Arts and culture | Book launch
Book launch: online presentation of Claudia Swan's 'Rarities of These Lands. Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Dutch Republic'
- Claudia Swan (Washington University, St. Louis)
- Marika Keblusek
- Date
- Thursday 25 March 2021
- Time
- Address
- Online
- Room
- Online
About this event
The Leiden Department of Art History cordially invites you to the online presentation of Claudia Swan's Rarities of These Lands, published by Princeton University Press.
The seventeenth century witnessed a great flourishing of Dutch trade and culture. Over the course of the first half of the century, the northern Netherlands secured independence from the Spanish crown, and the nascent republic sought to establish its might in global trade, often by way of diplomatic relations with the Ottoman Empire and other Muslim powers. Central to the political and cultural identity of the Dutch Republic were curious foreign goods the Dutch called “rarities.” Claudia Swan's Rarities of These Lands explores how these rarities were obtained, exchanged, stolen, valued, and collected, tracing their global trajectories and considering their role within the politics of the new state. Claudia Swan’s insightful, engaging analysis offers a novel and compelling account of how the Dutch Republic turned foreign objects into expressions of its national self-conception. Rarities of These Lands illuminates the formative years of the Dutch Republic, offering a timely examination of the art, politics, and exoticism of this momentous period in the history of the Netherlands.
First, the author will present her book. This will be followed by a reflection of Marika Keblusek on the new insights the book provides into the arts and culture of the Dutch seventeenth century.
More information on Rarities of These Lands: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Dutch Republic.
Registration
Register here to join the book launch.
Please note that there are two other book launches this semester:
'Magnificence in the Seventeenth Century' on Feb. 4, 2021
'Rembrandt. Studies in his Varied Approaches to Italian Art' on Feb. 25, 2021
