Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

January 17–April 8, 2012
Main and Alsdorf Galleries

Hendrick Goltzius, Portrait of Nicolaus Petri van Deventer, 1595, engraving. Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of John S. Newberry, M6486. Photo: Department of Digital Imaging and Visual Resources, Harvard Art Museums, © 2011 President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Organized by the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts, in collaboration with the Block Museum, this exhibition examines how celebrated Northern Renaissance artists contributed to scientific inquiries of the 16th century.

Rare and treasured prints, drawings, books, maps, and scientific instruments demonstrate that artists were not just illustrators in the service of scientists but that their work played an active role in facilitating the understanding of new concepts in astronomy, geography, natural history, and anatomy.

In-gallery digital displays, video and audio segments, an iPhone/iPad app, and manipulatable replicas of sundials, globes, and other tools add exciting interactive components to the exhibition. An illustrated catalogue, available features contributions from Northwestern art history professor Claudia Swan and material by graduate student Kathleen Tahk.

Click on the image above for a slideshow or explore videos and interactive media below.

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Exhibition Overview: Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

More videos from the exhibition

Explore the exhibition through an interactive tool on the Harvard Art Museums website
	View and use a 16th-century anatomical flap print from the exhibition with the Harvard Art Museums iPhone/iPad app

This exhibition and its accompanying catalogue are made possible by funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Mrs. Arthur K. Solomon, Lionel and Vivian Spiro, Walter and Virgilia Klein, Julian and Hope Edison, Novartis on behalf of Dr. Steven E. Hyman, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, Barbara and the late Robert Wheaton, the Goldman Sachs Foundation, and an anonymous donor.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Support for its exhibition at the Block Museum is provided by the Myers Foundations; Lyrica Endowment; Netherland-America Foundation; Samuel H. Kress Foundation; Alumnae of Northwestern University; Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation; IFPDA Foundation; Robert Lehman Foundation; Alsdorf Endowment; Illinois Arts Council, a state agency;, and the Evanston Arts Council.