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DFG-Centre for Advanced Studies Imaginaria of Force

Photo: Creative Commons/YaYapas

Agnieszka Dziki, M.A.

 

Curriculum

Agnieszka Dziki writes her PhD dissertation on the reception of unfinished and imperfect objects in the Holy Roman Empire between 1500 and 1600 under the supervision of Professor Grażyna Jurkowlaniec (University of Warsaw) and Professor Aleksandra Lipińska (University of Cologne). The project is supported by the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) Research Grant, and by the National Science Centre, Poland (PRELUDIUM 18). After completing her bachelor’s degree in the Institute of History of Art at the University of Warsaw, she continued her learning at the College of Inter-Area Individual Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Warsaw; she studied at the University of Copenhagen and the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich (GFPS scholarship) as well. She completed her Master’s thesis “Kleinplastik – small-scale sculpture in Ulm and the Upper Rhein: forms and functions of objects in the years 1430 to 1530” in 2018. In the years 2019–2023 she was the investigator in the project funded by the National Science Centre, Poland, titled: “Matrix of Confusion. The Production of Woodcut Illustration in Poland-Lithuania and Prussia until the Early 17th Century” (OPUS 16, principal investigator: Prof. Grażyna Jurkowlaniec). In 2021, Agnieszka co-organized the 2021 conference “Modelled, Fired, Transformed: Materiality of Terracotta Sculpture 1400-1600”. She teaches on the materiality of images in late medieval art.

Publications (selection)

  • “I carve my figures fine and make them come to life. The Animation of Late Medieval Kleinplastik,” in: The Living Image in the Middle Ages – and beyond. Theoretical and Historical Approaches, ed. by Kamil Kopania and Henning Laugerud, New York and London: Routledge, 2023 (forthcoming).
  • “Introduction: Materiality, Scale, and Status of Early Modern Terracotta.”, in: The Materiality of Terracotta Sculpture in Early Modern Europe, ed. by Zuzanna Sarnecka and Agnieszka Dziki, New York and London: Routledge, 2023, pp. 1–11.
  • “Welsch kontra Deutsch: nowa rzeźba kolekcjonerska w Szwabii i nad Górnym Renem w latach 1470-1530.”, in: Novitas versus auctoritas w sztuce średniowiecznej. Studia dedykowane Profesorowi Piotrowi Skubiszewskiemu w dziewięćdziesiątą rocznicę urodzin, ed. by Jakub Adamski and Juliusz Raczkowski, Toruń–Warszawa, 2022, pp. 219–242.
  • “Three Crucifixes in the Amerbach Collection and the incomplete small-scale sculptures.” in: Quart. Kwartalnik Instytutu Historii Sztuki Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego 57, no. 3 (2020), pp. 47–59.

Research project: Half-raw/half-transformed: Collecting carvings and their natural surfaces in early modern Germany (1550-1650)

This project aims to analyze how partially modified substances (boxwood sculpture, rock crystal intaglio, two walrus carvings and a compass in gypsum) served as explanatory and investigation devices for the non-professionals in the space of a collection. Although artisanal-making processes were insufficiently articulated to the non-professionals through texts, studying the actual images (book illustrations, various preparatory drawings and partially raw objects) seems crucial for the effective transmission of knowledge on the forces. The preliminary research results indicate that early modern scholars began to be interested in natural and artistic processes for economic purposes and to obtain knowledge of artificial dexterity (e.g. mining). I would argue that the meditations on half-raw/half-transformed objects and their sensual qualities served as a related transmission model of knowledge. I will analyze a group of five carvings from various historical collections (Basel, Munich, Innsbruck, Vienna), which could serve both as the finest examples of the dexterity of the human hand and as a substance in the making-knowledge investigation of natural forces in the urban or princely collections. The main research aims are to study how they inspired scholars to gain knowledge about the techniques and technology, in which contexts half-raw/half-transformed carvings and devices (tools, machines, designs, matrixes) functioned in the collections and to assess to what extent they enabled understanding of workshop practices and the powers of the earth.

Research results: Half-raw/half-transformed: Collecting carvings and their natural surfaces in early modern Germany (1550-1650)

In the Kunstkammern of early modern Germany, the interplay between the known and the unknown offered intellectual, emotional, and tactile stimulation. Some of the collectables united craftsmanship and nature, and their significance constantly shifted between the categories of naturalia and artificialia.

Collectors encouraged sculptors to carve forms that conformed to the properties of the materials. The back of the walrus relief with a unicorn was carved to look like the raw and fluted horn of the narwhal [c. 1500, Historisches Museum Basel]. Those were considered to belong to unicorns, so the local craftsman tried convincing the customer that this fragment of walrus tooth is, in fact, the horn of the mythical animal. The collector Bonifacius Amerbach described this object in 1552 as "a unicorn in a unicorn", highlighting the connection between material and form.

Similar objects made from partially processed materials are found in the collections of Ferdinand II (Schloss Ambras) and Albert V (Munich), such as a compass (1587, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum) and a rock crystal intaglio (Valentin Drausch, 1586, Munich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum), demonstrating both natural and artistic processes. A remarkable sculpture is the Abundantia (Leonhard Kern, 1647, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum), a partially unworked walrus tusk displaying its raw substance alongside artfully carved details. Such objects were prized in the Kunstkammern as evidence of both artisan skills and the power of nature.

These half-transformed carvings demonstrate not only the virtuosity of the sculptors but also the beauty and appeal of natural surfaces. The contrasts between reworked and raw parts revealed the secrets of craftsmanship to connoisseurs. In the Kunstkammern, artistic and natural processes were thus united and experienced fascinatingly. The manual forces shaping the forms highlight the dynamic interplay between the sculptor’s ingenuity and natura naturans, the self-manifesting powers of nature. This synergy celebrated the raw vitality of natural materials while showcasing human skills in harnessing and transforming them.