Marije Osnabrugge – Capturing the Present in Northwestern Europe (1348

15/09/202615/09/2026

Gem: What it takes to represent a current event

Every second week of September, a horse fair is held in Valkenburg, a small town just south of Leiden. Coincidentally, this week marks its 1079th edition, according to the website. First documented in 840, this yearly event is characterized by popular entertainment, social gathering, and trade, drawing visitors from nearby villages and cities, but also from far and abroad. We find numerous traces of the fair in the archives, as well as in the visual arts.

Village fairs had long been a popular topic for artists, perhaps most successfully in the oeuvre of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (fig. 1), who masterfully captured the merriment of such events.¹ Seventeenth-century landscape painters, including Salomon van Ruysdael and Jan Van Goyen, made drawings and paintings depicting the Valkenburg horse fair (e.g. figs. 2 & 3). Phillips Wouwerman, renowned for his skills in painting horses in battle scenes and landscapes, also captured the scene (fig. 4). Adriaen van de Venne painted the fair in 1618 on an oblong oak panel (fig. 5).² All these painters approached the subject from their own specialty, shifting the focus of the composition accordingly.

Fig. 2. Salomon van Ruysdael, The Horse Fair at Valkenburg, 1644, oil on canvas (105.3 x 131.4 cm), current location unknown, https://rkd.nl/images/72211.

Fig. 3. Jan van Goyen, The Horse Fair at Valkenburg, 1652, oil on panel (40 x 57 cm), private collection, https://rkd.nl/images/72231.

Fig. 4. Philips Wouwerman (attr.)The Horse Fair at Valkenburg, no date, oil on canvas (66 x 74 cm), location unknown, https://rkd.nl/images/72214.

With the exception of Van de Venne, these artists represented a generic recurrent happening in an easily recognizable location. Van de Venne’s version is the only one which instead depicted a specific historical event: the visit of Frederick Henry and Maurice of Nassau to the fair.³ In this gem, I will briefly consider the formal elements that set Van de Venne’s painting apart from the other representations of the Valkenburg horse fair, on the basis of early modern Dutch art theory.

Occasional depictions of historical events, including special celebrations and disasters, can be found throughout the history of art.⁴ It nevertheless seems that artists started to capture current events more frequently during the early modern period, arguably in parallel with the increased number of (illustrated) pamphlets and newsletters addressing the present.⁵ To depict such events, visual artists would naturally conceive of them as history paintings. In early modern Dutch art literature, theorists generally distinguish three types of history painting (i.e. a painting representing a story): mythological, biblical or religious, and worldly (waereldze) histories. In his Groot Schilderboek (1707/1712), Gerard de Lairesse moreover separates mythological and legendary stories from so-called ‘true histories’ (waare geschiedenissen) based on the Bible, the lives of saints, and history.⁶ No apparent difference is made between historical events from a distant (often ancient) or recent past in these art theoretical texts.

According to early modern Dutch art literature, the main aspects of a convincing history painting can be summarized as follows:

The setting must be appropriate and recognizable in terms of location, time and circumstances.⁷
An artist needs to understand the role and character of the people involved in a (hi)story, in order to capture their likeness and make them identifiable for the audience.
The actions and emotions have to be represented appropriately for each character according to their role in the story.
The history painter has to select the most appropriate moment in a story (the momentary action or occasion: oogenblikkelijke daad of zaak) that best captures its significance and turn it into a clear composition. Several theorists remind us that this makes the visual representation more challenging than a written history. Franciscus Junius cites Polystrates, who stated that a painting has to capture the past, the present, and the future in one image, whereas writers can describe all stages of a story.⁸
All the elements of the painting must be plausible, on their own and together: ‘To start, one should hold onto the truth, or plausibility, and do not depict anything other than what is, or at least what can be.’⁹ Waerschijnelijkheyt is a complex concept referring to the appropriateness of all elements of the story, in terms of what was thought to be historically accurate and according to the status and role of the characters. If one of the elements does not comply to this criterium, the whole representation risks being deemed unnatural, failing its purpose of representing a ‘true history’. This plausibility is distinct from truth, as it involves the imagination of the artist and relies on their knowledge and understanding of the story rather than on direct observation of the event itself.

For pictures of the Valkenberg horse fair to be recognized as such, artists needed to observe the first point (1.). Indeed, in all the images evoked above, the weather seems appropriate for September; and they include the recognizable church tower of the town, tents and festivities of the fair, and of course horses. However, to capture the specific historical event of Frederick Henry and Maurice’s visit, Van de Venne made sure that the two men, seated in an ornate carriage, as well as the lord of the town and his wife (Johan de Hertoghe van Orsmael and his wife Josyna de Beye) to whom they pay their respect, would be identifiable to a contemporary audience (2.).¹⁰ Remarkably, the two eminent visitors are placed a bit in the background. Some other figures, like the horserider saluting the couple with a levade in the foreground, have not yet been identified by modern scholars, but contemporaries would likely have been able to recognize them by their distinct features.¹¹ The painter has selected the exact moment in which the company greets the couple (4.), according to appropriate etiquette (3.). Lastly, the painter makes the scene plausible by adding all sorts of characters and objects that would be present at a horse fair (5.).

