This thesis is a comparative study of the works of two artists from the Low Countries, Frans Balthazar Solvyns and Jan Brandes, who worked in two different cities - Calcutta and Batavia - in the...Show moreThis thesis is a comparative study of the works of two artists from the Low Countries, Frans Balthazar Solvyns and Jan Brandes, who worked in two different cities - Calcutta and Batavia - in the late 18th century. In doing so, it identifies connections between the art produced and the existing discourses of ethnography, natural science and art. The thesis uses insights from these discourses to understand knowledge production in the period and the role played by art in this process. The cultural context of this art production is also explored through an examination of publications of the Asiatic Society and the Bataviaasch Genootschap - “learned societies” that were founded in the late 18th century in the two colonial cities. Thus, the thesis attempts: a) to describe the knowledge production activities of the late-18th century in the colonies, with art as the focus and point of departure, and b) to thereby analyse and understand the period in terms of the transition from rariteitenkabinets of the post-Renaissance period to the state sponsored knowledge creation of the 19th century. In doing so, the thesis addresses the links between knowledge and power and analyses essentialism as an effect of the application of scientific thought and illustration to ethnography.Show less
