Rienzi Symposium: A Sense of Proportion: Architect-Designed Objects, 16501950

Rienzi Center for European  Decorative Arts, MFAH presents the Rienzi Symposium: A Sense of Proportion: Architect-Designed Objects, 1650–1950.

Rienzi, the house museum for European decorative arts of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, presents its biennial symposium to focus on objects that are the embodiments or extensions of an architect’s ideas or aesthetic.

Scholars discuss objects made for particular spaces, objects used to explore new design sources, and objects intended to be part of an integrated space.

Keynote Address: Saturday, September 24, 10 a.m.
Presented by Adriano Aymonino, coordinator of undergraduate programs, department of art history, University of Buckingham

Adriano Aymonino’s main academic interest is the reception of the classical tradition in the Early Modern period, with a particular focus on Britain. He is working on a revised edition of Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny’s Taste and the Antique, as well as on a project tracing the impact of antiquarian publications on 17th- and 18th-century European art and architecture. Aymonino obtained his PhD at the University of Venice and has held postdoctoral fellowships at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and at the Getty Research Institute.

Schedule

• 10 a.m. Welcome, Christine Gervais, director, Rienzi, and curator, decorative arts
• 10:15 a.m. Keynote Lecture “Robert Adam (1728–1792) and the Sources of the ‘True Style of Antique Decoration,’” Adriano Aymonino, professor, University of Buckingham
• 11:30 a.m. Coffee break
• 12 noon–12:20 p.m. “Baroque Furnishings: Aesthetics and Design in Giacomo Amato’s Graphic Oeuvre (1643–1732),” Sabina de Cavi, professor, University of Córdoba
• 12:25–12:45 p.m. “Marvelous Volumes: Artistry of the 18th-Century British Designer’s Manuscript,” Elizabeth Deans, assistant director, Smithsonian-George Mason University
• 12:45–1:45 p.m. Lunch break
• 1:50–2:10 p.m. “Jean-Démosthène Dugourc’s 1787 Model for a Jewel Cabinet and the Stakes of Royal Furniture Design in Pre-Revolutionary France,” Iris Moon, visiting assistant professor, Pratt Institute
• 2:15–2:35 p.m. “The Furniture Design Legacy of Karl Friedrich Schinkel,” Serena Newmark, doctoral student and English-language children’s programs assistant, Museum August Kestner
• 2:35–3 p.m. Coffee break
• 3:05–3:25 p.m. “The Quality of Calmness and Clarity: Heinrich Tessenow’s Search for Objectivity in the Deisgn of Furniture and Household Goods,” Jurjen Zeinstra, doctoral student and associate professor, University of Technology
• 3:30–3:50 p.m. “Transitional Moments: Architectural Hardware, Marcel Breuer, and the Bauhaus in America,” Robert Wiesenberger, doctoral student and curatorial fellow, Harvard Art Museums
• 3:55 p.m. Closing remarks, Christine Gervais

Pictured: Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory, Dinner Plate from the “Empress Catherine” Service, 1778, soft-paste porcelain, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Rienzi Collection, Museum purchase funded by the Rienzi Society.