Paula Sofia Hohti (Visiting Fellow, November–December 2016) is assistant professor of the history of art and culture at Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture in Helsinki, Finland. She received her PhD in art history from the University of Sussex in England. Her research focuses on Italian Renaissance dress, material culture, and decorative arts, with a special focus on their role and function within the classes of artisans and shopkeepers. Her forthcoming monograph, with the working title Beyond the Palace: The Material World of Sixteenth-Century Artisans and Shopkeepers, submitted for Yale University Press, explores how lower artisanal groups such as bakers, barbers, and shoemakers understood and experienced Renaissance culture. Hohti has held research positions at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, the European University Institute in Florence, and the University of Copenhagen, and she has been a principal investigator in two major UK-based international research projects—the “Material Renaissance: Costs and Consumption in Italy 1350–1600” and “Fashioning the Early Modern: Creativity and Innovation in Europe, 1500–1850,” led by Professor Evelyn Welch. Her publications include the forthcoming “Cheap Magnificence?: Imitations and Low-Cost Luxuries in Renaissance Italy,” in Luxury and the Ethics of Greed in Early Modern Italy (ed. Katherine Kovesi; Brepols, forthcoming); “Dress, Dissemination and Innovation: Artisan Fashions in Sixteenth– and Early Seventeenth–Century Italy,” in Fashioning the Early Modern: Dress, Textiles, and Innovation in Europe, 1500–1800 (ed. E. Welch; Oxford, 2016); and “Conspicuous Consumption and Popular Consumers: Material Culture and Social Status in Sixteenth-Century Siena,” in Renaissance Studies (Vol. 24.4, 2010). During her fellowship here, Paula learned that she is the recipient of a €2 million grant from the European Research Council.
What was the emphasis and result of your research here?
My goal was to work on my forthcoming monograph. Bard Graduate Center not only provided a great space to concentrate on the work, but being surrounded by inspiring colleagues, excellent library collections, and a number of important museum collections nearby really helped me rethink the research material and the meaning of my work. As a result, I was not only able to rewrite significant parts of my book, but I also developed a crystal clear idea of the overall message that I want to get across in it. The many conversations that I had with colleagues over lunches and meetings, especially with Professors Deborah Krohn and Andrew Morrall, were extremely helpful and inspiring. I also enjoyed very much the numerous daily discussions that I had with Christina Anderson and the other visiting fellows that I shared my office with. We worked hard but also laughed a lot!
You specialize in “Italian Renaissance dress, material culture, and decorative arts, with a special focus on their role and function within the classes of artisans and shopkeepers.” Tell us a bit about your background, and how you became interested in this.
I became interested in Renaissance art and culture as a young girl, when I travelled in Europe with my grandmother, who was an art historian. We visited numerous important museums and cultural sites over the years. The world of the Renaissance, however, opened up in a new and fascinating way when I started my art history studies at the University of Sussex, where I became interested in the Italian Renaissance society and people, and the complex social and cultural values and motivations that lie behind the actual works of art. It was clear to me later on that I would specialize in the Italian Renaissance, but I was no longer fascinated just in traditional ‘high’ arts; instead, in my doctoral studies I extended my research into luxury objects, decorative arts, clothing and the everyday life of Renaissance Italians. The central problem that led me to my current research on the material culture of ‘ordinary’ Italians was the question of, why do we only know the Renaissance through the wealthy elites? Since asking this question, I have been studying how the lower classes understood and experienced Renaissance culture at several research institutes in Italy, the United Kingdom, Finland, and Denmark. I also participated in two major international, UK-based research projects, The Material Renaissance and Fashioning the Early Modern: Creativity and Innovation in Europe, 1500-1800.What attracted you to the Bard Graduate Center fellowship?
I first learned about Bard Graduate Center and the object-focused research there through Professor Pat Kirkham, who had been a visiting professor at one of the material culture summer schools in Finland that I participated in as a PhD student. I enjoyed Pat’s teaching enormously, and we had kept in touch occasionally over the years. In 2016, I was looking for an inspiring place to write my monograph. As I am fascinated with historical material ‘things,’ Bard Graduate Center’s fellowship seemed to offer a perfect opportunity to develop my work and connect with other researchers interested in the history of material culture. I enjoyed the high quality research and the friendly and collegial atmosphere enormously. The numerous academic lunch and evening talks, as well as gallery exhibitions and events at Bard were extremely stimulating and added greatly to the enjoyable academic and social experience.What was the emphasis and result of your research here?
My goal was to work on my forthcoming monograph. Bard Graduate Center not only provided a great space to concentrate on the work, but being surrounded by inspiring colleagues, excellent library collections, and a number of important museum collections nearby really helped me rethink the research material and the meaning of my work. As a result, I was not only able to rewrite significant parts of my book, but I also developed a crystal clear idea of the overall message that I want to get across in it. The many conversations that I had with colleagues over lunches and meetings, especially with Professors Deborah Krohn and Andrew Morrall, were extremely helpful and inspiring. I also enjoyed very much the numerous daily discussions that I had with Christina Anderson and the other visiting fellows that I shared my office with. We worked hard but also laughed a lot!
