Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Lords From The Desert, Caroline Mercado

Capstones

Lords from the Desert

This work explores a reality that is little talked about: how the most prestigious pre-Columbian art exhibits in the United States hide a murky origin. From looting of temples to illicit art trafficking, to smuggling and collectors’ affairs, the pieces gain value in proportion to the social prestige of their owner. Along the way, the most important is lost: research that provides context and allows us to know history. The First World wins a seductive, but simplistic story. The Third World, from which all these cultures emerge, loses patrimony and possibilities of understanding themselves. A pair …

Thinking Globally, Mapping Locally: Styles And Discourse In Transatlantic Cartography, Delia A. Cosentino

Artl@s Bulletin

Maps have the special capacity to create and project spatial frameworks through both their physical and stylistic forms. The close study of maps as constructed objects re-centers the principle element of any art historical problem, relational thinking through visual culture. A cartographic representation examined as an element of its historical context can simultaneously articulate a specific perspective on a particular place, and reveal broader dialogues of which that viewpoint is one part. The articles brought together here examine a variety of local mappings contingent on more global thinking in the transatlantic world, from the colonial period to the twentieth century.

Animated Art History: A Look Into Disney’S Representation Of Artwork In Film, Brianna Lagacé

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis discusses the representation of artworks in Disney films. It is an innovative study of Disney’s films through an art historical lens. The first chapter considers how representations of art convey Disney’s messages, specifically through medieval art, architecture, and literature. The second chapter examines the art’s role in character development with respect to gender and sexuality. The last chapter criticizes the process by which Disney characters shift from childhood to adulthood. The entire thesis observes the relationship between the art and the characters, plot, and setting of the film. All in all, this thesis considers the implications of representing …

Wearing Art History: Fashion As An Art, Sofia Killion

Senior Theses

Fashion is often seen as a frivolous craft which many believe to lack substance. Fashion however has for generations drawn inspiration from one of the very things that defines culture and that is art. Some of the most successful fashion designers of our time have drawn inspiration directly from masterpieces of art. The Spanish fashion designer Cristóbal Balenciaga (1895-1972) was heavily inspired by his countrymen including Diego Velázquez (1599-1660), Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664), and Francisco Goya (1746-1828). The Italian fashion designers Domenico Dolce (1958-present) and Stefano Gabbana (1962-present) created a Fall 2013 collection that was significantly inspired by the Byzantine …

Hiding In The Archives: The History Of The Art History Department At Dominican University Of California, Maura Wilson

Senior Theses

When students register for classes, they often take for granted the subjects that they register for. To these students their classes represent a means to an end. However, in the midst of the registration rush, when the registering student takes a moment to consider the time and work that had to be invested in to establishing these subjects, they might find a new appreciation for the classes that they are taking. This work is a tribute to the work of Dominican University faculty members who had to work hard to bring to fruition the Art History department as it exists …

Rising Above The Faithful: Monumental Ceiling Crosses In Byzantine Cappadocia, Alice Lynn Mcmichael

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The design of Byzantine architecture created viewing conditions that reveal social and spatial contexts of Christian ritual, private devotion, and expressions of identity. This is apparent in the decoration of ceilings, which were crucial visual elements within spatial relationships in late antique and medieval architecture but are rarely discussed because few examples survive. However, Byzantine Cappadocia, a region that is now central Turkey, has a high number of extant medieval ceilings in its rock-cut architecture. About eighty monuments there have monumental ceiling crosses that were painted or carved in relief between the sixth and eleventh centuries. In this dissertation the …

Zero Textbook Cost Syllabus For Art 1011 (Art History Survey I), Janine Defeo

Open Educational Resources

This introductory course presents a global view of art history through slide lectures and museum visits, with an emphasis on works of art found in New York City museums. It selectively surveys the visual arts of Europe from prehistory through the Middle Ages and concurrent historical periods in Egypt, the Near East, the Islamic world, Asia, Africa and the Americas.

All Is Fair In Love And War: An Exploration Of The History, Tactics, And Current Status Of The Guerrilla Girls, Elise Blankenship

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Founded as a response to a lack of female artists in an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art, the Guerrilla Girls have been an active voice in the art world for over thirty years. The Guerrilla Girls have a history that is filled with both internal and external power struggles and issues of having one’s voice heard on a variety of platforms. When successful in having their voices heard, the Guerrilla Girls use several tactics. The Gorilla masks, the overtly feminine clothing, and the use of the names of dead female artists and juxtaposed with the use of verified …

Marsilio Ficino's Astral Psychology: The Inner Cosmos Of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese On The Astronomical Ceiling Fresco Of Sala Del Mappamondo At Caprarola, Renata R. Nagy

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis intends to explore the relationship between the Neoplatonist doctrines of the Renaissance philosopher, Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), and astrological images in the Renaissance. The astrological ceiling fresco located in the Room of Maps in the Villa Farnese at Caprarola is in the center of the argument, which I analyze based on the metaphysical works of Ficino, the Platonic Theology (1482) and the Three Books on Life (1492). Authors have examined the fresco decoration and Ficinian philosophy individually, but never together. This study is the first to recognize Ficino's influence on Renaissance astrological images in its entirety.The present work synthesizes …

American Encounters: Art, History, And Cultural Identity, Angela L. Miller, Janet Catherine Berlo, Bryan J. Wolf, Jennifer L. Roberts

Books and Monographs

American Encounters provides a narrative of the history of American art that focuses on historical encounters among diverse cultures, upon broad structural transformations such as the rise of the middle classes and the emergence of consumer and mass culture, and on the fluid conversations between "high" art and vernacular expressions. The text emphasizes the intersections among cultures and populations, as well as the exchanges, borrowings, and appropriations that have enriched and vitalized our collective cultural heritage.

Syncretic Souvenirs: An Investigation Of Two Modern Indian Manuscripts, Madeline Helland

Scripps Senior Theses

The objective of this project was to establish a provenance for two Indian manuscripts that were recently discovered in the collections at Scripps College. Based on their illuminations, script, and binding structure, I was able to conclude that these two manuscripts are Hindu religious texts created around the 19^th or 20^th century. To determine an approximate origin and the significance of these volumes, my research focused on the syncretism of religion, material history, and power dynamics in India. Their context was specifically framed within the history of manuscript construction and conservation.