Art History and Visual Culture Research Seminar

Bimetallism and Bivalence: Asian Bronzes in Nineteenth-Century Europe

This 45 minute lecture will be followed by questions and conversation. All are invited to attend.

Long used as materials of representation as well as the means of exchange in various parts of the world, precious metals were given ideological import in nineteenth-century Europe. This paper examines the metaphorics of gold and silver in appraisals of art, civilization and modernity. I argue that the leading bimetallist, Enrico Cernuschi (1821-1896), who advocated the simultaneous use of gold and silver currencies in material terms, acknowledged the ‘bivalence’ of East and West through his museum of Asian objects. A third metal, his collection of Asian antiquities in bronze, would further complicate the evaluation of civilizational merits.