Books by Claudia Swan
Conchophilia: Shells, Art, and Curiosity in Early Modern Europe, 2021
A captivating historical look at the cultural and artistic significance of shells in early modern... more A captivating historical look at the cultural and artistic significance of shells in early modern Europe
Among nature’s most artful creations, shells have long inspired the curiosity and passion of artisans, artists, collectors, and thinkers. Conchophilia delves into the intimate relationship between shells and people, offering an unprecedented account of the early modern era when the influx of exotic shells to Europe fueled their study and representation as never before. From elaborate nautilus cups and shell-encrusted grottoes to delicate miniatures, this richly illustrated book reveals how the love of shells intersected not only with the rise of natural history and global trade but also with philosophical inquiry, issues of race and gender, and the ascent of art-historical connoisseurship.
Shells circulated at the nexus of commerce and intellectual pursuit, suggesting new ways of thinking about relationships between Europe and the rest of the world. The authors focus on northern Europe, where the interest and trade in shells had its greatest impact on the visual arts. They consider how shells were perceived as exotic objects, the role of shells in courtly collections, their place in still-life tableaus, and the connections between their forms and those of the human body. They examine how artists gilded, carved, etched, and inked shells to evoke the permeable boundary between art and nature. These interactions with shells shaped the ways that early modern individuals perceived their relation to the natural world, and their endeavors of art and knowledge.
Spanning painting and print to architecture and the decorative arts, Conchophilia uncovers the fascinating ways that shells were circulated, depicted, collected, and valued, during a time of remarkable global change.
Rarities of these Lands. Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Dutch Republic, 2021
A vivid scholarly portrait of the role of foreign goods and encounters in the cultural and politi... more A vivid scholarly portrait of the role of foreign goods and encounters in the cultural and political development of the Dutch Republic
The seventeenth century witnessed a great flourishing of Dutch trade and culture. In the arts, it was the age of Rembrandt and Vermeer. Politically, the Netherlands secured independence from Spain, becoming a sovereign state in 1648 at the conclusion of the Eighty Years War. Over the course of the first half of the century, the small nation sought to establish a place in global trade and the nascent power engaged in diplomatic relations with the Ottoman Empire and other Muslim powers. Central to the political and cultural emergence of the Dutch Republic were curious foreign goods known as rarities. Rarities of These Lands offers a novel and compelling account of an overlooked yet central aspect of this momentous period in Dutch history—its exoticism.
In this deeply researched and exquisitely illustrated book, Claudia Swan examines how foreign goods and encounters informed the art, trade, and diplomacy of the young nation. Her insightful analysis of how the Dutch came to possess, represent, and exchange such “exotic” goods as porcelain, lacquerware, silks, and birds of paradise shows how the emerging republic was seen and portrayed as the preeminent source of these goods, and how it turned foreign objects into expressions of its national self-understanding.
Rarities of These Lands illuminates the formative years of the Dutch Republic, offering an innovative examination of the ways trade, politics, and material culture became entangled as the new nation took shape on the global stage.
Tributes to David Freedberg, 2019
This volume honors the vital impact of David Freedberg, Pierre Matisse Professor of the History o... more This volume honors the vital impact of David Freedberg, Pierre Matisse Professor of the History of Art and Director of The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University, on the field of art history and several cognate areas of research. Essays by leading specialists on early modern northern European and Italian art and history, prints and print culture, iconoclasm and responses to images, connoisseurship, and the history of collecting, testify to Freedberg's wide area of influence and a substantial intellectual legacy in the making. With contributions by Renzo Baldasso, Marisa Anne Bass, Emily A. Beeny, Carolin Behrmann, Francesco Benelli, David, Benjamin, Horst Bredekamp, Giovanna Alberta Campitelli, Chiara Cappelletto, Georges Didi-Huberman, Adam Eaker, Jan Piet Filedt Kok, Robert Fucci, Diletta Gamberini, Maartje van Gelder, Carlo Ginzburg, Claudia Goldstein, Emilie E.S. Gordenker, Meredith McNeill Hale, Koenraad Jonckheere, Margaret K. Koerner, Catherine Levesque, Victoria Sancho Lobis, Peter N. Miller, Alexandra Onuf, Peter Parshall, Andrea Pinotti, Larry Silver, William Stenhouse, Jonathan Unglaub, Mariët Westermann, Veronica Maria White, Anne T. Woollett, Elizabeth Wyckoff, and Carolyn Yerkes.
https://brill.com/abstract/title/37921
Journal of the History of Collections, 2006
Colonial botany. Science, commerce, and politics in the Early Modern World. SCHIEBINGER Londa, SW... more Colonial botany. Science, commerce, and politics in the Early Modern World. SCHIEBINGER Londa, SWAN Claudia.
