ARTH 6465

Early Modern Materialities, 1400-1700

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2025-2026 Catalog.

This seminar analyzes the contours of early modern Europe's material landscape and the ways in which global exchanges and technological advancements impacted material production and consumption. Working within an interdisciplinary framework, we will explore the dynamic material, global, and social dimensions of objects, and the meanings that different materials could generate in art production. Each week we will investigate an early modern art material - from ivory, to amber, shells, and pearls - and its use and/or representation in a range of artworks. Students will learn to think materially; they will be introduced to multiple techniques of production, harvesting, and fashioning of materials, and will consider the broader social, economic, political, and environmental factors that shaped material culture.

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