EARLY CAREER CONFERENCE

Between the 14th and 17th centuries, the depiction of war became a central theme in the visual arts. The genesis of these works presented a variety of challenges for the artists. At the same time, these works have a specific visual rhetoric, impact and function within their historical context. This raises methodological questions about how to approach war and violence in art history.

How did artists accomplish the task of translating warlike events into pictorial space? What dynamics and potentials arose in the process? How were ancient heritage and political iconography adopted and developed? In what ways were the works instrumentalized and used for propaganda purposes? Which art historical approaches are productive when dealing with works of this kind?

Programme

Venue: Warburg-Haus, Heilwigstraße 116, 20249 Hamburg

Thursday, 11 December 2025

10:00 am	Registration and Coffee
10:30 am	Opening Remarks: Svenja Hasche, Ruben Wagner (Hamburg)
11:00 am	Francesca Borgo (Rome): »(Five) Methods for an Art History of War«
12:00 am	Lunch break
	Section I: Staging War, Chair: Gerd Micheluzzi (Hamburg)
2:00 pm	Darius Wakilzadeh (Hamburg): »Krieg spielen? Jacques Callots Fächer und die Ästhetisierung von Gewalt im Florenz Cosimos II.«
2:45 pm	Adrian Mauser (Cologne): »Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! Außergewöhnliche Gewaltikonographie in propagandistischen Darstellungen des Achtzigjährigen Krieges«
03:30 pm	Coffee break
	Section II: Potentials of War Imagery, Chair: Ruben Wagner (Hamburg)
04:00 pm	Sara Benninga (Tel Aviv): »Engraving Conflict: From Hogenberg’s News Broadsheet to Callot’s Theatrical Spectacle«
05:00 pm	Visit of the Kupferstichkabinett at the Hamburger Kunsthalle: Jenny Sophie Emanuel (Hamburg): »Die Kriegsruine als anklagende Landschaft: Augustin Coppens und Richard van Orleys Perspectives des ruines de la ville de Bruxelles«

Friday, 12 December 2025

	Section III: War without Battle?, Chair: Ivo Raband (Hamburg)
09:00 am	Jackie Streker (Philadelphia): »Placemaking/Pacemaking: Sixteenth Century Monumental Battle Prints (Nicolaus Meldemann and Hans Sebald Beham’s Siege of Vienna, and Hans Mielich’s The Camp before Ingolstadt)«
09:45 am	Svenja Hasche (Hamburg): »Virtus et potentia. Tizians Adlocutio des Marchese del Vasto und Gewaltentzug im Bild«
10:30 am	Coffee break
	Section IV: Battlefields as Imaginary Spaces, Chair: Ruben Wagner (Hamburg)
11:00 am	Maximilian Geiger (Wuppertal): »Rubens’ Visualisierung des Krieges: Zur Amazonenschlacht von 1617/1618 und Pikturalisierung von Gewalt«
11:45 am	Caroline Stobbe (Hamburg): »Ziehen, Hebeln, Drehen: Kräfte und Mechaniken in Martino Rotas Allegorien zur Seeschlacht von Lepanto«
12:30 pm	Lunch break
	Section V: Destruction between Order and Chaos, Chair: Svenja Hasche (Hamburg)
02:30 pm	Ruben Wagner (Hamburg): »Zwischen Leben und Tod oszillierende Krieger: Eine phantastische Schlachtenzeichnung Leonardos«
03:15 pm	Alfie Robinson (Rome): »Mannerism, Naturalism and War Loot in Theodore de Bry’s America Series«
04:00 pm	Coffee break
04:30 pm	Final Discussion, Chair: Frank Fehrenbach (Hamburg)
05:30 pm	End of the Conference

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