Art history, eighteenth-century studies

The name François Boucher is synonymous with the visual and material culture of luxury in mid eighteenth-century France. His paintings are filled with desirable objects that informed the tastes of collectors. What is less known is that Boucher was a prolific collector of art and nature, with more than 13,000 different objects in his collection at the time of his death in 1770. Despite this, a formal study of his collection is
almost entirely absent from the existing field of historical scholarship. This article brings to light Boucher’s activities as a collector, in particular his interest in natural objects for which he was especially well known. It also considers the extent to which Boucher’s passion for collectable objects had an impact on his practice as an artist.

Between 1760 and 1765, the Italian sculptor Giuseppe Gricci headed a team of artists in the creation of a Gabinete de Porcelana [Porcelain Room] at the Royal Palace of Aranjuez. Porcelain rooms were not unknown at this time, but Gricci ambitiously tested the limits of porcelain with an exuberant design scheme, an elaborate chinoiserie theme, and nearly three-dimensional deployment of the ceramic medium. The room's innovative technique, which employs porcelain as the framework for the walls and ceiling as well as the medium for the design, is befitting this country estate of King Charles III (r. 1759–88). While the ornamentation offers a rich sensory experience, it also has deliberate political implications and may be read as an idealized expression of Charles III's identity. As a space constructed during the Seven Years' War (1754–63) at the commencement of his reign, the Porcelain Room had both pleasurable and political purposes that allowed the king to forge a modern Bourbon agenda and a modern Bourbon sense of kingship with international scope. The Porcelain Room, like many of Charles's other projects, was created to exemplify the king's opulence while also embodying political messages that promoted his reign and legitimated the Bourbons as the rightful heirs to the Spanish crown.

In recent years, there has been increasing scholarly interest in the history of museums, academies and major exhibitions. There has been, however, little to no sustained interest in the histories of alternative exhibitions (single artwork, solo artist, artist-mounted, entrepreneurial, privately funded, ephemeral, etc.) with the notable exception of those publications that deal with situations involving major artists or those who would become so—for example J.L. David's exhibition of Intervention of the Sabine Women (1799) and The First Impressionist Exhibition of 1874—despite the fact that these sorts of exhibitions and critical scholarship about them have become commonplace (and no less important) in the contemporary art world. The present volume uses and contextualizes eleven case studies to advance some overarching themes and commonalities among alternative exhibitions in the long modern period from the late-eighteenth to the late-twentieth centuries and beyond. These include the issue of control in the interrelation and elision of the roles of artist and curator, and the relationship of such alternative exhibitions to the dominant modes, structures of display and cultural ideology.

This essay argues that in his series of smirking busts known as “Character Heads,” Franz Xaver Messerschmidt operated as a sculptural satirist.  The nature of Messerschmidt’s satire is diffuse and this essay isolates it by associating his art with the ideas of two related historical figures: the printmaker William Hogarth and the mathematician Georg Christoph Lichtenberg.  Lichtenberg’s formulations in particular parallel Messerschmidt closely, especially when they engaged the art of Hogarth.  For Hogarth, the satirical face determined social relationships; Lichtenberg and Messerschmidt interpreted the face as a psychological entity.

Francesca Lui, Des ruines aux bibliothèques. Piranesi and the French World: Fame, Influence, Legacy, in The Rome of Piranesi. The Eighteenth-Century City in the Great Vedute, edited by Mario Bevilacqua and Mario Gori Sassoli. English edition by Fabio Barry, Rome, Artemide, 2006, pp. 79-90.

ISBN    8875750556

Just as Alexander Baumgarten is often credited with having established the modern discipline of aesthetics, Johann Winckelmann is said to have laid the foundations of art history. It’s notable that both were at the University of Halle in the late 1730s, Winckelmann as a theological student and Baumgarten in his first academic appointment as Professor of Philosophy. The question of the latter’s possible influence on his younger contemporary would thus seem worth asking. In its account of a possible link, however, the secondary literature is surprisingly inconclusive. Many studies of Winckelmann don’t mention Baumgarten’s name. And while some commentators have no doubts that there was a connection, others have pointedly rejected the possibility. The paper takes a critical look at the arguments both for and against a link, drawing on textual and other evidence to formulate what emerges as the most credible position.

