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Bild-Witz
Internal Workshop

 Organized by Maddalena Spagnolo, Nicola Suthor and Gerhard Wolf


The workshop is articulated in two sessions:

I session
Wit into works of art
coordinated by Nicola Suthor

Can jokes be made in the images of art, and, if so, how and at what levels? That is the central question posed in the first session of the Workshop. Here it does not revolve around the various forms of 'making fun' in the more direct form of caricatures, but around the explicit use of ambiguity in art as a way of generating humour. Is it possible, in other words, to articulate an ambivalent content in the 'irritation' of the representation that can only be expressed indirectly, i.e. by being 'clad' in wit? The aim will be to investigate how this 'cladding', which often superficially arouses the appearance of naiveté or absurdity, is woven into the texture of the visual representation in such a way as to prompt a mental reaction. Such an impulse of thought in the spectator may take various forms: it may for example locate an ulterior motive in an inappropriate detail or an eccentric or off-beat form whose realization is found amusing. One point of discussion will be to examine how the spectator's involvement in the realization of the joke is to be evaluated in the interpretation of pictures. Another question to be discussed will be whether the techniques of joking, as distinguished by Sigmund Freud in his theory of humour ('Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious'), i.e. compression, displacement, indirect representation, help to elucidate the expression of wit and humour in works of art.


II session
Wit in art criticism
coordinated by Maddalena Spagnolo

In early modern 'Kunstliteratur', the description and judgment of works of art often relay on a high rethorical code borrowed by Classical literature. By doing so, Renaissance authors of art writings and treatises aimed to legitimate their own work as well as the role of works of art into the cultural frame of the time. Nevertheless, from 15th century onwards it is possible to find texts or passages where wit, irony and sarcasm are used to criticize works of art, particularly those displayed in a public space. Far from being a 'divertisment', witty art criticism often conveys a serious attack both to artists and their patrons by undermining the value of a work of art. It is a venue of expression not only for artistic views, but also of personal revanges and even for religious or political polemics.
The workshop aims to investigate the various meaning of witty art criticism in modern era. Reflecting upon concepts of the legitimacy of art judgment, the rivarly between artists and patrons, and the role of works of art displayed in public. Some of the issues to be addressed include: Which are the the relationships between 'Kunstliteratur' and contemporary literary genres such as the 'pasquinate', the burlesque and the parody? How much did the "questione delle immagini" contribute to the emergence of sarcasm and irony towards works of art? How much hierarchical is the printed art literature of 15th-17th centuries and which place did it reserve to the 'Witz'? Was the practice of mocking works of art a mean to express a polemical message on a current norm (aestethical, literary, religious, or social in the wider sense) by promoting a different taste with respect to the established one?


Please note: the workshop is only open to partecipants


Program

FRIDAY, 8 OCTOBER 2010

9:00 h
Gerhard Wolf: Opening
Nicola Suthor: Introduction: "Bild-Witz"

9:30 h
Kristine Patz: Richtungswechsel. Zwischen Witz und Tragik im Werk von Andrea Mantegna

10:00 h
Michael Hoff: Beiwerk bei Fra Bartolomeo

10:30 h
Ulrike Müller Hofstede: Zwischen Sublimierung und Visualisierung: Zu Antonello da Messinas Verkündigung in Palermo

11:00 h
Discussion

Lunch break

13:00 h
Jacopa Stinchelli: Carpaccio, Giorgione, Meister Franke neben anderen: einige Witz-Bilder des 15. Jahrhunderts

13:30 h
Jeanette Zwingenberger: Landschaft als Projektionsfläche des weiblichen Prinzips: Eros und des männlichen: Thanatos

14:00 h
Karin Leonhard: Vom Wenden der Gewänder: Allegorie als Umkehrmaschine

14:30 h
Discussion

Coffee break

16:00 h
Alina Payne: Architecture and the lightness of being

16:30 h
Gudrun Swoboda: On being Velazquez' son in law: Mazo's family portrait and the question of pictorial intelligence

17:00 h
Wolfram Pichler: Dissimilar images, witful jokes

17:30 h
Sefy Hendler: Bronzino's Nano Morgante: a bird hunter in the court of Cosimo I

18:00 h
Discussion


SATURDAY, 9 OCTOBER 2010

10:00 h
Maddalena Spagnolo: La doppia faccia dell'ironia: la critica d'arte come pretesto?

10:30 h
Laura Fenelli: Dall'ironia al sacrilegio: scherzare sulle immagini di culto tra Tre e Quattrocento

11:00 h
Giorgio Masi: Critica militante e manesca: versi inediti fiorentini sull'Ercole e Caco e sui "Visacci"

11:30 h
Gerhard Wolf: Federico Zuccari

12:00 h
Discussion

Lunch break

14:00 h
Paul Taylor: Humour in Karel van Mander's Schilder-Boeck

14:30 h
Roberto Zapperi: Le postille di Annibale Carracci alle Vite di Vasari

15:00 h
Massimiliano Rossi: Pietro da Cortona: stucchi e versi per Santa Maria del Fiore

15:30 h
Discussion

Coffee break

16:30 h
Floriana Conte: Lepidezze, invidia e denigrazione: intorno a Salvator Rosa pittore e poeta

17:00 h
Ulrike Kern: The heirs of Apelles and Protogones: A humorous artists' competition in Dutch art literature'

17:30 h
Discussion


   Date
October 8th, 2010 to October 9th, 2010

Location
Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz - Max-Planck-Institut
Casa Zuccari - Sala terrena
50121 Firenze
Contact
Dr. Maddalena Spagnolo
E-mail: m.spagnolo@khi.fi.it

PD Dr. Nicola Suthor
E-mail: nicolasuthor@gmx.net
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