CALL FOR PAPERS
ROME IN THE NORDIC COUNTRIES: Images of ancient and modern architecture, 17th-19th century
International Conference
Rome, late November/early December 2025
PRIN 2022-2025 European Community-Italian Ministry of University and Research
P.I. Mario Bevilacqua, Sapienza Università di Roma
Antonello Alici, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona
Saverio Sturm, Università Roma Tre
In partnership with
Centro di Studi sulla Cultura e l’Immagine di Roma
Norwegian Institute in Rome
Danish Academy in Rome
Swedish Institute of Classical Studies
Institutum Romanum Finlandiae
Scientific Committee
Antonello Alici, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona
Kristin Bliksrud Aavitsland, Universitetet i Oslo
Mario Bevilacqua, Sapienza Università di Roma; Centro Studi sulla Cultura e l’Immagine di Roma
Kristoffer Neville, University of California, Riverside
Sabrina Norrlander Eliasson, Stockholms universitet; Istituto svedese di Studi classici a Roma
Saverio Sturm, Università Roma Tre; Centro Studi sulla Cultura e l’Immagine di Roma
Victor Plahte Tschudi, Arkitektur- og designhøgskolen i Oslo
This conference will draw attention to the artistic and architectural exchanges between Rome and
the Nordic countries from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, focusing on the production,
marketing, use and conservation of images, including drawings and engravings, illustrated books,
and suites of prints. These works found massive transnational circulation, and their adaptability
made them indispensable tools in the history of the arts, and more generally in the broader
European cultural expansion.
The conference focuses on the artistic-architectural relations between the Nordic countries
(essentially Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland, but with openness to the entire transalpine
world), and the Italian peninsula. The pivot is ancient and modern Rome, the recognized crossroads
of cultural elaboration and the centre of a massive and varied publishing production, through which
the foundations were laid for the construction of a shared European artistic-architectural language
based on Classicism.
Proposals should address issues of cross-cultural exchange, among which we suggest:
TRAVELLING ACROSS EUROPE
– travelling South (Renaissance to early 19th century: artists/architects, patrons, sketchbooks,
diaries)
– travelling North (migration of Italian artists/architects from South to North)
BOOKS AND PRINTS
– producing and marketing images of architecture: Rome and the Nordic countries in the European
context
– using and collecting architectural prints
– Vitruvius and Palladio: architectural books in the North
– architectural libraries
ROME IN THE NORTH: FUNCTIONS, TECHNIQUES, STYLES
– issues of style: Classicism, Baroque, post-Baroque and Neo-classicism in the architecture of the
Nordic countries
– festive, funerary, and military architecture
– urban planning and infrastructures: monuments and places
– models and monuments
NORDIC ROME
– the reception of Nordic architectural culture in early modern Rome and Italy
We will welcome proposals on other major aspects of the cultural and artistic/architectural
exchange between early modern Scandinavia and the Mediterranean, in particular from PhD
students.
All proposals (max 1200 words) can be written in English, French or Italian.
The proposals should be addressed to: nordicromeconference@gmail.com
by 31st January 2025
The conference will be in Rome, in person and hybrid. Travel expenses will be met.
Participants will be expected to submit revised and expanded versions of their papers about six
months after the conference for publication as an edited volume.
