‘Mal occhio’: Looking Awry at the Renaissance

Saturday, 29 November 2008
Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre
The Courtauld Institute of Art
Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN
www.courtauld.ac.uk

In art history, the Vasarian paradigm of perfection has dominated the study of the centuries grouped under the concept of rinascita, or, since the nineteenth century, the period term Renaissance. The idealising view of the Renaissance has been challenged by scholars working in the wake of writers such as Aby Warburg and Michel Foucault and this conference aims to continue questioning the humanist construct of the “civilisation of the Renaissance”. It will do so in part by examining alternative temporalities – models of time (anachronism, archaism, Nachleben) that disrupt familiar categorisations. It will consider what is at stake in the “Renaissance” as a period label and how it has been positioned against the “Early Modern”: should modernity be unmasked? Looking at the overlooked, the in-between, and the repressed, the papers presented will consider the discrepancies, disjunctions, and interferences that disrupt master narratives and destabilise comforting perspectives on specific artists or works of art. Reflecting upon concepts of time, space, and memory in the material histories of the period, some of the issues to be addressed include: What use can we make of period labels? Are certain materials still excluded from the culture of the Renaissance? How can we rethink artistic experience within the spatio-temporal reconfiguration of the “Old” World and “New” World? Have new hierarchies been instituted in the study of “Renaissance” art? If so what are they and what critical paths can we take?

To book a place: £15 (£10 concessions) Please send a cheque made payable to ‘Courtauld Institute of Art’ to: Research Forum Events Co-ordinator, Courtauld Institute of Art Research Forum, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN, clearly stating that you wish to book for the ‘Mal’Occhio: Looking Awry at the Renaissance conference’. For credit card bookings call 020 7848 2785/2909. For further information, send an e-mail to ResearchForumEvents@courtauld.ac.uk

PROGRAMME
9.00 – 9.30
Registration
9.30 – 9.45
Welcome and Introduction: Patricia Rubin
9.45 – 13.00
Morning Session – Chair: Alison Wright (UCL)
9.45 – 10.15
Christopher Heuer (Princeton University), 'Hieronymus Cock (d. 1570) and the Decay of Reference'
10.15 – 10.45
Alexander Nagel (NYU, New York), ‘Alternative Antiquities in the Renaissance’
10.45 – 11.15
COFFEE/TEA BREAK
11.15 – 11.45
Alina Payne (Harvard University and Max Planck Institute, Rome), Renaissance Periodisation and the Materiality of Architecture’
11.45 – 12.15
Ulrich Pfisterer (Ludwig-Maximilians Universität, Munich), ‘Downcast Eyes or Renaissance Sex Reborn’
12.15 – 13.00
Discussion
13.00 – 14.30
BREAK FOR LUNCH
14.30 – 18.00
Afternoon Session – Chair: Rose-Marie San Juan (UCL)
14.30 – 15.00
Robert Maniura (Birkbeck College, University of London), 'Image, Ritual, Miracle'
15.00 – 15.30
Francisco Prado-Vilar (Universidad Complutense, Madrid), ‘Painting the Arrival: Granada, America, Jerusalem and the Last World Emperor’
15.30 – 16.00
COFFEE/TEA BREAK
16.00 – 16.30
Rebecca Zorach (University of Chicago), 'Revolution and Renaissance'
16.30 – 17.00
Jill Burke (University of Edinburgh), 'The Renaissance Brand: Teaching, Research and the Bottom Line'
17.00 – 18.00
Discussion
18.00
Concluding remarks: Maria Loh (UCL)
18.15
RECEPTION