Call for Papers - Painted Gladiatrices: Women, Art and the Eighteenth-Century Social Arena

Painted Gladiatrices: Women, Art and the Eighteenth-Century Social Arena

Academic Session for 2013 Association for Art Historians Conference and Bookfair

Paper abstracts are invited for submission for the 2013 AAH Conference academic session, Painted Gladiatrices: Women, Art and the Eighteenth-Century Social Arena.

In an oft-quoted letter from 29 July 1782 to Fanny Burney, Edmund Burke
comments on how he lives ‘in an age distinguished by producing extraordinary
women.’ Burke has proved his powers of foresight, for it is difficult to speak
of the 18th century without mention of at least one woman who made a
significant impact on European history. How were so many women able to step
beyond their conventional roles and cause those such as Burke to take notice?
This session will explore the development/creation of women’s social images
through art in the 18th century. What were the relationships between social and
visual images of women?
Of particular interest is how art conveyed women’s roles in the social
spectrum. Recently, historians such as Robert Darnton and Nicholas Hammond have
drawn attention to the importance, prevalence and power of gossip in this
period, while recent exhibitions, including Thomas Gainsborough and the Modern
Woman (Cincinnati, 2010), have highlighted the importance of 18th-century women
and art. This session will consider women’s relationship in the fierce social
arena of the 18th century, and the role art played within it.

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