Mellon Object-Based Workshop, "Meaning in Materials: Looking at Medieval and Renaissance Sculpture"

Mellon Object-Based Workshop, "Meaning in Materials: Looking at Medieval and Renaissance Sculpture"

This Mellon-funded object-based study workshop, organized in collaboration between the departments of Conservation and European Decorative Arts and Sculpture at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Department of the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania, offers participants the opportunity to consider aspects of Medieval and Renaissance sculpture through close examination, handling and collaborative discussion. Centered on important examples of medieval stone sculpture and Renaissance bronzes in the museum’s collection, in addition to comparative examples of nineteenth-century sculpture and works of art of non-European origin, the workshop will focus particularly on the materials and manufacture of sculpture, and how knowledge of these processes — understood both from visual and scientific analysis—can more fully inform our understanding of works of art. Of additional and equal importance will be the handling of small bronze statuettes, as haptic engagement with these sculptures allows deeper appreciation of their facture and the possibility to more fully consider the intentions of artists and patrons behind the creation of works of art.  This integrated approach to early modern sculpture will develop student’s knowledge of the various modes of study of works of art available to academic and museum-based art historians.

THIS EVENT IS CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC AND OPEN ONLY TO HISTORY OF ART GRADUATE STUDENTS AND FACULTY