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Full-Text Articles in Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture

For Those In Peril On The Sea : The Motivations Of Nineteenth Century European Artists To Create Shipwreck Paintings, Calvin Liepins Jan 2020

For Those In Peril On The Sea : The Motivations Of Nineteenth Century European Artists To Create Shipwreck Paintings, Calvin Liepins

MA Theses

This thesis will be an examination of the motivations of nineteenth century European artists to create paintings portraying shipwrecks. I have identified four main motivations, Nature over Man, Man over Nature, Political Position, and Personal Upheaval, and will analyze various works in order to view how each motivation relates to the other. Each work analyzed falls into one or more of these categories and by studying them side by side I hope to gain a better understanding of these works unique place in art history. Additionally I will be taking a look at how depictions of shipwrecks were politicized by …


Terrible Beauty : The Many Faces Of Helen Of Troy In Painting From Antiquity To The Nineteenth Century, Lindsay M. Taylor Jan 2020

Terrible Beauty : The Many Faces Of Helen Of Troy In Painting From Antiquity To The Nineteenth Century, Lindsay M. Taylor

MA Theses

Helen of Troy is one of the most complex and enigmatic characters from Greek mythology. For nearly two thousand years, her story has consistently been retold, reshaped, and reinterpreted in a rich variety of narratives produced in different contexts for different audiences. In the absence of a canonical version Helen’s tale, philosophers, poets, playwrights, novelists, musicians, filmmakers, and artists in every period have interpreted, modified, and embellished her character in disparate and contradictory terms. Consequently, she has played a significant role in Western artistic canon in a way no other figure from Greek mythology has been able to accomplish; she …


Reappraising The Rococo : The Enduring Relevance Of Eighteenth-Century French Painting, Emma M. Woodberry Jan 2020

Reappraising The Rococo : The Enduring Relevance Of Eighteenth-Century French Painting, Emma M. Woodberry

MA Theses

Often regarded as purely decorative, obsolete, and inconsequential, the rococo paintings of eighteenth-century France acquire historical significance and contemporary resonance once interpreted with fresh eyes. After the French Revolution, rococo paintings were associated with the politics and aristocracy of the ancien régime, a conflation that has colored aesthetic reputation of frivolity and artifice over the course of its history. This research centers on the claim that the rococo survived the Revolution, and continues to be called upon by contemporary artists as a productive artistic idiom. First, the cultural and aesthetic significance of eighteenth-century French rococo paintings will be considered with …


Appalling Aftermath : The Idealization Of Sympathy In Battle Paintings Of The Great Siege Of Gibraltar, Sean F. Galvin Jan 2020

Appalling Aftermath : The Idealization Of Sympathy In Battle Paintings Of The Great Siege Of Gibraltar, Sean F. Galvin

MA Theses

The failed siege attempt by French and Spanish forces on the British stronghold at Gibraltar from 1779 to 1783 provided several episodes of national commemoration for the defenders. This thesis focuses on three such paintings which take place at the end of their respective battles. In the first chapter, Gibraltar relieved by Sir George Rodney, 1780 by Dominic Serres idealizes victorious British might personified by the commander George Rodney. It serves to assure the possibility of British victory under competent command at a moment during the uncertain time of war. The second chapter focuses on John Singleton Copley’s Destruction of …


The Crown Jewel Of Divinity : Examining How A Coronation Crown Transforms The Virgin Into The Queen, Sara Sims Wilbanks Jan 2020

The Crown Jewel Of Divinity : Examining How A Coronation Crown Transforms The Virgin Into The Queen, Sara Sims Wilbanks

MA Theses

Inspired by Italian, religious images from the 15th and 16th centuries of the Coronation of the Virgin, this thesis will attempt to dissect the numerous depictions of crowns amongst the perspectives of formal analysis, iconography, and theology in order to deduce how this piece of jewelry impacts the religious status of the Virgin Mary. By utilizing specific images as examples, the paper will be heavily weighted in visual evidence to support my speculative investigations. It is my aim to examine the relation, if at all, between the physical value of crowns and their symbolic meaning in fine art to distinguish …


The "Whys" Of The Grand Cameo: A Holistic Approach To Understanding The Piece, Its Origins And Its Context, Constantine Prince Sidamon-Eristoff Jan 2018

The "Whys" Of The Grand Cameo: A Holistic Approach To Understanding The Piece, Its Origins And Its Context, Constantine Prince Sidamon-Eristoff

MA Theses

The Grand Cameo for France is the largest cameo surviving from antiquity. Scholars have debated who is portrayed on the stone and what its scene means for centuries, often, although not always, limiting their interpretations to this narrow area and typically only discussing other causes in passing. This pattern can and should be broken, allowing the stone to be what all objects truly are: windows to the lives that that objects have lived, just as all physical things are; evidence of an experience part of the world went though, whose meanings have and continue to be part of a wider …