Colloque : « Nature & the Arts in Early Modern Naples » (Naples, 17-18 Sept 2015) Antisala dei Baroni, Castel Nuovo

Nature & the Arts in Early Modern Naples (Naples, 17-18 Sep 15) Antisala dei Baroni, Castel Nuovo, Napoli, September 17 – 18, 2015 Nature and the Arts in Early Modern Naples Ars e natura nella Napoli moderna International Conference

From Iacopo Sannazaro’s lyric evocation of the Campania landscape in his Arcadia to Giambattista Vico’s attempts to anchor human civilisation in man’s existential confrontation with the forces of nature, the literary, visual and scientific culture of early modern Naples is deeply grounded in the city’s natural environment. Ever since Jacob Burckhardt wrote dismissively of «das prunkliebende Neapel», the city’s culture has been characterised as both derivative and excessive. Foregoing such evaluations, this interdisciplinary conference sets out to develop an alternative account. Involving historians of art, literature and the sciences, it will explore moments of confrontation and convergence between art and nature in Naples, as well as their relation to contemporary debates in the sciences. In doing so, the conference aims to lay bare a unique cultural situation where literature, art and science meet and interact in their shared adherence to an equally unique geological context.

Programme

17.9.2015 Giovedì

9.15 Saluti introduttivi

10.15 Carlo Vecce (Napoli): «Maestra Natura»: La rappresentazione della natura nell’Arcadia di Sannazaro 11.00 Pausa caffè

11.30 Tanja Michalsky (Roma): «Body» and «Site» of Naples: The Aesthetic Concept of the City and Its Natural Surroundings in Early Modern Descriptions

12.15 Christof Thoenes (Roma): «La vita infinita di questa impareggiabile città»: Arte e natura in piante e vedute dal XV al XIX secolo

13.00 Pausa pranzo

15.00 Harald Hendrix (Roma): The Tripergola Case and the Changing Balance between Nature and Culture in Sixteenth-Century Descriptions of Naples

15.45 Sean Cocco (Hartford): Seeing Eruptions in Chiaroscuro: The Interpretation of Contrasting Light and Darkness in the Early Scientific Description of Vesuvius

16.30 Sergius Kodera (Vienna): Between Stage and Laboratory: Giovan Battista della Porta’s Spectacular Experiments and Courtly Culture

18.9.2015 Venerdì

9.30 Frank Fehrenbach (Hamburg): Le fontane di Napoli

10.15 Heiko Damm (Mainz): Painting as Necromancy: Luca Fa Presto Pays Homage to Velázquez

11.00 Pausa caffè

11.30 Joris van Gastel (Hamburg): Naples: A Porous Baroque

12.15 Helen Hills (York): Silver and Excess: The «Nature» of Naples and Spanish Colonialism

13.00 Pausa pranzo

15.00 Sabina de Cavi (Córdoba): Nature and Architecture in the Neapolitan Travel Book of Monsignor Giovan Battista Confalonieri (1561–1648)

15.45 Oreste Trabucco (Napoli): La città e i musei: Immagini di Napoli e collezioni naturalistiche tra Cinque- e Seicento

16.30 Maria Toscano (Napoli): Scientific Knowledge and Artistic Practice: The Presence of Art in Scientific Collections and Artists’ Scientific Interests

17.15 Chiusura del convegno

17.45 Aperitivo