My first month at the Courtauld Institute has been a hectic one. Unassessed assignments, extensive reading lists and formal essays indicated the intensive nature of the course from week one. I have, however, found time to attend a range of lectures and events, some which have been particularly illuminating and are worthy of discussion here.
Outline of lectures and talks:
1/ AAH: Dr Hannah Williams, The Violent Suicide of François Lemoyne: An 18th-Century Art History Mystery
2/ Courtauld Research Forum: Professor Richard Gameson, Royal Manuscripts at the British Library
3/ Courtauld Research Forum: Dr Fabrizio Nevola, Shops, Streets and Palaces in Renaissance Italy
4/ Goodenough College: Dr Clarence Epstein, The First Decade of the Max Stern Restitution Project (will be discussed in detail in another post)
5/ The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham: Jamie Edwards, Apollo and Daphne: Ovid, Cassone Painting and Marriage in the 15th–century
As can be seen above the events and lectures covered a broad span of art historical research, from Medieval Manuscripts to Nazi looted art. Before commenting on the content of the lectures, it is worth discussing briefly the different associations and departments that hosted the talks.
Association and Institutions:
The AAH (http://www.aah.org.uk/), short for the Association of Art Historians is a UK based group designed to promote the study of art history. You can become a student member for just £20 a year which gets you reduced AAH conference fees and Bulletin newsletters. Dr Williams talk was part of a new events programme called ‘Art History in the Pub’, which consists of informal talks in The Monarch pub in Camden which are free to all with no need to book.
The Courtauld’s Research Forum (http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/researchforum/index.shtml), one of the best parts of studying at the Institute, offers a magnificent programme of lectures, conferences, workshop and seminars on a wide range of art historical material. Prices vary (some of the full day weekend symposium’s are over £10), but the majority of the 6pm talks, such as the Royal Manuscripts lecture given by Professor Gameson, are free and open to all.
Goodenough College (which I had not heard of before attending Dr Epstein’s talk) provides residential accommodation for postgraduate students in London (http://www.goodenough.ac.uk/). Part of its vibrant student community means it offers a range of talks and seminars; Dr Epstein spoke at one of their regular Port Talks (which actually did provide port to attendees upon arrival).
Finally the Barber Institute (a building I am particularly fond of given my close relationship with it during my undergraduate degree) is home to the University of Birmingham’s art history department as well as being an art gallery in its own right (http://www.barber.org.uk/). It also hosts a number of talks and research seminars, often given postgraduate students a platform to present their ideas.
Talks:
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| The Monarch pub, Camden |
To start with, Dr Hannah Williams’ talk for the AAH, took place in the dimmed and informal setting of the Monarch pub in Camden, making for a welcome change from the normal lecture theatres. Dr Williams, (a Junior Research Fellow in Art History at St John’s College, Oxford) gave a highly entertaining discussion on the death of Francois Lemoyne. Using police reports, contemporaneous objects and autopsies, Williams suggested that Lemoyne did not commit suicide but was possibly murdered. A gruesome description of the artist’s wounds and their improbable cause given the length of a contemporary sword (Lemoyne would have had to have stabbed himself repeatedly after hitting an artery) had half the pub attempting to act out their own suicides with an imaginary weapon to see if it was physically possible. Although Williams departed from traditional art history, with very little to no visual imagery involved in her hour lecture, the interesting analysis into social history and crime in the late eighteenth century was both enjoyable and refreshing.
Professor Richard Gameson (University of Durham) gave the first of the Autumn 2011 Frank Davis Memorial Lecture Series which is on Royal Manuscripts at the British Library (in honour of the joint British Library/Courtauld exhibition Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination at the British Library from 11 November 2011 to 13 March 2012 http://www.bl.uk/royal). Speaking on the Earliest English Royal Books, Professor Gameson’s excellent delivery style and enthusiastic approach made the subject of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts instantly accessible (even for someone like me, whose knowledge of medieval texts is slim to none). Dr Fabrizio Nevola (University of Bath), who also spoke at a Courtauld Research event, this time for the Renaissance seminar, delivered his talk less successfully, with a lack of fluidity which made it hard to follow his key points. Dr Nevola’s talk on Shops, Streets and Palaces in Italy, focused more on the topographical structure of Florence, i.e. why its buildings were constructed in the way they were, rather than exploring contemporary Renaissance life in Italian streets, which I was hoping to hear about (being more interested in art history that analyses culture and society). Teaching in the Bath department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, however, explains Dr Nevola’s unique approach towards his topic.
Dr Clarence Epstein’s talk, of most interest and enjoyment to me, will be discussed in a future blog as there is not enough space in this post to do it justice here. This leaves me with a talk which although strictly not applying to this post's title (being in Birmingham rather than London) I could not leave out. A former colleague of mine at the University of Birmingham, Jamie Edwards, delivered an hour long lecture on the Barber’s two paintings Apollo and Daphne: 'Ovid, Cassone Painting and Marriage in fifteenth-century Florence’ to the public. Studying in his first year as an MPhil, it must have seemed a rather daunting task; however the lecture was delivered with such confidence and expertise that all doubts were removed. A highly illuminating talk on the importance of furniture work in order to commemorate marriages (unions described as ‘political manoeuvres’), Jamie fully engaged an audience that ranged from complete novices in the field to experts. An extremely impressive first-time public lecture, I eagerly await the appearance of more of Jamie’s research and wish him all the best in his completion of the MPhil and application to PhD.
The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham
I hope in the next couple of months to continue to utilise the fantastic research facilities available in London and am particularly looking forward to a talk by the Art Lawyer Anna O’Connell at the Courtauld; the Research Forum’s Third Early Modern Symposium (Art Against the Wall); and a seminar on Caravaggio and the Antique at the Warburg Institute (http://warburg.sas.ac.uk/events/public-lectures/). Before then I will be posting on the fascinating details of the Max Stern Restitution Project, discussing the recent return of a Dutch painting by Juriaen Pool II, given back by a German casino last week.
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