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[1]
From: Berthold Hub
Subject: Renaissance Orders and their Afterlife

Deadline: 23.07.2023

Biographies of Architectural Details: Renaissance Orders and their Afterlife.

“Although other famous architects seem to recommend by their work either the Doric, or the Ionic, or the Corinthian, or the Tuscan division as being the most convenient, there is no reason why we should follow their design in our work, as though legally obliged; but rather, inspired by their example, we should strive to produce our own inventions, to rival, or, if possible, to surpass the glory of theirs.” (Leon Battista Alberti, De re aedificatoria I,9)

In the built architecture of the Italian Renaissance there are numerous details that deviate from the canon of the orders as this was established by the treatises of the 16th century. This is especially true of the 15th century, when there was no interest in such a canon, but also of the 16th century, when this canon was only slowly emerging without ever reaching a unique/definitive configuration.

In the existing scholarship, the architectural details of the orders do not appear to have received appropriate attention. Some relevant questions are the following. What is their point of origin in terms of architectural theory and/or practice? Do they follow ‘antique’ models or do they constitute new inventions? Are they possibly a compilation of various older motifs, some of which are no longer extant today? What are their formal capabilities and what was their afterlife in the centuries that follow?

Exceptionally better studied in this respect are the Ionic capitals of Michelangelo's Conservatory Palace. But what about, for example, the capitals of Alberti's Palazzo Rucellai, or the entasis of Palladio's pilasters, or the outward-facing volutes of Scamozzi's Ionic order? This call seeks contributions that investigate ‘biographically’ the origin, the morphology, and the afterlife of the architectural details of the orders. The discussion of painted and sculpted architecture as well as their relationship to monumental architecture is particularly welcome. Additionally, we wish to investigate the relationship of Renaissance practice to contemporaneous art and architectural theory. In what way do these phenomena relate to the notions of mimesis, imitatio and aemulatio, or alternatively ingenium, fantasia, and inventio? Of particular interest is the afterlife of the orders in the greater geographical area of the Mediterranean reflecting economic and cultural exchange.

Please send a max. 200 word abstract and a short CV by July 23 to Berthold Hub and Angeliki Pollali. Participants need to be members of the RSA at the time of the conference. For further details see https://www.rsa.org/page/RSAChicago2024

Berthold Hub berthold.hubbht-berlin.de
Angeliki Pollali apollaliacg.edu

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[2]
From: Andrew Horn
Subject: Queering the religious image in the early modern period (c. 1350–c. 1700)

Deadline: 01.08.2023

For some decades LGBTQ+ issues have been a growing area of research and scholarly debate within the broader field of gender and sexuality in Renaissance and early modern studies, including Renaissance and early modern art. In the study of religious art, investigations of queer themes have yet to assume a proper place in a field still dominated by the traditional concerns of iconography, hagiography, traditional sacred narrative, liturgy, materiality, patronage, style, and the devotional and meditative functions of religious images.

This session aims to bring together current research that addresses queer themes and issues in early modern religious art. ‘Queering’ the religious image is a problem that we wish to approach from the social perspective, as well as the religious and theological perspective. ‘Queer’ is intended in the widest sense, to include anything outside binary, heteronormative understandings of identity and human experience.

How do queer identities, experiences and narratives, and the images associated with them, fit into the broader historical narrative of religious culture in the early modern period, especially the period of religious reform? How do such images challenge or even subvert the norms imposed by religious and social authorities and institutions? How do they challenge or subvert heteronormative assumptions regarding the nature of God and the histories and experiences of saints and religious figures?

We encourage submissions dealing with Christian art as well as the art of other religions, and we are open to all geographical areas. Possible topics might include (but are not limited to):
• queer theologies
• queer or alternative readings of sacred history
• queer religious experience
• the sexuality of Christ, his apostles, saints and religious individuals
• queer identities of artists and/or patrons
• gender, gender fluidity, and gendered experiences of faith and the divine
• sexuality and its place in faith and religion

Please submit the following to Andrew Horn, University of St Andrews (drandrewjhorngmail.com) by 1 August 2023:

- Title (15-word maximum)
- Abstract (150-word maximum)
- Keywords
- Shortened CV including name, current affiliation, email address, and PhD completion date (3-page maximum)

Selections will be made and participants notified by 8 August 2023.

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[3]
From: Caterina Cardamone
Subject: Architectural Exchanges from Flanders to Florence

Deadline: 30.07.2023

This session focuses on exchanges from Flanders to Florence in the broad field of architectural culture, 1400-1600. Within a context of intense commercial and political relationships between the two regions, and an evident appreciation in Florence of Flemish painting and applied arts, little research has been done on the reception there of Flemish (or, more broadly, northern) architecture and its place within the attested internationalism of Renaissance Florence. Topics may include:
- The (positive) reception of the North and its architecture, urban life and ways of living and dwelling in the writings (treatises, libri di ricordanze, correspondence) of Florentine merchants, patrons, artists, architects, commentators.
- The presence, function or reception in Florence of images of a distinctly northern (gothic) architecture or northern ways of living (in paintings, prints, and other works of art or applied art, libri delle ore).
- The circulation of northern/Flemish building materials (e.g. black marble) and techniques (e.g. stained glass manufacturing) and their impact on Florentine architectural culture.
- The role of Flemish artworks and luxury objects in Florentine palace interiors.
- The involvement in architectural commissions of Flemish/Dutch painters or sculptors working in Florence.
- Topographical depictions of the ‘Flemish’ built environment in Florence (e.g. paintings of cities, battles and sieges from the Low Countries in Florentine palaces).
- Flemish communities in Florence and their institutional buildings (e.g. Flemish-German confraternity chapels).

Please submit your paper proposal to the organizers, Gianluca Belli (gianluca.belliunifi.it), Caterina Cardamone (caterina.cardamonevub.be) and Pieter Martens (pieter.martensvub.be), by 30 July 2023. Paper proposals should include: paper title (15-word maximum), paper abstract (200-word maximum), and a 1-page CV (including full name, current affiliation, and e-mail address).