Three Pipe Problem

Art History in the Age of the Internet - A Discussion

2013-10-26T07:36:00.002+11:00

A Florentine Madonna and Child offset by a 3D printed #arthistory hashtag, a contribution to Dr. Charlotte Frost's hasharthistory project by Dr. Alexandra Korey

Dr. Charlotte Frost has recently arrived in Hong Kong where she is serving as a visiting assistant professor at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. Over the past few years she has been working on a number of over-lapping projects that explore the histories of digital and new media arts and the materiality of art historical scholarship – not to mention what happens to art history as discipline after the arrival of digital and internet-based communication technologies. As part of this work, she has been hosting a distributed online discussion all October on the history of online art discussion communities and the future of art history/criticism.

The discussion has mostly unfolded on the New Media Curating discussion listserve (link) but she has also been inviting people to respond on their own blogs, through Twitter and on their Facebook pages. For example a really useful thread on the internet personas Luther Blissett and NN occurred on her own Facebook page (link)

Having talked about her work at the CAA conference in February of this year (link), she invited me to talk about my own use of blogging and social media in art history as an independent scholar. The prompts in bold below have been provided by Charlotte to guide this discussion.

La Grande Bellezza and Raphael's Elusive Muse

2013-10-07T03:42:00.000+11:00

Beauty awakens the soul to act

Dante

Our experience of art is invariably personal, and undoubtedly subjective. How we process a painting, sculpture or film is dependent on myriad factors from our own past and present, and includes elements of prior knowledge and experience of language, images and sound.

I would like to use this post to explore my experience of the Paolo Sorrentino film La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty), which I saw recently as part of an Italian Film Festival. I have no intention of providing an exhaustive synopsis, but will recommend the film to lovers of Italian art and culture, and to aesthetes in general. The film may also be of particular interest to writers, as the main character is a writer, who having had success with a single novel early in his career, has spent most of his life as a columnist and socialite living among Roman high society.

Hiatus & Transition - a new space for 3PP

2013-10-01T01:42:00.000+10:00

View from the balcony of my new apartment

Recent months have seen a slow-down in frequency of posts at 3PP. I would like to take this opportunity to let readers know that my art historical adventures have continued, albeit in a different mode. In fact, in recent months most of the art objects I have been perusing have been to furnish my new apartment.

While I do plan to return to the standard and type of posts one would expect to see at 3PP, I have enjoyed this opportunity to exercise my aesthetic tastes and decorate my new living space with pieces recalling the Renaissance and beyond.

Why Art History - The Treasures of Constantinople

2013-08-13T22:59:00.001+10:00

The remains of the 6th Century Church of St. Polyeuktos

It all started with peacocks... those dazzling creatures that represented the eternity of the spirit and had associations with Roman empresses... There once was a church, built by a royal princess who was the noblest in the land, that had a golden dome and was lavishly decorated with the most precious marbles from the empire, colors of green, blue and gold glittering everywhere, with peacock motifs decorating column capitals and niches around the church, it was known to have been inspired from the temple of Solomon. No one knew of its existence till half a century ago when magnificent marble fragments appeared as if by magic in the middle of Istanbul... This, was the Church of St. Polyeuktos in Constantinople, built in the 6th century by Anicia Juliana, a descendant of both Eastern and Western emperors ...

The Divine Rebirth of Raphael's Madonna of the Goldfinch

2013-08-03T00:24:00.001+10:00

Among all of Raphael's great works, his Madonna of the Goldfinch has a strong personal resonance. The wonderfully rich story of its creation, destruction and restoration is representative of all that is possible when talented individuals are dedicated to creating and maintaining an object of great beauty and cultural value.

Raphael's Altar of Heaven - the Madonna di Foligno

2013-06-14T06:38:00.000+10:00

A cursory glance, or even a lengthy stare directed towards a painting sometimes does not seem enough. During my visit to Rome in late 2012, I was enchanted by the three major Raphael panels on display in the Pinacoteca Vaticana. The Madonna di Foligno contains many fascinating details - from its cherubic clouds to its unique depiction of a Renaissance astronomical event. The following post explores some of these details.

A digital humanities pioneer - Interview with Dr. Edward Goldberg

2013-06-05T00:30:00.000+10:00

In 2011, while searching for images online related to the Medici, I stumbled across Italy's Secret Places, a somewhat quirky blog that focused on the intriguing and sometimes unsettling aspects of Italy's history, as revealed by its many monuments and inscriptions. On closer inspection, the author of the blog was none other than Dr. Edward Goldberg, author of books such as After Vasari and the fascinating Jews and Magic in Renaissance Florence.

I soon discovered Dr. Goldberg was the founder of the Medici Archive Project (a fact not easily discernible when visiting the MAP website) and is a resident of Florence, whose passion for art and history was expressed through archival discoveries. What followed was a steady and frank exchange of information, as I sought to expand the scope of my writing at 3PP to include a sound methodological foundation. In short time, Dr. Goldberg became a much valued friend and mentor, whom I had the delight of meeting in person (along with Dr. Alexandra Korey) when I returned to Florence in 2012.

During both of my brief excursions to Italy, in 2010 and 2012, it quickly became apparent that digital innovation in the cultural sector is something the nation and its dominant institutions are yet to grasp. I often marveled at the impressive feat the creation of the Medici Archive Project represented, and had wanted to ask Dr. Goldberg about this, and many other aspects of his long and interesting career in and out of art history.

Why art history? An encounter with Cézanne...

2013-05-15T21:44:00.000+10:00

The Still-Life with Compotier

by Dr. Ben Harvey

The Fantasy...

Manhattan. The Museum of Modern Art. I’ve come to look at one of their Cézannes. From across the gallery, I can just make out the object of my quest, his "Still-Life with Compotier." Taking care not to look at it directly, I maneuver myself in front of the painting, stand still, and close my eyes. I wait for as long as I can, but even ten seconds feels excruciating. I open my eyes and absorb the work.

The Power of Luxury - Italian Art and Culture in Machiavelli's Lifetime

2013-05-05T03:36:00.001+10:00

The following post has been designed as a user-friendly interface, creating a digital compilation of a conference held at the University of Melbourne in February 2013: The Power of Luxury - Art and Culture at the Italian Courts in Machiavelli’s Lifetime.

Restoring the Renaissance - Interview with Maria Ludovica Nicolai

2013-04-26T07:25:00.000+10:00

La Primavera del Rinascimento (The Springtime of the Renaissance) is attracting a lot of attention. This ambitious show at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence runs from 23 March until 18 August 2013 (link). Its goal is to redefine our perception of the artistic culture of the emerging renaissance, focusing specifically on the role of sculptural production as a creative force in the early quattrocento.

Donatello’s monumental bronze sculpture of Saint Louis of Toulouse is one of the many highlights of this exhibition—newly restored by Dr. Maria Ludovica Nicolai of Florence. Over the years, Ludovica has brought her skills and expertise to many celebrated masterpieces in bronze, including Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise and Donatello’s David. Along the way, she has enjoyed a privileged intimacy with these and other works—developing unique insights into the artists’ methods and intentions.

Leading restorers like Ludovica have much to tell us, beyond what we read in published technical reports. Three Pipe Problem is hence delighted to present the following interview, allowing an exploration of the unique experiences of a restorer in her own words.

Da Vinci's Demons: The Serpent

2013-04-21T16:00:00.002+10:00

The second episode of Da Vinci's Demons delivered more of the show's entertaining blend of history and fantasy, set in fifteenth century Florence. Memorable sequences include a dissection, and Leonardo's testing of a war machine of his own design. These provide a useful opportunity to discuss Leonardo's actual development in these areas during the 1470s.

