Collecting Renaissance decorative arts and the making of the modern museum, 1850-1900.

The project aims to provide, for the first time, a detailed study of the collecting networks of medieval and Renaissance decorative arts in the UK during the second half of the nineteenth century and how this contributed to the formation of museum collections starting with the British Museum, but also extending to the V&A, Ashmolean Museum and beyond, focusing on the influence of exhibitions, dealers, collectors and key objects.

Research questions would comprise: What social and economic factors generated the renewed interest in medieval and Renaissance objects during the second half of the nineteenth century, and how did the fashion for this type of collecting spread? How did key curators and collectors inform scholarship and understanding of this material through display and exhibition during this period, and how did their networks with dealers and other collectors allow them to acquire what they did? What was the impact of this type of collecting on the art market and the making of the modern museum? For example, how and why did certain objects become part of the British Museum's collections, rather than those of the V&A or another institution? How did it influence collecting policies at these institutions? Why and how did museums depend on collectors' bequests to secure this material, and why was this a new phenomenon? How did demand stimulate faking and forgery of medieval and Renaissance objects towards the end of the nineteenth century, and what was the impact of this on museums?

Research materials would include: Surviving correspondence between collectors and curators, photographic and other archival material held by the British Museum, V & A and Ashmolean Museum and beyond; exploration of provenance and acquisition of objects through object files and records in the British Museum and beyond; the study of exhibition and auction catalogues (some annotated) in various institutions; relevant theoretical texts. There is ample scope for the candidate to mould the direction of the research depending on the discoveries arising from these sources.

In year 1 there will be an externally-assessed submission to Cambridge in the spring, comprising: i) a 'progress essay' (motivating the topic, surveying the literature, proposing a timeline for research), and ii) a completed piece
of research of the candidate's choosing, as a 'sample' which could also serve as a seminar paper or journal article (each under 10,000 words). Year 2 will cover the bulk of the research of the proposed sources and topics, year 3 will be devoted to completing and writing up the research.