People collect to connect with the past; personal and historic; to exercise some small and perfect degree of control over a carefully chosen portion of the world. The Grain of the Clay is Allen S. Weisss engaging exploration of the meaning and practice of collecting through his relationship with Japanese ceramics. Weiss unfolds their world of materiality and pleasure and the culture and knowledge that extends out of their forms and uses.Japanese ceramics are celebrated for their profound material poetry; especially in relation to the natural world; and they maintain a unique place in the history of the arts and in the lives of those who collect and use them. The Grain of the Clay deepens our appreciation of ceramics while providing a critical meditation on collecting. Weiss examines the vast stylistic range of ceramics; investigating the reasons for viewing; using and collecting them. He explores ceramic objects relationship with cuisine as an art and as a part of everyday life. Ceramics are increasingly finding their rightful place in museums and Weiss shows how this newfound engagement with finely wrought natural materials might foster an increased ecological sensitivity. The Grain of the Clay will appeal to the collector in every one of us.
#2279403 in eBooks 2016-08-24 2016-08-24File Name: B01MY1FX47
Review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. An insightful and intriguing glimpse into how the Medici gathered. processed. and displayed knowledge of the New WorldBy Gene Rhea Tucker4.5 of 5 starsIn Imagining the Americas in Medici Florence. Lia Markey. currently the Director of the Center for Renaissance Studies at the Newberry Library. offers a thought-provoking study on how the objects and imagery of the New World influenced the arts and politics in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Medici Florence. Without direct access to the trade of the Americas and lacking the capability to conquer the peoples there. the Medici rulers of Florence flaunted their wealth and power by associating themselves with the richness of the flora. fauna. and peoples of the New World. They did this by raising plants and animals from the Americas. collecting Native American artifacts. and commissioning art depicting the newly discovered continents. Markey calls this a ldquo;vicarious conquestrdquo; in which the Medici ldquo;sought to create a sense of symbolic possession or ownershiprdquo; over the Americas (p. 159). a way for them to demonstrate to the rest of the world their importance short of actual. physical conquest.Imagining the Americas in Medici Florence offers an insightful and intriguing glimpse into how the Medici gathered. processed. and displayed knowledge of the New World to flaunt their wealth and impress people with their power. In her conclusion. Markey compares the ldquo;phenomenon of vicarious conquestrdquo; to the ldquo;German Orientalismrdquo; of the nineteenth century. Germans. who did not build a colonial empire until late in the century. competed with the imperial powers Britain and France with their scholarship on the Middle East and East. Similarly. Markey maintains that Medici Florencersquo;s ldquo;cultural engagement with foreign places was a critical way to lay claim and to demonstrate dominancerdquo; (p. 161) even though they did not have a colonial empire like Spain and Portugal. Imagining the Americas in Medici Florence is a large-sized book. copiously illustrated. lucidly written. and engaging throughout. Well-researched. Markey supports her contentions with expansive notes and an extensive bibliography. Though lacking in maps and direct details of exploration and discovery. it is an interesting book detailing how information from such expeditions can be processed and used by scholars and rulers for their own benefit. Historians of discovery and art would benefit from reading this fascinating work.
