While copious literature has described the early modern affinity for comparing painting with sculpture and has even explored the so-called "paragone" between painting and architecture, period ideas about the relationships between sculpture and architecture have received sparser attention. This session will scrutinize the paragone between the plastic arts and architecture from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century as manifested in images, objects, buildings, and text. The goals of the session will be to determine what distinct and overlapping forms of artistic expertise were associated with sculpture and architecture, and to integrate our insights into a broader understanding of early modern paragone discourses. Questions addressed may include: How did artists and architects negotiate control over architectonic projects with sculptural programs, or sculptural projects with architectural ornament? How did architectural treatises address sculpture, and how did writings about the plastic arts treat architecture? In what ways did writers compare the aesthetic qualities of each medium? What forms of artistic expertise did architects,  sculptors, and sculptor/architects respectively claim? And where did critics locate the intersections between these areas of knowledge? Antagonism as well as accord between sculpture and architecture will be of interest to the discussion.

Please submit a 200-word abstract and a brief CV to Elizabeth J. Petcu at epetcu at princeton.edu before 12 noon (EST) on May 31.

Session Organizer: Elizabeth J. Petcu (Princeton University / Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte)