Material Objects Archive

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Objects, images, and a proliferation of materialities engage bodies and minds, events and ideas, in ways both profound and subtle. Material objects, especially as they are activated in religious practices broadly conceived, are situated at the heart of MAVCOR. This Material Objects Archive offers an ever-expanding online gallery of such objects. We invite you to use it as a tool for thinking and teaching, researching and writing—and we welcome your suggestions and contributions to this collaborative enterprise.

In 2017, MAVCOR initiated the MAVCOR Digital Spaces Project, documenting sacred spaces via 360º panorama (360s) and high resolution giga-pixel (Zooms) photography. You can view all Digital Spaces Project 360s and Zooms here, or you can check the appropriate box in the Material Objects Archive search to view affiliated material objects.

Material Objects

Five Women at a Window

Haften, Nicolas van
Date:
1694 CE
Place of Origin:
Paris
Repository:
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Keywords:
Women, Smoking, Tobacco Pipe, Etching
Bricklayers Smoking a Pipe

Teniers, David
Date:
1675 CE
Medium:
oil paint, oil painting
Place of Origin:
Brussels
Repository:
Rijksmuseum
Keywords:
Smoking, Dutch, Trade, Tobacco Pipe
Clay tobacco pipes

Date:
1580-1590 CE
Medium:
pipe clay, smoking
Place of Origin:
City of London
Repository:
The Science Museum, London
Keywords:
pipe, Tobacco, clay, Smoking
Florentine Codex

Bernardino de Sahagún, unknown Nahua
Date:
1575-1577 CE
Medium:
wood pulp paper, ink, illuminated manuscripts
Place of Origin:
Mexico City
Repository:
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
Keywords:
Nahua, Indigenous, Aztec, Codex, New Spain, Colonialism, Colonial Mexico
Guftugu I (A discussion between Al-Biruni and Ibn Sina about Aristotle)

Araeen, Rasheed
Date:
2014 CE
Medium:
acrylic paint, canvas
Tradition:
Islamic
Place of Origin:
City of London
Keywords:
Modernism, Islam, Science, Calligraphy, Text, Writing, Abstraction, Qur'an
Rang Baranga

Araeen, Rasheed
Date:
1969 CE
Medium:
wood, paint, sculpture techniques
Tradition:
Islamic
Place of Origin:
City of London
Repository:
Tate Gallery
Keywords:
Sculpture, Geometry, Industry, Minimalism, Islam
Bismullah

Araeen, Rasheed
Date:
1988 CE
Medium:
photographic materials, acrylic paint, gilt paint, photography
Tradition:
Islamic
Place of Origin:
City of London
Repository:
Tate Gallery
Keywords:
Postcolonial, Islam, Candles, Blood, Pakistan, Sacrifice, ‘Īd al-Aḍḥā, Abstraction, Modernism, Qur'an
Eve Hearing the Voice

Ezekiel, Moses Jacob
Date:
1876 CE
Medium:
modeling clay, modeling, sculpture techniques
Tradition:
Jewish
Repository:
Original model destroyed. Photograph courtesy of The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
Subject:
Eve
Keywords:
Eve, Sculpture, Female Nude, Nude, Model
Plural Wives of Joseph Smith (Emma Smith)

Date:
2015 CE
Medium:
paper, photographic film, ink, drawing, stamping
Tradition:
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon)
Place of Origin:
Utah
Keywords:
Polygamy, Mormonism, Marriage, Women, Protest
Plural Wives of Joseph Smith (6)

Date:
2015 CE
Medium:
paper, drawing paper, photographic materials, ink, drawing, photography, stamps
Tradition:
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon)
Place of Origin:
Utah
Repository:
Church History Museum, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Keywords:
Polygamy, Mormonism, Marriage, Women, Protest
Plural Wives of Joseph Smith (key card)

Date:
2015 CE
Medium:
paper
Tradition:
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon)
Place of Origin:
Utah
Repository:
Church History Museum, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Keywords:
Code, Polygamy, Mormonism, Marriage, Women, Protest, Symbols
Ogden Women's Anti-Polygamy Quilt

Date:
1882 CE
Medium:
cloth, thread, quilting, embroidering
Tradition:
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon)
Place of Origin:
Ogden
Keywords:
Quilt, Polygamy, Women, Textiles, Mormonism, Marriage