Art history, eighteenth-century studies

Francesca Lui, Des ruines aux bibliothèques. Piranesi e il mondo francese: fortuna, suggestioni, eredità, in La Roma di Piranesi. La città del Settecento nelle Grandi Vedute, a cura di Mario Bevilacqua e Mario Gori Sassoli, Roma, Artemide, 2006, pp. 79-90-

ISBN    8875750408

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

Resumen La reflexión sobre la antigüedad y la herencia clásica constituye uno de los pilares centrales de pensamiento de Anthony Ashley Cooper, conde de Shaftesbury (1671-1713). En este artículo se lleva a cabo un estudio del significado que la referencia a la antigüedad adquiere en la estética y en la teoría artística del filósofo. Dada la amplitud del tema, el artículo se divide en dos partes. En la primera se examina su interpretación de aquellos temas del debate contemporáneo de los anti-guos y los modernos que tienen una especial relevancia, tanto a la hora de reconstruir su visión de la relación entre la cultura antigua y la moderna, como de entender los motivos de su adhe-sión a una concepción clásica del saber humano, y de comprender también su lectura de algunos conceptos artísticos de raíz clásica que alcanzaron un gran protagonismo en la estética de la Ilustración, como la noción de entusiasmo o la idea de lo sublime. En la segunda parte se analiza la naturaleza específica del clasicismo de Shaftesbury: las razones de su defensa de la recupera-ción del modelo clásico en Inglaterra a principios del siglo xviii, las principales características de su teoría artística inspirada en la antigüedad y en la crítica clásica, y el trasfondo filosófico, moral y político que guía su concepción del arte. Palabras clave: Anthony Ashley Cooper, Shaftesbury (1671-1713), antigüedad, antiguos y modernos, arte, teo-ría artística y estética de la Ilustración, clasicismo en Inglaterra, siglo xviii. Abstract Shaftesbury and the classical model The reflexion on Antiquity and the classical heritage constitutes one of the main pillars of the philosophy of Anthony Ashley Cooper, earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713). This article studies the meaning that the reference to Antiquity attained in his aesthetics and in his artistic theory. Given the extent of the subject, the article has two parts.The first examines Shaftesbury's interpretation of those issues belonging to the contemporary debate on ancients and moderns that have a special relevance to reconstruct his vision of the relation between ancient and modern culture, to understand his adherence to a classical conception of human knowledge, and to comprehend as well his interpretation of some artistic concepts of classical origin that achieved a prominent role in the aesthetics of the Enlightenment, as the notion of enthusiasm or the idea of the sublime. The second part analyzes the specific nature of Shaftesbury's classicism: the reasons of his defense of the adoption of the classical model in England at the early Eighteenth-century, the main characteristics of his artistic theory inspired in Antiquity and the classical tradition , and the philosophical, moral and political background that guides his conception of art.

This book examines a famous series of sculptures by the
German artist Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736–1783)
known as his "Character Heads." These are busts of human
heads, highly unconventional for their time, representing
strange, often inexplicable facial expressions. Scholars have
struggled over the years to explain these works of art. Some
said that Messerschmidt was insane. Some said that he was
trying to illustrate some sort of intellectual system. Michael
Yonan argues that these sculptures are simultaneously
explorations of art’s power and also critiques of the
aesthetic limits that would be placed on that power.

Francesca Lui, Un inedito 'catalogo delle opere' di Piranesi. Note in margine alla "Raccolta dei disegni del Guercino" di Francesco Bartolozzi, in «Venezia Arti», 12, 1998, pp. 122-127.
OCLC: 799718438
https://www.viella.it/rivista/id-550
https://www.worldcat.org/title/venezia-arti-va-bollettino-del-dipartimento-di-storia-e-critica-delle-arti-delluniversita-di-venezia/oclc/799718438

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.

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 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

À la fin du XVIIIe siècle, la ville et l’arsenal de Brest suscitent un engouement sensationnel et attirent des curieux venus de l’Europe entière. Cet ensemble urbain et portuaire sorti de terre à une vitesse considérable laisse rarement indifférents les visiteurs qui y séjournent. Si les aménagements militaires impressionnent généralement par leur monumentalité et leur caractère fonctionnel, il n’en va pas de même des espaces civils de la cité, souvent décriés pour leur manque de salubrité, de commodité et de goût. Cette constatation repose principalement sur le manque d’ambition de l’administration municipale dans le domaine des embellissements urbains. Contrainte à parer au plus pressé du fait du développement exponentiel de la population, elle reste bien souvent spectatrice des projets émanant d’autres autorités publiques.
Dans les dernières années de l’Ancien Régime, un impressionnant projet urbain et paysager voit le jour mais est rapidement combattu par les édiles brestois. Conçu par un architecte parisien et soutenu par le ministre de la Marine, il prévoit l’aménagement d’une place royale dédiée à Louis XVI à l’emplacement du château de Brest. L’opposition de principe du maire et de la communauté de ville donne lieu à une passe d’armes verbale qui expose avec lyrisme le bien fondé de la proposition parisienne face aux contradictions municipales. Aux côtés des arguments rationnels et financiers, les mémoires rédigés par l’architecte font état de considérations esthétiques, symboliques et poétiques que ses opposants peinent à discréditer. C’est toute la force de ce discours qu’il s’agira de présenter dans cette communication, qui exposera les ressorts culturels et rhétoriques utilisés par un artiste des Lumières pour défendre un projet urbain.

