Early Modern Colour Practices II, 1450-1650
International Workshop of the Max Planck Research Group "Art and
Knowledge in Pre-Modern Europe"

Organizers:
Sven Dupré
Karin Leonhard

This workshop takes colour practices, cutting across the categories of
art, craft, science and technology, as its central category of analysis.
The contributions deal with a diversity of practices, ranging from
painting, glazing, glass painting and colour printing to medical
diagnosis and optical or meteorological observation as well as botanical
and anatomical drawing, in the period between 1450 and 1650. Aiming at
opening up the black box of an allegedly monolithic ‘Aristotelian colour
theory' preceding Newton, the workshop will elucidate how early modern
colour practices in dialogue with the reception of Aristotelian theories
of vision and colour theory shaped a plurality of colour concepts.


Conference Schedule

Friday, March 21, 2014

10:00 – 10:10
Introduction
Sven Dupré, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Freie
Universität Berlin

10:10 – 11:00
Chair: Sven Dupré, MPIWG, FU Berlin

Beate Fricke, University of California, Berkeley
Enamel Experiments

11:00 – 11:30 Coffee Break

11:30 – 12:20
Chair: Sachiko Kusukawa, Trinity College, Cambridge

Ulrike Heinrichs, Universität Paderborn
The Issue of Mimesis in the Tradition of Colour Discourses Based on
Aristotelianism in Text and Image

12:20 – 13:20 Lunch Break

13:20 – 14:10
Chair: Tawrin Baker, Indiana University

Joost Caen, Universiteit Antwerpen
Stained-Glass Painting in the Low-Countries, 1450 – 1650: From 'Peinture
in Mosaique' Towards 'Peintue in Apret'

14:10 – 14:40 Coffee Break

14:40 – 15:30
Chair: Allison Ksiazkiewicz, University of Cambridge

Steve Wharton, University of Sussex
...No Secret Codes: Renaissance Pottery Painters and Their Use of Colour

15:30 – 16:30
Chair: Michael Bycroft, MPIWG

Roundtable Discussion
Artists' Knowledge of Gem Colour in Early Modern Mineralogy

16:30 – 17:00 Coffee Break

17:00 – 18:00
Chair: Karin Leonhard, MPIWG, Universität Bonn

Maria Michela Sassi, Università degli studi di Pisa
Evening Lecture: The Greek Colour Experience


Saturday, March 22, 2014

10:00 – 10:50
Chair: Mechthild Fend, University College, London

Tilly Laaser, Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Stuttgart
Friedrich Brentel the Elder – Colour in a 17th-Century Workshop

10:50 – 11:40
Chair: Mechthild Fend, University College, London

Andrew Morrall, Bard Graduate Center, New York
'Siben Farben und Künsten Frey...' – The Place of Colour in Martin
Schaffner's Cosmos Table

11:40 – 12:10 Coffee Break

12:10 – 13:00
Chair: Pamela H. Smith, Columbia University, New York

Barbara Berrie, National Gallery of Art, Washington
Material and Immaterial Aspects of Colour in Cinquecento Italian
Paintings

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch Break

14:00 – 14:50
Chair: Pamela H. Smith, Columbia University, New York

Marcia Hall, Temple University, Philadelphia
To Re-Examine Late 16th-Century Painting Practice in Italy

14:50 – 15:40
Chair: Friedrich Steinle, Technische Universität Berlin

Fokko Jan Dijksterhuis, Universiteit Twente
Colours on the Fringes. A Spectrum of Theories in Early 17th-Century
Optics

15:40 – 16:10 Coffee Break

16:10 – 17:00
Final Discussion


Contact
Observers are welcome but seats are limited.
Please register at officeduprempiwg-berlin.mpg.de
Karin Weninger (secretary)