Lecture | Timothy McCall – Velvet Goldmine: Silk, Gold, and Renaissance Masculinity | University of Melbourne

The Australian Institute of Art History at the University of Melbourne invites you to a lecture by Dr. Timothy McCall (Villanova University, Pennsylvania)

‘Velvet Goldmine: Silk, Gold, and Renaissance Masculinity’

Date: Tuesday, 30 July 2019, Lecture 6.00 pm-7.00 pm

Venue:  North Theatre, Old Arts Building (149), University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010.

The ruling men of Renaissance Italy wrapped themselves in silks and jewels, feathers and pearls. To dazzle the eye, they wore cloth-of-gold and cloth-of-silver, but also sometime gems made of paste, intended to deceive observers. What glittered was not necessarily gold, and luxury materials were not always what they seemed. Building from a larger study of courtly, material extravagance and the symbolic economy of male court fashions, this lecture explores the shining surfaces and things which adorned lords’ bodies, and turns a critical eye to material fictions of luxury.

Dr. Timothy McCall is Associate Professor and Director of the Art History Program at Villanova University. His research focuses on Italian Renaissance art, on power and gender, and on histories of fashion and material culture. The lecture will draw on material from his forthcoming book, Brilliant Bodies: Men at Court in Early Renaissance Italy, and on his recent article, ‘The Materials for Renaissance Fashion’; commissioned by Renaissance Quarterly, the official journal of the Renaissance Society of America.

Enquiries: Professor Anne Dunlop anne.dunlop@unimelb.edu.au