This depiction of a minor historical event thus followed the basic rules of history painting. The occasion appears to have been primarily – arguably even exclusively – of interest to De Hertoghe van Orsmael, for whom the visit of Frederick Henry and Maurice signified an acknowledgment of his status. For this reason, it has been suggested convincingly that he was the commissioner of the painting. We could argue that by following conventions that were traditionally applied to the most well-known and significant histories, the artist provided an air of importance to this episode of personal history.

To Come

Together with my colleagues in WP1, we are studying the visual and textual representation of the present (e.g. by Cordélia Floc’hic and Tilleane Charavel). In WP2, it is the notion of the event that takes center stage. This short overview of art theoretical ideas about history painting and the particular case of Van de Venne’s representation of the Valkenburg horse fair are part of the preparation of a chapter on ‘Time and Temporalities’ in the Dutch Republic.

In the case of this drawing, the artist identified the location of the fair (Hoboken) on the back: ‘Dit es / […] / hoboken / […] / […]’. ↩︎
For a description of the painting, see the Rijksmuseum catalogue entry by Yvette Bruynen (2007): https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200108368, including bibliography. Unfortunately, the format and word limit of these gems does not allow for an in-depth analysis. ↩︎
It would have taken the company approximately a thirty minute carriage ride from The Hague to get to the fair. ↩︎
To evoke an interesting example, Joris Oddens recently presented the depiction a particularly significant meeting of the States General, at which occasion the sovereignty of the Dutch Republic was first acknowledged: https://doi.org/10.51750/emlc19457. ↩︎
This observation deserves further substantiation. Within our project Marie Verbiest and Alexander Goderniaux are conducting extensive research of such sources. The conference of Marion Pouspin was equally inspiring. ↩︎
Lairesse, GS, vol. I, 86. ↩︎
Point 1, 2, and 3: Hoogstraten, 96: ‘Datmen voornamentlijk op drie dingen te letten heeft, waer van het eerste is, de personaedjen, die ontrent de geschiedenis bezich zijn, te kennen; […] Ten tweeden moetmen de daed der Historie wel deurgronden, en aen wie het doen of lijden meest belangt:[…] Ten derden moetmen op tijd, plaets, en omstandicheyt acht geven;[…].’ Lairesse emphasizes that the inclusion of people from all walks of life appropriate to the history will make the painting more convincing Lairesse, GS, I, 53). ↩︎
Junius 1641, 303; Lairesse, GS, I, 142. ↩︎
Hoogstraten, 93: ‘Eerstelijk zoo moetmen zich vast aen de waerheyt, of waerschijnelijkheyt houden, en niets anders uitbeelden, als dat is, of ten minsten zijn kan.’ ↩︎
In 1618, De Hertoghe served as Quartermaster-General of the States army; he had bought a manor near Valkenburg in 1615 (see catalogue entry cited in note 2). ↩︎
Perhaps the other depicted dignitaries also held public functions in the government. A trip to the fair would have constituted a welcome moment of relaxation. We should be reminded this is the time of the Twelve Year Truce in the war with Spain. ↩︎

19/05/202609/06/2026

Participation in ‘Jenseits der Stärke’ Conference by Marije Osnabrugge (Hamburg, 4-6 June 2026)

Post by: Marije Osnabrugge

Between 4 and 6 June 2026 the conference “Jenseits der Stärke: Imaginarien schwacher Kräfte in Kunst, Literatur und Wissenschaft“ will be held at the Warburg-Haus in Hamburg, Germany. The conference is organized by Caroline Adler, Franca Buss, and Gerd Micheluzzi in the context of the DFG-Kolleg-Forschungsgruppe »Imaginarien der Kraft«.

Conference description (from website)

Concepts of weakness today are often associated with a pathological or degenerative condition: a state of exhaustion, powerlessness, vulnerability, or the drying up of creative energies. Conversely, references to weakness have always offered opportunities to reflect on subtle forces beyond dominance or control, about the small, the potential, the (re)emerging. Weakness should therefore not only be understood as the opposite of strength. It also constitutes its own forms of agency. The conference takes this observation as a starting point to examine the connections and productive ambivalences of weak forces and their aesthetic articulations.

On Friday 4 June, I will present my paper ‘Den bogh’ en mach altijt niet zijn ghespannen’ : Van Mander and Hoogstraten on Weakness and Rest in the Artistic Profession‘, in which I will discuss my ongoing research on the restful practices of early modern Netherlandish painters and show how they dealt with temporary moments of weakness and lack of professional stamina in the face of the intense competition and accelerated (artistic) innovation that characterizes the ‘Dutch Golden Age’. Amongst others, I will propose that the well-known drawing of the Bentvueghels by Pieter van Laer (fig.) does not only represent one of the group’s infamous parties, but also a playful activity to restore the creative mind.

