Research
Empires, Environments, Objects
Max-Planck Partner Group 2022-2027
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima – Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz
Dome of the Chapel of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Jesuit Church of La Compañía, Arequipa, Peru
The aim of this project is to explore the web of connections and conflicts among the visual and material cultures and its transformative power in diverse communities of people across the global territories under Spanish and Portuguese rule, with a particular focus on early modern Latin America and the Pacific Rim. The main actors of this research will be the Empire, in its political declinations and infrastructures; the Environment, in its diverse stable or mobile forms; and the Object, be it artistic, artisanal, or natural. As a group, thus, we not only seek to tell stories and travels of specific objects but also to reveal the entangled reasons that generated their dislocations, as well as how objects were transported; the ways in which they were transformed, manipulated, and packed throughout their displacements; the different meanings that they acquired; their impact on local visual and material cultures; and, finally, how objects might have transformed - or been transformed by - the environments in which they lived their peripatetic lives.
Fernando Loffredo | Principal Investigator
fernando.loffredo@stonybrook.edu
Fernando Loffredo is Assistant Professor of Early Modern Mediterranean and Colonial Visual Culture in the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literature at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and Visiting Professor at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima. His primary research interests are trans-Mediterranean artistic relations, sculpture and the urban space, and the dialogues between art and poetry in the early modern world, with a particular focus on the territories under Spanish rule across the globe. He was the Andrew W. Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow 2015-2017 at CASVA (National Gallery of Art, Washington DC), and Harvard’s I Tatti/Museo Nacional del Prado Inaugural Fellow 2020-2021. Within the network of the Max-Planck Institutes, Professor Loffredo was the recipient of postdoctoral fellowships granted by the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz and the Bibliotheca Hertziana.
Cécile Michaud | Affiliated Faculty and Coordinator at the PUCP
Cécile Michaud is Associate Professor and Director of the MA in History of Art and Curatorial Studies at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima. Her research interests focus on the material and visual culture of the Viceroyalty of Peru between the 16th and 18th century, the correlation between text and image, and the relationship between religious literature (such as sermons, sacred poetry, and hagiography) and the work of art. She earned a PhD from the Université de Strasbourg (2003) with a dissertation subsequently published under the title Johann Heinrich Schönfeld. Un peintre allemand du XVII siècle en Italie (Munich: Martin Meidenbauer Verlag, 2006). She is co-author or co-editor of the following books; De Amberes al Cusco: El grabado europeo como fuente del arte virreinal. Colección Barbosa Stern (Lima: Impulso Editorial, 2009); Escritura e imagen en Hispanoamérica. De la crónica ilustrada al cómic (Lima: Fondo Editorial PUCP, 2015); Arte antes de la historia. Para una historia del arte andino antiguo (Lima, Fondo Editorial PUCP, 2020). Professor Michaud was the recipient of a DAAD doctoral fellowship (1999-2000, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität) and KAAD Postdoctoral Fellowship (Kunsthistorisches Institut, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität, 2017).
Lucía Querejazu Escobari | Affiliated Faculty, PUCP
Lucía Querejazu Escobari is assistant professor in the History Department at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima. She is Bolivian historian specializing in colonial Andean painting, particularly its significance within Andean space and spirituality. She completed her Ph.D. in History at the University of Buenos Aires in 2021 with the dissertation titled El programa iconográfico de Caquiaviri como una herramienta contra las idolatrías 1650-1750. Prior to her current position, she was curator (2019-2020) and later director (2020-2021) of the National Museum of Art in La Paz, Bolivia, and she has a postdoctoral position within the ERC-funded project Global Economies of Salvation: Art and the Negotiation of Sanctity at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. She has authored and edited several works, including The Art of Painting in Colonial Bolivia (2017) and the exhibition catalogue Dios y la Máquina: Serialidad y singularidad en la pintura andina colonial (2020).
Andrea Giuliana Tejada Farfán | Affiliated Research Assistant and Doctoral Student, PUCP
Andrea Giuliana Tejada Farfán earned an MA in History of Art and Curatorial Studies at the PUCP and is currently a PhD student in History at the same university. Her reserach focuses on Viceregal Art in Peru, with a particular interest in the Jesuit Italian painter Bernardo Bitti and his workshop in the context of Andean visual culture. She was an international student at the Universidad Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, and she got grants Fundación Carl y Marilynn Thoma and the PUCP. She also teaches at the Facultad de Educación y Humanidades at the Universidad Católica Sedes Sapientiae, Lima.
Patricia Carolina Mendoza Mori | Affiliated Administrative Assistant and MA Student, PUCP
Patricia Carolina Mendoza Mori is a graduate student of the MA in History of Art and Curatorial Studies at the PUCP. She earned a degree in Philosophy at the Universidad Antonio Ruiz de Montoya (UARM), and she has an extensive experience as academic coordinator and administrative assistant at the PUCP. Her research interests are related to contemporary art, education, and gender studies. She is currently working on a MA thesis about the Peruvian artist and activist Claudia Coca, with a particular focus on themes of mestizaje, decolonial discourse, and feminism.
Further information
Conference
SIGA/Seguir: Moving Forward in the Study of Iberian Global Art, Washington DC
On September 20–21, 2024, the Society for Iberian Global Art (SIGA) celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the American Society for Hispanic Art Historical Studies, SIGA’s predecessor, with a two-day conference interrogating scholarship and teaching on global Iberian art at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection (Harvard University). Fernando Loffredo gave a paper related to the themes of Max-Planck Partner Group entitled "Empires, Environments, Objects: The Transatlantic Cult of Saint Jenaro and the Ecologies of Fear."
Conference
XIV Jornadas de Estudios Coloniales y Modernos, Santiago de Chile
On August 6-9, 2024, Cécile Michaud participated in the "XIV Jornadas de Estudios Coloniales y Modernos" organized by the Universidad Bernardo O'Higgins, Santiago de Chile. The paper titled "En los confines de dos imperios: discursos visuales, textuales y orales en torno a la muerte del agustino Diego Ortiz por los incas de Vilcabamba" is the result of a joint research with Bat-ami Artzi from the Museo Chileno de Arte precolombino.
Talk
Programa de Pós-Graduação em História da Arte, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro - UERJ
On August 1, 2024, Fernando Loffredo gave the inaugural talk of the academic year for the Art History Program of the State University of Rio de Janeiro - UERJ on "A França Antártrica nos ventos da Fortuna".
Talk
Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Lima
On July 5, 2024, Fernando Loffredo gave a talk on the current project entitled "Imperios, entornos, objetos: un proyecto de investigación colaborativo Max-Planck Partner Group entre Italia y Perú" at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Lima, invited by Director Silvia Vallini.
Pisac Seminar
Day 5
On June 23, the group visited the city of Cusco, where students gave their presentations at the Plaza de Armas, in the Museo Histórico Regional (see photo), and in the Museo Arzobispal. After a farewell lunch, the Pisac Seminar was concluded.
Pisac Seminar
Day 4
On June 22, the group visited the colonial churches of Oropesa (see photo), Checacupe, and Tinta, where students gave their presentations. In the evening, at the Centro Paniagua, invited scholars Luciano Migliaccio, Renata Martins, and Verónica Muñoz-Nájar delivered their papers.
Pisac Seminar
Day 3
On June 21, the group visited the colonial churches of Rondocan (see photo) and Kuñotambo, where students gave their presentations, and the local headquarters of the Getty Conservation Institute, directed by Luis Villacorta Santamato. In the evening, at the Centro Paniagua, invited scholars Carmen Fernández Salvador Ayala and Christina Lee delivered their papers.
Pisac Seminar
Day 2
On June 20, the group visited the Regional Restoration Center at Tipón (see photo), and the colonial churches of Andahuaylillas, Canincunca, and Huaro, where students and invited scholar Agustina Rodríguez Romero gave their on-site presentations. In the evening, at the Centro Paniagua, invited scholars Olga Acosta, Alejandro Julián Andrade, and Stefania Pastore delivered their papers.
Pisac Seminar
Day 1
On June 19, the Pisac Seminar officially started. All participants, students and invited scholars, convened at Pisac for the inauguration of the activities. In the photo, at the entrance of the Centro Acádemico Valentín Paniagua, PI Fernando Loffredo with Administrative Assistant Patricia Mendoza together with MA students José Luis Gonzales, Sonia Lau, Víctor Hugo Muñoz, Ángela Quispe, and PhD students Henrry Ibáñez, Juan David Parra, Daniela Ruiz, and Quim Solias.
Meetings in Lima
Museo Larco & PUCP Vice President for Research
On June 18, the group was received by Giannina Bardales, curator in charge of the Museo Larco for pre-Hispanic art (see photo). Subsequently, the members of the group had an on-campus official meeting with Aldo Panfichi, Vice President for Research of the PUCP.
Meetings in Lima
Instituto Riva-Agüero & PROLIMA
On June 17, the Partner Group visited different Limenean institutions to establish new collaborations. At the Instituto Riva-Agüero, the Institute for Historical Research of the PUCP, Jorge Lossio and Claudio Mendoza Castro went through the exhibition on Peruvian Retablos organized by the Museo de Artes y Culturas Populares Luis Repetto Málaga in collaboration with Casa O'Higgins. Subsequently, Luis Martín Bogdanovich showed the group the headquarters of PROLIMA (see photo) and their general plan for the restoration of the historical center of Lima.
