Enfilade

From ArtHist.net, which includes the French version:

What Does a Sculpture Do to a Garden? What Does a Garden Do to a Sculpture?

Que fait une sculpture à un jardin? Que fait un jardin à une sculpture?, 17e–21e siècle

Musée Rodin, Paris, 6 June 2025

Proposals due by 31 March 2025

Edvard Munch, Le Penseur de Rodin dans le parc du Dr Max Linde à Lübeck, ca. 1907, oil on canvas, 143 × 98 cm (Paris: Musée Rodin).

Part of the 22nd edition of the Rendez-vous aux jardins taking place 6–8 June 2025 under the theme “Stone Gardens / Garden Stones,” the symposium is under the scientific direction of Emmanuelle Héran, Chief Curator and Head of Garden Collections at the Musée du Louvre. The event will be webcast live.

While closely linked since Antiquity, the relationship between sculpture and gardens was rekindled during the Renaissance. Rodin himself pondered this connection, as Paul Gsell recounts in Art: “Statues are usually placed in gardens to embellish them. For Rodin, gardens are here to adorn the statues. For him, Nature remains the supreme mistress, an infinite perfection.” And yet, works tracing the history of gardens often give little consideration to the statuary that inhabits them. Conversely, sculpture scholars rarely reflect on the unique setting of gardens, or on what a sculpture, in turn, can bring to a garden. In both fields, publications are frequently illustrated with tightly framed photographs of sculptures, isolating them as if displayed within a museum—or even entirely cut out from their surroundings. Yet, a garden is not a museum; it offers to three-dimensional works neither the neutrality of a ‘white cube’ nor even the illusion of a ‘green cube’ beneath an open sky.

Indeed, what could be more subject to change, more ephemeral, than a garden? As seasons pass, with the shifting hours of the day and the whims of the weather, the environment surrounding a sculpture is in constant flux. While there does exist a ‘museography’ for gardens—defined both as the art of displaying sculptures within them and as the composition of gardens incorporating sculpture—it has never been the subject of a comprehensive study. It is scarcely taught, neither to curators overseeing an ‘open-air sculpture museum’ nor to landscape architects and garden designers responsible for their creation and upkeep. In this regard, Louis Gevart’s dissertation broke new ground [1].

The question of meaning also arises. In royal and aristocratic parks and gardens, a sculptural ensemble may follow a coherent iconographic program, whose analysis reveals political intentions—such as the renowned Grande Commande of 1674 for Versailles. More often, however, groves and lawns host a disparate collection, whose coherence—if it ever existed—may have faded over time. The history of a collection displayed in a garden can mirror that of a museum. Yet it may also be entirely different, as the works placed in a garden are not necessarily commissioned pieces or first choices. Some may have arrived belatedly, by default, left outdoors for lack of a better option, or, when too damaged or vandalized, removed in haste.

It is thus possible that a restoration, conversion or ex nihilo creation project requires a landscape architect to address the difficult issue of sculptures. In the world of historical monuments, managing a set of statues does not always fall under the responsibility of the chief architect, but of a heritage curator. This separation of powers is worth examining: is it relevant or counterproductive? How can dialogue be established? The choice of materials, their adaptability and durability can all be considered. Site-specific works created in close collaboration with a garden can be cited, such as Giuseppe Penone and Pascal Cribier’s L’Arbre des voyelles in the Tuileries Gardens.

During the 20th century, sculpture parks and gardens—created with this intent—focused more on presenting a “living history of sculpture under construction” (Louis Gevart). Iconographic objectives may have been replaced by the production of a historical-stylistic narrative, without soliciting the help of a landscape architect. However, as the profound changes recently made to Middelheim Park in Antwerp and the recreation of entire programs at Stowe demonstrate, a return to iconographic coherence does seem to be taking place, in response to the public’s presumed expectations.

This symposium welcomes case studies of the same work in different sizes and materials, whose effect on a garden can be decisive for its composition or, on the contrary, become unremarkable. Think of copies of famous ancient sculptures—the Farnese Hercules, the Diana of Versailles—whose use, identified by Haskell and Penny in 1981 and recently revised, continues. Also welcome are examples of sculptures whose contribution to a garden does not appear to be essential, or of attempts that have proved inconclusive, or of bases that have been left empty or refilled. The crucial question remains that of the usefulness and relevance of a three-dimensional work within a garden environment. In other words, what does a sculpture do to a garden? And what does a garden do to a sculpture?

