Winckelmann and His Passionate Followers: Queer Archaeology, Egyptology and the History of Arts 1750 2018
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Winckelmann and His Passionate Followers:
Queer Archaeology, Egyptology and the History
of Arts 1750 – 2018
Conference marking the 250 anniversary of the death of Johann Joachim Winckelmann
(9 December 1717 – 8 June 1768)
Organisers:
Museum August Kestner, Hannover / Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum, Hildesheim
In collaboration with:
Egyptology – The Leiden University Institute for Area Studies (LIAS)
Financed by:
Kunst- und Kulturstiftung Hannover
Dates: 27 June (arrival) to 1 July 2018 (departure)
Johann Joachim Winckelmann’s extraordinary importance for the history of ideas as
the founder of classical archaeology and modern art history is being observed at home
and abroad to mark the anniversaries occurring in 2017 and 2018 with a number
of exhibitions (for example in Weimar, Berlin, Wörlitz, Stendal, Chiasso and Naples),
conferences as well as numerous publications (see below).
The “Winckelmann and His Passionate Followers” conference wishes take up the
discussion initiated by several recent publications in addition to the “Winckelmann
– The Divine Sex” exhibition at the Schwules Museum, Berlin (2017) concerning
Winckelmann’s never concealed homosexuality by examining it as an constitutive
element of his interpretation of ancient art and culture. With Winckelmann, (male)
beauty became a subject of scholarship. Besides such biographical aspects, the
question will be posed concerning the extent to which Winckelmann’s influence led to
an opening up of the humanities and cultural studies to a ‘queer’ reading of antiquity,
generating a picture of ideal masculinity that was both instructive and desirable. Queer
and gender studies offer rewarding approaches. The central theme of the conference
concerns the new possibilities offered by archaeology in particular to an international
network of scholars with a view to unfolding a penetrating discourse over and above
traditional gender roles and expanding the erotological practice to encompass the
study of ancient history. Focus is placed on the eroticism of desire as an impulse for
research, for collecting and for artistic as well as literary production. In the process,
Winckelmann’s contemporaries as well as his ‘passionate followers’ to the present
day will be discussed, these members of the cultural elite encompassing
archaeologists and patrons, collectors, literary figures and artists, some of whom
openly lived out their homosexual inclinations, who saw the potential for a fresh
aesthetic and societal start in the appropriation of classical (Greek) antiquity.
Extending the conference’s thematic timeframe to Winckelmann’s survival in the
present day seems valuable insofar as the reception of this exceptional scholar was
initially overlaid by the Romantic movement shortly after the publication of Goethe’s
Winckelmann and his Century in 1805, then by the new excavation findings from
QUEER ARCHAEOLOGY CALL FOR PAPERS ENGLISH Greece, Italy and Egypt in particular and finally the increasingly positivistic, universal- historical orientation of the disciplines of archaeology and art history. After Carl Justi’s Winckelmann biography from 1866, it was only in the 1970s and 1980s that (West) German socio-historical research and literary studies again took up a concrete position on Winckelmann’s homosexuality. There had long been widely held reservations concerning the inclusion of gender-related research approaches in the scholarly discourse along the lines of Egon Friedell’s blatantly homophobic 1936 derivation of Neoclassicism from the “sexual perversion of a provincial German antiquarian”. The Museum August Kestner, Hannover, is not only suited to serve as the conference’s main venue with its unique multifaceted collection of Egyptian, classical and applied art objects but also through the person of its founder, the collector August Kestner (1777–1853). A resident of Rome for 36 years, he was truly one of Winckelmann’s “passionate followers”. The second prominent conference venue is the Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum, Hildesheim, with its internationally renowned Egyptian collection. The following high-profile key note speakers have already confirmed their participation: Prof. Dr. Whitney Davis (Department of History of Art, University of California at Berkeley / USA), Dr. Adelheid Müller (Institut für Klassische Archäologie, Freie Universität Berlin / GERMANY) und Prof. Robert Deam Tobin (Henry J. Leir Chair in Foreign Languages, Literature and Culture, Clark University, Worcester / USA). Possible sections for the conference programme: **The queer view of history and art **Homosexuality/homosexualities in ancient civilisations and its survival **Archaeology and erotology as cultural practice **Agents of taste: Winckelmann’s contemporaries **The institutionalisation of archaeology, museumization of antiquity **Queer Readings: Winckelmann’s survival in the visual arts and literature **LGBT scholars in classical and art history **Gay art history/histories? Biographies of Winckelmann to the present
QUEER ARCHAEOLOGY CALL FOR PAPERS ENGLISH
We invite papers for this interdisciplinary international conference ranging from
general overriding theoretical themes to case studies concerning striking personalities.
