Dr Charlene Vella and Art History graduate present a joint paper at an international symposium held in Paris.
A symposium on Gold in Renaissance Western Europe was organised in Paris on 9 and 10 June 2022. Senior Lecturer from the Department of Art and Art History, Dr Charlene Vella, and History of Art graduate, Ms Jamie Farrugia, presented a paper as part of this symposium titled ‘Searching for gold: a diagnostic investigation and digital reconstruction of Antonello Gagini's Sicilian 1504 Madonna and Child for Malta’.
The symposium organisers received a large amount of proposals from academics willing to present their research in this symposium, but 16 were finally selected.
The conference set out to analyse how gold in art continued to be used well into the Renaissance period, despite humanists advocating for artists to stop using the material in their painting and sculpture. Dr Vella’s and Ms Farrugia’s paper centred on a 1504 Madonna and Child sculpture by Antonello Gagini in the Franciscan Minor church of Ta’ Giezu in Rabat (Malta), which is today largely seen as a white Carrara marble sculpture, but which was originally highly ornamented with azurite and gold. Their research revealed the extent of the use of gold on this sculpture and also proposed what it looked like on a 2D model. This paper contributed to the symposium by presenting how the taste for gold was still important in southern Italy, Sicily and Malta in the Renaissance period, and how gold was used on such a marble sculpture. There is evidently room for even more study on this subject considering the discussion that ensued following the presentation of this paper.
It was possible to undertake this research on the Rabat sculpture thanks to the LEADER Programme EU funds distributed by the GAL Majjistral Foundation.
The symposium was organised as part of the AORUM project (Analyse de l’OR et des ses Usages comme Matériau pictural / Analysis of Gold and its Uses as a Painting Material in Western Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries), directed by Romain Thomas (HAR, University Paris Nanterre), Christine Andraud (CRC/CNRS/MNHN), Anne-Solenn Le Hô (C2RMF) and Dan Vodislav (ETIS, CYU Cergy Paris Université). AORUM, which started on 1 October 2021. The AORUM project is an interdisciplinary project with researchers dealing with art history, the physical chemistry of painting techniques and optics coming together with the aim to study gold as a painting material in artistic practices in Western Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
The symposium was held at the C2RMF (the National Centre for Research and Restoration in French Museums) in the Palais du Louvre and University Paris Nanterre. The organising committee was composed of Prof. Christine ANDRAUD (Professor of Physics (Optics), CRC/CNRS/MNHN); Dr. Valentina HRISTOVA (Post-doctoral Fellow in Early Modern Art History, Fondation des Sciences du Patrimoine and HAR, University Paris Nanterre); Dr. Anne-Solenn LE HO (Research Engineer in Physical Chemistry, C2RMF/CNRS); and Dr. Romain THOMAS (Lecturer in Early Modern Art History, HAR, University Paris Nanterre).
Attendees were also given a tour of the C2RMF laboratories as part of this symposium.
This conference opened doors to various collaborative prospects amongst international academics present who showed considerable interest in the research carried out on the Maltese islands.
