10 May 2010 University of Liege, Belgium

Following the successful reception of the collected volume Patronnes et mécènes en France à la Renaissance, edited by Kathleen Wilson-Chevalier (PUSE, 2007), this study day will bring together doctoral students and researchers to examine the role played by women as patrons and commissioners in the Renaissance. The aim will be not only to examine the representation of gender at the beginning of the Early Modern period, but also the role of women’s patronage at the French and Burgundian courts in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

After a series of individual papers followed by discussion, the day will conclude with a public lecture, to be given by Kathleen Wilson-Chevalier of the American University of Paris, entitled Patronnes et mécènes au cœur même de la Renaissance française.

Proposals are invited for 20-minute papers that address any aspect of women’s patronage in France and Burgundy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Papers may be given in French or English. Topics can include, but are not limited to:

-Women as commissioners of paintings, manuscripts, literature
-The role of aristocratic women (princesses, queens, duchesses, etc.) or women associated with the court in the dissemination of artistic and cultural trends
-Obstacles encountered by female patrons
-The representation of women patrons by the artists they employed
-Interaction or rivalry between men and women in the commissioning of works
-Historiography of, and methodologies for, analysing women’s patronage

Please send abstracts of up to 300 words together with a short CV, in English or French, to Elizabeth L’Estrange (elizabeth.lestrange@ulg.ac.be) and Laure Fagnart (laure.fagnart@ulg.ac.be) by 31 January 2010.