Pieter van Laer, The Bentvueghels in a Roman Tavern, c. 1625, washed drawing, Berlin, Staatliche Museen, credit: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett / Jörg P. Anders.

For more information and the conference programme, see the website of the DFG Research Group.

17/02/202617/04/2026

Gem: ‘Let the soul take a walk in the open air’: the Dutch habit of “uitwaaien” in a Beach View by Adriaen van de Velde

15/08/202529/10/2025

Gem: Measuring and Sensing the Present – Our Project Logo

Article written by Marije Osnabrugge

This ‘gem’ focuses on the object that is central to the logo that Guillaume Lecuppre (a.k.a. Nothos) designed so expertly for our project. After a description of this curious object, I will briefly reflect on the insights it might offer regarding the sensory and somatic experience of the present of fifteenth-century Netherlanders from different layers of society.

The Object

The Hour and Calendar Dial (fig.1), currently in the collection of the Museum M Leuven, was made by an anonymous artist around 1500, probably in the Southern Netherlands. It consists of a rather large oak panel (125.6 x 123.4 cm) featuring elaborate decoration in tempera and oil paint. To a twenty-first-century observer, the Roman numbers stamped on a thin band offer the clearest indication of its function. They consist of two series from I to XII, making for twenty-four markers in total, one for each hour of the day. As such, they indicate this contraption showed its late-fifteenth century users what time it was (approximately).

Besides the hours, the panel includes several other temporal units. The most inner band represents the twelve signs of the zodiac and is directly related to the adjacent band with elaborate scenes from everyday life representing the months of the year. Presumably for reasons connected to the mechanical design of the dial, the central upper scene shows the month of July, rather than the first of the Julian calendar, January (which is instead seen on the lower right). The months are represented by fairly standardized scenes of typical seasonal activities (e.g. grape harvest for October, fig. 2), reminiscent of Books of Hours (see for example the month of June from the Très riches heures du Duc de Berry (fig.3).¹ Like those precious manuscripts – destined for an even more elite audience than the device discussed here – the scenes on this dial show people from different societal classes, generally isolated from each other and sometimes coexisting in the same section.

Following the thin golden band with the twenty-four Roman numbers, we see another band with scenes from everyday life. The twenty-four small sections initially seem to lack coherence or logical order. Previous research has shown that they represent the popular astrological system of the Planetenkinder or ‘Children of the Planets’, in which the Sun, Moon, and the planets Mercury, Saturn, Venus, Jupiter and Mars are connected to characteristics of individuals. Such aspects range from physical and character traits to professions and activities considered typical for people connected to that planet. In this case, professions and activities are represented.² The scenes next to the Roman numerals III, XI (first series) and VI (second series), for example, show activities typical for the ‘Children of the Moon’, who were thought to thrive in water (fig. 4). But why are the Planetenkinder included on a time-measuring device? The moment of birth formed the main indication to which planet a person belonged, based on the ascendant associated with the day and/or the hour. Each ‘planet’ was in fact linked to a day of the week, as well as an hour of the day or night.³

To continue with the description of the object, the white band has 365 fields for the days of the year, with key liturgical dates (Christian feasts and saint days) indicated in French. The co-existence of astrological and Christian temporal systems was completely acceptable in the late-medieval and early modern period. The black band indicates the number of days for certain months (e.g. ‘maius habet dies xxxi’). In the four corners of the panel, we see a figure in a nimbus, accompanied by two zodiac signs. The figures are again identifiable as the planets Mars (right-top corner), Mercury, Venus and Jupiter, which were linked to specific zodiac signs. In its current state, only eight of the zodiac signs are represented in connection to the planets, possibly indicating missing parts of the panel.⁴

The dial’s use: determining, but also sensing the moment

The two sealed holes reveal that the panel originally featured a mechanism to indicate the time. The exact nature and functioning of this mechanism are unclear and must have been quite intricate. It would certainly have included hands to indicate the hour (the Roman numerals). Based on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century clocks and watches (fig. 5), we would furthermore expect some sort of frame (or several frames) that could be moved to highlight certain sections of the panel, for example to indicate the current month and zodiac sign, planet or day of the calendar.⁵ Matthew Champion has suggested the mechanism of this dial might have also included the phases of the moon, which was indeed a common feature of such devices.

In short, the object would have allowed its relatively wealthy owners to determine and measure time. Our project does not focus on the measurement of time per se. However, time-measuring devices such as this dial also played an essential role in the way people related to their present time. Several historians have already discussed the impact of the increasing availability of clocks, whether in the public context of a bell tower, or in one’s house or pocket.⁶ This is not the place to reiterate such observations. Instead, I would like to use this hour and calendar dial to explore the potential of such objects for studying sensory and somatic experiences of the present – as opposed to cognitive awareness. I will focus specifically on the representation of the months here. As discussed above, each month is represented by a depiction of typical activities. All these seasonal practices involve physical sensations, which in turn formed a part of the perception and experience of that month.

