Netherlandish Art and Luxury Goods in Renaissance Spain
Trade, Patronage and Consumption

University of Leuven, Belgium, 4-6 February 2016
International conference

Initiated and organized by
Illuminare – Centre for the Study of Medieval Art | KU Leuven

In 2010, Illuminare – Centre for the Study of Medieval Art (KU Leuven) acquired the archive of the eminent Belgian art historian professor Jan Karel Steppe (1918-2009). Steppe is internationally renowned for his groundbreaking research on the influx of Netherlandish art and luxury goods in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Spain. By springtime 2016, his documentation will be archived and the inventory made accessible online. To celebrate this accomplishment, Illuminare is organizing an international conference on Steppe’s long-term and much loved research topic.

This conference will focus on a large variety of media, ranging from painting and tapestry to printed media and astrolabes. Special attention will be paid to the driving forces behind this export-driven market, such as artists, patrons, collectors and merchants. By taking into account cultural, religious, political and socio-economic dynamics, this conference aims to shed new light on the multifaceted artistic impact of the Low Countries on the Iberian Peninsula in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Program

4 February 2016, Thursday

13:00-14:00 Registration

14:00-14:10 Welcome by Jan Van der Stock (Illuminare – Centre for the Study of Medieval Art | University of Leuven)

14:10-14:50 Keynote lecture: Paul Vandenbroeck (Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp / University of Leuven)
‘Le chanoine rouge’. Tribute to a versatile and inspired scholar

14:50-15:10 Robrecht Janssen (Illuminare – Centre for the Study of Medieval Art | University of Leuven)
Genius loci. The Jan Karel Steppe archives at the University of Leuven

15:10-15:25 Questions and discussion

15:25-16:15 Coffee break

Session 1

16:15-16:35 Kate Dimitrova (Alfred University, NY)
The Zaragoza Passion Tapestries. Weaving connections between France, Flanders and the Kingdom of Aragón

16:35-16:55 Iban Redondo-Pares (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
The transport of art works and the role of the merchants in the art markets between Flanders and Castile during the reign of Isabel the Catholic (1474-1504)

16:55-17:15 Iain Buchanan (University of Auckland, New Zealand)
The Duke of Alba's tapestry acquisitions in the Low Countries (ca. 1555-73)

17:15-17:30 Questions and discussion

17:30-19:00 Reception

5 February 2016, Friday

9:00-9:40 Keynote lecture: Raymond Fagel (Leiden University)
‘As yche othere brothere’. The human factor within the Hispano-Flemish world

9:40-9:55 Questions and discussion

Session 1

9:55-10:15 Kim Woods (Open University, London)
Expatriate carvers and the genesis of the kneeling effigy in late Gothic Spain

10:15-10:35 Nicola Jennings (Courtauld Institute of Art, London)
Made in Iberia. A new look at the retable of Contador Saldaña in Santa Clara de Tordesillas

10:35-10:55 Didier Martens (Université Libre de Bruxelles)
Un triptyque flamand singulier dans les collections d’Isabella la Catholique

10:55-11:10 Questions and discussion

11:10-11:50 Coffee break

Session 2

11:50-12:10 Stephanie Porras (Tulane University, LA)
Trading with the enemy: the Spanish market for Antwerp prints and paintings during the Revolt

12:10-12:30 Dirk Imhof (Plantin-Moretus Museum, Antwerp)
The Plantin book trade and the supply of art objects to the Spanish elite

12:30-12:45 Questions and discussion

12:45-14:15 Lunch break

Session 3

14:15-14:35 Krista De Jonge (University of Leuven)
Flemish, Spanish, or somewhere in between? On a Netherlandish anonymous draughtsman of the 1530s and his inventions

14:35-14:55 Ethan Matt Kavaler (University of Toronto)
Jean Mone, Barcelona, and the origins of the ‘Netherlandish’ antique manner

14:55-15:10 Questions and discussion

15:10-15:50 Coffee break

Session 4

15:50-16:10 Paul Vandenbroeck (Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp / University of Leuven)
Roque de Bolduque, a multifaceted Flemish sculptor in Andalucía (c. 1530-1560)

16:10-16:30 Adam Harris Levine (Columbia University, NY)
The flemish face: Brabantine bust reliquaries in their Renaissance Spanish contexts

16:30-16:45 Questions and discussion

19:00 Conference dinner

6 February 2016, Saturday

9:00-9:40 Keynote lecture: Noelia García Pérez (Universidad de Murcia)
Gender, representation and power: female patronage of Netherlandish art in Renaissance Spain

9:40-9:55 Questions and discussion

Session 1

9:55-10:15 Marieke van Wamel (Radboud University Nijmegen)
De Gerónimo Bosco de su propia mano. The Spanish patrons and collectors of Jheronimus Bosch

10:15-10:35 Elena Vázquez Dueñas (Fundación Carlos de Amberes, Madrid)
The Guevara's as collectors of Netherlandish art at the Spanish Court

10:35-10:50 Questions and discussion

10:50-11:30 Coffee break

Session 2

11:30-11:50 Eduardo Lamas-Delgado (KIK-IRPA / Université Libre de Bruxelles) & Antonio Romero Dorado (Universidad de Sevilla)
The dukes of Medina Sidonia and Netherlandish art: on the artistic patronage in a secondary Renaissance Iberian court

11:50-12:10 Koenraad Van Cleempoel (University of Hasselt)
Flemish scientific instruments from the ‘Louvain School’ and the relationship with the court of Charles V and Philips II

12:10-12:25 Questions and discussion

12:25-13:30 Lunch break

Session 3

13:30-13:50 Francisco Galante (Universidad de La Laguna)
Flanders in the Canary Islands. Art and patronage in the "Golden Age”

13:50-14:10 Maite Barrio Olano (Albayalde), Ion Berasain Salvarredi (Albayalde) & Jesús Muñiz Petralanda (Diocesan Museum of Religious Art, Bilbao)
Retables sculptés flamands en Espagne: Quelques réflexions sur les promoteurs et la relation entre les traditions artistiques flamandes et hispaniques

14:10-14:25 Questions and discussion

Session 4

14:25-14:45 Jessica Weiss (Metropolitan State University of Denver, CO)
Beauty and belief: Isabel of Castile’s copy of the Miraflores Altarpiece

14:45-15:05 Antonia Putzger (Technische Universität Berlin)
Early Netherlandish painting at the court of Philip II: shape, substance and acquired meaning

15:05-15:25 Lisa Wiersma (University of Amsterdam / Webster University Leiden)
On celestial spheres and earthly delights. The Planet Series and Bacchus by Jacques Jonghelinck in Spain

15:25-15:40 Questions and discussion

15:40-15:55 Closing remarks by Jan Van der Stock (Illuminare – Centre for the Study of Medieval Art | University of Leuven)