Webcast
Michael Ann Holly: "Painted Presence" Samuel H. Kress Lecture
Much of art history and art education has been devoted to discovering meaning in historical works of art. Holly discusses an alternative critical path, wherein scholars need not always talk about what an artwork represents as much as what it presents. Works of art are about something far more magical, mysterious, and poetic than the transmittal of subject matter. The presence of an historical work of art in our contemporary visual world momentarily shifts the magnetic poles of what is seen and known. This is the sixth annual Samuel H.
Aimee Ng: "A Portrait and Its Mysteries: Parmigianino's Schiava Turca"
Parmigianino's exquisite Schiava Turca (Turkish slave) is shrouded in mystery. Who is this woman whose elaborate, almost theatrical, costume inspired an early eighteenth-century writer to give the Renaissance beauty her fantastical name? In this lecture, the guest curator of the special exhibition The Poetry of Parmigianino's "Schiava Turca" presents a new interpretation of the work.