Lectures at GAM, 15th November 2023, 18.30 - 20.00, HS 30

Tomáš Vales (Brno): Human Bodies, Gender, Race and Academy of Fine Arts in the late 18th Century Vienna

Jour fixe des Instituts für die Erforschung der Frühen Neuzeit in Kooperation mit Geschichte am Mittwoch

Tomáš Vales (Brno): Human Bodies, Gender, Race and Academy of Fine Arts in the late 18th Century Vienna

 

Moderation: Friedrich Polleroß

 

HYBRID - VOR ORT UND ONLINE UNTER:

https://univienna.zoom.us/j/69726413166?pwd=S3hxNUt2K3hEVnF4M3NoYkE4N3F1Zz09

 

Abstract:

In the second half of the 18th century, Central Europe, like other parts of the continent, witnessed progressive developments in the education of the artist when the local rulers reformed many of the older artistic academies or established new ones. A prime example of this praxis was Jakob Matthias Schmutzer’s Academy for Drawing and Engraving, founded in 1766 and merged with the other artistic schools or academies in Vienna into the new institution – United Academy of Fine Arts (k. k. freye, vereinigte Akademie der bildenden Künste) – in 1772. Orientation towards Parisian models — The Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture and the École Royale Gratuite de Dessin – and a network of international contacts strengthened the new position of the Vienna Academy and helped established new educational principles and thus significantly raised the interest of students from different parts of the world. Instead of the traditional interpretation based on one or several “leading” artistic personalities, the lecture tries to amplify multiple voices and testimonies- mostly neglected – from forgotten students and “marginal” artists to art models. I will also try to show how the geographical and cultural diversity combined with the interests and social ties of individual professors and members – one of the distinctive signs of the academy manifested in the artistic production itself and which role gender and race played in this story.

 

Zum Vortragenden:

Tomáš Valeš studied art history at the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University in Brno (PhD 2013). Since 2008, he has been employed with the Institute of Art History CAS in Prague. He focuses on the art of the early modern era, mainly painting, drawing and prints, connoisseurship and patronage. Since 2017, he has been working as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Art History, MU in Brno.

 

Rückfragen: martina.fuchs@univie.ac.at