Wolfthal, Diane2024-08-302024-082024-08-05August 202Kim, Dasol. Muslim, Sub-Saharan African, and Native American Bodies as European Furnishings, 1500-1700. (2024). PhD diss., Rice University. https://hdl.handle.net/1911/117842https://hdl.handle.net/1911/117842EMBARGO NOTE: This item is embargoed until 2030-08-01My doctoral dissertation investigates the European production and reception of metalwork depicting the Other from the Christian European perspective. I study bronze statuettes, swords, and silver cups made in German-speaking regions and Italy between 1500 and 1700, with a focus on their use in the Holy Roman Empire. These small metal furnishings reflected and constructed the Christian European elites’ conception of depicted groups by being seen, touched, and smelled at courts, city halls, and burgher houses. Chapter one reveals the humanist lens of the Ottoman Empire behind the classical format and placement of bronze Turks in a German residence. Chapter two studies candlesticks and lamps depicting Muslims and Africans grafted onto vegetal and architectural motifs. The moving flame and smoke animated such grotesques that allude to the Otherness. Chapter three discusses how princes and patricians promoted their masculine identities and war propaganda by displaying and wearing swords in the shape of Muslims or Africans. Chapter four studies a rare wager cup incorporating the image of a bearded man wearing a kaftan, a Hungarian or Turkish soldier, into that of a fashionable Italian woman wearing a narrow bodice and a conical skirt. Because its image transgresses gender and ethnicity, the cup offers a nuanced case study of Renaissance Otherness. Chapter five studies wine vessels supported by sculptures of Native American or Afro-American men. Precious metals and edible ingredients like sugar and tropical fruit informed the iconography of these cups. Portable and in proximity, small utensils shaped Renaissance European understanding of the religious and ethnic Other in their everyday lives. My doctoral dissertation bridges the gap between European decorative arts studies and the study of the image of Otherness in European art by shedding light on understudied small metalwork. I adopt sensory studies, performance studies, gender studies, and the issue of class and labor, the methods rarely employed to understand the image of Muslims, Africans, and Native Americans in European decorative arts.application/pdfengCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.European decorative arts, 1500–1700MetalworkArt and GlobalizationOthernessSensory studiesHoly Roman EmpireItalyThesis2024-08-30