Books by Kathleen Christian
Local Antiquities, Local Identities: Art Literature and Antiquarianism in Europe, c. 1400-1700, ISBN: 978-1-5261-1704-5, 2018
This collection investigates the wide array of local antiquarian practices that developed across ... more This collection investigates the wide array of local antiquarian practices that developed across Europe in the early modern era, c. 1400-1700. Breaking new ground, it explores local concepts of antiquity in a period that has been defined as a uniform 'Renaissance'. Contributors take a novel approach to the revival of the antique in different parts of Italy, as well as examining other, less widely studied antiquarian traditions in France, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Britain and Poland. They consider how real or fictive ruins, inscriptions and literary works were used to demonstrate a particular idea of local origins, to rewrite history or to vaunt civic pride. In doing so, they tackle such varied subjects as municipal antiquities collections in Southern Italy and France, the antiquarian response to the pagan, Christian and Islamic past on the Iberian Peninsula, and Netherlandish interest in megalithic ruins thought to be traces of a prehistoric race of Giants.
Traditionally, the Renaissance has been understood as a strictly Western phenomenon, a period of ... more Traditionally, the Renaissance has been understood as a strictly Western phenomenon, a period of cultural and technological ‘advancement’ inspired by humanism and antique revival. European art and the wider world 1350–1550 takes a different approach. Informed by the latest scholarship in the field of art history, it explores the significance of the movement of knowledge, ideas and objects for the visual culture of Europe, against the backdrop of a global competition for power and resources.
The book investigates famous works of art from a new perspective, taking account of the complex relationships that bound Europe together with Asia, America and Africa. It also considers lesser-known objects such as ceramics, textiles and featherwork which were widely imported into Europe. Considering a range of geographical contexts from Spain to India, it explores European visual culture in the light of trade, colonisation, conversion and cultural exchange. Individual chapters examine the altarpiece in a global context; cultural encounters on the Iberian Peninsula and in the Americas; European collections of non-European objects; and Venice’s engagement with the Islamic Ottoman Empire and Mamluk Sultanate.
European art and the wider world is the first textbook to consider the Renaissance in the context of global art history. It will appeal to undergraduate art history students as well as a general readership eager to look at canonical works from a new perspective.
Articles and book chapters by Kathleen Christian
Chefs d'oeuvre de la collection Torlonia, ed. by Carlo Gasparri, Salvatore Settis, and Martin Szewczyk, 2024
The Torlonia collection, and the Louvre, inherited antique sculptures assembled by Roman aristocr... more The Torlonia collection, and the Louvre, inherited antique sculptures assembled by Roman aristocracy between the 15th and 18th centuries, and many works in both collections were originally part of early modern collections displayed in Roman palaces and gardens. During the Napoleonic era Napoleon’s armies and his agent Dominique-Vivant Denon seized many antiques from Rome’s pontifical and private collections; though most were returned, some remained in France. Added to these were the extraordinary wealth of antiquities Napoleon purchased in 1807 from his brother-in-law Camillo Borghese, as well as the smaller selection Louis XVIII bought in 1815 from the Albani. It was also around this time that the Torlonia, a family of French origins who were bankers to the Bonaparte, rose to prominence and began collecting from similar sources in Rome, acquiring significant antiques from collections such as those of Bartolomeo Cavaceppi, the Giustiniani family, and the Villa Albani. This essay explores how the Torlonia collection and the Louvre have intertwined histories, whose comparison sheds light in new developments in museum practices influenced by Rome’s centuries-long history of collecting.
La scuola del mondo, Storie globali dalla collezione Farnese, ed. Simone Verdi (Milan), 2022
This essay considers the political, aesthetic and geographical orientations that marked the forma... more This essay considers the political, aesthetic and geographical orientations that marked the formation of the Farnese collections during the sixteenth century.
In the space of a few generations, the Farnese accumulated extraordinary power, exploiting their access to the papacy and to the courts of the Hapsburgs and the royal family of Portugal. They built up exceptional collections of art in Rome, the duchy of Parma and Piacenza, Caprarola and the Netherlands, which combine antiquities, paintings from various European schools, objects in rock crystal, 'rarites' and objects from Asia, Africa and the Americas.
As this essay discusses, one of the themes that stands out in the richness and variety of the Farnese collections is that of empire: not only the idea of a reborn Roman empire, but also links with the greatest empire-builders of the 16th century, the courts of the Habsburgs and the Portuguese crown.
