Mondays at Beinecke: Crafting Worldviews

A presentation about “Crafting Worldviews: Art and Science in Europe, 1500–1800,” an exhibition on view now at the Yale University Art Gallery, organized by Jessie Park, the Nina and Lee Griggs Assistant Curator of European Art, Yale University Art Gallery, and Paola Bertucci, Associate Professor, History of Science and Medicine Program, Yale University, and Curator of the History of Science and Technology Division, Yale Peabody Museum.

The exhibition examines the inseparable relationship among art, science, and European colonialism from the 16th through the 18th century—an era of voyage, trade, and Europe’s territorial dominance on a global scale. The objects featured in this multidisciplinary exhibition cross the modern-day boundaries of art and science and range from the everyday, such as books, maps, globes, drafting tools, microscopes, playing cards, and sundials, to the more unusual, such as a hand-cranked model of the solar system, an automaton clock, and anatomical figures carved in ivory. Drawn from across the University’s campus – including materials from the Beinecke Library, the Medical Historical Library, and the Lewis Walpole Library – and crafted from both locally and globally obtained materials, including brass, ivory, mahogany, and ebony, the works featured are remarkable not just for their exquisite design but also their intricate construction. Together, they illuminate the critical role that art and science have played in shaping Europeans’ understanding of the world and their place within it.

The exhibition is on view through June 25, 2023.

Mondays at Beinecke online talks focus on materials from the collections and include an opening presentation at 4pm followed by conversation and question and answer beginning about 4:30pm until 5pm.