CENTER 17 Record of Activities and Research Reports June I996-May 1997
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~ ' .~ .-,.,~I /.4 ~k / ~.41' i "Norman~ let's lend out the Olmec head." Drawing by Victoria Roberts; © 1990 The New Yorker Magazine, Inc. National Gallery of Art CENTER FOR ADVANCED STUDY IN THE VISUAL ARTS CENTER 17 Record of Activities and Research Reports June i996-May 1997 Washington 1997 National Gallery of Art CENTER FOR ADVANCED STUDY IN THE VISUAL ARTS Washington, D.C. zo565 Telephone: (zoz) 84z-648o Facsimile: (zoz) 84z-6733 E-maih [email protected] World Wide Web: http://www.nga.gov/resources/casva.htm All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without the written permission of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. zo565 Copyright © z997 Trustees of the National Gallery of Art, Washington This publication was produced by the Editors Office, National Gallery of Art, Washington Designed by Susan Lehmann Printed by Schneidereith & Sons, Baltimore, Maryland Photographic credits Dennis Brack/Black Star: cover, pages x4, zg, z9, 38, ISZ (bottom), i55 , I59 , I6Z, I65 James Pipkin: pages i, 6 National Gallery staff photographer: pages z 5 z (top), 156 Contents 7 Preface 9 Report on the Academic Year, June I996-May x997 io Board of Advisors IO Staff i i Report of the Dean 15 Members zo Meetings 3o Lecture Abstracts 33 Incontro Abstracts 37 Research Projects 38 Publications 39 Research Reports of Members I5 1 Description of Programs 153 Fields of Inquiry 153 Fellowship Program i6o Facilities i6i Board of Advisors and Selection Committee i6i Program of Meetings, Research, and Publication i66 Index of Members' Research Reports, i996-i997 9mid ,QD o Preface The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts is a research institute which promotes study of the history, theory, and criticism of art, architecture, and urbanism. Founded in x979, the Center is an integral yet independent part of the National Gallery of Art. The activities of the Center, which is privately funded, include fel- lowships, research, publications, and scholarly meetings. Report on the Academic Year June 1996-May 1997 Board of Advisors Malcolm Bell III James Marrow University of Virginia Princeton University Yve-Alain Bois Marianna Shreve Simpson Harvard University Wakers Art Gallery Keith Christiansen Charles W. Talbot Metropolitan Museum of Art Trinity University, San Antonio William I. Homer University of Delaware Staff Henry A. Millon, Dean Therese O'Malley, Associate Dean Joanne Pillsbury, Assistant Dean Christine Challingsworth, Deborah A. G6mez, Assistant to Research Associate (Baroque the Fellowship Program Architecture Exhibition) Elizabeth Kielpinski, Assistant to Lisa DeLeonardis, Research the Program of Regular Meetings Assistant to the Assistant Dean Abby Krain, Secretary to the Sabine Eiche, Senior Research Samuel H. Kress and Andrew W. Associate (Architectural Drawings Mellon Professors Project) Stephanie Kristich, Secretary to Julie Ernstein, Research Assistant the Research Program to the Associate Dean Kathleen Lane, Assistant to the Anne Helmreich, Research Program of Special Meetings Assistant to the Associate Dean Curtis Millay, Program Assistant Nina James-Fowler, Research (Baroque Architecture Exhibition) Assistant to the Associate Dean Kimberly Rodeffer, Secretary to Elizabeth Kryder-Reid, Project the Samuel H. Kress and Andrew W. Associate (Keywords in American Mellon Professors Landscape Design) Helen Tangires, Staff Assistant Pauline Maguire, Research Assistant to the Samuel H. Kress and Andrew W. Mellon Professors Steven A. Mansbach, Senior Curatorial Liasion Research Associate Mary Pye, Research Assistant to Philip Conisbee, Curator of the Assistant Dean French Paintings T. Barton Thurber, Research Assistant to the Dean IO Report of the Dean June 1996-May 1997 The Center, in its seventeenth year, sponsored the study of the visual arts in each of its four major program areas: fellowships, research, publications, and scholarly meetings. The resident community of scholars at the Center for Advanced Study in 1996-1997 included individuals working on topics rang- ing from neo-Babylonian seal impressions to futurism. Scholars focused on such issues as representations of elite and popular cul- tures in Precolumbian and colonial Peru, architecture and justice in nineteenth-century Paris, and painting and photography in colonial Tahiti, 188o-I9O5. Members of the Center included scholars from Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The scholars from Latin America were funded by the Inter-American Development Bank, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Association of Research Institutes in Art History (ARIAH). ARIAH'S fellowship program for Latin American scholars, now in its third year, is