PROGRAMME

25 February

Martyna Łukasiewicz, National Museum in Poznan

museum presentation of 20 minutes followed by q & a and discussion

Challenges and Complexities of the European Painting Collection in the National Museum in Poznan
This presentation examines the historical factors that shaped the development of the European Paintings Collection at the National Museum in Poznań, while addressing the current challenges it faces. A key issue stems from insufficient documentation and inventory, particularly related to looted objects during World War II and post-war nationalization. These gaps have resulted in ongoing difficulties in verifying provenance and determining rightful ownership.
The case studies presented will illustrate the scale of provenance challenges, including missing or incomplete records, complex ownership claims, and efforts to restitute looted items. The analysis investigates the legal and political complexities surrounding Poland's demands for the restitution of cultural losses from the Second World War, and, more broadly, its pursuit of war reparations. This is contrasted with the issue of artworks from German state museums that are now housed in Polish collections. The paper further explores the broader context of national and transnational ownership disputes, revealing how political dynamics influence museum restitution processes and complicate resolution of collection disputes.

Martyna Łukasiewicz is an art historian and curator at the National Museum in Poznan. She is a PhD candidate in art history with a dissertation dedicated to 19th century Danish museology. Her research interests encompass the 19th-century European painting, museology, and the history of collecting. She curated the first exhibition of Vilhelm Hammershøi in Poland (2021/2022). She presented her research findings at various international conferences, including the University of Copenhagen, University of Oxford, Humboldt University of Berlin, and Un

iversity of Geneva. She is a member of CODART, the Association for Art History, the Association of Art Historians in Poland.

25 March

Kunst- and Wunderkammer workshop with presentations by Sylva Dobalova (Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences); James Clifton (Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation and Curator in Renaissance and Baroque Painting at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston), and Vera Keller (Norman H. Brown, Jr. Faculty Fellow, University of Oregon, to be confirmed).

three ten-minute presentations followed by q&a plus discussion

Portraits of Nature in the Rudolf II Collection in Prague
This brief lecture is derived from the project "Art for Display: Emperor
Rudolf II's Painting Collection in the Context of Collecting Practices
around 1600', which took place at the IAH CAS in Prague in 2020-2022 and is ongoing. As part of the research, the question was posited whether
Rudolf II's scientific interest in understanding the world of natural
phenomena was also reflected in his collection of paintings. There were
many paintings in his gallery in which more or less aestheticised
representations of nature played a prominent role. His Kunstkammer also
contained similar representations, however their purpose was rather
epistemic. The inventory of the Rudolphine Picture Gallery shows that
the paintings were not arranged according to any modern criteria.
However, two smaller rooms are an exception, containing mainly portraits
of noble ladies, various paintings of natural subjects and also
monsters. Although the arrangement in these rooms may at first glance
appear to be a random assortment, the lecture will explore whether there
is any discernible reason for their selection.
Sylva Dobalová, PhD, is a researcher at the Institute of Art History of
the Czech Academy of Sciences and managing editor of the journal Studia Rudolphina. Her research focuses on Rudolphine art and the Kunstkammer from the point of view of the representation of nature, and she is also interested in the leisure time and gardens of the Habsburgs. She has cooperated with the National Gallery in Prague on several projects, most recently on the exhibition „From Michelangelo to Callot: The Art of Manneristic Printmaking“ (2024). She was one of the editors of the book Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria: A Second-Born Son in Renaissance Europe (VOEAW Vienna, 2021).

“Welcome to the World of glamorous woods!” European Collections of Wood Samples from Wunderkammern to Xylaria
This paper examines the practice and theory of collecting wood samples—both domestic and foreign—in early-modern Europe, considering their varying sources and means of circulation; functions for the collector; places within collections, and modes of display. From Wunderkammern like those of Ole Worm in Copenhagen and Ferdinando Cospi in Bologna, increasingly systematized xylaria (xylothèques, Holzbibliotheken) like those of Carl Schildbach in Kassel and Johann Heinrich Linck the younger in Waldenburg developed in the late 18th century. Around this time, Ludewig Heinrich Schwikkard’s Entwurf zur Anlage einer Holzarten-Sammlung (1800) proposed an ideal xylarium, and the Icones Lignorum (1773ff) of Jan Christiaan Sepp and Martinus Houttuyn provided a virtual collection of hand-colored engravings.
James Clifton, PhD, has been Director of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation and Curator in Renaissance and Baroque Painting at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston since 1994. He has published extensively on early-modern European painting, printmaking, and collecting, especially addressing topics in self-representation, religion, and the intersection of art, science, and nature.