Artists Inside Collections

Apart from the oral communication between master and apprentice and written transmission, several types of material objects mediated the exchange of knowledge in the artist’s workshop. This project investigates the ways in which early modern artists collected antiquities, instruments and naturalia, and traces how artists’ collections shaped concepts of art theory and art itself. Artist were also involved in collections through the preparation of specimens, and the production of replicas and fakes and they shared their knowledge of materials with naturalists and apothecaries. The project thus investigates how early modern collections functioned as sites for the production of art and knowledge.