Rococo Enlightenment: Art, Decoration, and Science in eighteenth-century France and its 听Empire.
Supervisor: Professor Katie Scott
Funded by the Courtauld Scholarship and Clark Library/ UCLA Center for Seventeenth-and Eighteenth-Century Studies
Education
2020鈥25 听听听听听听听听听 Courtauld Institute of Art, London, U.K. PhD, History of Art. 鈥淩ococo Enlightenment: Art, Decoration, and Science in Eighteenth-Century France and its Empire鈥; Supervised by Prof. Emeritus Katie Scott, Advised by Dr Esther Chadwick, funded by The Courtauld Scholarship; Defended in October 2025
2024鈥25听听听听听听听听听听 MIT, Department of Architecture, History, Theory + Criticism, Cambridge, USA. Visiting PhD candidate, invited by Prof. Kristel Smentek
2018-2019:听 Master in History of Art, Courtauld Institute of Art, London, U.K.; MA Thesis 鈥楶rince Louis-Fran莽ois de Bourbon-Conti鈥檚 alternative court at the Ch芒teau of L’Isle-Adam (1727-1776)鈥; Supervised by Prof. Katie Scott, Mark: 78, Distinction
2007-2010: Bachelor in Philosophy at Paris IV, La Sorbonne equivalency. Lyc茅e Henri IV, Hypokh芒gne, Kh芒gne, Preparatory Class to Grandes Ecoles, Paris, France
Publications
Peer-Reviewed
Nataf, Carole. 鈥楪um arabic: Visualizing Transparency, from the West-African Sahel to Paris and London art studios 鈥, Material Metamorphosis, Natural Resources, Artmaking, and Sustainability in the Early Modern World, Brepols (in progress)
Nataf, Carole. ‘Tasteful Science and Networks of Knowledge at the Jardin du Roi: Madeleine Fran莽oise Basseporte鈥檚 Shell Paintings on Vellum (1747鈥68)’, in听 Images and Institutions: The Visual Culture of Early Modern Scientific Societies, ed. Matthijs Jonker and Katherine Reinhart. Turnhout: Brepols, 2026 (forthcoming, March 2026).
Nataf, Carole. ‘The Aesthetics of Deep Time: Unearthing Georges鈥怢ouis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon鈥檚 Rococo Shell Grotto and Porcelain Room.’ Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies 49, no. 1 (2026): 85鈥112. .
Nataf, Carole. ‘Commercial Space and Amateur Identity in Eighteenth-Century Paris: At Gilles Demarteau鈥檚 Print Shop听La Cloche‘, immediations 4.3 (2018).
Other
Nataf, Carole. ‘Land and Loom: Louis de Noailles鈥 Nouvelles Indes tapestries’, Colonial Networks (February, 2026), .
Nataf, Carole. ‘Flaunting Red and Blue: Reframing the Nouvelles Indes Tapestries through Gobelins Dyestuffs’, The Magazine of the Decorative Arts Trust (February 13, 2026). h
Conferences and invited talks
- ‘From Senegal to Parisian Salons: The Shiny Invisibility of Gum Arabic’, CAA 114th Annual Conference, Hilton Chicago, 18-21 February 2026
- ‘Artisanal Epistemologies and “Useful Knowledge” in the S猫vres porcelain Service aux oiseaux (1779鈥1796)’, Making Early Modern Materialism(s), ENS de Lyon, 30鈥31 January 2026
- ‘Les services aux oiseaux Buffon (1779鈥1794): les d茅cors ornithologiques de S猫vres’, Soci茅t茅 des amis du mus茅e national de c茅ramique, October 8 2025
- ‘Tasteful Science in the Jardin du roi: Madeleine Fran莽oise Basseporte鈥檚 Shell Paintings on Vellum (1747鈥1768)’, Women in Art and Science in the Early Modern World, USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute, USC, November 10 & 11, 2023
- ‘Gum Arabic: Visualizing Transparency in Charles-Nicolas Cochin鈥檚 engraving 鈥楢rabs and Moors trading gums in Senegal鈥 (1746)’, Europe c. 1580-c. 1830: Telling Histories, Imagining Futures, The Courtauld Institute, October 27, 2023
- ‘Rococo epistemology: Shell grottos and the aesthetics of deep time in Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon’s theory of the earth’, HECAA@30: Environments, Materials, and Futures in the Eighteenth Century Boston, Cambridge, and Providence, October 12-14, 2023
- ‘Rococo epistemology: Shells, deep time, and imagination in Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon’s theory of the earth’, The Courtauld Third Year PhD Symposium, The Courtauld Institute, May18th-May 19th, 2023
- 鈥楾ransporting America: The politics of import and export in the New Indies Gobelins tapestry set鈥, 鈥楾ransporting Culture – Art, Objects, and 鈥楨arly Modern Logistics鈥欌, Historians of Eighteenth-Century Art and Architecture (HECAA) Zoom Event Series, October 2022
- 鈥楥ataloguing the Courtauld鈥檚 fictile ivories鈥, Carole Nataf and Bella Radenovic, The Courtauld鈥檚 Fictile Ivories 91制片厂 Day (Somerset House, London), June 2022
- 鈥楴ature transformed: Manufacturing America in the New Indies Gobelins Tapestry set (1737-1745)鈥, The Second Year Research Student Symposium, (Courtauld Institute of Art, London), May 2022
- 鈥楧rawing shells: Conchological expertise at the Jardin du roi and the Acade虂mie des Sciences鈥, 鈥業mages & Institutions: The Visual Culture of Early Modern Scientific Societies,鈥 (Accademia dei Lincei, Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome (KNIR), Bibliotheca Hertziana 鈥 Max Planck Institute for Art History, Rome), September 2022
- 鈥極bservation and Experimentation in Charles Germain de Saint-Aubin鈥檚 Recueil de plantes copie虂es d鈥檃pre虁s nature (1736-1785)鈥, Carnets de notes, carnets de re虂fe虂rences, muse虂es de papier: Regards croise虂s sur la culture visuelle des artistes et le processus de cre虂ation du Moyen A虃ge a虁 nos jours (Universite虂 de Strasbourg), March 2022
Awards and Fellowships
2026-28 Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship, The Center for Advanced 91制片厂 in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
2025 Stacy Lloyd Fellowship at Oak Spring
Decorative Arts Trust Research Grant, 鈥楥olors of empire: Tracing circum-Atlantic Networks of cochineal and Indigo dyestuffs in the 鈥淣ouvelle Indes鈥 Gobelins tapestry set鈥, 2024
Dora Wiebenson Prize for the paper: 鈥楻ococo epistemology: Shell grottos and the aesthetics of deep time in Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon’s theory of the earth鈥, presented at HECAA@30, 2024
Enhancing Research England Grant, Courtauld Institute, 2024
Paul Mellon Center for Studies in British Art Research Support Grant for Gum Arabic: Visualizing Transparency from the West-African Sahel to Paris and London art studios in the eighteenth century, 2023
HECAA@30 Kress Travel Grant, 2023
Clark Library/ UCLA Center for Seventeenth-and Eighteenth-Century Studies Fellowship, 2023-24
Mary Vidal Award, Historians of Eighteenth-Century Art & Architecture (HECAA), 2022
Work Experience
2025 Art of Europe, Decorative Arts, Graduate Research Intern, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
2024 Associate Lecturer, Histories ‘Artists, Radicals, Mystics: European Art 1760-1830’
2022 Teaching Assistant, Foundations BA1, Autumn semester
2021 Research Assistant, Dr Esther Chadwick, Courtauld Institute of Art, London, U.K.
Feb 2020 – March 2021: Gallery Assistant, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, U.K.
Jan-May 2020: Curatorial Intern, Waddesdon Manor, Aylesbury, U.K.