Invention, Intention, Persuasion: Self Expression in Renaissance Arts and Letters

An interdisciplinary and international colloquium organised by Philip Ford, Tess Knighton & Isabelle Bouvrande
With the support of the University of Cambridge - the Faculty of Music, the Department of French, Clare College - ; the British Academy; the François-Rabelais University/Centre d’Études Supérieures de la Renaissance (CESR), Tours (CNRS-UMR 6576); the Institut Historique de la Pensée Classique, Lyon (CNRS-UMR 5037) and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Clare College, Cambridge 31 March-2 April 2007

NB All sessions will take place in the Bennett Room in the Forbes Mellon Library, Memorial Court, Clare College

By cutting across this two-fold problematic — the means and patterns of the presence in a work of the artist as well as the patron, and the aims and intentions of expression of this twofold presence/influence — this colloquium sets out to make a contribution to defining the paths followed by invention in Renaissance painting, music, and literature.
In the Renaissance, artistic production is mostly understood in terms of patronage and private support. In studying the presence of the artist in his works, what is most often at stake is the reception and interpretation of the works in a historical setting. Yet in a period which sees the emergence of the idea of the artist in the context of the revaluation of the status of artistic production, it might be argued that questions of style should also be studied in a primary, not to say independent fashion? In contrast, in the field of literature, with the exception of a few examples where the search for a patron had a resulting impact on creativity, patronage is less important. Indeed, if the texts of a few authors are the result of a commission, many others are created by more independent writers — with writing taking place before the search for a patron. In this case there is greater interest in the presence of the writer in his work than that of the patron. But should not the literary work be precisely placed in the political context which saw its creation? In seeking to study the means of creation, the question of the origins of invention and the possible intentions of a work is inescapable.

Saturday 31 March 2007

2pm Opening

2.15-4.15pm Self-representation/ Représentation de soi I
[Chair: Philip Ford]

Francesco Furlan (Paris-VIII): La représentation de soi dans les Dialogues mimétiques en volgare d’Alberti

David Skinner (Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge): Princes, Ambassadors and the Lost Choirbooks of Tudor England

Colette Nativel (Paris-I Sorbonne): Parler de soi: la correspondance, les autoportraits et les portraits de famille de Rubens

4.45-7.15pm Self-representation/ Représentation de soi II
[Chair: Philip Ford]

Victor Stoïchita (University of Fribourg): La peau de Michelange

Jean Vignes (Paris-VII): L’autoportrait des Regrets: intention courtisane et invention poétique

Yona Dureau (Université de St Étienne): L’oeuvre shakespearienne: le paradoxe d’un auteur mythique et anonyme, et d’une oeuvre de Totalkunst

Sunday 1 April 2007

9-11am Questions of style/ Expressions stylistiques I
[Chair: Tess Knighton]

David Marsh (Rutgers University): The Self Expressed: Leon Battista Alberti’s Autobiography

William Donoghue (Emerson College, Boston): Expressing Space: Raphael and Pontormo

Isabelle Bouvrande (CESR, Tours): Expression de soi, expression de la touche: expérimentations vénitiennes

11.30-12.45pm Questions of style/ Expressions stylistiques II
[Chair: Tess Knighton]

Todd Richardson (University of Leiden): Pieter Breugel the Elder and Vernacular Style

Bernadette Nelson (Wolfson College, Oxford): ‘In hac lacrimarum valle’: A Tribute to Josquin in the music of Cristóbal de Morale

2.15-4.15pm The Dynamics of Power/ Expressions de pouvoir I
[Chair: David Marsh]

Florence Madelpuech-Toucheron (Paris- IV Sorbonne): La dédicace, lieu paradoxal de l'invention de la représentation de soi dans les Eglogues I et III de Garcilaso de la Vega

Tess Knighton (Clare College, Cambridge): Power, Portraits, Liturgy and Music: the Missal-Breviary of Ferdinand the Catholic

Joana Barreto (Paris-I Sorbonne): Pouvoir monarchique et création artistique: Deux souverainetés affrontées dans la Naples du XVe siècle

4.45-7pm The Dynamics of Power/ Expressions de pouvoir II
[Chair: David Marsh]

Isabelle Garnier-Mathez (Université Jean Moulin-Lyon 3): Le Miroir de l'ame pecheresse de Marguerite de Navarre censuré en 1533: sous l'expression de soi, la propagande évangélique

Martin Ham (University of Surrey): ‘Ye are Gods’: Depicting the Royal Self

Aurélie Plaut (CESR, Tours): Le ‘vestibule’ de la Gloire : manifestation de l’ethos et promotion du moi dans le paratexte des ouvrages de controverse de Florimond de Raemond (?1540-1601)

Monday 2 April 2007

9-10.30am The Dynamics of Power/ Expressions de pouvoir III
[Chair : Frank Dobbins]

Philip Ford (Clare College, Cambridge): Self-Expression in Ronsard’s Hymnes

Owen Rees (The Queen’s College, Oxford): ‘Veni Domine, et noli tardare’: Portuguese Polyphony, Sebastianism, and the Duke of Bragança

10.30-12.45pm Other Metaphors/ Autres métaphores de l’expression de soi I
[Chair: Isabelle Bouvrande]

Maurice Brock (CESR, Tours): Du sujet-peintre au sujet-spectateur dans l’Ecce Homo de Tintoret

Yves Hersant (EHESS, Paris): La lode propria. Giordano Bruno et la célébration de soi

Frank Dobbins (Universities of London & Montreal): Individual Voices in Renaissance Song: Invention, Imitation or Inspiration?

2.15-4.15pm Other Metaphors/ Autres métaphores de l’expression de soi II
[Chair: Isabelle Bouvrande]

Iain Fenlon (King’s College, Cambridge): Monteverdi’s Voice

Olga Hazan (Université de Québec, Montréal): La perspective comme défi rhétorique de mise en échec de la mimésis

Claudie Balavoine (CESR, Tours): Le croisement des voix individuelles dans l’expression emblématique: concurrences et malentendus

4.45-6pm Other Metaphors/ Autres métaphores de l’expression de soi II
[Chair: Isabelle Bouvrande]

Bronwen Wilson (McGill University, Montreal): Annibale
Carracci, Portraiture, and the Matter of Blindness

Rob Wegman (Princeton University): Selfhood and Expression in Music of the Early Modern Period

Conference ends