[1] Understanding artist migration: immigrant and itinerant artists
during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

Early modern artists were remarkably mobile. Despite political and
economic turmoil, artists managed to traverse great distances and cross
regional boundaries with considerable frequency. Such unprecedented
mobility cultivated artistic exchange and innovation, encouraging on the
one hand the exploration of new materials, motifs, and techniques while
also fostering far-reaching stylistic connections. While the effect of
travel on an artist's subsequent career after his return has received
considerable attention from scholars, the process of migration remains
less understood.

This panel will consider the dynamics of artist migration and its
artistic, cultural, economic, and even psychological implications. In
particular, this session seeks to explore how migration impacted and was
manifested in artistic production and social and professional behavior
(relationships, networks, communities, etc.). Artists living and working
in a foreign center often were challenged to mediate their individual
cultural and artistic identity with that of their new environment. Their
strategies in response to these challenges varied. For example, some
immigrant-artists tried to adapt to local artistic developments, others
opted for differentiation or specialization or searched for additional
sources of income. The success of artistic strategies also depended on
social factors, including integration, the formation of foreign
colonies, opportunities for local patronage and artistic collaboration.

We welcome papers that approach artist migration and its visual
expression with case studies or conceptually/theoretically. Please send
your paper title, abstract (max. 150 words), and CV (max. 300) to Erin
Downey (edowneytemple.edu) and Marije Osnabrugge
(m.g.c.osnabruggeuva.nl). The deadline for submissions is 30 May 2014.

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[2] Wölfflin Renaissances 1915-2015

Organizers: Evonne Levy and Tristan Weddigen

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Heinrich Wölfflin's
Kunstgeschichtliche Grundbegriffe (Principles of Art History) we propose
three sessions on one of the signal works of early modern art history, a
work translated into 24 languages and still in print, taught and
debated. The sessions will bring together papers on Wölfflin’s text, and
on its wide and wildly diverse receptions: from its deep dissemination
and ongoing humming as one of art history's unacknowledged operating
systems to its positioning as a scapegoat at times of disciplinary
renewal. The session organizers, co-editors of a new English translation
of the book (Getty Publications, 2015) and of a larger research project
on the worldwide reception, propose to bore down on the occasion of the
Berlin RSA meeting on the important and complex Central and Eastern
receptions, while also inviting papers on any aspect of the text and its
reception in the humanities that are of concern to today's researchers
in art history and also in other disciplines (such as literary studies
and musicology), where the book enjoyed a wide reception at a time when
art history might have provided a method for many Geisteswissenschaften.

Potential speakers please send an abstract (150-word maximum) and brief
curriculum vitae (300-word maximum) by May 25, 2014 to
evonne.levyutoronto.ca and tristan.weddigenuzh.ch. Participants are
responsible for their own travel and accommodation and must be members
of the RSA at the time of the conference. For more information about the
RSA conference, please consult the RSA site:
http://www.rsa.org/?page=2015Berlin.

Session I: "Wölfflin Renaissances - Reading Wölfflin in Germanophone
Europe"
Kunstgeschichtliche Grundbegriffe, published in Germany by the Swiss art
historian Heinrich Wölfflin in 1915, has gone through 19 editions. An
immediate publishing success, it is currently back in the discussion on
the history of art history, after decades of refusals and
‘renaissances’. Papers are called for that help to explain the reading
of this work in the context of debates in art history and
Kunstwissenschaft over the 100 years since it was published. Papers may
map out symptomatic episodes in the reception of this book: as a work of
high theory and interdisciplinary impact as well as a popular work read
in drawing rooms across Germanophone Europe, a work laying out the
foundations for a ‘science of art’ and a decontextualizing formalism, a
work redefining the notion of both Renaissance and Baroque etc. The
reception of the Grundbegriffe being global, this panel focuses on the
Germanophone world as to explore its immediate impact and discussion.

Session II: "Wölfflin Renaissances - Reading Wölfflin in Central and
Eastern Europe"
Heinrich Wölfflin’s Kunstgeschichtliche Grundbegriffe has been
translated into Rumanian, Hungarian, Polish, Slovenian, Lithuanian,
Croatian and Russian and is currently being translated into the Georgian
language. These largely post-war translations surely reflect the
politics of the region in the first place. In this session proposals for
papers are called for that examine the need for and peculiar uses of
this fundamental work of formalism in the context of local institutions,
teaching and scientific cultures of art history, before and after World
War II and the Iron Curtain. Papers may focus on key transmitters and
institutions, on the history of the translations and editions
themselves, on methodological debates that may have arisen with the
translation and the effects of the work on the discipline in a given
place. Positive and negative reactions are equally valuable.

Session III: "Wölfflin Renaissances - New Perspectives of the
Kunstgeschichtliche Grundbegriffe"
Papers are called for that offer new perspectives on any aspect of
Wölfflin’s Kunstgeschichtliche Grundbegriffe and its worldwide reception
(1915-2015). Topics may include, but are not limited to: the reading of
Wölfflin’s text outside of art history (philosophy, literary studies,
musicology, history and so on); traces of Wölfflin’s formalism in recent
art history and art practice; Wölfflin’s principles and museum display;
the impact of the Grundbegriffe on notions of Renaissance and Baroque;
Wölfflin’s role in recent discussions about the notion of style;
Wölfflin’s comparative method (genealogy and afterlife); the affirmative
and critical modes of reception in the post-war period and after 1968;
formalism and post-war art movements and art criticism; formalism in the
classroom; the afterlife of the Grundbegriffe through Wölfflin’s
students etc.

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[3] Painting in Naples 1600-1656

Captivating female saints, violent martyrdoms, painted with quick
palpable brushstrokes; intricate iconographies of mythology and
devotion. Neapolitan painting is often characterized by art historians
as being dramatic in expression, with a strong emphasis on naturalism
and intense chiaroscuro. However, this portrayal does little to address
its material, intellectual, and spiritual dynamics. This session seeks
to explore the wealth of Neapolitan painting between 1600 - just before
Caravaggio's arrival in the city - and the plague of 1656. Within this
period, important foreign artists like Caravaggio, Ribera, Domenichino,
Artemisia Gentileschi and Mattia Preti entered into a creative
interaction with local artists like Caracciolo, Stanzione, Falcone and
Cavallino. Their art developed divergently within the context of
literary academies, the Neapolitan elite, the viceregal court and
ecclesiastical institutions.
In this session, we want to address the most recent developments of
international research on Neapolitan painting. We welcome papers on
individual artworks that illustrate important aspects of Neapolitan art,
such as materiality, spirituality, iconography, violence, intellectual
context and patronage. By focusing on individual paintings, we aim to
create a virtual "Galleria" of Neapolitan art.

Please send your 150 word-abstract with title and key words and your CV
(max. 300) to Bogdan Cornea (ibc500york.ac.uk) and Marije Osnabrugge
(m.g.c.osnabruggeuva.nl). Deadline 1 June.