Western Art History Portal/Japanese

Kayo Hirakawa Professor, PhD (Kyoto University)

Research Interests

• The diversification of painting forms in Northern Europe in the 16th and early 17th centuries
• The artistic relationship between Northern Europe and Italy in the 15th and 16th centuries
• Albrecht Dürer and the reception of his art in Northern Europe of the 16th and early 17th centuries

Contact Details

Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Yoshida-Honmachi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 6068501 Japan

hirakawa.kayo.6z*kyoto-u.ac.jp (change * to @)

Selected Publications

・Monograph

• The Pictorialization of Dürer’s Drawings in Northern Europe in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Peter Lang, Bern, 2009.

・Edited Books

• Toshiharu Nakamura, Inspiration and Emulation: Selected Studies on Rubens and Rembrandt, Kayo Hirakawa (ed.), Peter Lang, Bern, 2019.
• Kyoto Studies in Art History, vol. 1: Sacred and Profane in Early Modern Art, Department of Aesthetics and Art History, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 2016.
• Aspects of Narrative in Art History: Proceedings of the International Workshop for Young Researchers, held at the Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Kyoto 2-3 December 2013, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 2014.

・Essays

• “Longing for Eternity: Oil Painting on Copper in a Pre-Modern Global Context”, Stefan Albl, Berthold Hub, and Anna Frasca-Rath (ed.), Close Reading: Kunsthistorische Interpretationen vom Mittelalter bis in die Moderne; Festschrift für Sebastian Schütze, De Gruyter, Berlin and Boston, 2021, pp. 182―189.
• “Art and Society in the Early Modern Era: Workshop, Guild, Market, and Politics”, Studies in Western Art, 20, Methods and Practices of Art History, 2020, pp. 49－63. [Japanese/Abstract in English]
• “Spranger’s Last Judgement: Copperplate Oil Painting as Devotional Art”, Kyoto Bijutsushigaku: Journal of the Kyoto Society for Art History, 1, 2020, pp. 27-64. [Japanese]
• “Aspects of the Man of Sorrows in Early Modern Germany: From Pleydenwurff to Dürer”, Mikinosuke Tanabe (ed.), European Medieval Art, vol. 3, Andachtsbilder, Chikurinsha, 2018, pp. 403-424.[Japanese]
• “Albrecht Dürer’s The Desperate Man; Fleeing Images and the Creating Hand”, Toshiharu Nakamura (ed.), Kyoto Studies in Art History, vol. 2: Appreciating the Traces of an Artist’s Hand, Department of Aesthetics and Art History, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 2017, pp. 3–18.
• “Rarity, Curiosity, and Novelty: The Diversification of Painting Forms in Northern Mannerism”, The Journal of Philosophical Studies, 600, pp. 105-147, 30.[Japanese/Abstract in English]
• “Signboard for a Schoolmaster by the Holbein Broghers: Teaching and Learning as Depicted in Early Modern German Art”, Bijutsu Forum 21, col. 33: The Stages of Life in Art, Kyoto, 2016, pp. 35－40, 142. [Japanese/Abstract in English]
• “The Man of Sorrows in the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe: A Reconsideration of Dürer’s Gold-Ground Painting”, Kayo Hirakawa (ed.), Kyoto Studies in Art History, vol. 1: Sacred and Profane in Early Modern Art, Department of Aesthetics and Art History, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 2016, pp. 3－18.
• “Narrative and Material: Paintings on Rare Metal, Stone and Fabric in the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries”, Kayo Hirakawa (ed.), Aspects of Narrative in Art History, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 2014, pp. 33－46.
• “Faith, Family and Politics in Lucas Cranach the Elder’s Holy Kinship Altarpiece”, Toshiharu Nakamura (ed.), Images of Familial Intimacy in Eastern and Western Art, Brill, Leyden and Boston, 2014, pp. 54－82.
• “‘Four Elements’ by Hans von Aachen: Longing for the Rarity, Kyoto Studies in Aesthetics and Art History, 12, 2013, pp. 27－62. [Japanese/English version is now in preparation]
• “Spranger’s Italian Period and his Copperplate Paintings”, Kyoto Studies in Aesthetics and Art History, 10, 2011, pp. 133-162. [Japanese/English version is now in preparation]
• “Between the Ephemerality and the Immortality: Bronzino’s ‘Allegory of Happiness'”, Kyoto
  Studies in Aesthetics and Art History, 9, 2010, pp. 1－34. [Japanese/English version is now in preparation]
• “Birth of the Painting on Copperplate”, Kyoto Studies in Aesthetics and Art History, 8, 2009, pp. 1－31. [Japanese/English version is now in preparation]
• “Brueghel detto Infernale: ‘The Fire of Troy’ by Jan Brueghel the Elder”, Chaos, 2, Graduate School of Literature, Arts and Cultural Studies, Kinki University, 2005, pp. 131－161. [Japanese/English version is now in preparation]
• “Dürer and Jan Brueghel the Elder: One Aspect of the Pictorialization of Dürer’s Drawings at the Court of Rudolf II”, in Aesthetics, 10, The Japanese Society for Aesthetics, 2002, pp. 61－73.
• “Albrecht Dürer’s ‘Landauer Altarpiece’: Painter and Sculptor in Nuremberg”, Studies in Western Art, 7, 2002, pp. 24－41. [Japanese/Abstract in English]
• “Albrecht Dürer’s ‘Bagnacavallo Madonna'”, Bijutsushi: Journal of the Japan Art History Society, 146, The Japan Art History Society, 1999, pp. 344－361. [Japanese/Abstract in German]