À Brest, la transformation d'hôtels particuliers en hôtels publics est un phénomène répandu au siècle des Lumières. L'administration « économe, paresseuse et partisane du moindre effort » (Natacha Coquery, 2000) préfère souvent réaffecter du bâti existant que de se lancer dans une construction longue et coûteuse.
Cette étude, réalisée dans le cadre d'un Master, porte sur le cas de quatre édifices (les hôtels d'Aché, Saint-Pierre, Chapizeau et de Carné) rachetés par la Marine et la Communauté de ville au cours du XVIIIe siècle.

The International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ISECS) is pleased to announce the 2018 International Seminar for Early Career Eighteenth-Century Scholars. Colleagues from all fields of eighteenth-century studies are invited to submit abstracts for this one-week event. Formerly called the East-West Seminar, the International Seminar for Early Career Eighteenth-Century Scholars brings together young researchers from a number of countries each year. The 2018 meeting will take place in Viterbo, Italy and will be organized by Prof. Francesca Saggini and the Dipartimento di studi linguistico-letterari, storico-filosofici e giuridici – DISTU.
The seminar will be held from Monday, September 10 to Friday, September 14, 2018 in Viterbo.

The 2018 ISECS International Seminar for Early Career Scholars will engage discussions on the forms, representations and modalities of silence in the eighteenth century.
Silence, of individuals and cultures, of the physical voice or of the written word and information deleted from the page, has historically taken many forms. It may be reticent, dissembling or imposed by others. Voluntary or coerced, it might be the silence of women, of marginal social and religious groups, of communities that are denied the right to speak. There are other silences as well: the interruption of sound in a musical pause and the silence of religious practices, which speak to, and of, the inner life. All these forms of silence were present in the eighteenth century, as they had been throughout history, but perhaps for the first time, some of them were singled out for special scrutiny. Works on aesthetics, for example, investigated the use of silence and the implicit in rhetorical writing, or dwelled on reverie, and how it might be induced in the reader. In rhetoric, attention was paid to discursive figures and strategies capable of making silence more eloquent than the word. Conduct books devoted many pages to the art of conversation, emphasising the essential role of silence to ensure the correctness of social interactions, especially for women, but also for politicians. Censorship – whether institutional or self-imposed – also produces silences, as do the more or less conscious failures of memory found in life writing and in historical discourse: one need only think of the revisions required to write the history of colonialism, wars or slavery. Eighteenth-century historiography attempted to remove some of the silences it found in history, often filling in the lacunae through conjecture. Silence is also represented in the visual arts and, signally, in the novel, which devised new narrative techniques for the purpose, whether to evoke the silences in characters’ conversations, and the contexts and landscapes in which silence reigns (a hallmark of the picturesque, for example), or to leave the reader in suspense by strategically withholding information. And then there is the theatre, where after the triumph of pantomime and the illegitimate spectacles that deployed a hybridized combination of body, speech, stage machinery and lighting effects, the century comes to a close with the rise of melodrama, which replaced the spoken word with music and revolutionised the notion of acting as the art of speech, while giving new prominence to silent characters and heroes. Finally, there is the silence that becomes firmly and widely established in the eighteenth century through the practice of reading narrative texts for oneself, replacing the social activity of reading aloud for a group of listeners with a solitary, interiorized experience. On these and other silences, on silence in all its forms and meanings in the eighteenth century, the seminar calls for contributions. The theme of the conference, “Silence in eighteenth-century arts, history and philosophy,” must thus be understood in the broadest terms possible to include:


