Full Description
During the early modern period, objects of maritime material culture were removed from their places of origin and traded, collected and displayed worldwide. Focusing on shells and pearls exchanged within local and global networks, this monograph compares and connects Asian, in particular Chinese, and European practices of oceanic exploitation in the framework of a transcultural history of art with an understanding of maritime material culture as gendered. Perceiving the ocean as mother of all things, as womb and birthplace, Chinese and European artists and collectors exoticized and eroticized shells' shapes and surfaces. Defining China and Europe as spaces entangled with South and Southeast Asian sites of knowledge production, source and supply between 1500 and 1700, the book understands oceanic goods and maritime networks as transcending and subverting territorial and topographical boundaries. It also links the study of globally connected port cities to local ecologies of oceanic exploitation and creative practices.
Contents
Introduction
1 Shell Connections: The Exoticization and Eroticization of Asian Maritime Material Culture
From Guangzhou to Florence: Parrot Cups as "Actors"
Layers of Exoticization: Chinese and European Shell Surfaces
Surfaces and Skins: The European Eroticization of Asian Shells
Conclusion - Shell Connections
2 Shell Bodies: The Creative Agency of Molluscs across Cultures
Clever Objects
Shell Agency
Clam Creations
Female Features
Bird Bodies
Cultured Connections
Conclusion
3 Shell Worlds: Maritime Microcosms in EurAsian Art and Material Culture
Shells in Flux
Coralscapes
Conclusion
4 Woman with a Shell: Transcultural Exchange, Female Bodies and Maritime Matters
Women on Shells
Women in Shells
Women with Shells
Women with EurAsian Shells
Conclusion - Woman with a Shell
Conclusion
Cited Primary and Secondary Sources
Acknowledgments
Index
