Mal occhio: Looking Awry at the Renaissance

09.30am - 6.15pm, Saturday 29 November 2008

(with registration from 9.00am)

Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre, The Courtauld Institute of Art
Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN

In art history, the Vasarian paradigm of perfection has dominated the study
of the centuries grouped under the concept of rinascita, or, since the
nineteenth century, the period term Renaissance. The idealising view of the
Renaissance has been challenged by scholars working in the wake of writers
such as Aby Warburg and Michel Foucault and this conference aims to continue
questioning the humanist construct of the “civilisation of the Renaissance”.
It will do so in part by examining alternative temporalities – models of
time (anachronism, archaism, Nachleben) that disrupt familiar
categorisations. It will consider what is at stake in the “Renaissance” as a
period label and how it has been positioned against the “Early Modern”:
should modernity be unmasked? Looking at the overlooked, the in-between, and
the repressed, the papers presented will consider the discrepancies,
disjunctions, and interferences that disrupt master narratives and
destabilise comforting perspectives on specific artists or works of art.
Reflecting upon concepts of time, space, and memory in the material
histories of the period, some of the issues to be addressed include: What
use can we make of period labels? Are certain materials still excluded from
the culture of the Renaissance? How can we rethink artistic experience
within the spatio-temporal reconfiguration of the “Old” World and “New”
World? Have new hierarchies been instituted in the study of “Renaissance”
art? If so what are they and what critical paths can we take?

To book a place: £15 (£10 concessions) Please send a cheque made payable to
Courtauld Institute of Art’ to: Research Forum Events Co-ordinator,
Courtauld Institute of Art Research Forum, Somerset House, Strand, London
WC2R 0RN, clearly stating that you wish to book for the ‘Mal’Occhio: Looking
Awry at the Renaissance conference’. For credit card bookings call 020 7848
2785/2909. For further information, send an e-mail to
ResearchForumEventscourtauld.ac.uk

This conference organised by Patricia Rubin (Courtauld Institute of Art) and
Maria Loh (University College London) in collaboration with the Oxford Art
Journal will result in a special issue of the Journal.

We acknowledge the generous support of:
Oxford Art Journal
Oxford University Press
Department of History of Art, UCL

PROGRAMME

9.00 - 9.30 Registration

9.30 - 9.45 Welcome and Introduction: Patricia Rubin

9.45 - 13.00 Morning Session - Chair: Alison Wright (UCL)

9.45 - 10.15 Christopher Heuer (Princeton University), 'Hieronymus Cock (d.
1570) and the Decay of Reference'

10.15 - 10.45 Alexander Nagel (NYU, New York), Alternative Antiquities in
the Renaissance

10.45 - 11.15 COFFEE/TEA BREAK

11.15 - 11.45 Alina Payne (Harvard University and Max Planck Institute,
Rome), Renaissance Periodisation and the Materiality of Architecture’

11.45 - 12.15 Ulrich Pfisterer (Ludwig-Maximilians Universität, Munich),
‘Downcast Eyes or Renaissance Sex Reborn’

12.15 - 13.00 Discussion

13.00 - 14.30 BREAK FOR LUNCH

14.30 - 18.00 Afternoon Session – Chair: Rose-Marie San Juan (UCL)

14.30 - 15.00 Robert Maniura (Birkbeck College, University of London),
'Image, Ritual, Miracle'

15.00 - 15.30 Francisco Prado-Vilar (Universidad Complutense, Madrid),
Painting the Arrival: Granada, America, Jerusalem and the Last World Emperor

15.30 - 16.00 COFFEE/TEA BREAK

16.00 - 16.30 Rebecca Zorach (University of Chicago), 'Revolution and
Renaissance'

16.30 - 17.00 Jill Burke (University of Edinburgh), 'The Renaissance Brand:
Teaching, Research and the Bottom Line'

17.00 - 18.00 Discussion
18.00 Concluding remarks: Maria Loh (UCL)

18.15 RCEPTION

Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN
tel +44 207 848 2909 web
http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/researchforum/index.shtml