Many of the months are associated with agricultural activities (e.g. working the fields, harvesting). It is unlikely that the owners of the dial were themselves familiar with the strenuous physical toil such work entailed. Instead, these representations offer a rare opportunity to grasp the sensory experiences that farmers may have associated with specific moments in the year. For example, on this dial the month of June is represented by men sheering sheep (foreground), a woman milking a cow (center-right) and others picking apples (background left) (fig.6). These activities imply a range of bodily sensations, such as the physical effort of holding a wriggling sheep down, the touch and smell of soft greasy wool; the smell, sound and taste of fresh milk from juicy summer grass, pressed gently from dense utters, and splashing in a bucket; the smell, texture and taste of ripe apples, and fruit dropping with a muffled sound on the ground or in a hefty basket.

City-dwellers, on the other hand, might recall the eerie squeaking and intense smell of fresh blood of animals being slaughtered on a crisp November morning (fig. 2). On the dial, the violent but common scene is placed in an undefined urban setting, perhaps a market square. The freezing month of February (fig. 7), on the other hand, was perhaps associated with the comfortable warmth of a crackling hearth while chewing on a tasty waffle, the clinking of spears from jousting knights outside in the background.

As these examples suggest, each month carried its own specific sensory associations for a fifteenth-century person living in the Low Countries (or arguably anytime, anywhere). A particular time of year consequently evoked the memory or expectation of certain feelings, smells, textures, sounds, tastes and sights that they would experience each year at that moment (i.e. cyclically). A close examination of representations of the months, a very popular subject in medieval and early modern art (especially in the Low Countries), could therefore allow us to understand the bodily sensations involved in the experience and perception of the present.

TO COME

This ‘gem’ about our logo does not directly relate to my research project on the representation and experience of everyday life, for which I am currently studying the visual representation of rest; as well as the natural, biographical and societal rhythms that paced the artistic profession. Nevertheless, I see plenty of connections, which I intend to explore in the coming years. I am particularly fascinated by the impact of sensory, affective and somatic experiences – and their visual representation – with regard to the perception of the present. Such a query will benefit from the increased attention for the history of senses and emotions in our field. My interest was stimulated in particular by the book The Fullness of Time by Matthew S. Champion. Coincidentally, Dr Champion will be the keynote speaker at our conference ‘Present in the City‘ in Lille, 1-3 Oct. 2025.

Bibliography

Y. Bruijnen & P. Huys Janssen (eds.), De Vier Jaargetijden in de kunst van de Nederlanden 1500-1750, exh.cat. Den Bosch (Noordbrabants Museum) / Leuven (Stedelijk Museum Vander Kelen-Mertens), Zwolle: Waanders, 2002 [esp. cat.nr. 1].

M. S. Champion, The Fullness of Time: Temporalities of the Fifteenth-Century Low Countries, Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2017 [ref. to the Hour and Calendar Dial: pp. 34-36, figs. 1.2 and 1.3].

A. Klingner, Die Macht der Sterne: Planetenkinder: ein astrologisches Bildmotiv in Spätmittelalter und Renaissance, unpublished PhD Thesis (Humboldt University Berlin, 2017).

This extraordinary manuscript is currently on display for the first time ever in an exhibition in Musée Condé at the Chateau de Chantilly ↩︎
The Planetenkinder were often represented in the visual arts across Europe, for example in the so-called Salone dei mesi in Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara and on numerous paintings and prints. ↩︎
The relation of the hour and planet shifted according to the weekday (the first daylight hour of each day was connected to the planet of the day). The order of the scenes on the dial follows the order of the weekdays associated to each planet. ↩︎
I did not yet consult technical reports on the object to verify. ↩︎
The Roman numerals on such watches and clocks are remarkably larger than on the object under discussion, perhaps indicating a decreased importance of astrological temporal markers. ↩︎
Max Engammare, to name one example, insists on the role of clocks in the religious practices of Calvin and his followers in sixteenth-century Geneva (M. Engammare, L’ordre du temps: l’invention de la punctualité au XVIe siècle, 2004). ↩︎

24/06/202502/07/2025

Publication by Marije Osnabrugge: co-editorship special issue EMLC ‘Time and Temporality in the Early Modern Low Countries’ (2023)

Gerrit Verhoeven, Brecht Deseure and Marije Osnabrugge (eds.), ‘Time and Temporality in the Early Modern Low Countries’, special issue, Early Modern Low Countries 7.2 (2023).

DESCRIPTION

During the preparatory phase of the Sinergia project, Marije Osnabrugge had the opportunity to edit, together with Gerrit Verhoeven and Brecht Deseure, a special issue of Early Modern Low Countries (7.2., published 21 December 2023) on the theme of the perception of time in the early modern Low Countries.

