The Sculpture and its Frame: Functions of the Pedestal in both the Display and the Reception of the Sculpture in the 17th Century
(2016) Rahmen – Frames — Location: Hambourg, Warburg Haus (29.April.2016)
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- Abstract
- Although the issue of the frame and of the representation limits was subject to numerous studies in the past decades, essentially focused on painting, we cannot but notice that the issue of the pedestal as a “frame” of the sculpture is yet to be written. Now, during the early-modern period, this "peripheral" element insures the stability of the work, protects and, furthermore, elevates it to make it visible and enhance it. Like a frame, the pedestal singles out the carved representation and thus acquires a real instituting worth. Fulfilling the parergon role, the base is also what designates the work, it situates it in the space while ensuring the transition between the carved object and its environment. This essential limit or threshold of the sculpture takes a new turn during the Baroque era, when the sculpted figure erupts in the surrounding space, going beyond its integral plinth. Therefore, issues of support transgressions, limits of the work and interactions between the pedestal, the representation and the environment arise with more insistence and interest. Taking these issues as starting points and, moreover, building on a corpus of sculptures made by artists from the Southern Netherlands in the 17th century, this paper intends to study different types of relations between the pedestal, the sculpted figure and the surrounding space to which the work relates, and to consider the context of representation as well as the impact of this implementation on the work reception. Eventually, it will be more particularly a matter of understanding the role and the degree of involvement of the pedestal in these interactions and, furthermore, to identify these factors that hold sway over this framework system of the sculpture.
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Damien, M. (2016). The Sculpture and its Frame: Functions of the Pedestal in both the Display and the Reception of the Sculpture in the 17th Century. Rahmen – Frames, Hambourg, Warburg Haus. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/58770