Preface
On 1-2 October 2019 Asker Pelgrom (Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome, KNIR) and Eva Geudeker (RKD - Netherlands Institute for Art History) organized a two-day international workshop at KNIR and the Academia Belgica in Rome titled The Eternal Studio: Artists from the Low Countries in Nineteenth‐Century Italy [1-2].
The aim of the workshop was to chart current research, projects, questions and ideas concerning artists from the Low Countries - the geographical area comprising present-day Belgium and the Netherlands - active in Italy during the nineteenth century. What are the new trends, topics and (digital) research methods, and which territories are to be explored in the years to come? And how do new insights on artists from the Low Countries relate to the broader developments in research on the presence of foreign artists in nineteenth century Italy?
The call for papers for this workshop particularly encouraged contributions on the relation between art and politics, social mobility, networks, studio practices, exhibitions, the art market and their influence on the position and (self‐)image of artists, but other perspectives were also welcome. In any case, contributors were invited to touch upon important matters concerning visual artists (painters, sculptors, architects, photographers and possibly others) travelling from the Low Countries to Italy in the ‘long nineteenth century’ (ca. 1789‐1914).
The ambition was to bring together a varied group of (art)historians to share short presentations of their recent or ongoing research, as well as to discuss possibilities for future research and collaboration on this topic, such as a joint publication and/or an exhibition.
The majority of the participants in the workshop have transformed their papers in full-fledged chapters. Therefore, our thanks goes to the authors Davy Depelchin (Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels), Christine Dupont (House of European History, Brussels), Laura Fanti (Université libre de Bruxelles), Dominique Marechal (Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels) and Malika M’rani Alaoui (Ghent University) for their contributions to this Study. We also thank Fien Messen, PhD candidate at Ghent University and the KBR – Royal Library of Belgium. Though she did not present a paper at the workshop, she was given the opportunity to contribute to this study at a later stage, as her research closely relates to its subject matter.
1
Hendrik Voogd
Gezicht op de Sint Pieter te Rome, gezien vanuit een raam, 1809 (dated)
Sint-Petersburg, Hermitage
2
Jean Baptiste Lodewijk Maes Canini
Roman woman praying, 1832 (dated)
Germany, private collection Metzger