The female sex has become the core of an increasing number of early modern studies since the rise of a gender-sensitive feminist viewpoint in art history. Many have dealt with images of a hairless and polished vulva, sometimes ostensibly eroticized. Pending this approach, the 2022 CHAR Workshop, Meta, Matrix, Mater. Renaissance Metaphors of the Matrix, wishes to re-explore the imaginary of the female sex from within and focus on the metaphors of the matrix in images and material culture in the Renaissance.

Program

June 13, 2022

09h45 Introduction

• Fiammetta Campagnoli, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
• Florence Larcher, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

10h00 Conférence inaugurale

• Concetta Pennuto, Université François Rabelais – Tours

10h45 Discussion

Session 1 The power of the matrix in (pro)creation

Chair: Baptiste Tochon-Danguy, École Pratique des Hautes Études

• 11h00 Womb, Print, Imprint: Early Modern Birth Figures and their Uses, Rebecca Whiteley, University of Manchester
• 11h30 Michelangelo’s Matrix: The Childbirth Metaphor in Italian Renaissance Art Theory, Jordan Troeller, Freie Universität Berlin

12h00 Discussion

Session 2 From material to materiality, from mineral to vegetal

Chair: Florence Larcher, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

• 14h30 Madder, Matter and Matrix: Stained Ivory Virgins from the Fourteenth Century, Marian Bleeke, Cleveland State University
• 15h00 Au-delà de l’humain. La matrice et ses images végétales (XVI^e-XVIII^e s.), Sara Petrella, Université de Neuchâtel
• 15h30 Le monde de Cérès : allégorie de la matrice végétale et humaine aux XVI^e et XVII^e siècles, Cassandre Herbert, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

16h Discussion and break

Session 3 Between the father and the mother

Chair: Fiammetta Campagnoli, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

• 17h00 La matrice de Dieu le Père : la mandorle comme lieu de filiation, Clémence Légoux, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
• 17h30 Begotten, not Made: Authenticity inside the Body of the Virgin Mary, Melissa Katz, Independent Scholar

18h00 Discussion and conclusion

Information

Free entrance within the limit of the number of places available. Please note there will be a live stream to allow those outside Paris access to the event.

Click here to attend the Zoom Live Stream