[1] Renaissance Care

From: John Rattray, John.Rattraybiblhertz.it
Date: 1 July 2022
Deadline: 1 August 2022

The Lise Meitner Research Group “Decay, Loss, and Conservation in Art History” at the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History solicits abstracts for a paper session to be held at the 2023 Renaissance Society of America (RSA) Annual Meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

This session looks at how people and communities in early modernity cared for objects that mattered to them. It aims at moving beyond restoration and treatment, examining instead a broader set of material and immaterial practices aimed at securing and maintaining the object’s well-being. These might include (but are not limited to) acts of physical or symbolic protection and repair; rites of consecration, inauguration, and restitution; as well as what we nowadays describe as preventive conservation, risk management, environment control, and boundary maintenance. Our attention therefore extends to spaces of deposit, storage, and concealment, away from those sites of display (the gallery, the cabinet, the studiolo) that have been the focus of much art-historical research.

The session seeks to contribute to the growing contemporary discourse on the ethics and politics of care by making space for a longer historical analysis of these practices, articulating their differences and exposing where they come into conflict with one another. In examining “Renaissance Care”– who gives care, to what, and for what reasons – we also seek to explore the extent to which caring practices are defined in response to the object’s endangerment, especially in times of conquest or conflict.

We invite papers focusing on European and Colonial contexts and welcome proposals in both Spanish and English.
Please email a 150-word abstract and a brief CV to Francesca.Borgobiblhertz.it before August 1, 2022.

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[2] Fluid Spaces: Negotiating Otherness in Early Modern Environments of Hygiene

From: Aleksander Musial, amusialprinceton.edu
Date: 2 July 2022
Deadline: 1 August 2022

What makes a space favourable or detrimental to the human condition? Since Antiquity, physicians have debated the influence of the physical environment, especially water and air, on bodily and mental health. In the early modern period, the interest in ancient medical texts revived this debate, spurring new interest in the healing properties of localities commonly considered salubrious or even physically and morally dangerous due to specific environmental features.

This panel aims to bring together specialists in early modern medicine, history of science, public health and architecture to discuss how such unique and often liminal spaces as thermal springs, swamps, grottos, and bathhouses were investigated, understood and institutionalized by physicians and legislators, architects, agriculturalists and engineers. We are particularly interested in the role of the senses in establishing and negotiating the otherness of these localities, including medics’ use of smell and taste to determine the effectiveness of mineral springs or architects’ deployment of hydraulics, ventilation, and sound effects to establish an intended microclimate within artificial structures. This sensory approach will emphasize the potential of such spaces to blur traditional oppositions of safe and dangerous, internal and external, and natural and built environments. It will also allow us to reconstruct the experiences of the users of these localities, who often saw their liminal nature both as a source of anxiety and fascination.

Please send a 150-word abstract, a curriculum vitae no longer than 5 pages, and the PhD completion date (as per the RSA guidelines) to Aleksander Musiał (amusialprinceton.edu) and Giacomo Savani (giacomo.savanigmail.com) before Monday, 1 August 2022. Presenters will have to be active RSA members.

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[3] Grappling with Imperialism and Colonialism in the Early Modern Art History Classroom

From: Rachel Miller, rachel.millercsus.edu
Date: 28 June 2022
Deadline: 1 August 2022

Given the roles played by colonization, imperialism, and global movement of people and commodities in shaping the history of San Juan, Puerto Rico, our hosting location for RSA 2023, this panel takes the often emotional connection between past and present as the starting point for an examination of something else that has historically been shaped by the history of colonialism: art historical pedagogy.

The “global turn” in art history has brought new types of objects and new conceptual frameworks into the early modern art history classroom; however, as many of these objects have histories that are intertangled with imperialism, colonialism, and the global trade in enslaved persons, art historians of the early modern period and our students must grapple with what is often termed the “darker side” of the age. At the same time, colleges and universities are increasingly facing pressure about what should and should not be taught as part of a curriculum.

We aim to showcase the work of instructors who have developed assignments, activities, projects, and other teaching methods that delve into the visual and material culture of imperialism and colonialism in the early modern period. What strategies and objects have worked for bringing the rich discussions of these themes from scholarly literature into the classroom? How do educators, perhaps especially those trained before the broader acceptance of or interest in the global, pivot effectively to address complex discussions of hybridity, transnationality, and diversity with a new generation of students?

Topics/approaches could include but are not limited to:
– Marginalization of non-painting/non-sculpture as a manifestation of European colonization
– Breaking down students’ assumptions about what makes ‘good art’
– Reconsiderations of the canon and art historical terminology/periodization
– Anti-racist pedagogy and trauma-informed pedagogy in the art history classroom
– Objects in motion: transition and hybridity
– Open Access materials, DH projects and other mechanisms for accessibility
– Cases of including students in your research agenda, or where classroom encounters alter your research agenda

For consideration, please submit the following to Rachel Miller (Rachel.millercsus.edu) and Saskia Beranek (srberanilstu.edu) by August 1, 2022.
Full name, current affiliation, and email address
Paper title (15-word maximum)
Abstract (150-word maximum)
1-page CV (.pdf or .doc)
PhD or other terminal degree completion date (past or expected)

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[4] Asceticism and Renaissance Visual Culture

From: Andrew Chen, ahc45txstate.edu
Date: 27 June 2022
Deadline: 1 August 2022

We invite proposals that address the place of art, architecture, and the visual in the ascetic cultures of the Renaissance. The period 1300-1600 witnessed the flourishing of longstanding monastic orders as well as the emergence of new observances and lay ascetic practices. We wish to investigate the ways in which denial of self catalyzed and promoted creativity in the arts, and how new visual forms transformed the ascetic habitus. Additionally, we seek to articulate how Renaissance asceticisms might be linked to concepts of individual and social rebirth or renewal.
Papers may address one or more of the following topics:
- Ascetic landscapes
- Meditation and media
- The aesthetics of poverty
- Practices of the body and rules of art
- The productivity of self-denial / asceticism and creativity
- Visual and imaginative techniques in relation to images and ascetic desire
- The sensory environment of the hermit
- Imagined asceticisms in secular/urban contexts
- Monastic networks of patronage
- Eremitical migration and cultural transmission
- New imageries of ascetic prototypes in the Renaissance
Please submit proposals to Andrew Chen (ahc45txstate.edu) and Rebekah Compton (comptonrtcofc.edu) by August 1st, 2022. We welcome submissions from scholars from any discipline, but papers should focus on art and the visual.
Your proposal should include
- Your name, affiliation, and e-mail address
- Paper title and abstract (maximum 150 words)
- A2-page CV

Submission of a proposal represents a provisional commitment to attend an in-person conference in March 2023. Presenters must be active members of RSA at the time of the conference.