In Pursuit of Knowledge
« back to All BlogsBy Debbie Hagan
Centuries before a Blackberry could propel an idea around the globe in seconds, communication posed challenges--how could knowledge be broadly shared in order to advance and improve society? Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe, at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, addresses this question, showing extraordinary examples of early printmaking and how sixteenth century Europeans used it to share understanding, particularly in the fields of medicine, science, and navigation.
“I’m interested in the way the most important artists of the time interacted with cartographers, draftspeople, and medical people,” said Susan Dackerman, Carl A. Wyerhaeuser Curator of Prints at Harvard’s Sackler Museum, addressing a small press group on a tour she led on September 5 through the exhibit. “You can see how the artists of northern Europe during the sixteenth century were involved in the scientific investigations of their time.”
Albrecht Durer, Rhinoceros, 1515. Woodcut and letterpress, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Stephen Bullard Memorial Fund, by exchange.
Unknown artist after Albrecht Durer and Hans Liefrinck the Elder, c. 1550, woodcut with handcoloring, letterpress, and impressed plants, the British Museum
In the fifteenth century, the words science and scientist didn’t even exist. However, the public emerging from the Dark Ages, yearned to learn, explore, and improve their daily lives.
Part of the exhibit is devoted to globes, made from gores printed on paper then affixed to a wooden sphere and painted. Paper plans were also printed with instructions for assembly for sundials, which the Harvard staff painstakingly reconstructed.
Jan Saenredam, Celestial Globe Gores for Willem Jansz, before 1600, engravings on three sheets, Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University.
Johann Schoner after Albrecht Durer, Brixen Celestial Globe, 1522, paint and gesso over hollow wood sphere, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection.
Printing enabled medical scholars to share information about the workings of the body and give detailed information on surgical procedures (some look so terrifying one might think the odds would be better with the disease).
Artists, such as Durer and his followers, assisted scientists or whatever these renaissance scholars called themselves, by giving a physical or at least a physical-like presence to shapeless ideas. The rhinoceros is an excellent example. Few in Europe had ever seen this animal, including Durer. However he relies on the description from someone who had seen this armored beast. So Durer creates it, for all to see, but offers more of a fanciful interpretation with flourishes and, notably, an extra horn on its back that so conveniently points to his name (even back in the sixteenth century, Durer understood the importance of branding).
Someone asked Dackerman how long it took her to organize this complex show. She quipped “a thousand years.” In reality, it was five, but looking at the many loans, the delicacy of this work (on paper), and the massive, 442-page, oversized catalog, staging this show was no small undertaking. See a video in which Dackerman talks about the exhibit.
Gersdorff, Feldtbuch der Wundartzney, Strasbourg: Hans Schoot, 1540 edition. Book with woodcuts with handcoloring. Philadelphia Museum of Art, purchased with the SmithKline Beckman Corporation Fund.
Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge is the first exhibition in the Sackler since the Harvard Art Museums began its renovations in 2008—closing the Fogg and Busch Reisinger Museums, turning the Sackler into a repository for some of its vast collection. Now the work is in an offsite storage facility. Changes have also been made to the Sackler, most notably covering the skylights, which enable the museum to safely show light-sensitive works, such as sixteenth-century prints. The completion of the new art museum is projected to be 2013.
Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe is up through December 10. Look for a complete review by writer Susan Boulanger in Art New England's November/December issue.
No comments yet
