History of Art 2016 Graduate Student Symposium, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Saturday November 12, 2016

Keynote Speaker: Sally Cornelison, Professor of Art History, Syracuse University

Magnificence has been expressed in any number of forms and for a variety of ends. Broadly conceived, the word conjures up a diverse menu of associations, including virtue, splendor, largesse, and majesty on the one hand, and wealth, display, and even decadence on the other. Often magnificence has implied expenditure on a large scale. The term suggests the confluence of materials and performance, where public acts potentially inscribe on images and objects important social, economic, and power relations. The significance embedded in these relations varies depending on historical and cultural circumstances. While the related concepts of materiality and performativity have garnered much recent scholarly attention, magnificence as a particular meeting point for those two modes of analysis has largely escaped art-historical scrutiny. The 2016 Graduate Symposium, “All That Glitters: Magnificence in Art, Architecture, and Visual Culture,” hosted by the History of Art Department at the University of Michigan, will therefore focus on the visual, historical, and/or theoretical implications surrounding things made to impress. We encourage a wide range of methodological approaches that engage critically with the notion of magnificence. Explorations of all media, geographic regions, and time periods are welcome.

Potential realms of exploration include but are not limited to:

  • Opulence and ornament
  • Art, luxury, and the market
  • Asceticism, sumptuary laws, or renouncing magnificence
  • Sartorial display in fashion and costume
  • Natural splendor and “the sublime”
  • Religious magnificence
  • Politics, nationalism, and propaganda
  • Monumentality
  • Spectacle

Submissions: The symposium will take place on Saturday, November 12, 2016. We invite MA and PhD students to submit a 300-word abstract for a twenty-minute presentation, along with a current CV by May 15, 2016. Please direct all submission materials and any questions relating to the symposium to the e-mail listed below. Selected participants will be notified by June 30, 2016.

Email: umichsymposium at gmail.com