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Bad Reception: Negative Reactions to Italian Renaissance Art

Type: Calls For Papers [View all]
Posted by: Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut
Deadline: Wed, January 31st, 2018

Call for Papers for Graduate Students:
Bad Reception: Negative Reactions to Italian Renaissance Art

Advanced students currently enrolled in a Doctoral (Ph.D.) program are invited to submit a proposal for a paper to be presented at “Bad Reception: Negative Reactions to Italian Renaissance Art;” this international workshop will be held on 15-16 November 2018 at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut. The event is organized by Diletta Gamberini (Italian Literature, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München), Jonathan Nelson (Art History, Syracuse University in Florence), and Alessandro Nova (Art History, Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut).

   

For the first time, “Bad Reception” sets out to bring together scholars from a variety of disciplinary fields to discuss the phenomenon of the negative reception of Italian art and architecture, as expressed across a broad spectrum of responses written during the long Cinquecento (late 15th to early 17th century). Scholarly literature has generally focused on individual case studies, or else on the specific inflections of negative criticism in codified literary writings, such as vituperative poems on art. The present workshop seeks to advance the current state of scholarship by exploring the intersections of different genres of texts that were used to criticize paintings, sculptures, and architectures (e.g. artistic literature, epistolography, poetry, memorialistic, and archival documents), and by seeing the impact these discourses had on the afterlife of the art under discussion.

We ask participants to consider one or more of the following points, ideally in reference to several different examples: 

- What were the conventions used for criticizing works of art? What were their literary and art-historical sources and models? And how did such conventions evolve over the period under examination?

- How did the criticism articulated by one type of textual discourse (e.g. vituperative poetry) interfere with the form, contents and scope of negative comments to artworks made in different genres?

- On what aspects of the works of art did the critic mostly focus (e.g. lack of decorum, verisimilitude, iconography, technical skill, beauty)?

- What were the consequences of the negative evaluations for the artistic product itself and/or for its author (e.g. revision, rejection, removal, or destruction of the artwork; reduced status of the artist; different forms of reply to the comments)?

  

The workshop will consist of a series of 25-minutes papers, either in English or Italian, given by senior and junior scholars. Publication of the contributions to the “Bad Reception” workshop will be decided after the event. The Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz will provide funding toward the cost of travelling and accommodation for accepted speakers.

Applicants must be currently enrolled in a Doctoral program; dissertation topics need to have been formally accepted. Proposals, written in English or Italian, must include the following information:

1. Academic Summary (university level only): a) name and address of current institution, b) short description of PhD dissertation (200-300 words), c) expected date of completion, d) name and email address of advisor(s).

2. Professional Summary: a list of relevant work experience and/or publications.

3. Proposal: title, and short description (200-300 words).

   

Interested applicants should send their proposal, in a single file (PDF),
to Sekr_Nova@khi.fi.it by January 31, 2018.

Posted on Thu, October 19th, 2017
Expires on Wed, January 31st, 2018

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