Pratt in Venice art historians — alumni and faculty alike — have participated in conferences and seminars near and far, presenting original research! Below is what’s on.

Diana Gisolfi

“L’organo rinascimentale della chiesa di San Rocco”
La chiesa di San Rocco: Spazio sacro confraternale e centro di culto
Università Ca' Foscari, Venice
December 2–4, 2021

Pratt in Venice Director and Professor of Art History Diana Gisolfi gave a paper, “L’organo rinascimentale della chiesa di San Rocco,” at the international conference, La chiesa di San Rocco: Spazio sacro confraternale e centro di culto, which took place on December 2–4, 2021 in Venice, organized by Maria Agnese Chiari Moretto Wiel and David D’Andrea. The conference was hosted by the Dipartimento di Filosofia e Beni Culturali of the Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, with the support and collaboration of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco a Venezia and Save Venice, Inc.

The church of San Rocco is the only Venetian church that is both a confraternal devotional space and a “sanctuary” that houses the body of the titular saint, who was translated to Venice in 1485 and has been located in the main altar since 1520. Belief in the miraculous power of San Rocco to heal and protect those afflicted with the plague made the church a popular pilgrimage destination and site of international devotion. The church was adorned with rich artwork and musical space (an organ and choir gallery) designed to focus religious devotion on the altar-reliquary. The original church, built in 1489, was heavily renovated by Giovanni Scalfarotto between 1726 and 1733. The rebuilt façade, completed by Bernardino Maccaruzzi in 1769, unifies the confraternity’s ritual space, which encompasses the square and the adjacent streets.

The conference proposes to examine, in a broad chronological span and with an interdisciplinary approach, the significant aspects of this devotional space, where processions, festivals, and pilgrimages reaffirmed the status of the confraternity and the healing power of San Rocco both in Venetian life and in universal Catholic devotion. Papers will discuss the origins of the cult of San Rocco in Venice, the foundation of the Scuola, the construction of the church and the relationship between the church and confraternity. The altars and devotional images of the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century church and the later seventeenth- and eighteenth century renovations will be analyzed in relationship with the other confraternal churches in Venice. Particular attention will be dedicated to ritual spaces, music, objects of devotion (the relic of San Rocco, the miraculous Crucifix, the miraculous image of Christ Carrying the Cross; devotion to the Holy Eucharist), and festivals, including changes introduced by new religious devotions and spaces (the Redentore and Madonna della Salute) associated with the plague.

“Cinquecento Façade Frescoes in Venice and Descriptions of Ancient Exterior Frescoes”
The Seminar in the Renaissance, Columbia University
March 8, 2022

Pratt in Venice Director and Professor of Art History Diana Gisolfi gave a paper, “Cinquecento Façade Frescoes in Venice and Descriptions of Ancient Exterior Frescoes,” at Columbia University’s Seminar in the Renaissance on March 8, 2022.

The Renaissance vogue of frescoing façades of palaces was not limited to Venice and the Veneto, but façade frescoes in Renaissance Venice proliferated after the decision of the Senate in 1505 that statuary and encrustations of marbles on facades would be reserved for buildings of church and state. The painted palaces of patricians and wealthy merchants along the Grand Canal and in major campi are described as splendid in Cinquecento and early Seicento sources.

While the façade frescoes of the city of Venice can now be studied only via descriptions, drawings, prints, and a few salvaged fragments, in the Venetian Stato di Terra (Verona, Treviso, Bassano) many are quite well preserved.

Were there other reasons for this vogue, which seems unwise for a city in the sea where the salt air “eats” the paintings (Vasari, 1568)?

This paper explored the possible relation of the short-lived painted splendor of Renaissance Venice’s facades to written descriptions of ancient cities that were being published apace by Venetian printing presses (Herodotus 1502, Vitruvius 1511, Strabo 1516, and many more), and considered if any city of the ancient world stands out as a model for emulation.

Joseph Kopta (PiV ‘07)

“Purple Aesthetics in Middle Byzantine Manuscripts”
Shades of Purple: Purple Ornament in Medieval Manuscripts
University of Zurich, Switzerland
November 25–26, 2021

Joseph Kopta (PiV ‘07), Pratt in Venice Art History professor, recently gave a paper, “Purple Aesthetics in Middle Byzantine Manuscripts,” at the Workshop, Shades of Purple – Purple Ornament in Medieval Manuscripts, which took place November 25–26, 2021 in Zurich, Switzerland. The workshop was organized by the SNF-Project Textures of Sacred Scripture: Materials and Semantics of Sacred Book Ornament in the Western Middle Ages, 780–1300, hosted by the Kunsthistoriches Institut of the Universität Zürich.

Recent advances in the technical analysis of purple colorants have spurred new interest in the aesthetics of purple ornament in medieval manuscripts. This most prestigious embellishment associated with imperial splendor underwent stunning transformations between the sixth and the twelfth century.

Purple dyes (mostly produced from lichens) were not only used to color the entire parchment surfaces of sacred books, but purple colorants were also used selectively to highlight specific texts, pages and miniatures corresponding to the content, topology, imagery, and script of individual manuscripts. Various techniques and methods were employed to create multi-sensory purple textures, combining shades of purple from red to dark blue and evoking different purple-colored materials such as silks and porphyry. This two-day workshop at the Chair of Medieval Art History at the University of Zurich explored a range of questions about the materials and semantics of medieval purple manuscripts.

Session Chair, “Graduate Committee Session”
47th Byzantine Studies Conference
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH
December 9–12, 2021

Kopta also recently chaired the Graduate Committee Session of the 47th Byzantine Studies Conference, the annual meeting of the Byzantine Studies Association of North America, at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, which took place December 9–12, 2021. Papers on various topics of Byzantine art, culture, and history were presented by emerging scholars, including Maria Shevelkina, Sarah Mathiesen, Arie Neuhauser, and Evangelos Zarkadas.

“Chromatic Networks: Middle Byzantine Gospel Lectionaries and Visual Experience”
52nd Annual Sessions, Middle Atlantic Symposium in the History of Art
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
March 5, 2022

Kopta also presented a paper, “Chromatic Networks: Middle Byzantine Gospel Lectionaries and Visual Experience” at the 52nd Annual Sessions of the Middle Atlantic Symposium in the History of Art, hosted virtually at the National Gallery of Art on Saturday, March 5, 2022. The Symposium was jointly organized by the Department of Art History & Archaeology at the University of Maryland and the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art, and was free and open to the public.

Jesse Sullivan (PiV ‘19)

“Investigating Alterations: The Morosini Altarpiece in San Francesco della Vigna”
22nd Session of the New College Conference on Medieval & Renaissance Studies
New College of Florida, Sarasota, FL
March 4, 2022

Pratt in Venice alumna Jesse Sullivan (PiV ‘19) gave a paper, “Investigating Alterations: The Morosini Altarpiece in San Francesco della Vigna” at the 22nd Session of the New College Conference on Medieval & Renaissance Studies in Sarasota, Florida. Jesse, who is a PhD candidate in Art History at the Tyler School of Art & Architecture, Temple University, drew upon her groundbreaking research on this altarpiece conducted during her time as a Pratt in Venice participant.