Place: Biblioteca degli Uffizi, Salone Magliabechiano Firenze - Loggiato degli Uffizi Firenze
Date: Tuesday, 18 may 2010
Time: 6 p.m.

The Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut (Institute of Art History in Florence – Max Planck Institute) (KHI) and its Förderverein (Friends) have awarded the Jacob Burckhardt Prize 2009 to Dr Rebecca Müller, research associate at the Kunstgeschichtliches Institut (Institute of Art History) of the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe University in Frankfurt-on-Main. The Prize is awarded in recognition of her research in the field of Italian art. The Prize will be presented at a formal ceremony in Florence.

Programm

Gerhard Wolf, Executive Director of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz - Max-Planck-Institut
Saluto

Herbert Beck, Committee Chair of the Friends of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz (Max-Planck-Institut) e.V.
Begrüßung

Valentino Pace, Università degli Studi di Udine
Laudatio

Rebecca Müller, research associate at the Kunstgeschichtliches Institut (Institute of Art History) of the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe University in Frankfurt-on-Main
Geschichte und Ideal in Gentile Bellinis "Prozession am Markustag"

Dr Rebecca Müller – Some Information about the Prize Winner

Dr Rebecca Müller has studied art history, classical archaeology and mediaeval history in Tübingen, Rome and Bonn. In 1996 she completed her studies under Prof Gunter Schweikhart at the Rhinean Friedrich Wilhelms University in Bonn; the title of her master’s thesis was “Der Hochaltar der Johanneskirche in Crailsheim. Ein Flügelretabel aus der Wolgemutwerkstatt in Nürnberg“ (The High Altar of St John’s Church in Crailsheim. A Winged Retable from Wolgemut’s Workshop in Nuremberg). In 1999 she was awarded a doctorate at the Philipps University, Marburg under Prof Ingo Herklotz for research into the use of spolia in mediaeval Genoa.
From 2000 to 2002 Dr Rebecca Müller completed a traineeship at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Berlin State Museums – Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation). During that time she curated inter alia an exhibition of drawings by Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki at the Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings). After being assigned to teach at the Humboldt University of Berlin and at the Otto Friedrich University, Bamberg she was appointed in the summer semester of 2005 to a junior professorship at the University of Hamburg. Since the winter semester of 2005/06 she has been working as a research associate at the Kunstgeschichtliches Institut (Institute of Art History) of the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe University in Frankfurt-on-Main.
During her study and her doctoral work she held a scholarship from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German National Academic Foundation), and was an associate member of the research training group “Die Renaissance in Italien und ihre europäische Rezeption. Kunst – Geschichte – Literatur“ (The Renaissance in Italy and its European Reception. Art – History – Literature) of Bonn University. Later, she held a postdoctoral scholarship for the research training group “Kunstwissenschaft – Bauforschung - Denkmalpflege“ (Fine Art Research – Architectural Research – Architectural Conservation) at the universities of Bamberg and Berlin (TU), at the Deutsches Studienzentrum (German Study Centre) in Venice, and at the KHI. Until September 2005, she held a scholarship at the Fritz Thyssen Foundation in Florence, where together with Dr Jeanette Kohl she organised a conference on the art form of busts.
The teaching and research of Dr Rebecca Müller has concentrated on the reception and transformation of antiquity during the Middle Ages. This involves focussing on the one hand on the material remains of antiquity, i. e. the use of spolia, and on the other on the resumption of antique forms of art. A second focal point is the late-mediaeval painter’s workshop, and in particular the production of altar retables in Southern Germany and Venice. Her habilitation project carries the working title “Die Vivarini. Werkstattorganisation, Patronage und Bildkonzepte in Venedig 1440 bis 1480“ (The Vivarini. Workshop Organisation, Patronage and Pictorial Concepts in Venice 1440 to 1480). Dr Rebecca Müller is also working on the artistic biographies of the Venetian painters of the Bellini family and of Andrea Mantegna within the framework of an annotated German edition of Vasari’s “Vite” (Lives), published by Alessandro Nova (Wagenbach Verlag).

The Jacob Burckhardt Prize

The Jacob Burckhardt Prize was founded in 2004 on the initiative of the former directors of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz (KHI), Prof Max Seidel and Prof Gerhard Wolf.
The prize is to be awarded every two years to up-and-coming researchers who will be selected by the directors and the Friends of the KHI. As well as a three-month stay at the Florence-based institute to conduct research, prize winners will be invited to give a public lecture and to publish an article in the Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz (Proceedings of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz).
The prize takes its name from the Swiss cultural and art historian Jacob Burckhardt (1818 – 97). His works such as “The Cicerone. A Guide to the works of art in Italy (1855), The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy. An Essay” (1860) and “The Architecture of the Italian Renaissance” (1867) have had an enduring influence on research in the arts. It is therefore primarily thanks to Burckhardt that from the second half of the 19th century onwards writers on art history in the German-speaking countries saw exploration of the art of the Italian Renaissance as their most important mission. This enthusiasm explains why the first German-established centre for the study of art history founded in Italy in 1897 was located in Florence.