Keynote Speaker: Prof. Fernando Checa Cremades, Universidad Complutense,
Madrid and former Director of the Prado Museum, Madrid.

Deadline for Abstracts is by 1 April 2010. Contact the convenor for further
information/possible deadline extension.

Since the publication of Art and Power: Renaissance festivals, 1450–1650 by
Sir Roy Strong, scholars have had an increasing interest in Early Modern
European Festivals. The Europa Triumphans project at the University of
Warwick created new enthusiasm for the subject among scholars and inspired
the Renaissance Festival Books digitisation project by the British Library.
Studies in Renaissance and Baroque European courts have been flourishing in
recent years. The relations between ruler and ruled were both represented
and performed in these often costly and elaborate events, which owed a great
deal to classical models and humanist ideas. Books of festivals and
chronicles also played a critical role in the dissemination of political
propaganda and of the achievements of participants. Representations of power
were highly mediated and were ambiguous reflections of royal authority and
rites of passage, since the demands and desires of the ruled, as well as of
the ruler, often had to be reflected in words, images and gestures.
Ephemeral architecture, theatre, musical performance and objects such as
tapestries, paintings, engravings and books were created solely to
commemorate these multimedia events.
The aim of this conference is to re-create or reconstruct Renaissance and
Baroque Festivals by an interdisciplinary approach. This includes the
presentation of the project’s online exhibition in which the project’s
investigators re-create music played in Festivals and a 3D model of the city
with the reconstruction of the ephemeral architecture displayed in it. The
organisers of this two-day conference seek contributions related to any
aspect of Early Modern European festivals and are especially interested in
proposals which relate to the festivals of the Hispanic Habsburg dynasty.
Proposals from any field of the Humanities in a broad sense are welcome,
with an emphasis on, but not limited to, the visual arts, music and
performing arts. Ultimately, we are interested in any study that would bring
back the pageantry and senses of those magnificent events.

Some preliminary conference themes are:
- The transformation of the urban space for the festival.
- Triumphal entries in Early Modern Europe: princely courts, heroes,
religion and explorers.
- Celebrations of marriages and treaties.
- Religious ceremonies and processions.
- Public executions in Europe and autos de fé.
- Funerals and commemorations of death.
- Cultural and artistic objects created for the festivals, i.e. paintings,
tapestries, festival books etc.

The Keynote speaker is Prof. Fernando Checa Cremades, University Complutense
of Madrid, Spain. Prof. Checa Cremades is one the most important
international voices in the study of Renaissance and Golden Age art
patronage in Europe. Among his many achievements, he is a former director of
the Museo del Prado in Madrid. Dr. Alexander Samson from the University
College London has confirmed his attendance. He is due to publish a book
entitled: Mary Tudor and the Habsburg Marriage: England and Spain 1553 –
1557.

Submissions should include a 300 word abstract in English or Spanish and a
200 word CV, and should be emailed as an attachment to
recreatingfestivals.abstract@gmail.com.
The deadline for proposals is 1 April 2010.Notification of acceptance will
be made before 1 May 2010.
Selected papers will be considered for publication. The deadline for the
full paper submission is 1 July 2010. Further details will be available
soon.

The past decade has seen an exceptional number of French Renaissance works of art come to light dating from the reigns of kings Chares VIII (r.1483-1498) and Louis XII (r.1498-1515). Several important exhibitions and scholarly studies pertaining to the period have also appeared. This renewal of interest forms the background for this session, which aims to provide a platform for emerging scholarship on a period that has traditionally been obscured both by the achievements of Jean Fouquet and his predecessors, and the well-studied patronage of Francis I. The conference session will coincide with an exhibition, France in the 15th Century, at the Art Institute of Chicago. Papers that present newly-discovered or little-known material, and those putting forward new conceptual frameworks for our understanding of early Renaissance pictorial arts in France (including manuscript illumination, glass-painting, and printing), are especially welcomed.

Proposals, including paper title and an abstract of 150 words or less should be submitted by May 1st, 2010 to Nicholas Herman at nicholas.herman@nyu.edu. Papers will be accepted in both English and French.