It can be difficult for the modern civilian to imagine historical figures as anything more than history: relics of a bygone age with little significance to the modern world. But through the work of scholars who study the lives of those who lived hundreds of years ago, we realize how they were, in fact, just as real as you are.
On Nov. 16, the New England Renaissance Conference was held at the Mandel Center for the Humanities, with presentations from notable Renaissance scholars from a wide range of disciplines, including English and history. The event was sponsored by a programming grant from the Mandel Center for the Humanities and the Poses Grants for the Arts through the Dean of Arts and Sciences.
The morning session featured the Director of the Mandel Center for the Humanities Prof. Ramie Targoff (ENG) as well as with Kenneth Gouwens, an associate professor at the University of Connecticut and Oliver Tostmann, who was recently named the new Susan Morse Hilles Curator of European Art at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Modern Art.
The morning session highlighted a series of papers revolving around the historical figure of Vittoria Colonna, an Italian noblewoman, one of the most famous poets of 16th-century Italy and the first woman to publish a book of her own poems in the history of Italian poetry. She was a symbol of chastity and piety to the public and not only did she write poetry, but she also ventured into prose later in her career.
Targoff's lecture was titled, "Vittoria Colonna: A Life in Letters." Targoff's discussion dealt with Colonna's transformation from an erotic poet, or one focused on love for the world around her to a devotional poet, or a poet focused on her relationship with the divine, through an analysis of two separate sonnet series.
The English professor went on to explain that first set of erotic sonnets, at least on a surface level, follow the conventions of Italian poet and scholar Francesco Petrarch. The second series of poems on the other hand, "conforms to no existing pattern or genre within Italian Renaissance verse of the time," she said.
One of Colonna's lifelong struggles was a battle with her own conflicting emotions. She felt divided by the earthly love she felt for her late husband and the love she had for God. Unlike Petrarch, whose love for his deceased wife was dependent on his love of God, "for Colonna by contrast, loving [became] not a means but an actual stumbling block for her capacity to imagine heavenly salvation," Targoff said. "She needed to forge a poetic mode that would not depend on the foundation of erotic poetry."
Targoff concluded her presentation saying that Colonna unknowingly predicted the schism that would eventually develop in the decades following the Reformation in Europe, during which earthly and divine love were deemed incompatible by theologians like John Calvin. "In the broadest sense then," said Targoff, "we might consider Colonna the first Protestant poet."
In the second presentation, Gouwens presented his findings on male portrayals of female physical beauty in Renaissance Italy. He spent a particularly long time discussing one of Paolo Giovio's writings. It focused on outstanding noblewomen, a category that in which Colonna stood out. "She combines in fully realized form qualities that which other women possessed only incompletely," he said.
He said that "[Giovio's] description of her physical attributes is remarkably explicit as we see and yet he sees those combining with her character, talents and intellect to form a harmonious hold," Gouwens said.
In the final presentation, titled "Michelangelo's 'Piet?* for Vittoria Colonna' and Sculptors' Drawings in the Renaissance," Tostmann focused on the portrait of Colonna drawn by Michelangelo, who had a close friendship with Colonna.
As part of the presentation, Tostmann also discussed an upcoming exhibit at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston about the drawings of famous sculptors, premiering in Fall 2014. The exhibit will feature the "Piet?*" along with other pieces. The exhibit was developed by Michael Cole of Columbia University and Tostmann.
Jodie Austin, (Ph.D.) of the English department, chose to attend the conference because it "presents a very interdisciplinary perspective on early modern literature and art ... this conference is interesting because it's not only focusing on English literature, but it's also making forays into Italian art and Italian literature as well so we have this nice kind of geographical and disciplinary intersection," she said.
Austin also said that, "I think it's important that more conferences like this be held on the Brandeis campus ... Brandeis has always felt a little outside the Boston consortium." Emily Fine (Ph.D.), also of the English graduate program, explained that for her the conference is about community. "I think this conference is important because it's about building a community of scholars in New England focusing on similar things."