Besides editing the various contributions by scholars from a range of disciplines (incl. political history, cartography, cultural history, literary history, art history)) and with different original approaches to this topic, the editors of the special issue co-wrote the introduction. The volume also includes a collective publication by Élodie Lecuppre-Desjardin, Jan Blanc, Thalia Brero and Marije Osnabrugge.

Table of contents

Introduction, Gerrit Verhoeven, Brecht Deseure and Marije Osnabrugge

Reasoning with Turbulence: A Quantative Analysis of Extraordinary Times in the Digitised Resolutions of the Dutch States-General (1705-1796) – Femke Gordijn

A Delta of Time: Claes Jansz Visscher’s Updated News Maps of Spanish-Dutch Battles in the Scheldt River Area, 1627-1640 – Anne-Rieke van Schaik

Revisiting Presentism: The Experience of the Present in Late Medieval and Early Modern North-Western Europe – Jan Blanc, Thalia Brero, Élodie Lecuppre-Desjardin, Marije Osnabrugge

Shared Futures in Times of Rupture: The Marriage Story of Daniel van der Meulen and Hester de la Faille 1584-1585 – Sanne Hermans

The Remains of the Night: Nocturnalization, Street-Lighting, and Urban Life in Eighteenth-Century Antwerp – Gerrit Verhoeven

[top image: David Bailly, Vanitas Still Life, in the album amicorum of Cornelis de Montigny de Glarges, 16 July 1624, pen on paper, The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek.]

12/06/202517/06/2025

Conference participation: RSA Conference 2023

San Juan, March 9-11

During the preparation phase of the Capturing the Present project, Jan Blanc, Thalia Brero, Élodie Lecuppre-Desjardin and Marije Osnabrugge organized a two-panel session on the notion of chronotope in the context of the RSA Annual Conference of 2023.

The ideas ‘tested’ in the session formed the inspiration for the doctoral project undertaken by Sebastian Hackbarth in the context of the Capturing the Present project. Élodie Lecuppre-Desjardin and Marije Osnabrugge are currently preparing a publication containing a selection of papers from this session, with additional contributions.

DESCRIPTION OF THE SESSION

The way people in the past experienced their individual and shared present was interrelated with the space they inhabited. In recent decades, reflections on the perception of time in pre-modern and early-modern periods have multiplied. As a result, the static and univocal image of the Middle Ages and early modernity as eras rooted in a perfect biblical past or as a revival of a mythical past, obstructing any interpretation of an active present and of a future free of its eschatological dimension, is being revised. One of the possible ways to reconsider the relation of pre-modern and early-modern people with time, and in particular with the(ir) present, is to investigate what Mikhail Bakhtin called the ‘chronotope’. Within this literary theory, the perception of the world results from a specific experience of time and space, which are considered inseparable and in constant interaction. Examples of such chronotopes include the daily or weekly collective rhythms of market day or the fair on the town square, the accelerated frenzy of celebrations in the city hall or church, the reflective hours spent alone waking at a deathbed. The people inhabiting a chronotope were perfectly aware of the order imposed by well-defined temporalities, yet historical studies have too often disconnected this temporal dimension from their analysis of the use of a place or space.

Chronotopes: Temporal Markers Shaping Space I

Chronotopes of Waiting: Rethinking the Bakhtinian Threshold in Renaissance Dialogical Literature – Raphaëlle J Burns, University of California, Los Angeles

Chronicling Justice: The Space and Time of Executions during the Dutch Revolt (ca. 1560–90) – Isabel Casteels, KU Leuven

The Walker’s Perspective and the Senses – Dr. Mark Rosen, University of Texas at Dallas

Chronotopes: Temporal Markers Shaping Space II

“Comme si elles allaient au Calvaire”: Moral Time and Topography in Early Modern French Monasteries – Haley Elisabeth Bowen, University of Michigan Ann Arbor

An Armada as a “Chronotope?” Charles of Habsburg’s Fleet in the Chronicle of Rémi Dupuis – Jonathan Dumont, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften

Synchronized Timepieces, Diverging Temporality: Dialogues between the Clock and the Clepsydra at the Qing Court – Ms. Wenjie Su, Princeton University; CASVA, the National Gallery of Art

11/06/202511/06/2025

Album amicorum : Adeline Desbois Ientile

Adeline Desbois-Ientile est maîtresse de conférences à Sorbonne Université. Spécialiste de la langue et de la littérature françaises du XVIe siècle, elle a consacré de nombreux travaux à l’œuvre de Jean Lemaire de Belges et à ses contemporains, en croisant histoire littéraire et histoire linguistique. Ses recherches interrogent notamment les liens entre littérature, musique et arts visuels dans la culture de la première modernité. Elle est l’autrice de l’ouvrage Lemaire de Belges, Homère Belgeois (Paris : Classiques Garnier, 2019), récompensé par une médaille d’argent de l’Académie française. Elle a récemment codirigé le volume Lemaire de Belges, une écriture sous le signe de la concorde (Tours : PUFR, 2024), et a contribué à la Nouvelle anthologie des Rhétoriqueurs (Paris : Classiques Garnier, 2025). Le 12 mars 2025, Adeline Desbois-Ientile a donné une intervention dans le cadre de notre programme d’expert meetings.

