Connected Central European Worlds, 1500-1700

A two-day conference to examine how the complex transcultural nature of Central and Eastern Europe was co-shaped, fostered, and reimagined by artefacts, materials and visual culture, from food to art and clothing to weapons. Home to Slavic, Germanic, Latin, Baltic, Finno-Ugric, and Turkic peoples, Central and Eastern Europe sat astride a network of commercial routes, cultural interactions, and demographic flows that turned it into one of the most entangled regions of the early modern world. Papers explore this multiconfessional, multiethnic, and multilingual realm as a crossroads of cultures.

Programme:

Friday 30th June 2023

9:00-9:30 Introduction

9:30-11:10 1. Geographies
Chair: Luca Scholz

1. Mapping the Region in Contemporary Cartography (Robyn Radway)

2. The Frontiers and Routes in Sloboda Ukraine in the Eighteenth Century
(Yuliia Koniva)

3. Between Disappointment and Orientalisation: The Materiality of
Polish-Lithuanian Taverns in the Light of Foreign Travelogues and Local
Inventories (Jan Jerzy Blonski)

4. Entangling (Through) Sheep. Grazing Rights and Practices in Early Modern
Southern and Eastern Carpathians (Kata Tóth)

11:10-11:30 Tea Break

11:30am-1:00pm 2. Objects and Artists on the Move
Chair: Tomasz Grusiecki

5. ‘Dear Mother, I don't have money now, because I spent it on painting
tools in Gdansk, I don't have a job either.’ The Flow of People Along the
Route from Saxony and Silesia to Greater Poland and the Baltic Sea and its
Cultural and Artistic Significance. (Franciszek Skibiński)

6. The Transylvanian Carpet as Vehicle of Commerce, Diplomacy, and
Religious Identity in the Early Modern Eastern Mediterranean (Jeffrey
Taylor)

7. ‘St Hyacinth’s Madonna’: The Actual and Legendary Journeys of Images and
Wandering Motifs in Hagiography (Grażyna Jurkowlaniec)

1:00-2:00 Lunch

2:00-3:30 3. Rethinking Biography
Chair: Robyn Radway

8. Sumptuous Costumes, Precious Endowments and an Architectural
Masterpiece: the Multicultural Legacy of Neagoe Basarab, a Wallachian
Prince in the Early Sixteenth Century (Iuliana Dumitrașcu)

9. Jan Bonawentura Krasiński (1639-1717): Microhistory and Patterns of Art
Patronage in Central Europe (Konrad Morawski)

10. John III Sobieski’s Collection in Zhovkva/Żółkiew Residence as a Type
of Cultural Transfer (Mariana Levytska)

3:30-4:00 Tea Break

4:00-5:30 4. Prague and Print
Chair: Suzanna Ivanič

11. The Power of Print at the Court of Rudolf II (Olenka Horbatsch, British
Museum)

12. A Difficult Market to Control: Foreign Booksellers and their Books on
Offer in Late Seventeenth-Century Prague (Mona Garloff, University of
Innsbruck)

13. Illustrating the Theory and Practice of History: The 'Epitome' Frontispiece
of Bohuslav Balbín (Anna-Marie Pípalová).

5:30-7:00 Professor Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann - Keynote

7:00pm Conference Dinner

Saturday 1st July 2023

9:00-10:30 5. Deconstructing Heritage
Chair: Markian Prokopovych

14. The Challenge of Kosovo (Robert Maniura, Birkbeck University)

15. Early Modern Wooden Architectures in Poland and Ukraine: Notes on the
Study of a Shared Heritage (Carolyn Guile, Colgate University)

16. Cuttlefishes for Cossacks (Oleksii Sokyrko, Taras Shevchenko National
University of Kyiv)

10:30-10:45 Tea Break

10:45-12:15 6. Healing and Materiality
Chair: Tomasz Grusiecki

17. Aspiration and Reality. Early Polish Herbals Between Scientific
Ambitions and Visual Attractiveness (Joanna Sikorska, National Museum in
Warsaw)

18. Treasure in Clay: Emblematic Physiology and Visualizing the Unknown in
S. Hahn’s 'Psychrolusia renovata' (1737) (Aleksander Musiał)

19. Paper Things: Jewish Magic and Everyday Objects in Early Modern
East-Central Europe (Agata Paluch, Freie Universität Berlin)

12:15-1:00 Lunch

1:00-2:30 7. Stylistic Convergences and Replicative Mobility
Chair: Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann

20. Early Modern Silver Bowls from the Collection of the National Museum of
Serbia: Stylistic Convergences in their Ornamentation (Ivana Lemcool,
University of Belgrade, and Branka Ivanic, National Museum in Belgrade)

21. Gothic Art in Ukraine (Waldemar Deluga, University of Ostrava)

22. Marmore instar – Stucco and Scagliola Marble Imitations Between Austria
and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Case of the Carlonis’ and
Baldassare Fontana’s Workshops Connections (Michał Wardzyński, University
of Warsaw)

23. Crispin Scharffenberg (1519? – 1576) Between the Polish Kingdom and
Silesia: Moving Across Boundaries (Małgorzata Łazicka, University of
Warsaw/Print Room)

2:30-2:45 Tea Break

2:45-4:15 8. Conversions and Interconfessional Encounters
Chair: Olenka Pevny

24. Trent 1475 and Opava 1522: Visual and Textual Representations of Jewish
Others (Veronika Čapská, Charles University/Czech Academy of Sciences)

25. Geography of Faith: A Nun’s Journey through Central and Eastern Europe
(Liudmyla Sharipova, University of Nottingham)

26. A Last Supper or a Passover? The Challenges of the Boim Chapel’s
Iconography and the Entangled Religious Identities in Early Modern Lviv
(Stefaniia Demchuk, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv/Masaryk
University)

4:15-4:30 Coffee

4:30-6:00 9. Sensory and Material
Chair: Suzanna Ivanič

27. ‘A New and Strange Image’: Visual Meditation on the Passion in
Seventeenth-Century Ukraine (Maria Grazia Bartolini, University of Milan)

28. The Collected Tools of Elector Augustus of Saxony: Modelling Saxon
Work, Industry and Materials through Aesthetic Utility (Andrew Biedermann,
University of Oxford)

29. Multisensory Perspectives on Central European Ceramics (Zuzanna
Sarnecka, University of Warsaw)

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Full programme here: https://research.kent.ac.uk/emcentraleu/conference/

The registration link can be found directly here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfUUwgEIviXskD7oIc0PZ6Qkr5i-B01klqFXGYwvGwGCZp9MQ/viewform

For in person attendance register by 5th June, and online attendance by 28th June.

Postgraduate/early-career bursaries available for conference attendance in return for help with blogging and social media. Apply via registration link.

We look forward to welcoming you to our conference and engaging in fruitful discussions and knowledge exchange.