Women and the Art and Science of Collecting in Eighteenth-Century Europe Through both longer essays and shorter case studies, this book examines the relationship of European women from various countries and backgrounds to collecting, in order to explore the social practices and material and visual cultures of collecting in eighteenth- century Europe. It recovers their lives and examines their interests, their methodologies, and their collections and objects—some of which have rarely been studied before. The book also considers women’s role as producers, that is, creators of objects that were collected. Detailed examination of the artefacts—both visually, and in relation to their historical contexts—exposes new ways of thinking about collecting in relation to the arts and sciences in eighteenth-century Europe. The book is interdisciplinary in its makeup and brings together scholars from a wide range of fields. It will be of interest to those working in art history, material and visual culture, history of collecting, history of science, literary studies, women’s studies, gender studies, and art conservation. Arlene Leis is an independent art historian who received her PhD from University of York. Kacie L. Wills received her PhD in English from the University of California, Riverside, and is Assistant Professor of English at Illinois College. Cover image: Bartolomeo Bimbi, Portrait of Citrus Fruit, 1727. Oil on canvas. Courtesy of Dell-Università degli Studi di Firenze. The Histories of Material Culture and Collecting, 1700–1950 Series Editor: Stacey J. Pierson University of London The Histories of Material Culture and Collecting, 1700–1950 provides a forum for the broad study of object acquisition and collecting practices in their global dimensions. The series seeks to illuminate the intersections between material culture studies, art history, and the history of collecting. It takes as its starting point the idea that objects both contributed to the formation of knowledge in the past and likewise contribute to our understanding of the past today. The human relationship to objects has proven a rich field of scholarly inquiry, with much recent scholarship either anthropological or sociological rather than art historical in perspective. Underpinning this series is the idea that the physical nature of objects contributes substantially to their social meanings, and therefore that the visual, tactile, and sensual dimensions of objects are critical to their interpretation. This series therefore seeks to bridge anthropology and art history, sociology and aesthetics. Collecting and Displaying China’s “Summer Palace” in the West The Yuanmingyuan in Britain and France Louise Tythacott Female Portraiture and Patronage in Marie Antoinette’s Court The Princesse de Lamballe Sarah Grant The Emergence of the Antique and Curiosity Dealer in Britain 1815–1850 The Commodification of Historical Objects Mark Westgarth Nordic Private Collections of Chinese Objects Minna Törmä Fashionability, Exhibition Culture and Gender Politics Fair Women Meaghan Clarke Women and the Art and Science of Collecting in Eighteenth-Century Europe Edited by Arlene Leis and Kacie L. Wills For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com/The-Histories- of-Material-Culture-and-Collecting-1700-1950/book-series/ASHSER2128 Women and the Art and Science of Collecting in Eighteenth-Century Europe Edited by Arlene Leis and Kacie L. Wills First published 2021 by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2021 Taylor & Francis The right of Arlene Leis and Kacie L. Wills to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-0-367-85666-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-85667-0 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by Apex CoVantage, LLC We dedicate this book to our families Contents List of Illustrations ix List of Tables xi List of Plates xii List of Contributors xiii Acknowledgements xviii Introduction: Women and the Cultures of Collecting 1 ARLENE LEIS AND KACIE L. WILLS PART I Artificialia and