Exhibition | It’s Alive! Frankenstein at 200
From the press release (6 September) for the exhibition:
It’s Alive! Frankenstein at 200
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, 12 October 2018 — 27 January 2019
Curated by John Bidwell and Elizabeth Denlinger
A classic of world literature, a masterpiece of horror, and a forerunner of science fiction, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is the subject of a new exhibition at the Morgan. Organized in collaboration with the New York Public Library, It’s Alive! Frankenstein at 200 traces the origins and impact of the novel whose monster has become both a meme and a metaphor for forbidden science, unintended consequences, and ghastly combinations of the human and the inhuman. Portions of the original manuscript will be on display along with historic scientific instruments and iconic artwork such as Henry Fuseli’s Nightmare and the definitive portrait of Mary Shelley. The story’s astonishingly versatile role in art and culture over the course of two hundred years helps explain why the monster permeates the popular imagination to this day.
Joseph Wright, The Alchymist, in Search of the Philosopher’s Stone, Discovers Phosphorus, and Prays for the Successful Conclusion of his Operation, as was the Custom of the Ancient Chymical Astrologers, 1795, oil on canvas (Derby Museums Trust; photography by Richard Tailby).
Co-curated by John Bidwell, the Astor Curator and Department Head of the Morgan’s Printed Books and Bindings Department, and Elizabeth Denlinger, Curator of the Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle at The New York Public Library, this exhibition presents a diverse array of books, manuscripts, posters, prints, and paintings illustrating the long cultural tradition that shaped and was shaped by Mary Shelley’s myth. A large number of these works come from both the Morgan and the New York Public Library’s collections.
Only eighteen years old when she embarked on the novel, Shelley invented the archetype of the mad scientist who dares to flout the laws of nature. She created an iconic monster who spoke out against injustice and begged for sympathy while performing acts of shocking violence. The monster’s fame can be attributed to the novel’s theatrical and film adaptations. Comic books, film posters, publicity stills, and movie memorabilia reveal a different side to the story of Frankenstein, as reinterpreted in spinoffs, sequels, mashups, and parodies.
“The Morgan is in an excellent position to tell the rich story of Mary Shelley’s life and of Frankenstein’s evolution in popular culture,” said director of the museum, Colin B. Bailey. “Pierpont Morgan was fascinated by the creative process, and one of the artifacts he acquired was a first edition Frankenstein annotated by the author. The collection of works by the Shelleys, both at the Morgan and the New York Public Library, has only grown since then. We are very pleased to collaborate with the NYPL in presenting the full version of this extraordinary tale and how it lives on in the most resilient and timely of ways.”
A copiously illustrated companion volume, It’s Alive! A Visual History of Frankenstein, provides a vivid account of the artistic and literary legacy of the novel along with detailed descriptions of the highlights in the exhibition, while a new online curriculum offers high school teachers resources for the classroom.
The exhibition occupies two galleries: one documenting the life of Mary Shelley and the composition of her book, the other showing how the story evolved in the theater, cinema, and popular culture.
The Influence of the Gothic Style and Enlightenment Science
Benoît Pecheux, plate no. 4 in Giovanni Aldini, Essai théorique et expérimental sur le galvanisme (Paris: De l’imprimerie de Fournier Fils, 1804 / The Morgan Library & Museum, purchased on the Gordon N. Ray Fund, 2016; PML 196238).
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus sprang from both a passion for Gothic style that pervaded British culture long before the author’s birth in 1797 and the influence of the discoveries of European Enlightenment science. Audiences loved the supernatural in all its formulations—ghosts, graveyards, mysterious strangers, secret warnings, lost wills, hidden pictures, and more. While novels were the primary vehicle for the Gothic, it was also popular with artists of paintings and prints, which were sometimes satirical—the Gothic was parodied as soon as it was taken seriously. The exhibition opens with the greatest horror painting of the eighteenth century, The Nightmare, painted in 1781 by the Swiss immigrant artist Henry Fuseli. Mary Shelley knew about this iconic image and may have used it in writing the climactic scene in Frankenstein.
Shelley was also influenced by the scientific endeavors of the time. She had been born into an age of scientific and technological discovery in Britain, when institutions like the Royal Society began fostering exploration and experimentation. Across Britain spread a thriving circuit of lectures and science demonstrations for the public. A few of these experiments have become part of the Frankenstein legend. While writing the novel, Shelley had been reading Humphry Davy’s Elements of Chemical Philosophy, and she knew about anatomical dissections, contemporary debates about the origins of life, and electrical experiments on corpses. She lends this fascination to Victor Frankenstein, who makes a monster from corpses in his “workshop of filthy creation.”
Mary Shelley’s Life and Conception of Frankenstein
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (London: Printed for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor & Jones, 1818). This specific copy, purchased by Pierpont Morgan in 1910, is part of The Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle at The Morgan Library & Museum.
Mary Shelley grew up in a radical and intellectual milieu, the daughter of writers famous in their own time, the feminist theorist Mary Wollstonecraft and the novelist and philosopher William Godwin. After her mother died in childbirth, her father married Mary Jane Clairmont, who had children of her own, and the teenaged Mary Godwin escaped a tense family atmosphere by making long visit to friends in Scotland. When she returned in 1814, she met the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, already married and a father. They soon fell in love and eloped to Europe, the most decisive act of all their lives.
It was on a trip to Lake Geneva in 1816 accompanied by P.B. Shelley, Lord Byron, and her step-sister Claire Clairmont that Mary Godwin found the inspiration to write Frankenstein. During their stay, the party entertained themselves by reading aloud from a volume of Gothic tales. Byron suggested a contest to write ghost stories, and Shelley joined in energetically, looking for something “to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart.” After days of frustrated effort, the idea came to her one night after hearing P.B. Shelley and Lord Byron discuss the origins of life and the possibility of animating a corpse by galvanic action.
