Benutzerspezifische Werkzeuge

Adriano Aymonino: Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique. The Lure of Classical Sculpture: 1500-1900: An Art history Classic Forty Years On

Taste and the Antique. The Lure of Classical Sculpture: 1500-1900, published by Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny in 1981, has become an art history classic that has shaped the field’s direction over four decades, influencing both academic research and curatorial practices. The seminar discusses a new revised and expanded three-volume edition published in December 2024, featuring numerous newly commissioned photographs. The new edition substantially updates the scholarship with research from recent decades, while broadening the exploration of these works’ reception and influence, from Renaissance collectors to contemporary artists. It particularly examines how classical statues influenced European imagery beyond direct replication, including:

• Their adaptation across diverse media
• Their impact on art and architectural theory and pedagogy
• Their influence on anatomical study and proportional theory
• Their role in Modernist culture and modern / Postmodern popular culture
• Their enduring presence in contemporary imagery and conceptions of the human body

The seminar will illustrate the reception of Taste and the Antique over the last four decades, discuss the new features compared to the first edition, and assess the current state of research as well as future research perspectives. 

Dr. Adriano Aymonino is Director of the MA Art Market, Provenance and the History of Collecting, University of Buckingham. His publications include Drawn from the Antique (Sir John Soane’s Museum, 2015); Enlightened Eclecticism (Yale University Press, 2021 – winner of the 2022 William MB Berger Prize for British Art History) and a revised and updated edition of Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny’s Taste and the Antique (Brepols, 3 vols, 2024, with Eloisa Dodero). He is currently working on a critical edition of Robert and James Adam's Grand Tour correspondence (Sir John Soane’s Museum, 2025), and on new book, Paper Marbles: Pier Leone Ghezzi’s “Studio di Molte Pietre”, 1726 (MIT Press 2026). He is a member of the advisory councils of the Museo del Bargello in Florence, and of the Attingham Trust.  

Teilnahme am Lektüreseminar nur nach Anmeldung: seminar@zikg.eu.
Das Seminar findet in englischer Sprache statt.