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Anna Forrest (National Trust): 'The Oxburgh Hall Finds'; respondent Dr Tessa Murdoch (Victoria and Albert Museum) 

Anna Forrest examines how the recent discoveries at Oxburgh Hall shed light on the vibrant material culture of recusant Catholics at a time of persecution. As the Oxburgh Hall project is still in its early stages, this lecture presents a key opportunity to discover how curators go about analysing objects, and start to formulate conclusions, while a project is still evolving. Dr Tessa Murdoch from the Victoria and Albert Museum will act as respondent for this event.

Click here to read about the Oxburgh Hall discoveries.

A Material World is a new events series hosted by the Warburg Institute which focuses on the reconstruction of life in the past through objects and materials, the people who made them and the people who used them. Combining public lectures, student seminars and live object-based presentations across three terms, the series brings together academics and heritage professionals from a wide range of disciplines including history, art history, cultural history, archaeology, anthropology, history of religion and museum studies. The series will discuss issues concerning historical objects, their materials, forms, and functions, as well as their conservation, presentation, display, and reconstruction. It offers a broad social perspective, being concerned not only with the highest strata of society, but also with marginalised peoples and their habits concerning the production and consumption of everyday items. 

The three combined lecture-seminar sessions of 2020-21 will be on the theme of Devotion. A Material World: Devotion will explore a range of artefacts produced and marketed in the context of religion during the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The theme will build on Aby Warburg's legacy and interest in the devotional practices of both western and non-western societies, as well as the Warburg Institute's interdisciplinary ethos.

Organisers: Rembrandt Duits (Acting Curator, The Photographic Collection, The Warburg Institute) and Louisa McKenzie (PhD student, The Warburg Institute).

All sessions during 2020-2021 will be delivered online.

FREE VIA ZOOM. Please book by 5.00pm on Wednesday 25 November to be sent a link to the session.

Photo: ©ï¸ Gordon Plumb