History Commons^™

Looted Cultural Objects, Elena Baylis

Articles

In the United States, Europe, and elsewhere, museums are in possession of cultural objects that were unethically taken from their countries and communities of origin under the auspices of colonialism. For many years, the art world considered such holdings unexceptional. Now, a longstanding movement to decolonize museums is gaining momentum, and some museums are reconsidering their collections. Presently, whether to return such looted foreign cultural objects is typically a voluntary choice for individual museums to make, not a legal obligation. Modern treaties and statutes protecting cultural property apply only prospectively, to items stolen or illegally exported after their effective dates. …

Art And Power: How The D'Este Family Ruled Renaissance Ferrara, Luke Ziegler

Tenor of Our Times

During the Renaissance, the d'Este family ruled the Northern Italian city of Ferrara. To make up for their modest land holdings, the d'Este chose to exert influence and control over Italian politics through artistic patronage. The court of Ferrara became known for its beauty, intelligence, and sophistication. All the dukes of Ferrara contributed to the city's cultural significance, and elevated Ferrara as one of the dominant cities on the Italian peninsula.

The Marriage Between Art And Politics: Propaganda, Rebecca J. Counen

The Purdue Historian

During the first half of the twentieth century Europe, Asia, and the United States faced many political/social changes and challenges amid both ideological wars and revolutions. This research paper works to analyze films from this era in order to convey the somewhat unorthodox, yet nonetheless influential and compelling, relationship between the arts and politics and how creativity is oftentimes manipulated for power and influence.

The Nazi Aesthetic: Nuance And Contradiction In Systematic Art Theft And Collection Efforts, Katharine J. Namon

Senior Theses and Projects

Nazi art collecting and looting was a strong and persistent undercurrent throughout World War II. The public and private practices of Nazi officials reveal both their aesthetic tastes and obsession with establishing themselves as highly educated, cultured patrons of the arts. Although the party’s artistic preferences are hard to define, it is evident that their stance on what constituted fine art and culture was entirely illogical, inconsistent, and incongruent. By examining their motives for acquiring such an astounding amount of art, the artistic tastes of individual Nazi officials, and the public exhibitions they held to advertise their values, one can …

Portrait Of Same-Sex Desire: Lesbian (Mis)Representations In Nineteenth-Century French Art, Jessica N. Mummert

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

In late nineteenth-century France, lesbianism became a heightened topic of interest due to scientific, social, and political discourse surrounding female sexuality. From this discourse stemmed a small but significant outpouring of lesbian artworks by male artists. Rendering the lesbian as a hypervisible, hypersexual figure for men to project their desires and fears onto, these artworks communicated concerns over sexuality, morality, feminism, class, and gender roles. Traditionally, historiography on this topic tends to focus on one mode of lesbian representation at a time or discusses lesbian art en masse. This scholarship has highlighted some different representations and the social circumstances that …

Artist And Patron Relationships: Social Power Dynamics In Renaissance Italy, Katherine E. Siegler

MSU Graduate Theses

In historical discourse, one of the main discussions that can be found is in relation to determining who holds power in social and political environments. The world of art in Renaissance Italy is a place where such power dynamics were of great importance. My thesis examines social power dynamics in the artist-patron relationship in Renaissance Italy in order to discern who held power in these complex bonds and how such relationships influenced and impacted Renaissance society at large. This work is divided into two units. The first unit provides examples and arguments that maintain that the patron was the main …

The Last Prisoners Of War: How Nazi-Looted Art Is Displayed In U.S. Museums, Monica May Thompson

Geifman Prize in Holocaust Studies

How art museums approach NLA is important today because much of the public relies on museums for their education. NLA cases are especially controversial because they are not only legal battles, but ethical ones so museums have to be extra careful approaching them. Even if the museum has won the legal battle the public may not see them as winning the ethical one therefore they might want to avoid displaying this information to the public. However, as we can see with the previous websites, it actually looks worse for museums not to be open and honest about their NLA pieces …

Imaging The Great Irish Famine: Representing Dispossession In Visual Culture, Preface & Introduction, Niamh Ann Kelly

Books/Book Chapters

‘Niamh Ann Kelly's lavishly illustrated book throws new light on the visual culture commemorative of hunger, famine and dispossession in mid-nineteenth-century Ireland. Located within the discipline of International Memorial Studies, the text and images both challenge and extend our understanding of Famine history. Examining the visual culture since the time of the Famine until the present, Kelly asks, how do we view, experience and represent the past in the present? To what extent does the viewer insert themselves in this complex process? Is there such a thing as ethical spectatorship? Kelly’s sophisticated yet sympathetic study of the “grievous history” …

Art And Terror: Vergangenheitsbewältigung In Relation To The Red Army Faction, Joanie Lange

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

Advanced Undergraduate Winner

The Red Army Faction, active from 1970-1998, was an infamous West German far-left terrorist group. Its ideology and numerous terrorist acts not only left a lasting impact upon the politics and culture of Germany, but noteworthy is also the fact that the group inspired the creation of countless works of art. This research paper seeks to understand and explain this phenomenon. It argues that the artworks inspired by the RAF are a form of Vergangenheitsbewältigung, a peculiarly German concept “coming to terms with the past,” most often used in relation to fiction and art exploring the …

A Tale Of Triumph Amidst Tragedy: C-Section In Furini's The Birth Of Benjamin And The Death Of Rachel, Alexandra Carlile

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

No abstract provided.

