History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons^™

Did One Veil Give Women A Better Life?, Mary C. Westermann

Student Publications

Unfortunately, a young woman in Renaissance Florence did not have many options for her future. A woman's family usually decided whether she would be able to get married or would have to enter the convent, but sometimes she was able to make this choice. In this paper, I look at the lives of wives and nuns to analyze how their lives differed in responsibilities and freedoms, but also to see how all women had similar restrictions and expectations placed upon them.

Cosimo De’ Medici: Patron, Banker, And Pater Patriae, Jessie E. Martin

Student Publications

This paper investigates the connection between art, money, and power in the life of Cosimo de' Medici. It discusses several important art works commissioned by Cosimo, including the Medici Palace and Donatello's bronze David. It also examines Cosimo's life as a businessman and a political figure.

The Artist And The Rebel: The Art Of Graffiti And Its Impact On Memory Architecture, Stephen A. Setman

Celebration

The lasting presence of graffiti in major cities like Berlin raises the question, what kind of perspective does such an art form have on memory? Given that graffiti are written or painted on structures and buildings, which are already their own kind of monument, and that the content of graffiti tends towards the politically and socially critical, how are we to understand the relationship of these works to places of memory creation? Why, for example, do we sometimes give monumental protection (Denkmanlschutz) to works of graffiti, and why so often not? My research investigates the roll of graffiti in cultural …

Artemisia In The Metro, Emily A. Francisco

Student Publications

The “art poem” is an intriguing form of poetry. In writing about something that is inherently visual, a poet must remold a work of art into new material, drawing upon the work’s elements of form such as color, line, use of light, contrast, and composition to make his or her own reflective statement, beyond simply describing the artwork’s own content. In my poetry I aim to take this model of the “art poem,” and, through extended experimentation with this idea of ekphrasis (writing about art in a poetic context), intend to suggest a more intimate connection between art and language. …

An Impossible Utopia: People’S Art And The Cultural Revolution, Molly E. Reynolds

Student Publications

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution period of the People’s Republic of China (1966-1976) was crucial in the creation of modern-day China. The material culture of that period mirrors the turbulent political activity of students and the directives of the Communist Party’s central leadership during the height of the Mao Zedong personality cult. The commercial manufacture of posters, often the sole decoration available for the public and private spheres, offers strong examples of the design style of this time. The posters are not only indicative of the propagandistic fervor of production, but the aesthetic changes initiated in the visual and performing …

Capstone 2014 Art And Art History Senior Projects, Art And Art History Department

Student Publications

It gives us great pleasure to introduce the Gettysburg College Art and Art History senior Capstone projects for 2014. These projects serve as the culmination of the Studio Art and Art History majors. They are as rich and varied as the students themselves and exemplify the commitment the Department of Art and Art History places on creativity and scholarship in a liberal arts education. [excerpt]

This booklet profiles Art Senior Projects by Bailey K. Beardsley, Lisa R. Del Padre, Tobi C. Goss, Rebecca A. Grill, Anna B. Heck, Japh-O'Mar A. Hickson, Danielle T. Janela, Lauren E. Kauffman, Megan P. Quigg, …

Notation And Memorandum: Special Artists And Their Portrayal Of The American Civil War, Bryan G. Caswell

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

As the first war to see the extensive use of photography, the American Civil War was brought home to civilians in hundreds of photographs portraying camp life or the aftermath of battles. Due to the nature of nineteenth century photography as well as safety concerns, however, photographers were not able to capture scenes of actual combat for their viewers. This task fell instead to men known as Special Artists or “Specials,” hired by the illustrated periodicals of the day to travel with the armies and sketch all manner of events associated with the military, including battles as they progressed. [ …

Satirizing Strife: Currier And Ives Political Cartoons, Megan A. Sutter

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Currier and Ives’ prints were a large part of the media during the Civil War era. Not only were Romantic prints sold and hung in people’s parlors, but cartoons were also very popular. It is important to remember that Currier and Ives’ goal was not to produce fine art, but to make a product that was attractive to middle-class consumers. Thus, political and social cartoons became a way to attract customers. They tried to stay away from controversial topics; however, their Darktown series was one of their best-selling series of the day. Today, the Darktown series is rarely displayed and …

A Living Image: Newspaper Sketches In The American Civil War, Bryan G. Caswell

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Photography: the ability to capture a moment in time exactly as it appeared, to then preserve it for posterity, even mass produce it for a wide viewership. A relatively new concept by the beginning of the American Civil War, photography quickly came into its own in the hands of such legends as Matthew Bray and Alexander Gardner as they sought to document the furious storm which had swept over the land. Photographs of the Civil War are prolific, and for many the memory of the conflict is intertwined with black-and-white photographs of unsmiling men and corpses bloating in the sun. …

For Those At Home: The Romantic Nature Of Civil War Lithography, Megan A. Sutter

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Lithography, the art of drawing on stone, was an important part of American Victorian culture during the Civil War. Not only did lithography provide news in pictorial form, but it also was widely displayed in the home. With the economic move from home to factory during the early 19th century, the home became more of a “sanctuary” in which women could decorate and display. [excerpt]

The Rock-Cut Room On The Acropolis At Golemo Gradište, Konjuh: Date And Purpose, Carolyn S. Snively

Ancient Greek and Roman Studies Faculty Publications

The anonymous city at the site of Golemo Gradište at the village of Konjuh, R. Macedonia, belongs to the period of Late Antiquity; the evidence indicates that it was founded in the 5th century. The lower town on the northern terrace was reconstructed, probably during the second quarter of the 6th century, but the inhabitants abandoned it, for the most part, later in that century and fled for refuge to the acropolis, where a settlement continued to exist into the early 7th century. Earlier material, beginning with the Late Neolithic and continuing sporadically through Bronze Age to Hellenistic, has been …

Field And Factory: Chinese Revolutionary Posters, Molly E. Reynolds

Schmucker Art Catalogs

The images on display for Field and Factory, political propaganda used by the Communist Party of China during the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, construct a fictitious world. In perceiving these kinds of illustrations, the audience is asked either to visualize the society in its ideal form or unify in opposition to a national enemy. In the first half of the twentieth century, before the possibilities of the television advertisement were fully realized, posters were one of the most popular forms of propaganda: cheap to produce in mass quantities and simple enough to hang in any public building. The art form’s …

A Temple Of Pleasure, A Temple Of Art: The Structural And Social Veneers Of Opulence In Charles Garnier's Paris Opéra, Sarah W. Parker

Student Publications

At the height of opulence in Second Empire France, Napoléon and Haussmann’s restructuring of Paris called for the construction of a new opera house, selecting from a smorgasbord of competitors the architectural design of the virtually unknown Charles Garnier. The plan employed all manner of techniques in order to present its decoration and composition as a veritable litany of formal styles, combining the Neoclassical with the Néobaroque, all with an affinity for the Beaux-Arts. Garnier’s vision implements modern technologies, while also rediscovering classic methods, and utilizes atypical materials to achieve classic ends, ultimately establishing the space as truly eclectic masterpiece, …

Willem Blaeu's 'Asia Noviter Delineata': Expressions Of Power Through Naval Might And Natural Knowledge In Dutch Mapmaking, Joshua W. Poorman

Student Publications

This paper situates Dutch mapmaker Willem Blaeu’s Asia noviter delineata—part of the Stuckenberg Map Collection in the Gettysburg College Special Collections—within the larger framework of Renaissance thought and a shifting colonial balance of power. The map’s pictorial marginalia expresses a Dutch quest for empirical knowledge that echoed contemporary cabinets of curiosities throughout early modern Europe. Similar to these cabinets, Blaeu’s map can be seen as a cartographic teatro mundi, used to propagate Dutch hegemony through both a robust naval presence and an expanding geographic and natural knowledge of the world.

Judy Chicago: Visions For Feminist Art, Francesca Debiaso

Student Publications

Controversy, awe, and revelation distinguish Judy Chicago's now 40 year career in the art world. Chicago's large body of work is inseparable from her ideologies pertaining to women's crippling exclusion from male dominated disciplines within art, history, and society overall. Her work is characterized by a desire to establish feminine iconography ("central-core imagery") and create a feminist lexicon applicable to the arts as to validate and celebrate women's experience. Viewing her artwork as a tool for social change and dialogue, Chicago has incorporated collaboration and consciousness-raising into her art making process. Thus, her collaborators gain not only the participation of …

Technofile: Viscosity, Tina M. Gebhart

Art and Art History Faculty Publications

The article focuses on the effect the viscosity of a glaze or slip has on a piece of pottery. The article explains the term and provides tests that can be performed to determine the viscosity of a substance. It goes on to describe how one can manipulate the viscosity of a glaze or slip through the addition of water or other aids and includes step-by-step instructions for making a slip.

