CALL FOR PAPERS

Architecture in the Spanish Habsburg World

59th annual meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians

26-29 April 2006
Savannah, Georgia

Deadline: September 10th 2005

General Chair: Barry Bergdoll, Columbia University
Local Chair: Robin Williams, Savannah College of Art and Design

This Call for Papers can also be read
at http://www.sah.org

Architecture in the Spanish Habsburg World: Sixteenth and Seventeenth
Centuries The session invites studies of urban and architectural enterprises
promoted or sanctioned by the Spanish Habsburgs in the Old and in the New
World. By exploring the dynamism and versatility of the artistic policies of
the Monarquía Universalis, the session hopes to challenge the very idea of
an "Imperial" style. Recent scholarship has already brought to light the
multiple cross-cultural components of the Habsburg dynasty and of
royally-sponsored architecture in Madrid and Castile. For instance, research
on Philip II's architectural patronage has demonstrated the influence of
Burgundian etiquette, as well as Flemish (and even French) architectural
materials and stylistic details. Studies of buildings like the palace of
Charles V in Granada and the El Escorial, have revealed how Italian models
helped shape architectural design. The manner in which the political
resistance (or agreement) of Spanish cities and local aristocracies to
Habsburg authority both affected urban choices and implemented regional
styles in Spain, remains to be fully investigated. Jesús Escobar's book on
Baroque Madrid (2003) shows that collaboration between royal and municipal
authorities was achievable under specific financial circumstances.

This session welcomes papers that consider this political situation, and
which seek to read the Habsburg Empire as a Monarquía de las Naçiones, not
only in its international politics, but also in its architectural
enterprises. Questions might include the relevance of private and/or
regional contributions to the self-making process of central monarchic
imagery; financing and ownership. Ultimately, the session starts from the
premise that despite its hegemony, the Spanish Habsburg dynasty never
produced repeatable architectural models, let alone a single architectural
vocabulary that could be exported or cloned.

Send proposals by September 10th 2005 (deadline, NOT POSTMARKED), to: Sabina
de Cavi, CASVA, National Gallery of Art, 2000B South Club Drive, Landover,
MD 20785; tel. 202-8426890; fax 202-8426733; e-mail: s-decavinga.gov ;
sabinadecavihotmail.com

For information on funding and grants, consult the SAH website at:
http://www.sah.org
Abstracts must be of no more than 300 words. They are to be headed with the
applicant's name, professional affiliation [graduate students in brackets],
and title of paper. Submit with the abstract a short résumé, home and work
addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address. Abstracts should
define the subject and summarize the argument to be presented in the
proposed paper.

The content of that paper should be the product of well-documented original
research that is primarily analytical and interpretative rather than
descriptive in nature. Papers cannot have been previously published, nor
presented in public except to a small, local audience. Only one submission
per author will be accepted. All abstracts will be held in confidence.

E-mail:
sabinadecavihotmail.com