Call for papers

The Stedelijke Musea Mechelen, The Koninklijke Kring voor Oudheidkunde,
Letteren en Kunst van Mechelen and The Low Countries Sculpture Society
organise the international conference

« Mechelen and early nineteenth-century sculpture : between tradition and
innovation »

on the occasion of the exhibitions « Welgevormd. De Mechelse
beeldhouwschool in de negentiende eeuw en haar Europese uitstraling »,
Mechelen, 18 February – 23 April 2006

Deadline: 15 November 2005

Aims

Mechelen was a thriving centre for sculpture in the early 19th century,
balancing itself between the Ancien Régime traditions and the innovations
brought from abroad, especially from Italy and Paris. It played with many
new themes and expressions in the neo-classical or romantic veins, unless
it was mending or recreating church furniture that had been destroyed
during the French Revolution – thereby ensuring a continued tradition of
baroque sculpture. Taking the sculptural production at Mechelen in the
first half of the 19th century as a starting point, illustrated by the
exhibitions presented by the Stedelijke Musea, the conference wishes to
explore the interactions between the different national schools at a time
of nation formation and the search for national identities, culminating in
the creation of the Belgian kingdom in 1830/31. Some of the following
questions and issues may form the starting point for the papers, though
they are of course not limitative :

The sculptor’s attempt at getting patronage – new ways since the
revolutionary period
The commissioning process : intentions and expectations
Survival or revival ? Style and its implications
Old and new iconographies
The materials involved, their practice, their cost and their relative
status
Political structures and the consumption of sculpture
The architectural context for sculptural production
Painting and sculpture : competition and cross-fertilisation
Academies and the teaching of sculpture
The export of sculpture vs. emigration

(NB. Thursday 9 March, official opening of TEFAF, Maastricht)

Friday 10 March 2006, 11.00-18.00

Papers interspersed by a visit to the exhibitions (the sculptures at Lamot
; the drawings at the Schepenhuis)

Saturday 11 March 2006, 9.00-17.00

Papers in the morning and early afternoon, followed by a visit of
sculpture on squares and in a selection of churches in Mechelen
Publication Ensured by the Koninklijke Kring voor Oudheidkunde, Letteren
en Kunst van Mechelen.

Paper proposals should arrive by 15 November 2005 at the Society’s
secretariat (see below) in the format of an A4 page abstract and a brief
CV, preferably by email. Proposals and papers will be accepted in Dutch,
French and English.

Organising Committee:
Dr Raphaël de Smedt, Koninklijke Kring voor Oudheidkunde, Letteren en
Kunst van Mechelen
Wim Hüsken, Stedelijke Musea Mechelen
Dr Alain Jacobs, The Low Countries Sculpture Society
Léon Lock, The Low Countries Sculpture Society
Bart Stroobants, Stedelijke Musea Mechelen Secretariat The Low Countries
Sculpture Society

Address and Information:
POBox 1304, B-1000 Brussels 1
infolowcountriessculpture.org
www.lowcountriessculpture.org