Illuminating Objects

Students working outside the History of Art explore the ornate and unusual, each focusing on one object at The Courtauld that sparks their curiosity. Check out their discoveries below on our digital platform.

Metallic sculpture by Cesar — © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London / DACS

Habitation will be displayed at The Science Museum in London in 2020, as part of the McQueens Illuminating Objects partnership while The Courtauld Gallery is temporarily closed for a major refurbishment programme. The connection to The Science Museum provides an opportunity to focus on the scientific ideas and techniques embodied in the sculpture. These were of abiding interest throughout César’s career.

Illuminating Objects is delivered in partnership with students from disciplines outside the History of Art. Their disciplinary backgrounds have included anthropology, theology and the sciences. Partner higher education institutions are SOAS, King’s College London, the University of Kent in Canterbury, Imperial College and University College London. Illuminating Objects has been running since 2012.

One of the challenges for the Illuminating Objects Interns is to communicate their research in the Gallery and through the possibilities offered by the website and other digital channels.

The Front of the sulpture titled Habitation by Cesar

Getting in a Scrap with the Avant-Garde

Know your atoms from your alloys? Leap into the history and production methods of César’s fabulous Habitation, of 1960

Global Union

Exotic beasts and precious materials from international trade networks define an exquisite marriage casket from seventeenth-century Germany

Venetian Glow

The Front of the sulpture titled Habitation by Cesar

How an eighteenth-century glass dish emulates bioluminescent sea creatures through expert craft techniques

Puzzling Construction

Part drinks vessel and part game, a jug that would have invited playful usage across seventeenth-century taverns and dining rooms alike

decorated frame with precious stones on the side and a painted biblical scene in the middle

Sumptuous Devotion

Pinpointing which semi-precious stones are inlaid into the frame of this portable altarpiece proves harder than you might imagine

Faith Suspended

This miniature pendant from the early seventeenth century raises questions about who it was for and what holy object it held close to the wearer’s heart

Man-made Magic in Murano

Learn the secrets of eighteenth-century Venetian glass-makers through this bowl, and see how they competed with Mother Nature herself

silver coffee pot

Coffee Culture

The game-changing drink became known in England from the seventeenth century via travellers to the Ottoman Empire and Safavid Isfahan. What can an eighteenth-century coffee pot recall about the ensuing social and intellectual pursuits that boomed in coffeehouses throughout the country?