Bad Reception: Expressing Disapproval of Art in Early Modern Italy
International Workshop

Organized by Diletta Gamberini (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München), Jonathan K. Nelson (Syracuse University Florence), Alessandro Nova (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz - Max-Planck-Institut)

Histories of Italian art and literature from the Early Modern period rarely address the widespread phenomenon of negative responses to modern works of art and architecture. This "bad reception" appears in a wide range of written sources, including artistic treatises, letters, poetry, biographies, and archival documents. Until now, the few studies of this topic have focused on individual case histories, or else on the specific inflections of censure in codified literary writings, such as vituperative poems on art. This workshop seeks to advance the current state of scholarship by exploring the intersections of different genres of texts that were used to express disapproval of paintings, sculptures, and architecture, and by seeing the impact these discourses had on the afterlife of the art under discussion. Rather than presenting new examples of bad reception, participants will consider how different cases point to broader thematic patterns that help provide a framework for future research. Topics include the evolution of linguistic conventions used for criticizing works of art, the aspects of art most often cited by critics, and the consequences of the negative evaluations for the artistic product itself or for its author.


PROGRAM

THURSDAY 15 NOVEMBER

09:30
Introduction
Diletta Gamberini, Jonathan K. Nelson, Alessandro Nova

PANEL I
FRAMING THE QUESTION
Chair: Alessandro Nova | Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz


Theory

10:00
The Reception of Bad Reception: Limits and Challenges of the 'Quellenforschung'
Maddalena Spagnolo | Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II

10:25
Scorci 'sotto in sù' nelle teorie dell'arte del Rinascimento
Sofia Magnaguagno | Università Ca' Foscari, Venezia / Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main

10:50 Discussion

11:20 Coffee Break


Classifications

11:50
"Ad alcuni è piaciuto, ad altri non punto": stime e giudizi di artisti nella Roma del Cinquecento
Chiara Franceschini | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

12:15
Risky Business: Public Portraits in Renaissance Italy
Jonathan K. Nelson | Syracuse University Florence

12:40 Discussion


PANEL II
THE LANGUAGE OF CRITICISM
Chair: Massimiliano Rossi | Università del Salento, Lecce


Literati Speak

14:30
Genealogies of Biting Tongues: Literary Models for Renaissance Verse against Art
Diletta Gamberini | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

14:55
Pasquinades by Alfonso de' Pazzi and Paolo Orlandi: "Fatto non l'harebbe a pena Cuio"
Paolo Celi | Università di Pisa

15:20 Discussion

15:50 Coffee Break


Texts about Michelangelo

16:20
Epistolary Criticism and the Recarving of Michelangelo's Minerva 'Christ'
Raymond Carlson | Columbia University, New York

16:45
"disfatta in pezi e ... gittata per piazza": The Numerous Failures of Michelangelo's Bronze Statue of Pope Julius II
Sefy Hendler | Tel Aviv University

17:10 Discussion


FRIDAY 16 NOVEMBER

PANEL III ARTISTIC PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
Chair: Felicia M. Else | Gettysburg College


Dissatisfied Patrons

09:30
Bad Reception and the Altarpiece
David Ekserdjian | University of Leicester

09:55
"It did not please His Majesty": Philip II and the Habsburg Taste for Italian Renaissance Art
Juan Luis González García | Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

10:20 Discussion

10:50 Coffee Break


Responses to the Past

11:20
Discontented Classicism: Francesco Berni, Erasmus, and Polidoro da Caravaggio
James Pilgrim | Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore

11:45
Vulgarity and the Masterly Manner: Annibale Caracci Cites his Sources
Gail Feigenbaum | Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles

12:10 Discussion

12:45
Concluding Remarks
Alessandro Nova | Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz


Free admission until capacity is reached


CONTACT
Christine Klöckner
Department Alessandro Nova
sekr_novakhi.fi.it


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