This call is addressed to art historians specializing in gardens or sculpture. It is also aimed at park and garden managers, heritage architects and landscape architects who have carried out preliminary studies or restoration work on historic gardens, so that they can share their thoughts and recent field practices, carried out in close collaboration with art historians and sculptors. It will focus on the following questions:
• What is the use of sculpture in a garden?
• Iconography: the search for coherence
• When the statue is missing / The empty base
• What materials are used in a garden?
• Landscape architects and sculptors / Site-specific works

Submissions—with a title, an abstract (1500–2000 characters), and a brief biographical note (500–1000 characters)—should be sent to colloques@musee-rodin.fr before 31 March 2025.

Research Committee
• Emmanuelle Héran, Chief Curator, Head of Garden Collections, musée du Louvre
• Amélie Simier, Chief Curator, Director, musée Rodin
• Véronique Mattiussi, Head of the Research Department, musée Rodin
• Franck Joubin, Researcher and Conference Coordinator, musée Rodin

[1] Louis Gevart, “La Sculpture et la terre. Histoire artistique et sociale du jardin de sculpture en Europe (1901–1968),” PhD thesis in art history, under the direction of Thierry Dufrêne, Université Paris Ouest La Défense, January 2017.

From ArtHist.net and NIKI:

Hirsute, Downy, Hairless:

Meanings and Forms of Body Hair in Early Modern Visual Culture

Nederlands Interuniversitair Kunsthistorisch Instituut, Florence, 24–25 October 2025

Organized by Mathilda Blanquet, Michael Kwakkelstein, and Mandy Richter

Proposals due by 1 April 2025

While long overlooked in art historical studies, over the past two decades body hair has emerged as a significant field of research, offering new perspectives on early modern visual culture. The presence or absence of body hair serves as an indicator of aesthetic (or artistic) preferences and prevailing social norms specific to certain periods and locations, revealing complex intersections between art and real life.

In profane art, the representation of male body hair tends to be quite common. It often points to idealized virility, strength, or even a natural state of being. However, its excess or misplacement might indicate mockery, degradation, or even alienation of the depicted subject. In comparison, female hirsuteness appears less frequently in artworks from the early modern period due to different canons of beauty associated with the female body. These rare instances of representation thus hold particular interest for this workshop.

In religious art, hair in general is of notable importance and this significance extends to body hair as well. Various iconographies of saints include these distinct features, raising questions not only about visual traditions in different cultural contexts but also querying particular hermeneutic meanings, such as notions of humanity, carnality, and spiritual transformation. In some cases, there could be a connection to preserved body hair relics of specific saints, which has never been part of a broader study thus far.

Technical challenges in representing hair are another point of interest. Artists and art theorists addressed these challenges across different media throughout the early modern period, as evidenced in theoretical treatises, anatomical studies, and workshop practices. Not only does this include the question of how to differentiate between human and animal hair but extends as well to artistic experiments in finding new and creative ways of treating or even avoiding body hair.

This two-day workshop aims to explore the multiple dimensions of body hair in visual culture through an interdisciplinary approach. Contributions may address, but are not limited to, the following themes:

1  Gender and Social Norms
• Male vs. female body hair in art
• Social and cultural implications of hair presence or absence
• Body hair as an indicator of social status and cultural norms

2  Religious and Symbolic Dimensions
• Hair in religious iconography
• Symbolic meanings in sacred versus profane contexts
• The role of body hair in representing humanity versus divinity

3  Artistic Theory and Practice
• Technical challenges in depicting body hair across different media
• Body hair in artistic treatises and anatomical studies
• Relationships between artistic theory and artistic practice

4  Cultural and Geographic Variations
• Comparative studies across European regions
• Cross-cultural perspectives on body hair representation

We welcome proposals from doctoral students, post-doctoral researchers, and established scholars. Papers may be presented in English or Italian. Please submit an abstract (300–500 words), a brief biographical note (150 words), your current institutional affiliation, and contact information to m.blanquet@udk-berlin.de and richter@khi.fi.it by 1 April 2025. Acceptance notifications should arrive by 15 April 2025.

Selected papers will be considered for publication in a peer-reviewed volume following the workshop. The workshop will be held at the Nederlands Interuniversitair Kunsthistorisch Instituut in Florence (NIKI). Accommodation and travel information will be provided to accepted participants. For any queries, please contact m.blanquet@hotmail.fr and richter@khi.fi.it.

Organizers
• Mathilda Blanquet, Universität der Künste in Berlin, Université Fédérale de Toulouse, Universität Hamburg
• Dr. Michael W. Kwakkelstein, Dutch University Institute for Art History in Florence (NIKI) – Utrecht University
• Dr. Mandy Richter, Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut

From the Call for Papers:

Women and the Household in the Early Modern Book Trade, 1550–1750

Antwerp, 5–7 November 2025

Proposals due by 31 March 2025

Young saleswoman in a bookstore, Paris, 1782, etching.

