UNC Department of Art Professor (and current head of department) Carol Magee required her Fall 2015 Art Historical Methods students to write an analysis of one of the objects in the Ackland Art Museum’s displayed collections using one of the methods covered over during term. As a trainee in social art history and the study of material cultures since undergraduate, my natural inclination was towards an object rich in contextual information, as well as elegant execution. This led me to select the Qianlong porcelain plate (accession number 2011.19) pictured above. The photograph is drawn from the Ackland’s online collection and reproduced here under the principle of Fair Use. Continue reading “Social Art History Analysis of Ackland Museum Export Porcelain Plate”