CFP: Carrara Marble and the Low Countries (Roma/Carrara, 5-8
Jun 12)
Roma/Carrara, June 5 - 08, 2012
Deadline: Nov 25, 2011
CALL FOR PAPERS DEADLINE: NOV 25, 2011
Call for Papers
International Conference in Rome and Carrara
5-8 June 2012
“CARRARA MARBLE AND THE LOW COUNTRIES,
LATE MIDDLE AGES-2012”
Organised by
- The Academia Belgica, Roma
- The Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome
- The Low Countries Sculpture Society, Brussels
and a series of Belgian and Dutch universities (tbc)
CALL FOR PAPERS
Potential speakers are invited to submit a proposal of maximum 200
words with a brief CV (no more than a few lines) by Friday 25 November,
10 am to the conference organisers Emile van Binnebeke
([log in to unmask]) and Léon Lock
([log in to unmask]).
SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
Dr Emile van Binnebeke, Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels
Geneviève Bresc-Bautier, Musée du Louvre, Paris
Dr Helena Bussers, former director, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of
Belgium, Brussels
Dr Christina Ceulemans, director a.i., Royal Institute of Cultural
Heritage, Brussels
Prof Dr Thomas Coomans, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Prof Dr Krista De Jonge, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Dr Maarten Delbeke, Universiteit Gent / Universiteit Leiden
Prof Dr Leo De Ren, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Prof Dr Walter Geerts, director, Academia Belgica, Roma
Prof Dr Eric Groessens, formerly Natural History Museum, Brussels
Dr Valérie Herremans, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen
Dr Eloy Koldewey, Rijksdienst voor Cultureel Erfgoed, Amersfoort
Prof Dr Ype Koopmans, Open University, Heerlen / Museum voor Moderne
Kunst, Arnhem
Prof Dr Michael Kwakkelstein, director, Nederlands Interuniversitair
Kunsthistorisch Instituut, Firenze
Dr Christophe Loir, Université Libre de Bruxelles
Dr Léon Lock, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Prof Dr Piet Lombaerde, Arthesis/Universiteit Antwerpen
Menno Meewis, Middelheim Museum, Antwerpen
Dr Jennifer Montagu, Honorary Fellow, Warburg Institute, University of
London
Dr Sophie Mouquin, université de Lille III/Ecole du Louvre, Paris
Prof em Dr Werner Oechslin, formerly Eidgenössische Technische
Hochschule (ETH), Zürich
Prof Dr Bernard Stolte, director, Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome
Pier Terwen, independent conservator and historian of sculpture, Leiden
Dr Jan Teeuwisse, director, museum Beelden aan Zee / Sculptuur
Instituut, Scheveningen
Dr Francis Tourneur, Pierres et Marbres de Wallonie asbl
and others to be confirmed
THEME
The present international conference wishes to discuss the extraction
of Carrara marble, the trade of it to the Low Countries and its use in
architecture and sculpture in the Low Countries, from the Renaissance
to today.
Status Quaestionis. The history of the use of Carrara marble in the Low
Countries has principally been written in the form of piecemeal studies
or on the occasion of specific uses in architecture and sculpture,
rather than as a subject in itself. These writings generally remained
superficial both on a technical and a historical level, and rarely
grasped the importance of the field of material studies. A review of
this situation is sorely needed in a field dominated by literature
written nearly exclusively in Italy (e.g. the major exhibition in Rome
I marmi colorati della Roma imperiale, 2002), without any connections
to the Low Countries, despite the fact that the Low Countries formed a
major trading partner since about 1600. Inversely, studies in Belgium
have generally been focussed on local marbre extraction, commerce and
use, e.g. the exhibitions Pouvoir(s) de Marbres (2004) and the
conference at Versailles Les Wallons à Versailles (2007).
The conference attempts to offer a critical review of this situation
and to foster cross-fertilisation within a wide range of domains, from
the Renaissance to the present day, in order to establish Carrara
marble as a subject worthy of study in its own right.
The conference will start with a historical part, encouraging new
research on the trading connections between Carrara and the Low
Countries, following the work of amongst others Frits Scholten (1993)
and Marie-Christine Engels (1997). It will further link historical
studies with both art historical and material studies, in the tradition
of that engaged in by the Royal Museums of Art and History (Bulletin
vol. 53/2, 1982), but also following studies such as: Ype Koopmans,
Muurvast en gebeiteld (1994), Frits Scholten, Sumptuous Memories
(2003), Valérie Herremans (ed.), Heads on Shoulders. Portrait Busts in
the Low Countries 1600-1800 (2008), Piet Lombaerde (ed.), Innovation
and Experience in Early Baroque in the Southern Netherlands. The Case
of the Jesuit Church in Antwerp (2008), Léon Lock, South Netherlandish
Sculpture. Art and Manufacture c.1600-1750 (diss., 2008), Sandra
Beresford (ed.) “Sognando il marmo”. Cultura e commercio del marmo tra
Carrara, Gran Bretagna e Impero (1820-1920 circa) (2009),
Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child in Bruges. Context and Reception
(conference Firenze 2010).
