What's on this February

Lecture

Lecture
Transoceanic Trade Repictured: Coromandel Lacquer Screen and the Mobile Image in Global Exchange 
Lianming Wang
01 February 2022, 3:00pm
Online

This talk responds to the ingenious concept of the ‘image vehicle’ (Bilderfahrzeuge) coined by Aby Warburg, highlighting its potential and valence for studying the global migration of the image. Departing from a Coromandel lacquer screen with the portrayal of the Dutch paying tribute, now kept in the National Museum of Denmark, the discussion centers on the recurring theme of the transoceanic tributary trade found on a wide array of material surfaces.

> more

Save the Date

Lecture
Late Medieval Georgian Illuminated Documents
Eter Edisherashvili
01 March 2022, 3:00pm
Online

Further details will be available on our website in the coming weeks.

> more

Publications

Wolfgang Laib in Florence
Without Time – Without Place – Without Body

Edited by Sergio Risalti, Corinna Thierolf, and Gerhard Wolf
 

In 2019, following an invitation from the Museo Novecento in Florence, artist Wolfgang Laib created five works in four of the city’s main sights, including the convent of San Marco and the Pazzi Chapel. The publication documents this unique and spectacular art event.

> more

The Multiple Lives of Pompeii
Surfaces and Environments

edited by Gabriella Cianciolo Cosentino, Pia Kastenmeier, Katrin Wilhelm

The Multiple Lives of Pompeii sheds light on the history of restoration, reception and musealisation of Pompeii and encourages interdisciplinary discourses between the humanities and the natural sciences. The focus lies on surfaces and environments: two different physical, spatial, and conceptual dimensions of the city which are simultaneously opposites and complementary. 

> more

KUNST.LOG

Blog
Faunal Nature Printing: Traces of Life in Sherman Denton's Moths and Butterflies (1900)
Judith Elisabeth Weiss

In this article, 4A_Lab Fellow Judith Elisabeth Weiss traces the history and development of nature prints, highlighting some crucial issues in 19th-century discourses around nature, aesthetics, and art.

> more

Videos

Video
'Linea centrica' und gekrümmter Erdenrand. Horizonte und Perspektive in italienischen Bildern
Hans Aurenhammer

Im frühen Quattrocento wurde die subjektzentrierte Perspektivkonstruktion entwickelt. Gleichzeitig wurde in den landschaftlichen Hintergründen erstmals der Horizont als Übergangszone zwischen Erde und natürlichem Himmel darstellbar. Beide Phänomene gelten als für die Frühe Neuzeit konstitutiv, doch ist ihr Zusammenhang weniger eindeutig als gemeinhin angenommen. In der Malerei suchte man die neuen naturalistischen Möglichkeiten mit einem panoramatischen Blick zu verbinden, der die Welt als Ganzes erfahrbar machen möchte. Das Leitmotiv dieser alternativen Lösungen ist der konvex gekrümmte – also nicht wie üblich gerade – Horizont. Der Vortrag diskutiert dieses wenig beachtete Phänomen.
 

> more

Video
Temple Cultures & Premodern Worlds across South Asia and the Indian Ocean

More videos from this international conference are now available on our Vimeo channel. You can see the whole playlist here.

> more

In Focus

In Focus
In Noble Garb –
Historical Binding Papers in the Library

When antiquarian books are acquired by the library, they often come decorated with a variety of papers coloured using different techniques. This 'In Focus' brings together some of the historical binding papers from the library's collections.

> more

Online Exhibition

Online Exhibition
ART HISTORY WITH A CAMERA. The photography of Ralph Lieberman 

In this online exhibition, we present photographs by Ralph Lieberman primarily from the Photothek's holdings. Lieberman’s photographic career began when he produced his own images for his dissertation. Since then, he has continuously contemplated both the possibilities and limitations of photography in the field of art history. This is reflected also in his teaching activities and in many of his publications. The Photothek holds more than 2,000 prints of his photographs that – in keeping with the focus of the Florentine collection – mainly show buildings and artworks from North and Central Italy.

> to the online exhibition

Work with us

How to access the Library and Photothek 

To access the Library (Via Giusti 44), users are required to make an online reservation: https://reserve.khi.fi.it
The Photothek (and the Ya section of the Library) in Palazzo Grifoni is accessible on request by email: fototeca@khi.fi.it
Access to the Library and Photothek is only possible on presentation of a “Green Pass rafforzato” (i.e., a Covid-19 certificate of vaccination or recovery; a negative rapid antigen or PCR test result is no longer sufficient).

Join Us!