En quelques mots, quelle place prend la notion de présent dans votre quotidien de chercheur.se ?

Travailler sur une période ancienne met en jeu deux présents : le présent de la recherche (le 21^e s.) et celui de l’objet étudié (les 15^e et 16^e s. pour moi). Un premier enjeu de mon travail est d’essayer de reconstituer le présent du passé, c’est-à-dire de comprendre comment on pensait, écrivait, vivait, à cette époque. La distance temporelle facilite la perception des objets du passé, tout en rendant plus difficile leur appréhension en raison décalage temporel entre le sujet – en l’occurrence ma propre subjectivité de chercheuse – et son objet – le corpus sur lequel je travaille. Le temps étant consubstantiel à tout objet historiquement situé, cela implique de se décentrer pour essayer de retrouver les modes de pensée d’une époque donnée, tout en ayant conscience de son propre ancrage temporel. C’est là qu’on touche au second enjeu : inscrire la recherche sur le passé dans le présent actuel, en termes d’outils et aussi d’enjeux.

Quel est votre domaine d’expertise et de quelle manière vos recherches abordent-elles les notions de temps, de temporalité et/ou de présent ?

Mon domaine d’expertise couvre la langue et la littérature françaises des premières décennies du 16^e s. Mes recherches de doctorat ont porté sur l’écriture de l’histoire dans Les Illustrations de Gaule et singularitez de Troye de Lemaire de Belges, et j’ai ensuite élargi ma réflexion à l’écriture d’actualité qui est également bien représentée chez les rhétoriqueurs. Ces deux types d’objet (le récit historique d’une part et le texte de circonstance de l’autre) mettent en jeu la temporalité à différents niveaux : comment le temps (passé ou contemporain) est-il représenté, et comment les auteurs inscrivent-ils leurs œuvres dans le temps ? De plus, le matériau du texte est la langue, qui est elle-même est traversée par le temps, en particulier au début du 16^e s. : le français est alors perçu comme une langue en forte évolution, ce qu’il est de fait. Ce qui m’intéresse, de ce point de vue, est d’essayer à la fois de mieux comprendre l’articulation entre continuité et rupture, et de réfléchir au pouvoir de la parole littéraire dans le présent de son écriture et de sa réception.

Quel type de sources utilisez-vous dans vos recherches sur le temps, la temporalité et/ou le présent ?

Je travaille à partir de corpus de textes du 16^e s. que je lis autant que possible dans la matérialité de leurs formes manuscrites ou imprimées d’origine. Je crois à la lecture comme méthode heuristique : lire beaucoup, de tout, pour essayer de percevoir ce qui est commun à une période et ce qui est singulier à un auteur. Mes sources sont donc des textes littéraires, mais aussi non littéraires, imprimés et manuscrits. De la même manière, pour le corpus critique, je lis des travaux émanant de chercheurs de différentes disciplines (lettres, histoire, linguistique, en particulier, mais aussi histoire des arts et musicologie) pour croiser les approches et mieux comprendre mes propres présupposés, parfois inconscients.

Le « présent » ou la « temporalité » de qui (quelle personne ou catégorie de personnes) vous intéresse particulièrement dans vos recherches ?

Je m’intéresse avant tout à ceux qu’on appelle aujourd’hui les auteurs, qui étaient à l’époque historiens, orateurs, ou poètes, parfois avec une charge officielle. Ces auteurs, par leurs écrits, s’inscrivent dans le temps en même temps qu’ils façonnent une certaine représentation du temps.

Y a-t-il des théoriciens du temps qui vous attirent particulièrement ? Et/ou : Avez-vous récemment découvert un projet ou un chercheur dont le travail vous semble essentiel pour penser ces questions ?

Je suis particulièrement sensible, depuis longtemps, à la notion de « lieu de mémoire » forgée par Pierre Nora pour désigner des éléments matériels ou idéels jouant un rôle dans l’identité collective. La notion de mémoire est centrale à mon sens pour penser l’articulation entre le passé et le présent.

Pensez-vous qu’il soit possible de parler d’une perception partagée du temps ou du présent à un moment historique spécifique (une de nos questions de recherche) ?

Oui, il me semble que des savoirs partagés par une communauté, structurés dans un discours, peuvent forger une représentation commune. C’est clairement le cas avec les poètes de la Pléiade, qui tiennent un discours de rupture temporelle s’appuyant sur un savoir partagé de l’Antiquité.

Quels sont les trois termes qui vous viennent à l’esprit lorsque vous pensez au « présent » des habitants de l’Europe du Nord-Ouest entre le XIV^e et le XVII^e siècle ?

Mythe – Politique – Histoire

Enfin, quelle serait votre ‘utopie de recherche’ si vous aviez un financement illimité ?