Journal articles/chapters by Claudia Swan
Conchophilia. Shells, Art, and Curiosity in Early Modern Europe , 2021
The opening chapter of Conchophilia. Shells, Art, and Curiosity in Early Modern Europe (Princeton... more The opening chapter of Conchophilia. Shells, Art, and Curiosity in Early Modern Europe (Princeton University Press, 2021). Addresses the labor that enabled the collection of exotic shells in the Netherlands and Europe more generally, and focuses on the work of Georg Eberhard Rumphius.
EARLY MODERN KNOWLEDGE SOCIETIES AS AFFECTIVE ECONOMIES, 2020
What is liefhebberij? (Amateurism, roughly speaking) and how does the practice of liefhebberij as... more What is liefhebberij? (Amateurism, roughly speaking) and how does the practice of liefhebberij as it's described in 17th-century Netherlandish documents and works of art relate to knowledge and the economy? Chapter 6 in Early Modern Knowledge Societies as Affective Economies, a recent volume edited by Inger Leemans and Anne Goldgar in the Global Knowledge Society Series
Sites of Mediation. Connected Histories of Places, Processes, and Objects in Europe and Beyond, 1450-1650, 2016
This essay grew out of a sense of wonder evinced by the trajectory of one kind of foreign, highly... more This essay grew out of a sense of wonder evinced by the trajectory of one kind of foreign, highly valued, aesthetically esteemed, politically charged object -birds of paradise or, rather, carcasses and plumage of birds of paradise. These spectacular natural specimens were prized in the early modern era for their lavish form, splendid colouring, rarity, and associations with power. Birds of paradise remain even now wondrous creatures of distant origin. Current ornithology accounts for over forty species of the family Paradisaeidae, of sixteen genera, while sixteenth-and seventeenthcentury records of the precious few that were brought to Europe refer primarily to two genera, the Lesser and the Greater bird of paradise (Paradisaeidae minor and Paradisaea apoda). 1 Ravishing specimens were imported from the Maluku Islands in the Indonesian archipelago by traders and were cherished by rulers, studied by naturalists, depicted by artists, collected across Europe, and sold for staggering sums by merchants starting in the 1520s. In the seventeenth century birds of paradise were traded largely if not exclusively by Dutch merchants -at a time when the northern provinces of the Netherlands secured independence from Spanish dominion and a stronghold on global trade. 2 In 1612, the States General of the Netherlands sent an emissary to Constantinople to obtain trading privileges in the Ottoman Empire. A vast state gift sent to seal the deal included, in addition to all manner of valuable goods, no fewer than eight birds of paradise, purchased in Amsterdam in October 1612. 3 The question out of which this essay emerged is, why did the Dutch present exotic, non-Dutch wares to the Ottoman sultan, whose lands were the source of comparable exotica? What sorts of values adhered to these wondrous specimens as they travelled the globe?
In Vision and its Instruments, c. 1350-1750: The Art of Seeing and Seeing as an Art, ed. Alina Pa... more In Vision and its Instruments, c. 1350-1750: The Art of Seeing and Seeing as an Art, ed. Alina Payne (State College: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2015).
De zeventiende eeuw, 2013
General of the Netherlands to the Ottoman Sultan Ahmet i in 1612/1613. The extensive and very cos... more General of the Netherlands to the Ottoman Sultan Ahmet i in 1612/1613. The extensive and very costly assortment of items was presented to the Sultan in gratitude for capitulations, permitting the Dutch access to Ottoman ports and therefore direct access to trade in the Levant and Mediterranean. This paper de scribes the diplomatic gift, a long-neglected episode in Dutch material cultural history, and looks in particular at the role that wonder and wonders played in structuring this remarkable encounter between the fledgling Dutch Republic and the Ottoman court.
Kritische Berichte, 3.2012, Oct 2012
Ernst Brinck (1582-1649), Collector
Merchants & Marvels, 2002
Print Quarterly, 1999
Información del artículo The preparation for the Sabbath by Jacques de Gheyn II. The issue of inv... more Información del artículo The preparation for the Sabbath by Jacques de Gheyn II. The issue of inversion.
Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art / Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, 1999
Uploads
Books by Claudia Swan
Among nature’s most artful creations, shells have long inspired the curiosity and passion of artisans, artists, collectors, and thinkers. Conchophilia delves into the intimate relationship between shells and people, offering an unprecedented account of the early modern era when the influx of exotic shells to Europe fueled their study and representation as never before. From elaborate nautilus cups and shell-encrusted grottoes to delicate miniatures, this richly illustrated book reveals how the love of shells intersected not only with the rise of natural history and global trade but also with philosophical inquiry, issues of race and gender, and the ascent of art-historical connoisseurship.
