The Paston Treasure: Microcosm of the Known World

by Andrew Moore, Nathan Flis, Francesca Vanke

The Paston Treasure , a spectacular painting from the 1660s now held at Norwich Castle Museum, depicts a wealth of objects from the collection of a local landed family. This deeply researched volume uses the painting as a portal to the history of the collection, exploring the objects, their context, and the wider world they occupied.  Drawing on an impressive range of fields, including history of art and collections, technical art history, musicology, history of science, and the social and cultural history of the 17th century, the book weaves together narratives of the family and their possessions, as well as the institutions that eventually acquired them.  Essays, vignettes, and catalogue entries comprise this multidisciplinary exposition, uniting objects depicted in the painting for the first time in nearly 300 years. 
 

Published in association with the Yale Center for British Art

Exhibition Yale Center for British Art
(02/15/18–05/27/18) Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery
(06/23/18–09/23/18)

Genres: History

590 pages, Hardcover

Published April 24, 2018

About the author

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Reviews

[Trish Graboske · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely massive book. Packed with information about one Norfolk family, mostly in the seventeenth century: their rise to nobility, support of Charles II, and ruin. Much of the story is told through the luxury objects in a family painting, including its many allusions to alchemy, since the head of the family put his hopes in turning base metal into gold to restore the family fortunes.