Francesca Lui, La Sicilia nell’occhio del pittore: il viaggio del 1779 di Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes, in La Sicilia e il Grand Tour. La riscoperta di Akragas 1700-1800, a cura di Alessandro Carlino, Roma, Gangemi Editore, 2009, pp. 195-208
ISBN: 9788849216844    884921684X
OCLC: 700355320

Associazione Internazionale Amici di Pompei
Napoli
2015

Le pitture delle Antichità di Ercolano nelle gemme del XVIII e XIX secolo.
Eccezionale è la fortuna incontrata da Le pitture antiche d’Ercolano, un libro pubblicato a Napoli in cinque tomi tra 1757 e 1779, nella cultura figurativa della seconda metà del XVIII secolo, e decisivo il loro influsso sull’attività artistica, artigianale e commerciale. Così, rispondendo ad un fenomeno di gusto e alla domanda del mercato, gli incisori di gemme, italiani e stranieri, celebri e non noti, scelgono alcuni dipinti vesuviani e li riproducono. Le gemme risultano tra le prime manifestazioni del successo delle pitture. Il pre- sente libro è il primo dedicato a questo soggetto; presenta più di 50 gemme incise, varie delle quali inedite, illustrate da 45 immagini.

The Paintings of the Antichità di Ercolano in 18th and 19th century Gem-Carving.
Le pitture antiche d’Ercolano, a book published in Naples in five volumes between 1757 and 1779, enjoyed exceptional influence on the renewed interest in the antique, on art, craftsmanship and fashion. The engravers of hardstones are part of this scenario, in their understanding and representation of the paintings. Even the most famous gem engravers, to meet purchasers’ taste and market requirements, chose and reproduced some motifs of the “paintings of Herculaneum”. Within the context of the extraordinary success of the Vesuvian paintings in the so-called “minor” arts, some gems are the earliest and most beautiful translations of themes. The book is the first one devoted to this subjects; it presents more than 50 engraved gems, many of which unpublished, illustrated with 45 photographs.

Testo introduttivo/Introductory Essay: Work in progress. Opere dal Museo d'Arte Moderna di Palazzo Collicola e dalla Fondazione Marignoli di Montecorona /Artworks from the Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Palazzo Collicola and from The Marignoli di Montecorona Foundation; a cura di / curators Michele Drascek, Duccio K. Marignoli, Marco Tonelli; Palazzo Collicola, Spoleto, 26 giugno / June - 26 settembre / September, 2021; catalogo edito da /catalogue published by Editoriale Artemide, Roma, agosto 2021.
N.B. Italiano e inglese, pagine alterne/Italian or English on alternate pages.

Attraverso nuovi documenti ritrovati nell'archivio dell'Arciconfraternita del SS. Nome di Maria si ripercorrono le vicende del cantiere che intorno al 1740 mutò radicalmente l'aspetto dell'omonima chiesa e le vicende degli scultori che presero parte alla sua riqualificazione.

The Art of Display: Context and Meaning, 1700-1850

College Art Association (CAA), February 12-15, 2014, Chicago


Christina Ferando, Columbia University, crf2002@columbia.edu

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, viewers encountered works of art in a variety of settings:  private homes, churches, gardens, and the first public museums.  Within these settings, colored walls, rotating pedestals, elaborate frames, well thought-out lighting, and careful juxtapositions were used to showcase objects. These displays affected the way viewers encountered and thought about the works.  Display could be used to educate the eye, emphasizing the formal qualities of a work or encouraging viewers to look closely at the material nature of an object.  At the same time, display could have a significant impact on symbolic meanings as well, affecting the political, social, or cultural significance of a work of art. This panel welcomes papers that reconstruct displays that have been lost to us, and in so doing rediscover and historicize the meaning and significance of objects as they were encountered by viewers between 1700 and 1850.

