Upcoming Lectures from the Society of Architectural Historians
The following is a listing of the Spring 2009 events sponsored by the Society of Architectural Historians New York Metropolitan Chapter.
“From Temple to Mosque: Mobile Masons and Migrant Forms in Twelfth-century Afghanistan and India”
Lecture by Finbarr Barry Flood, Associate Professor
Department of Art History and the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
Tuesday March 3, 2009 at 6:30 pm
NYU Silver Center (100 Washington Square East) room 300
In the late twelfth century, the sultans of Ghur, a remote mountainous region of central Afghanistan, embarked on a rapid campaign of territorial expansion. Within just over a decade, the conquests of the Ghurid sultans brought large areas of north India under the political control of those who professed the faith of Islam for the first time. In the wake of the conquest, a number of congregational mosques were established in major Indian urban centers. In contrast to the vaulted brick forms favored in eastern Iran and Afghanistan, these Indian mosques were constructed from stone using the standard trabeate idiom of north Indian architecture. In addition, they were built of reused stones garnered from earlier structures, including temples. In modern scholarship, the reuse of carved “Hindu” stones in these early Indian mosques has been read as an act of rejection rather than reception, reflecting a widespread assumption that temple and mosque represent two extremes of an antipa thetic and oppositional cultural history. Challenging this view, my lecture will present neglected evidence for both the reception of Indic architectonic forms and the presence of north Indian stone masons in contemporary Afghanistan. The presence of Indic forms in and the work of Hindu and Jain masons on monuments constructed for Muslim patrons in the Afghan heartlands of the sultanate suggest that the reuse of richly-carved stones in the Ghurid mosques of India should be viewed in a wider, transregional, frame. Highlighting transcultural dimensions of architectural reception and aesthetic taste during a “global” moment in South Asian history, the westward migration of Indic architectural forms, idioms, and masons reminds us that while locally situated, none of these are necessarily rooted.
“Villas, agriculture, and reform in late sixteenth-century Bologna”
Lecture by Nadja Aksamija, Assistant Professor, Wesleyan University
Thursday March 26, 2009 at 6 :30 pm
NYU Silver Center (100 Washington Square East) room 301
Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti’s all-encompassing project of religious reform
in late sixteenth-century Bologna focused to a great extent on the
restructuring and solidification of ecclesiastical power in the
countryside. A virtual wilderness plagued by crime, famine, and poverty,
the Bolognese ‘contado’ required both practical and spiritual assistance
in the period. In this context, the existing and new villas of the
Bolognese nobility, in particular those of the ecclesiasts, came to serve
as indispensable outposts for translating Paleotti’s written guidelines
into practice. Here, peasants toiling on the land could be instructed
about the devotional significance of their agricultural work, while villa
owners could seek their own spiritual rewards by turning their estates
into sites of religious otium .
“The Enchanted Palace: Philibert de l’Orme’s Château d’Anet”
Lecture by Richard A. Etlin, Distinguished University Professor,
School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, University of Maryland
Wednesday April 22, 2009
Venue and abstract to follow soon.