Architectural structures are often a prominent feature in narrative images. They create striking settings, or are themselves the main subject of representation, from wood inlays to sculpted reliefs, from frescoes to panel and oil paintings, from illuminations and scroll paintings to prints. They engage with the narrative, whilst also providing a narrative of their own, as they testify to the architectural imagination of artists and communicative abilities of architectural forms. Yet, two-dimensional buildings are often discussed only as spatial devices articulating depth, and as lesser counterparts of large-scale three-dimensional structures. This approach hinders our understanding of the structural and ornamental ambition of many two-dimensional buildings, which can present architectural solutions that were adopted only decades later in built structures. It also prevents us from fully recognising the cultural value attached to architectural forms and their rhetorical dimension.

These sessions at the 2021 meeting of the Renaissance Society of America aim to challenge traditional approaches to the representation of architecture in order to bridge the historiographical gap between art and architectural history. Focussing on the period between c.1300 to c.1700 as a turning point for the representation of architecture, the sessions intend to shed light on the innovativeness of two-dimensional architecture across a variety of media and to further research on the intersection of artistic and architectural practice. Proposals discussing architectural representation in any medium and from any part of the world are welcome. Papers may address a variety of topics, including but not limited to:

• Interaction and exchange between artists and architects
• Craftsmen working as both artists and architects
• The roles architecture plays within a narrative image
• The symbolism of architecture
• The relationship between representations of architecture and built structures
• The development of architectural project drawing in relation to painted and sculpted buildings
• Ornamental originality and structural ingenuity in both two and three-dimensional architecture

Please send proposals to Livia Lupi (livia.lupi@warwick.ac.uk) by July 31, 2020. They should include a title (max. 15 words), an abstract (max. 150 words) and a brief CV (max. one page).

All participants must be RSA members for the year of the conference. RSA offers a limited number of travel grants, for which the deadline is normally in December. Please visit the 'External Link' below for more details.