Lecture by Victor I. Stoichita
The Nervous Statue. On the Pygmalion Iconography in the Eighteenth Century

Rediscovered in the eighteenth century, the Pygmalion myth provided material for many literary and visual representations. In this lecture, the animation of a statue through the action of an artist is considered in association with the contemporary philosophy of the ‘materialists’ and their doctrine of the circulation of energies.

Victor I. Stoichita is professor emeritus of the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). In 2016 he was holder of the Erwin Panofsky professorship at the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte (Munich) and in 2018 of the European Chair of the Collège de France (Paris). He is the author of numerous books including Darker Shades. The Racial Other in Early Modern Art (London, 2019); Des corps: Anatomies, défenses, fantasmes (Geneva, 2019); Les Fileuses de Velázquez. Textes, textures, images (Paris, 2018). In 2015, his autobiographical novel Oublier Bucarest (Arles, 2014) was awarded the Médaille de vermeil of the Académie Française. In 2020 Victor Stoichita received the Martin Warnke Medal of the Aby Warburg Foundation (Hamburg).

Lecture in German

Lektionen / Lessons

In the new format of the lecture series Lektionen / Lessons the Art Collections will offer in-depth insights into the background and contexts of the artworks of the exhibitions in the Paintings Gallery.

Entrance free