Listening to objects: an ecological approach to the decorative arts.

An essay is presented on the approaches used by scholars in encountering, understanding, and studying decorative arts in the discipline of art history. It examines the factors that caused the separation between high art and the decorative arts in the field of scholarship and in many modern museums. It also explains the ecological approach used by scholars to study early modern furniture, textiles, and decorative objects that recognize the interrelatedness of art and decorative arts.