The material studies aspect of the conference will concern the mapping
of technical and technological developments in the quarrying and
treatment of marble, all placed within exchanges between Italy and
Belgium. These two countries boast a tradition in marble quarrying that
goes back to antique Roman times and that culminated in the nineteenth
century with the invention of marble extraction techniques used
throughout the world today. Examples include marvels of interior
architecture such as the Carrara and other marble cladding in the
dining room of the castle of Corroy-le-Château (c.1848).
The conference also hopes to encourage material studies of Carrara
marble applications in the Low Countries following theoretical and
practical models explored in Italy in the last few decades,
particularly those concerning Michelangelo, Bernini and Canova; and
inversely those of conservation/restoration techniques and philosophies
explored in the Netherlands and Belgium (e.g. the projects of the tomb
monuments of William the Silent and Admiral Tromp)
As such, the conference intends to obtain a greater understanding of
the use of Carrara marble in the sculpture and architecture of the Low
Countries, while studying the success factors of this marble, those
that stimulated it and brought it to such a development. One might even
tentatively speak of a Carrara marble “revolution” in the Low Countries
(from about 1600 onwards), completely changing the practice and
perception of both sculptural and architectural endeavour in the Low
Countries, a phenomenon that remains undervalued and understudied.
The conference will also have a natural follow-on with the one
organised in September 2012 by the Musée provincial des Arts anciens at
Namur on the extraction and use of Belgian marble, particularly that of
Saint-Remy.
Possible issues to be addressed (non-limitative list):
INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES BETWEEN CARRARA AND THE LOW COUNTRIES
- The trade in Carrara marble
- The Low Countries communities in Carrara, Livorno and Genova
- Technical innovation between Carrara and Belgium: the example of
the large scale marble decoration at the castle of Corroy-le-Château
- Low Countries sculptors in Carrara
THE INTRODUCTION OF CARRARA MARBLE IN BELGIUM AND THE NETHERLANDS AND
ITS FLOURISHING IN THE 17TH CENTURY
- The Master of Rimini
- The Michelangelo Madonna & Child in Bruges
- Conrat Meit/Jacques Du Broeucq/Pietro Torrigiani
- The “Marble Temple” in Antwerp, the Jesuit church
- Rubens and marble
- The town hall of Amsterdam (today royal palace)
THE SOCIAL PRESTIGE OF CARRARA MARBLE
- The prestige of the association of Carrara white and Belgian black
marble
- Carrara marble in Antwerp-style baroque altarpieces
- The imitation of Carrara marble in altarpieces
- The imitation of Carrara marble in historic interiors
- The imitation of Carrara marble in plaster sculpture
- Portraiture in Carrara marble
CARRARA MARBLE AS A VEHICLE FOR CLASSICAL IDEALS
- Carrara marble vs. alabaster in antique-style architecture of the
Low Countries
- The collecting of antique and antique-style sculpture in the Low
Countries
- Neoclassicism, Canova, Thorwaldsen and their epigones between Rome
and the Low Countries,
- Troubadour neo-gothic and Carrara marble
CARRARA MARBLE IN THE THIRD WORLD POWER, BELGIUM (C.1880-1914)
- As reflected in the collections of the Royal Museums
- The Brussels Cemetary at Laken
- The Brussels courts of justice
- Victor Horta and Carrara marble
- The interiors of the Palais Stoclet and Carrara marble
- Carrara marble in Brussels architecture 1880-1914
CARRARA MARBLE IN THE NETHERLANDS (C.1880-1914)
- The Peace Palace, Den Haag
HISTORIC CARRARA MARBLE FLOORS
- Renaissance to Baroque
- The techniques and tradition of single-slab marble hallways
- Carrara within mosaic floors
- Sol Lewitt (Brussels Royal Opera House)
LOW COUNTRIES ARTISTS AND ARCHITECTS AT HOME AND ABROAD
- Laurent-Benoît Dewez
- Henry van de Velde’s Hohenhof
- Hilde van Sumeren
- Aart Schonk
- Tom Pucky
- …
BACKGROUND
The conference will be a collaborative effort between a large number of
institutions in Italy and the Low Countries, supported by the highest
authorities in each country. It also marks the tenth anniversary of the
creation of the Low Countries Sculpture Society and it will constitute
a follow-up from the study days it held in Belgium about the extraction
and use of Belgian marble in 2003, 2006 and 2009.
PROGRAMME
Individual arrival in Rome
Monday 4 June 2012, 9.00-18.00 and Tuesday 5 June 2012, 8.45-17.00
Pre-conference excursions in Rome: Galleries in Roman palaces and
villas c.1500-1830
Tuesday 5 June 2012, 18.00-
Roma, Keynote Lectures
Night in Rome
Wednesday 6 June 2012, 9.00-18.00
Roma, first day of conference
Night in Rome
Thursday 7 June 2012
Morning: transfer to Carrara
Afternoon: conference excursion: The extraction and transport of
Carrara marble from Classical Antiquity to today
Evening: Keynote Lectures
Night in Carrara
Friday 8 June 2012, 9.00-16.30
Second day of conference
End of conference and individual return
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