The Art of Paper: From the Holy Land to the Americas

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00195

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-19954

In the late medieval and Renaissance period, paper transformed society—not only through its role in the invention of print but also in the way it influenced artistic production. The Art of Paper tells the history of this medium in the context of the artist’s workshop from the thirteenth century, when it was imported to Europe from Africa, to the sixteenth century, when European paper was exported to the colonies of New Spain. In this pathbreaking work, Caroline Fowler approaches the topic culturally rather than technically, deftly exploring the way paper shaped concepts of authorship, preservation, and the transmission of ideas during this period. This book both tells a transcultural history of paper from the Cairo Genizah to the Mesoamerican manuscript and examines how paper became “Europeanized” through the various mechanisms of the watermark, colonization, and the philosophy of John Locke. Ultimately, Fowler demonstrates how paper—as refuse and rags transformed into white surface—informed the works for which it was used, as well as artists’ thinking more broadly, across the early modern world.

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Author

PublisherYale University Press

Print publication date November 2019 (in print)

Print ISBN 9780300246025

EISBN 9780300257267

Illustrations 113

Print Status in print

Publisher (in print)

WorldCat

Google Books

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List of illustrations

Dream/Vision
Dream/Vision, detail
Study of a Nude
Study of a Nude
Samples of Mulberry Bark and paper made from the Japanese Mulberry
Nemesis
Perpective Illustrations and Sleeping Venus
Diamond Sutra
Itinerary of rag papermaking technology from c. 650–1500
Commentarius in Ecclesiasten. Palimpsested: National History, XI–XV
Christ and the Woman of Samaria, recto
Christ Healing the Blind Man, verso
Mill on the Grand River Auvergne
Papermill Stampers
Tong Watermark
Tamed Horse Watermark
Amsterdam City Coat of Arms
The Wire-Drawing Mill
Paper Mould
The Vatman and the Coucher
Alcea (Hollyhock)
Futo Kadsura
Gathering and Fermenting the Bamboo
Cooking the Bamboo
Forming the Sheet in the Paper Mold
Drying the Paper on Heated Brick Walls
Cutting Bamboo
Dipping the Paper Mold
Tinting the Paper
Packaging Paper and Quality Control
Fol. 1a in Commentary of Galen on the Book of Hippocrates on Prognostics
Fol. 85b in Questions on Medicine for Beginners
Fol. 2a in The Hundred Books on the Medical Art
Fol. 138v in Maqamat al-Hariri
Panel 48: Fortuna
The Oztoticpac Lands Map
Fol. 3v in Matrícula de Tributos
Fol. 4r in Matrícula de Tributos
Fol. 3v in Matrícula de Tributos, detail
Fol. 4r in Matrícula de Tributos, detail
Tributes from the Province of Quauhnahuac
Tributes from the Province of Quauhnahuac
Reproduction of the Codex Mendoza
Papermaker
Engraver
Kitāb ṣalāt al-sawā'i
Maestà
Maestà, detail
Maestà, detail
Ecce Homo
The Burning of Jan Hus at the Council of Constance in 1415
The Execution of Jan Hus
Ludovico Gonzaga Receives a Letter
Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga Holds a Letter with the Words Andrea me pinxit
Fol. 92v and 93r in Wolfenbüttel Musterbuch
The Scriptorium
The Flagellation
The Flagellation
Study of Facial Typologies
Virgin and the Writing Christ Child
Foliate Ornament and Seated Figures
Jousting
Savage Ball
Charles and His Bride Isabeau (?)
Vienna model book with its leather box
Blessing Christ
Feast of the Rose Garlands
Jesus among the Doctors
Two Studies of a Youth
Two Studies of a Youth
Three Studies of a Bishop
Hands of Maximilian I from Feast of the Rose Garlands
Hands of Jesus from Jesus among the Doctors
Head of the Lute-Playing Angel from Feast of the Rose Garlands
Head of Jesus from Jesus among the Doctors
Head of the Lute-Playing Angel from Feast of the Rose Garlands and Head of Jesus from Jesus among the Doctors
Feast of the Rose Garlands, detail
Jesus among the Doctors, detail
Head of a Young Man
Mercury
Presentation of Christ in the Temple
Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin
The Betrothal of the Virgin
Heller Altarpiece
Praying Hands
Apostle Head Study
Praying Hands and Apostle Head Study
Studies of Saint John the Baptist
Head of an Apostle
Head of Lute-Playing Angel
Head of Jesus
Archers Shooting at a Herm
Archers Shooting at a Herm, detail of crossbow watermark
Fol. 19r in the Codex Telleriano-Remensis
Fol. 19r in the Codex Telleriano-Remensis, gloved-hand watermark detail
Quaratesi Polyptych: Saint Nicholas of Bari Raising Three Boys from the Dead
Image depicting tributes given to the Spanish, including a feather painting of the Virgin and Child (Huejotzingo Codex, painting 5)
Image depicting tributes given to the Spanish
Genoese Gloved-Hand Watermark
Fol. 37v from the Codex Kingsborough/ Petition of the Indians of Tepetlaoztoc
Fol. 42v from the Codex Kingsborough/ Petition of the Indians of Tepetlaoztoc
Fol. 42r from the Codex Kingsborough/ Petition of the Indians of Tepetlaoztoc
The Village Lawyer
Descent from the Cross
Four Mughal Elders Sitting under a Tree
Four Mullahs
Abraham Entertaining the Angels
Page of calligraphy
Six devotional scenes
Ecce Homo
Ecce Homo
Ecce Homo
Ecce Homo