Time: 2/14/2014, 2:30 PM—5:00 PM
Location: Hilton Chicago, 8th Floor, Lake Huron

Chair: Christina R. Ferando, Columbia University

A Roman Venus in the Tsar’s Baroque Garden: Orthodox Blasphemy, Soviet Scandal
Margaret Samu, Yeshiva University Stern College

Duobaoge: Artful Displays in Eighteenth-Century Qing China
Eleanor Hyun, University of Chicago

Unconventional Displays and Unacquainted Spectators: The Impact of John Martin’s Eccentric Exhibitionary Tactics
Chris Coltrin, Shepherd University

The Empire at Home: Displaying the Locker Collection at Greenwich Hospital, 1830–1843
Catherine Roach, Virginia Commonwealth University

Corot in Situ: The Studio as Exhibition Space
Heather A. McPherson, University of Alabama at Birmingham

The history paintings of the English artist Joseph Highmore (1692-1780) have received limited critical analysis within art historical scholarship both past and present. Portrait painting dominated his professional practice from 1715 to 1762 and yet, as this article will contend, the study and production of history painting was both a significant intellectual pursuit and an important creative strand within his artistic output. This article will begin by exploring the role of history painting within Highmore’s art practice and career. It will then focus on the context, purpose and creation of the three extant examples of Highmore’s history painting: 'The Good Samaritan', 'Hagar and Ishmael' and an oil on canvas ‘sketch’ known as 'The Angel of Mercy'. All three reflect ideas surrounding charity in mid-Georgian Britain and further, have direct or indirect associations with one charitable institution in particular: London’s Foundling Hospital. The analysis presented here will reveal an artist employing and adapting the tools of traditional Western history painting as a means of engaging with and reflecting these contemporary contexts and issues.

Francesca Lui, Il turcasso e la coccarda. Note sul giovane Pelagio Palagi (pp. 19-21); Pelagio Palagi e la decorazione d'interni (pp. 26-28); Itinerari di visita (pp. 44-54), in Pelagio Palagi alle Collezioni Comunali d'Arte, catalogo della mostra a cura di Carla Bernardini, Bologna, Edisai, 2004.

ISBN    8888051589

Francesca Lui, L' Allegoria della virtù. Il programma iconografico di una galleria bolognese nelle lettere inedite di Carlo Bianconi a Giambattista Biffi (1770-1779) in "Accademia Clementina. Atti e Memorie", Nuova Serie, 33-34, 1994, pp. 157-175.
EAN  2560620062164
OCLC: 1088823523
https://www.worldcat.org/title/accademia-clementina-atti-e-memorie/oclc/1088823523

From the time of his birth in 1720, the pictorial representation of Charles Edward Stuart, Jacobite Prince of Wales and heir apparent, was very carefully managed. Until his attempt to seize the throne of Great Britain in 1745-6, he was invariably depicted, in oil and engraving, using the standard pictorial models of European monarchy: never, that is, in tartan. During the ’45, when, for the first time, he was in complete control of his own image, the prince carefully alternated his appearance, from that of a tartan-clad Highland Chief, to a fashionably dressed European or, more specifically, British prince, thus treading a symbolic line between the expectations of the Highland contingent of his army, and the need to appeal to the majority of his British ‘subjects’, many of whom (Lowlanders and English alike) considered the Highlander (as represented through tartan plaid) a barbaric anachronism. In this sense, the rediscovered portrait by Allan Ramsay, commissioned by the prince in the October of 1745 while Charles held court at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh and painted just prior to his advance into England, can be seen as both a statement of Charles’ self-image, while symbolising his broader dynastic ambitions. Crucially this image was swiftly engraved and then circulated.

The prince’s enemies, meanwhile, generated images of him that aimed to both undermine the legitimacy of his claims and to win over popular opinion by exaggerating his otherness: stressing, on the one hand, his birth and upbringing in Rome as a Roman Catholic and, on the other, his widely-reported wearing of Highland garb, most famously the ‘wanted poster’ accompanying the £30,000 bounty issued by the British government. The engraving ‘Scotch Female Gallantry’, depicting Charles surrounded by ecstatic women at an evening entertainment, even attempts to equate the prince with another unmanly Italian import, as the anti-Jacobite propagandists would argue, the Castrato.

This paper will begin by presenting close readings of these three key images, all produced during the early stages of the ’45. It will consider how, as a group, they reflect a very particular moment during the campaign, when the outcome of the rebellion was very far from certain. Finally, it will look at how these 'prototypes', the British Hero, the Highland Laddie and the Effeminate Italian, informed representations of Charles in the aftermath of Culloden, including the pro-Cumberland print, 'The True Contrast'.

In this thesis, I interpret Chardin's still lifes of fresh fruit and baked goods from the 1750s and 1760s as statements on the art of painting. In doing so, I propose a new approach to still life paintings as works of art that merit attention not only for their display of the artist's pictorial technique but also for the cultural and aesthetic significance of their subject matters. I explore the implications of eighteenth-century art critics' evocation of magic in their praise of Chardin's still lifes through close visual analysis of these paintings and investigations of nouvelle cuisine and eighteenth-century aesthetic theories. The painted objects and technique in these works closely correspond to the eighteenth-century concept of natural magic as creating extraordinary effects through an intense study of nature. As artificial constructions, these works and the nouvelle cuisine they evoke also visualize the contemporary notion of truth in illusion.