Je ferais une base de données qui rassemblerait et rendrait interopérables et interrogeables toutes les bases existantes contenant des textes en moyen français et français préclassique. Les mots étant la matière première des textes, c’est par un travail sur eux que j’initie tous mes travaux de recherche.

26/04/202529/04/2025

Album amicorum : Lotte Jensen

This section of our website serves as a kind of virtual ‘album amicorum’, for which we ask external scholars involved in our project to answer a short questionnaire.

Lotte Jensen, full professor of Dutch Cultural and Literary History at the Radboud University Nijmegen, is a member of our project’s scientific committee. She will participate as a respondent in our Kickoff (15-17 May). Professor Jensen’s research focuses on themes like disasters, national identity, peace and war. She is currently involved in the project Adapt! Lessons for dealing with tomorrow’s crisis.

For starters: what is the place of the notion of the present in your everyday life as a researcher?

As a researcher I read many books from the 18^th and 19^th century. While reading them, you can never escape entirely from the present day perspective, in the sense that present day perspectives and your current state of knowledge play a role in the interpretation of these sources.

What is your expertise and in what way does your research engage with the notions of time, temporality and/or the present?

My main field is Dutch literary and cultural history. I engage with topics such as war and peace, national identity, disasters and crises from a longitudinal perspective (17^th century – present day). Two modes of time nearly always play a role: what continuities and changes can be witnessed over time with regard to those topics, and: how does history relate to present day concerns or even future concerns. To give one example: there are many continuities in the way the Dutch have dealt with disasters, in particular floods. The past still shapes present day narratives and even our projections onto possible future catastrophes.

Hanneke van Asperen, Lotte Jensen, (Eds.), Dealing with Disasters from Early Modern to Modern Times, Cultural Responses to Catastrophes, Amsterdam University Press, 2023.

What kind of sources do you use in your research on time, temporality and/or the present?

Poems, stories, material objects, paintings, visual imagery.

Whose ‘present’ or ‘temporality’ are you particularly interested in, in your research?

I am most interested in how history helps us understand current day developments, so the ‘present’ refers to the times we live in now.

Are there any specific theorists about time that you are particularly drawn to? And/or: Have you recently encountered another project or researcher who is of particular interest regarding this topic?

Future collective thought is very much anchored in representations of the past (Szpunar and Szpunar), and in commemorative practices. Memory scholars are very relevant here (Ann Rigney, Astrid Erll etc).

Astrid Erll, Ann Rigney (Eds.), Mediation, remediation, and the dynamics of cultural history, New York: De Gruyter, 2009.

Do you think it is possible to speak of a shared perception of time or of the present at a specific historic moment (one of our research questions)?

Yes, at certain events where many poets/poems/authors express their feelings about the same event you can distill certain trends (eg. celebrations of the Treaty of Munster, 1648).

Which three terms come to mind when you think about the ‘present’ of people in Northwestern Europe between the fourteenth and seventeenth century?

War, peace, daily life

Finally, what would be your ‘research utopia’ if finances and time were not an issue?

Creating an interactive on the history of disasters and (memory) traces of disasters for the Netherlands.

24/03/202508/04/2025

Album amicorum : Gabriel Batalla-Lagleyre

Le 5 mars 2025, Gabriel Batalla-Lagleyre (Université de Lausanne) a donné une intervention à Neuchâtel dans le cadre de notre programme d’expert meetings. Nous avons invité le Dr. Batalla-Lagleyre à remplir un petit questionnaire, en vue d’alimenter notre album amicorum virtuel. Celui-ci rassemblera des idées et impressions de nos interlocuteurs et interlocutrices sur les thématiques liées à notre projet de recherche.

En quelques mots, quelle place prend la notion de présent dans votre quotidien de chercheur.se ?

La notion est centrale dans mes recherches sur l’inscription de la date sur les œuvres d’art en Europe (XIV^e-XVIII^e siècle).

Quel est votre domaine d’expertise et de quelle manière vos recherches abordent-elles les notions de temps, de temporalité et/ou de présent ?

Je suis historien de l’art moderniste, me concentrant sur les images (peintures, dessins, estampes). En menant un projet sur l’inscription de la date sur les œuvres, j’en viens nécessairement à interroger ces notions de différentes manières. Si la date me semble (sauf de très rares cas d’antidatation ou de post-datation) un signe du présent/au présent (une « pointe de présent » pour reprendre une expression de Deleuze que je trouve très utile), elle interroge aussi les rapports des artistes qui les inscrivent à la temporalité et à l’historicité. La date est faite pour être lue au présent (souvent au sein d’une communauté pour les œuvres exposées en public), mais aussi à l’avenir ; en même temps, elle inscrit l’œuvre dans une histoire, une tradition, un passé (parfois déjà une histoire de l’art). Essayer de mieux comprendre la conscience historique des artistes (alors que les chronologies et les dates se multiplient à l’époque moderne) est l’un des objectifs (et pas le plus simple) du projet de recherche.

Quel type de sources utilisez-vous dans vos recherches sur le temps, la temporalité et/ou le présent ?

