Rivalries, Social Networks, and Cultural Production in Early Modern Italy

The Morris E. Curiel Institute for European Studies
Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
Monday-Tuesday, 30-31 May 2016

In Renaissance and early modern Italian society, communities and social groups formed the heart of both individual and corporate identity. Such networks served to support and strengthen the existing social order, yet they were also constantly subject to change and adaptations that external pressures and tensions demanded. This conference seeks to explore the role of cultural production in the creation, operation, and negotiation of social networks in Italy and, conversely, the ways in which these networks facilitated the exchange and translation of images, objects, rituals, and ideas. The papers proposed investigate artistic, literary, familial, political, and religious communities and the relationships between them, as friends or enemies. From networks between humanists, Hapsburg courtiers, and artists to rivalries and competition between and within both secular and religious groups, the individual papers address most aspects of early modern culture and the dynamics that shaped and drove their production and transmission.

PROGRAMME

MONDAY, 30 MAY 2016
Gilman Humanities Building, Lecture Hall 458

12:30 KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Diane Ghirardo (University of Southern California)
"The Self-presentation of Isabella d’Este and Lucrezia Borgia"

14:00-15:30 Lunch for Conference Participants

15:45-17:30 SESSION I, SOCIAL NETWORKS AND CULTURAL PRODUCTION I
Chair: Benjamin Arbel (Tel Aviv University)

Marika Leino (Oxford Brookes University)
"Inscribed for Posterity? Hidden Inscriptions and Notions of Collective Memory in Fifteenth-Century Florence"

Maria DePrano (University of California, Merced)
"Giovanni Tornabuoni’s Social Connections and Art Patronage"

Miriam Szőcs (Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest)
"The Role and Function of Moderno’s Paxes in Northern Italy"

17:30 Coffee Break

18:00-19:45 SESSION II, SOCIAL NETWORKS AND CULTURAL PRODUCTION II
Chair: Miriam Eliav-Feldon (Tel Aviv University)

Gur Zak (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
"Humanist Epistolary Networks and the Genealogy of Compassion"

Simona Cohen (Tel Aviv University)
"The Recycled Illustrations in Antonio Francesco Doni’s Filosofia Morale and the Circle of the Poligrafi"

Elena Calvillo (University of Richmond)
"Behind One Great Miniaturist, Several Imperial Women"

TUESDAY, 31 MAY, 2016
Naftali Social Sciences Building, Lecture Hall 527

12:00-13:00 SESSION III, INTER- AND INTRA-COMMUNAL RIVALRIES
Chair: Yosef Schwartz (Tel Aviv University)

Giacomo Corazzol (Tel Aviv University)
 "Jewish and Venetian Authorities in the Face of Inter-Community Violence: A Case from Sixteenth-Century Candia"

Tamar Herzig (Tel Aviv University)
"Art, Intra-Communal Rivalry, and Jewish Conversion in Renaissance Ferrara"

13:00-14:30 Lunch for Conference Participants

14:45-17:15 SESSION IV, RIVALRIES AND SOCIOPOLITICAL NETWORKS

14:45-15:45 Chair: Elena Calvillo (University of Richmond)

Katherine M. Bentz (Saint Anselm College)
"Competitive Conviviality: Counter-Reformation Cardinals and Roman Villeggiatura"

Giordano Mastrocola (University of Toulouse - Jean Jaurès)
"The Triumph of the Furies in 1550: The Florentine Carnival in the Service of Cultural Rivalry"

15:45-16:15 Coffee Break

16:15-17:15
Sefy Hendler (Tel Aviv University)
"Generosissimi Soldati & Onoratissimi Cittadini: Considering the Diverse Identities of Stefano Colonna"

Nicholas Scott Baker (Macquarie University)
"Navigating the Spanish Mediterranean: A Reading of the Celebrations for the Marriage of Cosimo I de’ Medici and Eleonora de Toledo"

17:15 CONCLUDING REMARKS
Katherine M. Bentz, Elena Calvillo (University of Richmond), Tamar Herzig (Tel Aviv University)

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Travel and accommodation for foreign speakers were made possible by major funding from the Lila Wallace – Reader’s Digest Endowment Fund at Villa I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies.

CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS:
Katherine M. Bentz (Saint Anselm College)
Elena Calvillo (University of Richmond)
Tamar Herzig (Tel Aviv University)