What Gems Can Say
Contemporary Perspectives for Small Works in Gemstone

International Symposium

PROGRAMME

FRIDAY, 29 May 2026

Session I: Owning and Appreciating Gems
9.30 Katharina Kainz, Munich
Carved Authority – Cameos, Materiality and Representation in the Munich Residence
10.00 Martin Hirsch, Munich
The Munich Gem Collection under Elector Maximilian I
10.30 Michael Bycroft, Warwick
Gem Appraisal in the Age of Louis XIV

11-11.30 Coffee Break

Session II: Technical Shifts
11.30 Paulus Rainer, Vienna
“All imitated in the manner of stone”: the Wax Modeller Daniel Neuberger in Competition with Precious Stone
12.00 Hugo Crespo, Lisbon
Gem Fashioning between Europe and Mughal India: Aesthetic and Technological Exchanges in the Age of Encounters

13-15.00 Lunch

Visit to the Munich Residence (Meeting Point: Entrance from Max-Joseph-Platz)
15.00 Gems in Context: the Schatzkammer, the Reliquienkammer and the Reiche Kapelle, co-guided by Christian Quaeitzsch (Munich)

17.00-17.30 Coffee Break

Session III: Trade and Exchange
17.30 Alexandra Hilgner, Mainz
What Garnets Can Say: Early Medieval Gemstones between Analysis, Exchange and Meaning
18.00 Claire Sabel, Vienna
Secrecy, Sovereignty and Science in the Indian Ocean Gem Trade c. 1600-1700

19.00 Dinner

SATURDAY, 30.5.2026

Session IV: Issues of Reception
9.30 Philippe Malgouyres, Paris
Gothic Forgeries of Ancient Cameos
10.00 Claudia Wagner, Oxford
Cleopatra on Cameos - the Iconography and Allure of the Bare-Bosomed Woman

10.30-11.00 Coffee Break

Workshop
11.00 Walter Cupperi, Venice – Lisa Ganser, Munich – Martin Hirsch, Munich
Drawing a European Landscape before 1700: Gems from the Staatliche Münzsammlung of Munich

13.00-13.15 Closing Remarks

Convenors: Martin Hirsch, Staatliche Münzsammlung München, and Walter Cupperi, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

Contact Info: martin.hirschstaatliche-muenzsammlung.de