Lieu : Université de Toronto
Date : 26-27 avril 2019
Date limite de réponse à l’appel : 31 mars 2018
During the sixteenth and seventeenth century princes and the nobility found tomb sculpture an effective means of refashioning their identity and promoting their interests in a rapidly changing society. Enormous funds were spent on these monuments, often well before the occupants’ death or by their heirs, for whom the sepulchers became a generalized marker of family status. Epitaphs were also fashioned of words, penned in ink and published as well as engraved in stone. Poetical tributes and eulogies to rulers gave them another type of public persona. For this conference we wish to focus on the agency of these creations in the social and political arena of Northern Europe and Iberia. Previous discussions have concentrated on the culture of death and remembrance. Although these concepts are integral to any consideration of tombs and epitaphs, we want to concentrate here on their broader cultural significance. We are interested in the ways tombs and epitaphs helped establish a viable image for leading families and facilitated participation in important networks. In which ways did tombs and epitaphs take part in the debates fostered by the Reformation and the Catholic response? How was inquiry into different religions reflected in tomb sculpture? And how did notions of presence inflect the design of and response to these monuments?