ARTH 3280 - Artful Science: The Visual Culture of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1800

In the early modern cabinet of wonders, objects, and devices drawn from intersecting realms of art, science, and technology offered a new model of learning, one founded in the embodied acquisition of knowledge. This course explores how such collections gave impetus to the development of experimental science and related forms of multi-sensory inquiry in Europe, ca. 1500-1800. Through a series of focused case studies, we will examine the rich interplay between making, collecting, perceiving, and knowing that developed around early modern artworks, artifacts, scientific instruments, and technological devices.