Grace Harpster's research focuses on the art of early modern Italy and the Catholic missions. Her first major project follows the pilgrimages of cardinal-archbishop Carlo Borromeo (1538-84), examining his interactions with sacred images to incorporate 'practice' into our understanding of how art and reform interrelate in the post-Tridentine era. In addition to other forthcoming works, she has published on how color theories affected both the conception of black African salvation in the early Jesuit missions and its representation in printed and painted media. Other interests include the history of restoration, early modern understandings of medium and material, and anthropological interventions into art history. Supervisors: Todd Olson and PhD Phone: 4153500300 Address: 1415 Van Epps Ave SE
This essay seeks to shift our perspective when addressing the question of the impact of the Counc... more This essay seeks to shift our perspective when addressing the question of the impact of the Council of Trent on art. Rather than focusing on the artistic treatises that emerged in the wake of the council, it turns to a different type of text: the records from visitations, regular church inspections that functioned as an important tool of Catholic reform. This analysis looks at apostolic visitation records in the Vatican archives between 1564 and 1630 to show how ecclesiastical visitors chiefly judged image decorum—and the definition of images themselves—according to function instead of form, giving priority to issues related to ritual use, such as conservation, consecration, and location. The functional definition of terms such as altarpiece and icona in the visitation records also reminds us to carefully consider the art historical vocabulary used in scholarship today.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY).
Before the Jesuits officially received their first saints, they capitalized on the power of the p... more Before the Jesuits officially received their first saints, they capitalized on the power of the portrait series to promote their martyrs. The growing ranks of Jesuit martyrs, thought to number over a hundred in the early seventeenth century, allowed the order to participate in contemporary trends of serial portraiture as a means of legitimization. This article focuses on one crucial object in this history, a 1608 print depicting one hundred and two Jesuit martyrs in a repetitive and chronological format, published by Matthäus Greuter and Paul Maupin in Rome. An analysis of Greuter's print demonstrates how the Jesuits coopted conventions of the portrait series to associate their martyrs with notions of Christian exemplarity and apostolic succession ingrained in the genre. The making of Jesuit identity cannot be disentangled from the discourse of portraiture, a category that includes the reiterative series as well as the naturalistic likeness.
Ambrogio Figino’s late-sixteenth century portrait of the future saint Carlo Borromeo (1538-84) ha... more Ambrogio Figino’s late-sixteenth century portrait of the future saint Carlo Borromeo (1538-84) has long been revered for its subtle naturalism. Art historians place its fictions within a certain stylistic timeline, and beholders prize the work’s ability to capture the spirit of its pious sitter. Yet this portrait simultaneously participated in a different register of value. Borromeo passed away in 1584, precisely as the legal process of becoming a saint was being revived and revised in the name of Catholic reform. In this world of church bureaucracy, Borromeo’s portraits functioned first and foremost as measurable proof. Their ubiquity and multiplicity proved the power of his cult, and their intercessory efficacy was carefully calculated. Borromeo’s legal trial for sainthood is filled with stories of devotees supplicating before his likenesses and pressing his portraits to ailing body parts in hopes for a cure. Artistic concerns of quality fall away in these thousands of pages of quantifiable evidence. This paper argues that rubrics of artistry and cultic value did, however, collide in late sixteenth-century Italy. From this vantage point, the new impulses of church reform are seen to increase the authority of the artwork and its maker.
**note: for a link to the full article, get in touch at gharpster@gsu.edu**
Erratum: Federico Borromeo is Carlo Borromeo's cousin, not his nephew.
Renaissance Religions: Modes and Meanings in History, eds. Howard, Terpstra, and Saccenti (Brepols), 2021
In 1577, the Italian cardinal-archbishop and later saint Carlo Borromeo (1538-1584) completed his... more In 1577, the Italian cardinal-archbishop and later saint Carlo Borromeo (1538-1584) completed his Instructiones fabricae et supellectilis ecclesiasticae, a guide to proper church building and furnishings. Copies of this text quickly spread throughout the Catholic world, helped by Borromeo’s reputation as the very exemplar of Counter-Reformation piety and austerity. The Instructiones reads as a practical manual, a set of instructions for bishops and parish clergy to use when evaluating the churches in their jurisdiction. The Latin text offers little in the way of theory, philosophy, or elegance. Instead, the reader finds obsessively detailed information about the proper placement of the crucifix over the altar, the best way to keep dogs from entering monastery gardens, and even the proper appearance of the missal bookmark. Chapter 17 deals specifically with “Sacred Images and Pictures,” leaving questions of artistic theory aside to vaguely and repetitively call for decorum, accuracy, and dignity in religious representations.
Despite the limitations and silences of the church instruction genre—and indeed, partially because of them—Borromeo’s Instructiones provides fundamental clues as to the definition of sacred images in Counter-Reformation Italy. Between the lines of pragmatic proscriptions, one finds repeated references to antiquity, liturgical books, and the ritual care of images. In this essay, I examine this text alongside Borromeo’s actual church alterations in order to reveal how in the space of the late sixteenth-century Catholic church, images became sacramental objects, using liturgy to link early modern Italy with an ambiguously defined antique. The unassuming printed Instructiones, found everywhere from Rome to Canada to Mexico, can open up to divulge a confessional conception of images and their place in the unfolding of history.
