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Renaissance Rhapsody: Miscellany and Multimodality in Early Modern Europe
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Renaissance Rhapsody: Miscellany and Multimodality in Early Modern Europe

A special issue of Arts (ISSN 2076-0752).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2025) | Viewed by 4103

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Catharine Ingersoll

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of English, Rhetoric, and Humanistic Studies, Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, VA 24450, USA
Interests: art history; Renaissance art; Medieval art; Northern Renaissance; German Renaissance

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to explore instances of Early Modern compositeness. The rhapsodic Renaissance impulse towards collecting, organizing, arranging, re-arranging, contextualizing, re-contextualizing, fusing, and distributing disparate elements can be seen in many different types of textual, visual, and performance material, such as commonplace books, emblems, Kunstkammers, and polyphony, to impart just a few examples.

The first interpretive framework for the articles in this volume is miscellany, defined as a collection of a variety of different kinds of items, objects, or elements. The other is multimodality, in which different modes of communication and reception are activated, providing and enacting multi-sensory experiences for Renaissance readers/viewers/listeners/performers. By collating articles that engage with one or both of these concepts, this Special Issue will itself constitute a rhapsody in its definition as a medley.

Essays are invited that investigate any aspect of cultural activity and production in the “long” Early Modern period in any part of Europe, provided the study harmonizes with the themes outlined above.

Prof. Dr. Catharine Ingersoll
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Arts is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • multimodality
  • interdisciplinarity
  • Early Modern Europe

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 15560 KB  
Article
Music, Morality, and Mayhem: Anton Möller the Elder’s Drawings from Marienburg (1587)
by Emily Peppers
Arts 2026, 15(2), 26; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15020026 - 1 Feb 2026
Viewed by 879
Abstract
This article examines two drawings by the Prussian artist Anton Möller the Elder (1563–1611), based in Danzig [Gdańsk]. In 1587, Möller spent time in Marienburg [Malbork] near Danzig, fresh from his post-apprenticeship travels. These drawings evidence his tuition in Northern Renaissance styles, subject [...] Read more.
This article examines two drawings by the Prussian artist Anton Möller the Elder (1563–1611), based in Danzig [Gdańsk]. In 1587, Möller spent time in Marienburg [Malbork] near Danzig, fresh from his post-apprenticeship travels. These drawings evidence his tuition in Northern Renaissance styles, subject matter, and disguised symbolism—embodying contemporary Lutheran ideologies of temperance, morality, and the powerful sway of music. While scholarship on Möller’s works is well established (mainly in Polish and German sources in brief catalogue-style entries), this article represents an in-depth analysis of the symbolism in his works—primarily missing from modern scholarship, especially in the English language. Möller’s Folk Fair before Marienburg is entertaining, sensational, and serves as a graphic warning not to fall prey to alcohol’s destruction of moral character. Möller directly copies figures from Northern Renaissance artists working in the folk fair genre—I discuss these connections and symbolism. Musicians are given an incendiary role in the scene, spurring revelers on to indulge in base emotions and vices. In stark contrast, Möller’s An Elegant Reception with Christburg [Dzierzgoń] Castle in the Background, places music at the center of the scene, depicts “active listening,” and provides a visual message on how music can cultivate a pure mind and heart, if one’s moral compass is properly attuned. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Renaissance Rhapsody: Miscellany and Multimodality in Early Modern Europe)
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36 pages, 29391 KB  
Article
For Memory and Decoration—Group Portraits as Placemakers in Early Modern Amsterdam
by Norbert E. Middelkoop
Arts 2026, 15(1), 1; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15010001 - 22 Dec 2025
Viewed by 902
Abstract
Rembrandt’s Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp, Nightwatch, and Syndics are rightfully considered masterpieces of seventeenth-century Dutch painting. Few museum visitors realize they are among over one hundred corporate group portraits commissioned in Amsterdam during that period by the civic guard, charitable institutions, [...] Read more.
Rembrandt’s Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp, Nightwatch, and Syndics are rightfully considered masterpieces of seventeenth-century Dutch painting. Few museum visitors realize they are among over one hundred corporate group portraits commissioned in Amsterdam during that period by the civic guard, charitable institutions, and the craft guilds. Such paintings were the result of the collective desire of a group of people to be represented and immortalized during their execution of the jointly shared responsibilities on which the urban society was built. Corporate group portraits were commissioned and produced to occupy wall spaces in semi-public buildings, reinforcing the missions of both the institutions and the sitters. Their meaning changed fundamentally after they started to leave their original locations and found their way into the direct custody of the city. Some of the paintings were acknowledged as masterpieces and, with the focus firmly on their artistic value, their historical function became neglected. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Renaissance Rhapsody: Miscellany and Multimodality in Early Modern Europe)
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17 pages, 5614 KB  
Article
Marginal Manipulations: Framing Byzantine Devotion Through Gentile Bellini’s Cardinal Bessarion with the Bessarion Reliquary
by Ashley B. Offill
Arts 2025, 14(5), 111; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts14050111 - 12 Sep 2025
Viewed by 1278
Abstract
In the early 1470s, Venetian artist Gentile Bellini painted Basilios Bessarion kneeling in front of the precious Byzantine reliquary that Bessarion donated to the Venetian Scuola di Santa Maria della Carità. This painting functioned as the cover to the tabernacle where the reliquary [...] Read more.
In the early 1470s, Venetian artist Gentile Bellini painted Basilios Bessarion kneeling in front of the precious Byzantine reliquary that Bessarion donated to the Venetian Scuola di Santa Maria della Carità. This painting functioned as the cover to the tabernacle where the reliquary was stored. Rather than accurately depicting the sacred object, Bellini’s painting reworks the appearance of the reliquary in relation to the figures in the painting and reveals a disjunction between the relic and its cover. The reliquary becomes a somber, monumental object that has more presence as a looming entity than as a combination of parts and histories. This paper positions Bellini’s painted enclosure for the reliquary as a product of the blending of Venetian and Byzantine devotional practices and sacred objects. Bessarion’s reliquary was an aggregate object, and Bellini’s painting continues the reframing of Bessarion’s reliquary to serve as a visual contract of the connection between Bessarion and the Scuola di Santa Maria della Carità and, more broadly, Byzantium and Venice. Bellini’s painting ultimately seeks to capture the sacred mystique associated with Byzantine Orthodoxy while also establishing the reliquary within its Venetian, confraternal present. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Renaissance Rhapsody: Miscellany and Multimodality in Early Modern Europe)
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