Published by the Académie de France à Rome – Villa Médicis, with the Éditions Macula, "Studiolo" is an annual art history journal dedicated to artistic production and circulation of images between Italy, Europe and the World, from the Renaissance to the present day. The journal welcomes innovative and inedited research all the disciplines of art history. Each issue includes a "thematic dossier" as well as various sections: "essais", open to off-theme proposals, "débats", dedicated to historiographic issues, "patrimoine et histoire à la Villa Médicis", which looks into the history and patrimony of the Académie de France à Rome, as well as the activities and conservation programs undertaken by the History of Art Department. Finally, in the champ libre section, "Studiolo" welcomes proposals from the current year’s residents at Villa Medici.

Thematic section: THE LIFE OF ARTWORKS

Artists, collectors, art historians and museum curators are constantly confronted with the crucial question of the metamorphosis of works of art. From the moment they are completed, artworks undergo an infinite amount of transformations that can be determined by internal factors linked to their materiality (durability, alteration, decay, erasure, erosion…) and by external factors (accidents, vandalism, censorship, fragmentation, dispersal, loss of original context, restoration, etc.). These multiple aspects have the power to deeply change the perception and apprehension of the artworks themselves.

What do we see when we look at a work of art? How does it witness its own history or make it visible? To what extent can the changes that have occurred over time be perceived at a given moment and are they capable of reconfiguring these objects into new aesthetic, semantic and social systems? How are these issues dealt with by Art history, by preservation and conservation practices and more broadly by humanities and heritage sciences?

The issue #19 of "Studiolo" art journal, dedicated to "The life of artworks", seeks to engage a critical thought on the “living” and “moving” nature of artworks, as well as on the ever-changing relationships and narratives that are built with and around them, throughout their “biography”.

This issue welcoming case studies and open to a variety of approaches – whether historical, anthropological, conservative, legal, philosophical, or literary –seeks numerous arguments, such as:

- the becoming of the artwork: transformations, modifications, temporal sedimentations;
- the complex concepts of autonomy, ‘authenticity’ and originality of the work;
- the biography of the artwork: decontextualization, recontextualization, recycling, fortune, rediscovery, travels restitution;
- the social role and sociability of artworks;
- the life, the vital power of artworks, and their relation to the museum exhibition context;
- the artwork and its image: diffusion, virality, digital reconstruction;
- restoration and de-restoration: approaches and motivations;
- decline and death of the artwork: accident, destruction, oblivion;
- the artwork confronted with changing points of view and historical perceptions;
- the museography of the life of artworks.

We are pleased to announce that Sébastien Allard, Director of the Department of Paintings of the Musée du Louvre, has been invited to co-direct the thematic section dedicated to The Life of Artworks in issue #19 of Studiolo. A research seminar on this topic is jointly organized by l’Académie de France à Rome – Ville Médicis and the Musée du Louvre.

Articles can be published in three languages, French, Italian and English, and must be inedited. Under the headings dossier, essais and débats, articles can be between 30,000 and 80,000 characters long (including spaces and notes). In the last section, patrimoine et histoire à la Villa Médicis, articles can be between 10,000 and 50,000 characters long (including spaces and notes).