- anonymity
- silence, reflection, meditation
- social silence, silence and social interaction
- negation: denials, disclaimers, disavowals
- silence and secrets
- censorship and self-censorship
- ellipses, omissions, blank pages, hyphens, asterisks – the typographical and linguistic modes of silence
- ghost chapters (deleted, lost, rewritten)
- silenced characters, characters that disappear
- quiet spaces: the loci of silence
- reading and silence
- silence as resistance and rebellion
- scripting silence and muteness
- the performativity of silence
- silence and the canon
- silence and history
- silence in relation to cultural memory studies
- silence and/as remembrance

The seminar is limited to 15 participants. The proposals (approx. 3 pages, double-spaced, max 1,000 words) should be based on an original research project (e.g. a doctoral dissertation) which addresses one of the aspects mentioned above. Because this is a seminar rather than a conference, each participant will be given approximately one hour to present the texts and questions that will then form the basis of a group discussion led in turn by one of the participants. Preference will be given to scholars who are at the beginning of their academic career (ABD; PhD or equivalent for less than six years, including ECRs). The official languages of the seminar are English, Italian, French. Translations of abstracts and various seminar materials not in English will be made available to participants.

Applications should include the following information: a brief curriculum vitae with date of PhD (or equivalent); a list of principal publications and scholarly presentations; a brief description of the proposed paper (approx. 3 pages, double-spaced, max 1,000 words); and one letter of recommendation. Colleagues are invited to submit proposals by January 31, 2018. Please send abstracts by e-mail to Francesca Saggini: fsaggini@unitus.it, ccing into the conversation Alberta Boschi alberta.boschi@gmail.com . If your email programme supports the delivery receipt option we encourage you to request delivery receipt. We will attempt to notify all correspondents before February 28, 2018 regarding the status of their submission

Forging strategies. Gold and silversmiths in eighteenth-century Ghent between guild and art academy

Faced by consumers’ new demand for fashionable, quality goods, design skills became increasingly important for manufacturers since the second half of the seventeenth century. Across Europe, art academies and drawing schools were established with the aim of countering a design deficit. This article examines the effect that academy attendance had on a typical, middling, urban group: the gold- and silversmiths of late eighteenth century Ghent. The analysis demonstrates that the legitimation of skills topped the curriculum alongside their production; and that as a result, the eldest sons of masters especially benefited from the academic training.

In the competitive environment of the eighteenth-century London art scene, Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds were often perceived as great rivals. While they shared patrons, sitters, and a stake in the future of British art, their differing artistic approaches caused considerable friction, indeed Gainsborough seceded from the Royal Academy of Art in 1784, boycotting its exhibitions and activities. This essay, however, argues that Gainsborough’s Charity Relieving Distress, painted in the year of his secession, proposes a charitable resolution of their aesthetic attitudes. The complex interrelation of allegorical and anecdotal form is interpreted as a pictorial attempt to reconcile their approaches through the concept of charity, a virtue of powerful artistic lineage in the western tradition, and of contemporary social importance.

Cette journée d’études a pour objet de questionner les différentes facettes du métier d’architecte en se concentrant spécifiquement sur le XVIIIe siècle. En cela, elle s’inscrit dans le prolongement des trois tables-rondes organisées à Nanterre les 24 février, 17 mars & 28 avril. Ces rencontres, qui ont donné lieu à de riches échanges, ont permis d’aborder divers sujets liés à la vie et à la profession des architectes au siècle des Lumières.
Les différentes communications de cette journée permettront d’approfondir les questionnements liés à deux thématiques principales. La première session s’intéressera à l’architecte sur le terrain et à ses rapports avec les hommes de son agence et du chantier. De la création des plans à la réception des travaux, elle éclairera les rapports entre l’inventeur et ses collaborateurs, qu’ils soient dessinateurs, inspecteurs, ingénieurs, entrepreneurs ou décorateurs.
La deuxième session abordera la question des enjeux liés à la carrière de l’architecte. Elle traitera notamment des systèmes artistiques, administratifs et politiques dans lesquels ils gravitent en France, à Raguse et en Espagne. À travers l’étude des formations, des fonctions officielles et des réseaux, elle donnera un aperçu des stratégies mises en place par les architectes du xviiie siècle pour mener carrière.

