Art, Space and Mobility in the Early Ages of Globalization: The Mediterranean, Central Asia and the Indian Subcontinent (MeCAIS) 400-1650

Institute for Art History LMU

Cooperation project at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence/Max-Planck-Institut

The rise of art history as an academic discipline coincides with the formation of the nation-states (and their museums), whereas today art history reconsiders its agenda according to the challenge of globalization. Nonetheless, even today in many countries art history primarily concentrates on proper cultural and artistic heritage, and this is certainly true for a conspicuous number of countries the Project is concerned with. Given that the modern states in most cases do not correspond to historically circumscribed units, their artistic heritage is defined either through the monuments situated within the borders of a country - often belonging to rather heterogenous traditions, or by claiming extraterritorial monuments (and even transferred objects) as part of one's own tradition.