HISTART 394-003

Special Topics: Early Modern Materiality

270 Tappan
T 1:00-4:00pm
3 Credit Lecture

This course considers historiographic trends but also current approaches in history and art history that help us place material culture and visuality at the center of accounts of Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Characterized by Burckhardt in 1860 in terms of the discovery of the world and of man, the Renaissance has long been associated with naturalism and materialism. Marx and others found explanatory models in capitalism, class difference, and wealth accumulation. Today, with the help of curatorial practice and literary theory, how might we reconceive of materiality, in the light of the extensive attention recently paid to such matters as clothing and domestic interiors, to consumption, and to objects and "thing theory"? How can we curate and exhibit objects in informative ways that take new ideas into account?

Estimated Cost of Materials: $ 0.

HISTART Categories for concentration distributions: D. Europe and the U.S., 3. Early Modern