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9780271100432

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Reviews

“Rebecca Zorach is one of the most provocative scholars working today in the field of early modern art. Spontaneous Objects offers an irreverent feminist decoupling of the conjoined myths of ‘artistic genius’ and ‘artistic intentionality’ that continue to define certain sectors of the discipline. Along the way, Zorach paints a vivid portrait of a moment in which the boundaries between not only Art and Nature but also Art and Science were still fluid.” —Maria H. Loh, author of Titian’s Touch: Art, Magic and Philosophy “Drawing on a wealth of previously little-known visual and verbal sources, Zorach critically reassesses the complex history of European engagement with the natural, nonhuman world. While early modern writers and practitioners emphasized the generative power of matter, thereby decentering human agency, views of nonhuman nature were adopted simultaneously to justify exploitation and enslavement. This timely and foundational book reveals the diversity of premodern notions of nature and life and how these evolved into a racialized concept of modernity that sought to colonize and dominate nature.” —Christine Göttler, author of Last Things: Art and the Religious Imagination in the Age of Reform

Author Information

Rebecca Zorach is Mary Jane Crowe Professor of Art and Art History at Northwestern University. Her books include Blood, Milk, Ink, Gold: Abundance and Excess in the French Renaissance; The Passionate Triangle; Art for People’s Sake: Artists and Community in Black Chicago, 1965–1975; and Temporary Monuments: Art, Land, and America’s Racial Enterprise.

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