“I saw—with shut eyes, but acute mental vision—I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together.” She returned to England with the beginnings of a novel.
By 1817, she had finished a draft titled Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The book appeared in three volumes on January 1, 1818, after P. B. Shelley offered revisions and found a publisher. Luckily for posterity, most of the Frankenstein manuscript has survived, making it possible to see the author’s original ideas, her second thoughts, and her husband’s suggestions. Portions of the manuscript containing key passages in the novel will be on display at the Morgan.
Mary Shelley’s personal life was punctuated by tragedy in ways strangely similar to incidents in the novel. After settling in Italy in the spring of 1818 with her husband, their children William and Clara, step-sister Claire and her daughter Allegra, the family experienced constant sorrow as first William and Clara, and then Allegra died. Their grief was only partly assuaged by the birth of another child, Percy Florence. Through their mourning and marital difficulties, Mary Shelley and her husband maintained a strenuous routine of writing and study and friendships in the English and Italian communities. In July 1822, Shelley suffered a final devastating loss: P. B. Shelley sailed with his friend Edward Williams and their cabin boy to meet their friend Leigh Hunt’s family in Leghorn; on their return their boat met a sudden squall and they drowned.
Frankenstein on Stage and on Screen
When Mary Shelley returned to England in August 1823, one of the few bright spots was Richard Brinsley Peake’s melodrama Presumption! or, the Fate of Frankenstein: a theatrical hit, the play had made her famous. The actor Thomas Potter Cooke’s performance was the key factor: over six feet tall, clad in a gray-blue leotard, his exposed skin painted the same color, with a toga on top, he moved with lyrical athleticism and made the creature both frightening and pathetic. Mary Shelley saw one of Cooke’s performances and enjoyed it greatly. Other adaptations followed: at least fifteen dramas based on the novel were produced between 1823 and 1826.
Poster for Mary W. Shelley’s Frankenstein (New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1931 / The Morgan Library & Museum, purchased on the Gordon N. Ray Fund, 2016; PML 196478. Courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing LLC, © 1931 Univeral Pictures Company, Inc).
A large portion of the exhibition is dedicated to the movies, which have played an essential role in popularizing the story and shaping our pop culture image of the monster. The earliest film of Frankenstein was made by the Edison Studios in 1910, but it is James Whale’s 1931 version that has taken such a prominent place in the popular psyche that it is now better known than the novel. The 1931 Frankenstein and 1935 Bride of Frankenstein gave us a radically reimagined version of the narrative, particularly the creation scene and Boris Karloff’s performance as the monster. James Whale and his special effects technicians introduced the high-voltage lab equipment and set the scene amidst the thunder and lightning now obligatory in horror movies. The creature’s violence was induced by his being tortured with fire. Karloff later said, “Over the years thousands of children wrote, expressing compassion for the great, weird creature who was so abused by its sadistic keeper that it could only respond to violence with violence. Those children saw beyond the make-up and really understood.” The 1935 sequel, with Elsa Lanchester playing both Mary Shelley and the creature’s bride, has also aged well. Both films create sympathy for the creature through his encounters with stupid and sadistic people, and both Karloff and Elsa Lanchester portray their characters with dignity and depth of emotion.
From the creation of the monster, to the creature’s killing of a small child, to violence committed against women, adaptations of Frankenstein again and again have returned to some of the most disturbing but recurring scenes of human experience. Mary Shelley’s unique contribution to culture is the creation of the monster. Her genius was to imagine a way to make life out of death; James Whale’s genius was to imagine a way to depict it in moving images and sound.
Whale’s Frankenstein films sparked a mass of cinematic energy. Other directors drew from it for years after with imitations and derivative films, a few just as frightening, some quite funny, none as haunting. The Morgan has borrowed a series of B-movie posters from a private collector and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to show some of the more faithful, comic, lurid, and execrable treatments of this theme
Makeup artists, perhaps, have come closer than anyone to bringing Victor Frankenstein’s story to life. Jack Pierce’s makeup gave the creature a new face in the 1931 film. Some highlights in the section include the sketches and photographs of this iconic appearance along with a gruesome torso model of Robert De Niro in Kenneth Branagh’s Frankenstein, provided by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, Austin.
The Creature’s Afterlife: Comic Books and Prints
The comic book as a separate slim magazine first appeared in 1933 as a promotional insert in newspapers, and Frankenstein has been part of this medium’s history from nearly the beginning. The exhibition includes some of the most interesting examples of the story, some aimed at children and some at adults.
Surprisingly few illustrators have taken on the novel’s challenge, but we present four of the best: Lynd Ward (remembered first of all as a wood engraver), Bernie Wrightson (a renowned comic book artist), Barry Moser (a celebrated book illustrator), and Pierre-Alain Bertola (a polymath Swiss artist who worked on a theatrical version of Frankenstein). All of them are working after, and against James Whale. All pay exquisite attention to Mary Shelley’s text and its ethical implications.
The exhibition closes with Barry Moser’s illustration of the Frankenstein family tomb, leaving us solidly in the tradition of Gothic art with which the show begins. Mary Shelley’s creature is a Gothic nightmare, but one who takes responsibility for himself. Even as his blood boils at the injustices committed against him, he is also “torn by the bitterest remorse.” Seeking quiet in death, he leaps onto his raft and is soon lost to human eyes. As mysterious and volatile in death as in life, Frankenstein’s monster leaves us with more questions than answers—perhaps the decisive reason why artists have been drawn to him for the past two hundred years.
Elizabeth Campbell Denlinger, It’s Alive! A Visual History of Frankenstein (New York: The Morgan Library & Museum, 2018), 336 pages, ISBN: 978-1512603422, $55.
Call for Papers | Printmaking in Sulzbach
From the Book History and Print Culture Network:
Printmaking in the Residential Town of Sulzbach in Historical Context
Sulzbach-Rosenberg, 5–6 July 2019
Proposals due by 31 October 2018
The history of printing and bookselling in the 17th century is a first-rate research desideratum. While the Reformation as an incubation period and the 18th century as a turning point towards books as a mass medium can be regarded as fundamentally researched, especially from the point of view of economic history, little attention has been paid to the time in between. The specific situation in the Pfalzgrafschaft Sulzbach in the second half of the 17th century can be an impulse to examine the printing press guided by current approaches of cultural studies in media historiography and the history of science.
In the last third of the 17th century several printers worked in the residence town of Sulzbach, which—favoured by the tolerance policy of Palatine Count Christian August—produced books and other printed products of all kinds, partly in cooperation with publishers in Nuremberg, but also beyond that. Notable printshops included those of Abraham Lichtenthaler (1621–1704, from 1664 in Sulzbach), Georg Abraham Lichtenthaler (1684–1736), and Georg Abraham Lorenz Lichtenthaler (1711–1780), as well as that of Johann Holst (1648–1726). Above all, however, the founding of a Hebrew printing house in 1684, led by Moses Bloch, was based on the sovereign’s interest in Jewish culture on the one hand and can be regarded as a mercantilist project on the other—the success of which can be seen from the fact that it quickly became one of the leading Jewish printing houses in Europe.
There are some general remarks on the history of book printing in Sulzbach, but they do not take a closer look at the publisher’s programmes or address special features such as cooperation among publishers. For this reason, the Christian Knorr von Rosenroth Society is focusing its 2019 Annual Conference on letterpress printing in the residential town of Sulzbach in a historical context. The Society invites interested scholars from the fields of book science, history of science, theology, medicine, law and history, but also from philology, to participate in its interdisciplinary orientation. Contributions are welcome which help to classify the Sulzbach printshops and the printed products produced there historically, but also those which place the regional events in a larger context.
Already a first bibliographical indexing shows that the printers in Sulzbach did not least fall back on successful titles whose sales seemed to be secured. There are indications that the ‘Simultaneum’ decreed by the sovereign offered ideal conditions for the printing trade at the intersection between the Protestant territories of the imperial city of Nuremberg and the Franconian margraves on the one hand and the Catholic Amberg on the other. Finally, the establishment of the Hebrew printshop is the result of a sovereign intervention, from which synergies resulted; the Sulzbach printshops were obviously able to produce even complex and extensive prints. Blochsche Druckerei achieved a leading position in the production of Hebrew prints, which was preserved well into the 18th century, but Lichtenthaler Druckerei also continued to flourish among the following generations, so that the printing trade remained of great importance for the city even after the extinction of the dynasty and the associated loss of the residence until the 19th century (the history, however, of the Sulzbach printing works after the early modern period will not be the subject of the conference).
Based on the indexing of the preserved books from Sulzbach printing works in VD 17 (printing place: Sulzbach, Sultzbac*, Sulzbac*, Sulbac*, Solisbac*, Zûlṣbʾaḵ) and partly also in VD 18, potential subjects of lectures are:
• Book censorship in Sulzbach in historical comparison, the Sulzbach renewed censorship order 1669
• The relations of the Nuremberg publishers Endter and Hoffmann with printers in Sulzbach
• Questions on Hebrew printing
• Catholics in the printing house of a Protestant (e.g. Florentius Schilling, Georg Mentzius)
• Legal manuals, guides and case collections (Franz Friedrich von Andlern, Octavio Pisani)
• Travel literature, country descriptions, especially Turcica (Johann Sigmund Wurffbain, Johann Heinrich Seyfried, Caspar Bruschius)
• Medical literature (including publications by Georg Bartisch, Elias Beynon, Jan Baptista van Helmont)
• Individual authors (Michael Münchmeyer, Andreas Lazarus von Imhof, Johann Hieronymus Imhof, Adam Contzen, Clamerus Florinus)
• The equipment of the books (numerous prints contain copper)
• The card game as a medium (Andreas Strobl)
• Sulzbach calendars
The above topics are not meant to be exhaustive. The organisers are happy to receive suggestions for contributions with some characterising remarks on the subject of the study until 31.10.2018. Please email ernst.rohmer@ur.de or rosmarie.zeller@unibas.ch. The conference takes place in Sulzbach-Rosenberg on 5./6.7.2019. The conference papers will be published in Morgen-Glantz. Yearbook of the Christian Knorr von Rosenroth Society for the year 2020.
For speakers, the Society will raise subsidies to cover the costs of travel and accommodation in Sulzbach-Rosenberg. The conference starts on Friday at 2pm and ends on Saturday at 6pm. Sulzbach-Rosenberg is located on the A 6 (Nuremberg-Prague) or can be reached from Nuremberg and Regensburg by regional express trains every hour.
Prof. Dr. Ernst Rohmer
Universität Regensburg
Institut für Germanistik
Universitätsstraße 31
D-93053 Regensburg
Prof. Dr. Rosmarie Zeller
Universität Basel
Deutsches Seminar
Nadelberg 4
CH – 4051 Basel
Call for Papers | After the Grand Tour
From H-ArtHist:
After the Grand Tour: References, Revisions, Returns
Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, Rome, 12 April 2019
Proposals due by 15 November 2018
Ninth edition of the international symposium Grand Tour del Terzo Millennio: Researches on Art and Architectural History by Foreign Scholars and Artists in Rome. Previous editions were held at the University of Rome – Tor Vergata; this year’s symposium will be curated by the Rome Art History Network (RAHN) with the generous support of the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca and the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History (Rome). It is organized by Iacopo Benincampi and Arianna Carannante, in collaboration with Anne Scheinhardt.
