Palatium Munich Masterclass: Court Residences as Places of Exchange in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, 1400–1700

The six day Munich master class Court Residences as Places of Exchange in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, 1400–1700 focused on the late medieval and early modern European court residence or 'palace' in an interdisciplinary perspective: The interaction between palace architecture, including its interior decorations and stately collections, and the ceremonial. It took place March 2 to March 7, 2015, at the Institute of Art History at the Ludwig- Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich, in the rooms of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in Munich and as part of a day excursion to Landshut.

The lectures at the master class dealed with residences all over Europe and topics of various scholarly backgrounds. Here a combination of short presentations and discussions on a small scale specifically for students was chosen in combination with their following participation in an internationally oriented conference. A main goal was to put the hitherto often unconnected current national research projects in a European context. In these two days short presentations and lively discussions introduced different areas of court studies. Here experts could be integrated from all over Europe:

Krista De Jonge (Leuven): Introduction on Context, Nobility and Courtly Networks 15th – 18th Century
Mark Hengerer (Munich): Norbert Elias and Others: Theory Building in the Field of Courtly Culture
Marc Grellert (Darmstadt): Court Architecture and Digital 3D Modelling. Principles and Case Studies
Stephan Hoppe (Munich): The Munich Residence as a Case Study 16th – 18th Century. Views, Plans, Descriptions, Photographs
Nuno Senos (Lisbon): Inventories and Courtly Spaces
Pieter Martens (Leuven): Court Culture and Military Architecture. Fabian Persson (Kalmar): Court Ordinances as a Source

The following days the Master Class was organized in conjunction with the Munich Palatium Symposium. Here it was the Bavarian Academy of Sciences located in the ancient electoral and kingly residence of Munich, which generously offered the conference venue and infrastructure and gave the event its ideal setting. The cooperation with this institution was very productive and enjoyable. A bus excursion on Saturday showed relevant examples in Landshut. In Landshut the group had access to areas of the castles Trausnitz and the city residence (Stadtresidenz), which are normally closed to the public. Here special issues of architectural history could be discussed and compared with the findings.

The master class students with some of their teachers in front of the Institute of art history at the LMU Munich