Dear Sirs,
My name is Ricardo Mendonça and, and on behalf of the CHAM —Center for Overseas History at New University of Lisbon, I invite you to submit a paper on the following panel, for a conference that will take place from 15th until 18th July 2015:


“The spread of Art reproductions and the shaping of modern culture
In the past years several studies have pointed out the role prints and replicas had in the spread of general basis of knowledge and taste. Through it all, since the Renaissance that classical sculpture came to be the forerunner of an important trend and inspired the meditation on the rules of Beauty. The role played by antique objects in the much appreciated Italian Art helped settling down a common ground for aesthetical appreciation in Europe. Art treaties can, in this way, synthetize the will to define rules based on steady models that ought to inspire Artists in the creation of a new World. Furthermore, one would hear in XVIII century that best new words of Art, were the ones that are more alike to the Antique.
In this sense, not only did this prototypes provided the foothold to better appreciation of Art, but also laid the foundations for the institutions that came to be regarded as keepers of Knowledge such as Academies, Museums, and even, Universities, given the role plaster casts acquired in the teaching of Archeology and Art History.
This panel seeks to reflect on the role reproductions of works of art had in the transference of knowledge between different institutions, countries and cultures and how they helped defining the notions of common culture, taste, and aesthetics."