This two-day conference aims to share knowledge of women’s rich and varied lives and works in the period before the rapid industrialisation of book production, which changed the face of home labour for early modern women.

The growing field of feminist bibliography has been built upon a recognition that early modern books were mostly products of the interwoven sectors of domesticity and trade. Many book trade practices took place within the home, enabling the unofficial training and labour of women and children. It was only the most successful enterprises that prompted investment in bespoke buildings, prompting a public-private dialectic which was sometimes merely superficial, since many were also managed or served by female family members and domestic servants. Some women owned businesses, premises and stock; managed apprentices and shops; and held ijaza (licenses) or copyright. Many others laboured invisibly, printing and sewing volumes, engraving blocks, and making ink and paper from home.

Traditionally understood as a male-dominated domain, pioneering research of the 1990s by, for example, Helen Smith, Paula McDowell, Susan Broomhall, Mark Lehmstedt, and Leslie Howsam enabled us to reconsider the place of women in the book trade in a much more systematic way. Since then, scholars such as Sarah Werner, Saskia Limbach, Heleen Wyffels, and Rémi Jimenes have developed the field, and Kate Ozment, Cait Coker, and Michelle Levy have provided new and valuable tools for feminist bibliography in The Women in Book History Bibliography and The Women’s Print History Project. And yet, the work of recovering the history of women and their place in the book trade remains challenging and labour-intensive.

Historiography, record-keeping, and even the process of archiving have been androcentric, and the historical—and for the most part, printed—evidence that survives about women and book production predominantly concerns widows. Often, we need to look beyond the imprint and the advertisement to the material culture of book production, to the physical evidence of the codex and the personal records of journals and correspondence to identify female family members like daughters, sisters, and wives. With this turn to material cultural methodologies, the under-explored collections in museums and archives can provide a richer picture, one that is improving with new collections development practices and increased resources being allocated by heritage sites and major research libraries to women’s histories and to the recovery of marginalised figures in the History of the Book.

This conference, as a part of the FWO research project Partners in Innovation: Women Publishers as Knowledgeable Agents in the Low Countries’ Book Trade, 1550–1750, coincides with the year devoted to the many women living and working in the Officina Plantiniana in 2025 at Museum Plantin-Moretus, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is co-hosted with the Rubens House Museum, Antwerp. We invite participants to consider the supposed binary between home and work for women in the early modern book trade worldwide. Through this approach, we hope to share knowledge of women’s rich and varied lives and works in the period before the rapid industrialisation of book production which changed the face of home labour for early modern women. The event features a guided tour of Museum Plantin-Moretus and a show and tell of key artefacts from the collection.

We invite submissions for 20-minute papers addressing the following areas:
• Marriage and inheritance
• Networks, kinship, and patronage
• Representations of the household and women in the book trade
• Impact of women on the history of knowledge production
• Spatial and architectural perspectives
• Apprentices and apprenticing, formal and informal
• Reflections on methodologies for feminist recovery of women’s work in the book trade
• Transnational comparisons of home labour in the book trade
• Material cultural approaches to women’s book history
• Women’s work in all sectors of book production, including binding, paper making, etc.

Please send an abstract of 200 words to womenandplantin@antwerpen.be with your name, affiliation, email address, and a short bio of no more than 50 words by 31 March 2025. There will be a registration fee for presenters. Queries are welcomed.

Keynote Speakers
Susan Broomhall (Australian Catholic University) and Alicia Montoya (Radboud University)

Organising Committee
Nina Geerdink (Utrecht University), Kristof Selleslach (Museum Plantin-Moretus), Lieke van Deinsen (KU Leuven), Zanna Van Loon (Museum Plantin-Moretus), Helen Williams (Northumbria University), Patricia Stoop (University of Antwerp), and Pierre Delsaerdt (University of Antwerp)

From ArtHist.net:

Carpentry and Sculpture from Gothic to Art Nouveau

Hôtel de la Roche, Mons, Belgium, 19–21 July 2025

Proposals due by 30 March 2025

A combined effort of the Centre de Recherches Historiques sur les Maîtres Ébénistes and The Low Countries Sculpture Society, whose libraries and archives have merged and are housed in the Hôtel de la Roche (1750) at Mons, the inaugural edition of the Annual Seminar on European Sculpture and Decorative Arts will take place in July 2025. This first edition will address questions about the production, consumption, collecting, and display of ‘carpentry furniture’ (in the Parisian sense of the expression) across Europe and North America, from the Gothic period to Art Nouveau. Issues of design history, collaborations between creators and producers, artists and artisans, as well as the relations with any other people involved are sought. Specificities of ‘carpentry furniture’, as opposed to other types of furniture design and production, may be investigated. This includes the study of relations between carpenters and sculptors, as well as that of historic sources, such as those published by André Jacob Roubo (1739–1791).

