Digital Commons Network^™

Protean Caves And Cyrenean Grottos: The Subterranean World Of Vergil's Fourth Georgic, Kirby Schoephoerster

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Using the studies and methodologies spearheaded by the burgeoning field of geomythology, this project aims to reevaluate one of the most famous works of ancient literature, the Georgics of Vergil, within the context of karst geology. In other words, I plan to critically investigate the famous myth of Aristaeus using a geomythological lens that focuses on how Vergil treats caves and cave systems as related to (his) myth. The didactic poem as a whole, and much less so the myth of Aristaeus, has been assessed relatively little by archaeologists, and by geomythologists not at all. Yet, book four contains an …

Female Acrobatics In Context: 5th-4th C. Bc, Marleigh Anderson

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ‘meaning’ of a performance is largely determined by its context. This idea became clear to me after years as a dancer performing in drastically different venues—including nursing home lobbies, circus tents, makeshift outdoor festival stages, football fields, and ornate theatres. To me, every performance opportunity felt distinct, especially depending on the audience and the nature of the performance. This is the personal background that I bring to my study of female acrobatic performances in ancient Greek society, and it is part of the reason that I find it critical to consider these performances within their contexts. Even if the …

The Comic Grotesque: Troubling The Body Politic In American Graphic Satire From World War I To The Great Depression, Bryna Rae Campbell

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the comic grotesque as a strategy of critical engagement within the thriving field of U.S. graphic satire from World War I through the Great Depression. During this period, artists across the political spectrum were using disruptive bodily forms, along with references to pain, vulgar associations and crude techniques, to challenge political authority, undermine attempts to smooth over political turbulence, and address communal anxieties about social tensions and the direction of the nation. Emerging in the context of record unemployment rates, the explosion of political radicalism, dramatic shifts of gender and class power dynamics, and emerging threats of …

Ek Tou Homerou Ad Homerum: A Survey Of The Roman Imperial Iconography Of Homer, Juan Dopico

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis evaluates the imagery of Homer in Roman imperial mosaics stemming from the 2^nd century AD to the 5^th century AD. In doing so, it will show that the Romans perhaps transformed the image of Homer in order that the patron may identify himself as an erudite and intellectual elite. This practice might have strong parallels with literary treatments with Homer during the Second Sophistic, especially among the Platonic philosophical tradition in the imperial period.

As a tool for those wishing to do a systematic analysis of figures in Roman art, mosaics contain some advantages that other …

Michelangelo And Pope Paul Iii, 1534-49: Patronage, Collaboration And Construction Of Identity In Renaissance Rome, Erin Christine Sutherland

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For his greatest patron, Pope Paul III Farnese (1534-49), Michelangelo painted the Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel, two monumental frescoes in the Pauline Chapel, and managed the design and reconstruction of St. Peter's Basilica. The pope and artist maintained a harmonious and remarkably productive association for the entirety of Paul's fifteen-year pontificate. The artist's projects at the Vatican defined the most important sacred spaces of Renaissance Rome and helped construct the identity of the papacy at the inception of the Counter-Reformation. At the same time, these are the finest examples of Michelangelo's mature painting and architecture. Following Giorgio Vasari's …