Opus Incertum, 13 (2027)
Painting and Architecture (14th-17th Century)
Edited by Francesca Fiorani

This special issue of the journal is devoted to the interactions between the physical space of buildings and sites and the virtual space of site-specific visual images. While the painted representation of urban settings, architecture, landscapes, and buildings as backdrops to scenes has been amply examined, essays in this volume engage with visual images that that have been purposefully planned and designed to actively interact with the physical space in which they are contained. Consideration is also given to programmatic iconographies the meaning of which is amplified by the real space of the architecture, as well as to modalities by which architectural spaces are enhanced by their wall decoration. Essays may analyze site-specific images in any media—glass, tapestry, painting, tarsia, mosaic—and from any geographical area in Europe and around the Mediterranean, spanning from the late middle ages to the seventeenth century, that interact with urban spaces, or with secular or religious buildings, or with ephemeral structures, always keeping front and central their relation with the physical space. These images may represent architectural spaces, landscapes, buildings, lands, and territories, in any form or system of representation—perspectival views, bird’s-eye views, or plan views.

Topics might include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The dematerialization of architectural space in the decoration of walls, domes, or vaults.

• Representational techniques to integrate real architectural spaces with virtual spaces, such as the manipulation of light, colors, and projections, or the use of three-dimensional wood models to plan and design decorative cycles for existing architectural spaces.

• Sets of images that design specific paths, rituals, processions, or functions within a building or a site, such as screens, arches, or via crucis inside religious and secular buildings or in urban settings.

• Imaginary spaces as documented in technical treatises, in prints, or drawings.

• Theoretical analysis of treatises that address the interaction between real space and virtual space.

• Painting and urban spaces, such as painted facades.

• Works and writings by artist who were both painters and architects, such as Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Raphael, Michelangelo, Giorgio Vasari, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, among others, which explicitly address the invention of site-specific virtual spaces vis-a-vis architectural and urban

Proposals are welcome for essays in Italian, English, or French that should be a maximum of 40,000 characters in length, including notes, and should be illustrated with a maximum of 10 images (free of fees).

Proposals are also welcome for short essays for the section “Delizie per gli eruditi”, which should be a maximum of 15,000 characters in length, including notes, and should be illustrated with a maximum of 4 images (free of fees).

Proposals should be sent to: Francesca Fiorani at ff6fvirginia.edu.

Deadlines:
15 July 2026: deadline for submission of abstract (max 2000 characters) and a short CV (max 1000 characters)
30 July 2026: notification of acceptance
15 November 2026: essay submission
31 December 2027: publication