Between the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century, Rome represented the main international cultural center of Europe. Consequently, many young and passionate ‘amateurs’ continued to go there, just to get closer to art as well as to specialize in their profession as artists. However, due to the political weakness of the Papal government, travelers did not set a permanent base in the city. They went back home with the certainty that their acquired knowledge would confer them a favorable advantage in the exercise of their profession. After all, the repertory of Roman sources remained an essential point of cultural reference for the construction, completion, and legitimation of modern identities in Europe. These were translated in an open-air catalogue of themes, formal models, and technical solutions with the power to inspire innovative elaborations, and to catalyze new compositional and constructional experiments.
Rome’s distinctiveness in this regard fostered its international significance and acted as an incentive for the foundation of foreign academies. To this day these institutions are a cultural compass for the scientific and artistic exploration of the city of Rome. The objective of this conference is to reflect on the inheritance of the experience of the Grand Tour, especially within the realm of the figurative arts and architecture. Our aim is to create a platform for comparing and reflecting on models of research by foreigners and Italian scholars in Rome.
Which instances of Rome’s artistic output—from contemporary and/or previous times—captured the interest of visitors and artists between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries? What were the privileged mediums of their documentation (sketches, drawings, and so forth)? Once they returned home, which Roman works did Grand Tourists take as models for local experimentation, and how did these references come to be developed? What role did religious and lay patrons play in this regard? What social networks did they form during their Roman sojourn? What contacts did they maintain? Did anyone stay or return at a later point?
These themes will be addressed during the conference which will be held on 12th of April. Especially fellows, doctoral students, postdoctoral scholars, and professors in history of art and architecture from foreign institutions are invited to send proposals related to these themes.
Please send an abstract in Italian or English of 2,500 characters max (spaces included) and a bio of 1,500 characters max (spaces included) to convegno.grandtour@gmail.com by the 15th of November 2018. We will consider the possibility of publishing the conference proceedings.
New Book (and Film) | Peterloo
From Head of Zeus Books:
Jacqueline Riding, Peterloo: The Story of the Manchester Massacre (London: Head of Zeus, 2018), 400 pages, 400 pages, ISBN: 978-1786695833, £30.
Manchester, August 1819: 60,000 people had gathered in the cause of parliamentary reform. To those defending the status quo, the vote was not a universal right, but a privilege of wealth and land ownership. To radical reformers the fundamental overhaul of a corrupt system was long overdue. The people had come to hear one such reformer, Henry Hunt, from all over Lancashire, walking to the sound of hymns and folk songs. By the end of the day fifteen of them, including two women and a child, were dead or mortally wounded, and 650 injured, hacked down by drunken yeomanry after local magistrates panicked at the scale of the meeting. The British state, four years after defeating the ‘tyrant’ Bonaparte at Waterloo, had turned its forces against its own people, as they peaceably exercised their liberties.
Dr Jacqueline Riding’s compelling book ties in to Mike Leigh’s forthcoming film Peterloo, for which the author was historical advisor, in advance of the bicentenary of Peterloo in 2019.
Jacqueline Riding is author of the award-winning Jacobites: A New History of the ‘45 Rebellion. She is a consultant for museums, galleries and historic buildings, and an historical adviser on feature films.
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According to Wikipedia, the film is “scheduled to be released in the United Kingdom on 2 November 2018, by Entertainment One, and in the United States on 9 November 2018, by Amazon Studios.”
Exhibition | Rosetsu: Ferocious Brush
Nagasawa Rosetsu, Tiger, 1786 door panels from the Zen Temple Muryōji, Kushimoto.
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From the press release for the exhibition:
Rosetsu: Ferocious Brush / Rosetsu: Fantastische Bilderwelten aus Japan
Museum Rietberg, Zurich, 6 September — 4 November 2018
Curated by Khanh Trinh and Matthew McKelway
For eight weeks, Japan’s most famous tiger will reside exclusively at Museum Rietberg in Zurich. The story goes that the Japanese artist Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754–1799) painted this monumental tiger together with its counterpart, a dragon, on the sliding door panels of the Zen temple Muryōji in a single night in the year 1786. Now the entire temple’s painted walls and a number of other, awe-inspiring masterpieces by Rosetsu are being shown for the first time outside of Japan. Rosetsu’s highly dynamic paintings created with vigorous brushstrokes and sometimes with his fingers, but also his delicate compositions painted with fine brushes and rich colour are replete with energy, wit, and modern appeal.
Renowned as one of the most eccentric and imaginative artists in early modern Japan, Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754–1799) produced visually exciting, classification-defying works during his brief career. The exhibition Rosetsu: Ferocious Brush unravels the many mysteries of this enigmatic career. An exclusive and expert selection of works by Rosetsu chosen in consultation with the Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Government of Japan (Bunkachō) reveals his painting subjects, his relationship to Zen Buddhism, his contacts with patrons outside Kyoto, and his choice of extraordinarily bold images.
The exhibition at the Rietberg Museum will survey Rosetsu’s art through a selection of sixty of his most important paintings, beginning with the earliest works in the realist style of his teacher Maruyama Ōkyo (1733–1795) and ending with the haunting and occasionally bizarre final masterpieces of his career. Screen paintings, scrolls, and albums depicting Zen eccentrics, children at play, ethereal beauties, breathtaking landscapes, and vivacious animals and birds will take viewers on a journey through Rosetsu’s own travels and into his fantastic imagination. These works, some of them compellingly realistic and others surprisingly abstract, take us into an early modern Japan we did not know and which feels very contemporary.
The highlight of the exhibition will be a magnificent ensemble of 48 screens and hanging scrolls, displayed in a recreated original floorplan of the Zen temple Muryōji. This Zen temple in the southern part of Japan’s main island holds the largest and most important collection of Rosetsu’s paintings, created in 1786. Various stories recount the creation of this breathtaking ensemble. The installation of these works would present an unprecedented opportunity to view and examine the paintings in a single venue outside their home in Kushimoto, and indeed the first such installation of architecturally specific paintings in an exhibition outside Japan.