Its theme will draw, amongst others, but not exclusively, on the rich tradition of carpentry in the Low Countries, often in combination with magnificent sculpture in solid oak, particularly for church furniture, and on the Parisian tradition for meubles de menuiserie (‘carpentry furniture’), as differentiated from meubles d’ébénisterie (‘veneered furniture’) from the the 17th century onward, as formalised with separate guilds. ‘Carpentry furniture’ included seat furniture, console tables, floors and wall pannelling often with ornate sculptural elements, and always in solid wood, frequently painted and/or gilt, as opposed to veneered furniture. Gilt console tables were a particularly respected product of the Paris menuisiers.

The seminar has an international and multidisciplinary orientation. As such, we hope to attract lively participation from junior and senior scholars in the history of furniture and furnishings, sculpture, as well as practitioners of restoration-conservation in the same and other relevant fields. Short papers (maximum 30 minutes) of new research or work in progress may be presented in English or French. A minimal passive knowledge of both English and French is highly recommended to enable full participation in the ensuing discussions, which form the core of the seminar. The seminar will take place without an audience (apart from the speakers), but it will be filmed and broadcast live on YouTube.

The Society will cover accommodation expenses for foreign speakers at the seminar, as well as all group meals and the Sunday excursion. On the other hand, travel arrangements to and from Mons are the responsibility of the individual participants, and their travel expenses will not be reimbursed. We will endeavour to help with a shuttle from Maubeuge to Mons (20 km), as there is a direct train line from Paris to Maubeuge that is more reliable than the one to Mons.

Please send participation proposals with a 200-word abstract of the intended paper and a 200-word CV by email to info@lcsculpture.art by midday, 31 March 2025. We prefer to receive your abstract written in your mother tongue. We will then have it professionally translated into English and French for our scientific committee. News of the committee’s decisions will be sent in April. For further information, please contact The Low Countries Sculpture Society at info@lcsculpture.art.

From the Call for Papers:

Sacred Ceramics: Devotional Images in European Porcelain
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 30 September 2025

Organized by Matthew Martin and Rebecca Klarner

Proposals due by 30 April 2025

Meissen Figure of the Virgin Immaculata, probably modelled by Johann Gottlieb Kirchner, ca.1730–33 (Courtesy of E & H Manners, London).

The extensive sculptural output of Europe’s first kaolinic porcelain factory, the Saxon Meissen manufactory, has long attracted the attention of art historians. The large-scale animal sculptures executed so early in the factory’s history for the Japanese Palace, impress both for their technical ambition, and as evidence of the genius of Johann Joachim Kändler in capturing the liveliness of his animal subjects. But there is a significant area of Meissen’s sculptural output that has not to date received sustained attention: the sculptures on religious subjects produced during the reigns of Augustus II and Augustus III. Works such as Kändler’s Death of St Francis Xavier of c.1738–40 and the large Crucifixion group of 1743, represent some of the most complex sculptural works ever produced at Meissen. Yet these, and related works, have only relatively recently begun to be studied in detail (Antonin 2010; Leps 2020).

Despite this relative neglect, it is clear that Meissen’s religious sculptures played an important role in the projection of power at the Saxon Polish court. In part this was political: the conversion of Augustus II and Augustus III to Catholicism was necessary for them to be eligible for election to the crown of Poland. The marriage of Augustus III to the Catholic Maria Josepha of Austria also suggests much loftier political ambitions on the part of the Wettin electors, with the imperial crown clearly a potential prize. Signalling the Saxon court’s Catholicism was a vital political exercise and Meissen’s religious sculpture played a central role in this project (Cassidy-Geiger 2007).

But there are indications that a more complex cultural phenomenon lay behind the creation of porcelain devotional images. The pioneering work of Baxandall on limewood sculpture of the Renaissance has drawn attention to the deep significance that medium can hold in the conception and creation of devotional sculpture (Baxandall 1980). We suggest that a similar phenomenon may have been at play in the creation of porcelain religious images. The 1712 letter penned by the Jesuit Father François Xavier d’Entrecolles not only conveyed to Europe first-hand knowledge of Chinese porcelain production at Jingdezhen, it also construed access to this knowledge as a triumph of the Jesuit global mission—the successes of the Jesuits in China made the secret of kaolinic porcelain available to the Catholic princes of Europe. Porcelain’s alchemical heritage was also not without significance: success at the alchemical enterprise had always been deemed a donum dei (Principe 2013). Only with God’s blessing could the experimentalist succeed. These factors could lead to porcelain assuming a sacral character in Catholic court contexts. Devotional images in European porcelain exploited these cultural associations of the medium itself.