La forme idéale à la Renaissance / Forma ideale durante il Rinascimento, 2023
An assessment of the Roman notebook of the French jurist Claude de Bellièvre as an insight to vie... more An assessment of the Roman notebook of the French jurist Claude de Bellièvre as an insight to viewing practices and the combination of viewing and note-taking in Renaissance Rome.
Restoration as Fabrication of Origins A Material and Political History of Italian Renaissance Art, edited by Henri de Riedmatten, Fabio Gaffo and Mathilde Jaccard. De Gruyter (Open Access)., 2023
This article traces the development of restauratio, the practice of piecing together of fragile, ... more This article traces the development of restauratio, the practice of piecing together of fragile, broken objects, as an alternative antiquarian practice to translatio, the movement of large and heavy objects from one place to another. It considers how restauratio developed in a close relationship with the recovery of antique literary works. At a time when humanists sought to rescue and repair ancient texts that they described as broken and mutilated bodies, buried in libraries, the restoration of antique sculptures (through excavation, rediscovery and the reattachment of missing pieces) took on similar cultural meaning. This essay explores the relationship between concepts of restoration and translation in the context of the word-image dynamic in Renaissance Rome.
In: Public Statues Across Time and Cultures, ed. C. P. Dickenson. New York, Routledge, 2021
In: I marmi Torlonia. Collezionare capolavori, 2020
Ka thl ee n W. Ch ris tian Le col lez ion i di scu ltu ra ant ica nel la Ro ma rina scim ent ale
This collection investigates the wide array of local antiquarian practices that developed across ... more This collection investigates the wide array of local antiquarian practices that developed across Europe in the early modern era. Breaking new ground, it explores local concepts of antiquity in a period that has been defined as a uniform 'Renaissance'. Contributors take a novel approach to the revival of the antique in different parts of Italy, as well as examining other, less widely studied antiquarian traditions in France, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Britain and Poland. They consider how real or fictive ruins, inscriptions and literary works were used to demonstrate a particular idea of local origins, to rewrite history or to vaunt civic pride. In doing so, they tackle such varied subjects as municipal antiquities collections in Southern Italy and France, the antiquarian response to the pagan, Christian and Islamic past on the Iberian Peninsula, and Netherlandish interest in megalithic ruins thought to be traces of a prehistoric race of Giants.
In: Local antiquities, local identities: Art, literature and antiquarianism in Europe, c. 1400–17... more In: Local antiquities, local identities: Art, literature and antiquarianism in Europe, c. 1400–1700, ed. by K. Christian and B. de Divitiis, 2018, pp. 57-78.
In: European Art and the Wider World 1350–1550, edited by Kathleen Christian and Leah R. Clark. Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2017
In: Newall, D. (ed.) Art and its global histories: a reader, Manchester University Press, 2017, p... more In: Newall, D. (ed.) Art and its global histories: a reader, Manchester University Press, 2017, pp. 50-112.
This section of the reader, published in conjunction with the Open University module Art and its global histories, includes primary texts and four critical essays related to the global history of art in the period 1350-1550.
In: The Companions to the History of Architecture, Volume I, Renaissance and Baroque Architecture... more In: The Companions to the History of Architecture, Volume I, Renaissance and Baroque Architecture. Edited by Alina Payne. 2017.
In: Marcantonio Raimondi, Raphael and the Image Multiplied (exhibition catalogue), ed. by. E. H. ... more In: Marcantonio Raimondi, Raphael and the Image Multiplied (exhibition catalogue), ed. by. E. H. Wouk. Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2016, pp. 66-83.
Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 2016
Marcantonio Raimondis so-called Caryatid Façade has received scant attention, yet it occupies an ... more Marcantonio Raimondis so-called Caryatid Façade has received scant attention, yet it occupies an important place in the printmakers oeuvre and was widely admired and imitated in the sixteenth century. The image, which features an architectural façade adorned with Caryatid and Persian porticoes and an oversized female capital, does not fit easily with the usual narrative about Raimondis career in Rome, summed up in Vasaris account that he collaborated with Raphael to publicise the masters storie. Rather than being an illustration of a religious or mythological subject, it brings together architectural fantasia, archaeology and Vitruvian studies, reflecting on the origins of the orders and the nature of architectural ornament. Arguably, it is also an indirect trace of Raphaels unfinished projects to reconstruct Rome and to collaborate with humanist Fabio Calvo and others on a new, illustrated edition of Vitruvius.
In: Settis, Salvatore; Anguissola, A. and Gasparotto, D. (eds.): Serial / Portable Classic. The G... more In: Settis, Salvatore; Anguissola, A. and Gasparotto, D. (eds.): Serial / Portable Classic. The Greek Canon and its Mutations. Milan: Fondazione Prada. 2015. pp. 153-160.
