An historian of the material and visual culture of early modern Europe, Christina Anderson currently holds the Drapers' Company Junior Research Fellowship at Hertford College, the University of Oxford.
Christina specialises in the history of the decorative and fine arts, collecting, trade, travel and early modern globalisation. At present, she is researching the Flemish merchant diaspora between 1450 and 1650. Her project will take her around the world, from Brazil to Goa, West Africa to Russia, and Venice and Lisbon (via the Low Countries) to North America. She aims to bring attention to this important group of merchants whose significance to early modern globalisation, and art collecting, has largely been overlooked.
She has already completed a project on Daniel Nijs, the Flemish merchant in Venice who sold the Gonzaga art collection to Charles I of England beginning in 1627. This was the greatest art transaction of the seventeenth century, and Nijs was its pivotal figure, not only conceiving of the sale, but also financing it completely on his own.
Christina also holds an Honorary Research Fellowship at the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, where she is organising the conference Early Modern Merchants as Collectors, to be held 15 & 16 June 2012.
Before coming to Oxford, Christina founded her own art and antiques research consultancy in London, developing a unique approach to the use of material culture within the discipline of history. For museums, collectors and dealers Christina has researched a wide range of works of art from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries. She has also published on the decorative arts, architect-designers and collectors.
Please click on the links below for more information about Christina and her work at Oxford.
