Bettie Allison Rand Lectures in Art History: Stephanie Porras, Tulane University

Ivory across Empires

Considering a range of seventeenth-century ivory objects made in Manila, Goa, Ceylon and Mexico, this talk proposes a different narrative about empire. While these ivory sculptures certainly testify to the widespread use of imported European models, the range of ivory carvings done across Asia, also are part of a broader history of the creative agency of Asian makers in responding to European tastes and to the expanding global market for their work, via both the Manila galleon and circum-African sea trade. Foregrounding the material of ivory and its varied uses, and seeing these objects in dialogue with one another, also gestures towards an alternative history of Portuguese and Spanish imperial ambitions in Asia, as well as the motivations of different Asian empires, from the kingdom of Kotte in Sri Lanka to the Ming and later Qing dynasties in China. For ivory operated between and across empires, and this talk examines the various trade routes, as well as the mobility of materials, models and artists who produced ivories for an emerging global art market.

Stephanie Porras is Professor of Art History and Chair of the Newcomb Art Department at Tulane University. Her research interests include the visual and material culture of Northern Europe, the Spanish world, and the Dutch Atlantic from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries. Her latest book, The First Viral Images: Maerten de Vos, Antwerp print and the early modern globe (PSU press, 2023) traces the complex production and reception histories of an illustrated book, a painting and an engraving, all made in Antwerp in the late sixteenth century, but copied by Venetian print publishers, Spanish and Latin American painters, Mughal miniaturists and by Filipino ivory carvers. Most recently, she is also the co-editor, along with Stephen Campbell, The Routledge Companion to the Global Renaissance, a volume of forty essays, introducing objects made across the early modern world; appearing later this year is another co-edited volume, The Dutch Americas: art histories of the Atlantic World, with Aaron Hyman.

Through a generous gift to the UNC Arts and Sciences Foundation, William G. Rand established this lecture series in memory of his late wife, Bettie Allison Rand. This funding allows the Department of Art and Art History to bring one or more eminent art historians to UNC-CH every other year for residencies of various lengths. While they are in Chapel Hill, these scholars present a series of lectures and interact with undergraduate and graduate art history and studio art students. Following the campus visit, the scholars prepare a manuscript, which is then published by the UNC Press as part of the Rand Series of art history publications.

A weeknight or daytime permit is now required after 5:00 pm on weekdays. No permit is required from 5:00 pm Friday through 7:30 am Monday. A $1.00 one-night pass is available in selected lots. More information can be found HERE.