Conference
RSA Chicago
Fernando Loffredo participated in the round table "The Environmental Impacts of Early Modern Catholic Missions: A Global Perspective," organized by Isabel Harvey, Alysée Le Druillenec, and Wenjie Su, and in the seminar "Colonial Ecologies of Latin America," organized by Dana Leibsohn and Lisa Voigt, at the Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting in Chicago (March 21-23, 2024).
Conference
37. Dt. Kongress für Kunstgeschichte, Erlangen-Nürnberg
Fernando Loffredo delivered a paper entitled "Mapping the Holy City of Lima" at the 37th German Congress for Art History "Bild und Raum" hosted by the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität (March 13-17, 2024), within the panel “Stadtpläne und Veduten als Objekte und Mittel der kunsthistorischen Forschung,” organized by Amrei Buchholz and Tanja Michalsky.
Lecture
The Habitat in Transition PhD Program, Naples
On February 15, 2024, Fernando Loffredo gave the inaugural lecture for the Habitat in Transition PhD Program at the Department of Architecture, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, on "Borromini in Brazil, without his knowledge. A methodological approach to the study of Aleijadinho and the question of the 'Barroco Mineiro' as a national style".
Workshop
Matinée at the KHI
The workshop at the KHI (January 19, 2024) consisted of two presentations that yielded from the first year of research activities of the Max Planck Partner Group, given by Cécile Michaud ("From Tortured to Martyr in Eternal Glory: Antonio de la Calancha's Moralized Chronicle and Friar Diego Ortiz's Portrait in the Convent of Saint Augustine in Lima") and Andrea Tejada ("Bernardo Bitti in the Viceroyalty of Peru and his Jesuit Collaborators: Pedro de Vargas, Giuseppe Avitabile, and Gonzalo Ruiz Ambrosio").
Conference
América en el centro, Mexico City/Puebla
Fernando Loffredo participated in the five-day international conference "América en el centro," which took place in Mexico City and Puebla from October 16 to 20, 2023, and was organized by Pablo F. Amador Marrero (Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, UNAM) and Paula Mues Orts (Escuela Nacional de Conservación, Restauración y Museografía, INAH), with the support of the Cirima Project.
Collaboration
Barroco-Açu. A América Portuguesa na Geografia Artística do Sul Global Collaboration
Fernando Loffredo participated in a field trip in the Amazonian region of Belém do Pará and the Island of Marajó organized by Renata Maria de Almeida Martins, Principal Investigator of the Research Project "Barroco-Açu. A América Portuguesa na Geografia Artística do Sul Global" (Projeto JP2 FAPESP, Universidade de São Paulo). Our Max-Planck Partner Group will be collaborating with "Barroco-Açu" in the next five years and the two projects will join forces in several academic initiatives. Here, the 18th-century painted ceiling with a grotesque head from the Jesuit church of São Francisco Xavier, Museu de Arte Sacra do Pará, Belém (July 23, 2023).
Collaboration
PROLIMA Collaboration
Throughout the next five years, our Max-Planck Partner Group is willing to establish a strong academic collaboration with PROLIMA (Municipal Program for the Restoration of the Historic Center of Lima). We are grateful to Luis Martín Bogdanovich, Director of PROLIMA, who gave us a special tour of the sites currently under restoration (July 1, 2023).
MA Seminar
Extracurricular Activities
The MA seminar at the PUCP organized by the Max-Planck Partner Group included a series of extracurricular activities, such as visits to private art collections in Lima. Here (June 30, 2023), students visiting the Barbosa-Stern Collection of Colonial art and directly exploring the materiality of several works of art. We kindly thank Aldo Barbosa Stern and Silvia Stern Deutsch.
MA Seminar
Arte y Cultura Visual en Hispanoamérica
This year, Fernando Loffredo taught his first graduate seminar entitled "Arte y Cultura Visual and Hispanoamérica" for the MA in Art History and Curatorial Studies at the PUCP, Lima. This is the teaching component of the Max-Planck Partner Group in partnership with the PUCP. Here, together with Cécile Michaud and the MA students visiting the Museo de Arte de Lima (June 10, 2023).
Conference
RSA San Juan, Puerto Rico
The Max Planck Partner Group organized its first round table to discuss the themes of the research project at the Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico (March 9-11, 2023). Besides the PI Fernando Loffredo, organizer of the event, were present the coordinators Cécile Michaud (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú) and Gerhard Wolf (KHI) together with invited discussants Olga Acosta (Universidad de los Andes, Colombia), Christina H. Lee (Princeton University, USA), Renata De Almeida Martins (Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil), Felipe Pereda (Harvard University, USA), and Agustina Rodríguez Romero (CONICET/Universidad Tres de Febrero/Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina).