Adams County History 2011-2012

Adams County History

No abstract provided.

Shedding New Light On A Pennsylvania Painter: Finding "R. Fibich" And His Graveyard, Judith S. Pyle

Adams County History

The painting that would become known as the “York Springs Graveyard” (see cover illustration) was sold to Connecticut folk-art collectors Jean and Howard Lipman in about 1939 by Joe Kindig, an antiques dealer from York, PA. The 18” x 24” oil painting on canvas, of mid-nineteenth-century people and carriages at a cemetery, with cattle in the middle distance, is signed “R. Fibich.” The New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown, NY, subsequently acquired the painting from the Lipmans. It was cleaned, documented, studied, and then exhibited at various venues including the Primitives Gallery of Harry Stone (1942); the Union College of …

Art+Politics, Shannon Egan, Jenna L. Birkenshock, Hillary B. Goodall, Tessa M. Sheridan, Josiah B. Adlon, Megan E. Hilands, Emily A. Francisco, Molly E. Reynolds, Shelby P. Glass, Colleen L. Parrish, Francesca S. Debiaso

Schmucker Art Catalogs

For the exhibition Art + Politics, students worked closely with the holdings of Gettysburg College's Special Collections and College Archives to curate an exhibition in Schmucker Art Gallery that engages with issues of public policy, activism, war, propaganda, and other critical socio-political themes. Each of the students worked diligently to contextualize the objects historically, politically, and art-historically. The art and artifacts presented in this exhibition reveal how various political events and social issues have been interpreted through various visual and printed materials, including posters, pins, illustrations, song sheets, as well as a Chinese shoe for bound feet. The students' …

Techno File: Glaze Unity Formula, Tina M. Gebhart

Art and Art History Faculty Publications

There are many approaches to modifying a glaze recipe, and different approaches can meet different needs. Some modifications change the colorant level while others change the colorant type altogether. Some may directly replace one material with another add a few weight unit more (or less) of one of the base ingredients in the recipe, or add an amount of an entirely new ingredient. These strategies we use to alter glazes tent to parallel how we cook and modify recipes in the kitchen, but adjustments to the base glaze using the kitchen method do not always give us the results we …

Globefish, Sturgeon And Trout: Duke Cosimo I De' Medici, Bachiacca And The Consuming Culture Of Fish, Felicia M. Else

Art and Art History Faculty Publications

Nel quinto decennio del Cinquecento il duca Cosimo I de' Medici ha commissionato una serie di arazzi all'artista di corte Bachiacca. Analizzati da Lucia Tongiori Tomasi, i pesci rappresentati negli arazzi sono di notevole interesse per varieta, accuratezza e in quanto raffigurati quando gli studi ittiologici erano ancora agli esordi. Questi "frutti di mare" potevano suscitare interesse sia dal punto di vista artistico sia da quello scientifico ed essere usati come doni diplomatici e delizie offerte come simboli del potere. Questo studio interdisciplinare esplora, attraverso la documentazione dell'Archivio di Stato di Firenze e della Biblioteca Riccardiana, i diversi modi in …

Bartolomeo Ammannati: Moving Stones, Managing Waterways, And Building An Empire For Duke Cosimo I De' Medici, Felicia M. Else

Art and Art History Faculty Publications

This study, drawing on new information from unpublished documents, reconsiders the working methods and responsibilities of sculptor and architect Bartolomeo Ammannati in the context of Cosimo I de' Medici's creation of a grand ducal Tuscan empire. Ammannati was an indispensable part of the broader enterprise of ducal and grand ducal building activity, urban development, and court bureaucracy. His success was reliant on skills different than those emphasized by Giorgio Vasari. Instead of divinely inspired disegno or rampant terribilità, Ammannati showed his technical, organizational, and supervisory skills to move stones, build bridges, manage waterways, and keep track of expenses - the …

George Croll Baum: Building A Greater Gettysburg, Abraham M. Apfel

Hidden in Plain Sight Projects

On November 16th, 1926 George Croll Baum died. In Gettysburg, Pennsylvania the local newspaper covered his death. The Gettysburgian, the paper for Gettysburg College reported that Henry W.A. Hanson, the college president, was “deeply distressed and further noted that Baum's death 'touched the hearts of all that knew him with deep regret.'" Within a month Dr. Hanson had already ordered three memorial plaques to be placed on the campus. Baum's family tried to help pay for them. Hanson refused the money. In a correspondence with Baum‟s brother about the plaques, Hanson told him, “What I did for your brother …

