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Full-Text Articles in History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology

Ritual, Spectacle, And Theatre In Late Medieval Seville (Chapter 1), Christopher B. Swift Jan 2023

Ritual, Spectacle, And Theatre In Late Medieval Seville (Chapter 1), Christopher B. Swift

Publications and Research

From the fall of Islamic Išbīliya in 1248 to the conquest of the New World, Seville was a nexus of economic and religious power where interconfessional living among Christians, Jews, and Muslims was negotiated on public stages. From out of seemingly irreconcilable ideologies of faith, hybrid performance culture emerged in spectacles of miraculous transformation, disciplinary processionals, and representations of religious identity. Ritual, Spectacle, and Theatre in Late Medieval Seville reinvigorates the study of medieval Iberian theater by revealing the ways in which public expressions of devotion, penance, and power fostered cultural reciprocity, rehearsed religious difference, and ultimately helped establish Seville …


Ideas Reales Y Reales Ideas: Écfrasis En La Palestra Numerosa Austriaca, Almudena Vidorreta Jan 2017

Ideas Reales Y Reales Ideas: Écfrasis En La Palestra Numerosa Austriaca, Almudena Vidorreta

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.


Book Review Of A. Victor Coonin, From Marble To Flesh: The Biography Of Michelangelo’S David, Sandra Cheng Oct 2015

Book Review Of A. Victor Coonin, From Marble To Flesh: The Biography Of Michelangelo’S David, Sandra Cheng

Publications and Research

Beginning of Book Review:
“What makes an icon?” is the underlying question of A. Victor Coonin’s book dedicated to Michelangelo’s statue of David. The larger-than-life-size David has a status akin to Leonardo’s Mona Lisa. Its image, whether whole or fragmented, is instantaneously recognizable, making it difficult to look at it afresh, but Coonin manages to reflect on well-trodden ground in a captivating manner. This study demonstrates how the David is more than an embodiment of masculinity but a statue imbued with multi-faceted symbolism that continues to resonate with viewers today.


Robot Saints, Christopher B. Swift Jan 2015

Robot Saints, Christopher B. Swift

Publications and Research

In the Middle Ages, articulating religious figures like wooden Deposition crucifixes and ambulatory saints were tools for devotion, techno-mythological objects that distilled the wonders of engineering and holiness. Robots are gestures toward immortality, created in the face of the undeniable fact and experience of the ongoing decay of our fleshy bodies. Both like and unlike human beings, robots and androids occupy a nebulous perceptual realm between life and death, animation and inanimation. Masahiro Mori called this in-between space the “uncanny valley.” In this essay I argue that unlike a modern person apprehending an android (the uncanny human-like object that resides …


Embodiment Of The Halaf: Sixth Millennium Figurines From Northern Mesopotamia, Ellen H. Belcher Jan 2014

Embodiment Of The Halaf: Sixth Millennium Figurines From Northern Mesopotamia, Ellen H. Belcher

Publications and Research

This dissertation answers the question, "What are Halaf figurines?" In response to that question, this study examines a corpus of anthropomorphic figurines from archaeological sites dating to the Halaf period (Sixth Millennium cal BCE) known from excavations in Turkey and Syria. Included in this dissertation is a detailed catalog of 197 figurine examples, both whole and fragmented, and analysis of their excavated contexts from seven Halaf sites in Turkey and nine sites in Syria. The study also reviews and discusses existing literature on Halaf and figurine studies and examines and critiques modern biases, assumptions, and influences, especially as related to …


Technology And Wonder In Thirteenth-Century Iberia And Beyond, Christopher B. Swift Jan 2014

Technology And Wonder In Thirteenth-Century Iberia And Beyond, Christopher B. Swift

Publications and Research

As the desire for affective experiences of the sacred increased in communities across Europe in the late Middle Ages, the Christian faithful crafted lifelike, mechanized figures of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and saints for use in religious festivals. Although each devotional culture evidences unique body/object relationships and meanings, in general animated ritual objects encouraged lay participation in the celebration of saints and the Passion by engaging the senses, and, consequently, an emotional sense of God. In this essay I investigate the ritual alliances between moveable, prop-like saints and their Iberian devotees, in particular the performative meanings that arose from encounters …


La Touche Satirique Du Bernin: Dessin Et Caricature Comme Acte Performatif Au Début De L'Époque Modern, Sandra Cheng Jan 2013

La Touche Satirique Du Bernin: Dessin Et Caricature Comme Acte Performatif Au Début De L'Époque Modern, Sandra Cheng

Publications and Research

This short article examines the performative aspects of Gianlorenzo Bernini's caricature production.


The Cult Of The Monstrous: Caricature, Physiognomy, And Monsters In Early Modern Italy, Sandra Cheng Jan 2012

The Cult Of The Monstrous: Caricature, Physiognomy, And Monsters In Early Modern Italy, Sandra Cheng

Publications and Research

Caricature emerged as a pictorial genre in early modern Italy and became a potent form of social satire practiced by the period’s foremost draftsmen, including the Carracci and Guercino. The deformed and misshapen subjects of caricature drawings coincided with a fascination with monstrosity. Monsters, aberrations, and anomalies reflected a cultural appreciation for the curious. The monster that slowly took shape in scientific literature was first alluded to in comparative physiognomic texts that related man to beast, then made brief appearances in the discourse on medical conditions, and finally became the primary focus of specialty publications. The attention given to physical …