Project description
Sensing a hidden history of art
Despite a high degree of digital access to historical paintings, we often lack an understanding of the conditions and contexts of their creation. Restoring and deepening this knowledge is crucial for the history of art and our cultural heritage. In this direction, the EU-funded PaintOdor project aims at a study building from the “smell of paint” to unveil the fascinating role of olfaction and painters’ studio organisation in the course of the material history of art. The focus is on the French art of painting from the mid-18th to the first half of the 20th centuries. The project will provide a rich analysis of alternate “hidden history” using historical sources from a broad range of archives.
Objective
“Intoxicated by turpentine.” When Marcel Duchamp so described the painters of his time, the avant-garde artist was not only criticizing a traditional way of thinking about the materiality of art, he was also modernizing a commonplace of medical discourse as well as a recurring and significant motif in the French commentary on the arts. Investigating historically the stereotype of “the smell of paint,” this research project seeks to underscore the important role of olfaction in the material history of art and in the historical conceptions of the art of painting in France from the mid-18th century to the first half of 20th. At the crossroads of art history and history of the sciences, this research will describe how medical concerns about the smell of paint significantly influenced the making and the composition of colors as well as the size and organization of the painter’s studio, consequently affecting the social status of the artist and, ultimately, the critical discourse on art, which often used the smell of a painting in metaphors expressing an aesthetical judgment. Thus, from the creation of a painting to its reception, the frequent references to the smell of paint unveil a hidden aspect of the history of art that will be illuminated through this analysis of a variety of historical sources, including, in particular, medical works, technical treatises on painting, industrial archives, art criticism, satirical drawings, etc. Finally, this historical research on the smell of a painting will be applied to the creation of a pedagogical tool aimed at the museum-going public. It will present the historical evolution of the painter’s studio through the smells of the painter’s materials. This sensory experience of the materiality of painting aims to embody art history, providing museum visitors with an alternative to the digital approach to works of art.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology materials engineering colors
- humanities arts visual arts
- humanities history and archaeology history
- humanities arts art history
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EF
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2018
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
69365 Lyon
France
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.