Approximately one-third of the works to be exhibited are registered as Important Cultural Properties or Important Art Objects. Complementing these masterpieces from Japan, paintings from museums, temples, and private collections in Japan, Europe, and the United States trace the phases of Rosetsu’s life as he pursued his livelihood in Kyoto and the surrounding provinces. The exhibition closes with a dramatic display of abstract landscapes, ghosts, and perhaps his most astonishing work of all, a depiction of 500 Disciples of the Buddha on a surface of only one square inch.
Rosetsu, who hailed from a low-ranking samurai family, gained his reputation among art circles in the imperial capital Kyoto and its neighbouring regions with his untamed personality and his unusual talent. The exhibits run the gamut of formats and subjects, from exquisitely executed scrolls depicting birds and flowers in brilliant polychrome pigments to large-scale sliding doors and folding screens with fantastic landscapes, bizarre figures, and adorable animals. With his unconventional compositions and powerful brushwork Rosetsu always offers a fresh take on traditional subject matter. His paintings never fail to surprise, entertain, and charm.
The show at the Museum Rietberg is the first comprehensive presentation ever to take place outside of Japan. The exhibition is jointly curated by Dr Khanh Trinh, Curator of Japanese art, Museum Rietberg, Zurich, and Professor Matthew McKelway, Takeo and Itsuko Atsumi Professor of Japanese art history; director of the Mary Griggs Burke Center for Japanese Art, Columbia University in the City of New York.
Khanh Trinh and Matthew McKelway, Rosetsu: Ferocious Brush (London: Prestel, 2018), 296 pages, ISBN: 978-3791357263, $60 / £45. Also available in German.
Symposium | Rosetsu in Context
From H-ArtHist:
Rosetsu in Context
Museum Rietberg, Zurich, 7 October 2018
Nagasawa Rosetsu, Scholars Crossing a Bridge, 1788–89, ink and color on paper, hanging scroll, 47 × 21 inches (San Diego Museum of Art).
Eighteenth-century Japan witnessed an unprecedented diversity in artistic expression, nourished by the flourishing of a sophisticated urban culture and the increased affluence of the population in provincial areas. This symposium presents an array of fresh perspectives on issues of art production and consumption as well as leading figures of the art scene that constitute the environment in which Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754–1799) lived and worked.
Organised with the support of the Mary Griggs Burke Center for Japanese Art, Columbia University, in conjunction with the special exhibition Rosetsu: Ferocious Brush, on view at the Museum Rietberg Zurich, 6 September — 4 November 2018. While participation in the symposium is free of charge, a registration is required.
P R O G R A M M E
9.30 Doors open
10.00 Welcome by Albert Lutz (Director, Museum Rietberg)
10.10 Introduction by Khanh Trinh (Curator of Japanese and Korean Art, Museum Rietberg)
10.30 Noguchi Takeshi (Chief Curator, Nezu Museum), The Tiger and Departure from Realistic Representation: Nagasawa Rosetsu in Comparison to his Master Maruyama Ōkyo
11.10 Break
11.30 Alexander Hofmann (Curator for Japanese Art, Asian Art Museum, State Museums Berlin), The Genius and the Bores – Or: Whatever Happened to Rosetsu’s Contemporary Academic Painters?
12.10 Lunch and exhibition viewing
14.00 Yukio Lippit (Professor, Harvard University), From Kisō to Kijin: Reconsidering Eccentricity through Ike no Taiga’s Two Chinese Poets
14.40 Kadowaki Mutsumi (Visiting Professor, Osaka University), Itō Jakuchū and Zen
15.20 Break
15.40 Matthew McKelway (Professor, Columbia University), Nagasawa Rosetsu and Zen
16.30 Questions and panel discussion
Symposium | Rethinking the Life and Work of Rosetsu
From H-ArtHist:
Rethinking the Life and Work of Nagasawa Rosetsu
University of Zurich, 20–21 October 2018
The Japanese painter Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754–1799) has increasingly been a source of interest during the last years from popular and academic audiences with numerous exhibitions in Japan and in the West. Rosetsu has long been a name in Western studies of Japanese art, starting with a groundbreaking exhibition at the Denver Art Museum in 1973 and the publication by Robert Moes from the same year. Presently he is represented at an outstanding exhibition at the Museum Rietberg, Zurich, that feature key works of the artists, seldom seen outside of Japan.
Rosetsu has been the center of controversy over a long time, from the different versions of his contested biography to the questions of how to interpret the artist and his work. For decades he has been relegated to a list of eccentric artists, which serves little but to obscure a serious discussion of the artist and his remarkable works. At this time of great popularity and exposure to the public in the East and the West, a rethinking of the artist and his works seems highly overdue.
For this purpose, the University of Zurich has invited the top Japanese scholars who have been working on Rosetsu over the last years. We have planned a two-day conference with presentations and discussions and are inviting both younger and more established scholars, including Professors Yasuhiro Satō and Motoaki Kōno, who has been working on Rosetsu since the 1970s. Among the younger stars in the field, we are inviting Momo Miyazaki and Hideyuki Okada who have recently changed Rosetsu scholarship in significant ways.
The aim is to gather these scholars and to have them engage with each other and pool their knowledge into meaningful discussions. The expected result of the conference is to spread wider knowledge of this outstanding artist among the scholarly community and among the public. We also hope that discoveries in the life and works of the artist will be a lasting result of this conference.
The symposium is free and open to the public. No prior registration is required. Presentations will be in Japanese and in English. Texts in English will be supplied for presentations held in Japanese. For questions, please contact the Section for East Asian Art: kgoa@khist.uzh.ch.
The symposium is organized by the Section for East Asian Art, University of Zurich, and is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Swiss-Japanese Society, and the University of Zurich Foundation (Hochschulstiftung).
S A T U R D A Y , 2 0 O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8
10:15
佐藤康宏 Satō Yasuhiro, University of Tokyo
「長澤蘆雪における〈反動〉― 應舉の氷を破る」/ Rosetsu’s Backlash: Breaking the Ice of Ōkyo
11:15
野口剛 Noguchi Takeshi, 根津美術館 Nezu Art Museum
「月光」と詩情の回復：師・円山応挙との比較による長沢芦雪に関する考察 / Moonlight and the Return of Sentiment: Nagasawa Rosetsu in Comparison to His Master Maruyama Ōkyo
14:15
岡田秀之 Okada Hideyuki, 嵯峨嵐山日本美術研究所 Saga-Arashiyama Institute for Japanese Art
「芦雪の初期作品について」/ On the Early Works by Rosetsu
15:45
河野元昭 Kōno Motoaki, 静嘉堂文庫 Seikadō Bunko Art Museum
「私が見てきた長澤蘆雪受容の変化」/ Changes in Rosetsu Reception That I Have Observed Over the Years
16:45
中谷伸生 Nakatani Nobuo, Kansai University
「芦雪と大坂画壇」/ Osaka Painters and Rosetsu
S U N D A Y , 2 1 O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8
14:00
宮崎ももMiyazaki Momo, 大和文華館 Yamato Bunkakan
「芦雪の指頭画をめぐって」/ On the Finger Paintings of Rosetsu
15:00
Hans Bjarne Thomsen, University of Zurich
The Kansai Eccentric
16:30
筒井忠仁 Tsutsui Tadahito, 文化庁Agency for Cultural Affairs
「南紀から広島へ―長澤蘆雪の画風の変遷と精神の変容―」/ From Nanki to Hiroshima: The Transition of the Nagasawa Rosetsu’s Style and the Transformation of his Spirit
Call for Papers | Performance, Royalty, and the Court, 1500–1800
Paolo Monaldi, Prince James Receiving his Son Prince Henry in front of the Palazzo del Re, ca. 1747–48, oil on canvas, 196 × 297 cm (National Galleries of Scotland). The Palazzo del Re was home to the exiled Jacobite court in Rome. Owned by the Muti family, it was rented by the Papacy for the Old Pretender, James.
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From the Call for Papers:
Performance, Royalty, and the Court, 1500–1800
Society for Court Studies Conference
Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London, 11–12 April 2019
Proposals due by 7 December 2018
Next year is the 400th anniversary of the death of Anne of Denmark (1574–1619), a queen consort of the king of Scotland, England, and Ireland, who is well known for her patronage of art, architecture, and court entertainments, in particular masques devised by Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones. To mark this important anniversary, The Society for Court Studies, with the support of the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and Birkbeck College School of Arts, is organizing a two-day conference focusing on performance and the courts of the British Isles and continental Europe during the early modern period, with the opportunity to explore the networks and encounters between courts, both within and beyond Europe. The interdisciplinary nature of the topic necessarily embraces cultural, political and economic history, literature, and the visual and performing arts.
Performance was at the heart of the early modern period, with the court itself forming a stage for the construction, communication, and display of power and privilege—a world in which the social relationships that circulated around rulers, their families, and supporters took shape and found expression. Men and women played out a variety of important social, political, military, and governmental roles as well as participating in dramatic events, with court rituals and ceremonies providing occasions for demonstrations of authority, prowess, and magnificence. The architecture and decoration that surrounded the court, whether permanent or temporary, not only provided a physical setting but reinforced objectives and allegiances, as did dress, accoutrements, and entourage. The court also formed a rich source of inspiration for composers, playwrights, and actors—whether representing courts in their dramas, playing before the court, or devising masques and ballets with courtiers as performers. Equally, art and artistic patronage were of central importance, not only through the direct participation of painters, designers and craftsmen in ceremonies, dramas and other occasions, but also through portraiture and other forms of representation. Indeed, a work of art was often perceived and described as a performance.
In all its senses, performance represented opportunities for individuals and groups to find ways of expressing their ideals, their ambitions and aspirations, their frustrations and hostilities. This conference aims to bring this sense of opportunity to the study of the early-modern court, thinking in the broadest possible terms about how we can define our approaches and how, by taking the theme of performance as our guide, we can open up the study of the courtly world and its peoples to new scholarship and new audiences.
Suggested themes include, but are not restricted to:
• Political ritual and gift-giving
• Diplomacy, power play, and hospitality
• Gender and modes of performance
• Loyalties and affiliations
• Control and freedom
• Identity and values
• Court rituals and traditions
• Ceremonies, receptions, progresses and processions
• Reception, audience, and commentary
• Drama, dance, music, and speeches/addresses
• Cultural and social patronage
• Chivalric, sportive and martial performance (tournaments, barriers, manège)
• Trade, commerce, and entrepreneurship
• Visual arts as performance
• Architecture, interiors, settings and locations
Please send proposals of no more than 300 words along with a short biography to courtstudiesconference@gmail.com by Friday, 7 December 2018.
Convenors: Dr Janet Dickinson (Conference Secretary SCS and Oxford University) and Dr Jacqueline Riding (Committee Member SCS and Birkbeck College)
At Sotheby’s | Jewels Owned by Marie Antoinette
Press release, via Art Daily, for the auction at Sotheby’s:
Royal Jewels from the Bourbon Parma Family
Sotheby’s, Geneva, 14 November 2018, Sale GE1809
Natural pearl and diamond pendant, 18th century; set with an oval diamond supporting a diamond bow motif and a slightly baroque drop-shaped natural pearl measuring approximately 16 × 18 × 26mm, hook and hinged back fitting. Estimated at $1–2 million.
Sotheby’s unveiled additional highlights from one of the most important royal jewellery collections ever to be presented at auction. On 14 November 2018, in Geneva, royal jewels from the Bourbon Parma Family will be offered at auction for the first time, including treasures which belonged to France’s ill-fated queen, Marie Antoinette (1755–1793). During an international tour of public exhibitions in the coming weeks, jewellery lovers will be able to view these historic jewels, which carry with them more than 200 years of European history.
