Call for papers--Renaissance Society of America Annual Conference

Renaissance Society of America Annual Conference

Call for Papers

Renaissance Society of America Annual Conference
Chicago
30 March - 1 April, 2017

Eternal Painting? The Meaning and Materiality of Copper Supports
Session Sponsored by the Italian Art Society

In the Lives of the Artists, Giorgio Vasari championed Sebastiano
del Piombo for having "introduced a new method of painting on stone,
which pleased people greatly, for it appeared that by this means
pictures could be made eternal, and such that neither fire nor worms
could harm them." Vasari elaborated by describing how the same
technique could be extended to "silver, copper, tin, and other
metals." Piombo, however, was just one of many fifteen and
sixteenth-century artists who experimented with supports beyond the
more traditional media of panel, canvas, and fresco; Italian
painters employed a variety of stone and metal supports on projects
of diverse scale and subject matter.  Vasari himself painted on
copper, utilizing the material not only to produce paintings that
were impervious to the threats he enumerated but also to enhance the
aesthetic impact and perhaps even materialistic resonance of his
compositions, as seen in Vulcan's Forge (1567-68, Galleria degli
Uffizi).

Numerous painters explored this relationship, establishing a
conceptual association between the copper support and the subject
matter of their artworks.  This connection between the physical and
narrative elements was manifested in a number of ways, sometimes
visible to the viewer, and sometimes only known to the patron and
artist.  The use of a copper support should not be taken as a
straightforward indication that the artist chose a more durable, or
perhaps "eternal," medium.  Rather, the intersection of material and
meaning in these paintings often warrants reconsideration.  This
session seeks to explore the associations between subject matter and
support in paintings on copper from Italy, ca. 1300 - 1650.  Papers
that present a combination of art historical and conservation
research as well as those that consider copper in relation to other
alternative supports--such as tile, slate, and various metals--are
particularly encouraged.

Please send a brief abstract (no more than 150 words); a selection
of keywords for your talk; and a brief curriculum vitae (300-word
maximum in outline rather than narrative form) to
alexander.noelle<-at->courtauld<.>ac<.>uk and sallyrhiggs<-at->gmail<.>com by June
1, 2016


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