Gender and Self-Fashioning at the Intersection of Art and Science

Agnes Block, Botany, and Networks in the Dutch 17th Century
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-041-18007-4
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 302 Seiten, Format (B × H): 174 mm x 246 mm

Reihe: Studies in Early Modernity in The Netherlands

At once collector, botanist, reader, artist, and patron, Agnes Block is best described as a cultural producer. A member of an influential network in her lifetime, today she remains a largely obscure figure. The socioeconomic and political barriers faced by early modern women, together with a male-dominated tradition in art history, have meant that too few stories of women’s roles in the creation, production, and consumption of art have reached us. This book seeks to write Block and her contributions into the art and cultural history of the seventeenth-century Netherlands, highlighting the need for and advantages of a multifaceted approach to research on early modern women. Examining Block’s achievements, relationships, and objects reveals a woman who was independent, knowledgeable, self-aware, and not above self-promotion. Though her gender brought few opportunities and many barriers, Agnes Block succeeded in fashioning herself as Flora Batava, a liefhebber at the intersection of art and science.

Zielgruppe

Academic

Autoren/Hrsg.

Powell-Warren, Catherine

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunstgeschichte Kunstgeschichte: Renaissance, Manierismus
• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Künstlerische Stoffe, Motive, Themen Künstlerische Stoffe, Motive, Themen: Natur & Tiere (Stillleben, Landschaften etc.)
• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunst, allgemein Einzelne Künstler: Biographien, Monografien

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements, List of Figures and Photographic Credits, Introduction, Chapter 1. Vijverhof and the Pursuit of Nature, Chapter 2. Vijverhof in Context, Chapter 3. Vijverhof as a Space of Knowledge Creation, Exchange, and Relationships, Chapter 4. Becoming Flora Batava, Chapter 5. Flora Batava in Context, Chapter 6. The Bloemenboek and Block's Watercolours: Self-Fashioning at the Intersection of Art and Science, Chapter 7. The Bloemenboek as a Meeting Place and Visual Manifestation of Agnes Block's Artistic Network, Appendix A, Bibliography

Über Autor(innen)

Dr. Catherine Powell-Warren is a postdoctoral research fellow in art history at Ghent University. Her research focuses on the role of early modern women of the Low Countries in the creation, production, and consumption of art and culture, with a special interest in networks and concepts of collaboration and community.