Contamination and Purity in Early Modern Art and Architecture, eds. Jacobi and Zolli (AUP), 2021
Over the main altar of the Holy House of Loreto, perhaps the most renowned Italian pilgrimage sit... more Over the main altar of the Holy House of Loreto, perhaps the most renowned Italian pilgrimage site of the early modern era, there stands a diminutive wooden sculpture of the Virgin and Child, draped with a richly ornamented dalmatic. Although the shrine was built to house the relic of the Virgin’s childhood home, purportedly transported from Palestine by angels in 1291, this miraculous Marian statuette received much of the pilgrims’ devotional attention. The laudatory literature on this Catholic shrine is interspersed with moments of unease: early modern authors often tried to rationalize the cult statue’s strikingly dark complexion, often attributing its hue to centuries of exposure to candle smoke. The argument of accidental, accumulated soot might point to the image’s venerable age, but it also pointedly negates problematic connotations of ethnic otherness.
This paper will explore this frequent recourse to explanations of smoke and soot in early modern Italy to demonstrate that it was anything but incidental. Inserted into this complex tangle of ethnic marker and sacred connotation is the matter of ritual norms. The Loretan Madonna was habitually dressed, carried in procession, and carefully tended to. Visitations unequivocally stated that dirtied sacred images were indecent, and the sacristans at Loreto were instructed to polish the statue every evening. If smoke signaled devotion, soot implied neglect within the interior of an early modern church. The conception of ash stuck to the surface of the cedarwood statue in spite of daily cleanings, gradually becoming part of the image’s meaning. In order to understand the Virgin of Loreto’s accrued sooty surface as both sacred and sacrilegious, agency must be returned to the artwork itself. A characteristic that signaled negligence and cried out for restoration was retained by the miraculous Madonna of Loreto in defense of her own status and the broader cult of images in Counter-Reformation Italy.
Bearing Witness: Scratching the Surface of Italian Art
This session will explore scratched, goug... more Bearing Witness: Scratching the Surface of Italian Art
This session will explore scratched, gouged, and graffiti-laden surfaces in Italian Renaissance and Early Modern art, broadly defined from 1300 to 1700. These marks, often anonymous or signed by little-known individuals, appear across various media, including panel paintings, frescoes, and sculpture. In altering the surface of a work, the marks also transform its meaning.
Frequently erased, covered over, or ignored, such scratchings could serve a variety of functions. Markings could reveal intentional acts of damage, with destructive gouges seeking to cancel out or disempower the figures represented. Graffiti, left on the walls of churches or scratched on the surface of cult objects, could demonstrate devotional practices while expressing individual or communal piety. Recordings of historical events or graffiti left by condemned prisoners could provide a lasting memory of the past. In other instances, signed names, coats of arms or identifiers could associate a specific individual with a site or work of art. The traces of artists’ signatures could reinforce a link with a site, image or other creator, potentially demonstrating the emulation or appropriation of an earlier work.
This session aims to foster a nuanced discourse on the intentional alteration of artistic surfaces. We welcome papers exploring a variety of issues related to the creation of graffiti or scratched surfaces, such as the reception or preservation of those traces; the question of cultural heritage; the role of appropriation; and the significance of iconoclasm. Through the examination of these intentional marks and their significance within the image and spatial context, we seek to deepen our comprehension of Italian Renaissance and Early Modern art while acknowledging the diverse voices that have left their mark upon it.
Please submit your paper title (15 words maximum) and abstract (200 words maximum), and a CV to Kirstin Noreen at (kirstin.noreen@lmu.edu) and Grace Harpster (gharpster@gsu.edu) by August 1st, 2024. Do ensure the application materials include your full name, current affiliation, Ph.D. degree completion year (past or expected), and email address.
Call for Session Proposals
IAS-Sponsored Session
113th College Art Association (CAA) Annual Confe... more Call for Session Proposals IAS-Sponsored Session 113th College Art Association (CAA) Annual Conference Hilton Midtown, New York City, 12-15 February 2025
Deadline for Submission to IAS: 15 April 2025
The Italian Art Society (IAS) invites proposals for one sponsored conference session (90 minutes) at the 2025 CAA Conference, to be held in New York, 12-15 February 2025.
IAS members interested in organizing a panel on any topic of Italian art and architecture should send via the IAS Submission Portal:
Session title and brief abstract (250 words max.) short list of potential or desired speakers (they need not be confirmed) name of organizer(s) and chair(s) with email addresses and affiliation one-page CV(s) for organizers and chairs. Also for speakers if you have confirmed. The IAS will consider both completed panels and those soliciting contributors. Selection of speakers may be completed during CAA’s annual “Call for Participation” in the summer. Please specify either: Complete Session or Session Seeking Contributions; In Person or Virtual.
Applicants must be current members of the IAS. Those with financial need may be eligible for Sospeso Memberships. To join or renew, visit the IAS website: https://www.italianartsociety.org/.
In preparing your application, please consult both the IAS Submission Guidelines, AND CAA Submission Guidelines, to ensure you have gathered the correct materials for the format of the panel for which you seek IAS sponsorship.
Deadline: Please submit all materials via the IAS Online Submission Form by 15 April 2024.
