[In-Person/Online] Conference hosted by NIKI & NYU-Florence, January 17–19, 2025: “Hidden in Plain Sight: Black African Lives and Visual Histories in Early Modern Europe”
How do representations of marginalized bodies challenge dominant narratives in history? What new realities are revealed about the absence and agency of Black Africans by a more global approach to the 14–17th centuries? The international conference Hidden in Plain Sight, co-hosted by the NIKI and NYU-Florence, will explore a range of interrelated themes, drawing from art history, anthropology, African studies, history, musicology, and other fields. By critically re-examining histories of colonialism and slavery, the event seeks to reshape our understanding of disciplinary boundaries and spark new scholarly debates.
Hybrid lecture: “The Last Days of the Virgin Mary in Medieval Art” on March 5, 2024 at 6PM
The theme of the Last Days of the Virgin was a frequent subject of pictorial representation in the Mediterranean area from the ninth century to the end of the fifteenth century, despite the absence of any canonical evidence for Mary’s death and Assumption.
Hybrid conference ”Johannes Stradanus (1523-1605): A Flemish Artist in Florence in the Age of Exploration” on 30 November – 1 December 2023
On the occasion of the exhibition ”Giovanni Stradano. Le più strane e belle invenzioni del mondo”, curated by Alessandra Baroni and held at Palazzo Vecchio in Florence (17 November 2023-18 February 2024), the Netherlands Interuniversity Institute for Art History (NIKI) organises an international conference on Johannes Stradanus and on the many ways in which the artist from Bruges,“with the flowers of his art, made Florence appear even more beautiful” (Van Mander).
Hybrid lecture: “Perugino and the Management of Styles: ‘Andrea d’Assisi’ Reconsidered” on November 7, 2023 at 6PM
On behalf of the Director of the Netherlands Interuniversity Institute for Art History (NIKI), Michael W. Kwakkelstein, we have the pleasure to invite you to the lecture by our scholar-in-residence, Takuma Ito (Associate Professor, Renaissance Art History, Kyushu University, Japan), entitled “Perugino and the Management of Styles: ‘Andrea d’Assisi’ Reconsidered”.
Dutch Alumni Event in Rome & Milan (8-9 November 2023)
The collaborating Dutch universities: Leiden University, Utrecht University and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam), along with the Dutch University Institute for Art History in Florence (NIKI) invite alumni from these universities to attend an evening of academic discussion and networking.
Hybrid lecture: “Christ’s Petrified Blood – Heliotrope Cameos in Early Modern Europe and Beyond” on October 5, 2023 at 6PM
This lecture explores the functions, iconography, and symbolic meanings of heliotrope in light of current discourses on the materiality of stones in early modern Europe – and beyond.
Hybrid conference ”Artists’ Workshop Practice in the Renaissance” on 20-21 September 2023
The conference focuses on the Italian Renaissance artists’ workshop practice. The conference focuses on the Italian Renaissance artists’ workshop practice. While many scholars consider the work made in artists’ workshops and much recent scholarship seeks to attribute the outputs of the assistants of well-known painters and sculptors, there are still many questions concerning quotidian life in the workshop that have attracted little scholarly attention, and about which we know very little – or practically nothing.
Expert meeting 25-26 May 2023- From the mind to the page: navigating the early modern sketchbook
In order to gain a better understanding of the functioning of early modern sketchbooks from the North, this expert-meeting aims to look beyond the separate folios to uncover the rationale behind these objects.
Lecture: “From Decorated Armor to Collectible Paper: the Beginning of the Printed Etching” on May 30, 2023 at 6PM
The Director of the Netherlands Interuniversity Institute for Art History (NIKI), Michael W. Kwakkelstein, in partnership with the Director of Art in Tuscany, Alessandra Baroni, has the pleasure to invite you to the lecture by Nadine Orenstein (Drue Heinz Curator in Charge, Department of Drawings and Print, The Metropolitan Museum), entitled “From Decorated Armor to Collectible Paper: the Beginning of Printed Etching”.
Conference Fragments, Architecture, and Antiquarian Knowledge Organized – 8-9 June 2023
This symposium addresses how different types of information on past architecture were created, collected, translated, and disseminated via various media between the Sixteenth and Eighteenth Centuries.
