Constructing Early Modern Identities: Dress in Albrecht Dürer's Works

• Applicant: Dr. Dilshat Kharman
• Subject Area: Art History ; Early Modern History
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 536024075

The project continues to pursue the two core objectives stated in the original application: to investigate how representations of dress contributed to the formation of national, religious, and cultural identities in early modern Europe, and to assess Dürer’s influence on contemporary and later artists in shaping these discourses. While the project began with a primarily visual methodology, involving comparative analysis of images and iconographic elements, my research trajectory evolved significantly during the first year. I am now convinced that a meaningful exploration of how and why Dürer depicted dress and how these representations influenced identity formation must also consider the material, technical, and object-based dimensions of his work. This led me to incorporate interdisciplinary approaches associated with the material turn into my research. The decision inevitably raised new issues: the limited knowledge of contemporary dress practices; the insufficient understanding of artists’ engagement with real dress and textiles; the challenge of identifying the sources used for depictions of dress along with the material dissemination of altered images rather than the originals; the impact of the material demands of the artwork itself; the fate of the artwork as a material object and others. Encountering these problems and attempting to answer the questions they raise has led me to change the trajectory of my project and extend its duration. The integration of the material turn perspective has led to analyzing Dürer’s dress imagery not just in terms of what it represents, but also how, why, and to what effect—based on a deeper engagement with materiality, technology, and reception of the presentation as a material object. Dürer’s representations of dress are no longer viewed solely as part of a visual or intellectual tradition, but also as shaped by the material culture of his time—including the technologies, textiles, and social practices that informed how both the dress and the artwork representing it were made, worn, and understood The modified objectives now include: 1. To examine how artistic media and material constraints shaped Dürer’s visual strategies for representing dress and accessories, particularly in prints and drawings. 2. To analyze how Dürer’s representations of clothing circulated, were reinterpreted, and gained new meanings across time, emphasizing the role of artworks as mobile and mutable carriers of cultural meaning. The results of the project will benefit art history and cultural studies in the following ways: 1. By reinterpreting Dürer’s dress imagery through the lens of material culture. 2. By clarifying the links between dress representations, artistic practice, and humanist discourse. 3. By offering a more precise view of Dürer’s artworks agency. 4. By advancing an interdisciplinary methodology that integrates the material turn with the studying of dress in art.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants