Living with Sculpture: Presence and Power in Europe, 1400-1750

Recent study of sculpture suggests the singular presence and power the medium holds for its makers, patrons, and audiences. In particular, the role of sculpture as a commemorative and connective tool has become evident in debates about monuments and cultural patrimony. Sculpture inhabits experiential spaces; it manipulates notions of history, forges bonds between distant places, and promotes future actions.

The Hood Museum of Art’s exhibition Living with Sculpture: Presence and Power in Europe, 1400-1750 contributes to the field’s understanding of sculpture in early modern daily life in Europe. This publication includes 5 thematic essays, 99 extended catalogue entries, and an illustrated checklist of 114 additional objects from the important collection of early modern sculpture at the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth.

Elizabeth Rice Mattison is Andrew W. Mellon Associate Curator of Academic Programming at the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth.

Ashley B. Offill is Associate Curator of Collection at the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth.