Corrosive Thinking: Metals, Making, and Atmosphere in Early Modern Europe

Elizabeth R. Mattison (Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College)

Albrecht Dürer, Landscape with a Cannon (with the rust marks), 1518, etching printed in black ink from iron plate on laid paper, 22 x 32.5 cm. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Art Museums, Inv. G1113 (Photo Harvard University Art Museums). — Albrecht Dürer, *Landscape with a Cannon* (with the rust marks), 1518, etching printed in black ink from iron plate on laid paper, 22 x 32.5 cm. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Art Museums, Inv. G1113 (Photo Harvard University Art Museums).

Albrecht Dürer, *Landscape with a Cannon* (with the rust marks), 1518, etching printed in black ink from iron plate on laid paper, 22 x 32.5 cm. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Art Museums, Inv. G1113 (Photo Harvard University Art Museums).

My project examines the conception of corrosion in sixteenth-century Europe. Focusing on the southern German-speaking lands and Italian Peninsula, my research explores how corrosion was essential to artistic practice and reception. As a material, a method of production, and a measurement of value, metallic breakdown allowed makers and viewers to conceptualize the relationship between works of art and the environment and how this relationship changes over time. This research will result in a scholarly monograph and an exhibition at the Hood Museum of Art. I investigate a diverse array of objects – including bronzes, etching plates, drawings, and chiaroscuro woodcuts – alongside recipe books and art treatises to understand how artists and audiences conceived of the ongoing shifts to artworks as a result of atmospheric interaction. During my fellowship, I focused on recipes for etching, pigments, and dyes. While artists attempted to harness corrosive forces and corroded materials, such processes were often unstable. In this way, corrosion became an essential generative part of artistic experimentation. This research contributes a new lens to the histories of conservation and environmental engagement in early modern Europe.