The Robert H. Smith Renaissance Sculpture Programme
Upcoming Events:
Demonstrations
Demonstrations are held in the Art Studio in the Sackler Centre. Held
from 11.00-13.00 & 14.00-16.00, they are free drop-in events.
Sunday 31 October
The Art of Hard Stone Carving
Watch gem-carver Charlotte De Syllas demonstrate the skills and
techniques of Renaissance hard stone carvers.
Conference
The conference will run from 10.00 to 17.30 on both days and is free of
charge, but ticketed.
It is held in honour and memory of Robert H. Smith, who generously
funded the Robert H. Smith Renaissance Sculpture Programme. This event
is free of charge but ticketed.
To book, please call +44 (0)20 7942 2211 or book online:
http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson
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Annual Lecture
The Annual Lectures are held in the Lecture Theatre. Arrival from 18.30
for a 19.00 start. This event is free of charge but ticketed.
To book, please call +44 (0)20 7942 2211 or book online:
http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson
Wednesday 10 November
Words fire imagination: Pliny and Renaissance sculpture
Sarah Blake McHam, Professor of Art History, Rutgers University
Drawing on examples from the V&A’s collection, Professor McHam explores
how Pliny’s text whetted the zeal of Renaissance sculptors to imitate
their Greco-Roman counterparts and inspired wholly new creations.
Renaissance artists and patrons could only imagine what the V&A’s Cast
Courts have offered generations of visitors: precise visual records of
the past’s greatest sculptures. Left with few intact statues and
confusing masses of fragments, they were forced to resort to Pliny the
Elder’s terse descriptions in his Natural History, the only surviving
overview of ancient sculpture.
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Friday 12 and Saturday 13 November
Carvings, casts and collectors: the art of Renaissance sculpture
Bringing together some of the world’s leading experts, this conference
explores the artistic production and cultural context of Renaissance
sculpture, from Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise to the small bronzes of
Giambologna’s followers. Papers cover a range of sculptural materials
and forms to cast fresh light on the artists, their creative and
collaborative processes, and on those who commissioned, owned and
responded to their work.
Friday 12 November
10.00 Registration
10.20 Paul Williamson (V&A) Welcome
10.30 Session One: Collecting and Collections Chair: Nicholas Penny (The
National Gallery)
Cyril Humphris (Independent) The eye of a connoisseur: Robert H. Smith
as a collector
Peta Motture (V&A)Looking afresh: reviewing Italian sculpture for the
Medieval & Renaissance Galleries
11.30 Refreshments
12.00 Session Two: Framing sculpture Chair: Caroline Elam (Independent)
Gary M. Radke (Syracuse University) Looking around the Gates of
Paradise: observations on the jambs of Ghiberti's Bronze doors
Alison Wright (UCL) Sculpture and sacrament in Italian Renaissance art
13.00 Lunch (Provided)
14.15 Session Three: Portraiture Chair: Philip Attwood (The British Museum)
Jeanette Kohl (University of California Riverside) ‘Casting’ Renaissance
Florence: authenticity in sculpted portraiture
Claudia Kryza-Gersch (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) A newly
discovered all'antica bust by Simone Bianco
15.15 Refreshments
15.45 Session Four: Sculptors and their Workshops Chair: Charles Avery
(Independent)
Davide Gasparotto (Soprintendenza, Parma and Piacenza) Giovanni Angelo
del Maino's wooden altarpiece in the Victoria and Albert Museum: the
work in its original context
Jeremy Warren (Wallace Collection, London) The Grandi: a family of
sculptors in 16th-century Padua
16.45 Discussion followed by drinks reception
18.30 Close
Saturday 13 November
10.00 Registration
10.20 Marjorie Trusted (V&A) Summary of Day One and Introduction to Day
Two
10.30 Session One: Northern Europe Chair: Norbert Jopek (V&A)
Jeffrey Chipps Smith (University of Texas at Austin) Hans Vischer and
the challenges of the 1530s
Frits Scholten (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) Johan Gregor van der Schardt in
Nuremberg
11.30 Refreshments
12.00 Session Two: Studying bronzes – different approaches Chair:
Bertrand Jestaz (Independent)
Volker Krahn (Bodemuseum, Berlin) Wilhelm von Bode and notes on two
bronze groups of Hercules and Antaeus
Shelley Sturman (National Gallery of Art, Washington) Italian
Renaissance "bronzes": alloy analysis, artist, attribution
13.00 Lunch (Provided)
14.15 Session Three: Florence Chair: Mary Levkoff (National Gallery of
Art, Washington)
Denise Allen (The Frick Collection, New York) "Colore Incarnato":
Cellini's Ganymede and living stone
Dimitrios Zikos (Independent) The collaboration between Giovanni Bologna
and Antonio Susini: an old problem in the light of new research
15.15 Refreshments
15.45 Session Four: Venice Chair: Manfred Leithe-Jasper (Independent)
Emma Jones (University of Cambridge) Priestly patronage in late
Renaissance Venice: Antonio Gatto’s funerary complex in San Polo
Victoria Avery (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge) Campane, cavedoni,
candelieri e caramali: Giacomo Calderaro, bell-maker and bronze-caster
of late Renaissance Venice
16.45 Discussion
17.15 Close
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Research Assistant (20-40% post) for the following research project:
The Molas, a Swiss Italian family of artists in Baroque Rome
A project supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) from
2010-2013
The research project is dedicated to the Molas, a family of artists from
Coldrerio in the Canton Ticino, and is the result of a number of preliminary
studies on the multifaceted artistic career of the notorious painter and
draughtsman Pier Francesco Mola (1612-1666). In 1616 the engineer and
architect Giovanni Battista (1586-1665) relocated with his entire family,
among them his son Pier Francesco, from their hometown to Baroque Rome. The
continuous intellectual and artistic exchanges, from the early 1630s until
the mid-1660s, between father and son, in particular, and other family
members in general, are highly illuminating for our understanding of
seventeenth-century art and architecture. Although the Mola family is very
well documented in the archives, no attempt has been yet made to research
the unique artistic interconnection of its members. The goal of the present
project is to change this situation and to analyse all these issues from a
fresh perspective and consequently to shed new light on this unique family
of artists.
Profile and required qualifications:
€ Master's degree (lic. phil.) in history of art of the 16th, 17th or 18th
century or Italian history of the same period, with either a specialization
(in ecclesiastical history or Roman history and its reception in the
Seicento) or
€ Master's degree (lic. phil.) in Italian literature with a specialization
in 16th, 17th or 18th century literature
€ Italian mother tongue or equivalent level of fluent written and spoken
Italian and high-level competence in the transcription of archival documents
and/or Italian manuscripts of the periods in question
€ Experience in collaborative work for scientific research projects as well
as the capacity to work independently and meet deadlines
€ Although the headquarters of the project are the Accademia di Architettura
in Mendrisio and the research will be conducted here under the supervision
of the project leader, the work is not restricted to Mendrisio and can be
conducted elsewhere; attendance at monthly or bi-monthly meetings in Ticino
is, however, compulsory.
If you are interested in collaborative participation with our project,
please submit your application as soon as possible to: Jörg Zutter PhD, Head
of the research project: [log in to unmask] / +41 76449370
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