Da Vinci's Demons: The Hanged Man

2013-04-15T04:12:00.000+10:00

The premiere episode of the new Starz Tv series Da Vinci's Demons sets the scene for an enjoyable first season. In response to many requests to "review" the show, I have decided on a concise format addressing three key areas, summarised by the following graphic:

Raphael - Birth, Death & Dan Brown

2013-04-07T05:53:00.001+10:00

The following post addresses some "frequently asked questions" regarding Raphael studies. The first of these is the enduring mystery of Raphael's date of birth. The second issue is Raphael's exhumation, which also addresses the description of his tomb being moved in Dan Brown's Angel's & Demons.

Piero della Francesca's symbolic egg

2013-03-29T06:06:00.000+11:00

The following quick post was prompted by my reading of Christian vs Islamic Art: Flesh vs Word - by Prof. Monica Bowen at Albertis Window (link). The open access reference included below addresses another, lesser known example of a visual similarity between Islamic and Christian art - in this case the use of ornamental egg-shaped objects suspended within sacred buildings.

Art history and blogging in the digital age

2013-03-15T13:53:00.001+11:00

Albrecht Dürer's use of technology and personal networking enabled him to effectively disseminate his ideas across Europe.

What is art history blogging and where is it headed? For readers curious to explore this and related questions - please visit my guest post at PhD2Published: link

Included below is Dr. Charlotte Frost's introduction:

This blog post by Hasan Niyazi (independent art history blogger/originator of the ‘3 Pipe Problem’ blog) is part of a series that asks after new forms of scholarship and demonstrates how academic out-put is changing in the digital age.

From blogs like the Thesis Whisperer to Twitter communities like #PhDchat there are a number of ways in which academics are harnessing digital communication technology to support each other and their work within and without institutions. And some are even outright reinventing what academic scholarship might be. We are well beyond the early phase of academic listserves and blogs and into a – perhaps third wave – of digital discourse design.

In this series I’ve invited the people responsible for these types of projects to share what their intentions were when they established them. How their projects have changed the way they (and we, as participants) work, research, share, support and interact with each other as global colleagues. And how they might describe what the emerging skill-sets are and their benefits and pitfalls.

Getty leads the way in digital art history

2013-03-10T06:49:00.004+11:00

The Getty Research Institute (GRI) continues to lead by example in the field of digital art history, supporting a number of unique digital initiatives, as well as fostering global discussion on the topic through blog posts and social media. Earlier this week, the GRI hosted a Digital Art History Lab, chaired by Murtha Baca, the institute's head of digital art history access.

Late Raphael at the Louvre - app review

2013-03-05T11:08:00.000+11:00

The Late Raphael app was created by the Louvre and its partners for the Paris leg of the exhibition which had commenced at the Prado in Madrid.^[1] The following post is a review of this application, based on the Android version. An iOS variant of the app designed for use on the iPhone, iPad (etc.) is also available (see links).

Brief period of open access noted at JSTOR

2013-03-02T03:46:00.001+11:00

A curious occurrence was noted on the web's repository of academic journals, JSTOR. For a short period of time, open access was granted to the site, with all articles accessible without registration or login.

The Borgias - a musical background

2013-02-26T00:06:00.001+11:00

Musical selections from The Borgias

by Edward C. Yong

Just as 3PP's reviews of The Borgias have focused on the art and historical events of the era, the show also contains selections of music designed to evoke the feel of the period. As a practitioner of early music, I am often asked about the accuracy of the background music used in the series, so would like to offer the following clarifications and examples. Generally speaking, there was a reasonable amount of period music, though with some distinct exceptions. The following examples are from the first season of the show, including the episode depicting Lucrezia's wedding, which receives the most interest for its musical selections.

