Events

In this conversation, two experts from the field of Renaissance art history examine drawings by Leonardo da Vinci and uncover a particular workshop practice of the artist. [more]

David Bailly’s Portrait of a Painter with Vanity Symbols, signed and dated 1651, has provided us with a rich history of interpretation. Despite scholars’ different approaches and theories, it is generally understood as a painted autobiography in which there has been sustained reflection on the relationship between visibility and invisibility, between figure and ground. [more]

The material evidence gathered in recent years during the cleaning, technical examination and conservation of sculptural works by Nicola Pisano and his pupils and collaborators has revealed much about their experimentation with different materials. [more]

Taking a broad chronological approach, this seminar reflects on some of the main moments in terracotta’s critical reception in the modern age. In literary judgements and collecting alike, terracotta seems more than other materials to have passed from the background to the fore of art history several times within the space of a few centuries. [more]

The recent restoration campaign of the Hall of Constantine in the Vatican Apostolic Palace has confirmed that Raphael authored the figures of Iustitia and Comitas, executed in oil on plaster. This talk will situate Raphael’s plan to paint the Vatican room in oils in the broader context of the experimentation with this technique that took place in Central Italy in the first half of the sixteenth century. [more]

Portraiture, Alberti said, promises a permanence across time and space. Early modern artists and audiences had other ideas, though: they frequently interfered with ‘finished’ portraits. Carefully attending to the historical practices behind repainted portraits can help guide approaches to their conservation. [more]