On 30 and 31 May, 2023, the Insitut für Kunst- und Bildgeschichte hosted an international conference devoted to the theme of imprint. The conference explored the technical and metaphorical implications of imprints, casts, seals and other types of reproductions made by physical contact between two bodies.
The conference, organised by Stefano de Bosio, Kathleen Christian, and Ralph Dekoninck, was made possible by a generous grant from the Thyssen Stiftung and was part of the activities of the international research network Logiques du négatif.
Contact: Transcultural Techniques and Metaphors of Imprinting
30 May and 31 May, Jacob-und-Wilhelm-Grimm-Zentrum, Conference Room
May 30
10:00–10:30 Welcome and introduction
Session 1 — Techniques and Technologies
Chair: Kathleen Christian, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
10:30–11:00 Jeffrey Moser, Brown University, The Specular Mode in Medieval Chinese Art
11:00–11:30 Ruth Noyes, National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, Cera, cartapesta, and pasta di reliquie: Impressing and Imprinting corpisanti Relic-Sculptures in 18th-century Rome
11:30–12:00. Jennifer Chuong, Harvard University / Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Printing with Nature in Early America
12:00–12:30 Break 1
12:30–13:00. Steffen Siegel, Folkwang Universität der Künste, Feathers, Butterflies, and some Prussian Kings: Johann Carl Enslen and the Beginning of Photographic Imprinting
13:00–13:30. Buket Altinoba, Universität München, Hands-free? Machines for reproducing sculpture and the question of the authentic imprint
13:30–15:00 Lunch (for speakers only)
Session 2 — Discourses
Chair: Jérémie Koering, Université de Fribourg
15:00–15:30. Carl Knappett, University of Toronto, Technologies of imprinting and containing: conjoined strategies for structural objects
15:30–16:00. Verity Platt, Cornell University, Sponge, Foam, and the Truth in Painting
16:00–16:30. Kathleen Christian, Humboldt-Universität, Marble to Bronze, Bronze to marble. Antico and Michelangelo in Rome
16:30–17:00 Break 2
17:00–17:30. Ralph Dekoninck, Université de Louvain, Homo in imagine [impressa] ambulat, The proof of the (engraved) image
17:30–18:00. Stefano de Bosio, Humboldt-Universität, The logic of the negative: on engraved gems and their Early-Modern (im)prints
May 31
Session 3 — (Trans-)cultural metaphors and imaginaries I
Chair: Ralph Dekoninck, Université Catholique de Louvain
10:00–10:30. Markus Spaeth, University of Giessen, Bodily impression and legal authentication. Dimensions of materiality in sealing culture of medieval Europe
10:30–11:00 Nicolas Sarzeaud, Université Lyon II-Lumière, Holy stains in print culture? On the imprints of the Body of Christ
11:00–11:30 Break 3
11:30–12:00. Patricia Falguières, École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Animal typographies: on life casting
12:00–12:30 Jérémie Koering, Université de Fribourg, Imprints to Swallow: Instituting Community in Early Modern Europe
12:30–14:00 Lunch
Session 4 — (Trans-)cultural metaphors and imaginaries II
Chair: Stefano de Bosio, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
14:00–14:30. Jakub Steiskal, Masaryk University, Brno, What do Rubbings Preserve? A Foray into the Aesthetics of a Technique
14:30–15:00 Johanna Malt, King’s College, The Thing and the Hole
15:00–15:30. Chari Larsson, Griffith University, Breathing, Erasing, Dripping: Imprinting in Contemporary Aboriginal Art
15:30–16:00 Break 4
16:00–16:30. Matthias Mansen, Berlin, On making matrices (and woodcuts), in conversation with Stefano de Bosio
16:30–17:00 Veronika Tocha, Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, Critical perspectives on anthropological casts from colonial contexts
17:00–17:30 Final discussion
Auguste Rodin, Study of a Hand, c. 1885, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York