This year is the 400th anniversary of the death of Anne of Denmark (1574-1619), a queen consort of the king of Scotland, England and Ireland, who is well known for her patronage of art, architecture and court entertainments, in particular masques devised by Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones. To mark this important anniversary, the Society for Court Studies, with the support of the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and the School of Arts and Department of History, Classics and Archaeology Birkbeck College, is organizing a two-day conference focusing on performance and the courts of the British Isles and continental Europe during the early-modern period, with the opportunity to explore the networks and encounters between courts, both within and beyond Europe. The interdisciplinary nature of the topic necessarily embraces cultural, political and economic history, literature, and the visual and performing arts.

Convenors : Dr Janet Dickinson, Conference Secretary SCS and Oxford University ; Dr Jacqueline Riding, Committee Member SCS and Birkbeck College.
The conference is being supported and hosted by the Paul Mellon Centre, 16 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3JA.

Performance, Royalty and the Court : Conference Schedule

Please note that this is a draft programme and remains subject to alteration.

Thursday 11 April

9.30-11.00

Conference organisers, introduction

Anne Daye, ‘Bel-Anna, Queen of the Ocean : dancer and innovator’

Jemma Field, “Orderinge Things Accordinge to his Majesties Comaundment’ : The Funeral of Anna of Denmark’

11.00-11.30 Refreshments

11.30-13.00

Session A

Alessandra Rodolfo, ‘Receptions Ceremonies and sacred display in Vatican Palaces’

Michela Gianfranceschi, ‘The places of culture on the pontifical tour in Rome (XVIII century)’

Camilla S. Fiore, ‘Festivals, banquets and entertainments in the pontifical Rome of XVIII century’

Session B
Martin Spies, ‘Heinrich von Günderrode (1571-1614) : Soldier, Diplomat, Tilter’

Andrew Murray, ‘Sword Ritual and the Burgundian “Theatre State”’

Mario Damen, ‘Tournaments and the integration of the nobility in the Habsburg composite state’

14.00-15.30

Session A

Andrea Merlotti, ‘Dance at the Court of Savoy in XVIIIth century’

Hillary Burlock , ‘Minuets for the Monarch : royal birthday balls at the Georgian court’

Jennifer Thorp, ‘The French Ambassador’s Divertissement for King William III at Kensington Palace , 1698’

Session B

Thomas Rose, ‘Hunting, Culture and Politics at the Early Stuart Courts’

Alexander Kusztyk, ‘A Theatre in Paint : Nicolas Poussin’s Hunt of Meleager and Atalanta’

Elisa Spataro, ‘The success of the Pastoral Drama and the influences of the boscareccia stage design in the development of landscape painting in the XVII century’

15.30-16.00 Refreshments

Session A

Fabian Persson, ‘The Performance of Her Life’ : Challenges to Early Modern Queens Consort

Jaroslaw Pietrzak, ‘The Glory of a Polish Queen. Ceremonial Entrances of Marie Casimire d’Arquien Sobieska to Polish and European Cities between 1674 and 1714’
Julie Farguson, ‘The Flower of our Protestant Faith’ : Public Religious Worship and Protestant Queenship, 1689-1714

Session B

Elisabeth Natour, ‘Ordering Politics by Performing Music : Staging Music at Diplomatic Events at the Early Modern Court’

Siobhan Keenan, ‘Compliment and Counsel : King Charles I’s 1633 Royal Entry to Edinburgh’

Marie-Cécile Pineau, ‘Representing the king as an actor on the "theater of the world" : a French ambassador in Rome, Charles de Neufville, Lord of Halincourt’

17.30-17.45 Break

17.45 – 20.00

Christine Riding and Mat Collishaw, Q&A on Elizabeth I and ‘The Mask of Youth’, followed by wine reception

Friday 12 April

9.30-11.00 Session A

Daniela del Pesco, ‘The image of diplomacy at the Court of Louis XIV : the legation of Flavio Chigi (1664)’

Beth Walsh, ‘A virtuoso performance : Bernini carving lace at the court of Louis XIV’

Jonathan Spangler, ‘Art as Legitimiser : The Patronage of Music by the Duke of Orléans and the Duke of Lorraine and the Establishment of an Independent Court Culture Beyond the Reach of Versailles (1690-1720)’

10.00-11.00 Session B

Anastazja Grudnicka, ‘Fine Dining : Performance, Perception, and Politics of the Archducal Table at the Habsburg Court in Vienna in the 1590s ‘

Ewa Manikowska, ‘Bernardo Bellotto. Performing an artistic and social career at the Dresden court of Augustus III of Poland’.

11.00-11.30 Refreshments

Session A

Hannah Rodger, ‘In praise of God or Plutus ? A re-examination of the seventeenth-century Laudians’ musical performances in the English Chapel Royal’

Thomas Donald Jacobs,"’Persons better interessed at cowrt’ ? Sir Oliver Fleming, Master of Ceremonies during the English Civil Wars and Interregnum.

Peter Edwards, ‘Horsemanship as Performance and Political Statement’

Session B

Lidewij Nissen, ‘Staging the Nassau-Dietz identity : seventeenth-century funerary culture at the Frisian Nassau court’

Anna Lisa Schwartz, ‘Performing Identity in Prosperity and Adversity. Displaying the Peace of Aachen (1748) and the Death of the Stadholder William IV (1751) in mid-18th century Dutch Republic’

Esther Schreuder, ‘Black children and ceremonies at the court of the family of Orange in the 18th century’

13.00-14.00 Lunch, provided at venue

Session A

Dr Lydia Hamlett, ‘Mural Painting and Performance, 1630-1730’

Laura Doak, ‘Performing an uncontested succession : James duke of York and Albany in Scotland, 1679 – 1682’

Jacqueline Riding, ‘tbc’

Session B

Bram van Leuveren, ‘Disparate Diplomacies at Two Royal Weddings : Celebrating the Franco-Spanish and Anglo-German Marriages of 1612-1615’
Veronika Studer-Kovacs, ‘At Her Majesty’s Pleasure : Ritual gift-giving and identity confirmation at the Hungarian Celebration of Joseph II’s wedding (1765)’

M A Katritzky, ‘Transnational connections in early modern court performance : Jacobean masques and a Dutch wedding of 1638’

15.30-16.00 Refreshments

Session A

Caitlin Carter, Succession Solutions ? The Nephew-King Paradigm in Bances Candamo’s El esclavo en grillos de oro and La piedra filosofal

Aidan Norrie, ‘Entertaining Royal Visitors : Performing the story of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba’

Berta Cano-Echevarría, ‘Philip III’s Performances for the Peace’

Session B

Paolo Sanvito, ‘Mutual exchange of inventions for ephemeral stages in projects from the Venetian state and in drawings by Inigo Jones’

Ludovica Cappelletti, ‘Building the ephemeral. Performances and temporary architecture in Mantua (1779-1801)’

Sabrina Norlander Eliasson, ‘Allorché si dasse il caso…’ Ceremonies and family celebration in the Household/Court of Giovanni Andrea IV Doria Pamphilj and Leopoldina of Savoy-Carignano in late eighteenth-century Rome’

Conference ends