Abstract
The issues to be addressed during these study days are intended to complement and, above all, rediscover a still little-known aspect of the reception of the arts of the Middle Ages (5th-15thc.) and the Renaissance (15th-16 thc.) during the long 19th century. The timeframe chosen for this exploration will begin in the 1820s and 1830s, when the “neo” medieval and Renaissance movements emerged, and will end at the dawn of the First World War. While architecture and painting have been examined in the light of neo-medieval and neo-Renaissance trends, sculpture, the decorative arts in the broadest sense and the graphic arts have received less attention.
Announcement
Argument
“Medieval and Renaissance art in the 19th century : reception, collecting and reinterpretation” (Paris, December 8-10, 2025) These two study days are organized by Daniele Rivoletti (Université Clermont Auvergne/Institut universitaire de France), Frédéric Tixier (Université de Lorraine, Nancy) and Christine Descatoire (Musée de Cluny-musée national du Moyen Âge), and will be held in Paris (Musée de Cluny and Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art) on December 8 and 9, 2025. They are linked to the exhibition Le Moyen Âge du XIXe siècle. Créations et faux dans les arts précieux, to be held at the Musée de Cluny from October 7, 2025 to January 11, 2026 (curators : Christine Descatoire and Frédéric Tixier) and with the research project Une histoire patrimoniale transnationale de la sculpture du Quattrocento, funded by the Institut universitaire de France (coordinator : Daniele Rivoletti). A third day - December 10 - is currently being planned in partnership with the Louvre-Lens and the New York Medieval Society. It will take the form of a workshop and a visit to the exhibition Gothiques at Louvre-Lens.
The issues to be addressed during these study days are intended to complement and, above all, rediscover a still little-known aspect of the reception of the arts of the Middle Ages (5th-15thc.) and the Renaissance (15th-16 thc.) during the long 19th century. The timeframe chosen for this exploration will begin in the 1820s and 1830s, when the “neo” medieval and Renaissance movements emerged, and will end at the dawn of the First World War. While architecture and painting have been examined in the light of neo-medieval and neo-Renaissance trends, sculpture, the decorative arts in the broadest sense and the graphic arts have received less attention.
The aim of this scientific event is to reconsider the sculpture, the decorative and the graphic arts of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, particularly in terms of the history of techniques, taste, collecting and the visual culture of artists and craftsmen during the 19th century.
In addition, the process by which artefacts were inscribed into a cultural canon will be examined. This took place over a long period of time (covering a large part of the 19th and early 20th centuries) and on a very broad geographical scale, marked by a high degree of polycentrism : Florence, Berlin, London and Paris all played their part in turning these objects into assets of high symbolic, cultural and economic value. By their very nature, these study days call for a transnational art-historical perspective. This broadening of the map is invaluable in that it immediately brings to light meaningful cultural shifts : for example, why, in 19th -century Europe, could the same work be coveted or depreciated depending on its movement from one country to another ? What do these asynchronisms reveal ? The extension of the geographical scope beyond national borders will be coupled with another broadening of the field, as museum institutions and the 19th -century art market will be explored in parallel.
Papers may address one or more of the following points, the list not being exhaustive or even hierarchical : - Bridges between the categories of sculpture and the decorative arts : in the eyes of 19th -century audiences, what was the place of goldsmith’s statuette-reliquaries, small bronzes, plaquettes, and even certain productions by goldsmiths-sculptors (such as Lorenzo Ghiberti or Antonio del Pollaiolo) ? Were the hierarchy and system of the arts profoundly different according to the contexts (museums, temporary exhibitions, private collections), countries and temporalities of the 19th century ?
- The use of specific vocabularies to define these works from the Middle Ages and Renaissance to the 19th century (major arts, noble arts on the one hand, mechanical arts, decorative arts, minor arts on the other) and their periodization (“Haute Époque”).
- The inscription of sculptures, decorative and graphic arts into a cultural canon with strong symbolic value, if possible by highlighting the obstacles that have hindered this process.
- The role of a work’s artistic and cultural status in guiding the restorer’s approach.
- The many players in the art market who helped spread this taste for sculpture, decorative and graphic arts from the Middle Ages and Renaissance to the 19th century : antique dealers, collectors and/or dealers, restorers, auctioneers... Is it possible to trace the networks of intermediaries involved in the emergence of this art trade within or outside Europe ?
- The status of private collections and the emergence of the first major public collections.
- The links between the restoration of objects and the production of works in the medieval or Renaissance style, and the visual culture and artistic practice of “restorers”.
- The notions of copy, pastiche, composite work or forgery ; what links can be identified between commissioners, restorers, artists and/or forgers ? - The relationship between the model and its copy or the work inspired by it, as well as questions of hierarchy and recourse to the canon.
- The emergence of a “national” style in a 19th century of nation states, and the resulting debates and polemics.
- Periodization : in the 19th century, which periods and which figures embodied a style considered representative of the Middle Ages or the Renaissance ? Were periodizations in sculpture, the decorative and graphic arts ever based on a scheme developed for other arts, such as painting or architecture ?
Submission guidelines
Papers will last between 20 and 30 minutes ; the length will be specified later by the organizers.
Please send an abstract of no more than 2,500 characters together with a short two page CV to daniele.rivoletti@uca.fr, frederic.tixier@univ-lorraine.fr and christine.descatoire@culture.gouv.fr,
by July 12, 2025.
Proposals will be analyzed by the scientific committee and a response will be given at the beginning of August 2025.
Where possible, accommodation and transport will be provided for speakers who require it.
Scientific committee
Gillian Adler, Associate Professor of Literature and Chair in Humanities Sarah Lawrence College, New York
Marion Boudon-Machuel, Director of the Département des études et de la recherche, Institut National d’Histoire de l’art, Paris
Simonetta Castronovo, Curator, Palazzo Madama, Turin
Christine Descatoire, Curator, musée de Cluny, Paris
Julien De Vos, Director of the Service des musées provinciaux et du patrimoine culturel namurois, Namur
Rossella Froissart, Professor, EPHE, Paris
Séverine Lepape, Director, musée de Cluny, Paris
Florian Meunier, Curator, Musée du Louvre, Paris
Daniele Rivoletti, Associate Professor, Université Clermont Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand
Neville Rowley, Curator, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin Frédéric TIXIER, Associate Professor, Université de Lorraine, Nancy
Places
- Institut National d'Histoire de l'art
Paris, France (75) - Louvre-Lens
Lens, France (62)
Event attendance modalities
Full on-site event
Attached files
Keywords
- art, moyen âge, renaissance, XIXe siècle, réception, collectionnisme, historiographie, réinterprétation, sculpture, arts décoratifs, arts graphiques, manuscrits, faussaires
Contact(s)
- Frédéric TIXIER
courriel : frederic [dot] tixier [at] univ-lorraine [dot] fr
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Les arts du Moyen Âge et de la Renaissance du XIXe siècle : réception, collectionnisme et ré interprétations », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Monday, July 07, 2025, https://doi.org/10.58079/14aem
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