Subject: The Multimedial Early Modern Workshop.
From: Amanda Hilliam, Laura Stefanescu.

The early modern workshop has been the subject of sustained art historical enquiry, from research on contracts, apprenticeships, concepts of originality and seriality, to studies of taste, commerce and materiality. Yet such discussions have tended to focus on individual media, reinforcing notions of the separation between the arts that are reflected in modern museum taxonomy and the professional skills of the art historian. Although studies on metapainting, images-within-images, and the ‘paragone’, or competition between the arts, have revealed a consciousness among early modern makers and theorists of individual media and their respective qualities, these ideas arose from contexts in which formal, material and technical exchange across artistic practices was commonplace and in which the boundaries between different media were far from stable.

This panel highlights the generative and fluid nature of early modern artistic production by examining the intersection of media in the workshop and transmedial encounters suggested by artworks and written sources. How did multimedial training, specialisation, or collaboration influence artistic practice in the early modern period? What types of transfer took place, whether related to techniques, materials, iconographies or motifs? How did the proximity between workshops specialised in the production of different types of objects facilitate the exchange of props, materials and skills? Can we connect creativity and invention to multimedial dynamics?

We welcome papers related to these and similar questions, which investigate the multimedial dimension of workshop practice in the early modern period, the constant dialogue and interaction between artistic media, and their implicit transmedial effects.

Session conveners:
Amanda Hilliam, I Tatti / The University of York, amanda.hilliamyork.ac.uk
Laura Stefanescu, I Tatti / The University of Sheffield, laura.c.stefanescugmail.com

To offer a paper:

Please email your paper proposals direct to the session convenor(s).

You need to provide a title and abstract (250 words maximum) for a 20-minute paper (unless otherwise specified), your name and institutional affiliation (if any).

Please make sure the title is concise and reflects the contents of the paper because the title is what appears online, in social media and in the digital programme.

You should receive an acknowledgement of receipt of your submission within two weeks.

Deadline for submissions: 1 November 2024

For more information see:
https://forarthistory.org.uk/conference/2025-annual-conference/