Ovidius Pictus. The Fortune of Metamorphoses in Europe from Books to Arts. Call for papers (original) (raw)

In the exhibition on Ovid’s Metamorphoses, conceived by Aby Warburg and held in Hamburg in 1927, many illustrated books arrived from the major European libraries. They were opened and displayed at the bottom of panels, where many photos with reproductions of works of art coming from Metamorphoses were exhibited. In this way, the images representing Ovidian episodes physically and metaphorically emerged from the open books. In effect, in his notes for the exhibition, Warburg claims that the Latin poet and his translators and illustrators were the main vehicle for the survival of the ancient gods, their myths and their passionate nature in the European culture. Following this path, this conference aims to gather papers on the afterlife of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, analysing the European circulation of illuminated manuscripts and illustrated books, as well as their relationship with the artistic production from the Middle Ages to the present day. We would like to thoroughly investigate the circulation of Ovid’s text by its several vulgarizations, not only in the major European artistic capitals, but especially in peripheral areas. At the same time, we are interested in improving our understanding of the use of Metamorphoses not only in painting and sculpture, but especially in applied arts, ceramics, majolica, and furniture. The conference will be held in person at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, on September 19th-20th, 2022. Travel and hospitality expenses are not covered by the organization of the conference. Both junior and senior scholars are invited to submit their 20-minute proposals in Spanish or English with a title, an abstract (no more than 500 words) and a brief bio (maximum of 10 lines) to Fatima Diez Platas, PhD (fatima.diez@usc.es) and Giuseppe Capriotti, PhD (giuseppe.capriotti@unimc.it). The deadline for the submission of proposals is June 15th, 2022. Notifications of acceptance will be announced by the end of June. Selected papers will be published in the book of proceedings.