Academic Sessions: Exeter 1998
Fashioning Identities in Renaissance Art
Convener:
Mary Rogers (University of Bristol)
The conference theme of 'Identities' suggests many possibilities for the historian of the arts of the Renaissance, an epoch which, according to Burckhardt's classic account, saw the birth of the individual identity, and which, according to Stephen Greenblatt, saw a new sort of conscious 'self-fashioning' born out of social, cultural and religious change. Several papers might wish to develop or to challenge these ideas in the artistic sphere, exploring topics such as the artist's construction of a distinctive identity in building his or her career, or fashioning, or having fashioned, a suitable image of self in visual or verbal form. Such a paper could include artists' houses and their furnishings, artists' tombs or artists' biographies or pen-portraits. Or
the identity could be that of the patron, for whom architectural or artistic patronage might be a means of establishing a public persona. Alternatively, and in line with the emphasis of much scholarship of recent decades, contributors might wish to stress the interplay between individual and group identities, both within the styles and codes of works of art, and during their planning, creation and reception.
Papers are invited on the architecture, fine and decorative arts, biography, criticism and other writing of the Renaissance, that engage with these, and other related, topics. 'Renaissance' will be understood broadly, as denoting the period c.1300 - 1650, north or south of the Alps.
Proposals for papers should be sent to the convener at the following address:
University of Bristol, History of Art Department, 36 Tyndalls Park Road, Bristol BS8 1PL. Tel: (0117) 928 8591; Fax: (0117) 929 7850.
Mary Rogers (University of Bristol)
The conference theme of 'Identities' suggests many possibilities for the historian of the arts of the Renaissance, an epoch which, according to Burckhardt's classic account, saw the birth of the individual identity, and which, according to Stephen Greenblatt, saw a new sort of conscious 'self-fashioning' born out of social, cultural and religious change. Several papers might wish to develop or to challenge these ideas in the artistic sphere, exploring topics such as the artist's construction of a distinctive identity in building his or her career, or fashioning, or having fashioned, a suitable image of self in visual or verbal form. Such a paper could include artists' houses and their furnishings, artists' tombs or artists' biographies or pen-portraits. Or
the identity could be that of the patron, for whom architectural or artistic patronage might be a means of establishing a public persona. Alternatively, and in line with the emphasis of much scholarship of recent decades, contributors might wish to stress the interplay between individual and group identities, both within the styles and codes of works of art, and during their planning, creation and reception.
Papers are invited on the architecture, fine and decorative arts, biography, criticism and other writing of the Renaissance, that engage with these, and other related, topics. 'Renaissance' will be understood broadly, as denoting the period c.1300 - 1650, north or south of the Alps.
Proposals for papers should be sent to the convener at the following address:
University of Bristol, History of Art Department, 36 Tyndalls Park Road, Bristol BS8 1PL. Tel: (0117) 928 8591; Fax: (0117) 929 7850.