Wednesday Talk: Oct. 9, 2024, 10am-12pm – hybrid
- This event has passed.
October 9 @ 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Kenneth Bartlett, History and Renaissance Studies, U of T
Title: “Raphael and the Mystery of the Frame: Art, Science and History in Search of an Answer”
Abstract:
A copy of Raphael’s Madonna della Seggiola, the original of which is in the Galleria Palatina (Pitti Palace) in Florence, was discovered in a dealer’s shop, identified as an 18th-century copy, still in its original frame. Detailed research through X-ray, laser photography, infrared reflectography, ultrasound and chemical analysis revealed that the panel was 16th century and might have been at least in part painted by Perin del Vaga, the youngest member of Raphael’s workshop, and that within the frame were hidden objects relating to Raphael: a silverpoint decorated with the Medici arms; a drawing, perhaps of the young Raphael, enclosing a lock of hair; a Roman glass beaker identical to a piece of altar furniture in Raphael’s Mass of Bolsena in the Vatican Stanza di Eliodoro; a Roman glass tear vial filled with a mixture of blood and sand; and a cryptic document dated the day before Raphael’s death. There is no similar collection of materials celebrating any other Renaissance artist; and there remain questions about the nature of the objects which cannot easily be answered. Consequently, although the possibility of a nineteenth century origin for the assembly of this reliquary cannot be dismissed, the evidence of the objects in the frame appears to indicate that they were inserted not long after the death of Raphael in 1520. The mystery of the frame is not yet solved.
Bio: Professor of History and Renaissance Studies (Victoria College), Ken edited Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance et Réforme from 1985 until 1990 and was President of the Canadian Society for Renaissance Studies from 1982 until 1984. He was the Founding Director of the University of Toronto Art Centre and sat on the Board of the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art from 2001- 2015. Ken was the Director of Faculty Programs in Arts and Science for 13 years, and in 2002 he was named the first Director of the Office of Teaching Advancement for the University of Toronto, a position he enjoyed until 2009.
He is the author of: At Once a Home and a Paradise: The Letters of Katharine and Emily Roberts from Siena, 1895-96 (ed. with Gillian Bartlett) (2021); The Renaissance in Italy: A History (2019); Florence in the Age of the Medici and Savonarola (2018); The Experience of History (2017); A Short History of the Italian Renaissance (2013); The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance (2011; 1992); The English in Italy: A Study in Culture and Politics (1991); Humanism and the Northern Renaissance (with M. McGlynn) (2000); a second, expanded edition appeared in 2014 as The Northern Renaissance and the Reformation. He is co-editor or translator of several Italian Renaissance texts and has published almost 50 articles and contributions to books on various aspects of the Renaissance. He has produced: a 36-video series with 3 vol. companion text on The Italian Renaissance (2005); The Italians Before Italy: Conflict and Cooperation in the Mediterranean (2007); a 48-episode series on The Development of European Civilization (2010); The Great Tours: Discovering Medieval Europe (2013); The Smithsonian Guide to Essential Italy (36 episodes) (2015). In June 2017 he filmed the first Virtual Reality Tour of Venice for Smithsonian Journeys.
Ken has also published articles and conducted a great many consulting projects in Europe, China, the Middle East and North America on university faculty development and pedagogy. Among his many awards: Victoria University Excellence in Teaching Award (1993); Students Administrative Council (2000); Association of Part-Time Students Undergraduate Teaching Award (2007); Faculty of Arts and Science Outstanding Teaching Award (2003); 3M National Teaching Fellowship (2005); Arbor Award for service to the University (2005); inaugural President’s Teaching Award (2006); inaugural government of Ontario LIFT (Leadership in Faculty Teaching) (2007). In 2007 he was a finalist in the TVO Best Lecturer TV series. Most recently, in 2023, he was awarded recognition for contributions to Italian culture by Centro Scuola e Cultura Italiana.
The link to register is https://forms.office.com/r/cquViRZTkW
The deadline to register is the Monday before the event at noon. The Zoom link will be sent to registrants only.
