Colloque : Science, Nature and Art in the Time of the Baroque.

Johannes Blaeu, Observatoire de Tycho Brahe, 1667, gravure sur cuivre mise en couleurs, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Type : Colloque.
Date : Du 09 au 11 novembre 2015.
Lieu : Séville (Focus-Abengoa Foundation).
Sous la direction de : Antonio-Miguel Bernal Rodríguez, University of Seville. 

With the birth of the “new science” in the wake of Bacon, the theories on the world and nature ceased being essentially poetic –as they were considered in the long inherited mediaeval tradition– and began to be felt as essentially scientific. Modern science and the development of the artistic culture of the Baroque came hand in hand and became the cornerstones of the history of European culture. In this modern science, the discovery of the foundations of nature led to questions on the relationship between people and the natural environment, which went beyond living nature to open up new avenues to the theories of light and colour, space and time, as expressed in the creative brilliance of Velázquez in the gardens of Villa Medicis. The “vision” of nature took on a variety of projections through the art of the Baroque. The conception of the natural world under the impetus of the 17th and 18th century scientists became increasingly removed from the previous allegories and symbolism. The landscape as an expressive medium emerged in pure form as man interacted with nature. Recalling among others, André Mollet in his treatise Le Jardin de Plaisir (1651), from the gardens of delights of the 16th century to the gardens of love of the 17th century, natural history experienced a qualitative leap in the representation of nature as art and in art under the guise of collecting and as visual culture. This art and science in the time of the Baroque were not antagonistic and instead were interrelated in the construction of a new pictorial time and space where nature became viewed even more intensely less as a divine hieroglyphic and more as visual culture, a faithful reflection of the influence of science on art.

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Programme :

Lundi 9 novembre 

Presentation 20:00 h. Inaugural Conference: Poussin’s Reflections on Man, Nature and Art Keith Christiansen, Metropolitan Museum of New York.

Mardi 10 novembre

10:00 h. Jesuits in Baroque culture: art, education, science Guillermo Rodríguez Izquierdo SJ., Loyola University Andalucia.

11:00 h. Natural history and visual culture in the seventeenth century José Ramón Marcaida, University of Cambridge.

12:00 h. Break.

12:30 h. Science, the sciences and Baroque Javier Viar, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum.

17:00 h. Symbolic Baroque Ornithology: birds in books of emblems and prints of the 17th century José Julio García Arranz, University of Extremadura.

18:00 h. 17th century Italy: the breeze through the leaves Manuela Mena, Prado National Museum.

19:00 h. Organ concert leaded by José Enrique Ayarra Jarne, Focus-Abengoa Foundation organist, at Hospital de los Venerables Church.

Mercredi 11 novembre

10:00 h. Still life: the vanities in the work of Valdés Leal Enrique Valdivieso, University of Seville.

11:00 h. Velázquez and nature Guillaume Kienzt, Louvre Museum.

12:00 h. Round table About landscape Presenter: Juan Fernández Lacomba Participants: Javier Viar, José Ramón Marcaida and Guillaume Kienzt.

13:30 h. Closure.

15:30 h. Campus visit to Focus-Abengoa Sanlúcar la Mayor Landscapes of Guadiamar Fernando Amores and Juan Fernández Lacomba.