Call for Session Proposals
IAS-Sponsored Sessions
American Association for Italian Studies
Sant... more Call for Session Proposals IAS-Sponsored Sessions American Association for Italian Studies Sant’Anna Institute, Sorrento, Italy 6-9 June 2024 The Italian Art Society (IAS) (https://www.italianartsociety.org) is seeking pre-constituted session proposals that address any issue relevant to Italian art and architecture during any period from prehistory to the present day. The American Association for Italian Studies (AAIS) is dedicated to encouraging, supporting, and conducting research and pedagogical activities in Italian culture. The AAIS also seeks to foster dialogue and innovation amongst members worldwide, and to recognize the needs and experiences of colleagues at all career levels. (https://aais.italianstudies.net/site_home.cfm)
In preparing your proposal application, please consult both the IAS Submission Guidelines and the AAIS Submission Guidelines to ensure you have gathered the correct materials for the format of the panel that you are submitting for consideration by IAS at this time. IAS members interested in convening a pre-constituted panel or linked panels at the AAIS conference should submit the following: a brief abstract (250 words max.); a session title; a list of confirmed speakers with their affiliations and paper titles; and the name(s) of the session chair(s) with email address(es), affiliation(s), and one-page CV(s) to the IAS, via the online submission form, by 15 January 2024. Panels of 90 minutes should consist of three, and not more than four, presentations. Pre-constituted session proposals must be first submitted to the IAS Program Committee by the IAS Deadline: 15 January 2024
To submit your session proposal, please use the IAS online submission form for AAIS conference.
Session organizers will be notified by the IAS Program Committee chair within a few days after the deadline. Organizers of IAS sponsored sessions must also submit their panels to AAIS, and acknowledge IAS sponsorship, by the AAIS deadline, 21 January 2024.
Call for Session Proposals
IAS-Sponsored Sessions
Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting... more Call for Session Proposals IAS-Sponsored Sessions Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting (in person) Chicago, IL, 21–23 March 2024
Call for Session Proposals
IAS-Sponsored Session
59th International Congress of Medieval Studie... more Call for Session Proposals IAS-Sponsored Session 59th International Congress of Medieval Studies Annual Conference
This interdisciplinary conference will bring together scholars from nine countries, from fields i... more This interdisciplinary conference will bring together scholars from nine countries, from fields including history, art history, architectural history, theatre history, music, theology/religious studies, and literature, with two main objectives:
The first is to consider an inclusive definition of ‘sacred drama' that refers not only to religious theatre, as traditionally understood, but includes rituals and various forms of devotional practice, as well as engagement with sacred images, objects and spaces. What are the elements of this drama, and how does it function on various levels, such as affective, cognitive, corporeal, and phenomenological? Secondly, what happens to religious theatre as we enter the early modern period? We will seek to address the question of the medieval inheritance versus change or transformation, as well as differences between regions, in a period of cultural change, religious reform and confessionalisation. What are the particular challenges presented by the religious debates and upheaval in Europe beginning in the early sixteenth century? Does the suppression of mystery plays across Europe in this period bring about an end to religious theatre, as traditionally understood? How do local practices compare with official policy?
This essay seeks to shift our perspective when addressing the question of the impact of the Counc... more This essay seeks to shift our perspective when addressing the question of the impact of the Council of Trent on art. Rather than focusing on the artistic treatises that emerged in the wake of the council, it turns to a different type of text: the records from visitations, regular church inspections that functioned as an important tool of Catholic reform. This analysis looks at apostolic visitation records in the Vatican archives between 1564 and 1630 to show how ecclesiastical visitors chiefly judged image decorum—and the definition of images themselves—according to function instead of form, giving priority to issues related to ritual use, such as conservation, consecration, and location. The functional definition of terms such as altarpiece and icona in the visitation records also reminds us to carefully consider the art historical vocabulary used in scholarship today.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY).
Before the Jesuits officially received their first saints, they capitalized on the power of the p... more Before the Jesuits officially received their first saints, they capitalized on the power of the portrait series to promote their martyrs. The growing ranks of Jesuit martyrs, thought to number over a hundred in the early seventeenth century, allowed the order to participate in contemporary trends of serial portraiture as a means of legitimization. This article focuses on one crucial object in this history, a 1608 print depicting one hundred and two Jesuit martyrs in a repetitive and chronological format, published by Matthäus Greuter and Paul Maupin in Rome. An analysis of Greuter's print demonstrates how the Jesuits coopted conventions of the portrait series to associate their martyrs with notions of Christian exemplarity and apostolic succession ingrained in the genre. The making of Jesuit identity cannot be disentangled from the discourse of portraiture, a category that includes the reiterative series as well as the naturalistic likeness.
Ambrogio Figino’s late-sixteenth century portrait of the future saint Carlo Borromeo (1538-84) ha... more Ambrogio Figino’s late-sixteenth century portrait of the future saint Carlo Borromeo (1538-84) has long been revered for its subtle naturalism. Art historians place its fictions within a certain stylistic timeline, and beholders prize the work’s ability to capture the spirit of its pious sitter. Yet this portrait simultaneously participated in a different register of value. Borromeo passed away in 1584, precisely as the legal process of becoming a saint was being revived and revised in the name of Catholic reform. In this world of church bureaucracy, Borromeo’s portraits functioned first and foremost as measurable proof. Their ubiquity and multiplicity proved the power of his cult, and their intercessory efficacy was carefully calculated. Borromeo’s legal trial for sainthood is filled with stories of devotees supplicating before his likenesses and pressing his portraits to ailing body parts in hopes for a cure. Artistic concerns of quality fall away in these thousands of pages of quantifiable evidence. This paper argues that rubrics of artistry and cultic value did, however, collide in late sixteenth-century Italy. From this vantage point, the new impulses of church reform are seen to increase the authority of the artwork and its maker.
