Description
This course will examine the intersections of art and visual culture, medicine, knowledge and authority in early modern England. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were characterised by religious, dynastic and political upheaval in Britain, while the violence of colonialism and slavery can also be traced back to the period. At the same time, movement of people, and of ideas – facilitated in part by the development of print – contributed to technological innovation, scientific curiosity and empiricism. How then might we understand the role of images in all this? Concepts of mobility, transformation and exchange will be key to our approach, as will the representation of the human body. From self-fashioning and heraldic devices in portraiture, to case studies of anatomical imagery that offer insight into the capacity of print to rapidly disseminate information across geographical borders, we will investigate a wide range of media. Alongside this, we will consider different approaches to observing, measuring and recording. In this way, we aim open up questions as to the presumed ‘naturalism’ of, for instance, John White’s watercolours representing the indigenous inhabitants encountered during colonizing expeditions to Roanoke Island in the 1580s, or the meticulous copperplate engravings of Robert Hooke’s Micrographia (1665).
Module deliveries for 2024/25 academic year
Last updated
This module description was last updated on 19th August 2024.
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