INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE.
Publics of the First Public Museums (18th and 19th Centuries). Visual Sources.

The Conference entitled Publics of the First Public Museums (18th and 19th Centuries). Visual Sources is an integral part of the research project Visibility Reclaimed. Experiencing Rome’s First Public Museums (1733-1870). An Analysis of Public Audiences in a Transnational Perspective (FNS 100016_212922) directed by Carla Mazzarelli. Marking the third of three encounters (I. Institutional Sources; II. Literary Discourses), this workshop delves into the examination of visual sources, vital to understanding the forms of representation of early museums and their publics. We intend to investigate a vast range of visual sources, from views of internal and external spaces to architectural and display projects, from caricatures to illustrations published in catalogues, guidebooks, voyages pittoresques up to the (self)representation of publics, museum staff (directors, custodians, ciceroni) and artists within the museum.

Visual sources have long represented a privileged source for investigating the origins of the first public museums and the impact on their publics. However, in the light of recent studies aimed at deepening the material history of the museum and the encounter of the public with the institutions, these sources deserve a closer scrutiny in both methodological and critical terms. As museums sought to define and engage their publics, visual sources often became both a mirror and a mould; they reflect and shape institutional and societal perceptions, contributing to build up the idea of museum but also to give a depiction of practices of access to public and private collections in Europe and in the World. The Museo Nacional del Prado welcomes this initiative as it has been involved since its foundation in 1819 in the process that the Conference analyzes. The well known paintings that represent the spaces of Museo Nacional del Prado, since its opening, such as those of Fernando Brambilla, are an important starting and comparison point for the theme at the center of the Conference discussion.

On the other hand, paintings depicting ‘quadrerie’ have been a codified genre at least since the 17th Century. Such artworks have also been read as sources for the study of the evolution of the display during the Early Modern Age, but they also represent reference models for artists on how to represent the interiors of museum spaces, their publics and staff.

Organised by: Museo Nacional del Prado & Università della Svizzera italiana

With the support of
Swiss National Science Foundation

Direction
Carla Mazzarelli (Università della Svizzera italiana, Accademia di Architettura, Istituto di storia e teoria dell’arte e dell’architettura)
David García Cueto (Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado)

Co-organisation
Centro de Estudios del Prado (MNP)
Accademia di Architettura, Istituto di storia e teoria dell’arte e dell’architettura (USI)

Secretary
Gaetano Cascino and Luca Piccoli (Università della Svizzera italiana)
Itziar Arana Cobos (Centro de Estudios, Museo Nacional del Prado)

Contact:
visibilityreclaimedgmail.com
congreso.visibilymuseodelprado.es

In person or on line attendace:
It is possible to attend the sessions until all seats are filled or to follow the congress on line through the link to the Zoom platform that will be provided for all those enrolled. When enrolling you must choose a type of attendance
https://www.museodelprado.es/en/form/publics-of-the-first-public-museums-18th-and-19th/b45b8e14-7eaa-4053-a814-a6bae85fc597

Programme

Thursday, 5 June 2025

10.15 Reception and accreditation

10.45 Welcoming Remarks
Alfonso Palacio (Director Adjunto de Conservación e Investigación del Museo del Prado)

11.00 I. Museums and Audiences in Image: Frameworks and Methodologies
Chair: David García Cueto (Museo Nacional del Prado)

11.00 Carla Mazzarelli (Università della Svizzera italiana)
Alle origini del pubblico “esposto”. Proposte di lettura e confronto delle fonti visive
11.20 Daniela Mondini (Università della Svizzera italiana)
Visiting Sacred Spaces as “Museums”
11.40 Luise Reitstätter (Universität Wien)
Museums Ego Documents as Visual Source: Imaging First Publics within Founding Missions
12.00 Javier Arnaldo Alcubilla (Museo Nacional del Prado)
La bohemia en el Prado: entre fuentes visuales y literarias

12.20 Discussion

12.45 Keynote Address: Sebastian Schütze (Universität Wien)
Going Public: The Gallery Picture and its Agencies

13.15 Discussion

13.30 Lunch Break

14.45 II. Mirroring Museums: The Public in Photographic Archives and Digital Atlases
Chair: Daniela Mondini (Università della Svizzera italiana)

14.45 Beatriz Sánchez Torija (Museo Nacional del Prado)
El Museo del Prado y el uso de la fotografía como enlace con el público en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX
15.05 Irina Emelianova (Università della Svizzera italiana)
European Art Museums and Their Audiences through the Photographic Collection of the Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg: between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century
15.25 Paola D’Alconzo (Università degli studi di Napoli Federico II), Donata Levi (Università degli studi di Udine), Martina Lerda (Università di Pisa)
Dall’Atlante digitale dei musei italiani (DAIM): immagini del pubblico, immagini per il pubblico

15.55 Discussion

16.15 Coffee Break

16.30 III. Museums in Sight: Visual Records of Visit and Display
Chair: Christoph Frank (Università della Svizzera italiana)

