CALL FOR PAPERS: Art and Articulation

8-9th January 2016, St Hilda's College, Oxford

The relationship between word and image, and the ways in which medieval art (be it visual, textual, or both) operates as a means of expressing the inexpressible, will be explored in a two-day conference held in Oxford under the auspice of the Mystical Theology Network.

This interdisciplinary conference will bring together theologians, art historians, and literary scholars to examine the ways in which various forms of artistic expression have been and can be used to articulate the mystical or that which cannot easily be spoken. The principal focus will be art and articulation in medieval works and modern responses to them.

The conference will investigate the role of art and its connection to forms of mystical knowing through various strands. From visual art, through optics, apophasis and ekphrasis to mystical theology, this multidisciplinary approach to illumination will shed new light on the role of art in mystical contemplation.

Keynote Speakers:

Barbara Baert, Professor of Art History, KU Leuven.
Inigo Bocken, Director of the Titus Brandsma Instituut for the Study of Spirituality, Radboud University of Nijmegen.
Sheila Gallagher, Artist, and Associate Professor of Fine Arts, Boston College
Vincent Gillespie, J.R.R. Tolkien Professor of English Literature and Language, University of Oxford.
Catherine Karkov, Professor of Art History, University of Leeds.
Michael Kuczynski, Associate Professor of English, Tulane University.
Bernard McGinn, Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor Emeritus of Historical Theology and of the History of Christianity, University of Chicago.
William Prosser, Artist and Fellow of the Centre for Christianity and Culture, Regent’s Park College, Oxford.

We welcome submissions for 20-minute papers and proposals for sessions of three 20-minute papers.

Topics may include, but are by no means confined to:

• The interplay between mysticism and art, both visual and textual.
• Art (visual, textual or both) as a means of communicating that which is hard to articulate.
• Apophasis.
• Theorisations of art and beauty and how these relate to notions of mysticism.
• Transformative visions and the therapeutic effect of ‘seeing as’.
• Medieval and modern ideas on optics, seeing and contemplation/mysticism.
• The intersection between visual and textual art.
• The role of illuminations and annotations in medieval manuscripts.
• Ekphrasis.

Please send an abstract of no more than 300 words to the conference organisers by 1st September 2015.

We warmly welcome papers from graduate students.

We also warmly welcome contributions from artists outside of academia. For more information about contributing as an artist please contact Tom de Freston

For further information please refer to https://artandarticulationconference.wordpress.com

CALL FOR PAPERS: The Opportune Moment and the Early Modern Theatre of Politics

An initiative of the Grasping Kairos Research Network

Thursday 12th November 2015, 13.00-20.00, Room 112, 43 Gordon Square, Birkbeck, University of London   Seminar: 13.00-17.30

Keynote: 18.00-19.00 Professor Neil Rhodes, University of St Andrews, followed by a drinks reception

This seminar will be the first meeting of Grasping Kairos, an international research network (graspingkairos.wix.com/network) which investigates the history of the opportune moment (kairos/ occasio) in literature, theory, art, religion and philosophy. This seminar will focus on the uses, and the idea, of the opportune moment in the political theatre / theatrical politics of the European Renaissance.

Although in many ways lost to contemporary conceptualisations of temporality, kairos/occasio was an essential part of the Renaissance world-view. Writers from Machiavelli to Shakespeare reiterated the importance of recognising and properly seizing kairos or ‘occasion’ in order to achieve desired ends – whether personal or political. The need to be attentive to this moment could justify normally immoral actions, and so kairos was associated with moral flexibility, deviousness and cunning, both in the political and theatrical worlds.

We invite papers that explore the concept of kairos/occasio in relation to any aspect of early modern theatre or political thought in the period 1500-1660. Questions that papers might address include:

• How does the concept of the opportune moment shape political and performative spheres in the period?
• How do discourses of kairos/occasio outside politics or theatre impact its representation in those respective worlds?
• What is the relationship between the idea of the opportune moment in political and in theatrical discourses?
• What performative strategies employ concepts of the moment in the early modern period?
• How is kairos/occasio visualised on the early modern stage? 
• In what ways is the concept of the opportune moment used to confirm or destabilise identity? 
• How does the idea or representation of kairos/occasio change across this time period?

To attend the seminar, please send an abstract of max. 300 words, accompanied by a one-page CV by 30th September 2015 to the seminar organisers Dr Joanne Paul, Dr Kristine Johanson, and Dr Sarah Lewis at graspingkairos@gmail.com. We welcome abstracts from both established scholars and postgraduates. If you would like to audit the seminar, please email the network and hopefully we will be able to accommodate you.

