Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Satsuma Ceramics And The Importance Of Export Craft In Japan, Avery Keys

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Japanese Satsuma ware ceramics from the Meiji Period are an example of how artisans appeal to their buyers' preferences. Developed as a means to establish Japan as a contender within the global art scene, Satsuma ceramics was quickly picked up as a favorite by collectors in the West. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Westerners became obsessed with Japanese art after being exposed to exhibitions at World Fairs. The Japanese government took note of this and promoted the production of ceramic workshops specializing in Satsuma ware. Scholars often discuss whether this hindered the opportunity for artisans to work within …

Centuripe Ceramic Workshops And Their Distinct Funerary Vases, Avery Keys

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Ancient pottery from Centuripe, Sicily made during the Hellenistic period is an outlier when compared to most other red-figure, black slipped ceramics from Magna Graecia. Most Southern Italian and Sicilian vases have a distinct ornate style to them that was not a long lasting design choice in other Greek ceramic workshops. Funerary vases excavated in Centuripe's tombs provide a large collection of elaborate, decorative pottery that is not replicated anywhere else. Centuripean pottery was tempera painted with bright polychromatic colors. This unique quality of the ceramic ware has led scholars to focus on the color palette, the painted subject matters, …

Stephen Antonakos: The Spiritual Tenets Of Neon, Seville Partida

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Working without paint or brushes, Stephen Antonakos (1926—2013) created murals of neon light. These sweeping gestures of buzzing color achieve a meditative and spiritual quality yet remain accessible in their communal and urban settings. Douglas Crimp's 1981 essay, “The End of Painting '' argues that the most promising art of the time mounts a thorough critique on the myths of humanism, and consequently the cherished tropes of expressive painting. Antonakos’s career spans this period of upheaval, fraught by fears over the looming death of modernist painting as well as critical and curatorial activity that interrogated art’s structures. Although Antonakos seems …

The Goddess Of Morgantina: Aprhodite Or Demeter?, Martina Ciriesi

Undergraduate Research Symposium

"The Goddess of Morgantina" is considered one of the most controversial finds in the history of recent archeology in Sicily. The figure formerly known as "Getty Aphrodite," dated around 400 BCE, had been stolen by looters in Sicily, subsequently purchased by the Getty Museum in 1987, and returned to the Italian state only in September 2007. Unfortunately, illicit excavations have increased unresolved questions about the depiction of the goddess. The various hypotheses for identification of the female divinity represented in Morgantina's sculpture have sparked a lively and wide-ranging scientific debate among scholars. The archaeologist and art historian Antonio …

The Knidian Aphrodite: Praxiteles As Voyeur And Feminist, Andrew Marlowe-Cremedas

Undergraduate Research Symposium

One of the most famous sculptures from the fourth century BCE is the Aphrodite of Knidos by Praxiteles. The Aphrodite was the first large scale nude depicting a goddess in Greek culture, despite frequent depictions of the clothed female form and the nude male. Scholars such as Robin Osbourne have explored the male reaction to Knidian Aphrodite through the lens of male viewers and its implications. The male gaze has described the gendered limitations of male viewership on female nudes such as Aphrodite. Other scholars such as Mereille M. Lee argue that Praxiteles’ Aphrodite of Knidos was enjoyed by a …

Caravaggio’S Faith And Good Works: A New Interpretation Of Saint Jerome Writing, And Its Implications About The Artist, Louis Berbert

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Over the past one-hundred years, much effort has been given to the analysis and interpretation of the many paintings produced by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio during his short lifetime. Unfortunately, many of the artist’s works have gone vastly understudied, such as his Saint Jerome Writing, completed in 1606. Several scholars have touched on the painting briefly over the years, such as Howard Hibbard, who suggests in his 1985 monograph, Caravaggio, that the piece touches on the transiency of life, as well as Sybille Ebert- Schifferer, who adds in her 2009 book, Caravaggio: The Artist and His Work, that …

Late Bronze Age To Early Iron Age Ceramic Vases: The Documentation And Identification Of Odu's Cypriot Vase Collection, Jordan L. Staten, Sekoyah M. Mcglorn, Noelle E. Jessup