The call for papers is directed at scholars from all disciplines: classical archaeology,
Egyptology, art history and visual culture, gender studies, history and their related
branches (social history, media history etc., comparative literature).
Contributions and submissions in English, German and French are possible. The
lectures should not be longer than 20 minutes (plus 10 minutes discussion). A printed
publication of all conference paper is planned for 2019. Please email an abstract of
your topic suggestion (maximum 1000 characters) in addition to a brief CV by 28 May
2018 at the latest to:
organisation@queer-archaeology.de
(Dr. Wolfgang Cortjaens)
Participants who have been invited based on their abstracts will receive travel costs
(economy), hotel for four nights as well as an expense allowance. The multifaceted
cultural programme in Hannover and Hildesheim will provide for a relaxed framework
for discussions.
We are looking forward to you submission and will inform you as soon as possible if
we can include it in our conference programme. In case of questions, please do not
hesitate to contact the organiser.
ORGANISATION
Dr. Wolfgang Cortjaens
cortjaens@queer-archaeology.de
MUSEUM AUGUST KESTNER ROEMER- UND PELIZAEUS-MUSEUM
Prof. Dr. Thomas Schwark (director) Prof. Dr. Regine Schulz (director)
Dr. Christian E. Loeben (Egyptology) Dr. Christian Bayer (Egyptology)QUEER ARCHAEOLOGY CALL FOR PAPERS ENGLISH
PRELIMINARY PROGRAMME
Wednesday, 27 June 2018 Friday, 29/06/2018
Arrival
Museum August Kestner
Museum August Kestner
Trammplatz 3 09:00 Key Note Lecture IV
D – 30167 Hannover Prof. Dr. Whitney Davis (Department of
History of Art, University of California
from 16:00 Conference registration „Winckelmannn and Psychoanalysis “
18:30 Key Note Lecture I 10:00 Presentations (with coffee break)
Public lecture (in German):
Prof. Robert Deam Tobin (Henry J. Leir Chair 13:00 Joint lunch
in Foreign Languages, Literature and
Culture, Clark University, Worcester / USA): 14:00 Presentations (with coffee break)
“…”
18:00 Museum closing
Afterwards
(ca 20:00) Reception in museum with snacks 19:30 Staatsoper Hannover:
and drinks Opera “Aida” (G. Verdi)
Thursday, 28 June 2018
Saturday, 30/06/2018
Museum August Kestner
from 08:00 Conference registration / coffee 09:00 Departure from Museum August Kestner
to Hildesheim
09:00 Key Note Lecture II
10:00 Concluding discussion in the Roemer- und
Pelizaeus-Museum
10:00 Presentations (with coffee break) 12:00 Visit to the museum and the new special
exhibition: “Ta-cheru – Eine Reise in das
13:00 Joint lunch Innere der Mumie”
14:00 Presentations (with coffee break) 14:00 Joint lunch
18:00 Coffee break 15:00 Walking tour through Hildesheim, Cathedral,
Dom-Museum, St. Michael’s Church
18:30
Key Note Lecture III
Public lecture (in German) 18:00 Individual dinner
Dr. Adelheid Müller (Institut für Klassische
Archäologie, Freie Universität 19:30 Theater für Niedersachsen, Hildesheim:
Berlin /Germany): “Jenseits der Heroen. Opera “Orpheus oder Die wunderbare
Gelehrte Arbeit an der Antike um 1800“ Beständigkeit der Liebe” (Ph. Telemann)
20:00 Joint visit to a typical Hannover pub for 22:30 Return trip to Hannover
drinks and dinner
