In revolutionary France the life of things could not be assured. War, shortage of materials, and frequent changes in political authority meant that few large-scale artworks or permanent monuments to the Revolution's memory were completed. On the contrary, visual practice in revolutionary France was characterized by the production and circulation of a range of transitional, provisional, ephemeral, and half-made images and objects, from printed paper money, passports, and almanacs to temporary festival installations and relics of the demolished Bastille. Addressing this mass of images...

In 12 essays by a distinguished group of art historians, Art and Technology in Early Modern Europe explores the relationship between artistic and technological advances from the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution.

• Provides a broad definition of technology for this period and addresses the influence of technological shifts on the history of early modern art
• Covers c.1420-1820, the time period between the advent of the printed image and that of the photographically produced image
• Discusses a wide range of early modern artists' tools, instruments,...