Anna Grasskamp Livres

Anna Grasskamp investigates display practices of the sixteenth and seventeenth century in China and Europe providing an in-depth analysis of the processes through which foreign artifacts and natural objects were framed in early modern collections. While the first two chapters focus on the appropriation of artifacts through the examples of porcelain vessels and scientific instruments in metal mounts, the book's later chapters analyze the staging of foreign nature in Renaissance and Ming collecting through the case of coral.

The volume examines the mutually constitutive relationship between the materiality of objects and their aesthetic meanings. Its approach connects material culture with art history, curation, technologies and practices of making. A central dimension of the case studies collected here is the mobility of objects between Europe and China and the transformations that unfold as a result of their transcultural lives. Many of the objects studied here are relatively unknown or understudied. The stories they recount suggest new ways of thinking about space, cultural geographies and the complex and often contradictory association of power and culture. These studies of transcultural objects can suggest pathways for museum experts by uncovering the multi-layered identities and temporalities of objects that can no longer be labelled as located in single regions. It is also addressed to students of art history, of European and Chinese studies and scholars of consumer culture. « This eagerly awaited volume offers deep and extensive insights into the fast-growing field of material culture studies. Its fresh approach to Eurasian objects and materialities will serve as useful reading for all scholars interested in transcultural and global studies. A very helpful introductory essay. » Sabine du Crest, University of Bordeaux Montaigne, Former Fellow, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies.