History of Art Lecture Series: Alessandra Russo (Columbia)

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Cheiropoieta: Handmaking, Artistry, Curatorship, Museums

Alessandra Russo, Columbia University

In the context of early modern globalization, a myriad of handmade artifacts became arguments for deeply contradictory claims: the inhabitability and exploitability of the most recondite corners of the world; the political qualities and historical depth of the societies where they were produced; the need to eradicate idolatry, precisely based on the argument of handmakingness; and the material and conceptual subtlety of discrete and yet comparable forms of human artistry, on an unprecedented scale, as well as their commodification. Contextualizing these concurrent claims in relationship to early modern art theorization, I argue that the handmade artifacts observed throughout the world, had a fundamental impact in a profound change that took place in Europe in the early modern times: when the fact of having been created by the human hand, by the hand of the artist, went from being a vice to becoming a fundamental virtue. This transformation, I contend, made it possible for these artifacts to eventually enter what I call “curatorship spaces” —physical spaces where different agents, including painters, antiquarians, collectors, custodians, but also naturalists and doctors, handled, displayed, copied, studied, and took care of a great variety of art-pieces, giving them a new accessibility. I locate in this process the genesis of early modern museums.