Muller, Jeffrey

Jeffrey M Muller

Professor of History of Art and Architecture

Overview

I earned my Ph.D. in art history at Yale where I wrote a dissertation on the collection of Peter Paul Rubens. My interests in Flemish renaissance and baroque art expanded from there and embraced the question of how art made for the Counter Reformation changed society. Currently I am working on a new project about the Jesuit global strategy of accommodation. How did the Jesuits fashion their interactions with the diverse peoples from China to Peru whose souls they wished to save?

Brown Affiliations

History of Art and Architecture

Research Areas

Publications Visualize it

"My Eyes and Taste Are Grown a Little Chinese”: Jean-Denis Attiret, SJ, Recognizes the Equal Value of European and Chinese Art." From Rome to Beijing., Brill, 2024.

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Michaelina Wautier and the Five Senses: Innovation in 17th-Century Flemish Painting. Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 2022.

"Rubens: The Jesuit Church of Antwerp, written by Ria Fabri and Piet Lombaerde." Journal of Jesuit Studies, vol. 6, no. 4, 2019, pp. 710–715.

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"Historiography of the Art and Architecture of the Jesuits." Jesuit Historiography Online, 2017.

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"The Jesuit Strategy of Accommodation." Jesuit Image Theory, edited by Wietse de Boer, Karl A.E. Enenkel, Walter S. Melion, Leiden, Brill, 2016, pp. 461-492.

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St. Jacob’s Antwerp Art and Counter Reformation in Rubens’s Parish Church. Brill, 2016.

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"Works of Art and Architecture for Restoration, Community and Parish Building in St. Jacob’s, Antwerp." Rekonstruktion der Gesellschaft aus Kunst: Antwerpener Malerei und Graphik in under nach den Katastrophen des späten 16. Jahrhunderts, edited by Eckhard Leuschner, Nils Büttner, and Ulrich Heinen, Petersberg, Imhof, 2016.

"Jesuit Uses of Art in the Province of Flanders." Art, Controversy, and the Jesuits: The Imago Primi Saeculi (1640), edited by John W. O'Malley, S.J., Philadelphia, Saint Joseph's University Press, 2015.

"The Cult of St. Joannes Nepomucenus in Eighteenth-Century Antwerp: Silencing Evil Rumor, Making the Streets Safe." Munuscula Amicorum : contributions on Rubens and his colleagues in honour of Hans Vlieghe, edited by Katlijne van der Stighelen, Turnhout, Brepols, 2006, pp. 489-505.

"Historiography of the Art and Architecture of the Jesuits." Jesuit Historiography Online, 1900.

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Research

Research Overview

My current research is centered on the Jesuit global strategy of accommodation. How and why did the Jesuits change their appearance and visual messages to agree with the customs and capacities of every group they tried to convert around the world, whether Japanese feudal aristocracy or Flemish peasants?

Research Statement

My research integrates the methods of art history and history with the purpose of reaching a fuller understanding of how works of art functioned in history.

Funded Research

Senior Research Fellowship, Boston College, Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies, 2016.

Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study Fellowship, 2001-2002

American Philosophical Society Research Grant, 1995

National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for University Teachers,

1992-1993

Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship, Western European Regional Research
Program 1989-1990

Visiting Member, Institute for Advanced Study, School of Historical Studies, 1980-1981

Post Doctoral Fellow, American Academy in Rome, 1978-1979

Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art (London) Research Grant, Summer 1976

Samuel H. Kress Travel Fellowship, Yale University, 1972-1973

Stipendium of the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, 1972-1973

Samuel H. Kress Foundation Fellowship, Summer 1971

NDEA Title IV Fellowship, Yale University, 1969-1972

Scholarly Work

"The Cult of St. Joannes Nepomucenus in Eighteenth-Century Antwerp: Silencing Evil Rumor, Making the Streets Safe." In Festschrift for Professor Hans Vlieghe. Brepols Turnhout 2006

"Jesuit Uses of the Visual Arts in the Province of Flanders." in The Jesuits II: Cultures, Sciences, and the Arts, 1540-1773. University of Toronto Press, 2006

"Rubens in the Antwerp Dominican Church: Travel, Guide Books, and the Secularization of Religious art, 17th–18th centuries," In Le Rubenisme en Europe aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Univeristé de Lille, 3, Brepols, Turnhout, 2005

"Institution and Framework: the New Chapter of Canons and its Choir Space in the St. Jacob's Church, Antwerp." In Flemish Art and Patronage, 1550-1700, Katholiek Universiteit Leuven, Brepols, Turnhout, 2005

Introductory essay to the catalogue of the exhibition: A House of Art: Rubens, as Collector, 2004, Rubens House, Antwerp

"Rubens's Anatomy Book," in Rubens Cantoor: een verzameling ontstaan in Rubens' atelier, exhibition catalogue, Antwerp, Rubenshuis, Antwerp, 2003, 78-94

"Confraternity and Art in the St. Jacobs Church, Antwerp: A Case Study of the Altar of the Brotherhood of St. Rochus." In Concept-Design-Execution in Flemish Painting (1550-1700), Brepols Turnhout, 2000, 97-110

Edward Norgate. Miniatura or the Art of Limning. A New Critical Edition. Edited, Introduced and Annotated by Jeffrey M. Muller and Jim Murrell. Yale, University Press, 1997

"Private Collections in the Spanish Netherlands: Ownership and Display of Paintings in Domestic Interiors." In The Age of Rubens, exhibition catalogue, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1993, 194-206

"The Quality of Grace in the Art of Anthony van Dyck." In Anthony van Dyck, exhbition catalogue, National Gallery of Art, 1990, 27-38

Rubens: The Artist as Collector. Princeton University Press, 1989

"Measures of Authenticity: The Detection of Copies in the Early Literature on Connoisseurship." Studies in the History of Art, National Gallery of Art, 20, 1989, 141-151

Conceived and edited: The Children of Mercury: The Education of Artists in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, a collection of essays published in conjunction with the exhibition of the same name, Bell Gallery, Brown University, March 2-30, 1984

"Rubens's Theory and Practice of the Imitation of Art." The Art Bulletin, 64, 1982, 229-246

Background

Education and Training

Year	Degree	Institution
1977	PhD	Yale University
1972	MA	Yale University
1969	BA	Queens College (CUNY)

Honors and Awards

Senior Research Fellow, Boston College, Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies, 2016

Visiting Scholar, University of Antwerp, 2007

Fellow of the Netherlands Insitute for Advanced Study, Wassenaar, 2001-2002

National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, 1993

Arthur Kingsley Porter Prize for the Best Article by a Younger Scholar in The
Art Bulletin, 1982

Member, Institute for Advanced Study, School of Historical Studies, Princeton, 1980-1981

American Academy in Rome Prize Fellowship for Post-Doctoral Research in Art History, 1978-1979

Researchers@Brown

Researchers@Brown

Jeffrey M Muller

Professor of History of Art and Architecture

Overview

Brown Affiliations

Research Areas

Publications Visualize it

Research

Research Overview

Research Statement

Funded Research

Scholarly Work

Background

Education and Training

Honors and Awards

Affiliations Visualize it

Affiliations

Teaching

Teaching