History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons^™

The Social Dynamics Of Early Helladic Sealing Practices: Seal Use And Social Change In Early Bronze Age Greece, Maggie Beeler

Bryn Mawr College Dissertations and Theses

This study investigates the role of administrative sealing practices in the emergence of social complexity in Early Helladic (EH) period (ca. 3100-2000 BCE) Greece. Archaeologists associate emerging complexity in mainland Greece with key developments in the EH period, including sealing practices, long-distance exchanges, monumental architecture, and craft specialization. Seals and sealings are a particularly sensitive proxy for complexity because of their economic and political potential as administrative devices, a pre-literate form of record keeping. Although Mycenaean elites used seals to control resources in the palatial political economy in the Late Bronze Age, there is no evidence that incipient elites did …

Inspired Invention: Cristóbal De Villalpando's Paintings Of The Life Of Saint Francis, Mark A. Castro

Bryn Mawr College Dissertations and Theses

This project is an in-depth study of Cristóbal de Villalpando’s cycle of paintings depicting the life of Saint Francis of Assisi, commissioned in 1691 for the Franciscan Convent in Antigua, Guatemala. This seminal group has not been the subject of a focused study since 1986 and the sources of its unique iconography, as well as its impact on later depictions of this saint’s life in New Spain, have never been fully explored. In a larger context, examining the scenes illustrated in Villalpando’s series, which were likely selected under the guidance of his Franciscan patrons, tells us something about the Franciscans …

Didier William, Nestor Armando Gil/Taller Workshop: Swarm, Pennsylvania Academy Of The Fine Arts, Laurel Mclaughlin, Mechella Yezernitskaya

Books, pamphlets, catalogues, and scrapbooks

Catalogue to the exhibition Swarm at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, June 30, 2018-September 9, 2018, curated by Laurel McLaughlin and Mechella Yezernitskaya (graduate students, History of Art, Bryn Mawr College).

The work of artists Didier William (b. 1983) and Nestor Armando Gil (b. 1971) beckons viewers, as an imperative, to physically and intellectually “swarm” conceptions of colonialism in order to disarm such narratives of power. The artists’ mixed media practices in printmaking, painting, collage, sculpture, installation, and performance are inflected by their Haitian and Cuban heritages as well as the diasporic communities they call home in …

Painting As Medicine In Early Modern Rome: Giulio Mancini And The Efficacy Of Art, David Cast

History of Art Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Communication In A Visual Mode: Papal Apse Mosaics, Dale Kinney

History of Art Faculty Research and Scholarship

Apse mosaics are a form of visual communication employed by popes throughout the Middle Ages, from the sixth through to the thirteenth centuries. This essay examines the nature of this visual mode and the means by which viewers could understand it. A theory of viewing widely attributed to Pope Gregory I (590–604) is shown to be especially pertinent to early medieval apse mosaics and to the twelfth-century mosaic in the apse of S. Maria in Trastevere. The apses of thirteenth-century popes display a new, more explicit approach to visual messaging that required less interpretive effort by the viewer. Two mosaics …

The Paradigm Of Spolia, Dale Kinney

History of Art Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Virtual Reality In Real Time: A Conversation, Shari Frilot, Homay King

Arts Program Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative Work

No abstract provided.

Review: Maria Fabricius Hansen, The Spolia Churches Of Rome: Recycling Antiquity In The Middle Ages, Trans. Barbara J. Haveland., Dale Kinney

History of Art Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Emperor’S Humbler Clothes: Textures Of Courtly Dress In Seventeenth-Century South Asia, Sylvia W. Houghteling

History of Art Faculty Research and Scholarship

This study reconstructs the humbler components of South Asian courtly ensembles worn by the greatest Mughal emperors, which included relatively inexpensive tie-­dyed cloths made in Rajasthan and finely spun cotton muslins from Bengal. Court biographies, popular lexicons, and the letters sent from the Mughal court to its Rajput allies reveal that the fabrics used for dress in early modern South Asia were valued for sensory qualities, such as softness, saturation of color, and coolness on the skin, that went beyond the cost of the materials or the sophistication of the technology used to produce them. This project transports the study …

