CODART, Dutch and Flemish art in museums worldwide

CALL FOR PAPERS: “Art and Knowledge.” Special issue of Fragmenta, Journal of the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome

The interdisciplinary journal Fragmenta welcomes contributions to the theme “Art and Knowledge in Italy and the European Republic of Letters, 1500-1750.” The volume explores the ways in which knowledge was shaped and shared among painters, architects, collectors and scientists. It brings to the fore the epistemological dimensions of the making, trading, collecting and discussion of artworks. The city of Rome, debating ground for the key artistic and scientific issues of the Early Modern period, and perennial fulcrum of European antiquarianism and the academic approach of art, functions as the backdrop for a range of topics with a wide geographical spread.

The editors especially encourage a transnational perspective. How and why were artists and architects involved in the knowledge networks of the Republic of Letters, and how does this international dimension modify older historiographical differentiations?

Possible topics include:

● artists’ and collectors’ writings;
● images and material objects included in correspondence;
● scientific publications and “paper museums” involving international collectives of artists (e.g., Dutch and French engravers working in Rome);
● the interrelations between artists, artisans and scientists in the production of scientific instruments and encyclopaedic collecting;
● the role of material objects in the shaping and circulation of antiquarian scholarship;
● notions of virtuosity and connoisseurship;
● the role of the visual arts in communicating technical and theological knowledge to the non-Western world (and knowledge about the colonies and missions to Europe).

Fragmenta, published by Brepols, is a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal available in print and online, focusing on history, art history and archaeology. Recent thematic issues have discussed Early Modern subjectivity (forthcoming) and archaeology and national identity (2008). It is edited by the staff of the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome. Guest editor for this volume is Thijs Weststeijn.

Contributors are invited to send a one-page abstract to: thijs.weststeijn@uva.nl before September 30th, 2011.