Symposium in Conjunction with 'Variety, Archaeology and Ornament' Exhibit To Be Held at U.Va. Sept. 30-Oct. 1

September 19, 2011 — "Variety, Archaeology and Ornament: Architectural Prints from Column to Cornice," a symposium being held in conjunction with an exhibit at the University of Virginia Art Museum, will begin Sept. 30.

The exhibit is curated by Cammy Brothers, Mario di Valmarana Professor at the School of Architecture, and 2007 alumnus Michael Waters.

Focusing on the crucial role of prints in the transition from manuscript to printed architectural treatises during the Renaissance, "Variety, Archeology and Ornament: Renaissance Architectural Prints from Column to Cornice" re-evaluates the role of ornament, primarily through a series of architectural prints that played a conspicuous role in determining the concept of the five orders of architecture between about 1515 and 1550.

Such prints accomplished this by propagating highly detailed images previously available only through architectural sketchbooks of limited circulation, thereby defining architecture and fixing the image of antiquity down to the age of Enlightenment. They thus served as a bridge between the fragmentary knowledge of classical architectural forms in the 15th century and the published treatises of Sebastiano Serlio, Andrea Palladio, and Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, which standardized ornament and the orders in the second half of the 16th century.

The keynote lecture, "Renaissance Architecture & the Print Trade," will be given by Peter Parshall, former curator of European prints at the National Gallery of Art, beginning at 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 30. On Oct 1, the symposium will continue at 9 a.m. with "Vitruvian Ornament in its Ancient Context," a presentation by Marden Nichols, postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art.

Following lectures include: "Using and Abusing Architectural Prints in the Renaissance" by Michael Waters at 10 a.m.; "Variety in Repetition: The Afterlife of Architectural Drawings" by Carolyn Yerkes, curator of Avery Classics at Columbia University at 11:15 a.m.; and "The Dismembered Column as Antiquity and Relic" by Christopher Heuer, assistant professor of art and archaeology at Princeton University at noon. 

A concluding panel discussion will begin at 4:30 p.m. with Carmen Bambach, curator of the Department of Prints and Drawings at Metropolitan Museum of Art; Francesca Fiorani, associate professor in the College of Arts & Sciences' McIntire Department of Art; and David Summers, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor in the art department. Cammy Brothers will moderate.

All lectures will be held in Campbell Hall 153.

The symposium is dedicated to the memory of Mario di Valmarana, professor emeritus of the School of Architecture, with the support of the Buckner W. Clay Endowment for the Humanities, the Page-Barbour and Richards Lectures Committee, the School of Architecture and a Deepening Global Engagement International Faculty Fellowship grant through the Office of the Vice Provost for International Programs.

Information is available on the art museum's website.

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