**note: for a link to the full article, get in touch at gharpster@gsu.edu**
Erratum: Federico Borromeo is Carlo Borromeo's cousin, not his nephew.
Renaissance Religions: Modes and Meanings in History, eds. Howard, Terpstra, and Saccenti (Brepols), 2021
In 1577, the Italian cardinal-archbishop and later saint Carlo Borromeo (1538-1584) completed his... more In 1577, the Italian cardinal-archbishop and later saint Carlo Borromeo (1538-1584) completed his Instructiones fabricae et supellectilis ecclesiasticae, a guide to proper church building and furnishings. Copies of this text quickly spread throughout the Catholic world, helped by Borromeo’s reputation as the very exemplar of Counter-Reformation piety and austerity. The Instructiones reads as a practical manual, a set of instructions for bishops and parish clergy to use when evaluating the churches in their jurisdiction. The Latin text offers little in the way of theory, philosophy, or elegance. Instead, the reader finds obsessively detailed information about the proper placement of the crucifix over the altar, the best way to keep dogs from entering monastery gardens, and even the proper appearance of the missal bookmark. Chapter 17 deals specifically with “Sacred Images and Pictures,” leaving questions of artistic theory aside to vaguely and repetitively call for decorum, accuracy, and dignity in religious representations.
Despite the limitations and silences of the church instruction genre—and indeed, partially because of them—Borromeo’s Instructiones provides fundamental clues as to the definition of sacred images in Counter-Reformation Italy. Between the lines of pragmatic proscriptions, one finds repeated references to antiquity, liturgical books, and the ritual care of images. In this essay, I examine this text alongside Borromeo’s actual church alterations in order to reveal how in the space of the late sixteenth-century Catholic church, images became sacramental objects, using liturgy to link early modern Italy with an ambiguously defined antique. The unassuming printed Instructiones, found everywhere from Rome to Canada to Mexico, can open up to divulge a confessional conception of images and their place in the unfolding of history.
Contamination and Purity in Early Modern Art and Architecture, eds. Jacobi and Zolli (AUP), 2021
Over the main altar of the Holy House of Loreto, perhaps the most renowned Italian pilgrimage sit... more Over the main altar of the Holy House of Loreto, perhaps the most renowned Italian pilgrimage site of the early modern era, there stands a diminutive wooden sculpture of the Virgin and Child, draped with a richly ornamented dalmatic. Although the shrine was built to house the relic of the Virgin’s childhood home, purportedly transported from Palestine by angels in 1291, this miraculous Marian statuette received much of the pilgrims’ devotional attention. The laudatory literature on this Catholic shrine is interspersed with moments of unease: early modern authors often tried to rationalize the cult statue’s strikingly dark complexion, often attributing its hue to centuries of exposure to candle smoke. The argument of accidental, accumulated soot might point to the image’s venerable age, but it also pointedly negates problematic connotations of ethnic otherness.
This paper will explore this frequent recourse to explanations of smoke and soot in early modern Italy to demonstrate that it was anything but incidental. Inserted into this complex tangle of ethnic marker and sacred connotation is the matter of ritual norms. The Loretan Madonna was habitually dressed, carried in procession, and carefully tended to. Visitations unequivocally stated that dirtied sacred images were indecent, and the sacristans at Loreto were instructed to polish the statue every evening. If smoke signaled devotion, soot implied neglect within the interior of an early modern church. The conception of ash stuck to the surface of the cedarwood statue in spite of daily cleanings, gradually becoming part of the image’s meaning. In order to understand the Virgin of Loreto’s accrued sooty surface as both sacred and sacrilegious, agency must be returned to the artwork itself. A characteristic that signaled negligence and cried out for restoration was retained by the miraculous Madonna of Loreto in defense of her own status and the broader cult of images in Counter-Reformation Italy.
Bearing Witness: Scratching the Surface of Italian Art
This session will explore scratched, goug... more Bearing Witness: Scratching the Surface of Italian Art
This session will explore scratched, gouged, and graffiti-laden surfaces in Italian Renaissance and Early Modern art, broadly defined from 1300 to 1700. These marks, often anonymous or signed by little-known individuals, appear across various media, including panel paintings, frescoes, and sculpture. In altering the surface of a work, the marks also transform its meaning.
Frequently erased, covered over, or ignored, such scratchings could serve a variety of functions. Markings could reveal intentional acts of damage, with destructive gouges seeking to cancel out or disempower the figures represented. Graffiti, left on the walls of churches or scratched on the surface of cult objects, could demonstrate devotional practices while expressing individual or communal piety. Recordings of historical events or graffiti left by condemned prisoners could provide a lasting memory of the past. In other instances, signed names, coats of arms or identifiers could associate a specific individual with a site or work of art. The traces of artists’ signatures could reinforce a link with a site, image or other creator, potentially demonstrating the emulation or appropriation of an earlier work.
This session aims to foster a nuanced discourse on the intentional alteration of artistic surfaces. We welcome papers exploring a variety of issues related to the creation of graffiti or scratched surfaces, such as the reception or preservation of those traces; the question of cultural heritage; the role of appropriation; and the significance of iconoclasm. Through the examination of these intentional marks and their significance within the image and spatial context, we seek to deepen our comprehension of Italian Renaissance and Early Modern art while acknowledging the diverse voices that have left their mark upon it.
