2024 Trendall - Rae Alexander Lecture

When Lorenzo de’ Medici, known as the Magnificent, died in Florence in 1492, his most valuable possession was an ancient cameo. It had been acquired from the Pope in Rome, and it was worth an astronomical 10 000 gold florins – five times more than the next most valuable artworks. Now known as the Farnese Cup and dated to the 2^nd or 1^st century BCE, the cameo inspired many Florentine artists, including most notably Sandro Botticelli, a Medici favourite. This lecture begins from Botticelli’s engagement with the Farnese Cup, including in his most famous allegories, the Birth of Venus and the Primavera. Yet the Cup had travelled widely before it reached Florence, and at least one artist in what is now Iran and Afghanistan was also inspired by it – a reminder that premodern Eurasia was much more connected than we sometimes assume, and that a taste for Antiquity was widely shared.

Professor Anne Dunlop FAHA holds the Herald Chair of Fine Arts at the University of Melbourne. She is a specialist of Italian and European art between 1250 and1550, and the author or editor of six books and catalogues, including The Matter of Art (2014), Andrea del Castagno and the Limits of Painting (2015), and Antipodean Early Modern (2018). Among her most recent honours are an appointment as Krautheimer Guest Professor at the Bibliotheca Hertziana-Max Planck Institute for Art History in Rome (2022), and at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University (2022-23).

Details

Date: Thursday 21st November 2024, 6pm
Venue: Village Roadshow Theatrette (via Entry 3 on La Trobe St)
State Library of Victoria
328 Swanston St, Melbourne 3000

Tickets: $30 in person, $10 online

Speakers:Professor Anne Dunlop FAHA
Herald Chair of Fine Arts, University of Melbourne