Call For Papers DEADLINE EXTENDED TO JULY 1
Event date: November 4, 2022
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland OH (in person)
Organized by Dr. Emily J. Peters, Curator of Prints and Drawings, Cleveland Museum of Art
In conjunction with the major exhibition and publication, Tales of the City: Drawing in the Netherlands
from Bosch to Bruegel—a collaboration between the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Albertina
Museum, Vienna—the CMA is convening an international symposium on sixteenth-century
Netherlandish drawing in Fall 2022.
The Netherlandish cities of the sixteenth century—Antwerp, Bruges, Brussels, Ghent, Leiden, Haarlem,
’s-Hertogenbosch, to name a few—provided some of the most remarkable and fertile urban settings in
history for art patronage and creation. In the course of the sixteenth century, drawing in the
Netherlands developed from a medium used primarily for copying and recording compositions to an
active design process. This was partially a result of the many demands placed on urban artists, who were
called upon to create not only paintings and sculpture, but also to visualize the wide-ranging, multi-
media adornment of civic, religious, and domestic spaces such as guild halls, churches, private homes,
and even city streets during events such as joyous entries. The great diversity in techniques, functions,
and types of Netherlandish drawings that come down to us today elucidate the connections between
drawing and printmaking, stained glass, decorative arts, and other media. They often defy strict
classifications of type such as preparatory, presentation, or finished works. Indeed, many drawings
straddled multiple categories in practice and played various roles in processes of translation and
communication in light of shifting market and audience expectations in cosmopolitan urban milieux.
We invite proposals for papers that address the multifaceted purposes of drawing in the context of
northern and southern Netherlandish cities in the 16th century. Proposals are invited from advanced
graduate students, scholars, curators, and conservators on themes including but not limited to the
development and purpose of drawing techniques; the role of drawing in proposing innovative subject
matter; in negotiating contentious terrain (political, religious); and in communicating and collaborating
between artists, craftsmen, and civic bodies. Papers will be limited to 20 minutes in length and
presented in English.
Abstracts must be submitted electronically to NetherlandishDrawings@
July 1, 2022. Presenter invitations will be extended by July 11. Travel grants will be available on a
limited basis for those without travel or professional development funds. Please indicate if you
anticipate applying for a travel grant.
This symposium is funded by a generous grant from the Robert Lehman Foundation.
https://www.clevelandart.org/