An initial announcement in June captured the world’s imagination, when it was revealed that Sotheby’s would offer this extraordinary collection of treasures in Geneva. The sale includes pieces which can be traced back to Marie Antoinette led by an extraordinary diamond and natural pearl pendant estimated at $1–2 million, as well treasures from her brother-in-law, King Charles X of France (1757–1836), the Archdukes of Austria and the Dukes of Parma.
Jewels of Marie Antoinette
Never in the course of history has the destiny of a queen been so closely associated with jewels than that of Marie Antoinette. Her great love of pearls and diamonds is well-known and a number of historians have cited Napoleon’s view, that the so-called ‘affair of the diamond necklace’—a scandal which tarnished the queen’s reputation in 1785—was one of the causes of the French Revolution.
The impressive ensemble of jewels to be offered this autumn has an extraordinary story. In March 1791, King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and their children began to prepare their escape from France. According to accounts written by Marie Antoinette’s lady in waiting, Madame Campan, the queen spent an entire evening in the Tuileries Palace wrapping all of her diamonds, rubies, and pearls in cotton and placing them in a wooden chest. In the following days, the jewels were sent to Brussels, which was under the rule of the queen’s sister, Archduchess Marie-Christine and which was home to Count Mercy Argentau. The count, the former Austrian Ambassador to Paris, was one of the only men who had retained the queen’s trust. It was he who took delivery of the jewels and sent them on to Vienna, into the safe keeping of the Austrian Emperor, Marie Antoinette’s nephew.
Altogether, the collection includes 10 jewels which belonged to Marie Antoinette.
In 1792, the royal family was imprisoned in the Temple tower. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were executed by guillotine in 1793 and their 10-year old son, Louis XVII, died in captivity. The king and queen’s only surviving child, Marie-Thérèse de France (1778–1851), ‘Madame Royale’, was released in December 1795, after three years of solitary confinement. After learning of the deaths of her mother and brother, she was sent to Austria. Upon her arrival in Vienna in 1796, she was given her mother’s jewels by her cousin, the emperor. Having borne no children of her own, Madame Royale bequeathed part of her jewellery collection to her niece and adopted daughter, Louise of France (1819–1864), Duchess of Parma and grand-daughter of Charles X, King of France (1757–1836), who in turn left them to her son, Robert I (1848–1907), the last ruling Duke of Parma.
In addition to the exquisite pearl jewels announced in June, several more pearl jewels to be offered in November belonged to Marie Antoinette, including a beautiful pair of natural pearl and diamond earrings (estimate $200,000–300,000). Also from Marie Antoinette is a superb single-strand natural pearl necklace (estimate $40,000–70,000).
A beautiful six-strand pearl necklace also provides a direct link to the iconic queen of France. Its clasp—which remains unaltered today—was part of her collection and features five large and 18 smaller natural pearls. In Marie Antoinette’s day, it formed the clasp of a six-row natural pearl bracelet, one of a pair. The necklace was commissioned by later generations of the Bourbon Parma family and strung with cultured pearls (estimate $5,000–8,000).
Five fascinating diamond jewels to be auctioned in November can be traced back to Marie Antoinette. Among them is a stunning diamond brooch from the late 18th century, featuring a beautiful yellow diamond. The double ribbon bow was formerly part of Marie Antoinette’s collection, and it is thought that the yellow diamond pendant was added at a later date (estimate CHF $50,000–80,000).
Created as a memento, a diamond ring bearing initials ‘MA’ for Marie Antoinette and containing a lock of her hair provides a fascinatingly intimate link to the queen. It is offered together with a ring with the monogram and hair of her father-in-law, Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765) who died before he could ascend the throne, and a diamond plaque bearing the monogram ‘MT’ set in diamonds, which refers to Marie-Thérèse of Savoie (1803–1879), Duchess of Parma and wife of Charles II, Duke of Parma (estimate for the two rings and plaque: $20,000–50,000).
By family tradition, the diamonds adorning this beautiful brooch belonged to Marie Antoinette. In her detailed inventory of the family’s jewels, Maria Anna of Austria (1882–1940), explains she was informed of the history of the brooch by her father-in-law, Robert I of Parma (1848–1907), who presented it to her on the occasion of her engagement to his son, Elie de Bourbon Parme (1880–1959) (estimate $95,000–140,000).
Also passed down through generations of Marie Antoinette’s descendants is a diamond ring decorated with her portrait, made in the late 18th century. In her will, Marie Antoinette’s daughter, Marie Thérèse de France (also known as Madame Royale), mentions that the portrait, which is set within a frame of pearls, is a likeness of her mother (estimate $8,000–12,000).
Marie Antoinette’s passion for Jewellery also extended to fine watches, as is evidenced by a pocket watch. Although the movement of the watch has been changed, its case—in blue enamel and encrusted with pearls—belonged to the queen. It bears the initials ‘M.A.’ on the inside of the case, along with three fleur de lys motifs (estimate $1,000–2,000).
Additional Jewels from the French Royal Family
The collection is also highlighted by jewels that belonged to King Charles X (1757–1836), the last King of France and last of the Bourbon rulers, his son, the Duke of Angoulême and their descendants. Resolutely conservative, accused by his own brother Louis XVI of being “plus royaliste que le roi” (more royalist than the king), Charles X revived a number of orders of chivalry that had been abolished during the French revolution and under Napoleon’s rule.
A breathtaking diamond tiara (estimate $350,000–550,000) offers a fascinating insight into how precious objects were disassembled in order to retrieve diamonds and gemstones, so they could be re-used as fashions evolved. The diamonds that adorn the tiara came from a badge of the Royal Order of the Holy Spirit, a French order of chivalry founded by King Henri III in 1578. The insignia was originally owned by Charles X, Marie Antoinette’s brother-in-law. The diamonds later passed to Robert I, Duke of Parma (1848–1907). The tiara was created using the precious stones around 1912 for Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria (1882–1940) by the celebrated Vienna jeweller Hübner, who designed it to allow the wearer to explore different styles: the fleur de lys motifs of this stunning piece can be detached and worn separately as brooches. The frame of Charles X’s order, which originally held the diamonds, has remained in the family and will also be offered in November (estimate $150-300).
