Professor Evelyn Welch
"Scented Gloves and Perfumed Buttons: Smelling Things in Renaissance Italy"
Free and open to the public
Monday, September 20, 2010
7:30 pm EDT (followed by a reception)
Annenberg Auditorium, Snite Museum of Art
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN
This talk examines the practices of perfuming accessories such as hats, gloves, buttons, belts, shoes and all forms of jewelry in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italy. To do so, it explores concepts of the body as permeable, above all to smell. Smell was conceptualized very differently in the Renaissance period than it is today.
Perfuming was thought of as protective but also as problematic. Strong scents "heated" the air around the body, shielding orifices from disease-inducing pathogenic vapors. At the same time, perfumes might dull the senses, invite lascivious or effeminate behavior or even poison the wearer. Nonetheless, the many forms of perfumed items proved very popular, particularly filigree buttons that wafted scent around the body. But their use also provoked anxieties as musk, civet and ambergris embedded goods circulated in every increasing numbers in early modern Europe.
Professor Evelyn Welch
Graduate seminar: "Learning from Things: Material Culture and the Italian Renaissance"
By reservation only
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
4:00-6:00 pm EDT (followed by a reception)
Place to be arranged
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN
Participation is limited and by reservation.
Students who are interested in participating in the graduate seminar should contact Professor Charles Rosenberg at Rosenberg.1@nd.edu by September 15. Numbers are limited.
