Niklas Groschinski

Research Topic

Peasants and Hunters: The Politics of Nature in Reformation Nuremberg

Supervisor: Lyndal Roper

My doctoral research is concerned with the coexistence of alternative ways of relating to the natural world in early modern Europe, taking the imperial city of Nuremberg, c. 1480–1550 as a case study. I am interested in the influence of factors such as socio-economic standing and gender on the perception of the more-than-human world. My set of primary sources is highly interdisciplinary, enveloping, for instance, city eulogies, maps, popular literature, sermons, objets d‘art, woodcuts/engravings, legal documents, and political pamphlets. 

Coming from an art historical background— BA honours in art history (minor in Italian) at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver— my MA at the Warburg Institute (London) allowed me to explore intellectual, cultural, and political history. My thesis already used an inter-disciplinary approach to scrutinise the animals in the oeuvre of Lucas Cranach the Elder. I was also able to collect strong practical experiences in the curatorial realm through internships/positions at the Gallery of Old Masters in Dresden (2018), the Kunsthistorische Museum in Vienna (2021), and the Hamburger Kunsthalle (2023). 

Besides early modern ways of thinking about „nature“, some of my other main interests include: Venetian, Ferrarese, and Flemish painting of the late 15th and 16th century; landscape and animal painting; networks between Southern and Northern Europe (especially Venice, Nuremberg, Antwerp); popular culture, the vulgar, the carnivalesque, the grotesque; hunting imagery and history; Renaissance medals; early modern collecting and self-fashioning; Kunst- and Wunderkammern; the miraculous and supernatural; esoteric thought; mythology and myth (Jung, Campbell); Chinese and Japanese (Buddhist) ink painting; and the list goes on… 

Outside of school, I enjoy connecting with nature myself, doing yoga, working out, gaming, watching football, and cooking, but mostly, I am a pretty big nerd and have a hard time going even just a day without reading something scholarly.

Happy to grab a coffee or pint with anyone wanting to chat about history, art, or philosophy! :)