What are “Venetian” commodities? More than any other medieval or early modern city, Venice lived off of the trade of portable goods. In addition to trading foreign imports, the city also engaged in intense local production, manufacturing high quality glass, crystal, cloth, metal, enamel, leather, and ceramic objects, characterized by their exceedingly rich forms and complex production processes. Today, these objects are scattered in collections throughout the world, but little remains in Venice itself. In individual instances, it is often difficult to tell whether the objects in question were actually made in Venice or if they originated in Byzantine, Islamic, or other European contexts. This conference focuses on the question of how Venice designed and exported its own identity through all kinds of its goods.

Presentation

What are “Venetian” commodities? More than any other medieval or early modern city, Venice lived off of the trade of portable goods. In addition to trading foreign imports, the city also engaged in intense local production, manufacturing high quality glass, crystal, cloth, metal, enamel, leather, and ceramic objects, characterized by their exceedingly rich forms and complex production processes. Today, these objects are scattered in collections throughout the world, but little remains in Venice itself. In individual instances, it is often difficult to tell whether the objects in question were actually made in Venice or if they originated in Byzantine, Islamic, or other European contexts. This conference focuses on the question of how Venice designed and exported its own identity through all kinds of its goods.

Programme

Giovedì 3 / Thursday 3th

Centro Tedesco di Studi Veneziani, Palazzo Barbarigo della Terrazza

10.00-10.30 Introduzione / Introduction

• Of Venetian Camels and Commodities
  Philippe Cordez, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

• Venetian Glass Production in the Alps
  Romedio Schmitz-Esser, Centro Tedesco di Studi Veneziani

Presidente / Chair: Jan Keupp, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

10.30

• Commodities “Made in Venice”: The Case of Rock Crystal
  Stefania Gerevini, Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, Milano

11.15

• Re-Examination of Enamelled Glass Fragments From London – Venetian Ticket to Economic Success?
  Tanja Tolar, University of London

12.00

• Silver, Rock Crystal and Molten Glass. Venetian Enamel Work of the Fifteenth Century
  Eva Helfenstein, Luzern

12.45-15.00 Pausa pranzo / Lunch break

Presidente / Chair: Petra Schaefer, Centro Tedesco di Studi Veneziani

15.00

• Sull’esportazione di oreficeria sacra veneziana di tardo Trecento e Quattrocento
  Manlio Leo Mezzacasa, Università degli Studi di Padova

15.45

• I manufatti “veneziani” in avorio e osso tra XIV e XV secolo. Problemi di riconoscimento e localizzazione
  Benedetta Chiesi, Firenze

16.30

• “In magna ars de talibus tabulis et figuris.” Panel Painting as Venetian Commodity
  Nathaniel Silver, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Lectio magistralis / Keynote

18.00 

• The City of Innovation: Renaissance Venice and the Creation of New Objects for a Global Market
  Luca Molà, Istituto Universitario Europeo, Firenze

Venerdì 4 / Friday 4th

Centro Tedesco di Studi Veneziani, Palazzo Barbarigo della Terrazza

Presidente / Chair: Julia Oswald, Northwestern University / Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

9.30

• Glass “à la façon de Venise” – How Does a Material Shape Social Identity?
  Lucas Burkart, Universität Basel

10.15

• The View from Ferrara: “Venetian” Objects in Este/Aragonese Collections
  Leah R. Clark, The Open University

11.00 Pausa caffè / Coffee break

11.30

• Esportazioni e merci veneziane nei Principati Romeni del sec. XVI
  Cristian Luca, Istituto Romeno di Cultura e Ricerca Umanistica di Venezia / Università del Danubio Meridionale di Galati.

12.15-14.00 Pausa pranzo / Lunch break

Presidente / Chair: Joanna Olchawa, Universität Osnabrück

14.00

• “Venedigisch Papier” as Concept and Coveted Commodity in the Late Medieval and Early Modern “World of Paper”
  Megan K. Williams, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

14.45

• Crafting the “Venetian Quality”: The Book Industry in Sixteenth-Century Venice
  Dario Michele Zorza, Victoria and Albert Museum / Royal College of Art, London

15.30

• Silks of the Serenissima. Three Case Studies on 16th Century Venetian Textiles in Dalmatia
  Silvija Banić, University of Zagreb

16.15 Pausa caffè / Coffee break

Presidente / Chair: Susanne Thürigen, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

16.45

• Sugar – A Venetian Soft Commodity
  Anna Marie Fisker, Aalborg Universitet

17.30

• The Order of Commodities (A Venetian Example)
  Joseph Imorde, Universität Siegen

Sabato 5 / Saturday 5th

Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Palazzo Franchetti, Sala del Porteg 

Presidente / Chair: Thomas Kühtreiber, Institut für Realienkunde des Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit, Krems

9.30

• Damascene Ware in Venice and Beyond: A Study of Commodities in Context
  Elizabeth Rodini, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore

10.15

• Processes of Appropriation – South German Table Clocks as Venetian Commodities
  Susanne Thürigen, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

11.00 Pausa caffè / Coffee break

11.30

• Venetian Silk Cloth: Agency, Effects and Meaning
  Evelyn Korsch, Universität Erfurt

12.15

• The Cuoridoro’s Trophies: Venetian Leather Shields
  Julia Saviello, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München