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CALL FOR PAPERS
Women, Spaces, Freedom.
Architecture and the female universe in the Renaissance

call for papers

Organized by Donata Battilotti, Cammy Brothers, Bianca De Divitiis, Deborah Howard

Even today, when the majority of architecture students are female, the world of architecture continues to be male dominated. In Early Modern Italy, the role, space, and place of women was even more difficult to discern. Although recent scholarship has redressed this imbalance, it has been farther reaching in the realm of art history than that of architecture.

This seminar addresses the urgent need for an historical narrative of architecture which takes women into account. Rather than resuscitating lost or neglected figures of female architects or builders, it considers the relation between women and architecture in a multidimensional way. Previous scholarship about women in Renaissance and Baroque architecture has privileged noble women and patronage in the realm of convents, while other topics have been less fully considered. Our seminar aims to propose a range of avenues for pursuing a consideration of the relevance and engagement of women in a wide array of architectural and urban settings. While the seminar takes an interest in well known female patrons such as Isabella D’Este, Eleonora di Toledo, Isabella D’Aragona, Eleonora Gonzaga and others, it also seeks to expand beyond the realm of noblewomen and the space of the palace to consider women of other social classes and different ages, and their roles within the city.

Although the list of possible topics given below is broad and interdisciplinary, the seminar aims to preserve the focus on architecture and the built environment.

The focus is on Italian case studies between 1400 and 1700, but comparative geographical lenses are also welcome. Discoveries that have emerged through archival research, work with inventories and the direct examination of buildings are especially encouraged.

The seminar is planned for May, 2025, and will take place over 3 days, with two days for presentations and discussion, and one for on-site visits.


Those interested in participating with a contribution (20 minute limit) should send an outline (no more than 250 words) and brief CV (no more than 100 words) to cfp@cisapalladio.org by 30 September 2024.

The papers will be submitted for publication in the “Annali di architettura”. Further special issues dedicated to women will be considered in the future.

Possible themes include but are not confined to the following:

  • Women as patrons of architecture
  • Women as patrons of gardens
  • Dowries as stimulus for building
  • Inheritance laws and legal restrictions on women’s movement
  • Gender divisions in domestic and religious buildings
  • Spaces for widows and single women and their use
  • Child-rearing
  • Spaces for study and devotion
  • Women’s lives in frescoes and paintings
  • Women’s furnishings in domestic settings (childbirth, devotion etc)
  • Spaces for female servants and slaves
  • Prostitutes and courtesans
  • Convents, role of abbesses and prioresses in patronage; decoration of cells
  • Women’s patronage of family chapels and funerary monuments
  • Women as artisans and entrepreneurs
  • Workshops and artisanal spaces
  • Hostelries and inns
  • Baths and laundries
  • Street life, shops
  • Urban improvements
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