To attend the keynote address, please email graspingkairos@gmail.com to be added to the list of attendees.

For more information, please visit the Grasping Kairos website: graspingkairos.wix.com/network

This event is funded by a London Renaissance Seminar Small Prize Internship

International conference ‘Art and Science in the Early Modern Low Countries (ca 1560-1730)’

https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/art-and-science

Amsterdam, September 17 (Rijksmuseum) and 18 (Trippenhuis), 2015
Registration deadline: September 14, 2015

On September 17 and 18, 2015, Amsterdam is to host the conference ‘Art and Science in the Early Modern Low Countries (ca 1560-1730)’, organized by the Rijksmuseum and the Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands.

Prior to the eighteenth century, ‘art’ and ‘science’ were often considered complementary, rather than opposite, expressions of human culture. They enlightened one another: through comparable curiosity, knowledge and observation of the world, but also in their resulting products: paintings, prints, books, maps, anatomical preservations, life casts, and many others. Scholars, craftsmen and artists often engaged in observing and representing nature, in close cooperation.

During the sixteenth and seventeenth century, it was the Low Countries that emerged as a center of artistic and scientific innovation and creativity, and as central points in the exchange of goods, knowledge and skill. It is certainly no coincidence that the outburst of artistic productivity in the Netherlands, both the South and the North, coincided with the ‘Scientific Revolution’.

The conference ‘Art and Science in the Early Modern Low Countries’ wants to contribute to the dialogue between experts in the history of art, historians of science, and all those interested in the visual and material culture of the sixteenth and seventeenth-century Netherlands. The conference focuses on historical objects, images, works or art or texts that represent the combination of art and science, and looks at their origin and intended audience. Sessions are, amongst others, devoted to the culture of collecting; modes of representing living nature; the influence of new optical devices on the arts; and the impact of travels abroad on representations of the world.

Although the emphasis of the conference will be on the Low Countries, both the South and the North, several contributions also include developments elsewhere in Europe. This way, it hopes to offer a broad overview of the way in which art and science came together in the early modern Low Countries.

Keynote Speakers:
· Pamela H. Smith, Columbia University, New York
· Alexander Marr, University of Cambridge

Organizing committee:
Eric Jorink and Ilja Nieuwland (Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands, The Hague), Jan de Hond, Gregor Weber, Gijs van der Ham and Pieter Roelofs (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)

Scientific committee:
Joanna Woodall (The Courtauld Institute of Art, London), Karin Leonhard (Universität Konstanz), Tim Huisman (Museum Boerhaave Leiden)

Venues:
The first day of the conference (September 17) takes place in the Rijksmuseum, the second day (September 18) in the Trippenhuis (Seat of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences), both in Amsterdam.

Program:
For a tentative program please consult: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/art-and-science

Admission and registration:
€ 95 (both days); Students: € 45.
Register at: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/art-and-science

For more information:
Ilja Nieuwland, ilja.nieuwland@huygens.knaw.nl

Leonardo da Vinci Society Annual Lecture

Dr Ashok Roy (National Gallery)
“Analysing Leonardo: New Research on his Practice of Painting”

Friday 9 May 2014, 6.00 pm at the Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre
Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, Strand, London
Admission is free, all are welcome

Laboratories of Art

Main Conference Room, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Boltzmannstr. 22, 14195 Berlin

Organisers: Sven Dupré Max Planck Research Group Director, MPIWG/Freie Universität Berlin

Dedo von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk Kunstpalast Museum Düsseldorf

Common components of art and alchemy were materials, instruments, apparatus as well as processes and experiments. Laboratories of Art investigates ways in which artists' workshops could be said to be sites of alchemy. Exploring the relationship between art, knowledge, and technology, speakers discuss various visual and decorative arts: glassmaking, metallurgy, sculpture, goldsmithing, ceramics, and painting.

Thursday, March 7

09:15 – 09:30 Sven Dupré, Introduction

09:30 – 10:30 Session I Chair: Sven Dupré
Matteo Martelli, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin
Alchemy as the Art of Dyeing
Commentator: Lawrence Principe

10:30 – 11:00 Coffee

11:00 – 12:00 Session II Chair: Jennifer Rampling
Sylvie Neven, University of Liege, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
Transmission of Alchemical and Artistic Practices and Materials in Medieval and premodern Recipe Books Commentator: Marjolijn Bol

12:00 – 13:00 Spike Bucklow, Hamilton Kerr Institute, Cambridge
Alchemy and Vernacular Colour Coding
Commentator: David Brafman

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch

14:00 – 15:00 Session III Chair: William Newman
Andrea Bernardoni, Institute and Museum of the History of Science (Museo Galileo)
Chemical Technology and Epistemological Debate in the Works of the
Italian Renaissance Engineers Commentator: Stephen Johnston

