Making the Body in Renaissance Italy: Art, Literature, Medicine

Name: Making the Body in Renaissance Italy: Art, Literature, Medicine | The Huntington
Start: Fri, Jan 23 2026
Location: The Huntington

Event

In this two-day conference, participants will share new research demonstrating how discourses around the body were shaped not only by medical treatment and dissection, but also by portrayals in art and poetry.

Conferences

What is a body? Which medical and cultural authorities set its boundaries? How has bodily autonomy evolved in history, alongside advances in science and conceptions of personhood? This conference explores these issues at the crucial historical juncture of the Italian Renaissance, a moment that gave rise to a scientific revolution alongside major transformations in literary and artistic production. Exploring different bodily states and concerns—from pregnancy, desire, and appearance to illness and death— participants will share new research demonstrating how discourses around the body were shaped not only by medical treatment and dissection, but also by portrayals in art and poetry. Ultimately, in Renaissance Italy, the body was a site of intense societal critique and debate, as it still is today.

Funding provided by USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute and The Molina Family Foundation.

Key Details

Conference registration is good for both days and includes general admission to The Huntington.
Lunch reservations close on Jan. 20 at noon. A limited number of lunch tickets will be available for purchase at the conference.
Please note that registration times differ for day 1 and day 2. Doors to the conference hall open 30 min before registration.

For questions about this event, email researchconference@huntington.org or call (626) 405-3432.

Top image: Attributed to Giambologna (Flemish, 1529 - 1608), Crouching Venus, late 16th century. Bronze, 10 3/16 in. (25.8 cm). The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Conference Schedule

Friday, Jan. 23

9 a.m. | Registration and coffee

9:30 a.m. | Welcome

Sue Juster (The Huntington)

9:45 a.m. | Session 1: Conveners’ conversation: The Renaissance Body in Art and Poetry: Relics and Remains

Jessica Maratsos (Cambridge University)
Shannon McHugh (The Huntington)

10:45 a.m. | Break

11 a.m. | Session 2: Bodies in utero

Jessica Goethals (University of Alabama), “Pregnant Expectations: Margherita Costa’s Procreation Epic (and its Operatic Rewrite)”
Anna Wainwright (University of New Hampshire), “From Good Blood Comes Good Milk: Rules and Exceptions for Nursing in Early Modern Italy”
Rebecca Whiteley (University of Birmingham) [remote participation], “‘to think of wonders’: Prints, Agency, and Maternal Imagination”

12:35 p.m. | Lunch

2 p.m. | Session 3: Desiring bodies

Alani Hicks-Bartlett (Brown University), “‘Not Only You but the Imperial Womb’: Gender and Authority in Petrarch”
Emanuele Lugli (Stanford University), “The Birth of Love: Renaissance Bodies and the Struggle to Explain Desire”
Christopher T. Richards (Colby College), “Mannerism, Medievalism, and the Queer Body”

Saturday, Jan. 24

10:30 a.m. | Registration and coffee

11 a.m. | Session 4: Fashioning bodies

Colby Gordon (Bryn Mawr College), “Trans Stigmata”
Timothy McCall (Villanova University), “Tailoring Masculinity: Bodies and Clothes in Renaissance Italy”

12:30 p.m. | Lunch

2 p.m. | Session 5: Ailing bodies

Jack Hartnell (National Gallery, London), “International and Intermedial Bodies in the Fasciculus medicinae”
Hannah Marcus (Harvard University), “The Aging Body in Renaissance Italy”
Sharon Strocchia (Emory University), “Leeches or Lancets?: Bleeding Ailing Bodies in Late Renaissance Italy”

3:30 p.m. | Break

3:45 p.m. | Closing discussion

5 p.m. | End of conference