Undergraduate Research Symposium

ODU's Special Collections department has in its care a collection of five Cypriot vases, dating to the late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age on the island of Cyprus. The vases in Special Collections and University Archives came to ODU in 1968 from Dudley Cooper, who received them from the government of Cypress in 1963. This collection has never been studied intensively before. As a group, we have drawn to scale, measured, photographed, and created three-dimensional renderings of each vase in the collection. Through careful documentation of the vases, we have been able to identify reasonable comparanda for them among …

Criticism Through Interpretation: Jules Olitski, Brooke E. Benham

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Modernist art critics tend to focus solely on formal elements. Clement Greenberg’s descriptive approach on the medium and Jerry Saltz’s off-the-cuff judgements fail to utilize the relevant insight that can be collected through cognizant interpretation. Susan Sontag attempts to justify the medium-specific approach by arguing that the merit of a work of art is independent of any interpretation. However, an interpretation based on historical and cultural connections can produce valuable insights about the form itself. A research-based analysis of Kristina Type 3 (1976) by the late-modernist painter Jules Olitski will show that criticism can serve viewers best through knowledgeable interpretation. …

The Problem Of Originality In The Work Of Sarah Lucas, Chelsey Burch

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Sarah Lucas is a contemporary British artist known for satirical and often crudely sexual assemblages and photographs. Although she is often celebrated for this brazen imagery, this essay investigates the stark contradictions found between her statements and her work, particularly in contrasting her claims of originality with her similarities to the work of such artists as Louise Bourgeois and Marcel Duchamp. Through analyzing interviews and comparing her work with that of other famous artists throughout modern history, it posits that her strategy entails the purposeful imitation of a variety of inconsistent styles. Her work questions the idea of originality itself …

Tagged: Assigning Authorship To Figural Graffiti In Ancient Pompeii, Sarah K. Gorman

Undergraduate Research Symposium

While graffiti is an inevitable part of any modern cityscape, it is not a modern convention. Examples of man’s desire to write on walls can be found as early as the Paleolithic Era. Thus it is not surprising that large amounts of graffiti, both figural and textual have been discovered in the ancient city of Pompeii. Most scholarship attributes these inscriptions to elite, albeit naughty schoolboys, however, this narrow interpretation neglects the copious amounts of graffito discovered throughout homes and along the city’s walls. Through examination of these drawings, it becomes evident their artists comprise the totality of Pompeian citizenry.

Oh, Susanna: Exploring Artemisia’S Most Painted Heroine, Kerry Kilburn

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1656?) was a rare female Baroque artist who successfully established herself in the field of narrative history paintings. Her work included several series of paintings representing variations on a single theme. Her “Susanna and the Elders” series is unique among these: it contains the largest number of paintings executed over the longest period of time with no repetition of image types. This series exemplifies Artemisia’s practice of portraying heroic female protagonists and her narrative originality. Her potential identification with the character of Susanna moreover has allowed Artemisia to create a series of rare insight and nuance.

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Ideology In Stone: Re-Interpreting The Architecture Of Albert Speer For Contemporary Germany, Anna Rice, Allison Maleska

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Many buildings built under the reign of Adolf Hitler with the purpose to aid the Nazi party’s political and ideological agenda are still in existence and located throughout present-day Germany. During a 2014 faculty-led MSU Study Abroad Tour, student investigators collected data about the work of Albert Speer. Speer, an infamous architect of these times, played a key role in the development of many structures important to the Nazi party. Speer’s intent was not only to influence the people of his time; he was planning the impact the buildings would have for generations to come. This poster will present how …

New Research In Renaissance And Baroque Art, Agnieszka Whelan

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Chair: Dr. Agnieszka Whelan, Department of Art History

Presenters: Andrea Dalton, Olivia Morgan, Cristina Irizarry, Carly Sutphin, Yvonne Frederick

New Research In Modern And Contemporary Art, Vic Colaizzi

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Chair: Dr. Vic Colaizzi, Department of Art History

New Research In Renaissance And Baroque Art, Anne Muraoka

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Chair: Dr. Anne H. Muraoka, Department of Art History