Lecture & Lunch: “Canvases of Devotion: The Resplendent Art and Architecture of Northern Italy" with Dr. Isabelle Frank and Professor Puay-peng Ho at the Shanghai Fraternity Association

This lecture is presented in conjunction with the Museum Society’s upcoming trip, “Canvases of Devotion: The Resplendent Art and Architecture of Northern Italy”. Members and friends are welcome to attend.

Lecture 1: Devotion in Renaissance Art of Northern Italy (by Dr. Isabelle Frank)

This talk will present an overview of the main northern Italian painters to be encountered on the tour who were associated with such artistic centres as Bologna, Milan, Parma, Modena, Bergamo. In the 15th century such artists were local, reflecting the distinctive style of their regions. In the 16th century the influence of three major masters, Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo, spread to these areas as well and one sees some artists imitating their style. However, northern Italian artists remained distinctive in their use of colour and light, inspired by the Venetian school of painting. Indeed, there was a famous rivalry between the so-called ‘disegno’ or composition of Florentine artists and the ‘colorire’ or colour of the northern painters.

Speaker

Dr. Isabelle Frank is an independent curator in Hong Kong. After six years as the founding director of the Indra and Harry Banga Gallery, City University of Hong Kong (2016 to 2022), she continued as consulting curator until 2024. Over this period, she mounted exhibitions combining art and technology and bridging Western and Asian cultures. She has collaborated with such international institutions as the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, the Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan, Latvian National Museum of Art. An art historian by training (with a Ph.D. from Harvard University), she has published on Italian Renaissance art and decorative art (The Theory of Decorative Art 1750-1940, Yale University Press, 2000), and has edited many catalogues for the Banga Gallery, most recently Amber: Baltic Gold (2022) and A Passion for Silk: The Road from China to Europe (City University of Hong Kong, 2024).

Lecture 2: Tales of three cities: continuity and innovation of historic architecture of Ravenna, Parma and Bergamo (by Professor Puay-peng Ho)

Western architectural history is born in Italy, and many minor cities in northern Italy bear witness to the continuity and innovation of architectural styles and expressions which began in major Italian centres of wealth, devotion, and power. These smaller regional cities, such as the three that will be highlighted in this lecture, contain buildings that derived from main architectural style with regional variations. They are delightfully innovative, particular in their integration within the tight urban space and the fusion of arts and decorations.

As a capital city during the 5th to 7th centuries of various states, Ravenna has managed to preserve many monuments from the Byzantine period which demonstrate the continuity of Eastern tradition of brick constructions, centralized plan with dome roof, and narrative mosaic works. The interior follows the Christian iconography seen in buildings in Constantinople and other minor Asian cities. The octagonal plan of Neon Baptistry continues the traditional form of baptistry started in Rome in the 4th century and fully decorated internally with mosaics. Walking in the city of Ravenna, one cannot help but feel the warm spirit of the place surrounded by brown-brick structures with imaginative interiors. As a city oscillating between many controlling powers in the medieval period, Parma is surprisingly spacious and contains some grandeur buildings, such as the cathedral and the baptistry. The octagonal baptistry follows the plan form of early baptistry typology but with innovative design features such as the tall volume, the use of pink Verona marble and rich painting decoration inside. Bergamo, with its upper and lower cities, develops its urban fabric and architecture over many centuries since the medieval time. Such ‘organic’ growth resulted in many unplanned urban spaces and unconventional building forms. The Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore is a prime example of additive growth starting with a Greek cross plan with semicircular apses, porches, and loggia added over a long period of time, and the interior fresco from the 17th century Baroque period. The basilica we see today is nevertheless a holistic religious structure exuding spirituality with fine didactic details.

This lecture will illustrate the flow of Western architectural history through the examination of the architecture of these three cities, and to demonstrate the continuum of urban, architectural and social forms with innovations through the past ages.

Speaker

Profession Ho Puay Peng is the UNESCO Chair on Architectural Heritage Conservation & Management in Asia and is a Professor of the Department of Architecture at the National University of Singapore (NUS) School of Design and Environment. Prior to joining NUS, Prof Ho was Professor of Architecture and served as Director of School of Architecture and University Dean of Students at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Professor Ho received the Master of Art in Architectural Studies (First Class Honours) and Diploma of Architecture from the University of Edinburgh, and practiced architecture in Edinburgh and in Singapore. Subsequently, Prof Ho took up PhD research at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.