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Ghiberti teorico. Nature, art and historicity in the Quattrocento

Type: Calls For Papers [View all]
Posted by: Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut
Deadline: Fri, June 30th, 2017

Call for Papers

Ghiberti teorico. Nature, art and historicity in the Quattrocento

Conference at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut
Florence, 30 November – 2 December 2017

In recent years the work of the sculptor and goldsmith Lorenzo Ghiberti, alongside questions regarding his workshop and its structures, have again received attention from art historians engaged with the Italian Quattrocento – a fortunate trend which owes also to several recent and very successful restoration campaigns. The situation concerning the art theoretical implications of his work nevertheless remains different, especially with regard to the text of the ’Commentarii’, although its extraordinary role and impact within the corpus of Early Modern artistic literature has never been doubted.

Nearly twenty years after the new critical edition of the ’Commentarii’ by Lorenzo Bartoli (1998), almost thirty years after Klaus Bergdolt’s publication of the ’Third Commentary’ (1988), and virtually four decades after the last comprehensive conference dedicated to Ghiberti (1978) it is time to take stock of the sculptor’s art theory and to compare ideas expressed in his writings with the ’sculpted theory’ implicit in his works. The conference, co-organized by Fabian Jonietz, Wolf-Dietrich Löhr and Alessandro Nova, which will run from November 30 to December 2, 2017 at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut, aims to address the widest possible variety of questions and themes, especially those connected to aspects of literature, theory, methodology and the history of the discipline: e.g., aspects of natural philosophy, metallurgy, or optics treated in the ’Commentarii’ or in comparable texts from the Florentine Quattrocento, Ghiberti’s art historiographical concepts, the network of contacts that nourished his literary output, the theoretical claims of his sculptural works, and the critical reception of his art theoretical ideas from Vasari to Krautheimer.

Interested applicants should send their short proposals for papers of 20 minutes (in German, English or Italian) and a current CV to Sekr_Nova@khi.fi.it before June 30, 2017. The costs of travelling and accommodation for accepted speakers will be covered by the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz.

Posted on Tue, May 16th, 2017
Expires on Fri, June 30th, 2017

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