About

Marisa Bass is a scholar of early modern art whose research explores the intersections between creative and intellectual culture in northern Europe. Her interests include the representation of nature, the cult of images, portraiture, Renaissance notions of imagination and invention, print culture, the painting of everyday life, emblematics, antiquarianism, monuments, and miniatures. She joined the Yale faculty in 2016 and is currently serving as the Chair of Yale’s Program in Early Modern Studies. Bass is also a member of the executive committee of Yale's Humanities Program, an affiliate of Yale’s program in the History of Science and Medicine, and a former Director of Undergraduate Studies in the History of Art Department. Her work has been supported by memberships at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study, and the inaugural Guggenheim Fellowship in Early Modern Studies. She is working on a definitive monograph on Desiderius Erasmus and the visual arts over the long sixteenth century, focusing on how artists thought with Erasmus. Additionally, she is developing a second book titled Flights: A History of Birds in Art, and has published a recent book, The Monument’s End: Public Art and the Modern Republic, in 2024. Her previous publications include Insect Artifice: Nature and Art in the Dutch Revolt, which won the 2020 Bainton Prize, Jan Gossart and the Invention of Netherlandish Antiquity, and Conchophilia: Shells, Art, and Curiosity in Early Modern Europe. Bass has curated exhibitions and mentored student-curated projects, working within and beyond the traditional bounds of the Renaissance, and she considers graduate applications on any aspect of early modern art and material culture from the 15th to early 18th centuries, especially those engaging with northern European art from a cross-disciplinary perspective.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Art
• Psychology
• Social psychology

Selected publications

• Conchophilia

  2021 · 5 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Computer Science
  PublisherDOI

• Conchophilia

  Princeton University Press eBooks · 2021-07-28 · 1 citations

  book

  A captivating historical look at the cultural and artistic significance of shells in early modern Europe Among nature’s most artful creations, shells have long inspired the curiosity and passion of artisans, artists, collectors, and thinkers. Conchophilia delves into the intimate relationship between shells and people, offering an unprecedented account of the early modern era, when the influx of exotic shells to Europe fueled their study and representation as never before. From elaborate nautilus cups and shell-encrusted grottoes to delicate miniatures, this richly illustrated book reveals how the love of shells intersected not only with the rise of natural history and global trade but also with philosophical inquiry, issues of race and gender, and the ascent of art-historical connoisseurship. Shells circulated at the nexus of commerce and intellectual pursuit, suggesting new ways of thinking about relationships between Europe and the rest of the world. The authors focus on northern Europe, where the interest and trade in shells had its greatest impact on the visual arts. They consider how shells were perceived as exotic objects, the role of shells in courtly collections, their place in still-life tableaus, and the connections between their forms and those of the human body. They examine how artists gilded, carved, etched, and inked shells to evoke the permeable boundary between art and nature. These interactions with shells shaped the ways that early modern individuals perceived their relation to the natural world, and their endeavors in art and the acquisition of knowledge. Spanning painting and print to architecture and the decorative arts, Conchophilia uncovers the fascinating ways that shells were circulated, depicted, collected, and valued during a time of remarkable global change.

  PublisherDOI

• Frontmatter

  Princeton University Press eBooks · 2021-08-02

  book-chapterOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Shell Life, or the Unstill Life of Shells

  Princeton University Press eBooks · 2021-08-17 · 1 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Contents

  Princeton University Press eBooks · 2021-08-02

  paratextOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Conchophilia: Shells, Art, and Curiosity in Early Modern Europe

  2021 · 4 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Art
  • Psychology
  • Social psychology

  A captivating historical look at the cultural and artistic significance of shells in early modern EuropeAmong nature's most artful creations, shells have long inspired the curiosity and passion of artisans, artists, collectors, and thinkers. Conchophilia delves into the intimate relationship between shells and people, offering an unprecedented account of the early modern era when the influx of exotic shells to Europe fueled their study and representation as never before. From elaborate nautilus cups and shell-encrusted grottoes to delicate miniatures, this richly illustrated book reveals how the love of shells intersected not only with the rise of natural history and global trade but also with philosophical inquiry, issues of race and gender, and the ascent of art-historical connoisseurship.Shells circulated at the nexus of commerce and intellectual pursuit, suggesting new ways of thinking about relationships between Europe and the rest of the world. The authors focus on northern Europe, where the interest and trade in shells had its greatest impact on the visual arts. They consider how shells were perceived as exotic objects, the role of shells in courtly collections, their place in still-life tableaus, and the connections between their forms and those of the human body. They examine how artists gilded, carved, etched, and inked shells to evoke the permeable boundary between art and nature. These interactions with shells shaped the ways that early modern individuals perceived their relation to the natural world, and their endeavors of art and knowledge.Spanning painting and print to architecture and the decorative arts, Conchophilia uncovers the fascinating ways that shells were circulated, depicted, collected, and valued, during a time of remarkable global change

