Art and Ocean Objects of Early Modern Eurasia
Titel
Art and Ocean Objects of Early Modern Eurasia
Subtitel
Shells, Bodies, and Materiality
Prijs
€ 129,00 excl. BTW
ISBN
9789463721158
Uitvoering
Hardback
Aantal pagina's
220
Taal
Engels
Publicatiedatum
Afmetingen
17 x 24 cm
Ook beschikbaar als
eBook PDF - € 128,99
Inhoudsopgave
Toon inhoudsopgaveVerberg inhoudsopgave
Introduction


1 Shell Connections: The Exoticization and Eroticization of Asian Maritime Material Culture
From Guangzhou to Florence: Parrot Cups as “Actors”
Layers of Exoticization: Chinese and European Shell Surfaces
Surfaces and Skins: The European Eroticization of Asian Shells
Conclusion – Shell Connections

2 Shell Bodies: The Creative Agency of Molluscs across Cultures
Clever Objects
Shell Agency
Clam Creations
Female Features
Bird Bodies
Cultured Connections
Conclusion

3 Shell Worlds: Maritime Microcosms in EurAsian Art and Material Culture
Shells in Flux
Coralscapes
Conclusion

4 Woman with a Shell: Transcultural Exchange, Female Bodies and Maritime Matters
Women on Shells
Women in Shells
Women with Shells
Women with EurAsian Shells
Conclusion – Woman with a Shell

Conclusion
Cited Primary and Secondary Sources
Acknowledgments
Index

Recensies en Artikelen

"This fascinating study is meticulously researched and presented with verve. Anna Grasskamp is a rare scholar who is equally conversant with the European archives and the Chinese ones. Her examination of shells and other maritime organisms as collectible transcultural objects casts new light on these objects, and reveals attitudes towards alien creatures, faraway places, and the natural world that are quite different from modern attitudes."
- Dorothy Ko, Barnard College

“Grasskamp’s exquisitely illustrated study …offers interpretations of individual objects and the Chinese and/or Occidental symbolism associated with them, while at the same time, she tries to embed her findings in larger cultural patterns, variegated forms of local belief, and neglected traditions. … Conchophiles who wish to find out why and how the well-to-do adored nautilus shells and similar specimens will discover many fascinating details in Grasskamp’s account. … Art and Ocean Objects … will inspire scholars to explore the story of marine products in new ways; it is a lively contribution to the field of Euro-Asian (art) history and cultural exchange.”
-Roderich Ptak, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 2023, 86, 2

“Drawing on fields as diverse as art history, object studies, the history of science, and area studies to inform its robust methodology of material culture, the book brings much-needed nuance to the study of the transregional material culture of early modern Europe and China through the maritime world. …Drawing on this new perspective on connected maritime history, the book distinguishes itself by paying almost equal attention to the visual and material cultures of early modern Europe and China, at times articulating their connectivity through objects such as nautilus cups carved in Guangzhou and mounted in Europe, while also comparing patterns of knowledge and gendered imagination generated by shells in the two regions. Although connection and comparison are well-established methods in transregional and global history, Grasskamp adds nuance and complexity to them by way of (transmedial) materiality. …Art and Ocean Objects of Early Modern Eurasia successfully portrays seashells as boundary-crossing objects that went far beyond (re)connecting Europe and China to challenge the entrenched binaries of inanimate things and living organisms, reality and fantasy, secular and religious worlds, and human and non-human entities.“
- Kyoungjin Bae, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CAA Reviews , 2023, June

“Art and Ocean Objects is an important contribution to material culture studies and a model for inter- and cross-cultural studies. It is ambitious in tackling such a large subject—shells and the creatures that build them, the use of shells in art and as art, and common iconographies of shell art (maritime, marginal, erotic, and the feminine)—across the European and Asian cultures that made and collected such works. …. This study shows both the challenges and opportunities of exploring a broad geography and body of works. Grasskamp moves deftly between literary, philosophical, and religious texts and material and visual culture, weaving a rich and nuanced account, made possible by her comfort working with sources across time, cultures, and languages.”
- Marsely Kehoe, June in West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture, 2023, 30, 1

“Grasskamp explores these associations …in her richly illustrated new book, Art and Ocean Objects, on the multicultural complexity of marine objects in early modern Eurasia. Through her expertise in both Asian and European art history (and languages) she is able to situate shells at the crossroads of China and Europe as natural objects and material entanglements…”
-Marika Kebluse, Renaissance Quartely, LXXVI, 3,2023

Anna K Grasskamp

Art and Ocean Objects of Early Modern Eurasia

Shells, Bodies, and Materiality

De onderstaande tekst is niet beschikbaar in het Nederlands en wordt in het Engels weergegeven.
During the early modern period, objects of maritime material culture were removed from their places of origin and traded, collected and displayed worldwide. Focusing on shells and pearls exchanged within local and global networks, this monograph compares and connects Asian, in particular Chinese, and European practices of oceanic exploitation in the framework of a transcultural history of art with an understanding of maritime material culture as gendered. Perceiving the ocean as mother of all things, as womb and birthplace, Chinese and European artists and collectors exoticized and eroticized shells’ shapes and surfaces. Defining China and Europe as spaces entangled with South and Southeast Asian sites of knowledge production, source and supply between 1500 and 1700, the book understands oceanic goods and maritime networks as transcending and subverting territorial and topographical boundaries. It also links the study of globally connected port cities to local ecologies of oceanic exploitation and creative practices.
Auteur

Anna K Grasskamp

Anna Grasskamp is Associate Professor of Art History and Visual Studies at the University of Oslo. She co-edited EurAsian Matters: China, Europe, and the Transcultural Object, 1600-1800 (2018) and is the author of Objects in Frames: Displaying Foreign Collectibles in Early Modern China and Europe (2019).