[1] Italians Look at Germans

Organizers and Chairs: Kathleen Giles Arthur, James Madison University
and Martha Dunkelman, Canisius College

The impact of Italian art on Germany during the Renaissance is a
familiar topic. Writers note Venetian color in Durer, ancient sculpture
in Jan Gossaert, and Roman Mannerism in Jan van Scorel. If German
artists visited Italy, special attention is given to what they took to
the north when they left. Less consideration has been given to
exploring ideas introduced into Italy by German artists. The few
exceptions to this center on prints, such as the story of Michelangelo
copying Schongauer's St. Anthony, or the interest of Raphael in Durer.
There were certainly other ways, however, that German images, ideas, and
techniques evoked responses in the Italian artistic community. This
session welcomes papers that present new research on how German art,
artists, and patrons who were present in Italy were influential on
Italian artists during the Renaissance. Essays may consider specific
borrowings, theoretical concepts, material practices, or any other
aspect of the influence of Germans on Italians.

Please send a brief abstract (no more than 150 words); keywords; and a
brief curriculum vitae (300-word maximum) to Kathleen Giles Arthur
arthurkgjmu.edu and Martha Dunkelman dunkelmmcanisius.edu by Friday,
May 30th.

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[2] Vittoria Colonna and Michelangelo: A Broader Vision

Chair: Bernadine Barnes, Wake Forrest University
Organizer: Tiffany Lynn Hunt, Temple University

Research about Vittoria Colonna's interest in the visual arts is
centered on her relationship with Michelangelo, especially around the
1540s, when the two exchanged ideas about reformed spirituality. But
Colonna's influence on Michelangelo lasted longer—even beyond her death
in 1547—and may be seen in works other than the presentation drawings he
did explicitly for her. Colonna was part of a large network of
aristocrats, religious leaders, relatives and friends who also had an
interest in art and who sometimes requested copies of the works that
Michelangelo made for her. For this session we seek papers that consider
how images were commissioned, copied, used and shared within this
network. Did the works of art made for this circle of friends play a
role in spreading ideas about reform? We welcome contributions dealing
with works Vittoria Colonna did for Michelangelo, works she requested
from other artists, as well as examples of her influence in
Michelangelo's late oeuvre. We are also interested in the distribution
and reuse of these works, and shared themes in pieces commissioned by
her friends and correspondents, such as Cardinals Reginald Pole and
Ercole Gonzaga.

Please send a brief abstract (no more than 150 words); keywords; and a
brief curriculum vitae (300-word maximum) to Bernadine Barnes
(barneswfu.edu) and Tiffany Hunt (tiffany.hunttemple.edu) by Friday,
May 30th.

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[3] The Absent Image in Italian Renaissance Art

Organizers and Chairs: Lauren Dodds, University of Southern California;
Emily R. Anderson, University of Southern California

Lacunae mark the study of Italian Renaissance art. Canonical works like
Giotto's Navicella, Michelangelo's monumental bronze sculpture of Pope
Julius II, and Raphael's missing "Portrait of a Young Man" disappeared
in the face of renovation and war. Less dramatically, vast swaths of art
and material culture failed to survive to the present due to changing
perceptions of their value and purpose; in most cases, objects like wax
death masks, innumerable portrait covers and cases, ephemeral pageantry
banners and triumphal arches are no longer extant. Beyond expanding our
objects of inquiry, studying the lost elements of Renaissance art and
visual culture illuminates the ways in which the concept of the
Renaissance shapes and is shaped by surviving works of art. This panel
invites papers considering absence in Renaissance art: how have lost
objects stimulated creative energy in the past or present? Have
interdisciplinary approaches aided the re-envisioning of lost works of
art? How might the fundamentally visual discipline of art history
grapple with the absent image?

Please send a brief abstract (no more than 150 words); keywords; and a
brief curriculum vitae (300-word maximum) to Lauren Dodds
(ldoddsusc.edu) and Emily R. Anderson (eandersongetty.edu) by Friday,
May 30th.

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[4] 'Artistic Exchange in Unexpected Quarters': Art, travel and
geography during the Renaissance

By popular account, Pieter Brueghel the Elder swallowed up the mountains
and the rocks when journeying through the Alps, and spat them out again
in his work once home. Dürer and Patinir immortalised the landscape in
portable media, while for other artists and workshops, Alpine patrons
and churches offered gainful employment and with that, diffusion of
style and motif. Such was the power of this geography for artistic
creativity. Studies of exchange typically privilege urban contexts or
determine influence through the polarities of north and south, east and
west but little is made of the transitional zones in between or those at
the so-called margins. What potentials did they offer for artistic
exchange? Did it lead to unusual artworks, hybrid idioms or
iconographies? Was there resistance or revival of local traditions?

It is nearly 20 years since Claire Farago asked whether "the categories
into which our discipline [art history] is currently subdivided are
really well-suited to analysing questions of intercultural exchange."
Reframing the Renaissance anticipated the global turn, bringing together
studies of old and new worlds in an effort to rethink traditional
categories and boundaries. More worlds than ever are opening up to
Renaissance scholarship. This planned series of sessions borrows its
title from Aby Warburg's 1905 essay as a framework for new research on
artistic exchange and diffusion (sites, artworks, approaches) in
transitional zones across Italy, Europe and wider worlds, 1300-1650.

Please send your title, abstract (150 words max), and keywords, with
C.V. to Joanne Anderson by May 30 at: j.w.andersonsussex.ac.uk