In: The Muses and their Afterlife in post-Classical Europe, ed. by C. Wedepohl, K. Christian and ... more In: The Muses and their Afterlife in post-Classical Europe, ed. by C. Wedepohl, K. Christian and C. Guest, Warburg Institute Colloquia Series. 2014, pp. 103-154
In: The Cambridge Companion to the Italian Renaissance, ed. by M. Wyatt, Cambridge University Pre... more In: The Cambridge Companion to the Italian Renaissance, ed. by M. Wyatt, Cambridge University Press, 2014, pp. 40–58.
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Books by Kathleen Christian
The book investigates famous works of art from a new perspective, taking account of the complex relationships that bound Europe together with Asia, America and Africa. It also considers lesser-known objects such as ceramics, textiles and featherwork which were widely imported into Europe. Considering a range of geographical contexts from Spain to India, it explores European visual culture in the light of trade, colonisation, conversion and cultural exchange. Individual chapters examine the altarpiece in a global context; cultural encounters on the Iberian Peninsula and in the Americas; European collections of non-European objects; and Venice’s engagement with the Islamic Ottoman Empire and Mamluk Sultanate.
European art and the wider world is the first textbook to consider the Renaissance in the context of global art history. It will appeal to undergraduate art history students as well as a general readership eager to look at canonical works from a new perspective.
Articles and book chapters by Kathleen Christian
In the space of a few generations, the Farnese accumulated extraordinary power, exploiting their access to the papacy and to the courts of the Hapsburgs and the royal family of Portugal. They built up exceptional collections of art in Rome, the duchy of Parma and Piacenza, Caprarola and the Netherlands, which combine antiquities, paintings from various European schools, objects in rock crystal, 'rarites' and objects from Asia, Africa and the Americas.
As this essay discusses, one of the themes that stands out in the richness and variety of the Farnese collections is that of empire: not only the idea of a reborn Roman empire, but also links with the greatest empire-builders of the 16th century, the courts of the Habsburgs and the Portuguese crown.
This section of the reader, published in conjunction with the Open University module Art and its global histories, includes primary texts and four critical essays related to the global history of art in the period 1350-1550.
The book investigates famous works of art from a new perspective, taking account of the complex relationships that bound Europe together with Asia, America and Africa. It also considers lesser-known objects such as ceramics, textiles and featherwork which were widely imported into Europe. Considering a range of geographical contexts from Spain to India, it explores European visual culture in the light of trade, colonisation, conversion and cultural exchange. Individual chapters examine the altarpiece in a global context; cultural encounters on the Iberian Peninsula and in the Americas; European collections of non-European objects; and Venice’s engagement with the Islamic Ottoman Empire and Mamluk Sultanate.
European art and the wider world is the first textbook to consider the Renaissance in the context of global art history. It will appeal to undergraduate art history students as well as a general readership eager to look at canonical works from a new perspective.
In the space of a few generations, the Farnese accumulated extraordinary power, exploiting their access to the papacy and to the courts of the Hapsburgs and the royal family of Portugal. They built up exceptional collections of art in Rome, the duchy of Parma and Piacenza, Caprarola and the Netherlands, which combine antiquities, paintings from various European schools, objects in rock crystal, 'rarites' and objects from Asia, Africa and the Americas.
As this essay discusses, one of the themes that stands out in the richness and variety of the Farnese collections is that of empire: not only the idea of a reborn Roman empire, but also links with the greatest empire-builders of the 16th century, the courts of the Habsburgs and the Portuguese crown.
This section of the reader, published in conjunction with the Open University module Art and its global histories, includes primary texts and four critical essays related to the global history of art in the period 1350-1550.
Warburg Institute Work in Progress seminar
The Interaction of Literary and Artistic Patronage in Renaissance Rome I
Susanna De Beer Reality and Representation of Sixtus’ IV Artistic and Literary Patronage in Neo-Latin Poetry
David Rijser Sixtus IV’own epigrams for the Sistine Chapel and Ospedale S. Spirito
Matthijs Jonker Attracting Patrons in the Accademia di San Luca
Chair: Kathleen Christian
The Interaction of Literary and Artistic Patronage in Renaissance Rome II
Kathleen Christian Cardinal Raffaele Riario: Patron of Art, Theater, and Poetry
Marieke van den Doel Learned painter or humanist advisor? Michelangelo’s complex iconographies
Respondent: Ingrid Rowland
Chair: Susanna de Beer