Where in the World? Gold

In this episode of "Where in the World?," Curator Aimee Ng discusses the use of gold in a rare painting by Duccio. Signifying both a sacred realm and material riches, the precious metal has a history intertwined with trade, conquest, and colonization in West Africa and beyond.

Duccio's Temptation of Christ on the Mountain

To learn more:

Berzock, Kathleen Bickford, ed. Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa. Exh. cat. Evanston (Block Museum of Art), Toronto (The Aga Khan Museum), Washington, D.C. (National Museum of African Art), 2019–2020.

Jacobi, Lauren. "Reconsidering the World-system: The Agency and Material Geography of Gold." In The Globalization of Renaissance Art, edited by Daniel Savoy, 129–157. Boston, 2017.

Lopez, Robert Sabatino. "Back to Gold, 1252." The Economic History Review 9, no. 2 (1956): 219–240.