Thinking with material religion in the Early Modern world: Translocations and peregrinations

Ponente: Paul Nelles (Carleton University)

The seminar explores the intersection of materiality, mobility, and religion in the early modern world through a discussion of two artefacts: a polychrome wood sculpture depicting the entombment of Christ (Juan de Juni, Santo Entierro, 1544), and an Agnus Dei reliquary enclosing a relic of one of the1597 Nagasaki martyrs. My paper suggests that the artefacts speak to shared paradigms concerning the geographic displacement of the physical materials of religion. More specifically, the seminar will attempt to trace the ways the artefacts index the movement of non-iconic religious materials, offering a point of entry into the sensorial field of experiential religion in the early modern world.