CFP 09.07.2018

5 Sessions at RSA (Toronto, 17-19 Mar 19)

Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting, Toronto, 17.–19.03.2019

ArtHist Redaktion

[1] Discoveries of artistic materials in the Renaissance: curiosity, expertise, representation and profit
[2] Space, Place, and Presence in the Trecento: Representing Three-Dimensionality Before the Age of Perspective
[3] Art Beyond Spanish Italy, 1500-1700
[4] Rethinking Renaissance and Early Modern Musical Instruments
[5] Decorative Arts in the Early Modern Era and Now

[1] From: Aleksandra Lipinska
<aleksandra.lipinskakunstgeschichte.uni-muenchen.de>
Discoveries of artistic materials in the Renaissance: curiosity, expertise, representation and profit
Deadline: Aug 1, 2018

In the 16th century a wave of discoveries of new beds of decorative stones
transformed the material appearance of artistic and architectural monuments
in Europe.

Three factors lay at the core of this development. The first of these was
the new, empirical approach to mineralogy and mining, represented by such
scholars as Georgius Agricola, the author of the influential work De natura
fossilium libri X (1546), and Anselmus de Boodt, known for his Gemmarum et
lapidum historia (1609).

Secondly, the keen interest of rulers in prospecting new natural resources
came into play. This interest was stimulated by a combination of several
trends: the new model of princely education, which included the study of
nature; growing interest of rulers in potential income from natural
resources (early mercantilism); and the emergence of a new form of
collecting – the Kunst- and Naturalienkammer.

The third decisive factor was the unprecedented mobility of artists in this
period. Itinerant artists were welcomed by distant courts not only because
of their expertise in art matters, but also in view of their experience in
prospecting, mining, and transport of artistically useful materials.
Trading in materials discovered in their new postings often became their
chief source of income, and in this way they contributed to the spread of
these materials.

This panel seeks to discuss the following questions:

- discoveries and re-discoveries of artistic materials (not only stones!)
in the Renaissance
- cooperation between rulers and artists on the prospecting, mining, and
merchandising of artistic materials
- rulers’ use of artistic materials as means of representation: staging
through materials, diplomatic gifts, granting of permission for use of
material sources by other commissioners; means of spreading knowledge about
(re)discovered materials
- connections between the introduction of new materials and formal or
technical innovations, as a consequence of the specific features of those
materials
- sources documenting (re)discoveries of materials and invention of new
techniques or tools

Please submit proposals to Aleksandra Lipinska
(aleksandra.lipinskakunstgeschichte.uni-muenchen.de) by August 1, 2018.

Proposals should include a paper title (15-word maximum) and abstract
(150-word maximum); keywords; and a brief academic CV (300-word maximum).
Submission guidelines available at
https://www.rsa.org/page/2019SubmissionsGuide

[2] From: Danny Smith <smithdastanford.edu>
Space, Place, and Presence in the Trecento: Representing Three-Dimensionality Before the Age of Perspective
Deadline: Aug 1, 2018

Foundational studies such as Erwin Panofsky’s Perspective as Symbolic
Form and John White’s Birth and Rebirth of Pictorial Space have initiated
a decades long discussion of how artists approached the representation of
three-dimensional space in the early Renaissance. More recent studies, such
as Massimo Scolari’s Oblique Drawing have shown that the teleological
narrative that gives primacy to one-point perspective tends to overlook the
dynamism and narrative potential of spatial representation in the art of
the fourteenth century. This panel will ask how these overlooked kinds of
pictorial space - from the illusionistic niches of the Scrovegni Chapel
annunciation scenes to the miniature landscapes on altarpiece predellas -
shaped the function, experience, and role of art in the Trecento.

We invite submission of proposals for twenty-minute presentations that
examine depictions of spatial depth beyond the confines of perspectival
systems. While the panel’s focus is the fourteenth and early fifteenth
century, representations of space that intentionally eschew perspective in
later time periods will also be considered.

Potential topics may include, but will not be limited to:
Oblique perspective
Depictions of architecture and architectural space in painting or other
media
Representations of spatial depth as a means to guide a viewer’s
experience
Trompe-l’oeil or anamorphosis
Artistic techniques that articulate spatial hierarchies (for example lay
vs. sacred space)
Framing devices and microarchitectures that shape or respond to the
physical spaces they adorn
Late-medieval and early Renaissance theories of vision
Cosmography and theories of space and place
Consideration of how different types of places or settings influence the
representation of space within them (for example, a chapel interior vs. a
frescoed cloister)

Please submit abstracts of no more that 250 words alone with a curriculum
vitae to John Witty (j.c.wittyemory.edu) and Danny Smith
(smithdastanford.edu) by 1 August 2018.

[3] Kelley Di Dio <kelley.didiouvm.edu>
Art Beyond Spanish Italy, 1500-1700
Deadline: Jul 27, 2018
session sponsored by the Italian Art Society

“Your interest in Italy is the main artery by which the pulse of all your
power beats…”
(Charles V to Philip II, 1555)

By the end of the sixteenth century, the Spanish crown controlled major
regions of the Italian Peninsula, from the Kingdom of Naples to the Duchy
of Milan. At the same time, areas outside of Spanish sovereignty, including
the Italian Republics, Tuscany, Mantua, and the Papal States, felt the
effects of Spain’s “soft” imperialism (Dandelet, 2001) in economic,
social, and cultural spheres. This panel focuses on art-historical
approaches that explore the question of Spanish cultural imperialism on the
Italian Peninsula outside of the Spanish Empire. Papers may explore topics
including, but not limited to: artistic patronage by agents of the Spanish
Empire or expatriate communities; the circulation of objects through
diplomatic, commercial, or artistic networks; artistic collaboration and
education; or the movement of artists between the Iberian and Italian
peninsulas.

Please send a brief abstract (no more than 150 words); keywords for your
talk (maximum of 8); and a brief curriculum vitae (300-word maximum in
outline rather than narrative form) to Emily Monty
(emily_montybrown.edu) and Emily Wood (emily.woodu.northwestern.edu).

[4] From: Emanuela Vai <ev321cam.ac.uk>
Rethinking Renaissance and Early Modern Musical Instruments
Deadline: Jul 27, 2018

Music has long been theorised as intangible culture separate from the
materiality of musical instruments. Moving beyond approaches that position
musical instruments merely as containers for sound, this panel aims to
rethink and reassess their material, visual, affective and social
dimensions. Recent interdisciplinary ‘turns’ towards new materialisms,
posthumanisms, sensorialities and object-orientated ontologies are opening
up alternative theoretical and methodological pathways and perspectives for
engaging with the material culture of music. Building on this growing
interest in the agency and vitality of matter, and the social lives and
affective dynamics of objects, this panel invites papers that engage with
the non-auditory or para-sonic aspects of Renaissance and Early Modern
musical instruments. Entangled in cultural flows and commodity chains,
instruments moved through Renaissance worlds, articulating meaning,
establishing relations and signifying social status as they did so. Musical
instruments materially index an array of cultural, political and aesthetic
values and were designed not only to be played and heard but to be seen,
sold and dis-played. Bringing together scholars from across the
disciplines, this panel aims to promote discussion of musical instruments
by exploring the ways in which they were valued and made to have meaning,
their materiality and aesthetics, and the range of relationships formed
between musical instruments and musicians, craftspeople, collectors and
sellers.

Topics could address but are by no means limited to:

- The social lives of musical instruments
- Musical instruments and the museological gaze
- Ornamentation, iconography, and aesthetics
- The challenges and opportunities of object-orientated and materialist
approaches
- Silenced, collected and dis-played musical instruments
- Practices of instrument production and consumption
- Musical instruments and gender/social/class status
- Object histories
- Instruments as models and metaphors in Renaissance scientific
epistemologies, cosmologies and ontologies
- Epistemological aspects of museum documentation and curatorial practices
- Musical instruments as material culture
- New technologies and historical research: digital imaging, modelling,
making and interpretation of cultural heritage objects

This CFP invites paper proposals from scholars working in musicology, art
history, organology, cultural history, material and visual culture studies
and anthropology. As per RSA guidelines, please send proposals including
presenter’s name and affiliation (if applicable), email, paper title
(15-word maximum), abstract (150-word maximum), keywords, and a brief
curriculum vitae to the organiser Emanuela Vai [ev321cam.ac.uk] by Friday,
27 July 2018.

Presenters will need to be members of the RSA by the time of the
conference. Submission guidelines are available at
https://www.rsa.org/page/2019SubmissionsGuide.
Feel free to email with any questions.

[5] From: Ulrich Pfisterer <ulrich.pfistererlrz.uni-muenchen.de>
Decorative Arts in the Early Modern Era and Now
Deadline: Jul 27, 2018

Decorative Arts in the Early Modern Era and Now
Co-organizers: Giancarla Periti and Ulrich Pfisterer

Decorative arts played a major role in shaping the visual identity of the
early modern world. Scholarship over the past twenty years has enriched our
understanding of the making of decorative objects, their multilayered
interpretations and agency, and the significant impact of the decorative
arts on the early modern visual culture of the Mediterranean, Asia and the
New World. Additional topics addressed in recent studies have included the
artisanal skills, technologies and seriality inherent to the production of
decorative arts, their circulation across distant geographical areas, and
their network of social, economic and artistic interrelations.

We seek proposals that confront the critical and epistemological issues
concerning the place of decorative arts in the enlarged early modern world
and that consider how they impacted the decentering of the visual culture
of the period. Other topics of interest can include gendered approaches and
interactions with decorative arts or attempts to interrogate categories of
decorative arts employing more refined historically or theoretically-driven
concepts than the labels of "minor" and "applied" used in the past.

Please send proposals to Giancarla Periti (giancarla.peritiutoronto.ca)
and Ulrich Pfisterer (Ulrich.Pfistererlrz.uni-muenchen.de) by July 27,
2018.
As per RSA guidelines, proposals should include the following materials: 1)
abstract (150-word maximum); 2) and a succinct curriculum vitae (300-word
maximum).

Quellennachweis:
CFP: 5 Sessions at RSA (Toronto, 17-19 Mar 19). In: ArtHist.net, 09.07.2018. Letzter Zugriff 29.03.2024. <https://arthist.net/archive/18562>.

^