Art and Ocean objects of early modern Eurasia : shells, bodies, and materiality / Anna Grasskamp.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Grasskamp, Anna, author.

Series:

Connected histories in the early modern world.

Connected histories in the early modern world

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shells--Collection and preservation--Europe--History.

Shells.

Shells--Collection and preservation--China--History.

Material culture--Europe.

Material culture.

Material culture--China.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (220 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press, 2021.

Summary:

During the early modern period, objects of maritime material culture were removed from their places of origin and traded, collected and displayed worldwide. Focusing on shells and pearls exchanged within local and global networks, this monograph compares and connects Asian, in particular Chinese, and European practices of oceanic exploitation in the framework of a transcultural history of art with an understanding of maritime material culture as gendered. Perceiving the ocean as mother of all things, as womb and birthplace, Chinese and European artists and collectors exoticized and eroticized shells' shapes and surfaces. Defining China and Europe as spaces entangled with South and Southeast Asian sites of knowledge production, source and supply between 1500 and 1700, the book understands oceanic goods and maritime networks as transcending and subverting territorial and topographical boundaries. It also links the study of globally connected port cities to local ecologies of oceanic exploitation and creative practices.

Contents:

3 Shell Worlds: Maritime Microcosms in EurAsian Art and Material Culture

Shells in Flux

Coralscapes

Conclusion

4 Woman with a Shell: Transcultural Exchange, Female Bodies and Maritime Matters

Women on Shells

Women in Shells

Women with Shells

Women with EurAsian Shells

Woman with a Shell

Cited Primary and Secondary Sources

Acknowledgments

Index

Backcover

Cover

Table of Contents

Introduction

1 Shell Connections: The Exoticization and Eroticization of Asian Maritime Material Culture

From Guangzhou to Florence: Parrot Cups as "Actors"

Layers of Exoticization: Chinese and European Shell Surfaces

Surfaces and Skins: The European Eroticization of Asian Shells

Shell Connections

2 Shell Bodies: The Creative Agency of Molluscs across Cultures

Clever Objects

Shell Agency

Clam Creations

Female Features

Bird Bodies

Cultured Connections

Conclusion

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 16 Dec 2021).

ISBN:

90-485-5330-X

OCLC:

1281707880