Albrecht Dürer, The Rhinoceros, 1515, woodcut. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 19.73.159. Gift of Junius Spencer Morgan, 1919

On Friday 29 June I attended the workshop: Uncovering the Animal: Skin, Fur, Feathers, 1450–1700, hosted by the Renaissance Skin project in Londo . The half-day event featured a range of fascinating papers on the use of animals, their skins, fur and feathers in Europe and Asia in the early modern period. During the event we heard about ‘scaly-lizards’ in cabinets of curiosities; shagreen, leather from sharks and rays; collections of and texts on shells; the use of feathers in both Spain and China; the sexual connotations of fur; and, how different colours of fur were believed to indicate an animal’s temperament.

Each of the papers brought to light different kinds of materials that were collected, represented in paintings or prints, and, most importantly for the Refashioning the Renaissance Project, worn on the body. Some of the presentations also emphasised the incredible cost of animal products, often because they were imported from distant lands, came from rare or exotic animals, or were worked on by highly specialised artisans. For example, there were artisans that worked specifically with feathers, treating them to ensure they stayed ‘fluffy’, applying gold or silver and incorporating them into hats or other articles of clothing. Similarly, there were artisans that worked just with shells, creating beautiful and delicate etchings on the outermost surface. Finally, all of the papers highlighted that early modern people had beliefs and attitudes toward animals (and their skin, fur, and feathers) that were often quite different from our own today. This was a time when exploration and trade brought new animals, plants, objects and people into contact, creating new perspectives, knowledge, and ideas about the rapidly expanding world. Workshops and conferences like Uncovering the Animal also bring together new ideas and knowledge, and we hope that some the presenters will be part of upcoming events with the Refashioning the Renaissance team!

Paula Hohti

Last week, our entire team gathered in Copenhagen for a three-day team meeting. This was our first big ‘milestone’ as a team, because for the past six months, we have all been engaged with identifying and collecting evidence for our project. We have gone through and photographed thousands of documents in Italian and Danish archives, from inventories and account books to notarial contracts, as well as looked at visual images in museums and printed books, and surveyed printed costume and pattern books and books of secret, searching for evidence of lower class dress, fashion and beauty.

Michele Robinson presenting us some of the sources she has been working on.

So last week, it was finally time to put all the sources together, and to assess how we want to use them and in what ways we will make the sources available for the public. Our researchers Stefania, Michele and Anne-Kristine broke down the sources in statistics, and I was extremely pleased about the results. So far, we have 780 artisanal inventories for Italy and 418 for Denmark that we can transcribe and use as a quantitative data. We have also identified 585 Italian printed books that can be used for qualitative analysis and experiments. In addition, we have many types of sources that support our work, such as account books, sumptuary law documents, diaries and friendship albums.

Chart showing the amount of collected inventories in Siena, Venice and Florence. By Stefania Montemezzo.

This data -and our database which will be made public in the future- will form an important basis for our future work when we think about how ordinary men and women dressed in the Renaissance period, where they bought their clothes and accessories, and how the lower social orders connected with and understood ‘fashion’. The wealth of evidence allows us, not just to speak and write about fashion dissemination in sixteenth and seventeenth Europe, but it also enables us to investigate how we can use documentary and visual data as a basis for our forthcoming historical and digital experiments, which will start next January. This will be so exciting!

Breakdown of class and gender depicted in Bartolomeo Grassi, Dei Veri ritratti degl’habiti di tutte le parti del mondo intagliati in rame (Roma: Bartolomeo Grassi, 1585). By Michele Robinson.

The possibility to gather and share the research material, and to be able to discuss ideas with so many bright researchers, is definitely one of the greatest benefits of an ERC project. But for me, personally, perhaps the greatest thing about this project is the collaborative nature of our work and a truly good team spirit. We have fantastic people in our team, and we are learning, brainstorming, communicating, planning, getting excited, and achieving goals together.

One of the highlights of our meeting was that it allowed us, once again, to spend time together and, not just work, but also have nice meals and a glass of wine after a hard day’s work! This time, we had invited another ERC project, the ARTECHNE led by Sven Dupré in the Netherlands, to join us for one of the evenings. We had an excellent dinner at Sticks ‘n Sushi, and fantastic conversations about our common interests and experiences, and possibilities for collaboration.

Sharing experiences with some of the ARTECHNE project team.

During the three days in Copenhagen, we took some important decisions about the forthcoming months: how we work as a team, what we want to achieve within the next six months, and last but not least, how we will involve the broader academic communities and general public more closely with our project. This Autumn, we will organise open lectures and set up voluntary activities around our project. If you are interested in participating, look out for the news section of our website and the newsletter for further information!

On 14–15 June Paula Hohti, Anne-Kirstine Sindvald Larsen, Michele Robinson and Piia Lempiäinen attended the The Art of the Poor in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance Conference at Warburg Institute, organised by Dr. Rembrandt Duits. This two-day conference aimed to shift the focus from elite groups to popular groups, and explore art and aesthetic values of the so called “poor” during medieval and early modern period. Important focal point was to raise discussion on how we determine who was poor, what we consider art, and how different art forms were spreading among different socio-economical groups.

The conference saw several interesting papers discussing the art by, for, and about the poor. The topics ranged from the depiction of poverty in paintings, frescoed churches and artworks commissioned by village communities or artisans, to many aspects of the material culture of the poor. These included for example presentations on medieval pottery, devotional souvenirs and candlesticks, their aspirational meanings as well as practical usage.

On Friday, the morning session was dedicated to clothing, when Paula Hohti and Anne-Kristine Sindvald Larsen gave papers on their research. Paula discussed the changing artisan fashions in Italy, while Anne-Kristine gave her first presentation about her PhD research on Danish artisan clothing. Both presentations were received with great interest and they sparkled a lively discussion afterwards. We were very happy to see Anne-Kristine present her materials for the first time, and are excited to see how her research progresses.

Anne-Kristine Sindvald Larsen presenting her research.

Anne-Kristine Sindvald Larsen and Paula Hohti