The German History Society is proud to announce that the 2024 German History prize has been awarded to Amelia Hutchinson (University of Cambridge) for her article:

‘Very Full of Details and Excellently Executed’: Materiality and Medicine in Hans Rottenhammer’s Painted Bodies, German History, 42/3 (2024), pp.311–33.

Amelia is a PhD candidate in History at the University of Cambridge, supervised by Professor Ulinka Rublack and funded by the Harding Distinguished Postgraduate Scholar Programme. Her thesis looks at the relationship between health, medicine and materiality in early modern Germany. She holds a MPhil degree in Early Modern History (2022) and a BA (Hons) in History (2020), both from the University of Cambridge. In 2023 Amelia was a Cambridge-Leibniz Museum Collection Fellow, completing a project entitled: Mining Landscapes, Production and the Body (c.1650-1800).

On her win, Amelia wrote:

“Very Full of Details and Excellently Executed’: Materiality and Medicine in Hans Rottenhammer’s Painted Bodies’ explores the relationship between medical knowledge and knowledge of material properties in the depiction of skin and skin tones in early modern Northern European art. In particular, it focuses on the works of Hans Rottenhammer, known for his use of copperplate to paint vibrant figures. The article was developed from research undertaken as part of my MPhil in Early Modern History (Cambridge, 2020), where I used material reconstruction to explore how different paint recipes produced varied skin tones. In 2022 I was able to present my research at the German History Society Annual Conference, where I was met with invaluable feedback and support.


It is such an honour to win the Article Prize; the project was a joy to undertake, and very much inspired the trajectory of my PhD research (which focuses on medical knowledge and practice in the networks the merchant Philipp Hainhofer, one of Rottenhammer’s employers). As a current PhD student, winning the prize has also given me a new confidence in my research which I will take with me as I look to progress into an academic career.

Congratulations to Amelia for an excellent article!