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Aalto University Professor  Paula Hohti Erichsen has been chosen as the recipient of the 2021 Roland H. Bainton Prize for Art History for her book Artisans, Objects and Everyday Life in Renaissance Italy: The Material Culture of the Middling Class.

The book received the prize based on quality and originality of research, methodological skill and/or innovation, development of fresh and stimulating interpretations or insights, and literary quality.

‘I am thrilled and extremely honoured to have received this prestigious book award. It provides great support and encouragement for my work as a historian of early modern material culture and fashion’, rejoices Hohti Erichsen.

The book presents the first in depth exploration of how artisans and small local traders experienced the material and cultural Renaissance. Drawing on a rich blend of sixteenth-century visual, material and archival evidence, it examines how individuals and families at artisanal levels lived and worked, managed their household economies and consumption, socialised and engaged with the arts and the markets for luxury goods.

Professor Hohti Erichsen is specialized in the study of early modern dress, textiles, fashion and decorative arts, with a special focus on their role and function within the lower artisanal classes. During the past five years, she has led an ERC-funded research project, titled ‘Refashioning the Renaissance’, focusing on everyday clothing and fashion dissemination among artisanal groups in early modern Europe.

The Roland H. Bainton Prize was announced during a ceremony at the Sixteenth Century Society's Annual Conference in San Diego, California, 29 October, 2021.

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