Offerta di lavoro dal 4 maggio 2026
Workshop
Rome, Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max-Planck-Institut for Art History, November, 12-13, 2026
Deadline: June, 21, 2026
When Erwin Panofsky published his “Four Lectures” on tomb sculpture in 1964, he established a scholarly, art-historical examination of funerary culture and sculpture. At the same time, as his title explicitly indicates, he situated the tomb monument within a historical development spanning “from Ancient Egypt to Bernini.” In the 62 years since then, art history has produced a vast and increasingly complex body of research on the function and appearance of funerary monuments in European art. In addition to expanding upon Panofsky’s findings in the context of a history of development and style, researchers have repeatedly focused their attention on specific thematic areas of funerary art; they have explored (and delimited) the subject of study with regard to dynasties, geographical regions or nation-states, social groups, or funerary forms and typologies, as well as in connection with spatial and liturgical contexts.
Questions regarding the criteria underlying the selection of comparative examples, reference points, and artistic actors often recede into the background: Which monuments are considered “representative”? Which artists are incorporated into the history of research—and which are left out? To what extent does the selection of certain patrons or social groups determine our understanding of funerary sculpture? And what boundaries are drawn when examining funerary monuments within specific national or cultural spaces?
The workshop wants to question these methodological assumptions and open new perspectives in funerary monument research by examining these monuments within a broader, culturally and socially heterogeneous context such as that of the global Spanish Habsburg Empire. While studies on individual funerary monuments exist for the Iberian Peninsula, Naples under the rule of Spanish viceroys, the Duchy of Milan, or the Portuguese Kingdom, the transnational dimension of memorial practices has remained underrepresented to date.
The aim of the workshop is to facilitate international exchange among researchers on the funerary monuments and sepulchral cultures of the Spanish Habsburgs in the early modern period and to discuss their own research findings with experts in the field of other local power centres of the Habsburg Mediterranean Empire. In doing so, the following questions, among others, can be addressed: How does our research change when we examine funerary and memorial culture and sculpture within the Habsburg world empire independently of national borders or social status, and consider the high degree of mobility of individuals (nobles, bureaucrats, artists)? What role do transnational negotiation processes play in the establishment and visualization of power and influence through the commissioning of funerary monuments? How should the use of different materials (e.g., marble from Italy, alabaster in Spain) in funerary sculpture within the Habsburg Empire be assessed? What connections might only become visible when research findings on local funerary forms are placed in a global context?
The international workshop is organized by the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History and the University of Hamburg and will take place in Rome from November 12 to 13, 2026. Applications from doctoral students are expressly encouraged. The conference languages are German and English.
Application:
Please submit your abstract (max. 500 words) for a 20-minute presentation, along with your curriculum vitae in German or English, by June 21, 2026, via the following application portal: https://recruitment.biblhertz.it.
Accommodation (November 11–13, 2026) will be arranged and covered by the organizers. Travel expenses will be reimbursed on a pro-rata basis. The selection of speakers will be announced by July 15, 2026.
Scientific Organizers: Anna Magnago Lampugnani (Rome), Tanja Michalsky (Rome), Ivo Raband (Hamburg)