CAA News Today

CFP RSA 2019 Toronto
Netherlandish Art and Artists in Spain, 1400-1600
HNA-Sponsored Session

“When the Spanish vessels from India are suffered from the English pirates or other bad fortunes, and when the Spanish parcels cannot be dispatched from Rome, the Netherlanders would have a hard time. For it is the Spanish who buy their things the most.”

So wrote Karel van Mander in 1604, reflecting the importance of Spanish buyers to the market for devotional paintings on copper by Netherlandish artists active in Rome. His remark speaks to a phenomenon that began centuries earlier. Netherlandish art and artists were assiduously brought to Spain from the fifteenth century on. Michel Sittow, who was not Netherlandish by birth but trained in Flemish art tradition, and Juan de Flandes, worked as court painters. Stained glassmaker Arnao de Flandes also moved to Spain during the 1490s and created the windows of several cathedrals. In the sixteenth century, Anthonis Mor painted portraits of many Spanish courtier. Even more prominent was importation of Netherlandish works of art themselves: well-known masterpieces by Rogier van der Weyden, Hieronymus Bosch, and Joachim Patinir (among others) were brought to Spain either by direct commission or through some kind of plunder.

Though such issues have been treated in monographs of artists or case-study articles, the transregional dialogue between the Netherlands and Spain remains understudied, especially when compared with scholarship on Italian-Netherlandish artistic exchange. With its strong power and influence, the Spanish court not only lured artistic talent from Italy and the Netherlands into its kingdom; Spain also came to play an unparalleled role in disseminating European art on a global scale through its trading and missionary activities. Likewise, the role and influence of Netherlandish art in Spain demands investigation in relation to local artistic tradition.

We invite papers to be presented at the annual meeting of the Renaissance Society of America (RSA) in Toronto that explore one of the many aspects of Netherlandish-Spanish artistic relationships, with a particular focus on the artists and works of art that were, at least once, physically situated in Spain. Possible topics may include but are not limited to:

• Artists active in Spain whose origin or school is Netherlandish
• Work(s) brought to Spain from the Netherlands and its influences
• Collections of Netherlandish art in Spain
• Spanish artists and artworks that engaged with the models of Netherlandish art
• Images with Netherlandish origin that were circulated via Spanish global networks
• Spanish discourses on Netherlandish art
• Activities of Netherlandish artists or agents in stopover locations (such as Rome and Naples) between Spain and the Netherlands

For those interested in presenting a paper, please send the following to Michiko Fukaya (michiko.fukaya@kcua.ac.jp) and Sumiko Imai (imaisu@osaka-ohtani.ac.jp) by July 26, 2018: the paper title (max 15 words), abstract (max 150 words), keywords, and a brief curriculum vitae (.pdf or .doc) including full name, current affiliation, and email address.