CODART, Dutch and Flemish art in museums worldwide

Art, Music, and Spectacle in the Age of Rubens

Symposium: 16 April - 17 April 2010

From the museum website, 28 December 2009

On April 17, 1635, the city government of Antwerp mounted a spectacular urban festival to welcome its new ruler, the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand, brother of King Philip IV of Spain. Entering the city, he passed nine temporary arches and stages designed by the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens to flatter the new governor and impress on him the concerns of the city. This interdisciplinary symposium will consider the art, architecture, music, performances, and festival books associated with the 1635 entry. Organized by Anna Knaap, Theodore Rousseau Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Paintings, Sculpture and Decorative Arts, in conjunction with the temporary installation Rubens and the Baroque Festival, on view March 19–August 29, 2010 at the Harvard Art Museum/Arthur M. Sackler Museum.

Friday, April 16, 2010

6:00pm
Music in the Performance of the Triumphal Entry of the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand into Antwerp
Louis Grijp, professor of Dutch song culture, Utrecht University and Meertens Institute, Amsterdam
Lecture with live music.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

8:30–9:00am
Coffee

9:00–10:30am
Welcome
Anna Knaap, Theodore Rousseau Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Paintings, Sculpture and Decorative Arts, Harvard Art Museum/Fogg Museum

Rubens, Antwerp and the Fight for Domination of the World Trade System (1572–1650)
Jonathan Israel, modern European history professor, School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

Peiresc and the Flemings: Rubens and Beyond
Peter Miller, professor, Bard Graduate Center

10:30–11:00am
Coffee

11:00am–12:30pm
Ferdinand’s Triumph and the Vernacular Dramatic Tradition
Bart Ramakers, professor of historical Dutch literature, University of Groningen

The Burden of Invention: Rubens and the Preparations for the 1635 Blijde Inkomste
Anne Woollett, associate curator, Department of Painting, J. Paul Getty Museum

12:30–2:00pm
Lunch

2:00–3:30pm
The Presence of Virgil in Jan Caspar Gevaerts’ Pompa Introitus Ferdinandi
Michael Putnam, professor emeritus, Classics, Brown University

Coins and Classical Imagery in the Time of Rubens
Carmen Arnold-Biucchi, Damarete Curator of Ancient Coins, Harvard Art Museum/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, and lecturer on classics, Harvard University

3:30–4:00pm
Tea Break

4:00–5:30pm
Mirror Images: Rulers and Living Statues in Triumphal Entries
Frank Fehrenbach, professor of history of art and architecture, Harvard University

Liminality, Animation, and Petrefaction: The Grotesque Elements in the Pompa Introitus Ferdinandi
Caroline van Eck, professor of history and theory of architecture, Leiden University

5:30–6:30pm
Reception

Free admission. Open to the public.
Complimentary parking for this event is available at the Broadway Garage, 7 Felton Street.

For more information, please contact Nika Trufanova at 617-495-4544 or veronika_trufanova@harvard.edu.

Support

The M. Victor Leventritt Lecture Fund was established through the generosity of the wife, children, and friends of the late M. Victor Leventritt, Harvard Class of 1935. The purpose of the fund is to present outstanding scholars of the history and theory of art to the Harvard and Greater Boston communities.

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