From Above And On The Ground: Geospatial Methods For Recording Endangered Archaeology In The Middle East And North Africa, Louise Rayne, Jennie Bradbury, David Mattingly, Graham Philip, Robert Bewley, Andrew Wilson

Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology Faculty Research and Scholarship

The EAMENA (Endangered Archaeology of the Middle East and North Africa) project is a collaboration between the Universities of Leicester, Oxford and Durham; it is funded by the Arcadia Fund and the Cultural Protection Fund. This paper explores the development of the EAMENA methodology, and discusses some of the problems of working across such a broad region. We discuss two main case studies: the World Heritage site of Cyrene illustrates how the project can use satellite imagery (dating from the 1960s to 2017), in conjunction with published data to create a detailed set of database records for a single site …

Expanding The Christian Footprint: Church Building In The City And The Suburbium, Dale Kinney

History of Art Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Endangered Archaeology In The Middle East And North Africa: Introducing The Eamena Project, Robert Bewley, Andrew Wilson, David Kennedy, David Mattingly, Rebecca Banks, Michael Bishop, Jennie Bradbury, Emma Cunliffe, Michael Fradley, Richard Jennings, Robyn Mason, Louise Rayne, Martin Sterry, Nichole Sheldrick, Andrea Zerbini

Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology Faculty Research and Scholarship

This project uses satellite imagery and historic aerial photographs to discover and interpret archaeological sites. It has created an open access database of archaeological records that provides basic information so that the sites can be better under- stood and preserved in the future. The threats to sites in the Middle East and North Africa are increasing and creating a record of previously unrecorded sites using this methodology may be our the last chance before they are destroyed.

Mask And Husk: KäThe Kollwitz’S Mourning Parents And Self-Portrait In Dialogue, Christiane Hertel

History of Art Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Architectural Sculpture, Dale Kinney

History of Art Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Type Of The Triconch Basilica., Dale Kinney

History of Art Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Image Of A Building: Santa Maria In Trastevere, Dale Kinney

History of Art Faculty Research and Scholarship

Buildings can only be seen through images, including sensory impressions (perceptual images), views created by artists and photographers (pictorial images), the analytical graphics of architects (analytical images), and now, digital means of representation. This article is concerned with another level of image: the themes or metaphors the building was intended to convey (intended images); the image projected by contingent factors such as age, condition, and location (projected images), and the collective image generated by the interaction of the building’s appearance with the norms and expectations of its users and beholders. The Roman church of Santa Maria in Trastevere is taken …

Three Late Medieval Kilns From The Athenian Agora, Camilla Mackay

Library Staff Research and Scholarship

This article presents pottery from three late medieval kilns excavated in the Athenian Agora in the 1930s. Wasters from the kilns provide important proof of the local production of lead-glazed wares that come into use in the early Ottoman period and are found in surveys and excavations throughout Attica and Boeotia. Some of this pottery has been identified as maiolica, but portable x-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analysis has not indicated the presence of tin in the glaze. While distinctive in appearance, the pottery from these kilns seems to continue the ceramic tradition of earlier medieval Athens.

Persistence And Polychronicity In Roman Churches, Dale Kinney

History of Art Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Rolling Between Burial And Shrine: A Tale Of Two Chariot Processions At Chulan Tomb 2 In Eastern Han China (171 C.E.), Jie Shi

History of Art Faculty Research and Scholarship

Chulan Tomb 2 (dated to 171 c.e.) in present-day Suxian, Anhui province, offers the rare opportunity to study the hitherto unknown relationship between multiple depictions of chariot processions—one of the most popular pictorial motifs in Eastern Han funerary art—at different locations in a single cemetery. Comparing this tomb’s two chariot processions in stylistic, iconographic, and positional terms, this paper draws attention to a special dragon motif that ornaments a few special chariots and argues that these “dragon chariots,” unique among stone carvings of the Eastern Han, were meant to carry the deceased couple, who were buried separately but received joint …