Adolf Wissel: Compliant Dissidence, A Nonbinary Reading Of Work Executed From 1933 – 1941, Jeremy Lyn Schrupp

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the vast amount of scholarship devoted to the Nazi era, there is very little dedicated to the analysis of its works of art. This paper aims to rectify that, by analyzing the work of Adolf Wissel. Aside from its didactic use amongst academia, there is only one academic analysis of his work. The intent of the present analysis is to build from that foundation and provide an additional layer of contextualization to an era that is relatively unexplored within our field. This analysis will establish that Adolf Wissel maintained specific subject, compositional, and stylistic choices that subtly opposed NSDAP …

Art Of The Weimar Republic And The Premonitions Of Fascism, Leshan Xiao

CMC Senior Theses

Founded in 1918 following the carnage of World War One until the Nazi takeover of 1933, the Weimar Republic is widely renowned as a bastion of freedom and democracy that existed only briefly between the reigns of two authoritarian regimes. The Weimar period witnessed an unprecedented prosperity of art and culture, with tremendous advancements in the fields of literature, the visual arts, and film. However, the remnants of the old Empire persisted within the new Republic, and new fascist factions rose to prominence within German society. Artists that lived through the era, both liberal and conservative, observed and provided their …

Captive Body, Free Mind: Euphrosinia Kersnovskaia, The Gulag, And Art Under Oppression, Laura G. Waters

Student Publications

This paper examines the art of Euphrosinia Kersnovskaia (1907-1994) as it relates to both the larger experience and narrative of the Soviet Gulag and to the survival of the artist. Larger trends of art made under oppression are used to find reason for such seemingly insignificant acts, and art therapy frameworks provide analytical bases for approach. By looking at such deeply subjective forms of memory and its transcription, individuality and humanity is returned to an inhuman penal system.

Book Review: Representing Genocide: The Holocaust As Paradigm?, Emily Sample

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Hard Times; Hard Duties; Hard Hearts; The Volksgemeinschaft As An Indicator Of Identity Shift, Kaitlin Hampshire

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

How can one nation define an ideal community? The Reich’s Propaganda Ministry of Nazi Germany knew. No cultivation of community, or Volksgemeinschaft in the case of Nazi Germany, is complete without the use of propaganda. Nazi propaganda posters played several different roles in the formation of the community, such as maintaining the military, as well as labor forces not in the military, perpetuating anti-Soviet and anti-Jew feelings, creating the Führer myth, and gaining the support of Germany’s youth. All of the messages displayed in the posters identified the values of the members of the ‘National Community’ or Volksgemeinschaft.

Propaganda posters …

French Women In Art: Reclaiming The Body Through Creation/Les Femmes Artistes Françaises : La Réclamation Du Corps À Travers La Création, Liatris Hethcoat

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The research I have conducted for my French Major Senior Thesis is a culmination of my passion for and studies of both French language and culture and the history and practice of Visual Arts. I have examined, across the history of art, the representation of women, and concluded that until the 20^th century, these representations have been tools employed by the makers of history and those at the top of the patriarchal system, used to control women’s images and thus women themselves. I survey these representations, which are largely created by men—until the 20^th century. I discuss pre-historical …

Past Disquiet: From Research To Exhibition, Kristine Khouri, Rasha Salti

Artl@s Bulletin

An exhibition of an exceptional scale and scope took place in Beirut in the middle of the civil war and today, its archival and documentary traces have been almost entirely lost. The International Art Exhibition for Palestine opened in the Spring of 1978, comprising some 200 works donated by artists hailing from nearly 30 countries, to be a seed collection for a museum in exile. This is a transcript of a presentation of the transformation of research into an exhibition format and a virtual walkthrough of the show Past Disquiet: Narratives and Ghosts from the International Art Exhibition for Palestine, …

Beer And Brewing In German Culture: Bridging The Gaps Within Steam, John D. Sundquist

The STEAM Journal

A university-level course on science, history, and culture of beer and brewing offers students from a wide range of disciplines a unique opportunity to learn from each other. They gain an appreciation for STEAM and the interaction of a number of disciplines while examining a subject of growing interest. This paper provides a brief description of such a course and includes specific examples of ways in which students explore science, engineering, humanities and the arts, as these areas of research come together in the study of beer and brewing.

Jacques-Louis David And The Enlightenment: The Intersection Of Art And Politics In Prerevolutionary France, Ashley B. Mullen

Senior Theses and Projects

An analysis of Jacques-Louis David's art and politics before and during the French Revolution.