Please submit your paper title (15 words maximum) and abstract (200 words maximum), and a CV to Kirstin Noreen at (kirstin.noreen@lmu.edu) and Grace Harpster (gharpster@gsu.edu) by August 1st, 2024. Do ensure the application materials include your full name, current affiliation, Ph.D. degree completion year (past or expected), and email address.
Call for Session Proposals
IAS-Sponsored Session
113th College Art Association (CAA) Annual Confe... more Call for Session Proposals IAS-Sponsored Session 113th College Art Association (CAA) Annual Conference Hilton Midtown, New York City, 12-15 February 2025
Deadline for Submission to IAS: 15 April 2025
The Italian Art Society (IAS) invites proposals for one sponsored conference session (90 minutes) at the 2025 CAA Conference, to be held in New York, 12-15 February 2025.
IAS members interested in organizing a panel on any topic of Italian art and architecture should send via the IAS Submission Portal:
Session title and brief abstract (250 words max.) short list of potential or desired speakers (they need not be confirmed) name of organizer(s) and chair(s) with email addresses and affiliation one-page CV(s) for organizers and chairs. Also for speakers if you have confirmed. The IAS will consider both completed panels and those soliciting contributors. Selection of speakers may be completed during CAA’s annual “Call for Participation” in the summer. Please specify either: Complete Session or Session Seeking Contributions; In Person or Virtual.
Applicants must be current members of the IAS. Those with financial need may be eligible for Sospeso Memberships. To join or renew, visit the IAS website: https://www.italianartsociety.org/.
In preparing your application, please consult both the IAS Submission Guidelines, AND CAA Submission Guidelines, to ensure you have gathered the correct materials for the format of the panel for which you seek IAS sponsorship.
Deadline: Please submit all materials via the IAS Online Submission Form by 15 April 2024.
Call for Session Proposals
IAS-Sponsored Sessions
American Association for Italian Studies
Sant... more Call for Session Proposals IAS-Sponsored Sessions American Association for Italian Studies Sant’Anna Institute, Sorrento, Italy 6-9 June 2024 The Italian Art Society (IAS) (https://www.italianartsociety.org) is seeking pre-constituted session proposals that address any issue relevant to Italian art and architecture during any period from prehistory to the present day. The American Association for Italian Studies (AAIS) is dedicated to encouraging, supporting, and conducting research and pedagogical activities in Italian culture. The AAIS also seeks to foster dialogue and innovation amongst members worldwide, and to recognize the needs and experiences of colleagues at all career levels. (https://aais.italianstudies.net/site_home.cfm)
In preparing your proposal application, please consult both the IAS Submission Guidelines and the AAIS Submission Guidelines to ensure you have gathered the correct materials for the format of the panel that you are submitting for consideration by IAS at this time. IAS members interested in convening a pre-constituted panel or linked panels at the AAIS conference should submit the following: a brief abstract (250 words max.); a session title; a list of confirmed speakers with their affiliations and paper titles; and the name(s) of the session chair(s) with email address(es), affiliation(s), and one-page CV(s) to the IAS, via the online submission form, by 15 January 2024. Panels of 90 minutes should consist of three, and not more than four, presentations. Pre-constituted session proposals must be first submitted to the IAS Program Committee by the IAS Deadline: 15 January 2024
To submit your session proposal, please use the IAS online submission form for AAIS conference.
Session organizers will be notified by the IAS Program Committee chair within a few days after the deadline. Organizers of IAS sponsored sessions must also submit their panels to AAIS, and acknowledge IAS sponsorship, by the AAIS deadline, 21 January 2024.
Call for Session Proposals
IAS-Sponsored Sessions
Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting... more Call for Session Proposals IAS-Sponsored Sessions Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting (in person) Chicago, IL, 21–23 March 2024
Call for Session Proposals
IAS-Sponsored Session
59th International Congress of Medieval Studie... more Call for Session Proposals IAS-Sponsored Session 59th International Congress of Medieval Studies Annual Conference
This interdisciplinary conference will bring together scholars from nine countries, from fields i... more This interdisciplinary conference will bring together scholars from nine countries, from fields including history, art history, architectural history, theatre history, music, theology/religious studies, and literature, with two main objectives:
The first is to consider an inclusive definition of ‘sacred drama' that refers not only to religious theatre, as traditionally understood, but includes rituals and various forms of devotional practice, as well as engagement with sacred images, objects and spaces. What are the elements of this drama, and how does it function on various levels, such as affective, cognitive, corporeal, and phenomenological? Secondly, what happens to religious theatre as we enter the early modern period? We will seek to address the question of the medieval inheritance versus change or transformation, as well as differences between regions, in a period of cultural change, religious reform and confessionalisation. What are the particular challenges presented by the religious debates and upheaval in Europe beginning in the early sixteenth century? Does the suppression of mystery plays across Europe in this period bring about an end to religious theatre, as traditionally understood? How do local practices compare with official policy?
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This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY).
Copy and paste the following URL for the open-access paper: https://brill.com/view/journals/jjs/9/3/article-p379_004.xml
**note: for a link to the full article, get in touch at gharpster@gsu.edu**
Erratum: Federico Borromeo is Carlo Borromeo's cousin, not his nephew.
