Artists and their Objects: The Material World of the Early Modern Artist

Inventories and testaments of early modern artists’ homes and visual representations of their studios show artists as surrounded by objects – not only tools for artistic creation but also luxury items, kitchen wares, clothing, and furniture. Art historians have tended to ignore these objects–even going so far as to edit them out of modern publications of inventories. But what do these objects signify about the artists who owned them, and what role did they play in artistic production? In paintings by Johannes Vermeer or Juan van der Hamen, for example, we can trace a single object, such as a bowl, a candlestick, or a painting that the artist owned. Additionally, artists often possessed and traded objects such as plaster casts, birds’ wings, mannequins, wax figurines, costumes, and books. Artemisia Gentileschi, on the other hand, needed gilt leather hangings and high-quality furniture and dresses to make a “brilliant impression” upon her move to Rome. Claude Lorrain owned a harpsichord and had an unusually well stocked kitchen, with copper pots and fine majolica dishes. What are ways we can utilize inventories and testaments of artists as interpretive tools? What inside can we gain into the physical process of creating artworks in the early modern period? What can be gathered about the physical spaces in which artists lived and worked?

Topics might include (but are not limited to):

Artists as collectors and consumers

Artists’ materials

Artists’ homes/studios

Artists’ inventories

Paintings as records of artists’ possessions

Food/Consumption

Objects as a form of payment