top of page

Prof. Florian Knothe

DSC_8033.jpg

Director of the Museum Studies Programme

Director of the University Museum and Art Gallery

Fellow in the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities
and Social Sciences

Contact
2/F, T. T. Tsui Building
Telephone: +852 3917 5501
Email Florian Knothe

Website
https://umag.hku.hk/

Education
Ph.D. in Art History, Johannes Gutenberg Universität
M.A. Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London
B.A., Buckinghamshire New University

Bio

​

Florian Knothe researches the history of decorative arts in the 17th and 18th centuries with particular focus on the social and historic importance of royal manufacture. Florian has published and lectured internationally on in the early modern fascination with Chinoiserie and cross-cultural influences in art in Europe and East Asia. As professor in museum studies, he teaches curating and object-based learning, provenance research and cultural heritage studies to train ambitious future cohorts of museum professionals who will shape the growing scene of cultural institutions in greater China and beyond. Knothe started his career at The Metropolitan Museum of Art focusing on European Sculpture and Decorative Arts. Prior to working at HKU, he was Curator of European glass at The Corning Museum of Glass overseeing the European and East Asian collections.

Research Interests

​

  • History of Early Modern European and Ming and Qing Chinese art

  • Cross-cultural influences in European and East Asian art

  • Materials and techniques, and indigenous traditions of craftsmanship

  • Curatorial and cultural heritage studies

  • Heritage law

Courses

​

Selected Publications and Exhibitions

 

Books and Book Chapters

  • Boudot, Éric, A. Chow, Florian Knothe, and M. Lee. Embroidered Identities: Ornately Decorated Textiles and Accessories of Chinese Ethnic Minorities, Highlights from the Collection of Mei-yin Lee. Hong Kong: University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong, 2013.

  • Knothe, Florian. "The Counts of Harrach’s Glassworks and Its International Retail Business." In From Neuwelt to the Whole World: 300 Years of Harrach Glass, 33–37. Prague: Museum of Decorative Arts, 2012.

  • "Venetian Glass and Its Influence in Europe During the Renaissance and Baroque Periods." In The Yearning for Venetian Glass: Beauty That Traversed Oceans and Time, 9–15, 178–80. Tokyo: Suntory Museum of Art, 2011.

  • "Tapestry as a Medium of Propaganda at the Court of Louis XIV: Display and Audience." In Tapestry in the Baroque: New Aspects of Production and Patronage, 342–59. New York: Yale University Press, 2010.

  • "Essay on the Manufacture Royale aux Gobelins." In Baroque, edited by TP Snodin and N. Llewellyn. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 2009.

  • "Essays and Catalogue Entries." In Art of the Royal Court. Treasures in Pietre Dure from the Palaces of Europe. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2008.

  • "Catalogue of French Furniture." In French Eighteenth-Century Art at The Huntington. Yale University Press, 2008.

  • "Water" and "The Battle of the Granicus," catalogue entries. In Tapestry in the Baroque: Threads of Splendor, 356–73. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007.

  • "L’Influence de la Manufacture Royale des Gobelins à l’étranger: Les artisans de Louis XIV à Stockholm." In L’Objet d’art en France du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle : de la création à l’imaginaire, 75–88. Bordeaux: Les Cahiers du Centre François-Georges Pariset, 2007.

  • "Catalogue entries on late sixteenth-century goldsmiths’ work." In Mélancolie: génie et folie en Occident. Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 2005.

  • The Manufacture des meubles de la couronne aux Gobelins under Louis XIV: A Social, Political and Cultural History. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2016.

  • Classic Furniture: Craftsmanship, Trade Organisations and Cross-Cultural Influences in East and West. Hong Kong: University Museum and Art Gallery, Hong Kong University Press, 2017.

  • "Crosses of the Church of the East." In Christianity in Asia: Sacred Art and Visual Splendour, 33–35. Singapore: Asian Civilisations Museum, 2016.

  • "French Furniture of the Ancien Régime: East Asian Styles, Chinoiserie, and the Adoption of 'Otherness' by Established Parisian Métiers." In Living in Ming: Classical Chinese Furniture from the Haven Collection, 357–67. Hong Kong: University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong, 2016.

  • "What Remains In Ruins|||廢墟之問." In Ying Tianqi: What Remains In Ruins, 7–13. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Museum and Art Gallery, 2017.

 

Journal Articles

  • Knothe, Florian. "The Tapestries of the Conquêtes du Roi de Suède: French Royal Manufacture and Its Tapestry Designs for the Court of Charles XI." Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Stockholm 19 (2012): 127–36.

  • "European Glassmaking Technology in China: Kilian Stumpf’s Probable Influence over Liuli." Reviews on Glass 2 (2013): 7–14.

  • "The Gernheim Glasshouse: Early Industrial Glassmaking in Westphalia (1812–1877)." Journal of Glass Studies 54 (2012): 257–59.

  • "Bell Goblet, Antwerp, Low Countries, 1575–1600." The Magazine Antiques 180, no. 1 (2012): 100.

  • "Vases Made by Verreries et Cristalleries de Baccarat in 1880s." World of Antiques and Art (2011): 32–33.

  • "Historic Perspectives: East Meets West—Cross-Cultural Influences in Glassmaking in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries." Profitable Glass Quarterly 26–28 (2010).

  • "East Meets West—Europa und Asien im Wettbewerb." Glashaus/Glasshouse 4, no. 2010 (2010): 2.

  • "Persian Series Vase." World of Antiques & Art (2010): 134–35.

  • "Seventeenth-century Design Prints of Louis XIV’s Silver Furniture at Versailles." The Magazine Antiques(2009): 56–61.

  • "André-Charles Boulle’s Early Production of Bureaux Plats: A Newly Attributed Writing Desk in the Huntington Collection." Furniture History 42 (2006): 53–61.

  • "Fired by Passion: Vienna Baroque Porcelain of Claudius Innocentius Du Paquier." Burlington Magazine155, no. 1323 (2013): 423.

  • "The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Glass and Limoges Painted Enamels." Burlington Magazine 150, no. 1318 (2013): 38–39.

  • "The Treasury Collection at Rosenborg Castle: The Inventories of 1696 and 1718: Royal Heritage and Collecting in Denmark-Norway 1500–1900." Burlington Magazine 153, no. 1300 (2011): 484–85.

  • "Exhibition and Catalogue Review: 'Majestätisches Mäzenatentum'." Weltkunst (2009): 45.

  • "Schenken für die Freundschaft." Die Weltkunst (2008): 132.

  • "Exhibition Review: Himmlisches Blau." Weltkunst (2007): 95.

  • "Depictions of Glassmaking in Diderot’s Encyclopédie." Journal of Glass Studies 51 (2009): 154–60, 269–70.

  • "Ingenuity and Imitation: Pietre Dure and Its Colorful Progeny." Magazine Antiques 174, no. 1 (2008): 90–98.

  • "East Meets West: Cross-Cultural Influences in Glassmaking in the 18th and 19th Centuries." Journal of Glass Studies 52 (2010): 201–16, 273–74.

  • "Depictions of Glassmaking in Diderot's Encyclopédie." Journal of Glass Studies 51 (2009): 154–160, 269–70.

​

bottom of page