BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.4.3//EN TZID:America/Los_Angeles X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:VEVENT UID:510@1718.ucla.edu DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260206T091500 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260206T173000 DTSTAMP:20260127T190437Z URL:https://1718.ucla.edu/events/early-modern-skies/ SUMMARY:Early Modern Skies DESCRIPTION:\nOrganized by Professors Lyle Massey (University of California \, Irvine)\, Vin Nardizzi (The University of British Columbia)\, Tiffany J o Werth (University of California\, Davis) and Bronwen Wilson (University of California\, Los Angeles)\n\nCo-sponsored by the UCLA Edward W. Carter Chair in European Art\n\nConference organizers are grateful to the Hannah &\; Edward Carter Endowment for 17th-Century Art History for generous p rogramming support.\n\nCritiquing the environmental humanities’ narrowly earth-centric focus\, Carl Phelphstead asks us to look heavenward\, to th ink “cosmocritically” and expand our awareness for how attitudes towar ds the heaven shape those on earth. What is sky? Both a border for land an d sea\, and a blank canvas for portents and celestial events\, sky reflect s fears and hopes for stasis in a changing and unpredictable environment.\ n\nIn pre-modern Europe\, the sky was rarely conceived of as empty space. From medieval notions of a realm populated with seraphim and containing an ideal mirror image of Jerusalem\, to Galileo’s description of the Milky Way in Sidereus Nuncius as “nothing else than a congeries of innumerabl e stars distributed in clusters\,” the dome of heaven posed innumerable problems of definition\, representation\, and clarification. In early mode rn natural philosophy “sky” as a category was always a puzzling entity : infinite but not geometrically measurable\; filled with light and color\ , but itself without form or shadow\; both fulsome and completely empty. W hile demarcated by a horizon that distinguishes it from land or water\, ne vertheless sky isn't bound by that horizon. And while it contains bodies-- clouds\, sun\, moon\, stars\, birds\, rainbows—it is also defined by one of Aristotle’s categorical elements: air.  Defining or visualizing air often depended on its effects rather than recognition of it as substance. Genesis for unpredictable currents of weather and storms\, air is the vei l through which hail\, snow and gale force winds make themselves apparent\ , simultaneously making human existence itself vulnerable. Air can be mani pulated to produce sound (as with Aeolian harps)\, convey scents\, or beco me visible even while rendering the landscape unseeable: describing the Ar ctic\, a sailor wrote around 1600 “The air is so darkened with continual l mistes and foges so neere the Pole\, that no man can well see\, either t o guide his ship\, or to direct his course.” “Sky” is for these reas ons conceptually unstable in early modern cultural\, social and scientific thought.\n\nThis conference will bring together an interdisciplinary grou p of scholars to explore early modern concepts of sky from a variety of en vironmentally consequential perspectives\, from the history of science and art\, to poetics and literature.\n\nMonica Azzolini\, University of Bolog na\nDavid Bardeen\, Los Angeles County Museum of Art\nSophie Chiari\, Univ ersité Clermont Auvergne\, MSH de Clermont-Ferrand\, IHRIM\nMaria H. Loh\ , Institute for Advanced Study\nSarah Mallory\, The Morgan Library &\; Museum\nCraig Martin\, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice\nKirsten Schuhma cher\, University of Connecticut\nTiffany Jo Werth\, University of Califor nia\, Davis\n\n\n\nProgram Schedule\n\n8:45 a.m.\nCoffee and Registration\ n\n9:15 a.m.\nDirector’s Welcome\nBronwen Wilson\, University of Califor nia\, Los Angeles\n\n9:20 a.m.\nIntroductory Remarks\nLyle Massey\, Univer sity of California\, Irvine and Vin Nardizzi\, University of British Colum bia\n\nPanel 1: Sky Terms\nModerator: Vin Nardizzi\, University of British Columbia\n\n9:30 a.m.\nSarah Mallory\, The Morgan Library &\; Museum\n “Invention of Atmosphere in the Age of Air: From Aerial to Atmospheric i n Seventeenth-Century Dutch Landscape Images”\n\n9:55 a.m.\nTiffany Jo W erth\, University of California\, Davis\n“Cosmocriticism and a Renaissan ce Sky Atlas”\n\n10:20 a.m.\nQ&\;A\n\n10:50 a.m.\nCoffee &\; Healt h Break\n\nPanel 2: Weather Gods\nModerator: Lyle Massey\, University of C alifornia\, Irvine\n\n11:10 a.m.\nMonica Azzolini\, University of Bologna\ n“Invoking Protection: Patron Saints of Thunders and Torrential Rains in Early Modern Italy”\n\n11:35 a.m.\nCraig Martin\, Ca’ Foscari Univers ity of Venice\n“Doubting the Sky: Skepticism About Weather Prediction Am ong Early Modern Philosophers”\n\n12:00 p.m.\nQ&\;A\n\n12:30 p.m.\nLu nch\nExhibition of Clark Library materials in the North Book Room\n\nPanel 3: Looking Skywards \nModerator: Susan Dackerman\, University of Californ ia\, Los Angeles\n\n2:00 p.m.\nDavid Bardeen\, Los Angeles County Museum o f Art\n“Rubens\, Galileo and the Cosmological Baroque: The Fall of Phaet on”\n\n2:25 p.m.\nKirsten Schuhmacher\, University of Connecticut\n“In voking the Spheres: English Poetics of Authority in Mary Sidney’s Psalme s”\n\n2:50 p.m.\nQ&\;A\n\n3:20 p.m.\nCoffee &\; Health Break\n\nPa nel 4: In the Clouds\nModerator: Bronwen Wilson\, University of California \, Los Angeles\n\n3:40 p.m.\nMaria H. Loh\, Institute for Advanced Study\n “Michelangelo’s Last Judgment as Skyscape”\n\n4:05 p.m.\nSophie Ch iari\, Université Clermont Auvergne\, MSH de Clermont-Ferrand\, IHRIM\n “Shakespeare's Cloud Scenes: An Ecocritical Perspective”\n\n4:30 p.m.\ nQ&\;A\n\n5:00 p.m.\nWrap-up &\; Future Horizons\n\n\n\nThe conferen ce is free to attend with advance registration\, and will be held in-perso n at the Clark Library.  Seating is limited at the Clark Library\; walk-i n registrants are welcome as space permits.\nLoading…\n\n \;\n\n\n\n Image: Clouds from A discourse concerning the origine and properties of vv ind\, with an historicall account of hurricanes\, and other tempestuous wi nds. By R. Bohun. Oxford\, 1671. Courtesy of the William Andrews Clark Mem orial Library.\n\n \; CATEGORIES:Conferences LOCATION:UCLA William Andrews Clark Memorial Library\, 2520 Cimarron Street \, Los Angeles\, California\, 90018\, United States GEO:34.033012;-118.314487 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=2520 Cimarron Street\, Los Angeles\, California\, 90018\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=UC LA William Andrews Clark Memorial Library:geo:34.033012,-118.314487 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Los_Angeles X-LIC-LOCATION:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20251102T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR