Household Servants and Slaves

A Visual History, 1300-1700

By: Diane Wolfthal

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Hardcover | 24 June 2022 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Hardcover
272 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
25.0 x 18.0 x 2.7

Hardcover

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The first book-length study of household servants and slaves, exploring a visual history over 400 years and four continents

The first book-length study of both images of ordinary household workers and their material culture, Household Servants and Slaves: A Visual History, 1300–1700 covers four hundred years and four continents, facilitating a better understanding of the changes in service that occurred as Europe developed a monetary economy, global trade, and colonialism. Diane Wolfthal presents new interpretations of artists including the Limbourg brothers, Albrecht Dürer, Paolo Veronese, and Diego Velázquez, but also explores numerous long-neglected objects, including independent portraits of ordinary servants, servant dolls and their miniature cleaning utensils, and dummy boards, candlesticks, and tablestands in the form of servants and slaves.

Wolfthal analyzes the intersection of class, race, and gender while also interrogating the ideology of service, investigating both the material conditions of household workers’ lives and the immaterial qualities with which they were associated. If images repeatedly relegated servants to the background, then this book does the reverse: it foregrounds these figures in order to better understand the ideological and aesthetic functions that they served.

About the Author

Diane Wolfthal is David and Caroline Minter Chair emerita in the Humanities and professor emerita of art history at Rice University.

Industry Reviews

"The topic is an absorbing one and leaves the reader wanting to know more. . . . Complexities of definition and categorisation are apparent, which the author fully acknowledges."-Tabitha Barber, Art Newspaper

"Wolfthal charts some changes over the period and draws on examples from across Europe. Having made the point that servants are largely invisible and always inferior, she looks for exceptions to the general rule."-Norma Clarke, Literary Review

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