Professor Claudia Swan's New Book: Rarities of These Lands

Dr. Claudia Swan, the inagural Mark S. Weil Professor of Art History in the Department Art History and Archaeology, has published a monograph titled Rarities of These Lands: Art, Trade and Diplomacy in the Dutch Republic.  Dr. Swan and the department celebrated with a book launch over zoom on March 10th, which included a conversation with Larry Silver, Professor Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania.

The seventeenth century witnessed a great flourishing of Dutch trade and culture. Over the course of the first half of the century, the northern Netherlands secured independence from the Spanish crown, and the nascent republic sought to establish its might in global trade, often by way of diplomatic relations with the Ottoman Empire and other Muslim powers. Central to the political and cultural identity of the Dutch Republic were curious foreign goods the Dutch called “rarities.” Rarities of These Lands explores how these rarities were obtained, exchanged, stolen, valued, and collected, tracing their global trajectories and considering their role within the politics of the new state. Claudia Swan’s insightful, engaging analysis offers a novel and compelling account of how the Dutch Republic turned foreign objects into expressions of its national self-conception. Rarities of These Lands illuminates the formative years of the Dutch Republic, offering a timely examination of the art, politics, and exoticism of this momentous period in the history of the Netherlands.

Professor Swan has also co-authored a book with Marisa Anne Bass, Anne Godgar, Hanneke Grootenboer.  Conchophilia: Shells, Art and Curiosity in Early Modern Europe will be out this summer with Princeton University Press.

Follow this link for a preview of Rarities of These Lands and to purchase your copy.