Symposium at Harvard Art Museum
March 25, 2010

Art, Music, and Spectacle in the Age of Rubens
April 16-17, 2010

Symposium at Harvard Art Museum

Art, Music, and Spectacle in the Age of Rubens

M. Victor Leventritt Symposium

Harvard Art Museum

Sackler Lecture Hall

485 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02139

April 16-17, 2010

Free and Open to the public

http://www.harvardartmuseum.org/calendar/detail.dot?id=27895

Triumphal entries and other outdoor spectacles were a common occurrence in the Renaissance period. Antwerp’s 1635 festival in honor of the new governor, Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand, brother of King Philip IV of Spain, was particularly elaborate. For this occasion, the city’s great painter, Peter Paul Rubens, designed nine grandiose temporary stages and arches that both flattered the governor and impressed upon him the need to restore navigation on the river Scheldt. Jan Gaspar Gevaerts, learned humanist and city official, composed the Latin inscriptions for the arches and assembled the magnificent commemorative book of 1641. This interdisciplinary symposium will examine the art, architecture, music, theater, and festival books associated with the entry. A concert on period instruments will bring to life the music that accompanied the celebration.

List of speakers:

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Jonathan Israel (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton)
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Peter Miller (Bard Graduate Center)
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Bart Ramakers (University of Groningen)
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Anne Woollett (J. Paul Getty Museum)
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Michael Putnam (Brown University)
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Carmen Arnold-Biuchhi (Harvard Art Museum)
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Frank Fehrenbach (Harvard University)
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Caroline van Eck (Leiden University)
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Louis Grijp (Meertens Institute, Utrecht University)
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Concert
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Camerata Trajectina, Utrecht (recorder, viola da gamba, lute)
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Seven Hills Renaissance Wind Ensemble, Cambridge (shawns and sackbuts)
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David Kjar Baroque Trumpet Ensemble, Cambridge (trumpets)