The Leonardo da Vinci Society Annual Lecture 2018

Friday 4 May 2018, 6 pm - 7 pm
Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre, The Courtauld Institute of Art,
Somerset House, Strand, London, WC2R 0RN

Pascal Brioist (Centre d'études supérieures de la Renaissance, University of Tours): “Leonardo da Vinci and bio-inspiration.”

Bio-inspiration is not entirely our own invention: in the Renaissance, engineers looked at natural forms and were convinced that mimicking nature offered technical solutions to their own problems. Leonardo da Vinci was certainly the most careful observer of nature of his time, and as a result it has become commonplace to judge that he used bio-mimetism as a way to find inspiration. Recently, scientists have claimed that Leonardo was a kind of precursor for bionics ; but the intellectual process of imitation adopted by Leonardo da Vinci has not been fully investigated. This presentation will delve deeper into this issue, looking especially at Leonardo’s imitation of birds, insects and flying fishes in order to study the possibilities of human flight.

Pascal Brioist is Professor of History and researcher at the CESR since 1994; he completed his PhD at the European University Institute in Florence in 1992. A specialist in cultural history and the history of England, his work has dealt mainly with techniques and the history of science, especially through the study of Leonardo da Vinci. He has published several books about Leonardo: Da Vinci Touch (2014), dedicated to the needs of blind people, Léonard de Vinci, homme de guerre (2013), Léonard de Vinci : Arts, sciences et techniques (2011) and Léonard de Vinci, ingénieur et savant (2008).

All welcome.

Leonardo da Vinci Society: Latin and the Vernacular in Fifteenth-Century Italy

A one-day conference organised by the Leonardo da Vinci Society, to be held at the Warburg Institute, Bloomsbury, London WC1H 0AB, 11.00-17.00 on Friday 1 December 2017.

Speakers: Amos Edelheit, Simon Gilson, David Lines, Letizia Panizza, Ben Thomson, David Zagoury

What was the relationship between Latin and the vernacular in fifteenth-century Italy? How was the vernacular able to establish itself as an acceptable language for literary or scholarly writing? Did the process of vernacularization differ across disciplines? Did authors who wrote in Latin and the vernacular write differently, or with different target audiences in mind? This conference will address itself to such questions arising out of the emergence of la volgar linguaas a fitting medium for literary and scholarly endeavours at the end of the fifteenth century.

To register please contact Tony Mann. The registration fee for the conference (which includes lunch, tea and coffee) is £25.

Latin and the Vernacular in Fifteenth-Century Italy

PROGRAMME

10.30 – 11.00 Registration and welcome

11.00-13.00   

Amos Edelheit, Maynooth University, Ireland: “Two Approaches to Medicine and Philosophy: Nicoletto Vernia and Marsilio Ficino”

David A. Lines, University of Warwick: “Bolognese Culture and the Vernacular in the Fifteenth Century.”

13.00-14.00 - Lunch

14.00-15.00

Simon Gilson, University of Warwick: “Cristoforo Landino and the Volgare.”

Ben Thomson, Birkbeck, University of London: “Cristoforo Landino’s Allegorisation of Vice in the Disputationes Camaldulenses and Comento sopra la Comedia.”

15.00-15.30 Coffee

15.30-16.30

David Zagoury, Bibliotheca Hertziana, Rome: “Imaginatione: Trajectory of a Vernacular Term circa 1500.”

Letizia Panizza, Emerita, Royal Holloway, University of London: “The Tower of Babel: Linguistic Chaos in Fifteenth-Century Italy”

17.00 Conference ends

CALL FOR PAPERS: Chiaroscuro as Aesthetic Principle (1300-1600)

Chiaroscuro since Leon Battista Alberti’s De Pictura (1435) has been one of the central subjects characterising painting and sculpture in practice and theory in Italy. Primarily, it concerns the articulation of plastic qualities, the formulation of relief, both in painting and sculpture. In the northern tradition, too, chiaroscuro has been highly valued. Through chiaroscuro, the textures of materials and the structural fabric of their surfaces, including their eye-catching highlights, have been evoked. Chiaroscuro goes hand in hand with an intensification of optical qualities.

In the Cinquecento, the significance of chiaroscuro underwent an important change. The evocation of plasticity and corporeality through a chiaroscuro that created relief was now in part replaced by a tonally defined chiaroscuro, which focused on pictorial qualities. This is the case, for example, in the Clair obscur prints, which developed in both, northern and Italian art. These different uses of chiaroscuro are each linked to differently grounded aesthetic commitments.

Within the context sketched above, we want to understand chiaroscuro as a distinctive aesthetic principle. Our chronological focus is on the period from 1300 to 1600.

The following sections are envisaged:

- chiaroscuro and monochrome painting
- chiaroscuro in the context of drawing and prints
- chiaroscuro and sculpture
- chiaroscuro in the art of Leonardo da Vinci

Further relevant proposals may be added: suggestions will be gladly received.

Interested scholars are cordially invited to present their researches and ideas in the framework of the conference. Please send your abstract (max. 300 words) for a c. 20-minute presentation together with your Curriculum Vitae by August 15, 2015 by email to: claudia.lehmann@ikg.unibe.ch

Presenters will be contacted in September 2015.

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