Cycle #4: The mobility of paper: the circulation of Italian antique drawings in modern Europe and their reception beyond the Alps between the 18th and 19th centuries

Seminar cycle presentation

Organized in collaboration between the University of Genoa and the École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Paris-la Villette, this series of seminars aims to explore the complex history of the circulation of Italian antique drawings and Renaissance sketchbooks in Europe, focusing on their distribution between the 16th and 17th centuries, and their reception between the 18th and 19th centuries.

In the modern era, Italian Renaissance drawings – instruments of study, invention and visual memory – crossed geographical and cultural borders, nourishing European taste, artistic training and antiquarian imagination. Copied, collected, exchanged or reinterpreted, they were a key vector in the spread of the Italian artistic model, contributing to the birth of a transnational figurative culture.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, the fortunes of Italian Renaissance drawings found particularly fertile ground in France, and more generally in Europe: antiquarians, architects and scholars studied and imitated them, recognizing their value not only as historical testimonies, but also as sources of inspiration for contemporary art and architecture.

The seminar cycle will examine this ongoing dialogue between Italy and Europe, between old models and new interpretations, by reconstructing circulation networks, transmission practices and reception processes.

The lectures, entrusted to researchers from Italian and French institutions, will offer interdisciplinary perspectives on the themes of the mobility of works on paper, European collecting and the history of taste, providing an up-to-date overview of the most recent research into the fortunes of Renaissance drawing.

A multi-voiced journey that aims to restore the central role of Italian drawing in the construction of a European artistic language and in the formation of a visual heritage shared by both sides of the Alps.

All contributions will be compiled in a later publication.
  

Cycle of seminars under the direction of :

• Eliana Carrara, Associate Professor in ARTE-01/D – Museology and Art Criticism and Restoration at the Department of Italianistics, Romanistics, Antiquities, Arts and Performing Arts – DIRAAS at the University of Genoa,
• Antonio Brucculeri, professor of architectural history at ENSA Paris-la Villette and director of the AHTTEP research unit,
• Diana Di Matteo, doctoral student in art history in the Digital Humanities doctoral school at the University of Genoa and in architecture at the CNAM in Paris under the supervision of Antonio Brucculeri, and member of AHTTEP.