16.30 Barbara Lasic (Sotheby’s Institute of Art)
Visualising museal trajectories at the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne
16.50 Luca Piccoli (Università della Svizzera italiana)
“The colours of them so chosen to carry the eye forward”: alle origini dell’esperienza di visita del Museo Pio Clementino tra rappresentazione e realtà (1770-1796)
17.10 Julia Faiers (Independent Scholar)
Experiencing medieval art at Toulouse’s first public museums

17.30 Discussion

17.50 Break

18.00 Chair: Carla Mazzarelli (Università della Svizzera italiana)
Keynote Address: Andrew McClellan (Tufts University)
Towards a Machine for Looking: Science, Psychology and Visitor Experience at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1900

18.30 Discussion and Conclusion of the First Day

Friday, 6 June 2025

10.00 IV. Strategies of Self-Presentation: Museums Between Politics and Cultural Stereotypes
Chair: Chiara Piva (Sapienza Università di Roma)

10.00 Benjamin Carcaud (École du Louvre / Ministère de la Culture)
Quelle image du visiteur les artistes ont-ils construite dans leurs œuvres? Les stéréotypes du visiteur de musée dans les salles du Louvre
10.20 Adrián Fernández Almoguera (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid)
¿Imágenes como estrategia? A propósito del Musée des Antiques en la cultura visual del Louvre imperial
10.40 Cynthia Prieur (University of Victoria, British Columbia)
Shaping the Image of the Louvre Museum: Maria Cosway’s Prints of the Exhibitions of Looted Art

11.00 Discussion

11.20 Coffee Break

11.35 V. The Critical Eye: Museums and Publics Between Promotion and Satire
Chair: Stefano Cracolici (Durham University)

11.35 Grégoire Extermann (Université de Genève)
Un caricaturista en París: el ginebrino Wolfgang Adam Töppfer y el público del Louvre imperial
11.55 Ludovica Scalzo (Università Roma Tre)
Il pubblico dei musei nei primi periodici illustrati europei (1830-1850)
12.15 Gaetano Cascino (Università della Svizzera italiana)
I musei di Roma e i loro visitatori in satira nella pubblicistica dopo l’Unità

12.35 Discussion

13.00 Lunch Break

14.00 VI. The Public Image of the Private Museum
Chair: Carlos G. Navarro (Museo Nacional del Prado)

14.00 Federica Giacomini (Istituto Centrale per il Restauro, Roma)
La Galleria Borghese in un’illustrazione de “Le Magasin Pittoresque”: per un’indagine del pubblico nell’Ottocento
14.20 Kamila Kludwiecz (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań) Aldona Tolysz (the Office of the Provincial Conservator of Monuments in Warsaw)
Between Documentation and Self-Creation. The Role of Illustration in the Activities of Polish Private Museums in the 19th Century

14.40 Discussion

15.00 VII. From National to Global Image: The Identity of the Museum and Its Audiences
Chair: Giovanna Capitelli (Università Roma Tre)

15.00 Susanne Anderson-Riedel (University of New Mexico) Caecilie Weissert (Universität Kiel) Joelle Raineau-Lehuédé (Petit Palais)
A Global Public for France’s National Museum
15.20 Elizaveta Antashyan (Sapienza Università di Roma)
Visibility granted. The Hermitage Museum in the 19th century and its representation in contemporary imagery
15.40 Raffaella Fontanarossa (Indipendent Scholar)
Le muse in Oriente. I primi visitatori dei musei in Cina e Giappone attraverso le fonti visive
16.00 Jonatan Jair López Muñoz (Univesidad Complutense de Madrid)
La imagen omnipresente. La representación regia en los museos nacionales del siglo XIX en España e Italia

16.20 Discussion

16.45 Coffee Break

17.00 VIII. A Museum for All? The Variety of Audiences on Display
Chair: Daniel Crespo Delgado (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)

17:00 Gemma Cobo (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid)
La mirada de la infancia. Nuevos museos y educación artística en la Europa de entresiglos (1750-1850)
17.20 Anna Frasca-Rath (Friedrich-Alexander University)
Through the eye of a child? Visual sources of/for museum publics in 19th-century Vienna
17.40 Marie Barras (Université de Genève)
See and be seen: museums and art exhibitions as fashion stages (1870-1900)

18.00 Discussion

18.20 Conference Conclusion (Carla Mazzarelli)

The Conference is part of the Research Project: Visibility Reclaimed. Experiencing Rome’s First Public Museums (1733–1870). An Analysis of Public Audiences in a Transnational Perspective (SNSF 100016_212922)
https://www.isa.usi.ch/it/visibility-reclaimed-experiencing-romes-first-public-museums-1733-1870

Project Direction and Scientific Coordination: Carla Mazzarelli (Università della Svizzera italiana, Accademia di architettura di Mendrisio, Istituto di storia e teoria dell’arte e dell’architettura) carla.mazzarelliusi.ch

Project Partners: Giovanna Capitelli (Università di Roma Tre), Stefano Cracolici (Durham University), David García Cueto (Museo Nacional del Prado), Christoph Frank (Università della Svizzera italiana), Daniela Mondini (Università della Svizzera italiana), Chiara Piva (Sapienza Università di Roma)

For more information and registration:
https://www.museodelprado.es/recurso/los-publicos-de-los-primeros-museos-publicos/8ea6ad0c-fbaf-4bfa-b4c9-54a3be3caca8