April 6, 2020 marked the quincentenary of the death of Raffaello Sanzio (1483-1520), one of the most brilliant and consequential artists in the western tradition. Praised during his lifetime as “Prince of Painters” (pictorum princeps), a description rendered indelible by Giorgio Vasari, this characterization long served to obscure Raphael’s artistic achievements in other modes. He was in reality an impresario in many media: revered in his own day as Rome’s chief architect, Raphael was also an urbanist and a designer of landscape, as well as of sculpture, silver, prints, and tapestries. A series of international conferences and exhibitions held in 1983-84, the quincentenary of the artist’s birth, was a watershed in Raphael studies, and in the intervening years, building on those events and publications, new understandings of Raphael have begun to take form, not only as a designer in an array of media, but also in terms of his collaboration with other artists, patrons, advisors, and literati. This conference dedicated to Raphael brings together established and emerging scholars to take stock of what has been accomplished in the past 37 years, to assess current approaches to his astonishingly innovative, diverse and influential body of work, to present new research, and to chart directions for further study. Expanding upon well- established lines of inquiry, the program reflects new approaches to the quintessential old master.

Register online at http://reconsideringraphael.vassarspaces.net/

Organizing Committee:

Tracy E. Cooper, Professor, Temple University
Yvonne Elet, Associate Professor, Vassar College
Marcia B. Hall, Laura Carnell Professor of Renaissance Art, Temple University
Sheryl E. Reiss, Newberry Library Scholar-in-Residence / University of Chicago, Graham School
Linda Wolk-Simon, Visiting Professor, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University / Independent Curator

Program

Friday, April 9, 2021

I Introduction / Raphael at Work
9:30-11:15 EDT

Welcome: William Hoynes, Dean of the Faculty and Professor of Sociology, Vassar College
Chair: Yvonne Elet, Associate Professor, Vassar College

Approaches of Raphael and Leonardo to Draftsmanship and Composition
Matthew Landrus, Research Fellow, Wolfson College & Faculty of History, University of Oxford

II Raphael and Women
12:00-13:30 EDT

Chair: Tamara Smithers, Professor, Austin Peay State University

“Sì come piacque a quelle semplici e venerende donne”: Raphael and Gendered Viewing
Sheryl E. Reiss, Newberry Library Scholar-in-Residence / University of Chicago, Graham School

A Mother’s Wise and Prudent Grief: Reading Raphael’s Baglioni Entombment through the History of Emotions
Heather Graham, Assistant Professor, California State University, Long Beach

Raphael, Models, and the Making of Madonnas in Renaissance Rome
Kim Butler Wingfield, Associate Professor, American University, Washington

All in the Family: Raphael’s Workshop and the Business of Art
Linda Wolk-Simon, Visiting Professor, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University / Independent Curator

Sex Shop: Raphael and the Erotics of Print
Madeleine C. Viljoen, Curator of Prints and the Spencer Collection, The New York Public Library

III Raphael as Antiquarian, Architect, and Urbanist
14:00-15:45 EDT

Chair: Linda Wolk-Simon, Visiting Professor, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University / Independent Curator

Raffaello o del completo recupero dell’Antico (“Lettere,” Sonetti, Vitruvio)
Francesco Paolo di Teodoro, Professor, Politecnico di Torino

The Raphael School in Naples: Architecture and Antiquarianism
Charlotte Nichols, Associate Professor, Seton Hall University

Raphael, Landscape Architect
Yvonne Elet, Associate Professor, Vassar College

Raphael’s Share in the City Planning of Rome
Hubertus Günther, Professor, Universität Zürich

Saturday, April 10, 2021

IV Since the Princeton Raphael Symposium of 1983: Quo vadis?
10:00-11:30 EDT

Chair: Tracy E. Cooper, Professor, Temple University

Raphael’s Late Style and his Use of Imprimatura
Marcia B. Hall, Laura Carnell Professor of Renaissance Art, Temple University

Raphael versus Mother Nature
Cathleen Hoeniger, Professor, Queen’s University

Raphael and the Material Turn: the Role of Technical Analysis since 1983
Tiffany Lynn Hunt, Independent Scholar

V Raphael across the Media
12:00- 13:30 EDT

Chair: Sheryl E. Reiss, Newberry Library Scholar-in-Residence / University of Chicago, Graham School

Raphael's Tapestries for the Sistine Chapel and Rome’s Paleochristian Past
Tracy Cosgriff, Assistant Professor, The College of Wooster

Leo’s Temptation: Raphael’s Ezekiel Panel as Quadretto?
Christa Gardner von Teuffel, Associate Senior Research Fellow, Centre for the Study of the Renaissance and Court Cultures, University of Warwick

Raphael and Music: The Vatican Stanze as Venues for Musical Performances
Anthony M. Cummings, Professor of Music and Coordinator of Italian Studies, Lafayette College

VI Keynote
14:00-14:45 EDT

Chair: Linda Wolk-Simon, Visiting Professor, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University / Independent Curator

Canonization and its Consequences
Sir Nicholas Penny, Visiting Professor, The China Academy of Art, Hangzhou / Director, National Gallery of Art, London (2008-15)