Of course, Meissen was not the only European porcelain factory to produce sculpture that employed counter-reformation iconography. The Doccia factory of Count Ginori—himself a natural philosophical experimentalist—was responsible for outstanding religious sculptures in a Florentine Late Baroque manner (Biancalana 2009), while Catholic court manufactories across the Holy Roman Empire—Vienna, Höchst, Fulda, Nymphenburg—produced devotional images in porcelain. Even factories in mid-eighteenth-century England—Chelsea and Derby—produced sculptures employing Catholic devotional imagery (Martin 2013). In each instance, cultural-political motives for the creation of these images can be reconstructed.

This one-day conference aims to investigate this neglected area of eighteenth-century European porcelain production. Topics for 20-minute papers to be presented at the V&A South Kensington on 30 September 2025 might include, but are not limited to:
• Who were the artists and patrons involved in these sculptures’ creation?
• What sources informed their production?
• How did these sculptures function in private and public contexts?
• What significance lay in the use of porcelain, or other ceramic mediums, to create devotional images?

To submit a paper proposal, please send an abstract of 200 words and a biography of up to 100 words to the convenors Dr Matthew Martin, University of Melbourne (mmartin1@unimelb.edu.au), and Rebecca Klarner, University of Leeds (fhrlmk@leeds.ac.uk), by 30 April 2025. Speakers will be informed of whether their proposals have been accepted by mid-May.

From ArtHist.net:

Creating the Museum: Exploring the Museum Impulse in Local, Regional, and National Contexts
Conference of the National Gallery and the Museums and Galleries History Group
London, 26–27 September 2025 (dates still to be confirmed)

Proposals due by 14 March 2025

While the birth of the concept of the museum has attracted lots of scholarly attention and the desire to create new museums is now a global phenomenon, the question of how individual museums, their collections, buildings, and personnel come into being has not been widely considered. As complex organisations, museums have been created through multifaceted sets of initiatives, practices, and activities—raising money, sourcing or commissioning buildings and storage, assembling, organising and interpreting collections, developing expertise, engaging communities, fulfilling a purpose which some groups were more able to prosecute than others. Various periods have seen the flourishing of local, regional, national museums, of large or smaller scale, and of different specialisms and audiences, with varying models of governance. Some passionately wished for museums ultimately stalled, and some proposed museums never quite appeared. Some museums were created for particular audiences, at particular moments, while others evolved from earlier forms of collecting; some required particular buildings in order to begin; some have taken up residence like hermit crabs in whichever spaces were available.

To develop our understanding of the reasons for creating museums and to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the creation of the National Gallery in London, we invite proposals for a conference hosted by the National Gallery and the Museums C Galleries History Group (MGHG). The conference will focus on why and how galleries and museums internationally/globally have emerged and evolved. It will explore the different ways in which museums and public art galleries come into existence and the impulses, rationales, and objectives for ‘creating’ museums, foregrounding the wide range and variety of museum creation and exploring core questions of purpose, meaning, and context, whilst also drawing attention to the specificity of the National Gallery, reflecting on the contexts for its founding impulses and exploring the future roles, purpose, and functions of (inter)national galleries.

We seek papers covering any aspect of museum creation between about 1600 and the present day, for any type of museum, anywhere in the world. Papers should be 15–20 minutes in length; we invite individual proposals as well as proposals for a panel of papers (maximum 4 papers for a panel).

Papers may respond to these questions:
• What impulses led to the creation of museums?
• Under what circumstances have completely new types of museum been created?
• What can museums that never quite came into being, or museums that came and went, tell us?
• What role do collections (if any) play in the creation of museums?
• What role do museum buildings play in acts of creating the museum, or how has the need for physical space of various kinds impacted on the creation of museums?
• What has it taken to create a museum from public funds such as local or national taxes?
• Which individuals have created museums, out of philanthropy, passion, memorialisation or other motivations, and how?
• Is the creation of museums distinctive by specialism (natural history, art gallery, social history, etc)?
• How has the orientation of museums towards particular audiences promoted museum creation in particular ways?
• How do museums’ links with other organisations such as libraries impact on their creation?
• Are there museums whose creation is inexplicable?
• How has the National Gallery positioned itself in relation to other London, UK, and international museums in the past?
• What are the aims and objectives, benefits and drawbacks of branch museums emerging from the ‘centre’ (e.g. VCA, Tate, Guggenheim)?
• How have partnerships developed and what have been the fruits of such partnerships in diverse areas of museum life including Research, Conservation, and Education/Learning?
• What are the funding models currently available which ensure openness and parity within the sector which are worth highlighting for future reference?
• Are there any historical or actual international collaborations which offer particularly positive models for current and future practice (e.g. ICOM)?
• How should an institution like the National Gallery relate to other institutions today?
• How and in what ways is a museum like the National Gallery representative of ‘national’ art?

