CONF: The Afterlife of Medieval Sculpture. 7th Annual Ards Conference (online webinar)

The Afterlife of Medieval Sculpture.
Ards 7th annual colloquium on Current Research in medieval and renaissance sculpture 

Online webinar

3, 4 and 10 December 2020

Image: The decorated ceiling and hanging rood in the Metropolitan Cathedral & Basilica of Saint Chad, Birmingham, by A.W.N. Pugin (detail)

The 7th ARDS annual colloquium, which celebrates new research in the field of renaissance and medieval sculpture will focus on the theme of the Afterlife of medieval sculpture. The Ards conference in 2017 in Paris already touched upon the theme of the Collecting of Medieval sculpture and at Ards 2018 in Utrecht, Michael Rief provided the participants with a very interesting keynote on the repurposing of (amongst others) some Mechelen Christ child statues. This year the organisation wants to explore the theme of the ‘nachleben’ (afterlife) of medieval sculpture in more depth. The idea of ‘nachleben’ is to be understood in a broader sense than the pure Warburgian interpretation. Not only the ‘nachleben’ of the image, but also that of the object is of interest for the study of sculpture.

How were medieval and late-gothic sculptures used, understood, copied, altered, re-used, recycled, repurposed and treated (or mistreated) in the centuries after the moment of their production? From the medieval period until the present, Gothic art has undergone shifts in taste and appreciation. Nowadays prices for medieval art are soaring at auctions but in the 17th and 18th centuries many churches and cloisters were refurbished in the style of the period and medieval art and furniture had to make room. And e.g. in the 1790’s many churches were stripped of their medieval furniture (if extant) and they were sometimes sold by the pound if not thrown away or burnt. Even in the fifteenth century, some sculptures made in the earlier Middle Ages were restored, remade, cleaned and polished, whereas others were neglected.

The conference committee consists of dr. Jessica Barker (The Courtauld Institute of Art), dr. Peter Carpreau (M Leuven/Ards), dra. Marjan Debaene (M Leuven/Ards), drs. Lloyd De Beer (The British Museum) and dra. Michaela Zöschg (Victoria and Albert Museum).

A record number of proposals allowed the organisation to select a fascinating and diverse program in 4 large thematic sessions, with 25 speakers, over 3 conference days via Teams, due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The full program is online.

Registrations for the webinar are now open.

CFP: ESNA Talks 2020

CFP: ESNA Talks 2020
European Society for Nineteenth-Century Art (ESNA) & RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art
History
Filmed presentations on digital platform
CFP deadline: 4 September 2020

Théodore Géricault, Le Radeau de la Méduse, 1818, Paris, Musée du Louvre

Due to the worldwide pandemic, ESNA has had to postpone its conference Thinking in the Box to the spring of next year (27-28 May 2021). In lieu, it will initiate ESNA Talks, an online platform for the presentation of current research into the art and culture of the long nineteenth century.

Researchers are invited to submit an abstract for a digital presentation of between 10 and 20 minutes on a topic of their choice, to esnaonline@hotmail.com. In honor of the seventh anniversary of ESNA’s activities, ESNA will choose seven submissions to be presented online in mid-November. Ideally, abstracts should be submitted on film: one or two slides in a PowerPoint as a filmed presentation. The deadline is 4 September 2020.

The selection of talks will be made by the beginning of October, with the presentations themselves due on 6 November 2020. The talks will be published online via the ESNA website and the website of the RKD under one of the creative-commons licenses. Attention will be generated on social media, via the press and via ESNA's partners.

For ESNA's open letter, which includes the CFP, click here.

JOB: Assistent Kunst-, Muziek- en Theaterwetenschappen UGent

Vacature voor assistent aan de vakgroep Kunst-, Muziek- en Theaterwetenschappen aan de UGent.

Deadline: aanstaande dinsdagavond 16/06/20.

JOB: Collectieonderzoeker 20ste eeuw (1880-1970) KMSKA

Het Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen zoekt een collectieonderzoeker die zal instaan voor het verzamelen, interpreteren, delen en verspreiden van kennis over de Europese kunst uit de periode 1880-1970, met een stevige focus op het oeuvre van James Ensor.

Klik hier voor de vacature.

JOB: Curatorial Fellow within Getty Paper Project (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels)

The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium 

are recruiting a Curatorial Fellow 

within the framework of the Getty Paper Project 

Application deadline: 23 April 2020

Project and Content of the Position 

We are looking to recruit a RMFAB-Getty Curatorial Fellow with a special interest in Belgian art on paper of the period 1868 – 1914 (Fin-de-Siècle Museum).

The position and project are integrated in the collection “Works on Paper Modern Art (19th to 21st – century)” which holds about 9.000 works in total and comprises mainly drawings, pastels and watercolors, as well as photographs and prints from artist born 1748 and later. Prints and photographs held in the collection are mainly from the period after 1945. The strengths of the collection are the late 19th century in Belgian art, Belgian abstract art of the 1920s as well as the young generation after 1945 with ‘La Jeune Peinture Belge’ and CoBrA. Highlights are large collections of works by Fernand Khnopff, James Ensor, Léon Spilliaert, Jean Delville, Rik Wouters, Jozef Peeters, Felix De Boeck, René Magritte, Paul Delvaux, Pierre Alechinsky, Gaston Bertrand, Marcel Broodthaers and main works by foreign artists such as Vincent Van Gogh, Odilon Redon or Marc Chagall. They are currently shown to the public through temporary exhibitions and rotating displays in the Magritte and Fin-de-Siècle Museum.

The Fellowship funded by the Getty Foundation will enable the Fellow to participate in a range of curatorial activities related to the collection of ‘works on paper modern art’ in the Department Collection and Research and to assist the curator of the collection in general. Accordingly, the grant will support full curatorial training in areas such as cataloguing in order to complete the digital catalogue, collections management, research, rotating temporary displays and acquisitions. In particular, the fellow will follow the preparation of the rotations in the Fin-de-Siècle Museum. The fellowship will primarily involve to inventory in detail larger compounds of works as well as reviewing and building catalogue entries and object files related to the collection of art on paper of the period 1870 - 1910.

Key areas of responsibility

• Cataloguing (detailed description of the works, including attribution, and as far as possible provenance, exhibition history and bibliography)

• Adding new information to the museum’s collection database, Fabritius, after training by the Digital Museum team, and to hard copy object files

• Maintenance, updating and improving the on-line records of the collection as well as assisting in the Digitization of the holdings

• Curatorial assistance for the rotations and writing of label texts

• Contribution to a publication

More information on institutional profile and context, required skills, work conditions and application instructions can be found on the museum's website.

Application deadline: 23 April 2020

Additional information 

... about the project and the position:
Mrs. Inga Rossi-Schrimpf - project administrator (inga.rossi@fine-arts-museum.be)

... about working conditions: 

Mr Jan Stalpaert (phone 02/508.32.86; jan.stalpaert@fine-arts-museum.be)