Keynote speaker: Sally Cornelison, 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.

Schedule
The Space of Magnificence (9:40 am)
Philippe L.B. Halbert, Yale University
“‘Our Colony Has Today Become Opulent’: Material Magnificence in the French Atlantic World 1660-1789”

Elsaris Núñez Méndez, National Autonomous University of Mexico
“The Ochavo Chapel: Magnificence, Sacredness and Religious Legitimacy in the Cathedral of Puebla de los Ángeles (Mexico)”

Identity and Magnificence (10:55 am)
Rheagan Martin, University of Michigan
“Restrained Magnificence: Constructing Female Power in Mantua’s Palazzo Ducale”

Meng Tong, The University of Kansas
“The Chime Bells of Marquis Yi of Zeng as a Lieu de Mémoire: Shaping China’s Modern Cultural Identity”

Laura Polucha, Columbia University
“Magnificent Mourning: The Subtle Splendor of 19th- and early 20th-Century Mourning Attire”

Making Magnificence (2:10 pm)
Emily Anderson, University of Southern California
“Magnificent Macabre: The Engravings of the Anatomical Preparations of Frederik Ruysch”

Rebecca Gridley, New York University
“Luca’s Labors: Luca della Robbia’s Working Methods, Works, and Medici Magnificence”

Sarah Mills, The City University of New York
“Pink Metallic Threads: The Glam of Industrial Design”

Keynote Address (3:40 pm)
Professor Sally Cornelison, Syracuse University
Hometown Glitter: Giorgio Vasari and Church Decoration in Late Renaissance Arezzo

Presented by the Department of History of Art with additional support from the U-M Museum of Art, Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, Institute for the Humanities, the Lieberthal and Rogel Center for Chinese Studies, Medieval and Early Modern Studies, the Department of History, the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, the Rackham School of Graduate Studies, the Confucius Institute, and the Department of Anthropology.