Provenance—the study of an object’s track of ownership—Is typically associated with the twentieth century, often focusing on the biographies of looted art in colonial or post-WWII contexts. However, during the early modern period objects were also traded, gifted or stolen, often ending up in collections far from their places of origins. These objects could have fragmented biographies long before they arrived in the museums where they are displayed today, resulting in gaps in their histories. “Provenience” (a term borrowed from archaeology) is often used to describe this ambiguity, marking the location where an artefact first appears in historical record, traceable (rather than tied) to a specific place, suggesting that an artwork’s interpretative context is not limited to its place of production or original owner.
The history of collecting, along with diplomatic history and the history of the art market, have uncovered information on the origins of objects prior to modern provenance studies. Nonetheless, it is rare to focus on the origins and biographies of collection objects rather than on their owners. When it comes to collections in Central and Eastern Europe, the origins of objects (whether they be provenance or provenience) before modern provenance studies are even less explored and still need to be placed within the broader context of a pan-European early modernity.
We invite speakers working on collections in the former Holy Roman Empire, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Hungarian lands and connected territories, with a special interest in where from and how objects arrived from regions within and outside Central and Eastern Europe. When and by what means did collection objects from overseas travel to these collections? Were their origins known and recorded? Was war booty the typical provenance or did an international art market exist with connections to collectors in the eastern half of Europe? What role was played by international diplomacy and exchanges between courts?
Please send a 200-word abstract, a 200-word bio, a curriculum vitae of no longer than 5 pages, and the PhD completion date to Andrea Gáldy (collectingcentraleurope@gmail.com), Suzanna Ivanič (s.ivanic@kent.ac.uk), and Tomasz Grusiecki (tomaszgrusiecki@boisestate.edu) before Monday, 22 July 2024. Presenters will have to be active RSA members at the time of registration.
Source: www.rsa.org/forms/FormResponseView.asp?id=06E7FF73-CF91-4A06-BC05-2AA117EFCBCD
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