Call for Papers
The Renaissance Narrative Relief: Ghiberti to Giambologna

Session at the Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting 2014

Although often ignored in the grand scheme of Italian art, the narrative
relief--in bronze, marble, or stucco--was one of the most important
means of communicating stories in the Renaissance. From bronze doors to
altars to funeral chapels and tombs, the relief narrative inhabited a
world between classical revival and Christian tradition. And although
relief was not a substantive part of the paragone debate, Leonardo
argued in his trattato that it succeeded because it was a "mixing of
painting and sculpture" (by which he meant true and, therefore,
free-standing, sculpture). Vasari, in his discussion of the three arts
of design, reinforces a similar notion of relief. This session seeks
papers that discuss any aspect of Italian Renaissance relief production
and composition in order to highlight its uniquely liminal nature.

Interested parties should contact Shannon Pritchard (snpritcharusi.edu)
and Shelley Zuraw (szurawuga.edu) by May 24 with a 150-word abstract, a
brief cv (no more than 300 words), and relevant keywords.