Peter McNeil - Italy Design World Centre

2013-02-20T23:09:00.000+11:00

The Power of Luxury: Art and Culture at the Italian Courts in Machiavelli’s Lifetime
The Australian Institute of Art History
The University of Melbourne
19 and 20 February, 2013

Session Four - Made in Italy Then and Now
Wednesday 20 February 3.00 pm

Peter McNeil
Italy Design World Centre: from the Linea Italiana to the Made in Italy

Abstract

‘Quite simply we are the best’ stated Italian architect Luigi Caccia Dominioni. ‘We have more imagination, more culture, and we are better mediators between the past and the future’. Italy has become a legendary centre of design and continues to act as a place of pilgrimage for designer-students and fans of design. In considering design we need to consider multi-facetted aspects of designing, making and production, distribution and end-use or consumption. Italy throws up a unique set of circumstances in each case. My lecture today will attempt to sketch some of the ways we can connect Italian style over a very long period of time to some of the high points of 20th-century object design.

Peter McNeil is a Professor of Design History at University of Technology Sydney and Foundation Professor of Fashion Studies at Stockholm University, Sweden. Associate Dean, Research, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, UTS. He is also currently an investigator within Fashioning the Early Modern: Innovation and Creativity in Europe, 1500-1800, a one-million € Humanities in the European Research Area funded project. Editor and co-editor of nine works on fashion, including the best-selling Shoes (2006; 2011); Nordic Fashion Studies (2012); Fashion in Fiction; Men’s Fashion Reader; and award winners: Critical and Primary Sources in Fashion (4 vols, Berg, 2009) and The Fashion History Reader (Routledge, 2010). He is a regular critic and reviewer.

Image notes
Salvatore Ferragamo with Sophia Loren. source Little Style File blog link

nb. Entry created May 5 2013. Dated to Feb 20 (date of presentation) for indexing purposes

Peter Howard - Creating Magnificence in Renaissance Florence

2013-02-20T22:34:00.000+11:00

The Power of Luxury: Art and Culture at the Italian Courts in Machiavelli’s Lifetime
The Australian Institute of Art History
The University of Melbourne
19 and 20 February, 2013

Session Four - Made in Italy Then and Now
Wednesday 20 February 2.30 pm

Peter Howard
Creating Magnificence in Renaissance Florence

Abstract

Magnificence was not just an aesthetic judgement – it was a moral virtue. We have long assumed that it was the pursuit of this virtue that led Florence’s cultural patrons to commission the artworks that thrust the city into the front ranks of artistic innovation. According to this view, Aristotle gave the concept its theoretical form and Timoteo Maffei its local voice in a spirited defence of Cosimo de’ Medici that set his ‘magnificence’ on an individual and largely secular foundation. Here I overturn this view and argue that Florentines were discussing the virtue of ‘magnificence’ decades earlier, and that it was mendicant preachers working with medieval texts who took the lead. I relocate the origins of Florentine public discourse on magnificence from the 1450s to the 1420s, and from a largely secular to a distinctly religious context. I demonstrate that Antonino Pierozzi, a Dominican friar who became archbishop of Florence, propagated Aristotelian concepts of ‘magnificence’ that had been mediated and refracted through Thomas Aquinas and Henry of Rimini, first in sermons from the 1420s onwards, and then later in his influential Summa.

Peter Howard: presents this Fra Angelico to illustrate the association b/w the piazza and magnificence#machiavelli twitter.com/3pipenet/statu…
— Hasan Niyazi (@3pipenet) February 20, 2013

Peter Howard is Associate Professor in the School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies and Director of the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Monash University in Australia. He has published widely in the areas of Italian Renaissance history and medieval sermon studies, including Beyond the Written Word: Preaching and Theology in the Florence of Archbishop Antoninus, 1427-1459 (Florence, 1995), and recently a major study on the Sistine Chapel, Painters and the Visual Art of Preaching: The Exemplum of the Fifteenth-Century Frescoes in the Sistine Chapel (I Tatti Studies 13), and Creating Magnificence in Renaissance Florence (Toronto, 2012). He is currently engaged in two Australia Research Council funded projects: “Cultures of Belief in Renaissance Florence”, and “Imagining Poverty: conceptualising and representing poverty and the poor in mendicant inspired literature, preaching and visual art 1220-1520”. He has held fellowships at the European University Institute, Florence, and ‘Villa I Tatti’: the Harvard University Centre for Italian Renaissance Studies, where he was also Visiting Professor in 2007.

