Medici Materials: from substance to artefact

Session at RSA, Chicago, 30 March - 1 April 2017

Call for papers

Nowhere was the Medici effort to combine nature, art and science more
perceptible than in their awareness to materials. In fact, not only did
the Medici show particular interest in art objects and rare artefacts,
quickly becoming celebrated collectors from the Quattrocento onwards,
but also did they cultivate from an early date a very particular
peculiar passion to substances and their origin. This erudite interest
lasted for three centuries, as generations of family members
continuously enriched the Medici collections, and vigorously perused
their effort for obtaining, producing and investigating materials both
common and rare.

This passion took numerous forms: collecting both naturalia and
artificialia; paying special attention to the extraction of Tuscan
natural treasures and their mise-en-valeur through industry and art;
studying and practicing alchemy; the decision of Cosimo I to place the
Fonderia medicea inside the Palazzo Vecchio; the foundation by
Ferdinando I of the Galleria dei lavori inside the Uffizi gallery.
These are only few indications of the crucial place of materials in the
eyes of the Medici.

Numerous artistic commissions executed for the Medici highlight this
strong interest. From the diverse supports chosen for paintings to the
continuous pursuit of new techniques in order to use and display
diverse materials as part of precious art objects, the question of
substances and materiality played a major role in the medicean artistic
production. The quest for rarity, preciosity but also quality and
supposed powers of certain chemical elements are essential parameters
to be considered while evaluating the role of materials in the art
commissioned by the Medici.

In this context, it is worth reexamining the relation between art and
nature, as reflected in the manifest interest of the Medici in natural
materials and chemical elements. What where the procedures that
permitted the transformation of such materials into works of art? To
which extant did the new methods of extraction and processing of such
materials influence the production of art objects? How were particular
substances and materials described in contemporary writing? How did the
rarity or the supposed powers of materials influence their use? Was the
classification process visible not only in the display of the
collections but also within certain works of art? To which extent did
the toscanità of certain materials dictate their use by the Medici and
their artists?

Interested participants should send proposals, of no more than 150
words, keywords, and a single page CV, no longer than 300 words, to
Antonella Fenech Kroke, Elinor Myara Kelif, and Sefy Hendler
([log in to unmask]).
Deadline 30 May the latest.

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