Enfilade

As noted previously here at Enfilade, ISECS meets next summer in Austria. The following session may be of particular interest for HECAA members:

The Art and Ritual of Eighteenth-Century Diplomacy [C Workshop, CW016]
Panel at the Thirteenth International Congress for Eighteenth-Century Studies
University of Graz, Austria, 25-29 July 2011

Proposals due by 31 January 2011

Co-chaired by Meredith Martin and Michael Yonan

“These carnival embassies are extraordinarily expensive and of no real value.” So claimed one European noblewoman in her written observations of eighteenth-century court life. Noble courts expended vast amounts of time, ingenuity, materials, and finances on events such as diplomatic receptions, embassy visits, formal state-sponsored ceremonies, and audiences. This panel seeks new approaches to exploring the art and ritual of diplomacy in eighteenth-century Europe by focusing on new interpretive or methodological approaches, different forms of cross-cultural exchange, and other perspectives on art and the embassy. Topics may include diplomatic gifts, images of ambassadors, rituals and entertainment, the construction and protocol of embassies, the mechanics of travel, literary representations of diplomatic encounters, architecture both permanent and ephemeral, or prints and other illustrations made après coup. One of the more fascinating aspects of this discussion is the level of risk involved in the presentation and exchange of objects, images, and individuals in diplomatic encounters. These cultural and artistic interactions always carried some degree of fluidity or contingency and were continually subjected to alternate interpretations and misreadings. To what extent was this degree of risk (and this potential for reward) managed through art and the politics of display?

The application form can be found online at www.18thcenturycongress-graz2011.at/congressprogramme.html. Applications must first be sent directly to the ISECS conference organizers, who will forward them to the session chairs. The deadline to apply is January 31, 2011.