ad- ministered by the associate dean, who serves as chair of the orga- nization. ARIAH fellows were funded by the Getty Grant Program, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Lampadia Foundation. Additional support for advanced research programs was provided by the Bauman Foundation. In the spring of I997 the Center initiated a three-year program of paired fellowships for research in conservation and art history/ II archaeology, supported by funds from the Samuel H. Kress Foun- dation and by endowed funds for visiting senior fellowships from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This fellowship is intended for pairs of scholars, one in the field of art history, archaeology, or another related discipline in the humanities or social sciences, and the other in the field of conservation or materials science. The fel- lowship, which includes funding for field research and a period of residency at the Center, is intended to foster the integration and co- operation of the two disciplines. Three long-term research projects, under the direction of the deans, are currently underway at the Center. The first, the devel- opment of the National Gallery's photographic archives of pre- 18oo Italian architectural drawings, has resulted in approximately z5,ooo images gathered from European collections. A second pro- ject, "Keywords in American Landscape Design," has entered the final phase of preparation for publication. This multivolume refer- ence work is an illustrated glossary of landscape vocabulary in use in America from the colonial period to the mid-nineteenth century. A third project, funded by the Getty Grant Program and the Center, is the creation of a guide to documentary sources for the art his- tory and archaeology of the Andes. In conjunction with the exhibition Olmec Art of Ancient Mexico at the National Gallery, the Center for Advanced Study organized a symposium on I9-ZZ September z996 devoted to recent research and emerging issues in scholarship on Olmec art and archaeology in Mesoamerica. The symposium was supported by the Cotsen Management Corporation, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. Papers from this gathering will be published by the National Gallery in the symposium series of Studies in the History of Art. In October i996 the Center held a conference sponsored by the Washington Collegium for the Humanities on "Political Caricature and Satire," held just prior to the presidential election. A number of informal meetings were held at the Center in I996- I997. These meetings included seminars, usually day-long gather- ings of a small group of scholars discussing a specific topic, and a curatorial/conservation colloquy, held over the course of several days. 12. Seminar topics included an examination of the work of nineteenth- century German painter Adolph Menzel, and issues of rulership and ornament in Precolumbian palaces. The seventh curatorial/ conservation colloquy was held on the busts of Lorenzo and Giuliano de" Medici attributed to Andrea del Verrocchio. These meetings were complemented by lectures, including the Andrew W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts presented by John Golding and several others on topics such as the art of African secret societies, designing sustainable landscapes in arid climates, and classic Maya architecture. Four incontri, or informal presentations of research, were held on subjects ranging from the drawings of Santacruz Pachacuti Yamqui, an important early colonial Peruvian author, to Max Berg's Jahrhunderthalle in Breslau. Several volumes were published this past year, including The Formation of National Collections of Art and Archaeology, papers from a symposium held at the Center for Advanced Study in i99i; Imagining Modern German Culture: i889-z9io, from a sympo- sium held in I994; and The Interpretation of Architectural Sculp- ture in Greece and Rome, from a symposium held in x993. Also published this year was After the End of Art: Contemporary Art and the Pale of History (Princeton University Press), based on the Andrew W. Mellon Lectures delivered in I995 by Arthur C. Danto. Details of this year's programs, in the next section, are followed by research reports of the members of the Center. A full descrip- tion of the fellowship program, list of publications, and other in- formation may be found in the final part of this volume. Henry A. Millon Dean I3 Hubert Damisch I4 Members Hubert Damisch, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris Samuel H. Kress Professor, z996-z997 David Freedberg, Columbia University Andrew W. Mellon Professor, I996-z998 John Golding, London Andrew W. Mellon Lecturer in the Fine Arts, z997 Senior Fellows Alan Colquhoun, Princeton University Samuel H. Kress Senior Fellow, z996-~997 Modern Architecture, z 89o-z 96 5 Bernard