DRESS & FASHION IN BAROQUE SPAIN (Splendor and Passion: Baroque Spain and Its Empire Exhibit in Boca Raton, Florida)
Boca Raton Museum of Art
Organization: Boca Raton Museum of Art
Event: Splendor and Passion: Baroque Spain and Its Empire Exhibit in Boca Raton, Florida
Graduate students and upper-division undergraduate students are invited to present on Dress and Fashion of Baroque Spain at the Boca Raton Museum of Art on March 27, 2025. The conference will be held in the Museum’s Wolgin Education Center, 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton, FL 33432.
From the end of the 16th century to the beginning of the 18th century, Europe shifted into what would become known as the Baroque Period. The word Baroque may have descended from a Portuguese word originally referring to an irregularly shaped pearl or the Italian barocco with a meaning of irregular. In art criticism, the term has come to describe anything that is irregular, bizarre, or departs from the rules and proportions of the Renaissance. In the Baroque era, clear forms and unity of the preceding Renaissance were not exclusively abandoned but changed into a more flourishing style in art and architecture. The extravagant style of the Baroque was also evident in clothing and fashion in styled portraitures. Trading connections after the age of discovery and expansionism grew the wealth of a growing middle class who, like the Monarch, enjoyed the flowing skirts, draped bodices and sleeves, and ruffled collars.
The Education Department at the Boca Raton Museum of Art invites papers on fashion in Baroque Spain to coincide with the new exhibition of Splendor and Passion: Baroque Spain and Its Empire, November 7- March 31. The panels will include lightning-round presentations (3-5 minutes) or longer paper presentations (10 minutes) by graduate and upper-division undergraduate students. This provides a professional development opportunity for students to place on their resumes and CVs.
Topics on Baroque dress and fashion may include but are not limited to: women, middle class, royalty, nobility, and children; garments used in the medical field (for doctors and patients) and clothing in other professions during Baroque Spain; ecclesiastics and courtiers at the Spanish court; trading of textiles and garments from the East and New World; costume books including the first publications in Venice in the 16th century (Giacomo Franco and Cesare Vecellio) and its influences on Baroque Spain; St. Teresa’s reform of the Carmelite order and changes in clothing; Spanish Knights and Cervantes’ Don Quixote satire of knights and other descriptions of clothing in literature; Diego Velázquez’s treatment in art of jesters, poor, slaves, entertainers and marginalized people and their clothing; royal tailor Mateo Aguado for Diego Velázquez’s portraits at the court of Philip IV; the artists’ depiction of saints and their clothing in art; the Baroque dresses for Virgin Mary that began with Florentine-looking Madonna in the Renaissance period; and overall topics of fashion in art. This is an interdisciplinary conference, and papers from across disciplines are welcome.
Submissions may include but are not limited to artwork in the special exhibition at the Boca Raton Museum of Art, courtesy of the Hispanic Society of America Museum and Library. Students can present academic poster projects, demonstrating early research or a course essay, and provide images of Baroque Spain for their presentations. Students should use ArtSTOR/JSTOR for any other images that are not in the exhibit. Submit a 200-word abstract, 150-word biography (to be used for panel introductions), and images to Dr. Teresa Russo, trusso@bocamuseum.org by Friday, January 10, 2025.
The museum with the exhibition Splendor and Passion: Baroque Spain and Its Empire is free to college students who are enrolled as College Partners with an active university ID showing enrollment in a degree-seeking program (free general admission to all of our exhibitions for one time in a six-month period).
https://bocamuseum.org/art-experience/exhibitions/splendor-and-passion-baroque-spain-and-its-empire
Dr. Teresa Russo