Brill’s Studies in Art & Materiality is a peer-reviewed book series dedicated to innovative scholarship about the relation between art, materials, and making.
Artists possess knowledge about materials, their affordances and interactions, and skillfully transform materials into art objects. The resulting specific materiality of a work of art is not only an index of its making, but is also fundamentally connected to meaning, aesthetic perception, mimetic potential, economic value, cultural and social impact, as well as its endurance and preservation. Understanding these connections enhances the field of art history and opens new avenues of investigation, ranging from the focused situated study of individual materials and art objects to comparative inquiries that cross traditional boundaries between genre, time, and space. The development of salient theoretical and methodological frameworks to study the materiality of art connects art history and its sub-disciplines (technical art history, museum studies) to anthropology, history of science, archaeology, material culture studies, as well as the cognitive sciences.
The series accommodates scholarly monographs, collections of essays, conference proceedings, and reference works that engage with the rich meanings of art works’ materiality.
The series is not restricted to a particular chronological period or geographical region, thereby allowing for a broad range of topics. In addition, the series has an interdisciplinary component, while keeping a distinct profile. As such, the series promises rich, innovative content for a wide academic readership.
Editorial Board:
Editor-in-Chief: Ann-Sophie Lehmann, University of Groningen
Christian Berger, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Marjolijn Bol, Utrecht University
Beate Fricke, Universität Bern
Wolf-Dietrich Löhr, Freie Universität Berlin and Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz
Sugata Ray, University of California, Berkeley
Advisory Board:
Sven Dupré, Utrecht University and University of Amsterdam
Christine Göttler, Universität Bern
Tim Ingold, University of Aberdeen
Robert van Langh, Rijksmuseum/Netherlands Institute for Conservation, Art, and Science, Amsterdam
Monika Wagner, Universität Hamburg