Catherine Powell-Warren - MAP FORUM

MAP FORUM - 19 November 2024
Collective Nature: Female Community and the Illustration of Nature in 17th-Century Amsterdam.
This talk explores the community formed by the Dutch artists Maria Sibylla Merian, Johanna Helena Herolt, Maria Moninckx, and Alida Withoos and the patron Agnes Block. As members of this loose, informal female group, they made images and were compensated for them, obtained temporary relief from domestic obligations, found fulfilment in their contributions to an important collection of botanical watercolours, shared tips and learned from the other artists employed by Block, and developed an emotional connection with each other in part through Block, someone who understood first-hand the limiting boundaries of gender in this sphere of inquiry and how to navigate them. This female community played a critical role in the development of the largest collection of botanical illustrations known to have been commissioned by an individual.
Catherine Powell-Warren is an assistant professor at the Katholiek Universiteit Leuven in Flanders, Belgium. Her work focuses on the role of early modern women in the creation, production, and patronage of art in the Low Countries, with a special emphasis on the power of networks and community.