Materiality, KNowledge, and Art in the early modern globe, c. 1350–1650
The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) is pleased to announce the seminar, “Materiality, Knowledge, and Art in the Early Modern Globe, c. 1350-1650.” Intended for non-specialists in the subject, the seminar will be especially valuable for faculty members at institutions without large campus collections or proximity to major art museums. Full time faculty members from CIC member institutions who have occaision to incorporate art history into their teaching are eligible to participate.
This online seminar will explore works of art from the perspective of the ways they were made and the materials used, looking at both works produced in Europe and those produced in other parts of the world for European audiences. Participants will explore the significance of materials at this time, when for instance, wood was considered to be equivalent to a human body and bronze was compared to blood. Working with a range of materials in workshops, laboratories, and marketplaces, artisans developed knowledge and techniques that paved the way for deeper understanding and research through the years of the Scientifc Revolution. The seminar will consider how both the processes of making objects and beliefs about materials contributed to the meanings assigned to works of art by their makers and their audiences. The seminar will be led by Oberlin College's Christina Neilson, associate professor of Renaissance and Baroque art history and chair of the art history department, and Erik Inglis, professor of Medieval art history. It will draw upon the rich collections of Oberlin's Allen Memorial Art Museum.
The summer seminar will take place over three 90-minute virtual sessions June 22, 24, and 26, 2021. During the first two sessions, participants will discuss specialized scholarship in tandem with the virtual examination of related objects in the collection: a Madonna and Child relief in plaster by Andrea del Verrocchio; a portable altarpiece made from ebony, ebonized wood, harstones, and oil on copper, by Jacopo Ligozzi; an ivory Afro-Portuguese salt-cellar; and two Hispano-Philippine ivory reliefs. The third session will focus on related pedagogical issues, such as how to animate the classroom by addressing materiality and facture through historical "recipe" reconstructions, and how to find relevant works of art close at hand.
CIC's seminars on Teaching European Art in Context are made possible with the generous support of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.