African Ivories in the Atlantic World: a reassessment of Luso-african ivories

12.11.2016

Project status

ongoing

Execution period

2016-2019

REF

PTDC/EPHPAT/1810/2014

Main research unit

Centre for History of the University of Lisbon

Additional research units

ARTIS - Institute for Art History of the University of Lisbon, HERCULES Lab – University of Évora, LACICOR – Conservation Sciences Laboratory, Federal University of Minas Gerais

Main institution

School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon

Participating institutions

University of Évora; Federal University of Minas Gerais

Principal investigator

Peter Mark (Wesleyan University)

Research team

Ana Martins Panisset (UFMG), Ana Teresa Caldeira (UÉvora), António Candeias (UÉvora), Carlos Almeida (ULisboa), Cristina Barrocas Dias (UÉvora), Eduardo França Paiva (UFMG), Hugo Crespo (ULisboa), Inês Meira Araújo (ULisboa), João Ferreira Dias (ULisboa), João Baptista Gime Luís (ULisboa), José Horta (ULisboa), Luís Afonso (ULisboa), Luiz Souza (UFMG), Maria Manuela Cantinho (ULisboa), Maria Manuel Torrão (ULisboa), Mariana Rabêlo de Farias (UFMG), Peter Mark (Wesleyan University, ULisboa), Renata Dório (UFMG), Vanicléia Silva Santos (UFMG), Vitor Serrão (ULisboa), Yacy-Ara Froner (UFMG)

Project consultants

Mariza de Carvalho Soares (UFF); Dominique Malaquais (UParis -Sorbonne); Frederick Lamp (Yale University), Cécile Fromont (University of Chicago)

Project fellows

Tiago Samuel Franco Rodrigues (ULisboa), Mafalda Sofia Nunes Cordeiro (ULisboa)

Ivory was always present in the relationship between Africans and Europeans in the Atlantic World, usually in close connection with the slave trade. In order to contextualize the Luso-African segment, its production, circulation and use, we conduct an inventory of these objects and of all the references to ivories in narrative, archival and visual sources, relying also on technical Art History and Laboratory Material Analysis. The main goals of this project are: to reconsider the perception of Luso-Africans ivories; to reassess their artistic hybridity; to identify works which have been overlooked. The project focuses on public and private collections and documents in Portugal and Brazil (Minas Gerais state). This team may, with confidence, be expected to revise and enlarge the corpus of African ivories and to analyse and interpret them within the cultural, economic and political context of the Atlantic World.

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