Visual and material evidence Willem van Haecht, Collection of Cornelius van der Geest, 1628

Visual culture and material culture Visual culture—images; the way humans and human societies have expressed themselves (intentionally or unintentionally) through images (e.g. paintings, photographs, sculpture, architecture) Material culture—artefacts; objects made and used by humans; the way humans and human societies have expressed themselves (intentionally or unintentionally) through the objects they make and use

What do we mean by culture and cultural history? ‘Culture is one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language.’—Raymond Williams, Keywords (1983 edn), p. 87 Culture as referring to someone knowledgeable about the arts, particularly the high arts; culture as referring to the way a people live (‘local culture’, ‘British culture’); culture as referring to specific forms of shared values and ideas (e.g. ‘pop culture’, ‘gun culture’, ‘teen culture’, ‘drug culture’) Derives from the Latin verb colo, -ere, colui, cultum, meaning variously ‘to inhabit, to protect, to cultivate, to honour with worship’ English derivatives include ‘culture’, ‘cultivate’ and ‘cult’ Culture as ‘a system of shared meanings, attitudes and values, and the symbolic forms (performances, artefacts) in which they are expressed or embodied’—Peter Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (1987), p. 270

Gun culture—some expressions of the values, meaning and attitudes associated with gun ownership; and one counter-expression

Scene from the Bayeux tapestry, 1070s

Wonders on the Deep; 1683 woodcut of the frost fair held on the Thames in that year

Images of Dutch life in the late 17th century Jan Steen, The Feast of St Nicholas Jan Steen, The Bean Feast Images of Dutch life in the late 17th century

Soviet workers; a propaganda poster and a 1942 photo of a woman working overtime in a factory to aid the war effort

1950s American family: reality or ideal?

Robert Capa, Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of Death, Cerro Muriano, September 5, 1936 (‘The Falling Soldier’)

2008 image released by the Iranian government showing the firing of four rockets

The image before Photoshop

photoshopdisasters.com

Two states of the same print, The Embleme of England’s Distraction, the first featuring Oliver Cromwell, the second William III

Mezzotint portrait of Nell Gwyn, late 17th century

A mistress of Charles II, possibly Nell Gwyn, more likely Barbara Villiers; painted by Peter Lely

Barbara Villiers, mezzotint print by Isaac Beckett after Peter Lely, 1683-7

Portrait of Lady ‘Orinda’ Phillips, mezzotint, 1683-7

Iconography The study of visual content and meaning, particularly through an understanding of the symbols used in an image, but also including such things as gestures within an image

Anthony van Dyck, Charles I and Henrietta Maria, 1632

George Gower, Portrait of Elizabeth I (‘The Plimpton Sieve Portrait’), 1579

Giovanni Battista Moroni, The Vestal Virgin Tuccia, c.1555 Andrea Mantegna, Tuccia, 1490 Bartolomeo Neroni, Tuccia, mid 16th century

Quentin Metsys, Portrait of Elizabeth I (‘The Sieve Portrait’), c.1583

Attributed to Isaac Oliver, Portrait of Elizabeth I (‘The Rainbow Portrait’), 1600-2

Joseph Anton Koch, Noah’s Thanksoffering, c.1803

The Clopton portrait, c.1560 Portrait of Elizabeth I, c.1565

The Ermine portrait, 1585, by Nicholas Hilliard The Pelican portrait, c.1575, attributed to Nicholas Hilliard The Ditchley portrait, c.1592, by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger

The Double Deliverance, an engraving from 1621

The Papists’ Powder-Treason, 1689; copy of the 1621 print by Samuel Ward

The Double Deliverance, an engraving from 1621

Abraham Bosse, ‘A Printer’s Workshop’, engraving, 1642

The Double Deliverance, an engraving from 1621

Title-page to the second part of Thomas Scott, Vox populi, or Gondomar appearing in the likenes of Matchiavell in a Spanish parliament, wherein are discovered his treacherous & subtile practises to the ruine as well of England, as the Netherlandes (Goricum [i.e. London], 1624)

Chinese Han lacquer cup, c.4 C.E. Chinese characters at the base of the cup, listing the six craftsmen involved in the manufacture of the cup and the seven product inspectors who checked its quality

Concluding thoughts Visual and material culture provide us not so much with social evidence, but more with evidence of the way the world is seen through the makers of the images and objects Images and objects need to be put into context (just as we need to place texts in context); in particular, our understanding of them is improved if we see them in the context of other images or objects Images and objects can be read and interpreted; and we can ‘read between the lines’ and look for the unintentional evidence they provide