Despite the limitations and silences of the church instruction genre—and indeed, partially because of them—Borromeo’s Instructiones provides fundamental clues as to the definition of sacred images in Counter-Reformation Italy. Between the lines of pragmatic proscriptions, one finds repeated references to antiquity, liturgical books, and the ritual care of images. In this essay, I examine this text alongside Borromeo’s actual church alterations in order to reveal how in the space of the late sixteenth-century Catholic church, images became sacramental objects, using liturgy to link early modern Italy with an ambiguously defined antique. The unassuming printed Instructiones, found everywhere from Rome to Canada to Mexico, can open up to divulge a confessional conception of images and their place in the unfolding of history.
This paper will explore this frequent recourse to explanations of smoke and soot in early modern Italy to demonstrate that it was anything but incidental. Inserted into this complex tangle of ethnic marker and sacred connotation is the matter of ritual norms. The Loretan Madonna was habitually dressed, carried in procession, and carefully tended to. Visitations unequivocally stated that dirtied sacred images were indecent, and the sacristans at Loreto were instructed to polish the statue every evening. If smoke signaled devotion, soot implied neglect within the interior of an early modern church. The conception of ash stuck to the surface of the cedarwood statue in spite of daily cleanings, gradually becoming part of the image’s meaning. In order to understand the Virgin of Loreto’s accrued sooty surface as both sacred and sacrilegious, agency must be returned to the artwork itself. A characteristic that signaled negligence and cried out for restoration was retained by the miraculous Madonna of Loreto in defense of her own status and the broader cult of images in Counter-Reformation Italy.
This session will explore scratched, gouged, and graffiti-laden surfaces in Italian Renaissance and Early Modern art, broadly defined from 1300 to 1700. These marks, often anonymous or signed by little-known individuals, appear across various media, including panel paintings, frescoes, and sculpture. In altering the surface of a work, the marks also transform its meaning.
Frequently erased, covered over, or ignored, such scratchings could serve a variety of functions. Markings could reveal intentional acts of damage, with destructive gouges seeking to cancel out or disempower the figures represented. Graffiti, left on the walls of churches or scratched on the surface of cult objects, could demonstrate devotional practices while expressing individual or communal piety. Recordings of historical events or graffiti left by condemned prisoners could provide a lasting memory of the past. In other instances, signed names, coats of arms or identifiers could associate a specific individual with a site or work of art. The traces of artists’ signatures could reinforce a link with a site, image or other creator, potentially demonstrating the emulation or appropriation of an earlier work.
This session aims to foster a nuanced discourse on the intentional alteration of artistic surfaces. We welcome papers exploring a variety of issues related to the creation of graffiti or scratched surfaces, such as the reception or preservation of those traces; the question of cultural heritage; the role of appropriation; and the significance of iconoclasm. Through the examination of these intentional marks and their significance within the image and spatial context, we seek to deepen our comprehension of Italian Renaissance and Early Modern art while acknowledging the diverse voices that have left their mark upon it.
Please submit your paper title (15 words maximum) and abstract (200 words maximum), and a CV to Kirstin Noreen at (kirstin.noreen@lmu.edu) and Grace Harpster (gharpster@gsu.edu) by August 1st, 2024. Do ensure the application materials include your full name, current affiliation, Ph.D. degree completion year (past or expected), and email address.
IAS-Sponsored Session
113th College Art Association (CAA) Annual Conference
Hilton Midtown, New York City, 12-15 February 2025
Deadline for Submission to IAS: 15 April 2025
The Italian Art Society (IAS) invites proposals for one sponsored conference session (90 minutes) at the 2025 CAA Conference, to be held in New York, 12-15 February 2025.
IAS members interested in organizing a panel on any topic of Italian art and architecture should send via the IAS Submission Portal:
Session title and brief abstract (250 words max.)
short list of potential or desired speakers (they need not be confirmed)
name of organizer(s) and chair(s) with email addresses and affiliation
one-page CV(s) for organizers and chairs. Also for speakers if you have confirmed.
The IAS will consider both completed panels and those soliciting contributors. Selection of speakers may be completed during CAA’s annual “Call for Participation” in the summer. Please specify either: Complete Session or Session Seeking Contributions; In Person or Virtual.
Applicants must be current members of the IAS. Those with financial need may be eligible for Sospeso Memberships. To join or renew, visit the IAS website: https://www.italianartsociety.org/.
In preparing your application, please consult both the IAS Submission Guidelines, AND CAA Submission Guidelines, to ensure you have gathered the correct materials for the format of the panel for which you seek IAS sponsorship.
Deadline: Please submit all materials via the IAS Online Submission Form by 15 April 2024.
Please contact the IAS Program Committee Chair at programs@italianartsociety.org with any questions.
IAS-Sponsored Sessions
American Association for Italian Studies
Sant’Anna Institute, Sorrento, Italy
6-9 June 2024
The Italian Art Society (IAS) (https://www.italianartsociety.org) is seeking pre-constituted session proposals that address any issue relevant to Italian art and architecture during any period from prehistory to the present day. The American Association for Italian Studies (AAIS) is dedicated to encouraging, supporting, and conducting research and pedagogical activities in Italian culture. The AAIS also seeks to foster dialogue and innovation amongst members worldwide, and to recognize the needs and experiences of colleagues at all career levels. (https://aais.italianstudies.net/site_home.cfm)
In preparing your proposal application, please consult both the IAS Submission Guidelines and the AAIS Submission Guidelines to ensure you have gathered the correct materials for the format of the panel that you are submitting for consideration by IAS at this time.
