Loading...
Fra Angelico, The Annunciation (detail) c.1426. Museo Nacional del Prado
Seminars of the Prado Museum Chair. The Scales of European Painting
November 3, 14, 17 and 24, and December 1, 2023
Academic Chair
Seminars of the Prado Museum Chair. The Scales of European Painting
November 3, 14, 17 and 24, and December 1, 2023
The XII Cátedra del Prado program consists of four lectures and five seminars that will develop research areas in a “slow looking” mode. The paintings studied will be probed with the aim of vindicating the importance of a direct encounter with the works followed by sustained observation based on an open and structured research plan. In order to adequately accomplish the seminar’s aims in the presence of original works of art, the number of participants will be limited to a maximum of 24.
- Sponsored by:
-
- Schedule
- Seminars: November 3, 14, 17 and 24, and December 1, 2023, from 09:30 -14:00 (CEST)
- Recipients
- Undergraduate, predoctoral and postdoctoral students under the age of 35.
- Location
- Classroom 1 of the Casón del Buen Retiro (Alfonso XII, 28) and permanent exhibition halls of the Museo Nacional del Prado.
- Direction
- Alexander Nagel
- Organization
- Museo Nacional del Prado
- Grant application
- Seminar registration is exclusive to and free of charge for grant recipients. The Museo Nacional del Prado and Fundación Notariado will award up to 24 grants for students and predoctoral or postdoctoral researchers under 35 years of age. Grantees will be selected on the basis of their academic record, educational profile and interest in the course, proof of which will be provided by means of a text (500 words maximum), by way of a letter of motivation, and a summary of their academic record, which should not be longer than one page. Grant applications are to be submitted between July 10 and October 24, 2023, inclusive. Applicants will be notified of the decision as soon as possible. The grant mandates attendance to all the lectures as well as participation in the seminars. The application must be made online using the form available on this page during the period established for this purpose.
- Contact
- centro.estudios@museodelprado.es
Program
2023
- Nov
- 3
09.30 hIntroduction
Explanation of the “slow looking” protocol and of the format of the sessions. Discussion of issues relative to scale in late medieval painting and the contemporary experience thereof. Works to be studied include Fra Angelico’s Annunciation and Altarpiece of St. Christopher and Pere Lembrí’s Our Lady of the Milk with St. Bernard of Clairvaux and St. Benedict.
- Nov
- 17
09.30 hPerspective and Anti-perspective
We will explore the effect of perspective on scale-related issues. We will also study how perspective has dealt in the past with relationships of scale. Among the works included are Andrea Mantegna’s The Death of the Virgin, Bartolomé Bermejo’s Saint Dominic of Silos Enthroned as a Bishop, and the panel-to-canvas Saint Michael the Archangel by Maestro de Zafra.
- Nov
- 24
09.30 hScale and Life
We will explore the effects of life-size rendering of the subjects in several 16th century works, among them Jesus Carrying the Cross by Sebastiano del Piombo, The Virgin and Child between St. Matthew and an Angel by Andrea del Sarto, and Titian’s Adam and Eve.
- Dec
- 1
09.30 hGiants and Little People
We will analyze how artists dealt with life-size paintings by focusing on the portrayal of giants and little people, with particular interest in Titian’s Tytius, Caravaggio’s David Victorious over Goliath and Velazquez’s The Jester Don Diego de Acedo.
Activity
Director
Alexander Nagel
Alexander Nagel is Craig Hugh Smyth Professor of Fine Arts at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. He teaches courses and writes mostly about late medieval and early modern European art. His work is consistently concerned with how visual art allows humans to see through time and find orientation in the world, as well as what happens when models and artifacts of visual art cross temporal and geographical boundaries. His 2000 book Michelangelo and the Reform of Art was the winner of the Renaissance Society of America’s Gordan book prize, and his 2011 book The Controversy of Renaissance Art was the winner of the College Art Association’s Morey book prize. Anachronic Renaissance, co-authored with Christopher Wood, appeared in 2010 and was published in Spanish translation as Renacimiento anacronista in 2017 by Akal publishers. Amerasia, a study of European worldviews in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries co-authored with Elizabeth Horodowich, will be published in late 2023 by Zone Books.
Since 2022 he has served as chief editor of the journal I Tatti Studies, published by the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies at Villa I Tatti.