• Chapter 3: Shell Life, or the Unstill Life of Shells

  Princeton University Press eBooks · 2021-08-02

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Joris Hoefnagel and the <i>Kunstkammer</i>

  Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte · 2020 · 1 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Art
  PublisherDOI

• Arnolfini’s best friend

  Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art / Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek Online · 2020-11-16

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait (1434) has been a battleground of interpretation ever since Erwin Panofsky’s landmark 1934 essay on the painting. This article does not seek to resolve the uncertainties that remain concerning the names of the portrait’s subjects or the function that it served. Instead, it proposes to understand the relationship that the painting establishes between itself and its viewers, and to do so by considering the role of the canine companion at the couple’s feet. The dog in The Arnolfini Portrait is not only fundamental to the fellowship that Van Eyck invites us to feel both with himself and with his work; the dog’s role within the picture also nuances our understanding of Van Eyck’s own self-awareness as an artist and signals an opportunity to reconsider the limitations of traditional art-historical method.

  PublisherDOI

• Elastomeric Coatings: a Qualitative Failure Analysis

  2019-02-11

  articleSenior author

  Abstract For decades, waterproofing has been a major concern and a widely researched topic by building scientists and forensic engineers. Elastomeric coatings have been broadly used in different applications since the early 1950s. Manufacturer’s recommendations for the proper application of elastomeric coatings are often based on laboratory conditions (75°F and 50% RH) rather than extreme conditions posed by the real world. This study examines the failure of elastomeric roof coating exposed to conditions of high temperature (150°F) and water pooling caused by precipitation. A qualitative comparison of specimens revealed why roofing contractors must consider environmental conditions as an influential factor in determining the application range of elastomeric coatings. Test specimens were made using different substrates (i.e., glass, asphalt and metals) to test the behavior of elastomeric coating when applied to materials with different thermal expansion and contraction properties. Specimens were prepared using modified methods from ASTM standards C 1375 and D 1640. In the first experiment (after curing), test specimens were exposed to extreme environmental conditions of high heat, constant submersion and 180 repeated cycles of submersion for 2 hours followed by heating in a controlled high temperature chamber (140 – 170°F) for 2 hours each work day. In the second experiment, selected test specimens (flat and granulated asphalt) were exposed to elevated humidity (&amp;gt; 90% RH) during curing, and the remainder specimens were prepared with varying coating thicknesses. All specimens were exposed to conditions described above. Elastomeric-coated specimens submersed continuously expressed bubbling, de-bonding from the substrate, discoloration and shrinkage. During the initial stages of testing, the cyclical specimens did not exhibit bubbling and de-bonding as compared to the submersed specimens. However, both conditions revealed bubbling during the later stages of testing. Specimens that were heated only did not experience bubbling or shrinkage; however, specimens that were cyclically heated and submersed experienced discoloration and de-bonding on the glass substrate. The application of a primer beneath the coating did not offer obvious improvement to test surfaces as compared to non-primed surfaces. Based on adhesion test results (modified ASTM D3359 – 09e2) the substrate that exhibited the strongest bond was granulated roofing and the weakest was metal.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Claudia Swan

  4 shared

• Hanneke Grootenboer

  4 shared

• Anne Goldgar

  4 shared

• Christiane Kruse

  2 shared

• Róisín Watson

  The Open University

  2 shared

• Anna Grasskamp

  2 shared

• Ralph E. Moon

  2 shared

• Stephanie S. Dickey

  2 shared

Awards & honors

• Inaugural Guggenheim Fellowship in Early Modern Studies
• 2020 Bainton Prize from the Sixteenth Century Society for th…