Abstract:

In a session held jointly with the seminar Architectural History (SAHGB/IHR) and the Women’s History seminar (IHR), a panel of researchers who are leaders in the field of women in building construction will discuss and debate the role of women in the building trades in the Early Modern Period. Questions and issues which have reoccurred in historical research over many years will be considered. What trades did women undertake? Did women learn and exercise building skills? Did they apply them on site or in workshops (were they hands-on?)? The historical record is very uneven and often unclear. Historians have questioned whether it can be assumed that a woman named as a carpenter, plumber, mason, etc. actually was. Long-standing issues of widows, apprenticeship and women in business as builders will be aired and interrogated from the different perspectives of speakers.  

For the history of women in building construction in Britain and Ireland in the Early Modern Period, the discussion brings together Linda Clarke, Conor Lucey, Amy Erickson, and Kirsty Wright and Elizabeth C. Biggs with an overview of European gender-based practices from Shelley E. Roff. After short papers of ten minutes the panellists will follow up with a discussion of issues arising from the presentations, both contested and agreed, with those attending the seminar in-person and online invited to take part.

Recording:

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This symposium – organised jointly by The Courtauld, the University of Kent, and the SAHGB – celebrates the extraordinary work and legacy of Mark Girouard (1931-2022), one of Britain’s greatest architectural historians, whose work continues to revolutionise the scope and perceptions of the discipline both within academia and beyond. Mark’s knowledge and expertise were as eclectic as they were ground-breaking, whilst his infectious passion and willingness to share them with, and foster them in others, was truly remarkable. Several generations of architectural historians have benefitted from, and indeed have been formed by, his support and writings. It will provide an opportunity for some of the leading architectural historians of Britain and Ireland to both reflect on how the vast corpus of Mark’s work has influenced their own thinking in the past, and, most importantly, to present new research and novel insights within the various fields impacted by Mark’s writing.

The symposium has been planned to take place as part of the foundational year of the SAHGB Girouard Fund, established in Mark’s name to support publications, research and programmes in architectural history.

Opened with addresses given by the Märit Rausing Director of The Courtauld, Mark Hallett, and Blanche Girouard, the day will commence with a keynote paper given by Maurice Howard (University of Sussex), followed by three sessions, each covering a different realm impacted by Mark’s scholarship and academic influence. The sessions range from sixteenth-century architecture to present and future concerns in architectural history, and will consider Mark’s influence on subjects as various as Early Modern state apartments; the study and perception of the Irish country house; Victorian pubs; and modern architecture in the pages of Country Life.

The conference convenors are Manolo Guerci (University of Kent); Kyle Leyden (The Courtauld Institute) and Elizabeth McKellar (SAHGB President).

Speakers will include: Gordon Higgott (former English Heritage), Emily Cole (Historic England), Margot Finn (UCL), Frances Sands (Sir John Soane’s Museum), Patricia McCarthy (Trinity College, Dublin), John Martin Robinson (College of Arms), Edward McParland (Trinity College, Dublin), Andrew Saint (The Bartlett), Michael Hall (Apollo Magazine), Alan Powers (The 20 th Century Society), and Jeremy Musson (former Country Life).

This SAHGB - IHR seminar will be a hybrid event, taking place online and in person at the Institute of Historical Research, Pollard N301 (3rd Floor, North Block of Senate House, Malet St, London WC1E 7HU).

Abstract:

Why did artists include prominent architectural settings in their narrative paintings? Why did they labour over specific, highly innovative structural solutions? Why did they endeavour to design original ornamental motifs which brought together sculptural, pictorial and architectural approaches, as well as showcasing their understanding of materiality?

Painting Architecture in Early Renaissance Italy addresses these questions in order to shed light on the early exchanges between artistic and architectural practice in Italy, arguing that architecture in painting provided a unique platform for architectural experimentation. Rather than interpreting architectural settings as purely spatial devices and as lesser counterparts of their built cognates, this book emphasises their intrinsic value as designs as well as communicative tools, contending that the architectural imagination of artists was instrumental in redefining the status of architectural forms as a kind of cultural currency.

Exploring the nexus between innovation and persuasion, Livia Lupi highlights an early form of little-discussed paragone between painting and architecture which relied on a shared understanding of architectural invention as a symbol of prestige. This approach offers a precious insight into how architectural forms were perceived and deployed, be they two or three-dimensional, at the same time clarifying the intersection of architecture and the figural arts in the work of later, influential figures like Giuliano da Sangallo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Baldassarre Peruzzi, whose work would not have been possible without the architectural experimentation of early fifteenth-century artists.

In conjunction with our October seminar, the speaker is leading a viewing of materials at the Soane Museum the same afternoon, limited to 10 places.

Registration:

Please use the form at the bottom of the page and watch for the pop-up message that will appear on screen after you submit your details. You can copy the Zoom details that will be shown in this message, for those joining remotely.

Speaker Bio:

Livia Lupi is a historian of art and architecture in early modern Europe, with a focus on the intersection of artistic and architectural practice. Her work has been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Leverhulme Trust and the Warburg Institute. In addition to her research, she works as a curator, editor, and translator.

Image Caption: Book Cover, Painting Architecture in Early Renaissance Italy

Book A Place:

In conjunction with our October seminar, the speaker is leading this viewing of materials at the Soane Museum, limited to 10 places.

Abstract:

This visit is an opportunity to examine first-hand two key works of the Italian Renaissance in the collection of the Sir John Soane’s Museum: the North Italian Album (c. 1500) and a partial copy of Francesco di Giorgio’s Opusculum de architectura (vol. 128; c. 1550). The North Italian Album is an eclectic collection of cityscapes and colourful designs for buildings and objects. In dramatic opposition, the Francesco di Giorgio copy-drawings belong to a workaday model book of machine designs produced by tracing. Including comparative material in the Soane’s collection such as the remarkable Codex Coner, discussion will centre on the conventions of architectural drawings in Renaissance Italy and on the relationship between artistic and architectural practice, enabling participants to reflect on the strategies of architectural representation and questioning our understanding of what constitutes an architectural drawing. The visit is led by Livia Lupi (University of Warwick), author of Painting Architecture in Early Renaissance Italy and curator of forthcoming digital exhibition Beyond the Painter-Architect: Artists Reinventing Architecture in Renaissance Italy, and by Elizabeth Merrill (University of Ghent), an expert on Francesco di Giorgio and Principal Investigator of ERC project Copying as Common Practice in Early Modern European Architecture.

Registration:

To book a place, please email stephen.gage@sahgb.org.uk
Max. 10 participants

Speakers:

Livia Lupi is a historian of art and architecture in early modern Europe, with a focus on the intersection of artistic and architectural practice. Her work has been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Leverhulme Trust and the Warburg Institute. In addition to her research, she works as a curator, editor, and translator.

Elizabeth Merrill specializes in early modern Italian architecture. Much of her research centers on Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1439-1501) and the artistic and technical culture of fifteenth-century Italy, which is traced through surviving model books, copy drawings, and illustrated treatises. Currently she is the Principal Investigator of the ERC-funded project “Copying as Common Practice in Early Modern European Architecture.”  

Image Caption: Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1439-1501), Hoeing machine (top), and Windass with double-pulley (bottom), Opusculum de architectura, c. 1475. London, The British Museum, ms. 197.b.21, fol. 5r. © The Trustees of the British Museum