Palatium : Court Residences as places of exchange in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe 1400 - 1700

Summer School Utrecht 2012

Summer School 01/07/2012 → 11/07/2012

"Court Residences as Places of Exchange in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe"

• Location: Utrecht (The Netherlands), with field trips to various castles and residences in The Netherlands and Germany
• Date: 1-11 July 2012
• Organisation: PALATIUM in cooparation with the Onderzoekschool Kunstgeschiedenis (Dutch Postgraduate School for Art History)
• Supervisors: Professor Konrad Ottenheym (U. Utrecht) & Martijn van Beek (secretary OSK)
• Preliminary Programme (pdf)
• Images of the palaces that will be visited (pdf)
• List of participants (pdf)

Aim of the Summer School
This summer school will focus on the late medieval and early modern European court residence or ‘palace’ in an interdisciplinary perspective. The world of the courts 1400-1750 constituted a network of truly European scale and international character, but its architecture is only rarely studied in its connectivity. Here the ‘palace’ is seen as a place for cultural exchange. Human interaction in this space is regulated and codified by a set of rules, known as the ‘ceremonial’.
     The interaction between palace architecture (tangible), including its interior decorations and stately collections, and the ceremonial (intangible, but known through a set of tangible testimonials of different types, written and visual) is one of the key questions this summer school aims to address. The palace’s space and form carry multiple connotations. To the informed observer they represent power, lineage, and tradition versus innovation. The decoding of this system of signs necessitates input not only of architectural and art historians, but also of various other disciplines, such as archaeology, social history, politics, literature, theatre and music.
    Important questions that will be addresses in this summer school are focused upon the sovereignty’s space and its rituals. Of crucial importance in the ceremonial and spatial organization of the residences were the etiquette and settings used for the official confrontation between different courts at diplomatic receptions of foreign princes, ambassadors and other distinguished visitors. How was the spatial order and hierarchy of rooms, leading from the entrance of the residence to the audience hall or the stage for stately banquets? How were the different levels of distance or closeness to the nucleus of power visually expressed? What was the relationship between the state rooms and the private sections of the residence? 
    In connection with the previous questions also the iconography of the residence exterior and interiors will be discussed, especially the display of lineage, kinship, and tradition. Claims of age-old and noble origin were of vital symbolic and identity-creating value for several European courts, regardless of political status and size. Were particular iconographic meanings expressed in relation to specific local or regional circumstances? Were the symbolic values displayed only in the more public areas, or were less accessible parts of the residence also the object of significant iconographic programs? Which role had art collections here?
     The lectures at the summer school will deal with residences all over Europe. The field trips will focus on the most relevant examples in the Low Countries and its surrounding areas. The summer school aims at stimulating exchanges of knowledge and experience by offering lectures by historians, architectural historians and art historians. It is open to Research MA students and PhD’s in these disciplines from all nationalities, so as to mirror the international network of courts that is being examined.

Lectures
Lectures will be given by: Johan Carel Bierens de Haan (Paleis Het Loo, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands), Lex Bosman (University of Amsterdam), Monique Chatenet (Centre André Chastel, Institut national d’histoire de l’art, France), Karolien De Clippel (Utrecht University, The Netherlands), Krista De Jonge (University of Leuven, Belgium), Rudi Ekkart (Netherlands Institute for Art History - RKD, The Netherlands), Willemijn Fock (Leiden University, The Netherlands), Bernardo García García (Universidad Complutense de Madrid/Fundación Carlos de Amberes, Spain), Stephan Hoppe (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany), Konrad Ottenheym (Utrecht University, The Netherlands), José Luis Sancho (Patrimonio Nacional, Spain).

• Sunday 1 July: Arrival of participants
• Monday 2 July: Introductory lectures on court history and residence architecture in Europe
• Tuesday 3 July: Lectures on late medieval and 16th-century residences
• Wednesday 4 July: Field trip to Bergen op Zoom (Markiezenhof) and Breda (Nassau palace)
• Thursday 5 July: Lectures on 17th-century residences
• Friday 6 July: Field trip to Apeldoorn (palace Het Loo)
• Saturday 7 July: Field trip to Amerongen (castle of Godard Adriaan van Reede, 1676) and Middachten (castle of Godard van Reede-Ginkel, 1695)
• Sunday 8 July: Day off
• Monday 9 July: Lectures on 18th-century developments
• Tuesday 10 July: Field trip to Brühl (Schloss Augustusburg and its ‘trianon’ Falkenlust)
• Wednesday 11 July: Discussion of the topics chosen for the papers. End of the summer school.