Art, Music and Spectacle in the Age of Rubens
Art, Music, and Spectacle in the Age of Rubens
M. Victor Leventritt Symposium
Harvard Art Museum, Sackler Lecture Hall, April 16–17, 2010
Triumphal entries and other outdoor spectacles were a common occurrence in the Renaissance period. Antwerp’s 1635 festival in honor of the new governor, Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand, brother of King Philip IV ofSpain, was particularly elaborate. For this occasion, the city’s great painter, Peter Paul Rubens, designed nine grandiose temporary stages and arches that both flattered the governor and impressed upon him the need to restore Antwerp’s former prosperity, now undermined by long-term warfare with the Dutch. Jan Gaspar Gevaerts, learned humanist and city official, composed the Latin inscriptions for the arches and assembled the magnificent commemorative book of 1641. This interdisciplinary symposium will examine the art, architecture, music, theater, politics, and festival books associated with the entry. A concert on period instruments will bring to life the music that accompanied the celebration.
Presented in conjunction with the temporary installation Rubens and the Baroque Festival, on view March 19-August 29, at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum
Organized by Anna Knaap, Theodore Rousseau Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Art Museum
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Program:
Friday, April 16, 2010
6:00–8:00pm
Opening lecture and concert
Music in the Triumphal Entry of the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand into Antwerp
Louis Grijp, professor of Dutch song culture, Utrecht University and Meertens Institute, Amsterdam
17th-Century Political Songs and Triumphal Entry Music
Camerata Trajectina, Utrecht, The Netherlands: Bernard Loonen, tenor; Saskia Coolen, recorder; Erik Beijer, viola da gamba; Louis Grijp, lute and cittern
A program of songs pro and contra the Spanish Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand and his efforts to retake cities and land from the Dutch Republic. Among the melodies, reconstructed from 17th-century musical sources and played on period instruments, are the famous Dutch “beggar songs” (Geuzenliederen). Pipers and trumpeters will play fanfares that accompanied Ferdinand’s procession.
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.
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.
Weblink:
http://www.harvardartmuseum.org/calendar/detail.dot?id=27630
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