Please send proposals (200–300 words) with an indication of affiliation and job title to contact@mghg.info by Friday, 14 March 2025. Successful proposals will be informed by 30 April 2025. We welcome proposals from researchers at all career stages. As the conference will be exclusively ‘in person’, please note that successful speakers will be responsible for their own expenses. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.

From the Call for Papers:

Fashioning the Body: Dress in New England, 1600–1900
Historic Deerfield, Deerfield, Massachusetts, 12–13 September 2025

Organized by Lauren Whitley

Proposals due by 3 May 2025

Fashion has garnered great interest in recent decades, and research into the history of clothing has yielded new insights into culturally embedded ideas around self-styling and the body. Understanding the mechanisms of stylish dress was the subject of several publications including Extreme Beauty (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001), Fashioning the Body (Bard Museum, 2015), and Structuring Fashion: Foundation Garments through History (Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, 2019). Yet, few studies have explored New England’s relationship with styling the body and fashionable dress.

In conjunction with the exhibition Body by Design: Fashionable Silhouettes from the Ideal to the Real, opening 3 May 2025, Historic Deerfield will host a Fall Forum, Fashioning the Body: Dress in New England 1600–1900, that aims to examine men’s and women’s fashion through a specific New England lens by convening a group of experts in the field to explore the rich history of dressing the body in this region. The Forum seeks to explore the following questions:
• What was distinctive about dress in New England, 1600–1900?
• How did aspirational fashion silhouettes form an aspect of New England dress?
• Was the cold weather of New England a factor in attaining stylishness?
• What were the connections between the clothing practices of indigenous people and English Colonists?
• What was the connection between religion and clothing in New England?
• How did attitudes around the body in New England influence self-styling?
• How were foundation garments a factor in New England clothing?
• What was the role of homespun in New England clothing?
• What can we say about either agency or subjugation in the dress of enslaved New Englanders?
• How was New England a place of innovation in fashion?
• If not aligned with prevailing fashions, how did New Englanders express anti-fashion?
• How was New England’s past revisited in Colonial Revival fancy dress?
• What is the role of painted portraits in documenting clothing styles or presenting an aspirational ideal? Does the representation of clothing in photography play a different role?

Historic Deerfield invites paper proposals for its two-day forum. Priority will be given to paper submissions that present new research and examine topics in non-traditional ways. Submissions beyond the geographical scope of New England but informative to this area are also encouraged. Topics and themes might include but are not limited to:
• Object Studies
• Artisan/Artist Biographies
• Analysis and Conservation
• Collectors and Collections
• Social and Cultural Meanings

To submit a proposal, please send (as a single email attachment) a lecture title, a 250-word abstract that describes the lecture, and a one-page vita or biography to Lauren Whitley, Curator of Historic Textiles and Clothing and Forum organizer, at lwhitley@historic-deerfield.org. Papers should be 25 minutes in length and must be object/image based. Proposals will be accepted until 3 May 2025. You will be notified of the status of your proposal no later than 24 May 2025. Speakers whose papers are accepted will be given complimentary registration to the symposium, lodging, and meals. The forum will convene in Deerfield, Massachusetts, as a hybrid program, with both on-site and virtual registration options for attendees. Speakers are expected to present their papers on site at Historic Deerfield.

Historic Deerfield is home to one of the finest collections of New England architecture, interiors, and decorative arts, including clothing. Historic dress was a particular interest of Historic Deerfield’s founder, Helen Flynt (1895–1986), who in the 1940s actively acquired high-style European dress as well as clothing made and worn locally in New England. The textile and clothing collection now boasts 8,000 objects including important examples of fashionable 18th– and 19th-century European, English, and American dresses and suits, the undergarments that were worn with them, and stylish accessories such as shoes, hats, gloves, purses, and aprons. Over the course of the last fifty years, Historic Deerfield has also amassed related materials, from fashion plates to original account books, that document the role of fashion in the lives of New Englanders.

