Event
Project co-financed by the European Union from the European Regional Development Fund
Project co-financed by the European Union from the European Regional Development Fund
10–12 June 2015
Agency of Things
New Perspectives on European Art of the Fourteenth–Sixteenth Centuries
Conference co-organized by The Institute of History of Art, University of Warsaw and The National Museum in Warsaw
This two-day interdisciplinary conference seeks to investigate whether agency of things as a new research model more accurately than traditional theories and methods informs our understanding of religious, social, political and ideological systems or networks which shaped various communities (court, city, convent, pilgrim) during the period under investigation. Innovative insights into the realm of agency of artistic and non-artistic objects will be presented, including the following topics:
Scale and size of things as conditions of their agency
CONFERENCE PROGRAMME
WEDNESDAY, 10 JUNE 2015
/ University of Warsaw, „Stary BUW”, room 106
6 p.m. keynote lecture
The Power of Nature and the Agency of Art in the Works of Jan Vermeyen and Nikolas Pfaff
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THURSDAY, 11 JUNE 2015
/ National Museum of Warsaw, cinema room „Kino MUZ”
9.00 a.m. Welcome and Opening Remarks
9.30–11.00 a.m. First Session
Touching Skin. How Medieval Users Rubbed, Kissed, Inscribed, Splashed, Begrimed, and Pricked their Manuscripts
Presentation/Representation. The Agency of Materials in the Scenic Reliquaries, circa 1300
11.15 a.m. – 12.45 p.m. Second Session
Agency of things and the Enclosed Gardens. A case-study on Mixed Media, Remnant Art, récyclage and gender in the Low Countries (16th onwards)
Phantoms of Emptiness: the Agency of (No)thing
Art, Liturgy and Power in the 15th century: the ‘Manuscript Chapel’ of Alfonso Carrillo, Archbishop of Toledo
2.00–3.30 p.m. Third Session
The Bible between Material Book and Immaterial Word
Manual Medicine
Dexterity, Memory, and Cutting-Edge Agency in Decorated Surgical Saws
3.45–4.45 p.m. Fourth Session
Agency, Beauty and Late-Medieval Sculpture
“Let them fall down and worship thing.” Lorenzo Valla’s Renaissance Thing Theory
5.00 p.m. keynote lecture
Why Matter Matters
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FRIDAY, 12 JUNE 2015
/ National Museum of Warsaw, cinema room „Kino Muz”
9.00 a.m. keynote lecture:
The Boots of St. Hedwig: Thoughts on the Limits of the Agency of Things
10.00–11.00 a.m. Fifth Session
Knighted by the Apostle Himself: Political Fabrication and Chivalric Artifact in Compostela, 1332
Miraculous Images
11.15 a.m. – 12.45 p.m. Sixth Session
The Choir Screen as Agent: A Reinterpretation of the Ghent Altarpiece
The Choir-stall as Interactive Agent
Revealing and Concealing: Visibility as a Strategy of Power at the Royal Mausolea of Batalha and Westminster Abbey
2.00–3.30 p.m. Seventh Session
Collecting, Exchange, and the Agency of Things in the Renaissance Court
Infiltrating artifacts. The agency of things in 14th- and 15th-century Florence
The multilayered agency of luxury textiles. A diplomatic gift presented to the Republic of Venice in 1603
3.45–4.45 p.m. Eighth Session
Marketing Dürer: Prints as agents of self-promotion
Michelangelo, Tommaso de’Cavalieri, and the Agency of the Gift Giving
5.00 p.m. Closing Remarks
Discover the digital collections of the National Museum in Warsaw and explore thousands of works of art — from painting and sculpture to prints, photography and decorative arts. Browse objects, artists and collections, learning their history through detailed descriptions and high-quality reproductions. Visit the site and see the richness of the MNW collections from anywhere, at any time.
14 May – 25 October 2026 Xawery Dunikowski Museum of Sculpture in Królikarnia
17 April – 13 September 2026 The National Museum in Warsaw