15:00 – 15:30 Coffee

15:30 – 16:30 Session IV Chair: Anke Timmermann
Fanny Kieffer, Centre d'Études Supérieures de la Renaissance, Tours
The Laboratories of Art and Alchemy at the Uffizi Gallery in the Renaissance Florence: Some Material AspectsCommentator: Dedo von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk

16:30 – 17:30 Marco Beretta, Università di Bologna
Material and Temporal Powers at the Casino San Marco (1574-1621)
Commentator, Didier Kahn

********************

Friday, March 8

09:30 – 10:30 Session I Chair: David Brafman
Alan Williams, Conservation Dept.,The Wallace Collection, London.
Chemical Knowledge and the Armourers’ Art
Commentator: Jennifer Rampling

10:30 – 11:00 Coffee

11:00 – 12:00 Session II Chair: Stephen Johnston
Henrike Haug, Technische Universität Berlin
Disturbing Nature. Artificial Interventions in the Natural Form of Things
Commentator: William Newman

12:00 – 13:00 Steve Wharton, University of Sussex

Art and Alchemy, Cipriano Piccolpasso and the Transmutation of Matter
Commentator: Anke Timmermann

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch

14:00 – 15:00 Session III Chair: Sven Dupré
Morgan Wesley, Sotheby’s Institute of Art/University of Oxford
Refutata per Ignem: Evidence for the Use of Fire Analysis in the Laboratory Practices of John Dwight and Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus, Commentator: Ursula Klein

15:00 – 15:30 Coffee

15:30 – 16:30 Session IV Chair: Dedo von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk

Lawrence Principe, Johns Hopkins University
Goldsmiths and Chymists: The Activity of Artisans within Alchemical Circles
Commentator: Sven Dupré

16:30 – 17:30 Matthew C. Hunter, McGill University
Joshua Reynolds’s ‘Nice Chymistry’, Commentator: Spike Bucklow

If you would like more information please see the events page of the MPIWG:
http://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/en/news/index.html and the web page of the workshop:
http://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/workshops/en/Dupre_LabArt_Conference.html

Observers are welcome but space is limited, to register please email officedupre@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de

Gina Grzimek
Sekretariat Dupré
Max Planck Research Group
Art and Knowledge in Premodern Europe
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
Boltzmannstraße 22
14195 BERLIN

Call for Papers: Ars et Medicina symposium

7-8. May 2012, The Norwegian Institute in Rome, Italy

From antiquity to the present, medical science and art have been inextricably entwined. The first anatomical theories in Ancient Greece developed in conjunction with and parallel to artistic theories about human proportions. From the 16th c. artists practiced dissection in order to improve their depictions of human form, and their drawings in anatomical atlases were used to educate generations of medical professionals. The Charcot school in Paris studies art works in an attempt to improve their understanding of psychological phenomena like hysteria. Sigmund Freud ´s psychological theories were enriched by his study of literature, and his theories inspired the arts of literature and film. The theory and practice of connoisseurship is based on principles borrowed from medical science. Contemporary artists collaborate with medical scientists, and medical professionals still find inspiration for new medical techniques and practices in art. The lectures in this symposium will necessarily be only a small selection of in-depth case studies illustrating the varied relationships between art and medicine.

The symposium lectures will be structured in sessions composed of lectures related to each other by topic and/or disciplinary perspective. Both medical scientists with interests in the arts, and scholars of the arts with interests in science and medicine are encouraged to participate. One goal of the symposium is to provoke all participants to confront the challenge of engaging in discussion of how medical science and the humanities enrich and inspire each other.

We hope that the participants will attempt to transcend disciplinary borders and challenge pre-existing interpretations of the relationship between medical theory, practice and artistic expression.

All lectures will be published as videopodcasts. Selected papers will be included in a subsequent edited digital book or journal volume devoted to the symposium topic. The symposium papers should be 20 minutes (ca. 10 double-spaced pages) and in English.

Please send a one-page CV and an abstract of 150-200 words to Einar Petterson einarp@ifikk.uio.no by March 15, 2012.

Participants will be notified by March 25, 2012.

Organizers:
Einar Petterson, Professor of Art History, University of Oslo, Norway
Knut Kvernebo, MD, PhD, FRCS, Professor of Cadio-Thoracic Surgery, Oslo University Hosptial, Ullevaal

The symposium (reception, lunches and a symposium dinner) is sponsored by the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas, University of Oslo, Norway.

Professor dr.philos. Einar Petterson
Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas
University of Oslo
Norway
einarp@ifikk.uio.no