Naturalia 19 1 Science, Gender and Collecting: The Dutch Eighteenth-Century Ladies’ Society for Physical Sciences of Middelburg 21 ANNE HARBERS AND ANDREA GÁLDY 2 Between Art and Science: Portraits of Citrus Fruit for Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici 39 IRINA SCHMIEDEL 3 Anne Vallayer-Coster’s Still Life With Sea Shells and Coral 43 KELSEY BROSNAN PART II Travel, Borders, and Networks 59 4 Maria Sibylla Merian: A Woman’s Pioneering Work in Entomology 61 KATHARINA SCHMIDT-LOSKE 5 Sarah Sophia Banks’s Coin Collection: Female Networks of Exchange 78 ERICA Y. HAYES AND KACIE L. WILLS viii Contents 6 Conversing With Collecting the World: Elite Female Sociability and Learning Through Objects in the Age of Enlightenment 93 LIZZIE ROGERS 7 Portrait of Charlotte de France: From Naples to Sicily, a Collection in Transit 108 MARIA ANTONIETTA SPADARO 8 The Collecting Activity of Catherine II in Eighteenth-Century Russia: Pioneering Action or Sheer Demonstration of Power? 111 CHARIS CH. AVLONITOU PART III Displaying, Recording, and Cataloguing 127 9 ‘I Made Memorandums’: Mary Hamilton, Sociability, and Antiquarianism in the Eighteenth-Century Collection 129 MADELEINE PELLING 10 Eleanor Coade, John Soane, and the Coade Caryatid 145 NICOLE COCHRANE 11 Anne Wagner’s Album (1795–1805): Collecting Feminine Friendship 148 RYNA ORDYNAT 12 An Art Cabinet in Miniature: The Dollhouse of Petronella Oortman 151 HANNEKE GROOTENBOER PART IV Beyond the Eighteenth Century 155 13 Collection, Display, and Conservation: The Print Room at Castletown House 157 ANNA FRANCES O’REGAN 14 Olivia Lanza di Mazzarino (1893–1970): A Lady’s Collection of Eighteenth-Century Folding Fans 172 ARLENE LEIS Index 187 Illustrations 1.1 Title page of Natuurkundig Genootschap der Dames, 6 August 1785. Zeeland Archives, archief Natuurkundig Gezelschap Middelburg, nr. 66. 23 1.2 E. Uswald. Jacoba van den Brande, 1794. Oil on canvas, 63 × 41cm. 24 1.3 Hans Kraemer, Jean-Antoine Nollet Demonstration, Circa 1740, German engraving of the French clergyman and physicist Abbé Nollet demonstrating his electric machine in a salon in France, from Weltall & Menschheit (universe and humanity), c. 1880, 31.8 × 20.1cm. 28 1.4 Title page of the Auction Catalogue of Collection of Jacoba van den Brande & J. A. van de Perre, 1798. 32 2.1 Bartolomeo Bimbi, Portrait of Citrus Fruit, 1727. Oil on canvas. 40 3.1 Claude-Augustin Duflos (1700–1786) after François Boucher (1703–1770), frontispiece for Edmé-François Gersaint (1694–1750), Catalogue raisonné des coquilles et autres curiositiés naturelles, 1736. 46 3.2 François Boucher (1703–1770), frontispiece for Antoine-Joseph d’Argenville (1680–1765), La Conchyliologie, second edition, 1757, American Museum of Natural History Research Library. 48 4.1 Maria Sibylla Merian. Album sheet with a Batavian rose. Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek, Inv. Nr. 1 R 90. 63 4.2 Title page of Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandelung und sonderbare Blumennahrung, 1679. Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek, HV.Rar.103–1_TB. 66 4.3–4.3a Anonymous hand-written document in German (recto), attached to a French letter from Johann Le Fort, dated 14.10.1724 from St. Petersburg. Sächsisches Staatsarchiv, Hauptstaatsarchiv Dresden, 10026 Geheimes Kabinett, Loc. 3315/3, Bl. 278r., Bl. 278v. 70 5.1 James Gillray, An Old Maid on a Journey, 1804. Hand-colored etching, 255 × 383mm. Private Collection. This print is commonly thought to depict Sarah Sophia Banks in one of her riding habits. 79 5.2 Edridge, Maria Josepha Holroyd, 1795. Walker & Boutall, Ph.Sc. 80 6.1 Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki, Four Ladies Sitting Around a Table Occupied with Needlework, Reading, and Writing, 1758. Drawing. 95 6.2 Giovanni Volpato, Villa Borghese, ca. 1780. Etching. 100 6.3 Giovanni Battista Piranesi, View of the Palace of the Illustrious Barberini Family on the Quirinal Hill, Designed by Cavaliere Bernini, from Vedute di Roma (Roman Views), ca. 1750–1759. Etching. 101