Image notes
Virgin and Child with Four Saints. Fra Angelico. source wikimedia commons link

nb. Entry created May 5 2013. Dated to Feb 20 (date of presentation) for indexing purposes

Catherine Kovesi - Luxury in the Renaissance? Origins of a paradigm

2013-02-20T22:10:00.000+11:00

The Power of Luxury: Art and Culture at the Italian Courts in Machiavelli’s Lifetime
The Australian Institute of Art History
The University of Melbourne
19 and 20 February, 2013

Session Four - Made in Italy Then and Now
Wednesday 20 February 2.00 pm

Catherine Kovesi
Luxury in the Renaissance? Origins of a paradigm

Abstract

The Renaissance in Italy arguably saw the origins of modern day global and consumer culture. Indeed it was in this place and time that a vernacular word for luxury was first coined. However, this paper will argue that popular and scholarly representations of the Renaissance as an ‘Age of Luxury’ are problematic and not ones that the princely elite of Italy would have recognized. In teasing apart the origins of the meanings of ‘luxury’, a more complex picture emerges which enables a more meaningful understanding of Italy’s place in the so-called luxury trades.

Livetweets

Catherine Kovesi: explores links between paradigms of luxury between the Renaissance and the modern era #machiavelli cc @bebejax
— Hasan Niyazi (@3pipenet) February 20, 2013

Kovesi: during the Middle Ages, the concept of Luxury associated with "lust" :Renaissance symbolsincludie a pig or mirror #machiavelli
— Hasan Niyazi (@3pipenet) February 20, 2013

Kovesi: LeonardoDati's first 15C introduction of the word "Luxo"; not used commonly until 17C#machiavelli twitter.com/3pipenet/statu…
— Hasan Niyazi (@3pipenet) February 20, 2013

Kovesi: An 18C emblem book depiction of Luxury/Lusso still emphasises negative connotation #machiavelli twitter.com/3pipenet/statu…
— Hasan Niyazi (@3pipenet) February 20, 2013

Catherine Kovesi graduated with a BA (Hons) in History and Italian from the University of Western Australia, and completed her doctorate in History at the University of Oxford in 1991 with a Hackett Foundation Scholarship. She has held fellowships at Oriel College, Oxford and at the University of Western Australia, and in 2008 was a Craig Hugh Smyth Fellow at the Harvard University Centre for Renaissance Studies at 'Villa I Tatti' in Florence. Catherine teaches subjects in late medieval and Renaissance History, as well as an overseas intensive subject in Venice.

Image notes
The Ecstasy of Saint Francis. Sassetta. source wikimedia commons link

nb. Entry created May 5 2013. Dated to Feb 20 (date of presentation) for indexing purposes

Massimo Ciavolella - The Renaissance Prince and the Political Use of Theatre

2013-02-20T21:29:00.000+11:00

The Power of Luxury: Art and Culture at the Italian Courts in Machiavelli’s Lifetime
The Australian Institute of Art History
The University of Melbourne
19 and 20 February, 2013

Session Three - About Principalities and Courts
Wednesday 20 February 12.00 pm

Massimo Ciavolella
The Renaissance Prince and the Political Use of Theatre

Abstract

In my presentation I will consider the following question: why is it that, whenever we attempt to stage some of even the best plays the Italian Renaissance has to offer – or when we consider the evidence provided by a close critical reading of the mechanisms found in such texts – we must almost invariably conclude that the majority of these plays do not function on stage, and ask whether or not they ever did? Is it licit to affirm that the vast majority of “erudite” comic plays were not written with the objective to being presented on stage? If this is the case, then which criteria determined the success of a 16th century comedic performance? For my discussion I will consider the first staging of Ludovico Ariosto’s I suppositi in 1509, Annibal Caro's 1544 play Gli straccioni and Leone de' Sommi's 1588 Le tre sorelle.

