Hybrid conference ”Johannes Stradanus (1523-1605): A Flemish Artist in Florence in the Age of Exploration” (Florence, NIKI and online on TEAMS, 30 November – 1 December 2023)

International conference : « Johannes Stradanus (1523-1605). A Flemish Artist in Florence in the Age of Exploration » (Florence, NIKI and online on TEAMS, 30 November – 1 December 2023)

Organised by Gert Jan van der Sman and Alessandra Baroni

in cooperation with Comune di Firenze and MUS.E, Florence

 

Please click here to register for online attendance on Teams

 

Please click here for the brochure.

Location: Istituto Universitario Olandese di Storia dell’Arte, Viale Torricelli 5, Florence

The conference is open to the public free of charge. Pre-registration is required to guarantee seating: niki@nikiflorence.org.

Jan Van der Straet – also known as Johannes Stradanus or Giovanni Stradano – was one of the “pearls from the Netherlands” who spent most of his career in the city of Florence. Born 500 years ago in Bruges, he travelled to Italy at a young age, and as early as 1545 he chose Florence as his home. He soon made a name for himself as a painter of topographical views and as a designer of tapestries. Between circa 1557 and 1572 Stradanus contributed to the decoration of some of the most prestigious rooms of the Palazzo Vecchio, including the Salone dei Cinquecento and the Studiolo. Among the most iconic works he produced during his later career are the designs for series of prints that celebrated the new technologies of the postclassical age (Nova Reperta) and the discovery of the New World (Americae Retectio).

On the occasion of the exhibition Giovanni Stradano. Le più strane e belle invenzioni del mondo, curated by Alessandra Baroni and held at Palazzo Vecchio in Florence (17 November 2023-18 February 2024), the Netherlands Interuniversity Institute for Art History (NIKI) organises an international conference on Johannes Stradanus and on the many ways in which the artist from Bruges,“with the flowers of his art, made Florence appear even more beautiful” (Van Mander). The conference addresses three major themes. What did it mean to be a Flemish artist in Florence and what did his contemporaries prize in his work? Secondly, some of Stradanus’s emblematic inventions regarding the discoveries of the new age will be contextualised. Day 2 of the conference will be devoted to building a fuller picture of Stradanus’s artistic entourage, characterised by a remarkable diversity that defies traditional labels such as Late Mannerism. Curator-led visits to the exhibition will provide additional opportunities for discussion.

Thursday 30 November 2023

9.00

Coffee

9.30

Gert Jan van der Sman

Welcome and Introduction to the Conference

Session I

A FLEMISH ARTIST IN FLORENCE

(Chair: Carlo Francini, Comune di Firenze)

9.45

Ricardo De Mambro Santos (Willamette University, Salem, Oregon)

The Parable of Tristo Augello. Migration and Paragone in Karel van Mander’s Leven of Johannes Stradanus

10.15

Rick Scorza (Independent scholar, London)

Vento dal Nord: Borghini, Stradanus and the ‘aria Fiamminga’

10.45

Gert Jan van der Sman (NIKI, Florence)

Johannes Stradanus and the Netherlandish Community in Florence

11.15

Coffee/Tea

Session II

THE DISCOVERIES OF THE NEW AGE

(Chair: Carlo Francini, Comune di Firenze)

11.30

Anca-Delia Moldovan (Villa I Tatti)

Oleum olivarum: Stradano’s Engraving and the New Art of Olive-Oil Making in Sixteenth-Century Tuscany

12.00

Elisabetta Baldanzi and Alessandro Farini (Istituto Nazionale per l’Ottica)

Johannes Stradanus inventor: il ruolo degli occhiali all’epoca di Stradano

12.30

Samir Boumediene (Villa I Tatti)

Looking at the Truth. The Powers of Visualisation, the Representation of Space and the Technologies of Discovery in Stradano’s Nova Reperta

13.00

Discussion

13.15

Lunch break

15.00

Palazzo Vecchio

Curator-led private view Stradanus exhibition (speakers)

Friday 1 December 2023

9.30

Coffee

Session III

STRADANUS AND HIS ARTISTIC ENTOURAGE

(Chair: Valentina Zucchi, MUS.E, Florence)

10.00

Lucilla Conigliello (Università degli Studi, Firenze)

Tappe e suggestioni per un itinerario ligozziano nella Natura

10.30

Cristina Acidini Luchinat (Accademia delle Arti del Disegno, Firenze)

Suggestioni d’oltralpe nell’arte di Federico Zuccari

11.00

Coffee/Tea

11.15

Eliana Carrara (Università di Genova)

“Vi cominciò una historia quando il magnifico Lorenzo Medici il vecchio fu di vari e stranieri animali presentato”. Arte ed esotismo nella Firenze di secondo Cinquecento.

11.45

Gloria Antoni (Università Roma Tre, Rome)

L’eredità di Giovanni Stradano attraverso l’opera di Jacopo Zucchi

12.15

Alessandra Baroni (SAM, Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca di Stato, Rome)

Giovanni Stradano: riflessioni sulla mostra

12.45

Discussion and concluding remarks

13.15

Lunch break

15.00

Palazzo Vecchio

Guided tour Stradanus exhibition for registered attendees of the conference

Cover image: Johannes Stradanus, An Alchimist’s Laboratory (detail), Florence, Palazzo Vecchio, Studiolo, 1570.