EARLY MODERN MERCHANTS AS COLLECTORS

International experts in the field of collecting will be presenting papers addressing merchant collectors across a wide geographical range, from Europe to Persia, India and Japan; and a broad spectrum of objects from icons to books, plants and paintings.

ONFERENCE: EARLY MODERN MERCHANTS AS COLLECTORS
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, UK, June 15 - 16, 2012

International experts in the field of collecting will be presenting papers addressing merchant collectors across a wide geographical range, from Europe to Persia, India and Japan; and a broad spectrum of objects from icons to books, plants and paintings.

PROGRAMME (Please note the order of papers may be subject to change. All speakers, however, are confirmed.)

FRIDAY 15 JUNE:

INTRODUCTION:
CHRISTOPHER BROWN (Ashmolean Museum)
Welcome
CHRISTINA ANDERSON (University of Oxford)
The Early Modern Merchant as a Collector

THE ART DEALER AS COLLECTOR:
JEREMY WARREN (Wallace Collection), Panel Chair
BARBARA FURLOTTI (Queen Mary, University of London)
Between Collection and Stock. The Ambiguous Role of Merchants as Collectors of Antiquities in Sixteenth-Century Rome
TARYN ZARILLO (Columbia University)
Complementary Activities: Boschini, del Sera and Renieri as Merchants, Collectors and Painters in Seicento Venice
HANS VAN MIEGROET (Duke University)
Dealer Practices and Collection Patterns in Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Market Segments in Early Modern Europe

OUTSIDERS LOOKING IN AND INSIDERS GAZING OUT:
ELIZABETH LAMBOURN (De Montfort University, Leicester), Panel chair
ALEKSANDRA LIPIŃSKA (Instytut Historii Sztuki, Wroclaw)
Brothers in Collecting: Thomas and Jacob Rhediger – Two 16th Century Silesian Art Collectors and Bibliophiles
TARNYA COOPER (National Portrait Gallery, London)
English Merchants in the Sixteenth and early seventeenth Century: Commissioning and Collecting Portraits and Decorative Objects
AMY LANDAU (Walters Art Museum)
Armenian Merchant Patronage in New Julfa and Beyond: The Case of Petros and Polos Velijanian

RITUALS, RELIGION AND COMMUNITY:
CLARE POLLARD (Ashmolean Museum), Panel Chair
LOUISE CORT (Freer and Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian)
Tea and Commerce: Japanese Merchants in Kyoto and Sakai
HENK LOOIJESTEIJN (Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis, Amsterdam)
For the Love of God? A Dutch Mennonite Merchant as Book Collector
MARGIT SONNEVEND (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest)
Greek Merchants’ Collections of Icons in Early Modern Venice

SATURDAY 16 JUNE:

KEYNOTE SPEECH:
DAVID HOWARTH (University of Edinburgh)
‘Gilding The Moon’: The East India Company and Material Culture Exchange between England, Persia and India, in early Stuart England

NAVIGATION, ALCHEMY AND THE NATURAL WORLD:
STEPHEN JOHNSTON (Museum of the History of Science, Oxford), Panel Chair
HEATHER DALTON (Honorary Fellow, University of Melbourne)
Portraits, pearls and things ‘wch are very straunge to owres’: The Thorne/Withypoll trading syndicate in the early 16th century Iberian Atlantic
SVEN DUPRÉ (Freie Universität Berlin) AND CHRISTINE GÖTTLER (Universität Bern)
Art, Alchemy, and Commerce: The Collection of the Portuguese Merchant-Banker Emmanuel Ximenes in Antwerp
BARBARA KARL (Museum für angewandte Kunst (MAK), Vienna)
Gardening in Goa – Filippo Sassetti’s experiences with Indian medicine and plants

PROVENANCE AND ACQUIRED PRESTIGE:
EVELYN WELCH (Queen Mary, University of London), Panel Chair
ANNE-LISE TROPATO (University of Rome II ‘Tor Vergata’)
Gaspard de Monconys (1592-1664): Provost-Marshal of the Merchants of Lyon and a Forgotten Collector
AMY HWANG (Princeton University)
Imperial Treasures in the Hands of a Ming Merchant: Xiang Yuanbian’s Collection
SUSAN NALEZYTY (Independent)
Considered Judgement and Prestigious Provenance: Bartolomeo della Nave’s Acquisitions from the Collection of Pietro Bembo

ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
A panel of selected speakers and panel chairs will discuss the main ideas that arose during the conference.

The abstracts of speakers' papers, along with registration costs and details, and information about student bursaries can be found at the conference website: http://earlymodernmerchants.ashmus.ox.ac.uk.
The conference is being organised by Dr. Christina Anderson, Honorary Research Fellow at the Ashmolean. Any questions can be sent to her at christina.andersonashmus.ox.ac.uk.

We hope to see you there!
Sponsored by the Society for Renaissance Studies, the Ashmolean Museum, Anderson Art Research, and the Modern European History Research Centre at Oxford University.