Shells circulated at the nexus of commerce and intellectual pursuit, suggesting new ways of thinking about relationships between Europe and the rest of the world. The authors focus on northern Europe, where the interest and trade in shells had its greatest impact on the visual arts. They consider how shells were perceived as exotic objects, the role of shells in courtly collections, their place in still-life tableaus, and the connections between their forms and those of the human body. They examine how artists gilded, carved, etched, and inked shells to evoke the permeable boundary between art and nature. These interactions with shells shaped the ways that early modern individuals perceived their relation to the natural world, and their endeavors of art and knowledge.
Spanning painting and print to architecture and the decorative arts, Conchophilia uncovers the fascinating ways that shells were circulated, depicted, collected, and valued, during a time of remarkable global change.
The seventeenth century witnessed a great flourishing of Dutch trade and culture. In the arts, it was the age of Rembrandt and Vermeer. Politically, the Netherlands secured independence from Spain, becoming a sovereign state in 1648 at the conclusion of the Eighty Years War. Over the course of the first half of the century, the small nation sought to establish a place in global trade and the nascent power engaged in diplomatic relations with the Ottoman Empire and other Muslim powers. Central to the political and cultural emergence of the Dutch Republic were curious foreign goods known as rarities. Rarities of These Lands offers a novel and compelling account of an overlooked yet central aspect of this momentous period in Dutch history—its exoticism.
In this deeply researched and exquisitely illustrated book, Claudia Swan examines how foreign goods and encounters informed the art, trade, and diplomacy of the young nation. Her insightful analysis of how the Dutch came to possess, represent, and exchange such “exotic” goods as porcelain, lacquerware, silks, and birds of paradise shows how the emerging republic was seen and portrayed as the preeminent source of these goods, and how it turned foreign objects into expressions of its national self-understanding.
Rarities of These Lands illuminates the formative years of the Dutch Republic, offering an innovative examination of the ways trade, politics, and material culture became entangled as the new nation took shape on the global stage.
Journal articles/chapters by Claudia Swan
Among nature’s most artful creations, shells have long inspired the curiosity and passion of artisans, artists, collectors, and thinkers. Conchophilia delves into the intimate relationship between shells and people, offering an unprecedented account of the early modern era when the influx of exotic shells to Europe fueled their study and representation as never before. From elaborate nautilus cups and shell-encrusted grottoes to delicate miniatures, this richly illustrated book reveals how the love of shells intersected not only with the rise of natural history and global trade but also with philosophical inquiry, issues of race and gender, and the ascent of art-historical connoisseurship.
Shells circulated at the nexus of commerce and intellectual pursuit, suggesting new ways of thinking about relationships between Europe and the rest of the world. The authors focus on northern Europe, where the interest and trade in shells had its greatest impact on the visual arts. They consider how shells were perceived as exotic objects, the role of shells in courtly collections, their place in still-life tableaus, and the connections between their forms and those of the human body. They examine how artists gilded, carved, etched, and inked shells to evoke the permeable boundary between art and nature. These interactions with shells shaped the ways that early modern individuals perceived their relation to the natural world, and their endeavors of art and knowledge.
Spanning painting and print to architecture and the decorative arts, Conchophilia uncovers the fascinating ways that shells were circulated, depicted, collected, and valued, during a time of remarkable global change.
The seventeenth century witnessed a great flourishing of Dutch trade and culture. In the arts, it was the age of Rembrandt and Vermeer. Politically, the Netherlands secured independence from Spain, becoming a sovereign state in 1648 at the conclusion of the Eighty Years War. Over the course of the first half of the century, the small nation sought to establish a place in global trade and the nascent power engaged in diplomatic relations with the Ottoman Empire and other Muslim powers. Central to the political and cultural emergence of the Dutch Republic were curious foreign goods known as rarities. Rarities of These Lands offers a novel and compelling account of an overlooked yet central aspect of this momentous period in Dutch history—its exoticism.
In this deeply researched and exquisitely illustrated book, Claudia Swan examines how foreign goods and encounters informed the art, trade, and diplomacy of the young nation. Her insightful analysis of how the Dutch came to possess, represent, and exchange such “exotic” goods as porcelain, lacquerware, silks, and birds of paradise shows how the emerging republic was seen and portrayed as the preeminent source of these goods, and how it turned foreign objects into expressions of its national self-understanding.
Rarities of These Lands illuminates the formative years of the Dutch Republic, offering an innovative examination of the ways trade, politics, and material culture became entangled as the new nation took shape on the global stage.
