All Episodes - Professor Jacob Soll : Account Books: the Persistence and Evolution of an Image

Conference SummaryStudies in the visual and material culture of the early modern world have recently focused on the concrete materiality or ‘thingness’ of things. But why is it that certain early modern things endured while others did not? Was it because of the intrinsic properties of their materials or other reasons: use and abuse, cultural or religious value, chance or neglect? How should we study those artefacts that have not survived, or which have endured in an imperfect state: the broken, incomplete, cast off and lost things of the early modern world?This pair of colloquia will examine the fragility and robustness of early modern objects, exploring not only the matter of their material, but also the transitory or forgotten ways in which they were experienced and used. Reflecting on the sensory and temporal dimensions of artefacts, we will consider the effects upon them of memory, habit, and custom, exploring themes such as impermanence, decay, repair, and recycling. While

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