15.03.2019

Negotiating art and faith

Conference, Residencies, Science, Roma

I venerdì pomeriggio
H18:00
Entrance: via Ludovisi 48

Introduction

Biographies

Programme

Dates
15.03.2019
Location
Roma
Category
Conference, Residencies, Science
Information

I venerdì pomeriggio
H18:00
Entrance: via Ludovisi 48

I venerdì pomeriggio
The Friday afternoons at Istituto Svizzero are dedicated to our residents. It is an opportunity for the public to learn more about the projects they are working on during this year’s residency.

Jan Blanc invited by CĂ©lia Zuber:
Negotiating art and faith: The Beheading of John the Baptist (c.1617-1618) by Gerrit van Honthorst

Gerrit van Honthorst has often been described as a so-called caravaggesque painter, such a label deserves to be called, at least for three reasons, into question. Firstly, this coinage, which did not exist in these terms in the 17th century, is too imprecise to be used in the academic discussion. Moreover, it masks what, in Van Honthorst’s art—including the works produced during his first months in Rome—led him to distinguish himself and even to oppose his Lombard model. Finally, it makes it seem as if the Utrecht artist had arrived in Rome without any religious or artistic culture, which is not the case. Taking into consideration these different questions this conference will address a work that has not been sufficiently studied for itself: the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, painted by Gerrit van Honthorst for a chapel in the church S. Maria della Scala, probably between 1617 and 1618.

Programme

H18:00 Introduction

H18:15 Conference, Jan Blanc (UNIGE)

H19:00 Discussion and moderation with V.E. Mandrij (Universität Konstanz) and Célia Zuber (UNIGE/EHESS)

The programme will be concluded by a convivial moment that invites for further discussion.

The talk will be held in English.

Jan Blanc is Professor of Art History at the University of Geneva and Director of the faculty. His research focuses on 17th century Dutch art and 18th century British art. He is particularly interested in the writings of artists and the links between practice and theory. Since 2017 he has been leading the SNSF-funded research project named A Golden Age? Rethinking 17th-century Dutch painting. This project intends to rethink the notion of the “Golden Age”, by analyzing the manner in which it was defined, thought and described in the seventeenth century itself, by the Dutch as well as by foreigners who observed the country.

V.E. Mandrij obtained a B.A. degree in Art History and French Literature at the University of Geneva. In 2018 s/he received a Research M.A. degree (Cum Laude) in Art History of the Low Countries at Utrecht University and was awarded a fellowship grant at the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome. As a PhD candidate at the University of Konstanz, Mandrij currently studies the artistic technique of the Dutch artist Otto Marseus van Schrieck and the relationship between artificialia and naturaliain 17th-century sottobosco paintings.

Célia Zuber (1990, Geneva) took a Bachelor degree in 2013 in art history and modern French literature at the University of Geneva, and a Master in art and languages at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales of Paris in 2015. In 2013 she received the prize for young researchers of the Association Suisse des Historiens et Historiennes de l’Art (ASHHA/VKKS). In 2016-17 she taught at the University of Geneva and the VIA FERRATA of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris. In Rome she will conduct research for her doctoral thesis, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, on the theory and theology of the image in the religious work of the painter from Bologna Annibale Carracci.