Ingenious craftsmanship: a performative and art historical study of gold and silversmithing in sixteenth-century Antwerp

In the sixteenth century, Antwerp reached an artistic and commercial
peak. The city became Europe’s epicenter of gold and silversmithing,
thanks to the direct supply of raw materials through its harbor and the
presence of wealthy merchants and skilled craftsmen. While
Antwerp’s Golden Age is well studied, little research has been done
on the art of gold and silversmithing or on the networks in which
these luxury objects and their makers circulated, nor are their making
processes and cross-craft exchanges fully understood. Combining
my skills as art historian, archaeologist and goldsmith, this research
project aims to reveal the artisanal and technical gestures of the
early modern gold and silversmith by employing an innovative
research methodology known as Reconstruction, Replication and Reenactment (RRR). Focusing on ornamental cups, I will analyze and
remake key parts of selected artefacts to distinguish exceptional
manifestations of ingenuity from standard levels of craftsmanship.
This will not only enrich our understanding of the materiality of the
objects, but also of their social value and cultural significance.
Connecting social and art historical studies of sixteenth-century
Antwerp gold and silversmithing and infusing them with new insights
about ingenuity and value, this project aims to write a cultural history
of Antwerp ornamental cups from a maker’s perspective, while also
offering a methodological test-case for future applications of RRR in
related fields.