A Venus Of Wild Nights: The Female Nude In Paintings By Judith Linhares, Shannon Egan

Art and Art History Faculty Publications

A nude woman sits on a pyramidal assemblage of logs in a pose reminiscent of Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker (1902) in Judith Linhares’s painting Up There (2003). With a delineated but transparent form, an absurdly large bumblebee feeds on enormous flowers at the base of the structure. The female figure oversees the fantastical scene like a queen bee atop a beehive. Linhares revisits the subject of a monumental female nude in her paintings (a traditional subject in the history of painting), and as such, these ‘‘queen bees’’ populate a whimsical but historical world. Her paintings are large, and even in …

Fruit And Fish: Alison Goodwin’S Reimaging Of The Modernist Motif, Shannon Egan

Art and Art History Faculty Publications

Alison Goodwin’s painting Cantaloupe (2008) at first appears, perhaps naively, to depict a still life of fruit and flowers on a table: pomegranate, cantaloupe, sunflowers, and a drink. Beneath two rusty red and murky green lines, a diamond pattern demarcates the floor from the wall above. Next to the mottled green-and-red wall is a view through an open window. Three narrow houses lean precariously to the left; the windows are indicated, almost carelessly, by blocks of watery black paint. Two stylized trees with foliage shaped into bulbous spheres punctuate the row of buildings. Goodwin’s particular style, with its emphasis on …

Mark Greenwold’S Excited Self, Shannon Egan

Art and Art History Faculty Publications

In a recent exhibition catalog of painter Mark Greenwold at New York’s DC Moore Gallery, the artist, in lieu of a conventional statement about his work, conducted a self-interview. To his question, ‘‘Why?’’ Greenwold responded:

"I thought that I could possibly get at things that another person might find too daunting or too polite to ask—very obvious questions by the way, that I’d probably be too thin-skinned or reactive to give an honest response to if another person asked the question." [excerpt]

I Am A Shirt, Gregory Williams

Student Publications

In order to understand the technological developments and achievements of the Islamic world, it is important to highlight the different processes, practices, and techniques used in creating objects, whether artistic or otherwise. This paper follows a plausible journey for a single shirt, from its initial creation as a piece of cloth to the epigraphic designs that gave it its deeply religious and mystical power to whoever wore it in Mughal India.

Embodiment And Emptiness: Alison Rector’S Interior Spaces, Shannon Egan

Art and Art History Faculty Publications

Alison Rector’s painting Green Kitchen (2002) depicts a seemingly ordinary domestic interior: a flight of stairs ascends to the right, and a foyer, furnished simply with a wooden table and chairs, leads to a kitchen and, further still, to a broom closet. The old-fashioned wood-burning stove, muted and patterned wallpaper, antiqued furniture, brass sconce, and wide-planked hardwood floor characterize this home as possibly from the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, but the lack of figures and personal effects makes the definitive time of occupancy ambiguous. Rector’s unoccupied interiors, however, do not appear abandoned. Even in the quietest of her …

A Quiet Absorption: Paul Fenniak’S Realism, Shannon Egan

Art and Art History Faculty Publications

The cool early morning light casts an eerie stillness over the swimming pool in Paul Fenniak’s painting Short Cut (2006). The protagonist, a young woman with mousy brown hair and a sturdy build, carries a satchel and hunches forward midstride along the right edge of the pool. She looks toward the background of the painting, away from the viewer and across the water. Perhaps she is taking a surreptitious detour through this closed and empty space on her way to school. Fenniak skillfully captures the bluish dawn, the sun raking across clean, calm water, the gentle hint of breeze waving …

Bright Lights On Quiet Streets: Tom Keough’S Nocturnes, Shannon Egan

Art and Art History Faculty Publications

The well-kept city streets lined with trees and old brownstones may seem familiar in the paintings of Brooklyn-based artist Tom Keough, but the neighborhood is disquietingly empty. Keough situates the sidewalk in the immediate foreground of his paintings and compels the viewer to enter into an eerily vacant scene. With few exceptions, Keough leaves the always still and sometimes snowy New York setting largely unoccupied. Nonetheless, Keough conveys human presence in his paintings with the soft glow of lamplight from windows, footprints in the snow, and cars parked along the side. The theme of urban alienation—a paradoxical sense of loneliness …