Agenda

Works of art do not pass through history unchanged: they are frequently reassembled, adjusted, restored or relocated in ways that alter not only their material conditions but also their functions, values, and historical intelligibility. From this perspective, the 8th International PhD Conference in History of Arts aims to examine how material and contextual processes affecting works of art and objects participate in shaping their historical identity by introducing elements of discontinuity, redefinition, or rupture.

What happens when deterioration – whether due to the degradation of the materials or intentionally enacted as part of the artistic process – irreversibly alters the materiality of a work of art? What changes when an object leaves its original context to enter a collection or a museum? And how does restoration – always evolving in response to changing technical knowledge, aesthetic criteria, and cultural values – enable artworks to persist throughout their transformations?

The thematic axes of the conference are built around these questions: alterations, unstable materialities, and ephemeral forms; movements and changes of context; practices of persistence: reactivation and conservation. These topics will be addressed over a long historical period, from the Middle Ages to the present day, across diverse cultural and geographic contexts, and from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives.

The three-day conference will conclude with a round table chaired by Francesca Borgo (Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History).

The event will be held in Italian and English.

For the full programme, please refer to the attachment.

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