Paragons and Paper Bags, conference on 9 June 2016 at the Rijksmuseum in
Amsterdam
Background
The scholarly research on early modern printmaking has evolved from a
focus on the Romantic concept of the Peintre-Graveur to studies of
artists and printmakers in their specific cultural and socioeconomic
context. In addition, the idea that publishers played a vital role in
artistic, commercial and organisational aspects of printmaking is now
widely accepted. Both art-historical and art-technical research on these
matters have resulted in reference works and exhibition catalogues of
high standard. In these studies, however, the position of the consumer
has often been ignored or dealt with only briefly. In addition, print
collections in the past have often failed to recognise the importance of
contemporary adaptations, signs of usage and collecting conditions.
The consumer’s perspective
However, for a proper understanding of early modern culture, it is
crucial to study the consumption of printed images and the socioeconomic
and artistic processes behind it. Prints were a widespread and
artistically diverse medium and the creative process of a print did not
stop after printing. Researching the creative afterlife of prints is
therefore an essential development in the study of early modern visual
culture. Although the consumption and reception of early modern books
has received increasing attention in the past decades, only some
scholars such as Jan Van der Stock (Printing Images in Antwerp. The
Introduction of Printmaking in a City: Fifteenth Century to 1585, 1998),
Peter Schmidt (Gedruckte Bilder in handgeschriebenen Büchern. Zum
Gebrauch von Druckgraphik im 15. Jahrhundert, 2003), Jan van der Waals
(Prints in the Golden Age. From Art to Shelf Paper, 2006), Kathryn Rudy
(Virtual Pilgrimages in the Convent. Imagining Jerusalem in the Late
Middle Ages, 2011) and Suzanne Karr Schmidt (Altered and Adorned. Using
Renaissance Prints in Daily Life, 2011) have integrated the consumer’s
side of the print market and the concrete use of prints in their research.
In order to stimulate this promising evolution, the Rijksmuseum is
organising an international conference on early modern prints, ranging
from precious artistic prints that were carefully collected to cheap
printed images that were used and discarded. Paragons and Paper Bags.
Early Modern Prints from the Consumer’s Perspective will take place at
the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam on Thursday 9 June 2016. The aim of this
symposium is to further develop this new approach in order to achieve
new insights on target audiences, the application and usage of prints,
and special collection practices.
Keynote lectures
Antony Griffiths (former Keeper of Prints and Drawings, British Museum,
London), The Surviving Print, the Ephemeral Print and the Print Historian
Kathryn M. Rudy (Senior Lecturer in Art History at the University of
St Andrews), Cut, Pasted, and Cut Again: The Original Function and Later
Collection of Early Prints in Western Europe
For the Programme and additional information please visit
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/paragons-and-paper-bags
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