James Bloom, Visiting Professor at the University of Antwerp

From 12 through 20 December, James Bloom (Centre College, Louisville, Kentucky (USA)) is affiliated with the Department of History at the University of Antwerp as a Visiting Professor. He will primarily be active in lessons on the socio-economic history of the Middle Ages. Bloom also works on the Early Modern Period. This connection makes his visit also interesting for everyone who is engaged in visual representation, material culture and cultural history of the 16th and 17th Centuries.

James Bloom earned his Bachelor of Arts in Art History and English Literature from Dartmouth College and a Masters and Ph.D. in Art History from Duke University.

Selected list of publications:

The Role of Painters Before the Rise of Painting in The Artist in the Early Modern Netherlands, Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 59 (2008).
Why Painting? in Neil De Marchi and Hans van Miegroet, eds., Mapping Markets for Paintings in Early Modern Europe, 1450-1750 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2006), pp. 17-31.
Mastering the Medium: Reference and Audience in Goltzius's Print of The Circumcision in Prentwerk/Print Work 1500-1700, Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 52 (2001), pp. 79-105.
Animated Bodies: The Performance of Images at the Burgundian Court in Staging the Court of Burgundy, T.-H. Borchert, W. Blockmans, N. Gabriëls, J. Oosterman, A. Van Oosterwijk (eds.).

Bloom is currently working on a book entitled, The Social Image: A Genealogy of Easel Painting in Early Modern Europe.

Programme at the University of Antwerp:

• 13 December 9:30-13:00 (R125, Rodestraat) Flemish art in the late Middle Ages: an economic historian's and an art historian's perspective.

9:30-11:00 Peter Stabel: Art Production in a Changing Economy: The Rise and Fall of Painting in Bruges 1400-1530.
11:15-13:00 James Bloom: Artful Alternatives and the Marginality of Painting in the Fifteenth-century Low Countries.

• 17 December, 17-18:30 (Rubenianum, Kolveniersstraat 20, Antwerp)

Public lecture: Towards a History of the Social Image, or, How to Act Around Pictures in the Early Modern Low Countries

• 18 December: Student excursion to Bruges. Visit to the Groeninge Museum and the Saint Jan's Hospital. City walking tour with Peter Stabel as a guide. (Meet at the Bruges Train Station at 13:00).
• 20 December 10:30-12:30 (R125, Rodestraat): Medievalism & the Modern Primitives: A Historiographic Review

Attention: Everyone is welcome at these events, however, interested persons from outside of the University of Antwerp are asked to confirm their participation at peter.stabel@uantwerpen.be.