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Contents

The Art of Paper: From the Holy Land to the Americas

Contents

Author

PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-19955

Free

Acknowledgments

The Art of Paper: From the Holy Land to the Americas

~I began this project when I was an NEH Postdoctoral Fellow at the Getty Research Institute, and I thank both the Getty and the National Endowment for the Humanities Foundation for their early support. I completed the manuscript at Yale University as the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, and I thank the Mellon Foundation and Tim Barringer. An...

Author

PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-19956

Introduction: A New Kind of Route

The Art of Paper: From the Holy Land to the Americas

~“In the year 1525, after Whitsun, in the night between Wednesday and Thursday, I saw this vision in my sleep.” Putting mind to paper, Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) painted his dream, creating a work in which water rises like a geological formation from the horizon as...

Author

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.1-16

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00195.001

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-19957

Chapter subject tags:PapermakingTrade routesEarly printed booksArt, Renaissance

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Chapter I
Tracking Paper Routes across the Early Modern World

The Art of Paper: From the Holy Land to the Americas

~Before Europe began producing its own paper, three papermaking economies dominated the world from about 800 to 1250 CE: Asia, the Middle East, and Mesoamerica. Paper was central to the trade, economy, and artistic cultures of China, Japan, and Korea. It was the main component of bookmaking and administration in the Islamic world from Baghdad to Córdoba....

Author

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.17-54

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00195.002

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-19958

Chapter subject tags:PapermakingTrade routesIllumination of books and manuscripts, MedievalIndians of Central America

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Chapter II
Forgetting Paper’s Origins

The Art of Paper: From the Holy Land to the Americas

~Paper is vile. In his treatise Adversus Iudeorum inveteratam duritiem (twelfth century; Against the Inveterate Obduracy of the Jews), Peter the Venerable Abbot of Cluny (ca. 1092–1156)...

Author

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.55-66

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00195.003

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-19959

Chapter subject tags:PapermakingTrade routesPainting, Renaissance--ItalyPaper--History

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Chapter III
The Model of Loss in Late-Medieval Drawing

The Art of Paper: From the Holy Land to the Americas

~In one of the first appearances of the word “paper” (papier) in the French language, a poet calls on his secretary: “Find some paper; I wish to write.” This command is...

Author

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.67-82

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00195.004

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-19960

Chapter subject tags:PapermakingDrawing, MedievalDrawing, RenaissancePaper--History

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Chapter IV
Albrecht Dürer and the Geography of Paper

The Art of Paper: From the Holy Land to the Americas

~During his first Wanderjahre in the early 1490s, Albrecht Dürer traveled to Colmar to meet Martin Schongauer (ca. 1445–1491), an innovative engraver whose fine lines and dense...

Author

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.83-108

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00195.005

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-19961

Chapter subject tags:PapermakingArtists' preparatory studiesDrawing, RenaissanceDürer, Albrecht, 1471-1528

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Chapter V
Paper: Modernizing the Ancients’ Wax Tablet

The Art of Paper: From the Holy Land to the Americas

~Early modern rag paper contains a pictorial language that historians rarely address unless they want to place a work within a chronology. This idiom is called the watermark. Thanks to the exhaustive cataloguing by scholars such as Charles-Moïse Briquet in Les filigranes: Historique des marques du papier dès leur...

Author

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.109-122

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00195.006

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-19962

Chapter subject tags:PapermakingWatermarksIndians of Central AmericaPaper--History

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Conclusion: Rembrandt and a New Paper World

The Art of Paper: From the Holy Land to the Americas

~The history of print has obscured the importance of paper as an equal force in defining the early modern world. This book, therefore, has focused primarily on works outside of print—from Simone Martini’s paintings to legal documents in New Spain. Yet the developing trade in global commodities also transformed paper’s ability to convey meaning...

Author

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.123-132

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00195.007

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-19963

Chapter subject tags:PapermakingArt, Mogul EmpirePrints, DutchRembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, 1606-1669

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Bibliography

The Art of Paper: From the Holy Land to the Americas

Bibliography

Author

PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-19964

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Illustration Credits

The Art of Paper: From the Holy Land to the Americas

~The photographers and the sources of visual material other than those indicated in the captions are as follows. Every effort has been made to credit the photographers and the sources; if there are errors or omissions, please contact Yale University Press so that corrections can be made in any subsequent edition.

Author

PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-19965

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Index

The Art of Paper: From the Holy Land to the Americas

Index

Author

PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-19966