Paris, Institut national d'histoire de l'art, November 9 - 10, 2015
Deadline: Jul 12, 2015

One Michelangelo, Multiple Sistine Chapels? Challenging Art History :
the Sistine Chapel Ceiling

International Study Workshop
organized by the Centre d'histoire de l'art de la Renaissance
(Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne) and the Centre de recherches sur
les arts et le langage (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales)

November 9-10, 2015
Paris, Institut national d'histoire de l'art, salle Vasari

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo between 1508
and 1512, has been characterized from the beginning as a paradigmatic
work. Giorgio Vasari described it in the Lives as the “light of our
art”, capable of “illuminating a world plunged for centuries into
darkness.” The art historian Cristina Acidini Luchinat recently
recalled that “the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is one of the very few
masterpieces that can be said to have changed the course of Western
art.” Such comments may be panegyrical or reveal an acute attention to
the history in art, but the fact remains that the ceiling of the
Sistine Chapel is undeniably a point of reference for art and
historiography of the early modern period.

Few works so perfectly mirror the theoretical trends of art history.
Reflecting the aesthetic of “Genius” in the eighteenth century,
“Beauty” in the nineteenth century, and a Neo- Platonic and theological
ideal of art as expressed in the great iconological interpretations of
the twentieth century, the Sistine Chapel now lends itself to
comparative approaches aimed at understanding the poetics of
Michelangelo’s art. The purpose of this international study workshop is
to question the very nature of the Sistine Chapel as a “masterpiece” by
revisiting the multiple interpretations it has generated, while at the
same time proposing fresh perspectives in light of new tools and
methodologies in art history. Why does the Sistine Chapel represent an
epistemological and aesthetic break with art from the previous
generations? Is it legitimate to consider it as an uncontested and
uncontestable model? Why does art history return to it on regular
basis, and, moreover, why can the field’s practitioners not agree on
its overall meaning?

Welcoming broad – but not generalizing – reflection, this international
study workshop, without claiming or intending to be all-encompassing,
seeks to concretely contribute to studies on the Sistine Chapel.
Because the unity and multiplicity of Michelangelo’s work cannot be
grasped without combining different theoretical and methodological
viewpoints, no approach will be excluded provided that it is
historically and academically sound.

The following are a few topics that might be considered, though
proposals are in no way limited to these suggestions:
- The relationship of Michelangelo to the iconographic tradition,
according to the subjects represented on the ceiling of the Sistine
Chapel.
- The theological and philosophical underpinnings of the décor and the
forms of piety common at the time it was made.
- The internal dynamic of the entire Chapel: interrelations between
the Quattrocento frescoes and the passage from the ceiling to the Last
Judgment.
- The question of ornament and of the decorative system as a vehicle
for presentation and representation.
- The theological aesthetic of Michelangelo: the analogy between the
artista divino and the Deus artifex, the artist as un’ altra natura e
un altro Iddio; the alla fantasia composition of the figures. Broadly
speaking, the relationship between artistic practice and theoretical
discourse.
- The archaeology of the Michelangelesque body: between poïesis and
aesthetic, reality and ideality.
Echoes of the iconographic and formal elements of the Sistine Chapel
ceiling in the sixteenth century and beyond.
- The historiography of the Sistine Chapel ceiling from the sixteenth
century to the present.

The call for papers is largely open to disciplines related to art
history (history, anthropology, philosophy, literature...).
Presentations must be unpublished, in French, English or Italian, and
should not exceeding 30 minutes long. Each will be followed by a 15
minutes of discussion with the audience. Proposals by doctoral
candidates and early career scholars are welcome.

Proposals of no more than 500 words, accompanied by a succinct
bibliography and written in French, English or Italian, should be sent
by July 12, 2015. Each proposal must also include the author’s
bio-bibliography. The document, which should be sent in PDF format and
labeled as follows: “Last name_First name_Sixtine_Proposition”, must be
sent to the following address with the subject line “proposition de
communication – JE Sixtine”: je.michelangelo@gmail.com

The authors of the selected papers will be contacted by email by the
end of July 2015.

Academic committee: Abslem Azraibi (EHESS), Giovanni Careri (EHESS),
Guillaume Cassegrain (Université Lumière Lyon 2), Yves Hersant (EHESS),
Bertrand Madeline (EHESS), Florian Métral (Université Paris 1 Panthéon
Sorbonne) et Philippe Morel (Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne).