The history of Renaissance art is often told as a story of triumph, of technical problems solved, perhaps laboriously, but successfully. But could Renaissance artists ever afford to fail? The proposed project will analyse ceramic workshops that operated in different parts of Central Europe during the sixteenth century to integrate failed experiments and non-linear processes of artmaking into the history of European art. The making of tin-glazed earthenware was a lengthy and complex process, and sixteenth-century ceramicists remained uncertain about the outcome of their efforts, as they had to rely on many variables, including the quality of clay bodies, pigments and glazes, and on the skill of professional kiln masters responsible for firing their ware. The AFIRE project will highlight the interconnectedness of Central Europe where from the 16th century patrons and artists strove to establish local production of tin-glazed earthenware at the highest level. The project seeks to create an overview of the types of technical failure across artistic workshops in areas considered peripheral by mainstream art history, areas as distant from each other as Lesser Poland, Moravia and Istria. Those areas were characterised by different geological conditions, political systems, economic potential, and religious practices. The PhD Candidate will work on an interrelated subproject of this research program, provisionally titled: The Workshop as a Site of Experiments and Failures. Their regional focus will be Istria. The PhD candidate will be encouraged to join paleography and archival studies courses. They will participate in the scientific measurements conducted in Pula, Croatia to gain insight into non-invasive methods of analysis of ceramics, namely X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy.
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