CSDI - The Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB) Centre for the Study of the Domestic Interior, based at the Royal College of Art in London, brings together three institutions: the Royal College of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Bedford Centre for the History of Women at Royal Holloway, University of London. Launched in September 2001, its goal is to develop new histories of the home, its contents, and its representation. It pursues research into the changing appearance and layout of rooms in a range of buildings, from tenements to palaces; the objects that furnished those rooms; the ways rooms and objects were depicted; the manner in which people used them; and how they thought about them.

PROGRAMME

Friday 19 November

10:00-10:30 Registration
10:30-10:40 Introduction

Chair: Sandra Cavallo (Royal Holloway, University of London)
10:40 Anne McCants (MIT, US), ‘A Home Fit for Children: The Material Possessions of Amsterdam Orphans’

11:10 Maria Hayward (The AHRB Textile Conservation Centre, University of Southampton): ‘Signs of a Spiritual Life? An Analysis of the Possessions and Houses of the Black, White and Grey Friars in Mid-Sixteenth-Century England’

11:40 Molly Bourne (Syracuse University in Florence): ‘From Court to Cloister and Back Again: The Circulation of Objects in the Mantuan Convent of Sant’Orsola’

12:10-12:40 Discussion

12.40-13.30 Lunch

Chair: Silvia Evangelisti (University of East Anglia)
13:30 Jane Kromm (Purchase College SUNY, US): ‘Domestic Spatial Economies and Dutch Charitable Institutions’

14:00 Helen Hills (University of Manchester): ‘The Housing of Institutional Architecture: Searching for a Domestic Holy in Seventeenth-Century Italian Convents’

14:30 Anne Jacobson Schutte (University of Virginia, US): ‘Interiors of Monastic Hell: Rome 1711-22’

15.00-15.30 Discussion

15.30-15.55 Break

Chair: Marta Ajmar (Victoria & Albert Museum)
15:55 Susan Merriam (Bard College, Divisions of Arts, US): ‘The Garland Pictures’ Two Receptions in Seventeenth-Century Italy and Flanders’

16:25 Barbara Bettoni (University of Brescia, Italy): ‘Domestic Interiors and Religious Devotion in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Brescia’

16:55 - 17:15 Discussion

Saturday 20 November

Chair: Carolyn Sargentson (Victoria & Albert Museum)
10:15 Luís Antunes (Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical): ‘Some Domestic Interiors in the Inventories of Lisbon Merchants: An Appraisal of the Symbolic Value of Asian Objects’

10:45 Renata Ago (University La Sapienza, Italy): ‘"Middling Sort" Domestic Interiors in Seventeenth-Century Rome’

11:15-11:35 Discussion

11:35-11:50 Break

Chair: A V (Royal Holloway, University of London)
11:50 Raffaella Sarti (University of Urbino, Italy): ‘Masters and Servants: Separate and Common Spaces in Early Modern Italian Interiors’

12:20 Marko Stuhec (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia): ‘Changes and Stability in the Domestic Interiors of the Nobilities in Slovene Lands in the Seventeenth Century’

12:50-13:10 Discussion

13.10-14:00 Lunch

Chair: Flora Dennis (AHRB Centre for the Study of the Domestic Interior)
14:00 Isabel dos Guimaraes Sa (Universidade do Minho, Portugal): ‘Between Spiritual and Material Culture: Devotional, Domestic, and Institutional Objects in Sixteenth-Century Portugal’

14:30 Henry Dietrich Fernandez (Rhode Island School of Design, US): ‘A Temporary Home: Bramante’s Conclave Hall for Julius II’

15:00-15:20 Discussion

15:20-15:45 Break

15.45-17.15 Plenary Discussion to be led by contributions from:
Professor Dame Olwen Hufton (Royal Holloway, University of London)
Dr. Anton Schuurman (Wageningen Agricultural University)
Dr. Louise Durning (Oxford Brookes University)

GENERAL INFORMATION

Part One of the symposium will take place at the Victoria & Albert Museum in Seminar Room 1, which is accessible from the Silver Gallery (level 3). Registration begins at 10.00 AM, when the Museum opens.

Registration
Fees: Full price - £60, Student price - £30. Fee includes sandwich lunch, morning coffee and afternoon tea.

Registration is done by prebooking. (Deadline for registration is 5th November 2004). Payment can be made by credit card or cheque made out to Royal College of Art. Please download the booking form and return with payment to AHRB Centre for the Study of the Domestic Interior, Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore, London, UK SW7 2EU.

For further information contact the AHRB Centre for the Study of the Domestic Interior, csdi@rca.ac.uk; t. +44 (0)207 590 4183; f. +44 (0)207 4580.

This event is organized by the AHRB Centre for the Study of the Domestic Interior (Royal College of Art, Victoria & Albert Museum, and Royal Holloway, University of London). Generous support has been provided by The Britsh Academy.