This international symposium is organized in conjunction with the exhibition Early Netherlandish Drawings at the British Museum. Leading scholars and curators from the USA, Europe and the UK will share new research on drawings from the Low Countries between 1400 and 1600.
Speakers will elaborate on themes explored in the exhibition and will address the function and materials of drawings as well as new subjects and drawing practices. Papers will highlight the role of drawing in the workshop, preparatory drawings for painted glass roundels and prints, the function of model books and sketchbooks, and the emerging practice of drawing outdoors and from live models. Together, they will illuminate key facets of the transformational development of Netherlandish drawing from 1400 to 1600.
Program
This will be an in-person event at the Warburg Institute and will not be live-streamed or recorded.
10:00–10:30 – Registration with tea and coffee
10:30–10:45 – Olenka Horbatsch & Charlotte Wytema (British Museum, London): Welcome and Introduction
Session 1: Early Netherlandish drawings and workshop practice
Chair: Charlotte Wytema (British Museum, London)
10:45–11:05 – Emma Capron (The National Gallery, London): Jan Van Eyck: Drawing and Painting for Portraits in Fifteenth-Century Flanders
11:05–11:25 – Maryan W. Ainsworth (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York): Chiaroscuro Drawings in Workshop Practice for Paintings
11:25–11:45 – Stijn Alsteens (Fondation Custodia, Frits Lugt Collection, Paris): Names without portraits, portraits without names. On Sixteenth-Century Netherlandish Portrait Drawings
11:45–12:00 – Q&A
Lunch break & opportunity to see exhibition (12:00–13:30)
Session 2: New subjects and meanings
Chair: Olenka Horbatsch (British Museum, London)
13:30–13:50 – Daantje Meuwissen (Utrecht University): Unbound Practice. The Errera Album and the Problem of Netherlandish Sketchbooks
13:50–14:10 – Ellen Konowitz (SUNY, New Paltz): Dirk Vellert’s 1523 drawings and the many meanings of Renaissance typology
14:10–14:30 – Daan van Heesch (Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels): Bosch’s Beggars: Reflections on a Model-Book Drawing and Its Transformations
14:30–14:45 – Q&A
Coffee & tea break (14:45–15:15)
Session 3: Drawing practice and innovation
Chair: An Van Camp (Rubenshuis, Antwerp)
15:15–15:35 – Edward Wouk (University of Manchester): From Drawing to Print: Cornelis Cort
15:35–15:55 – Austėja Mackelaitė (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam): Drawing as a Catalyst of Innovation: The Haarlem Academy and the Human Body
15:55–16:15 – Yvonne Bleyerveld (RKD — Netherlands Institute for Art History, The Hague, and Leiden University): ‘Pen Works’ by Jacob Matham: following in Goltzius’s footsteps searching his own path
16:15–16:30 – Q&A
Closing remarks (16:30–16:40)
Wine reception (16:40–18:00)
Registration
Attendance is free with advance booking. Visit the Warburg Institute’s website to book a spot.