IAS members interested in convening a pre-constituted panel or linked panels at the AAIS conference should submit the following: a brief abstract (250 words max.); a session title; a list of confirmed speakers with their affiliations and paper titles; and the name(s) of the session chair(s) with email address(es), affiliation(s), and one-page CV(s) to the IAS, via the online submission form, by 15 January 2024. Panels of 90 minutes should consist of three, and not more than four, presentations.
Pre-constituted session proposals must be first submitted to the IAS Program Committee by the IAS Deadline: 15 January 2024
To submit your session proposal, please use the IAS online submission form for AAIS conference.
Session organizers will be notified by the IAS Program Committee chair within a few days after the deadline. Organizers of IAS sponsored sessions must also submit their panels to AAIS, and acknowledge IAS sponsorship, by the AAIS deadline, 21 January 2024.
Session organizers must be both members of the AAIS and the IAS to propose a session.
For AAIS memberships, see the AAIS Guidelines link above.
For IAS membership, go to: https://www.italianartsociety.org/join/. Those with financial need may be eligible for Sospeso Memberships. Students and international scholars may apply for IAS Travel Grants: https://www.italianartsociety.org/grants-opportunities/travel-grants/.
Please contact Janis Elliott, the IAS Program Committee Chair (programs@italianartsociety.org) to express interest, or to ask any questions.
IAS-Sponsored Sessions
Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting (in person)
Chicago, IL, 21–23 March 2024
IAS-Sponsored Session
59th International Congress of Medieval Studies Annual Conference
The first is to consider an inclusive definition of ‘sacred drama' that refers not only to religious theatre, as traditionally understood, but includes rituals and various forms of devotional practice, as well as engagement with sacred images, objects and spaces. What are the elements of this drama, and how does it function on various levels, such as affective, cognitive, corporeal, and phenomenological?
Secondly, what happens to religious theatre as we enter the early modern period? We will seek to address the question of the medieval inheritance versus change or transformation, as well as differences between regions, in a period of cultural change, religious reform and confessionalisation. What are the particular challenges presented by the religious debates and upheaval in Europe beginning in the early sixteenth century? Does the suppression of mystery plays across Europe in this period bring about an end to religious theatre, as traditionally understood? How do local practices compare with official policy?
https://www.italianartsociety.org/2023/03/cfp-ias-sponsored-sessions-at-caa-2024/
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY).
Copy and paste the following URL for the open-access paper: https://brill.com/view/journals/jjs/9/3/article-p379_004.xml
**note: for a link to the full article, get in touch at gharpster@gsu.edu**
Erratum: Federico Borromeo is Carlo Borromeo's cousin, not his nephew.
Despite the limitations and silences of the church instruction genre—and indeed, partially because of them—Borromeo’s Instructiones provides fundamental clues as to the definition of sacred images in Counter-Reformation Italy. Between the lines of pragmatic proscriptions, one finds repeated references to antiquity, liturgical books, and the ritual care of images. In this essay, I examine this text alongside Borromeo’s actual church alterations in order to reveal how in the space of the late sixteenth-century Catholic church, images became sacramental objects, using liturgy to link early modern Italy with an ambiguously defined antique. The unassuming printed Instructiones, found everywhere from Rome to Canada to Mexico, can open up to divulge a confessional conception of images and their place in the unfolding of history.
This paper will explore this frequent recourse to explanations of smoke and soot in early modern Italy to demonstrate that it was anything but incidental. Inserted into this complex tangle of ethnic marker and sacred connotation is the matter of ritual norms. The Loretan Madonna was habitually dressed, carried in procession, and carefully tended to. Visitations unequivocally stated that dirtied sacred images were indecent, and the sacristans at Loreto were instructed to polish the statue every evening. If smoke signaled devotion, soot implied neglect within the interior of an early modern church. The conception of ash stuck to the surface of the cedarwood statue in spite of daily cleanings, gradually becoming part of the image’s meaning. In order to understand the Virgin of Loreto’s accrued sooty surface as both sacred and sacrilegious, agency must be returned to the artwork itself. A characteristic that signaled negligence and cried out for restoration was retained by the miraculous Madonna of Loreto in defense of her own status and the broader cult of images in Counter-Reformation Italy.
This session will explore scratched, gouged, and graffiti-laden surfaces in Italian Renaissance and Early Modern art, broadly defined from 1300 to 1700. These marks, often anonymous or signed by little-known individuals, appear across various media, including panel paintings, frescoes, and sculpture. In altering the surface of a work, the marks also transform its meaning.
Frequently erased, covered over, or ignored, such scratchings could serve a variety of functions. Markings could reveal intentional acts of damage, with destructive gouges seeking to cancel out or disempower the figures represented. Graffiti, left on the walls of churches or scratched on the surface of cult objects, could demonstrate devotional practices while expressing individual or communal piety. Recordings of historical events or graffiti left by condemned prisoners could provide a lasting memory of the past. In other instances, signed names, coats of arms or identifiers could associate a specific individual with a site or work of art. The traces of artists’ signatures could reinforce a link with a site, image or other creator, potentially demonstrating the emulation or appropriation of an earlier work.