Livetweets

Massimo Ciavolella discusses theatrical productions as an expression of power and spectacle in Italian Courts #machiavelli
— Hasan Niyazi (@3pipenet) February 20, 2013

Ciavolella: critics note 16C Italian comic plays are rarely funny or witty when performed #machiavelli
— Hasan Niyazi (@3pipenet) February 20, 2013

Ciavolella: 16C comic plays were not purposely written for performance, but as instrument of political power#machiavelli
— Hasan Niyazi (@3pipenet) February 20, 2013

Massimo Ciavolella studied at the Universities of Bologna, Rome, and British Columbia, where he received his Ph.D. in classical, medieval and Renaissance studies. He taught for many years at Carleton University (Ottawa) and at the University of Toronto before coming to his present positions as Director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and Professor of Comparative Literature in the Departments of Italian and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Los Angeles. Over the years, he has won academic fellowships and grants, has organized and read papers at a great number of international conferences, and served on the board of several academic books, journals and series.

He was the co-founder and co-editor (1970-1991) of Quaderni d'italianistica (the official journal of the Canadian Society for Italian Studies), and he is currently co-editor with Professor Luigi Ballerini of the University of Toronto Press’ “Lorenzo Da Ponte Italian Library,” a collection that will include 100 Italian major texts in English translation. Author of a broad stream of articles, reviews, encyclopaedia and dictionary entries, etc., he has also written and co-edited several books, including La malattia d'amore dall'antichità al Medioevo (Rome: Bulzoni, 1976); Saturn from Antiquity to the Renaissance (Ottawa: Dovehouse, 1992); Eros and Anteros: Medicine and the Literary Traditions of Love in the Renaissance (Ottawa: Dovehouse, 1993); Scrittori, tendenze letterarie e conflitto delle poetiche in Italia (1960-1990). (Ravenna: Longo, 1993); Italian Studies in North America (Ottawa, Dovehouse, 1994); La lotta con Proteo, 2 volumes (Florence: Cadmo, 2001); Ariosto Today. Contemporary Perspectives (Toronto University Press, 2003); and Culture and Authority in the Baroque (Toronto University Press, 2005).

Image notes
Front page of Aristop's i Suppositi. adapted from source at wikimedia commons link.

nb. Entry created May 5 2013. Dated to Feb 20 (date of presentation) for indexing purposes

Jaynie Anderson - The Venetian Festivals of the Compagnie delle Calze

2013-02-20T20:46:00.000+11:00

The Power of Luxury: Art and Culture at the Italian Courts in Machiavelli’s Lifetime
The Australian Institute of Art History
The University of Melbourne
19 and 20 February, 2013

Session Three - About Principalities and Courts
Wednesday 20 February 11.30 am

Jaynie Anderson
The Venetian Festivals of the Compagnie delle Calze as inspiration for a Prince

Abstract

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries young Venetian patricians formed associations called the Compagnie delle Calze for theatrical entertainments, banquets and weddings. The diaries of Marino Sanudo and other sources reveal that Federico Gonzaga, son of Isabella d’Este, and Alfonso d’Este, Isabella’s brother, spent time in Venice with the confraternity of the Accessi (The Inflamed Ones). The Young Federico of Montefeltre also joined the Accessi and kept for all his life, their impresa as a decorated motif on ceilings in the Urbino Palace. This paper will suggest that these princes from central courts came to Venice to learn how to create festivals.

