Maurice Saß
Kunstgeschichtliches Seminar
Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1
20146 Hamburg
Room: 116 (Main Building)
Tel.: +49 404 2838 8134
E-Mail: maurice.sass"AT"uni-hamburg.de
Research project
Hunting represented one of a few early modern practices, for which one’s social standing was sure; nevertheless, hunting challenged the physical and sensory skills of the hunter. As a form of courtly entertainment, hunting embodied power and, at the same time, functioned as an instrument for staging a prince’s masculinity, strength and superiority. The pictorial potential of hunting makes Ars venationis a popular metaphor for the unconditional pursuit of love, power and wisdom. It is within this cultural context that the numerous portraits of artists as hunters should be understood. Similarly, whether represented as a successful courtier, virtuoso conqueror of animals, or wild intermediary between art and nature, the image of the hunter offered a model to describe the artists’ work. To observe nature, to trace life, to match their strength to their movements were all challenges of the artist and hunter alike. Both had to sharpen their senses and imitate nature in order to be successful; be it the imitation of the brush or the training and animation of their animal hunting companions. Both arts were based on skill of illusion, camouflage and optical traps. And, the practitioners of both arts were trophy-hunters, who strove to reanimate nature in their pictorial prize.
Vita
Maurice Saß studied Art History, German Literature, Philosophy and Musicology in Würzburg, Caen and Munich, followed by a Masters (Winter Semester 2010/11) on Jacopo de’ Barbaris Bilderfindungen in Wittenberg. Zur zeitgenössischen Wahrnehmung des transalpinen Kulturaustauschs um 1500 [Jacopo de’ Barbari’s pictorial discoveries in Wittenberg: on the contemporary perception of transalpine cultural exchange around 1500]. His doctoral thesis (completed in February 2014) is entitled "Physiologien der Bilder. Naturmagische Felder des frühneuzeitlichen Verstehens von Kunst". From August 2009 to Februar 2012 Maurice Saß was Assistant to the executive board on the collaborative project Philosophy: Kunst of the German Ministry of Culture and the University of Munich. August 2011 to May 2012 Fellow in the special research field 573 on Pluralisierung und Autorität in der Frühen Neuzeit [Pluralisation and Authority in the Early Modern Period] at the University of Munich and has been a member of the NATURBILDER Research Group at Hamburg University since 2013.
Relevant publications
Gemalte Korallenamulette. Zur Vorstellung eigenwirksamer Bilder bei Piero della Francesca, Andrea Mantegna und Camillo Leonardi [Painted coral amulets: on the notion of effective images in Piero della Francesca, Andrea Mantegna und Camillo Leonardi]. In: kunsttexte.de, Nr. 1, 2012 (53 pages), www.kunsttexte.de.
Ein Meer von Bedeutungen. Fische als astrologische Reflexionsfiguren natürlicher Tiersymbole [A sea of meanings: Fish as astrological figurations of natural animal symbols]. In: Ex.-Cat. Zurich 2013 (Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum/Landesmuseum Zürich): Animali. Hrsg. von Luca Tori/Aline Steinbrecher. Geneva: Skira 2012, 265–273.
Ludovico Dolce’s Gemmenbuch als naturmagisches Komplementär seiner Kunstliteratur [Ludovico Dolce’s book on gems as a natural-magical complement to his art literature]. In: Jakob Steinbrenner/Manfred Hard (eds.): Bilder als Gründe. Cologne: Herbert von Halem 2013, 85–135.
“E l’Asino nostro, che ha mosso i passi, per lo ingegno veder d’ogni mortale.” Physiological reflection on pictorial efficacy in a cinquecentesque portrait painting. In: Ulrich G. Großmann et al. (eds.): The challenge of the objet. Proceedings of the 33rd Congress of the International Committee of the History of Art (acquired for publication).