Exhausted with Antiquity: A Symptom of Early Modern Invention

Renaissance Society of America, Philadelphia, PA
April 2-4, 2020

Where and when did early modern artists, architects, and writers begin to show signs of fatigue with the models of the classical past, and what kinds of creative experiments developed in response? Renaissance scholarship has long since moved beyond an understanding of its period as one defined first and foremost by a revival of antiquity. Although the significance of antiquarianism and classicism to manifold developments in early modern art and culture remains incontrovertible, both of those projects also met with productive resistance.

We invite papers addressing works of art or literature that reveal an exhaustion with antiquity and a conscious attempt to develop alternative modes, forms, and principles of invention. Especially welcome are proposals for papers that consider competing notions of the past, the distinction between ‘antique’ and ‘modern’, the political and cultural implications of the choice to forgo classical models, and the reasons why antiquity may have come to be perceived as an exhausted source in the context of certain moments and localities.

To submit a paper proposal please provide the following by email to Marisa Bass (marisa.bassyale.edu) and Carolyn Yerkes (yerkesprinceton.edu) by 22 July 2019.

- your name and institutional affiliation
- paper title (15-word maximum)
- abstract (150-word maximum)
- keywords
- curriculum vitae (up to 5 pages)
- PhD completion date (past or future)