Talks & Conversations

Middle Atlantic Symposium

56th Annual Sessions

Drew Lynch presents at the Middle Atlantic Symposium in the History of Art, March 2025

Since 1971 the National Gallery’s Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts has partnered with the department of art history and archaeology at the University of Maryland to present this annual symposium. The event brings together museum and academic communities and provides a platform for the latest research from graduate students in our region. 

Read the talk abstracts.

Morning session

-

Welcome by Peter M. Lukehart, The Center, National Gallery of Art
Moderated by Tess Korobkin, University of Maryland

Chase Helein, American University 
“Cupid’s Palace: Giulio Romano’s Sala di Psiche Frescoes and the Palazzo Te as Courtly Sensorium”
Introduced by Kim Butler Wingfield

Flavia Barbarini, Temple University 
“The Primacy of Disegno and the Commodification of Drawings in 16th-Century Italy”
Introduced by Tracy Cooper

Ryan Foley, George Washington University 
“Longing for the Ghulāmān-e Farangī: European Youths in 17th-Century Safavid Painting”
Introduced by Mika Natif

Zoe Copeman, University of Maryland 
“Mis-Understanding the Anatomy of the Part: How One Image Rewrote the Mastectomy Procedure”
Introduced by Anthony Colantuono

Afternoon session

-

Welcome and moderated by Kaira M. Cabañas, The Center, National Gallery of Art

Christine Kim Korkmaz, Johns Hopkins University
“A Victory in Silver: Architectural Representation and Imperial Symbolism Under Abdülhamid II (r. 1876–1909)”
Introduced by Ünver Rüstem

Weixin Zhou, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
“Rebuilding the City, Building Alternatives: Ideals, Tensions, and Politics in André Lurçat’s Reconstruction of Maubeuge”
Introduced by Eduardo de Jesús Douglas

Elnaz Latifpour, University of Virginia 
“Exceptions and Expectations: Pictorial Carpets and the Question of Authenticity in Southern Iranian Weaving”
Introduced by Amanda Phillips

Emily Shoyer, Bryn Mawr College 
“Isabel Katjavivi’s They Tried to Bury Us (2018) and the Environmental Impacts of German Colonialism in Namibia” 
Introduced by Lisa Saltzman

Related event

On the Past and Future of Indian Ocean Art History

Nancy Um, The Getty Research Institute

The symposium begins at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, March 6, at the University of Maryland, College Park, with the George Levitine Lecture delivered by Nancy Um, associate director for research and knowledge creation at the Getty Research Institute. The lecture is open to the public and organized by the University of Maryland.

Learn more

You may also like

In a camp, two soldiers wearing blue uniforms are lost in thought as they listen to a military band playing music in the background in this vertical painting. Their uniforms consist of midnight-blue jackets, stone-blue pants, and flat-topped, brimmed hats. Brass buttons line the open fronts of their jackets, and a gold-colored emblem is affixed to the tops of their caps. One soldier, at the center of the painting, stands facing our left in profile with one hand on his hip. Another, to our right, sits in front of a tent, also looking to our left. The seated soldier’s knees are spread wide. One hand rests on at least two pieces of paper on his thigh, and he rests his chin in the other hand, also propped on his thigh. A low, triangular tent, about waist-high, is pitched to the left of the standing solider. The inside is dark but closer inspection reveals the bottom of one boot, presumably belonging to a solider lying down inside. At the lower left of the painting, gray smoke drifts up from a pot on a campfire. A knapsack and a pewter plate holding waffle-like hardtack are laid near the tent. A few branches cover the dirt ground to our right. A tan cloth draped over an arbor-like structure of sticks forms a partition between the two soldiers and the rest of the camp, dividing the composition. Rows of tents extend into the distance. A band of soldiers plays music in the distance, light glinting off their gold horn instruments. A row of tents is visible in the deep distance, perhaps across a body of water. The horizon line comes about two-thirds of the way up the composition, and puffy white clouds drift across the pale blue sky above.

Talks & Conversations:  The Art of Looking: Winslow Homer, Home, Sweet Home

–
Registration Required
A woman plays an upright piano as two boys play checkers at a table in this horizontal painting. The scene is loosely painted with areas of flat color and pattern. The people have pale, peachy skin and dark brown hair. Their facial features are painted with dots or short strokes of black. The piano is against the wall to our left. The woman wears a short-sleeved, lemon-yellow dress with a long skirt. A music book is propped on the music stand, and loosely painted objects line the top of the instrument. The wall behind the piano is patterned with white and pale yellow flowers under and around arches against a cranberry-red background. The table where the boys play is in the middle of the room. The players sit in wooden chairs and wear black and white striped jackets with white collars. The boy to our right looks at the board while resting his left cheek, closer to us, in his hand. The other boy looks on with his arms on the table in front of him. The checkerboard sits on a red and white striped cloth, which has lines of black dots in the white strips. Beneath the table is a floral rug with blue and black flowers against a red background. The border is painted loosely with leafy shapes against bright white. Beneath the area rug the floor or another carpet is garnet red with a diamond-shaped grid painted in orange. A petal-pink, upholstered chair sits in front of a tall wardrobe in the back corner of the room. A picture with two violins against a blue background hangs on the side of the furniture to our right. A chest of drawers next to the wardrobe holds a few bowls or objects and a white statue, about half human height. The statue is of a person standing with one knee bent in front of the other, one elbow tucked by the side with that hand held to the chest, and the other bent elbow raised overhead. Pictures hang on the wall around the statue, and the wallpaper there is ivory white with a dark yellow pattern. The artist signed the work in the lower right corner, “Henri Matisse.”

Talks & Conversations:  The Art of Looking: Henri Matisse, Pianist and Checker Players

–
Registration Required
This painting shows a woman sitting with her body turned to the right, her hands clasped around her knees and her head tilted up to the ceiling. Her eyes are closed, and her long, wavy hair flows over her shoulders and down her back. She has pale skin, and her face is illuminated by dramatic lighting, highlighting her round cheeks and small nose. She is wearing a white blouse with ruffled sleeves that drapes off of her right shoulder, exposing her neck, sternum, and part of her shoulder. Over this shirt she seems to be wearing a draped purple garment with a yellow border that covers her other shoulder and her legs. The background is dark.

Talks & Conversations:  The Art of Looking: Artemisia Gentileschi, Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy 

–
Registration Required