J’utilise très principalement les œuvres elles-mêmes, soit comme cas exceptionnels, soit considérées en séries. En regard, la date, bien qu’omniprésente sur les œuvres et documents, est une notion largement absente des sources anciennes, a fortiori dans la littérature artistique.

Du présent ou de la temporalité de quelle(s) personne(s) vous intéressez-vous dans vos recherches ?

Des artistes, mais aussi des commanditaires/clients/spectateurs et des historiens : il s’agit aussi de voir comment ces dates étaient lues, comprises, utilisées dans les textes sur l’art (Vasari, Félibien, etc.)

Y a-t-il des théoriciens ou théoriciennes du temps qui vous attirent particulièrement ?

Parmi les classiques sur le sujet, je trouve particulièrement utiles les perspectives de François Hartog (Régimes d’historicité, Chronos). Utile également Norbert Elias, Du temps. Parmi la recherche contemporaine, les chercheurs en épigraphie développent des réflexions originales, autour notamment de Vincent Debiais. Dans ce cercle, Morgane Uberti est, à ma connaissance, l’une des rares chercheuses à avoir écrit sur le phénomène spécifique de la date. En histoire de l’art, les travaux sur la temporalité de Christopher Wood me semblent essentiels, à utiliser parfois avec prudence dans les conclusions mais très stimulants du point de vue théorique (Anachronic Renaissance, avec Alexander Nagel ; Forgery, Replica, Fiction: Temporalities of German Renaissance Art).

Pensez-vous qu’il soit possible de parler d’une perception partagée du temps ou du présent à un moment historique spécifique (une de nos questions de recherche) ?

En sériant la question et en s’attachant avec précision à un endroit, un moment, une classe sociale certainement, oui, cela me semble possible – mais plus difficile à montrer. Pour en rester à mon objet d’études, que Dürer, Cranach, Baldung Grien, etc., datent tous de la même manière leurs estampes me semble participer à ce type d’indices. Que de nombreux foyers britanniques, au XVII^e siècle, fassent apposer des dates sur leurs objets domestiques (mobilier, ustensiles de cuisine, etc.), me semble aussi aller dans ce sens. Idem, pour une catégorie limitée encore (les artistes), quand, au tournant du XIX^esiècle, tous les dessinateurs de paysages en Europe datent leurs œuvres au jour près : c’est un rapport à la nature et à sa temporalité qui me semble spécifique à ce moment, et dès lors partagé.

Quels sont les trois termes qui vous viennent à l’esprit lorsque vous pensez au « présent » des habitants de l’Europe du Nord-Ouest entre le XIVe et le XVIIe siècle ?

Sécularisation ; commerce ; bouleversements

Enfin, quelle serait votre ‘utopie de recherche’ si vous aviez un financement illimité ?

Être suffisamment nombreux à travailler sur la question pour multiplier les enquêtes monographiques (par artistes, par types d’objets, etc.), alors que la date est toujours une donnée assez mal référencée et photographiée par les musées. Et comme utopie de livrable, un film documentaire, très certainement !

10/03/202515/03/2025

Conférence : “Le présent comme horizon temporel” – Adeline Desbois-Ientile (12 mars 2025)

L’œuvre et la circonstance (XVe-XVIe siècles)

Dans le cadre du programme des expert meetings de notre projet, Adeline Desbois-Ientile (maîtresse de conférences à l’UFR de langue française de Sorbonne université et membre de l’équipe 4509 STIH (Sens, texte, informatique, histoire)) fera une intervention intitulée : ‘Le présent comme horizon temporel’ : l’œuvre et la circonstance (XVe-XVIe siècles)’.

HORAIRE & LIEU

Mercredi 12.03 : 14h15 – 16h

Séminaire online

contactez marije.osnabrugge@unil.ch pour obtenir le lien

DESCRIPTIF

L’actualité occupe une place de choix dans la production historiographique et poétique des XVe et XVIe siècles, qu’elle soit l’événement motivant la rédaction d’une œuvre dite de circonstance ou constitue le contenu même du texte. Écrire l’actualité est même la mission de certains auteurs, qui bénéficient de charges d’historiographe dédiées ou d’une protection qui leur impose en contrepartie des devoirs. Des rhétoriqueurs aux poètes de la Pléiade, les pièces de circonstance liées à la vie de la cour foisonnent. Et pourtant, dans les 50 à 100 ans qui les séparent, ces auteurs mettent en œuvre un programme temporel différent, aussi bien dans la représentation qu’ils donnent du passé ou du présent, que dans leur manière d’inscrire leurs propres textes dans le temps. Je m’intéresserai ici plus particulièrement à la temporalité de la réception telle qu’elle est programmée par les auteurs. Autrement dit : pour quelle communauté temporelle ces historiographes et poètes écrivent-ils ? Et comment cette projection transparaît-elle dans les choix qui sont faits en matière d’écriture ?

Affiche conférence Adeline Desbois-lentile Télécharger