The Hidden Level In Space And Time: The Vertical Shaft In The Royal Tombs Of The Zhongshan Kingdom In Late Eastern Zhou (475–221 Bce) China, Jie Shi

History of Art Faculty Research and Scholarship

Among the best preserved royal tombs in early China, the tombs of the Zhongshan state (dated to the late fourth to early third centuries bce) in present-day Pingshan county each featured a concealed earthen shaft in the middle of the tomb. Constructed with rammed earth, this gigantic

structure was located above the underground burial chamber, where the deceased’s casket and body were located, and below the freestanding offering hall that housed the deceased’s soul. Although this empty shaft would eventually be buried and become invisible, it was carefully embellished and sometimes even decorated with false architectural elements. What role did …

The Overseeing Mother: Revisiting The Frontal-Pose Lady In The Wu Family Shrines In Second Century China, Jie Shi

History of Art Faculty Research and Scholarship

Located in present-day Jiaxiang in Shandong province, the Wu family shrines built during the second century in the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220) were among the best-known works in Chinese art history. Although for centuries scholars have exhaustively studied the pictorial programs, the frontal-pose female image situated on the second floor of the central pavilion carved at the rear wall of the shrines has remained a question. Beginning with the woman’s eyes, this article demonstrates that the image is more than a generic portrait (“hard motif ”), but rather represents “feminine overseeing from above” (“soft motif ”). This synthetic motif combines …

A Type Γ Courting Scene For Alan: The Spitzer Amphora At Bryn Mawr College, Robert F. Sutton

Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Stroboscopic: Andy Warhol And The Exploding Plastic Inevitable, Homay King

History of Art Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Review: Paolo De Matteis: Neapolitan Painting And Cultural History In Baroque Europe By Livio Pestilli, David Cast

History of Art Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

To Die With The Buddha: The Brick Pagoda And Its Role In The Xuezhuang Tomb In Early Medieval China, Jie Shi

History of Art Faculty Research and Scholarship

The important late fifth- or early sixth-century brick tomb at Xuezhuang in Dengxian (Henan) features a brick form at the rear wall, which remained mysterious until it has recently been shown to represent a Buddhist pagoda. This discovery sheds light on the purpose of the burial chamber, featuring the novel combination of vaulted ceiling, colonnade, and pagoda, as simulating an Indian-derived Buddhist temple (caitya). To reinforce this Buddhist context, the burial chamber simultaneously imitates the structure of a Buddhist votive stele (zaoxiangbei 造像碑), in which various Buddhist images, including the Buddha and bodhisattvas, apsaras, worshippers, and guardians, are carefully organized. …

Incorporating All For One: The First Emporer’S Tomb Mound, Jie Shi

History of Art Faculty Research and Scholarship

The towering earthen mound standing at the center of the First Emperor of Qin, Qin Shihuangdi’s (259–210 B.C.E.) Lishan necropolis at present-day Lintong in Xi’an, Shaanxi province was arguably the single greatest burial marker in ancient China. For centuries, this

gigantic unopened monument has sparked curiosity and aroused interest among people regarding its nature. Without physically damaging the target, in 2001–2003 Chinese archaeologists used a new geophysical remote sensor to scan the surface of the mound, digitally probed into its inner structure, and detected a nine-stepped wall that bounds an aboveground burial shaft stretching down deep into the ground. This …

A Century Of Self-Expression: Modern American Art In The Collection Of John And Joanne Payson, Students Of Exhibiting Modern Art 360 2013-2014, Laurette Mccarthy, John Payson, Joanne Payson, Brian Wallace

Books, pamphlets, catalogues, and scrapbooks

A catalogue of the exhibition held at Bryn Mawr College February 28-June 1, 2014.

Civis Romanus. Richard Krautheimer, Dale Kinney

History of Art Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Book Review: The Lupa Romana: An Antique Monument Falls From Her Pedestal, Dale Kinney

History of Art Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Encounter: Leonard Boyle, O.P., Dale Kinney

History of Art Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.