Event Date
The UC Davis German Colloquium is pleased to present:
Michael Yonan, “The Bavarian Rococo: The Outlier of German Art”
Thursday, 1 February, 5:00 PM, Felder Room (MU)
Michael Yonan holds the Alan Templeton Endowed Chair in the History of European Art, 1600–1830 at UC Davis. Also a faculty Associate of the Graduate Program in German, he is a scholar of early modern European art, with special interest in the arts of eighteenth-century Austria, Germany, and Scandinavia.
In this talk, Professor Michael Yonan explores the remarkable efflorescence in the arts that occurred in eighteenth-century Germany and that we now call the South German or Bavarian Rococo. Distinctive within it are the many pilgrimage churches that dot the Bavarian landscape, monuments made more impressive when one remembers the comparatively simple building technologies available to its makers. They are gorgeous edifices, skillfully made and expertly calibrated against their rural settings; and for anyone who has visited the region, they are unforgettable. Professor Yonan’s talk will attempt to address several issues around this region and this beautiful art. Incorporating it into structures of art-historical knowledge is challenging since the formation of the field of eighteenth-century art in the United States has obscured its value. The Bavarian Rococo does not need to be rediscovered but rather reframed.
