Professor and Chair Sarah Cohen Publishes New Book

Art and Art History Professor and Chair Sarah Cohen has published a new book called Enlightened Animals in Eighteenth-Century Art: Sensation, Matter, and Knowledge. How do our senses help us to understand the world? This question, which preoccupied Enlightenment thinkers, also emerged as a key theme in depictions of animals in eighteenth-century art. This book examines the ways in which painters such as Chardin, as well as sculptors, porcelain modelers, and other decorative designers portrayed animals as sensing subjects who physically confirmed the value of material experience.