Thesis title: Demonic monstrosity and the embodiment of sin in the print culture of Antwerp, c.1566-1593
Supervisor: Professor Joanna Woodall Advisor: Professor Katie Scott
My thesis examines imagined monstrous bodies in the print culture of Antwerp in the late sixteenth century. During this period, Antwerp was a hub of international trade, a prolific producer of artisanal and artistic goods, a frontrunner in printed book and image production and a centre of intellectual endeavour. Simultaneously, it was being threatened by political, social and religious upheaval due to Protestant iconoclasm and revolt against the incumbent sovereign, Philip II of Habsburg. My research explores the distinctive relationship between this unsettled, globalising city and the unstable boundary between human and animal bodies in visual culture.
I analyse a broad corpus of printed material (print series, single sheet prints, and printed emblem books) to interrogate the embodiment of religious sin, whilst examining the creative role of artists based in Antwerp such as Maarten de Vos (1532-1603) and Pieter van der Borcht (c.1530s-1608) in producing these forms. Drawing on critical posthumanism, I consider hybrid monsters as embodying shunned elements of the self that are incorporated within the body and emerge in periods of personal or political turmoil. It is only recently that posthuman methodologies have been utilised in early modern historical studies, and rarely have they been applied to art history. My research addresses this deficiency in the discipline and advocates for sustained inquiry into definitions of the (non-)human in historical contexts.
Education
2021- : Doctorate of Philosophy in History of Art, The Courtauld Institute of Art
2020-2021: Master of Arts in History of Art, The Courtauld Institute of Art (Distinction)
2017-2020: Bachelor of Arts in History, Exeter College, University of Oxford (First Class)
Research Grants
2024: Research England Grant, awarded by The Courtauld Institute of Art
2022: The Nottebohm Fellowship, awarded by the Plantin-Moretus Museum and the Hendrik Conscience Library, Antwerp
2021-: The Courtauld Scholarship
Teaching
Spring 2023: Teaching Assistant, BA1 and Graduate Diploma module ‘Foundations 2’ (The Courtauld Institute of Art)
Spring 2023: Guest Speaker, BA3 Special Option ‘Trading Identities in the Early Modern Netherlands’ (The Courtauld Institute of Art)
Papers and Talks
‘It will strike the deceitful heart with trembling…: reading into the spiritual soul in Benito Arias Montano’s Humanae Salutis Monumenta (Antwerp, 1571),’ The Courtauld/KCL Word and Image Conference (The Courtauld Institute of Art, 7 June 2024)
‘Translation and Transformation: The French Paraphrase of Peter Heyns in the Divinarum Nuptiarum Conventa et Acta (Antwerp, 1574),’ The Transnational Early Modern Book Conference (University of Manchester, 28 May 2024)
‘Repressed Animality and the Demonic Familiar in Jerome Nadal’s Evangelicae Historiae Imagines (Antwerp, 1593),’ PhD Year 3 Symposium (The Courtauld Institute of Art, 17 May 2024)
‘(Re)constructing the Duke of Alva: monstrous oppression and printed polemic in the Low Countries, c.1570-78,’ Material Culture of War and Emergency in the Early Modern Period, Doctoral Workshop (UCL, 19 April 2023)
‘Monstrosity, Incorporation and Religion in the Print Culture of Antwerp, c.1566-c.1600,’ Vereniging van Antwerpse Bibliofielen (Webinar, 8 February 2023)
‘Monsters and the Marginal in The Courtauld Gallery,’ The Courtauld Institute Summer School (The Courtauld Gallery, 4 July 2022)
Research Interests
- Monstrosity, the posthuman, and the nonhuman
- Animal studies
- (Im-)Perfection and ideas of the human self
- Print production and dissemination