This session aims to foster a nuanced discourse on the intentional alteration of artistic surfaces. We welcome papers exploring a variety of issues related to the creation of graffiti or scratched surfaces, such as the reception or preservation of those traces; the question of cultural heritage; the role of appropriation; and the significance of iconoclasm. Through the examination of these intentional marks and their significance within the image and spatial context, we seek to deepen our comprehension of Italian Renaissance and Early Modern art while acknowledging the diverse voices that have left their mark upon it.
Please submit your paper title (15 words maximum) and abstract (200 words maximum), and a CV to Kirstin Noreen at (kirstin.noreen@lmu.edu) and Grace Harpster (gharpster@gsu.edu) by August 1st, 2024. Do ensure the application materials include your full name, current affiliation, Ph.D. degree completion year (past or expected), and email address.
IAS-Sponsored Session
113th College Art Association (CAA) Annual Conference
Hilton Midtown, New York City, 12-15 February 2025
Deadline for Submission to IAS: 15 April 2025
The Italian Art Society (IAS) invites proposals for one sponsored conference session (90 minutes) at the 2025 CAA Conference, to be held in New York, 12-15 February 2025.
IAS members interested in organizing a panel on any topic of Italian art and architecture should send via the IAS Submission Portal:
Session title and brief abstract (250 words max.)
short list of potential or desired speakers (they need not be confirmed)
name of organizer(s) and chair(s) with email addresses and affiliation
one-page CV(s) for organizers and chairs. Also for speakers if you have confirmed.
The IAS will consider both completed panels and those soliciting contributors. Selection of speakers may be completed during CAA’s annual “Call for Participation” in the summer. Please specify either: Complete Session or Session Seeking Contributions; In Person or Virtual.
Applicants must be current members of the IAS. Those with financial need may be eligible for Sospeso Memberships. To join or renew, visit the IAS website: https://www.italianartsociety.org/.
In preparing your application, please consult both the IAS Submission Guidelines, AND CAA Submission Guidelines, to ensure you have gathered the correct materials for the format of the panel for which you seek IAS sponsorship.
Deadline: Please submit all materials via the IAS Online Submission Form by 15 April 2024.
Please contact the IAS Program Committee Chair at programs@italianartsociety.org with any questions.
IAS-Sponsored Sessions
American Association for Italian Studies
Sant’Anna Institute, Sorrento, Italy
6-9 June 2024
The Italian Art Society (IAS) (https://www.italianartsociety.org) is seeking pre-constituted session proposals that address any issue relevant to Italian art and architecture during any period from prehistory to the present day. The American Association for Italian Studies (AAIS) is dedicated to encouraging, supporting, and conducting research and pedagogical activities in Italian culture. The AAIS also seeks to foster dialogue and innovation amongst members worldwide, and to recognize the needs and experiences of colleagues at all career levels. (https://aais.italianstudies.net/site_home.cfm)
In preparing your proposal application, please consult both the IAS Submission Guidelines and the AAIS Submission Guidelines to ensure you have gathered the correct materials for the format of the panel that you are submitting for consideration by IAS at this time.
IAS members interested in convening a pre-constituted panel or linked panels at the AAIS conference should submit the following: a brief abstract (250 words max.); a session title; a list of confirmed speakers with their affiliations and paper titles; and the name(s) of the session chair(s) with email address(es), affiliation(s), and one-page CV(s) to the IAS, via the online submission form, by 15 January 2024. Panels of 90 minutes should consist of three, and not more than four, presentations.
Pre-constituted session proposals must be first submitted to the IAS Program Committee by the IAS Deadline: 15 January 2024
To submit your session proposal, please use the IAS online submission form for AAIS conference.
Session organizers will be notified by the IAS Program Committee chair within a few days after the deadline. Organizers of IAS sponsored sessions must also submit their panels to AAIS, and acknowledge IAS sponsorship, by the AAIS deadline, 21 January 2024.
Session organizers must be both members of the AAIS and the IAS to propose a session.
For AAIS memberships, see the AAIS Guidelines link above.
For IAS membership, go to: https://www.italianartsociety.org/join/. Those with financial need may be eligible for Sospeso Memberships. Students and international scholars may apply for IAS Travel Grants: https://www.italianartsociety.org/grants-opportunities/travel-grants/.
Please contact Janis Elliott, the IAS Program Committee Chair (programs@italianartsociety.org) to express interest, or to ask any questions.
IAS-Sponsored Sessions
Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting (in person)
Chicago, IL, 21–23 March 2024
IAS-Sponsored Session
59th International Congress of Medieval Studies Annual Conference
The first is to consider an inclusive definition of ‘sacred drama' that refers not only to religious theatre, as traditionally understood, but includes rituals and various forms of devotional practice, as well as engagement with sacred images, objects and spaces. What are the elements of this drama, and how does it function on various levels, such as affective, cognitive, corporeal, and phenomenological?
Secondly, what happens to religious theatre as we enter the early modern period? We will seek to address the question of the medieval inheritance versus change or transformation, as well as differences between regions, in a period of cultural change, religious reform and confessionalisation. What are the particular challenges presented by the religious debates and upheaval in Europe beginning in the early sixteenth century? Does the suppression of mystery plays across Europe in this period bring about an end to religious theatre, as traditionally understood? How do local practices compare with official policy?
https://www.italianartsociety.org/2023/03/cfp-ias-sponsored-sessions-at-caa-2024/