Slavery & the invention of Dutch art

Abstract

"In Slavery and the Invention of Dutch Art, Caroline Fowler considers the archive of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, arguing that it lacks adequate visual history depicting the ways in which life transformed into commodity. To address this, Fowler turns to Dutch art of the seventeenth century, showing how the specter of the plantation economy in the Americas overflows into the visual sites of these works. For example, Fowler examines the paintings of Frans Post (1612-1680), analyzing Post's coastal studies of salt mining in the Cape Verde islands and his depiction of the Brazilian sugar plantations alongside the account books, inventories, and written materials that travelled beside his pictorial record."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents

Transubstantiation across Atlantic worlds -- Art markets and futures speculation -- Seascapes and landscapes -- Monuments and architectural painting -- Domestic interiors and natural history -- Historiography and race.