This International Study Conference will focus on Sebastiano Ricci’s role as an ingenious forerunner of Rococo in Italy and Europe and the influence of his style on artists in the subsequent generation. Of special interest is Ricci’s revolutionary use of media and paints in his approach to painting with fluid, fringed brushwork. The Conference will also explore the social and cultural milieu of the Venetian artist, especially at European courts, the critical fortune of his works at the hands of contemporaries and posterity, his relationship with collectors, and the intellectual circles frequented by the artist.