Harvard Art Museums / Current

Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

Sep 6 2011 — Dec 10 2011
Arthur M. Sackler Museum

Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge examines how celebrated Northern Renaissance artists contributed to the scientific investigations of the 16th century. The exhibition and its accompanying catalogue challenge the perception of artists as illustrators in the service of scientists. Artists’ printed images served as both instruments for research and agents in the dissemination of knowledge. The exhibition, displaying prints, books, maps, and such instruments as sundials, globes, astrolabes, and armillary spheres, looks at relationships between their producers and their production, as well as among the objects themselves.

Curated by Susan Dackerman, Carl A. Weyerhaeuser Curator of Prints, Division of European and American Art, Harvard Art Museums. Organized in collaboration with the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.

Catalogue: This book offers brilliant reproductions of woodcuts, engravings, and etchings; maps, globe gores, and globes; multilayered anatomical “flap” prints; and paper scientific instruments used for observation and measurement, featured in the exhibition. Among the “do-it-yourself” paper instruments were sundials and astrolabes, and the book incorporates a facsimile of globe gores for the reader to cut out and assemble. More

Traveling dates: Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe was presented at the Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum (September 6–December 10, 2011) and at the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois (January 17–April 8, 2012).

Exhibition trailer: Curator Susan Dackerman provides an overview of the exhibition. The video includes commentary from Theresa Smith, Paper Conservator, Weissman Preservation Center, Harvard University; Peter Schilling, Senior Exhibits Specialist, Harvard Art Museums; and Dr. Sara Schechner, David P. Wheatland Curator of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard University.

Videos from the exhibition

iPhone/iPad Application: View and use a 16th-century anatomical flap print by Heinrich Vogtherr the elder.

iTunes

Teacher’s Guide: A guide for middle and secondary school teachers is available for download. A PowerPoint presentation of the images discussed in the guide is also available for download.

Flickr: View photos from the Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge exhibition on the Harvard Art Museums’ Flickr stream. Go.

Video Lecture: Artistic Vision, Scientific Truths. Artist Alexis Rockman and ocean biologist James McCarthy discuss the interconnections of art and science in the 21st century at a lecture held in November 2011. Moderated by Susan Dackerman, Carl A. Weyerhaeuser Curator of Prints, Division of European and American Art, Harvard Art Museums. Video courtesy of the Museum of Science, Boston.

The exhibition and its accompanying catalogue are made possible by funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Mrs. Arthur K. Solomon, Lionel and Vivian Spiro, Walter and Virgilia Klein, Julian and Hope Edison, Novartis on behalf of Dr. Steven E. Hyman, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, Barbara and the late Robert Wheaton, the Goldman Sachs Foundation, and an anonymous donor. Additional support is provided by the Harvard Art Museums’ endowment funds: the Alexander S., Robert L., and Bruce A. Beal Exhibition Fund; Anthony and Celeste Meier Exhibitions Fund; Charlotte F. and Irving W. Rabb Exhibition Fund; and Melvin R. Seiden and Janine Luke Fund for Publications and Exhibitions.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.