A great article by Matt Golosinski on Northwestern's SHC program, that touches on my commitment to teaching history of science in connection with art history and to thinking about the long history of images...
Excerpt: If inventions like steam engines contributed to the advance of disparate fields like physics and medicine, so too did earlier technological revolutions, including those that changed how people represented the world.
Helping SHC students unpack this evolution is art historian Claudia Swan. An expert on northern European visual culture from 1400-1700, Swan has written widely on the relationship between art and science, producing scholarship on early modern botanical and medical treatises. Her publications include works on the imagination and collecting — such as “cabinets of curiosity,” diverse congeries that featured art objects, scientific specimens, and a miscellany of other artifacts.
She credits an early modern emphasis on visual observation as one key for scientific revolution during that period.
Cultural changes gradually allowed individual eyewitness perception, rather than traditional or expert transmission alone, to be considered valid. This shift, in combination with the arrival of the printing press about 1450, ushered in a new era of discovery and knowledge dissemination.
“Up until the later 15th century, images circulated in manuscript form,” says Swan. “These included anatomical and botanical images that were foundational for medical science.” The problem with that practice was that each time an image was copied (by hand), there was a risk of altering or deforming the original.”
Stable representation brought visual consistency. Plus, the new books offered a more economical and portable means of sharing knowledge. That development proved crucial for groundbreaking anatomy texts such as De humani corporis fabrica by Flemish physician Andreas Vesalius.
“It’s a huge change,” says Swan. Not only could many more doctors and medical students gain access to scholarly work previously unavailable, but these experts could now themselves begin responding to the earlier texts, imparting their own expertise and contributing to a burgeoning disciplinary literature. How anatomy was taught also changed, shifting from mere recitation of classical authorities to a more intensive, sometimes literally visceral, experience.
“Up until Vesalius’ time, the standard format for a university demonstration of anatomy involved a professor who sat ex cathedra, in a chair, reading from one of the classical texts,” says Swan. Down below him in the lecture hall, a demonstrator would perform an actual dissection, showing the body parts as the professor recited. “But there was not necessarily any correlation between what the professor was describing and what the students were seeing! Fundamentally, what Vesalius did was jump out of the chair and say: ‘Away with this! I will teach from the body and teach you what you see.’ And he published it.”
Swan says that art historians can help medical practitioners and researchers better understand how “image conventions” operate, which could help researchers question important assumptions and even have a clinical impact.
In the venerable Gray’s Anatomy, Swan says illustration rather than photography is still used, despite the camera’s great technological advances. “What you can’t do with a photograph of a dissected arm, is delineate the mass of tendons, ligaments, muscles. It’s a bloody mess.” So we rely on conventions to outline structures, or designate to what a surgeon would see in the operating room. Likewise, color conventions — using red to designate hot things in astronomical charts or weather maps — are artificial, since the hottest part of a flame is actually blue. Even sophisticated modern imaging tools, like MRIs and CAT scans, deserve a second look to understand how conventions work: What are we really seeing when we look at this information? How do physicians, medical students, and researchers decipher this visual data, coming away with the belief that the representation truly offers an “in depth” analysis? For that matter, Swan asks, how do humans fundamentally perceive depth?
“There is no universal system for representing space. They are all conventions and widely divergent,” says Swan, offering the cartographical example of the Mercator projection. This is the map developed in 16thcentury Europe that has long been a standard in the West, despite being wildly out of scale in ways that happen to favor its creators: areas farther from the Equator appear disproportionately larger.
“If something is depicted in a particular manner, how does that affect perception?” asks Swan. “Does depicting something with a limited range of colors, or with a lot of lines, make you believe the representation might be more accurate compared with a rendition with blurred outlines or with a more colorful array?”
Swan says it frequently comes as a “resounding shock” to some students that science is not as objective as they believe. “Science as a language, as a discipline, as a practice is shot through with preconceptions, ideology, and local practices that differ from place to place,” she says, adding that in her own work on the imagination there are many examples of where art and science blur.
By providing a holistic curriculum for engagement with this vast enterprise of meaning-making, SHC offers frameworks for understanding knowledge and how people decide what is scientifically true. That mission seems vital in today’s “post-fact” world, where social media shapes public opinion and where torrents of data threaten to overwhelm critical abilities. Even so, Tilley is reluctant to say that the contemporary context is unprecedented: “Historians have ‘precursoritis.’ Whenever someone says ‘this is unprecedented,’ someone will go back a little farther in time and find a precedent.”
She does think there exist eras that seem to be radical ruptures from the past. She sees today’s “proliferation of disciplines and the scaling up of certain types of science, technology, and medicine” — and the political and financial power invested into those advances — as crucial subjects for inquiry.