Extraordinary in its workmanship and powerful symbolism, this jeweled badge of the Order of the Golden Fleece belonged to Louis Antoine of Bourbon, Duke of Angoulême (1775–1844), who married Marie-Antoinette’s daughter, his cousin. The Order of the Golden Fleece is widely considered to be the most prestigious and exclusive order of chivalry in the world. It is likely that Louis Antoine received the badge following his participation in the Spanish Expedition of 1823, thanks to which his cousin, Ferdinand of Bourbon was restored as absolute king of Spain. A sumptuous example of the order’s symbol, beneath a large white diamond this badge features the traditional French royal symbol, the oriflamme, represented by a central sapphire, surrounded by flames composed of rubies. The fleece of the ram forms the lower part of the jewel, realized in gold and diamonds (estimate $300,000–400,000).
Boasting the same extraordinary provenance, this plaque of the Royal Order of the Holy Spirit (right) was awarded to Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême before being passed down through the generations to Robert I, son of Charles III of Parma and Louise de France (and Marie Antoinette’s great-nephew). The most prestigious French order of chivalry during its 252 years of existence (1578–1830), it was abolished during the French Revolution, and then revived by Charles X who restored the ceremonies of the Order. The loop at the top of the badge (adorned with baguette- and round-cut diamonds) was designed so that the order could be worn on a tie without having to alter the jewel (estimate $100,000–150,000).
Royal Treasures of Austria
Sumptuous jewels passed down through the Bourbon Parma family from the imperial family of Austria will also be offered in November. A beautiful Burmese ruby and diamond set, composed of a brooch and a pair of earrings, dates from the turn of the last century. It conjures up images of the glamour and elegance of the Austrian court. Originally part of the collection of Queen Isabella II of Spain (1830–1904), the set was later purchased by Archduke and Archduchess Frédéric of Austria and inherited by their daughter, Maria Anna, Archduchess of Austria (1882–1940), who mentions it in her inventory of the family jewels (estimate $150,000–250,000).
A diamond bow brooch from the 18th century also stands out among the jewels from the Austrian side of the Bourbon-Parma family. It originally belonged to Empress Marie Thérèse of Austria (1717–1780), Marie Antoinette’s mother, and later to Archduke Rainier of Austria (1827–1913) before passing down through the family to Maria Anna. Its intricate design and workmanship illustrate the quality of jewels created for the royal family (estimate $75,000–110,000).
In her inventory, Maria Anna recorded that this delightful diamond brooch, with a yellow sapphire in its centre, originally belonged to her mother, Princess Isabella of Croÿ (1856–1931) (estimate $40,000–65,000). Maria Anna received these simple yet elegant diamond earrings from her father, Archduke Frédéric, on the occasion of her wedding in 1903 (estimate $50,000–80,000).
Tour Dates
Munich | 18 September
Hong Kong | 28 September – 2 October
Dubai | 7–9 October
New York | 12–16 October
London | 20–22 October
Singapore | 26–27 October
Taipei | 30–31 October
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Note (added 15 November 2018) — The pearl pendant, estimated to sell for up to $2million, fetched an extraordinary $36millon. The ten pieces auctioned reached a total of $42.7 million against a pre-sale estimate of $1.6–2.9 million. The post sale press release is available here.
Conference | Hadrian’s Villa and Its Reception
From Munich’s Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte:
Villa Adriana: Die kaiserliche Residenz und ihre Rezeption
Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich, 17 October 2018
17:15 Cristina Ruggero (ZI, München), Bares für Rares: Antike aus der Hadriansvilla und der römische Kunstmarkt
17:45 Clare Hornsby (London), Man of Spirit, Man of Taste, Man of Fashion: Deciphering Identities of the British Collectors of Ancient Marbles
This talk will examine some examples of motivations for collecting: art as investment, response to peer pressure or fashion, ambition to form taste or to improve national standards; rarely were the motivations clear cut. The collectors included here will range from the politically ambitious commoner Bubb Dodington and his highly-placed dealer Cardinal Albani in the late 1740s, to the archetype of the nobleman collector the Earl of Shelburne, who acquired several pieces from Hadrian’s Villa in the 1760s and 70s. Others considered are the obsessively acquisitive gentleman-scholar Charles Townley and the banker-collector Lyde Browne, their activities furnishing us with a look at the role of the secondary market and the expansion of the mania for collecting. For all of these collectors, Hadrian’s Villa was the provenance par excellence for any ancient statue; reference will be made in this talk to some of the sculptures discovered there and how the British excavators and dealers used that provenance to add even further value to the perennial glamour of the ancient work of art.
18:30 Adriano Aymonino (The University of Buckingham), The Reception of Ancient Painting in the Eighteenth Century: Theoretical Debate, Antiquarian Publications, and the Visual Arts
This talk focuses on the nature of the relationship between the reception of ancient painting and the humanistic theory of art. It argues that this relationship was twofold: on the one hand, surviving textual evidence on Greek and Roman painting provided examples, tropes and principles that were instrumental in shaping art theory, from Leon Battista Alberti to Giovanni Pietro Bellori and the theoreticians of eighteenth-century classicism. On the other hand, the almost complete lack of physical remains of these artworks contributed to an idealised vision of ancient painting that was equally influential in defining some of the essential tendencies that shaped this theoretical tradition. Specifically, my paper will investigate how the relationship between theory and object evolved in the face of those new discoveries, publications and antiquarian ideas that proliferated over the course of the eighteenth century—with a particular focus on Hadrian’s Villa.
Additional information is available here»
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