European art and the wider world 1350-1550 considers select examples of European art and material culture through the lens of global connections. Through close examination of a wide array of objects such as altarpieces, ceramics and featherwork, it explores European visual culture during the 'age of exploration'. It considers the reception in Europe of objects from Asia, America and Africa and examines works of art as an insight into cultural encounter and conflict in a wide variety of contexts, including Venice, Al-Andalus and Goa. The book is animated by art-historical approaches that have recently transformed the study of the art of this era. It re-casts works that have long featured in a history of a quintessentially Western 'Renaissance' in the light of travel, trade and cultural encounters, and broadens the traditional focus of interest to include material culture.
Industry Reviews
'This book offers important new insights into the history of Renaissance arts by rethinking key objects and themes through the lens of cross-culturality. Its contribution is especially welcome as it demonstrates how exactly the idea of the Renaissance was formed by its global contacts and through acculturation of arts and ideas from beyond Europe.'
Sussan Babaie, Andrew W. Mellon Reader in the Arts of Iran and Islam, The Courtauld Institute of Art
'Art history has become increasingly engaged with global connections, but to date no study has filled the need for a synthetic overview of the early modern period. We can never again see the 'Renaissance' in the same, isolated way after reading these chapters.'
Larry Silver, Farquhar Professor of Art History, University of Pennsylvania
'Bringing together essays synthesizing recent scholarship on Renaissance art and material culture, Christian and Clark (both, Open Univ., UK) have created the first undergraduate-level treatment of the global nature of Renaissance art. The editors' goal is to illuminate "commonalities" between Europe and non-Western, non-Christian cultures. Two of the essays, Christian's on Renaissance altarpieces and Clark's on European collections of non-Western objects, consider indirect influences on art that came from luxury goods traded into Europe. The other two essays-one on art and architecture of Islamic, Jewish, and Christian inhabitants of Spain, and of Amer-Indians of the New World, the other on Venice as a palimpsest of Italian, Byzantine, and Islamic art and culture-are particularly successful in revealing direct connections between different cultures and the hybrid art that developed from close proximity.'
J. B. Gregory, formerly, Delaware College of Art and Design, CHOICE, Vol. 56, No. 2 (October 2018)