The reemergence of a portrait of Monsignor Angelo Locatelli Martorelli Orsini, signed by the eighteenth century painter from Ancona Bernardino Bini allows for a reevaluation of the artist’s career. Previously known almost exclusively from the accounts of nineteenth century historians of the Marche city, primarily Amico Ricci, he was said to have studied under Francesco Trevisani, as well as in other instances, Domenico Simonetti called Bagatta. Ricci also offers as example of his work, two oft-cited pictures of what presumably were historical subjects once in the communal palace of Ancona, though these remain untraced, and a Saint Teresa from the Church of the Scalzi, which was wrongly attributed. Three unpublished altarpieces by Bini are introduced here, a Passing of Saint Joseph from the Church of Saint Nicholas in Sirolo, an Immaculate Conception and Saints from the Church of Saint Biagio in Osimo, and a Translation of the Holy House of Loreto with the Madonna of the Rosary and Saints, from the parish church of Gallignano. The social position of the figure of the sitter Monsignor Angelo Locatelli Martorelli Orsini. The scion of two noble families from the provinces of the Papal State, the father was the Count Giuseppe Locatelli of Cesena, to which the prelate and his brother added the name of their mother, last exponent of the Martorelli family of Spoleto (the name Orsini was added by the Martorelli in memory of their service to that family) so that they could inherit the Martorelli properties, including the celebrated Villa Martorelli now better known as Villa Redenta. The monsignor, as is made evident by the inscription on the letter he is holding, was at the time of the portrait legate to Fermo, which must date the work to between 1735 and 1741. Finally two more published examples are also presented, both from the Pinacoteca Classense of Ravenna. Finally, the consideration is here offered that, though the production of religious paintings of the artist seems to be conceived in a conservative idiom, the portraiture style expresses one of the most interesting recurring traits of Marche eighteenth century painting, a humor and incisiveness that come from a carefully observed subject, that is sometimes at the limit of caricature.

The monument to the queen Maria I, a majestic statue celebrating Maria’s reign together with the power of monarchy, reveals the purpose of its patron Pina Manique (1733-1805) to magnify his own prestige into the Court. Both the grandeur and the iconography of the monument suggested the power he reached in the government by supporting the queen in the aim of the preservation of the Ancien Régime. This paper focuses on the different phases of the commission of the statue, also thanks to new documents that come to increase the knowledge concerning its execution

Questo saggio analizza l'unico dipinto a tema sacro realizzato da Antenore Soldi, membro della "Scuola di Rivara". Quest'opera, intitolata "La Vergine con il Bambino, San Giuseppe, Sant'Antonio da Padova, San Francesco d'Assisi, San Michele e le anime del Purgatorio" si trova nella chiesa parrocchiale di Acceglio. Questa pala d'altare contiene molti riferimenti a Gaudenzio Ferrari e Gerolamo Giovenone, pittori del Rinascimento piemontese, e Orazio Gentileschi, artista barocco. Indubbiamente le fonti di questi riferimenti erano alcune incisioni della pubblicazione "La Reale Galleria di Torino Illustrata", di Roberto d'Azeglio.


This essay is about the only painting of sacred theme realized by Antenore Soldi, a membership of the "School of Rivara". This picture, entitled "The Virgin and Child, St Joseph, St Anthony of Padua, St Francis of Assisi, St Michael and souls in Purgatory" is located in the parish church of Acceglio. This altarpiece contains many references to Gaudenzio Ferrari and Gerolamo Giovenone, peinters of piedmontese Renaissance, and Orazio Gentileschi, baroque artist. Undoubtedly the sources for these references were some engravings from the publication "La Reale Galleria di Torino Illustrata", of Roberto d'Azeglio.