Carpentry and sculpture from Gothic to Art Nouveau
First Edition of the new Annual Seminar on European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Hôtel de la Roche, Mons, Belgium, Saturday 19th – Monday 21st July 2024
A combined effort of the Centre de Recherches Historiques sur les Maîtres Ébénistes and the Low Countries Sculpture Society, whose libraries and archives have merged and are housed in the Hôtel de la Roche (1750) at Mons, the Annual Seminar will have its inaugural edition in July 2025.
The first edition wishes to address questions about the production, consumption, collecting and display of “carpentry furniture” (in the Parisian sense of the expression) across Europe and North America, from the gothic period to Art Nouveau. Issues of design history, collaborations between creators and producers, artists and artisans, as well as the relations with any other people involved are sought. Specificities of “carpentry furniture”, as opposed to other types of furniture design and production, may be investigated. This includes the study of relations between carpenters and sculptors, as well as that of historic sources, such as those published by André Jacob Roubo (1739-91).
Its theme will draw, amongst others, but not exclusively, on the rich tradition of carpentry in the Low Countries, often in combination with magnificent sculpture in solid oak, particularly for church furniture, and on the Parisian tradition for “meubles de menuiserie” (“carpentry furniture”), as differentiated from “meubles d’ébénisterie” (“veneered furniture”) from the the 17th century onwards, as formalised with separate guilds. “Carpentry furniture” included seat furniture, console tables, floors and wall pannelling often with ornate sculptural elements, and always in solid wood, frequently painted and/or gilt, as opposed to veneered furniture. Gilt console tables were a particularly respected product of the Paris “menuisiers”.
2025 Seminar Committee of Honour
Muriel Barbier, Château de Fontainebleau
Dr Emile van Binnebeke, Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels
Prof Dr Ludmila Budrina, Ural Federal University / Ekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts
Enrico Colle, Museo Stibbert, Firenze
Dr Alan Darr, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit
Frédéric Dassas, Musée du Louvre, Paris
Dr Alexander Dencher, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Jeanne Faton, Editions Faton, Dijon
Dr Henriette Graf, Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg / mobile e.V.
Dr Elizabeth den Hartog, University of Leiden
Dr Mia Jackson, The Rothschild Collection, Waddesdon Manor
Dr Helen Jacobsen, The Attingham Trust, London
Dr Marc-André Paulin, Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France, Paris
Adriana Turpin, The Furniture History Society / formerly Institut d’Etudes Supérieures des Arts, Paris / University of Warwick
Michiel de Vlam, conservator of furniture, Den Haag
2025 Scientific Committee
Jean-Dominique Augarde, Centre de Recherches Historiques sur les Maîtres Ebénistes, Paris / Mons Prof em Dr Ria Fabri, University of Antwerp
Grégory Maugé, Centre de Recherches Historiques sur les Maîtres Ébénistes, Paris / Mons
Thierry Naveaux, The Low Countries Sculpture Society, Brussels / Mons
Dr Miriam E. Schefzyk, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Prof em Dr Volker Seiberth, University of Heidelberg / The Low Countries Sculpture Society
2025 Organising Committee
Tyr Baudouin, The Low Countries Sculpture Society, Brussels / Mons
Dr Katia Berseneva, Ecole du Louvre, Paris
Maître Guillaume Hambye, Sollicitor, Mons
Dr Léon Lock, The Low Countries Sculpture Society, Brussels / Mons Sébastien Tercelin de Joigny, Maison Tercelin de Joigny, Mons / Seneffe Jenny Tondreau, Fabrique d’église de la collégiale Sainte-Waudru, Mons
Saturday 19 July 2025
(10.18-12.17 Paris Nord-Maubeuge by train) (12.20-12.50 Maubeuge-Mons shuttle by car/taxi) (11.31-12.42 Brussels Airport Zaventem-Mons by train) (11.48-12.42 Brussels Central-Mons by train)
13.00 Welcome Lunch followed by half day of seminar and dinner
Sunday 20 July 2025
Full day of seminar, including a thematically appropriate excursion within the vicinity of Mons
Monday 21 July 2025
Half day of seminar
13.00 Lunch and farewell (14.19-15.13 Mons-Brussels Central by train)
(14.19-15.31 Mons-Brussels Airport Zaventem by train) (Flights from Brussels Airport Zaventem after 17.30) (14.45-15.15 Mons-Maubeuge shuttle by car/taxi) (15.42-17.42 Maubeuge-Paris Nord by train)
(Flights from Paris Charles de Gaulle or Paris Orly after 20.30)
(14.00-14.50 tbc Mons-Brussels South Charleroi Airport bus shuttle)
(Flights from Brussels South Charleroi Airport after 17.30)
The above programme is indicative, non-contractual and subject to change without notice.
Practicalities
The seminar has an international and multidisciplinary orientation. As such, we hope to attract lively participation from junior and senior scholars in the history of furniture and furnishings, sculpture, as well as practitioners of restoration-conservation in the same and other relevant fields. Short papers (maximum 30 minutes) of new research or work in progress may be presented in English or French. A minimal passive knowledge of English and French are highly recommended to enable full participation in the ensuing discussions, which form the core of the seminar.
The seminar will take place without audience (apart from the speakers), but it will be filmed and broadcast live on YouTube.
The Society covers accommodation expenses for foreign speakers at the seminar, as well as all group meals and the Sunday excursion. On the other hand, travel arrangements to and from Mons are the responsibility of the individual participants and their travel expenses will not be reimbursed. We will endeavour to help with a shuttle from Maubeuge to Mons (20 km), as there is a direct train line from Paris to Maubeuge, that is more reliable than the one to Mons.
Please send participation proposals with a 200-word abstract of the intended paper and a 200-word CV by email to: . We prefer to receive your abstract written in your mother tongue. We will then have it professionally translated into English and French for our Scientific Committee. We will inform of the Scientific Committee’s decision in April.
The CFP deadline is 31 March 2025 at midday.