (WoWA) is funded by the ERC, led by Anne Hultzsch, and studies female experiences of architecture and landscapes as recorded in women’s writings from South America and Europe. The SNSF-funded project Building Identity: Character in Architectural Discourse and Design, 1750–1850, led by Sigrid de Jong and Maarten Delbeke, focuses on the uses and meaning of the notion of ‘character’ in architectural criticism and practice. Both projects share an interest in the experiences of marginalised groups, especially those who identified as women, and strive to have them heard not in a niche, but in the centre of our field. With this conference we wish to open up our approaches to a wider field of research, going beyond our respective geographical frameworks.
There will be a limited number of free audience tickets for our two-day conference. To register and for more information please visit our website.
This conference is part of a project that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No.949525).
Key Note Speakers
• Prof Mabel O. Wilson
• Prof Jane Rendell
Organised by
Group Anne Hultzsch and Professor Maarten Delbeke Chair, Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (gta), ETH Zürich
Scientific Committee
Prof Maarten Delbeke, PD Dr Anne Hultzsch, Dr Sigrid de Jong, Dr Sol Pérez Martínez, Dr Nikos Magouliotis
Orginising Committee
Prof Maarten Delbeke, PD Dr Anne Hultzsch, Dr Sigrid de Jong, Dr Sol Pérez Martínez, Dr Nikos Magouliotis, Dr Noelle Paulson, Elena Rieger, Alejandra Fries
Enfilade 
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