54. Interiors’ Matter: Novel Materials and Decorative Innovations on Furniture in Early Modern Domestic Interiors.

Recent scholarship has highlighted the importance of materials, artisanal knowledge, and technical innovation in shaping the visual and material culture of early modern domestic interiors (Goodmen & Norberg (eds), 2010; Campbell et.al. (eds), 2013; Anderson & Carroll (eds), 2022)). Yet little attention has been paid to how material experimentation in the applied and decorative arts has transformed domestic interiors, even though new (exotic) materials and novel decorative techniques on furniture shaped and communicated social status, taste, and cultural identity. (Vickery, 2009).

Understanding this contemporary reciprocal interaction requires integrated methodologies that combine written, archival, and material sources that draw upon art history, history, conservation science, and material culture studies.

This session examines materials as active agents and explores how novel materials and decorative innovations contributed to the embodied experience of domestic space in the early modern period. More specifically, it aims to investigate the innovations in materials and making practices that shaped the appearance, perception, and use of these interiors.

The session welcomes both methodological and research papers exploring the relationship between craft knowledge, material experimentation, furniture production (mobile furniture, musical instruments, and non-mobile wallcoverings/paneling…), decorative schemes, and the lived experience of domestic spaces.

By bringing together art historians, historians of design and interiors, conservators, curators, and scholars of material culture, this session seeks to advance new perspectives on the role of material innovation in the making and experience of early domestic modern interiors.

Themes: Material experimentation, Early modern interiors, Embodied experience

Additional format comment: Papers of 15 minutes followed by a panel discussion.

Lead Convenor: Julie De Groot, University of Antwerp, Belgium

Co-convenors: Vincent Cattersel, University of Antwerp/ Royal Museums of Art and History, Belgium

To submit a Paper to this Session, please follow the guidance on our website and complete the AAH 2027 Call for Papers Proposal Submission Form.