To Tell, to Think and to Experience Images from Theology to Rhetoric and Aesthetics in the Early Modern Period

The main argument of this conference will be to study the rhetorical
exchanges between theology and aesthetics in the early modern period.
These two discursive and expressive regimes tend to be studied
independently or considered in their chronological sequence as well as
in their structural and ideological opposition (profane/ religious
discourse). If they did not exist in sequence, did they coexist in
mutual ignorance, as is often thought? Although in opposition as far as
their ends are concerned, do they thereby necessarily exclude each
other? Might such a dichotomy not well be the result of historiography,
retrospectively confirming the autonomisation of the Belles Lettres and
the Beaux-Arts? Indeed, theology and aesthetics were bridged in many
ways in the early modern period. We would like, therefore, to undertake
a thorough study of the exchanges, ruled by rhetoric, between the two
fields, which are frequently presented as diverging from the 16th
century onwards, but which prove at a closer look to be engaged in a
dialogue by means of reciprocal borrowings.

18 September 2008

10h15 Opening and Introduction

10h30 Keynote speaker :
Reindert Falkenburg (Leiden University)
Civilizing the Soul in Early Netherlandish Painting : public display of the inner self as a cultural act

11h15 Discussion

11h30 Barbara Baert (K.U.Leuven)
The pact between space and gaze. The narrative and the iconic in Noli me tangere

12h00 Felipe Pereda (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)
From literal to spiritual reading : reflections on the spanish context of Van Eyck’s Foutain of Life

12h30 Discussion

13h00 Lunch

14h30 Andrea Catellani (GEMCA, UCL)
L’allégorie entre théologie, rhétorique et théorie de l’image symbolique : un parcours entre XVIe et XVIIe siècle

15h00 Clément Duyck (Université Paris III - Sorbonne nouvelle)
De l’allégorie aux images négatives dans l’oeuvre poétique de Claude Hopil : la fondation par les images d’une énonciation mystique (1603-1633)

15h30 Colette Nativel (Université Paris I - Sorbonne)
Voir, éprouver, lire l’image : L’allégorie comme support de méditation en Europe du Nord, XVIe-XVIIe siècle

16h00 Discussion

16h30 Break

16h45 Maarten Delbeke (Ghent University/Leiden University)
The balancing of art and religion in the «non so che»

17h15 Tristan Weddigen (Université de Lausanne)
Relics miracles, and saints : cult of art and theology in Giorgio Vasari’s writings

17h45 Discussion
(Dîner libre)

19 September 2008

9h30 Keynote Speaker :
Klaus Krüger (Freie Universität Berlin)

10h15 Discussion

10h30 Break

10h45 Virginie Minet (FNRS, GEMCA, UCL)
«Persuader par la haulte induction de figure» : fonction réformatrice des images dans la poétique des rhétoriqueurs

11h15 Nancy Oddo (Université Paris III - Sorbonne nouvelle)
«Une voie de laict vers Dieu» : la conversion romanesque par l’image

11h45 Anne-Élisabeth Spica (Université de Metz/IUF)
Les Peintures morales de Pierre Le Moyne, ou comment défendre une esthétique spirituelle des passions à l’âge classique

12h15 Discussion

12h45 Lunch

14h00 Florence Dumora (Université Paris VII - Denis Diderot)
Discretio spirituum et délices de l’esprit (M. Amyraut, J. Desmarets de Saint Sorlin, G. Bona)

14h30 Walter Melion (Emory University, Atlanta)
«Ut ipsa corporis species simulachrum fuerit mentis, figura probitatis»: Marian Vision and Image in Petrus Canisius’s De Maria Virgine of 1577

15h00 Frédéric Cousinié (Université de Provence, Aix-en-Provence)
Sébastien Bourdon, peintre protestant pour l’église catholique

15h30 Discussion

16h00 Break

16h15 Anne le Pas de Sécheval (Université Paris X)
Expliquer la peinture d’église dans la France du XVIIe siècle : la médiation de l’écrit et ses modalités

16h45 Jan Blanc (Université de Lausanne)
Divines manipulations. Éloges et critiques de l’image prosélyte (XVIe-XVIIe siècles)

17h15 Discussion

20h Dinner

20 September 2008

9h30 Keynote Speaker :
François Lecercle (Université Paris IV - Paris-Sorbonne) Le plaisir des images, entre théorie profane et théorie sacrée

10h15 Discussion

10h30 Break

10h45 James Clifton (Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation /
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston)
«Meditations and contemplations at this writing desk»: Religion in Kunst- und Wunderkammern

11h15 Silvia Mostaccio (UCL / Université de L’Aquila, Italie)
La direction spirituelle de Virgilio Cepari, sj, et sa dirigée, Maria Maddalena de Pazzi

11h45 Maria Cruz de Carlos (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)
Representing Martyrdom in Early Modern Europe: the case of the carthusian painter Fray Juan Sanchez Cotan

12h15 Discussion

12h45 Conclusion

Organising committee
Andrea Catellani (UCL)
Ralph Dekoninck (FNRS, UCL)
Agnès Guiderdoni-Bruslé (FNRS, UCL)

Academic committee
Barbara Baert (KULeuven)
Ralph Dekoninck (FNRS, UCL)
Maarten Delbeke (Gent-Leiden)
Pierre-Antoine Fabre (EHESS, Paris)
Reindert Falkenburg (Leiden)
Françoise Graziani (Paris VIII)
Agnès Guiderdoni-Bruslé (FNRS, UCL)
François Lecercle (Paris IV-Sorbonne)
Walter S. Melion (Atlanta)
Felipe Pereda (Madrid)
Anne-Elisabeth Spica (Metz, IUF)

Informations :
maxime.perret@gmail.com
http://gemca.fltr.ucl.ac.be/