From ArtHist.net:

Luxury in Fabrics and Fashion: 5th Colloquium of Textile and Fashion Researchers
El luxe en els teixits i la moda / El lujo en los tejidos y la moda
Barcelona Design Museum, 6–7 November 2025

Organized by Sílvia Rosés and Sílvia Ventosa

Proposals due by 31 March 2025

The Design History Foundation and Catalonia’s textile museums announce their 5th Colloquium of Textile and Fashion Researchers, to be held at the Barcelona Design Museum on 6 and 7 November 2025. This year’s theme is textiles and fashion as powerful instruments of social stratification and distinction. On the one hand, luxury has positioned itself at the service of the ruling classes by consolidating established, imposed hierarchies, although, on the other hand, it has also helped to blur and rewrite them. This is why the concept of luxury has been one of the best-guarded bastions by the privileged sectors, given that it is one of the most powerful resources of social significance, the legitimation of power and the recognition of the elites. What is understood as luxury has consequently changed its semantics in order to adapt to the various facets that power has assumed.

In the past, colours such as purple or black, the quality of fabrics or jewellery were major indicators of status. Items of clothing such as ruffles, chopines, corsets, togas or crinoline indicated the high social class of those who did not have to work. Today, more subtle aspects such as hygiene, the cut of suits, the concept of good taste or the recent obsession with brands have become intangible added values that distinguish those who have political or economic power from those who do not.

This congress aims to examine the various facets of luxury, both in the field of fabrics and clothing and the changes in meaning that this concept has undergone at different times throughout history and in various cultures. It intends to provide an in-depth analysis from a historical and sociological perspective (through its role in shaping societies), from a technical perspective (through the tradition and innovation of crafts and their adaptation to the industrial paradigm), from an anthropological perspective (through the analysis of multiple cultural realities), and from an economic perspective (through the study of the implications of luxury in the configuration of fashion systems).

This 5th Colloquium therefore proposes various strands to submit your papers:
• Luxury throughout History
• The Aesthetics of Luxury: Tastes and Ornaments
• Luxury and Elitism
• The Moral and Psychological Implications of Practicing Luxury
• The Semantics of Luxury
• The Production of Luxurious Objects
• Craftsmanship and Luxury: Tradition, Innovation, and Modernity
• Economy and Luxury
• Luxury and the Issue of Gender
• Luxury and Sustainability

With this fifth edition of the TFR Colloquium—prior editions were held in 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2023—the Design History Foundation and Catalonia’s textile museums have established themselves as a forum for exchange designed to promote top-level research and the dissemination of knowledge in the fields of textiles and fashion. These Colloquiums have showcased public and private archives and collections and have helped to place the spotlight on a group of historians and scholars who had previously worked in isolation. The TFR Colloquium brings together people of the highest academic level. The committee will not accept abstracts from artists and designers who come to promote their work.

The conference languages will be Catalan, Spanish, and English, and the papers to be presented in person during the conference will last a maximum of 15 minutes. Registered participants will receive a certificate, as will the researchers presenting the papers. The papers will be published in the conference proceedings. They will have a DOI if they are published online and an ISBN if they are published in paper form.

Proposals (maximum of 500 words) should address the general aims of the research, theoretical framework (reference authors), methodology, and the originality of research within context of textile and fashion history and studies. Proposals should also include a paper title and details of the researcher (full name, academic post, current occupation, and email address), as well as the strand in which the abstract belongs. Abstracts must be sent in Word format (absolutely not in PDF format) to coloquiotextil@gmail.com, with no images or citations, for subsequent processing on paper and/or in digital format.

Once the abstract has been accepted, the researcher will register through the website of the Design History Foundation. All researchers must register and pay the appropriate fee, which will be announced when the programme is published. Diplomas will be issued only to registered individuals in the case of group research. The organisation reserves the right to cancel the colloquium in the event of exceptional circumstances beyond its control.

From ArtHist.net:

Out of Scale: From ‘Miniature’ Material Cultures to the Anthropic Principle
The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, 16–18 June 2025

Organized by Wenjie Su, Yizhou Wang, and Stephen Whiteman

Proposals due by 15 March 2025

Scale—the relative dimension, magnitude, or scope of objects, and their proportional relationship to the observer—is often understood through the lens of individual or collective visual assumptions. As inhabitants of the terrestrial sphere, we tend to rely on our bodies and cultural paradigms to interpret the scale of geographical terrain, human-made structures, material artifacts, social phenomena, and historical events. Technological advancements—from maritime expeditions to space exploration, from telescopic and microscopic investigations to the detection of cosmic microwave background—have urged humanity to redefine its scale of existence. Meanwhile, various philosophical and religious traditions have long pondered humanity’s place and purpose in relation to natural and supernatural realms.