Selected Presentations

• “Longing for Eternity: Oil Painting on Copper in a Pre-Modern Global Context,” Keynote Lecture, The Second Joint Workshop Kyoto University―University of Vienna, Kyoto University, 24, October, 2019.
• “Spranger Copies Fra Angelico on the Copperplate: The Last Judgement for Pius V”, VI. Bodensee-Gespräche über Kunst/Bodoman Art Talks, Reinwaldhaus, Ludwigshafen-Bodman, Germany, 11, July, 2019.
• “Nature and Meditation: Landscape Painting in Early Modern Europe”, Kyoto University International Symposium: Does Nature Think? UNESCO, Paris, 7. June, 2019.
• “Netherlandish Baroque Painting: The Emergence of Specialists and the Golden Age of the Painting”, Lecture at the exhibition: Old Masters from the State Hermitage Museum, Lecture Hall, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe, 25. November, 2017.
• “Pre-Modern European Painting and the Restoration”, Lecture at the exhibition: SOUKOU—Japan Way to Beauty and Preserve Cultural Heritage, Lecture Hall, The Kyoto University Museum, Kyoto, 11. February, 2017.
• “Albrecht Dürer’s The Desperate Man: Fleeting Images and the Creating Hand”, Kyoto Art History Colloquium: Appreciating the Traces of an Artist’s Hand, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 25. September, 2016.
• “The Fascination of Early German Prints”, Lecture at the exhibition: Sacred and Secular: Israhel van Meckenem & Early German Engraving, Lecture Hall, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 6. August, 2016.
• “Challenge for Virtuosos: German Prints and Goldsmith Works in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries”, Symposium of Japan Association for Studies of Art in German Speaking Countries: Print as a Place for Creation, Communication and Memory, 2302 Room, Building 2, Shirokane Campus, Meiji Gakuin University, Tokyo, 5. December, 2015.
• “Rarity, Curiosity and Novelty: Aspects of the Diversification of Painting Forms in Northern Mannerism”, The Annual Meeting of Kyoto Society of Philosophers, International Assembly Room, Clock Tower Centennial Hall, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 3. November, 2015.
• “The Man of Sorrows in the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe: A Reconsideration of Dürer’s Gold-Ground Panel Painting”, Kyoto Art History Colloquium: Sacred and Profane in Early Modern Art, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 4. October, 2014.
• “Die Erfindung der Ölgemälde auf der Kupferplatte im sechzehnten Jahrhundert”, Aspekte des Erzählens in Kunst und Kunstgeschichte, Reinwaldhaus in Ludwigshafen-Bodman, Germany, 11. July, 2014.
• “Narrative and Material: Paintings on Rare Metal, Stone and Fabric in the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries”,  The International Workshop for Young Researchers: Aspects of Narrative in Art History, Graduate Schoolof Letters, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 2-3 December 2013.

Research Projects

• “Jan Brueghel the Elder as a Storyteller”, 2018－2021 Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
• “Rarity, Curiosity and Novelty: Aspects of the Diversification of Painting Forms in Northern Mannerism”, 2014－2016 Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
• “The Birth and Development of the Copperplate Painting: The Cultural Exchange between the Northern and Southern Europe”, 2009－2011 Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
• “Emulation with Old Masters: Reception and Adaptation of Northern Renaissance Art in Prague Mannerism”, 2005－2007 Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
• “Dürer Collection and Dürer Renaissance at the Court of Rudolf II”, 2002 Grant-in-Aid, The Kajima Foundation for Art.
• “Historical Studies of German Art in the 15th and 16th Centuries, especially of Albrecht Dürer”, 1997-2000 JSPS Research Fellowship for Young Scientists, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

Academic Career

• April 2001－March 2009　Lecturer/Associate Professor at the School of Literature, Arts and Cultural Studies, Kinki University
• September 2007－March 2008　Studied at the Max-Planck Institute for Art History in Rome on the research fellowship of Kinki University
• April 2009－March 2017　Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University
• October 31－November 13 2013　Short-term stay at the University of Vienna on the Researcher Exchange Programs with Oversea Partner Institutions of Kyoto University
• 30 March－30 September 2014　Guest Researcher at Trier University under the sponsorship of the Kyoto University Global Frontier Project for Young Professionals: The John Mung Advanced Program
• From April 2017　Professor at the Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University