The Visible and the Imaginary – Museum History as an Object of Knowledge. Remarks on the First Volume of “Le Musée, une histoire mondiale” by Krzysztof Pomian
Emilia Olechnowicz
emilia.olechnowicz@ispan.plInstitute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4874-3471
Abstract
The article discusses the recently published Polish translation of the first volume of Le Musée, une histoire mondiale by Krzysztof Pomian, placing it in the context of Pomian’s previous research on human beings’ relationship with time and objects. The essay recalls Pomian’s insights into the influence of material culture on the imagination of societies and his reflections on history as a discipline of knowledge. In this context, Pomian’s main theses on the nature of collecting are discussed, that is, the understanding of a collection as a place where the symbolic meanings of objects are created and multiplied, constituting unique ways of conceptualising and visualising the invisible. The essay also discusses the points in the history of collecting that mark the transition from a private collection to a public, secular museum, namely the history of the Capitoline collection in Rome and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. It emphasises the shift inherent in the transition of collections from the hands of individuals to the ownership by legal entities and thus political bodies, thereby reorienting collections from the past to the present.
Keywords:
Krzysztof Pomian, Thomas Browne, museum, collecting, body politicsReferences
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Authors
Emilia Olechnowiczemilia.olechnowicz@ispan.pl
Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4874-3471
Emilia Olechnowicz is an assistant professor at the Institute of Arts of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw and a senior editor at Pamiętnik Teatralny. Her research interests include the cultural history of the body, gender and dress in the 16th and 17th centuries. She is currently preparing a book on early modern costume books. She recently published an essay “Fashioning Europe: Identity and Dress in Early Modern Costume Books” in Artl@s Bulletin.
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