By exploring designs and creations conceived on a micro-scale or as small-sized, this conference invites discussion on human creativity and human existence through the theme of scale. Examples abound across diverse human traditions, including burial and ritual objects, microarchitecture, portrait miniatures, and accessorial items such as netsukes, snuff boxes, and pocket watches. These objects appear diminutive when compared to the human body, the ‘worlds’ they represent, or their counterparts within more dominant socio-cultural systems. At times dismissed as frivolous and superficial, these streamlined and recontextualized objects can evoke out-of-scale resonances, transcending the original limitations of data or resources.

This conference connects studies that examine the art historical, historiographical, and ideological significance of scaled objects. First, we aim to deepen discussions on the sensorial, spiritual, intellectual, and technical implications of scaling. Particularly understudied are ephemeral objects and repositioned sites, such as lab settings and festival stagings. Second, we seek to investigate how the scale—of originals, reproductions, or paradigms—has shaped the central or peripheral status of specific objects and sites in art historical scholarship. Third, we aim to highlight the unique contributions that humanities and art historical scholars can make in addressing cutting-edge intellectual challenges in fields including AI and astrophysics. Throughout the global history of visual and material cultures, creatively re-scaled objects have played a central role in conceiving and simulating worlds that surpass our optical and epistemological thresholds. By exploring how humans have continually shifted scales to position themselves within and across realms, this conference reflects on humanity’s inherently limited yet endlessly creative perspective and envisions pathways to launch beyond boundaries.

Further questions and topics include but are not limited to:
• Material, aesthetic, sensory, and affective qualities unique to small-scale objects
• Practices of modeling and scaling in the production of scientific knowledge, such as mapping and laboratory experiments
• The dialectics of miniature and monumentality
• Relationships between scale, virtuality, and reality
• Critical reflections on the interpretational framework of ‘miniaturization’, such as the so-called miniature paintings of various Asian and Islamic traditions
• Challenges posed by small-scale objects or fragments in archaeological, museum, and pedagogical contexts
• The role of scale-shifting in methodological turns, such as global history, gender criticism, and eco-criticism

We invite proposals from scholars in a range of disciplines, including art and architecture history, museum studies, cultural history, intellectual history, and the history of science. Please send an abstract (ca. 250 words) for a 20-minute presentation and a 150-word bio as a single PDF file by 15 March 2025 to w-su@nga.gov; yizhouwang@hkbu.edu.hk; and stephen.whiteman@courtauld.ac.uk. Acceptance notification: 30 March 2025.

Conveners
Wenjie Su (Princeton University; CASVA)
Yizhou Wang (Hong Kong Baptist University)
Stephen Whiteman (The Courtauld Institute of Art)

Keynote Speakers
Andrew James Hamilton (The Art Institute of Chicago)
Wei-Cheng Lin (The University of Chicago)

The conference will be held 16–18 June 2005 at the Courtauld Institute of Art. Optional group viewing sessions will be arranged on June 18 in or around London. Accepted speakers will be invited to propose objects from London-based collections or sites that resonate with the themes of scale and the miniature.

From ArtHist.net:

History of Map Collecting: Vienna, Central Europe, and Beyond
University of Vienna, 12 June 2025

Organized by Eva Chodějovská and Silvia Tammaro

Proposals due by 17 March 2025

This one-day event will be held on 12 June 2025 at University of Vienna. Organised jointly by the Vienna Center for the History of Collecting (University of Vienna, Austria) and the Moravian Library in Brno (Czech Republic), the conference will be accompanied by a poster exhibition on Bernard Paul Moll (1697–1780) and his map collection, formed in 18th-century Vienna and now preserved at the Moravian Library.

Vienna—thanks to personalities of international fame such as the archduke Leopold Wilhelm, Eugene of Savoy, Albert von Sachsen-Teschen, and others—was one of the most important centres of collecting in the early modern period. This international conference aims to go beyond the general public’s conceptions of the collecting of paintings, drawings, and sculptures in two ways. Firstly, to enlarge the group of collected objects to printed sheets with a special focus on maps; secondly, there are important pieces of collectors’ interests of this kind kept in Vienna worth displaying and discussing (including the world-famous Blaeu-Van der Hem Atlas preserved in the Austrian National Library). Based on a long-lasting scholarly discussion of maps as objects of art and products of science, we welcome case studies addressing the practices of map collecting from the 17th to 20th centuries, including the creation of composite atlases in Central Europe.

A paper title, an abstract of 5–8 sentences, and a short CV in English are welcome by 17 March 2025. The acceptance notification is scheduled on 31 March 2025. Presentations should be 20 minutes. The conference language is English. Travel costs will be reimbursed up to €200. The conference is supported by “Stadt Wien Kultur/City of Vienna Culture.” Should you have further questions, please contact the organisers, Eva Chodějovská (chodejovska@mzk.cz) and Silvia Tammaro (silvia.tammaro@univie.ac.at).