Update: After thorough consideration, the organising and scientific committees of the symposium have decided that the symposium will not take place live in Bruges. It will be changed to a digital symposium instead.

‘Alla Maniera’: Technical art history and the meaning of style in 15th to 17th century painting

Ever since 15th and early 16th century writers used the word maniera to describe an artist’s personal style, the term has known many ambivalent meanings. Alla maniera di … implied the deliberate and eclectic imitation of someone else’s style (for example that of Raphael or Michelangelo) and also offered the possibility that an artist had more than one maniera at his or her disposal.

The symposium focusses on how technical research can provide additional insights or challenges concerning the style of an individual painter, a workshop or a group of painters. Stylistic similarities might indicate cultural, social, geographical or chronological connections in paintings, drawings, prints, applied arts, etc. as well as across artistic media.

The language of the symposium is English. The papers will be published by Peeters Publishers.