Sunday, 01/07/2018
DepartureQUEER ARCHAEOLOGY CALL FOR PAPERS ENGLISH Bibliography (a selection in chronological order): Heinrich Detering. Das offene Geheimnis. Zur literarischen Produktiviät eines Tabus von Winckelmann bis zu Thomas Mann. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 1984 (Neuauflage 2013) Andreas Sternweiler. Die Lust der Götter. Homosexualität in der italienischen Kunst. Von Donatello zu Caravaggio. Verlag rosa winkel: Berlin, 1993 [zugl. Diss. FU Berlin, 1992] Alex Potts. Flesh and the Ideal. Winckelmann and the Origins of Art History, New Haven [u.a.]: Yale University Press, 1994 Markus Käfer. „Zu Winckelmanns ‚Homo-Imagination, Homosexualität, Homoerotik‘. Ein Literaturbericht“, in: Mitteilungen der Winckelmann-Gesellschaft, 59, 1996, S. 28-38 Whitney Davis. Replications: Archaeology, Art History, Psychoanalysis. Penn State University Press, 1996 Suzanne L. Marchand. Down from Olympus: Archaeology and Philhellenism in Germany, 1750– 1970 , Princeton, NJ [u.a.]: Princeton University Press, 1996 Wolfgang von Wangenheim. Der verworfene Stein. Winckelmanns Leben. Berlin: Verlag Matthes & Seitz, 2005 Michael Chaouli. „Laoco and the Hottentots“, in: The German Invention of Race, hrsg. v. Sara Eigen u. Mark Larrimore. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006, S. 23-31 Suzanne L. Marchand. German Orientalism in the Age of Empire. Religion, race, and scholarship. Washington, D.C.: German Historical Institute; New York: Cambridge University Press 2009. Whitney Davis. Queer Beauty. Sexuality and Aesthetics from Winckelmann to Freud and Beyond. Columbia University Press, 2010 Adelheid Müller. Sehnsucht nach Wissen. Friedrike Brun, Elisa von der Recke und die Altertumskunde um 1800. Berlin: Reimer Verlag, 2012 Molly Youngkin. British Women Writers and the Reception of Ancient Egypt 1840 – 1910. Palgrave Macmillan, 2016 Joachim Bartholomae (Hrsg.). Das Wunder Winckelmann. Ein Popstar im 18. Jahrhundert. Ein Lesebuch. Hamburg: Männerschwarm-Verlag, 2016 Thomas Schmidt. „Das Land der Griechen mit dem Körper suchend? Ein abgedunkeltes Kapitel der Winckelmann-Rezeption“, in: Franziska Bomski, Hellmut Th. Seemann, Thorsten Valk (Hrsg.). Die Erfindung des Klassischen. Winckelmann-Lektüren in Weimar. (Klassik Stiftung Weimar Jahrbuch 2017) Göttingen: Wallstein, 2017. S. 195-212 Winckelmann. Moderne Antike. Katalog zur Ausstellung im Neuen Museum Weimar (7.4. - 2.7.2017), hrsg. v. Wolfgang Holler, Elisabeth Décultot, Martin Dönike, Claudia Keller u.a. München: Hirmer, 2017 Winckelmann – Das göttliche Geschlecht. Auswahlkatalog zur Ausstellung im Schwulen Museum* Berlin (16.6. - 9.10. 2017), hrsg. v. Wolfgang Cortjaens im Auftrag des Schwulen Museums*. Mit Essays von Wolfgang Cortjaens, Guido Goerlitz und Robert Deam Tobin. Petersberg: Michael Imhof Verlag, 2017 Winckelmann-Handbuch. Leben – Werk – Wirkung. Hrsg. von Martin Disselkamp und Fausto Testa. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler Verlag, 2017 Friedrich-Wilhelm von Hase (Hrsg.). Die Kunst der Griechen mit der Seele suchend – Winckelmann in seiner Zeit. Mainz: wbg Philipp von Zabern, 2017
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