The Art Of Censorship, Mark Sieber

Geifman Prize in Holocaust Studies

This work seeks to show a similarity between censorship of Art in Nazi Germany and the censorship of John Adam’s The Death of Klinghoffer. By analyzing historical facts surrounding Nazi policy and comparing them against criticisms of Klinghoffer, a connection is found. Censoring a work of art, regardless of its message, is detrimental not only to the art itself, but also to the culture, voice, and ideas it represents.

Inspiring Piety: The Influence Of Caravaggio’S Paintings In Santa Maria Del Popolo, Cara Coleman

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This article looks at the way Italian Baroque painter, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio broke from the artistic conventions of the Renaissance and Mannerist styles in his religious paintings to create an entirely new style that reflected the needs of the post-Tridentine Catholic Church. Caravaggio pushed painting throughout Europe in a new direction, away from the idealization of the Renaissance and the artistic extremes of Mannerism, by popularizing realism in art. Caravaggio’s unique style is examined through comparisons of his paintings, The Conversion of Paul, c.1601 and The Martyrdom of Saint Peter, c.1601 in the Roman basilica, Santa Maria del Popolo …

Walking In A Burnt Hole, Sophia Friedman

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Holocaust stems from the Greek word “burnt hole,” but when the word Holocaust is mentioned today it refers to the rise of Nazi Germany in 1933 until the fall in 1945 (Skloot). More specifically, the Holocaust refers to the 11 million persecutions through concentration camps. The Holocaust is widely studied for various reasons, but the biggest reason is that “’we are seekers of understanding in the territory defined by those events” (Skloot 9). Through written work, such as poetry and plays, the Holocaust is brought to life in a more realistic way.

Through art we are able to connect to …

Interpreting, Stephanie Jo Kent

Doctoral Dissertations

What do community interpreting for the Deaf in western societies, conference interpreting for the European Parliament, and language brokering in international management have in common? Academic research and professional training have historically emphasized the linguistic and cognitive challenges of interpreting, neglecting or ignoring the social aspects that structure communication. All forms of interpreting are inherently social; they involve relationships among at least three people and two languages. The contexts explored here, American Sign Language/English interpreting and spoken language interpreting within the European Parliament, show that simultaneous interpreting involves attitudes, norms and values about intercultural communication that overemphasize information and discount …

The Efficacy Of Mathematics Education, Eric Geimer

The STEAM Journal

Evidence supports the notion that mathematics education in the United States is inadequate. There is also evidence that mathematics education deficiencies extend internationally. The worldwide mathematics education deficit appears large enough that improving student performance in this educational problem area could yield great economic benefit. To improve the efficacy of mathematics education, education’s root problems must first be understood. Often supposed educational root problems are considered and contrasted against potential deficiencies of mathematics methodologies and curricula that are based on mainstream educational philosophies. The educational philosophies utilized to form early-grade mathematics methodologies and related curricula are judged to be the …

Review Of The Young Leonardo: Art And Life In Fifteenth-Century Florence By Larry J. Feinberg, Brian Maxson

ETSU Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

An Innocent Victim?: The Portrayal Of Anne Boleyn In French Drama, Art, And Literature Of The 1830s, Molly Driscoll

Honors Theses and Capstones

The 1830s in France saw a revival of artistic interest in and representations of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII of England. This thesis traces Anne's influence on artistic, dramatic, and literary works of the 1830s and focuses on how these portrayals differed from one another as well as contemporary and modern opinions of Anne.

Beyeler, Ernst. Ernst Beyeler: A Passion For Art, Interviews With Christopher Mory, Melissa Renn

Swiss American Historical Society Review

First published in French in 2003, Ernst Beyeler: A Passion for Art (2011) consists of a series of interviews with the Swiss art collector and dealer Ernst Beyeler (1921-2010) conducted by the journalist and novelist Christopher Mory. Through these lively conversations, Beyeler gives the reader a glimpse into the European and American art worlds from the 1950s to the present, and the book is filled with fascinating anecdotes regarding some of the most famous artists, collectors, and dealers of the twentieth century.

Metallurgy In The Roman Forts Of Scotland: An Archaeological Analysis, Scott S. Stetkiewicz

Honors Projects

Investigates the presence of metalworking in thirty-seven Roman forts in Scotland during the Flavian, Antonine, and Severan occupations largely through analysis of published documentation concerning relevant archaeological excavations.

Tattoo World, Agnieszka Marczak

Honors Projects

Presents a holistic look at the world of tattoo. Covers the history of the practice of tattooing in Europe, Asia, and the Pacific. Discusses such major issues as tattooing in relation to the body, authenticity, commodification and meaning, functions, medical and legal concerns, the impact of technological developments on the practice, and the increase in popularity of tattooing in recent decades.

San Francesco D'Assisi E Santa Caterina Da Siena. La Loro Influenza Sulla Letteratura, La Cultura, La Religione E L'Arte Italiana Dei Primordi, Ann-Frances Hamill

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Examines the works and thoughts of two Italian saints: Saint Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) and Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380). Explores the common ideological denominator in the works of these major figures and analyzes their impact on Italian society and culture.