Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture Commons^™

Architecture As Political Symbolism: Power, Authority, & The Built Form, Naomi Minwalla

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

This study examines how architecture functions as a medium of political symbolism, exploring the ways in which built environments communicate authority, ideology, and collective identity. Drawing on theoretical perspectives from Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, and Murray Edelman, the research first establishes how political symbols shape social cohesion, legitimize authority, and construct political meaning. The study then applies architectural interpretation frameworks developed by Martin Warnke, Erwin Panofsky, and Alois Riegl to analyze how symbolic meaning is embedded within architectural form, spatial organization, and ornamentation.

Using a qualitative comparative case study design, the research analyzes two major religious structures: the Seville Cathedral …

Masks: A New Face For The Theatre, Alexi Michael Siegel

James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)

This study seeks to reimagine and reinvigorate modern theatre’s relationship with mask work through text-based historical research and practice-based artistic research. It focuses on three ancient mask traditions: pre- and early Hellenistic Greek theatre, Japanese Noh theatre, and Nigerian Egungun masquerades. Research on these mask traditions and recent masked productions informed the development and staging of a masked performance of Charles Mee’s Life is a Dream. The production featured sections for each of the ancient masking styles and a final section that explored masks in a contemporary theatrical style. As a whole, this creative project pulls masks out of …

Assur Is King Of Persia: Illustrations Of The Book Of Esther In Some Nineteenth-Century Sources, Steven W. Holloway

Libraries

The marriage of archaeological referencing and picture Bibles in the nineteenth century resulted in an astonishing variety of guises worn by the court of Ahasuerus in Esther. Following the exhibition of Neo-Assyrian sculpture in the British Museum and the wide circulation of such images in various John Murray publications, British illustrators like Henry Anelay defaulted to Assyrian models for kings and rulers in the Old Testament, including the principal actors in Esther, even though authentic Achaemenid Persian art had been available for illustrative pastiche for decades. This curious adoptive choice echoed British national pride in its splendid British Museum collection …

Smart Mobs, Bad Crowds, Godly People And Dead Priests: Crowd Symbols In The Josianic Narrative And Some Mesopotamian Parallels, Steven W. Holloway

Libraries

No abstract provided.

Nineveh Sails For The New World: Assyria Envisioned By Nineteenth-Century America, Steven W. Holloway

Libraries

No abstract provided.

A ‘New’ Kutir-Nahhunte Ii Text, Steven W. Holloway

Libraries

No abstract provided.

The Shape Of Utnapishtim’S Ark: A Rejoinder, Steven W. Holloway

Libraries

No abstract provided.

Sargon Ii And His Redactors Repair Eanna Of Uruk, Steven W. Holloway

Libraries

No abstract provided.

Benjamin Mazar, Biblical Israel: State And People, Philip R. Davies, In Search Of ‘Ancient Israel’, John Van Seters, Prologue To History: The Yahwist As Historian In Genesis, Steven W. Holloway

Libraries

No abstract provided.