Livetweets

Jaynie Anderson discusses the festivals of the "Compagnie delle Calze" - The Venetian Confraternity of the Stocking #Machiavelli
— Hasan Niyazi (@3pipenet) February 20, 2013

Anderson: The Piazza used as a theatre for the art of spectacle #machiavelli
— Hasan Niyazi (@3pipenet) February 20, 2013

Anderson: Paintings by Carpaccio contain many representations of the Compagnie identifiable by their costume #machiavelli
— Hasan Niyazi (@3pipenet) February 20, 2013

Anderson: the male figure in Giorgione's Tempesta has been interpreted as a reference ti the Compagnie d. Calze #machiavelli
— Hasan Niyazi (@3pipenet) February 20, 2013

Anderson: discusses recent technical investigations made on the Pastoral Concert in the Louvre #machiavelli twitter.com/3pipenet/statu…
— Hasan Niyazi (@3pipenet) February 20, 2013

Anderson emphasises Venetian compagnie as engines of artistic patronage #Machiavelli
— Lachlan Turnbull (@art_matters) February 20, 2013

From 1997 Jaynie Anderson was appointed Herald Chair of Fine Arts at the University of Melbourne. In 2001 she received the “Centenary Medal for service to Australian society and the humanities” in the fine arts. In 1999 she was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities; in 2008 she was the convener of the 31st Congress in the History of Art, Crossing Cultures. Conflict, Migration and Convergence, at Melbourne. After which she was appointed President of the International Committee of the History of Art from 2008 to 2012. In 2008 she was a visiting fellow at the National Gallery of Art Washington, and in 2008 was a visiting professor at the Harvard Villa for Renaissance Studies, I Tatti, Florence. In 2009 she was also appointed to the role of Foundation Director of the Australian Institute of Art History at the University of Melbourne.

Image notes
Pastoral Concert. Attributed to Titian. source C2RMF website link

nb. Entry created May 5 2013. Dated to Feb 20 (date of presentation) for indexing purposes

Christopher Marshall - Vintage Violence: Exhibiting Armour

2013-02-20T20:13:00.000+11:00

The Power of Luxury: Art and Culture at the Italian Courts in Machiavelli’s Lifetime
The Australian Institute of Art History
The University of Melbourne
19 and 20 February, 2013

Session Three - About Principalities and Courts
Wednesday 20 February 10.30 am

Christopher Marshall
Vintage Violence: Exhibiting Armour, from the power of the prince to the dynamism of the museum

Abstract

Renaissance exhibitions of arms and armour tended to emphasise their status as manifestations of princely power (with spoils of victory often displayed prominently) as well as genealogical projections of seigneurial identity. This paper will consider the challenges involved in transferring these functions across to the modern setting of the contemporary museum. The nineteenth century witnessed a mania for employing frequently spectacular juxtapositions of arms and armour as a means of creating highly theatrical reimaginings of Renaissance ambiences. Recent exhibitions of arms and armour have tended to reconfigure them according to more contemporary frameworks as either refined objects of decorative art or as indices of social and cultural history. This paper will consider these and other options for redisplaying collections of these kinds with a particular emphasis on the case study of the arms and armour collection of the Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan.

Christopher R. Marshall is Senior Lecturer in Art History and Museum Studies at the University of Melbourne, Australia. His publications on museums and curatorship include the edited volume Sculpture and the Museum (Ashgate, 2011) along with chapters for Museum Making: Narratives, Architectures, Exhibitions (Routledge, 2012); Reshaping Museum Space: Architecture, Design, Exhibitions (Routledge: 2005), and Rethinking Art History (Routledge: 2007). Publications in his dual specialization in Neapolitan Baroque art, collecting and the market include chapters in Painting for Profit: The Economic Lives of Seventeenth-century Italian Painters (Yale: 2010), Mapping Markets in Europe and the New World (Brepols: 2006); The Art Market in Italy (Pannini: 2002); as well as articles in The Journal of the History of Collecting, The Burlington Magazine and the Art Bulletin. He has held research fellowships at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC; Duke University, Durham North Carolina; the Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan; and at the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds.

Image notes
Head of Medusa Shield. Caravaggio. source Web Gallery of Art link

nb. Entry created May 5 2013. Dated to Feb 20 (date of presentation) for indexing purposes