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

Beauty Over Perfection: The Idealization Of Drapery In Classical Greek Sculpture And The Stylistic Reinvention Of Roman “Copies”, Lauren M. Grover

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores Margarete Bieber’s claim that the drapery of Greek sculpture accurately reflects ancient garments. I introduce a method of tracing drapery to capture the garment pattern of sculpted drapery and argue that the drapery of Greek originals and Roman “copies” is an idealized representation of ancient dress.

A Special Place In Hell: The Iconography Of Judgment In Twelfth-Century Sculpture And Manuscript Illumination, Nina Piper

Theses and Dissertations

While art historians have focused on the meaning of individual scenes of the Last Judgment and collections of “monstrous” images, this thesis considers images of Hell and its inhabitants as a single subject. It investigates the space of Hell itself and the beings most closely associated with it—whether or not they are depicted within the space of Hell—to identify iconographical consistencies across those images. In addition, this thesis draws upon material evidence from the medieval world to interpret images of Hell, the Devil, demons, and the damned in new ways, identifying connections between the imagery and what artists and other …

Carved In Grief, Crafted In Power: The Alabaster Mourner Of Fernando De Antequera And Late-Medieval Royal Propaganda, Teresa D. Kinley

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the alabaster mourning sculptures from the tomb of King Fernando I de Aragón at the Monastery of Santa María de Poblet.  Through formal analysis, material culture, and political theology, I argue that the ensemble functioned as a coordinated instrument of dynastic legitimacy, translating ritual grief into a durable technology of royal memory.

Landscaping The Exotic And The Ancient Through Picturesque: Reconsidering The Impact Of David Roberts’S Egypt And Nubia, Sophie Cooke

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis considers David Roberts’s use of picturesque art for imperial Britain and analyzes the ways Egypt and Nubia played an influential role in the cultural transmission of ancient Egypt. By confronting both antiquity and modernity, his Egyptian landscapes are evidence of how Western picturesque artworks influence historical narratives.

Isabel I Of Castile And Her Portapaz: A Queenly Expression Of Sovereignty, Legacy, And Piety, Alina Cui

Theses and Dissertations

What is a pax, and why does it matter to a queen? I argue that in the Portapaz Gótico at the Royal Chapel of Granada, Queen Isabel I of Castile drew from Rogier van der Weyden’s Miraflores Altarpiece to craft a new iconography, reflecting her unique political and devotional interests.

Infinite Line, Infinite Knowledge: The 'Spera' And Organized Chaos In Lambert's Encyclopedia, The 'Liber Floridus', Ava Romano

Theses and Dissertations

The Liber Floridus is a medieval encyclopedia renowned for its program of circular diagrams, or sperae. Inside this manuscript of 190 chapters, these diagrams frame and embody written knowledge, revealing a connection between encyclopedism and life in the Benedictine monastery by creating a coherent visual organization of chapters.

Moiré And Its Ineffable Liquidity: A Study Of Pictorial Watered Silk In The Works Of Andrea Mantegna, Giovanni Bellini And Raphael, Olivia Birkelund

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores pictorial moiré in Renaissance Italian paintings, arguing that its liquid appearance held spiritual and humanist resonances beyond luxury. Through dissemblant facture, artists Giovanni Bellini, Mantegna and Raphael rendered a moiré with overtones of the Incarnation, sacred fluidity, and fertility, creating meditative sites of theological and cultural meaning.

Hemispheres Of Faith: Mapping The Global Journey Of An Ivory Rosary Bead At The Metropolitan Museum Of Art, Mary M. Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

Hemispheres of Faith reattributes a carved ivory rosary bead in the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the Quito School in 18th-century Ecuador. Through examining the trade history of the Manila Galleons, material analysis, and iconographic study, Hemispheres of Faith challenges the bead's European origins and reveals the object as a product of global exchange, devotional practice, and colonial artistic collaboration within the Spanish Empire.

The Principles Of Islamic Moral Philosophy And The Possibility Of Re-Conceptualizing Classical Islamic Aesthetics Of Architecture, Muhammad Feteha

Theses and Dissertations

This study is primarily concerned with the intersection of the moral and aesthetic theories of Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 1111). Al-Ghazālī’s theory of aesthetics has been the subject of thorough scholarly investigations and diverse interpretations in the field of Islamic art history since the 1940s. This thesis critiques the premises upon which the use of al-Ghazālī’s writings in studies of Islamic art and architecture were built. It suggests that they lead to what could be described as “the contradiction of unethical beauty.” To overcome this contradiction, it offers a comprehensive interpretation of al-Ghazālī’s aesthetics through analyzing the concept ḥusn in …

Resurrection In The Regensburg Pendant: Materials And Iconography, Devotional Object As Sacred Jewelry, Margarita Benacerraf

Theses and Dissertations

The Regensburg butterfly (1310-1320), an exquisitely crafted reliquary pendant, was found in the head of a fourteenth-century crucifix in 1991. The locket’s butterfly shape—and the ways in which the butterfly serves as a metaphor for Christ’s redemption—remains a fascinating window into late medieval Christianity and devotional practices in the medieval world.

For Now We See Through A Darkened Mirror, But Then Face To Face: Striving To See Christ ‘Beneath The Veil’ In A Fourteenth-Century French Book Of Hours, Daniel S. Berman

Theses and Dissertations

M.90’s folio 130r evoked spiritual union with God in the Eucharist and in Heaven, and the concomitant need for repentance if divine union in any form could be achieved. It was also an authoritative relic of Christ’s body which helped the worshiper imaginatively reconstruct that body in their own space.

Vision, Repetition And Redemption: Envisioning Universal Salvation In A Group Of Six Carolingian Ivory Book Covers, Valerie Thai

Theses and Dissertations

Six Carolingian ivory plaques share almost identical imagery. This thesis focuses on the figures of Synagoga and the rising dead repeated in the compositions. As the ivories are Gospel covers used in Mass, this study demonstrates how these motifs appeal to the congregation, conveying the Christian tenet of universal salvation.

The Defense And Propagation Of A Doctrine In New Spain: Images Of The Virgin Of The Immaculate Conception In Franciscan Religious Establishments, 1550–1700, Jocelyn Mosquera

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how the Franciscan Order utilized art in their religious establishments in New Spain to propagate the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. By doing so, the Franciscans further established themselves as the defenders of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception.

Melancholic Maestrae: Gender, Genius, And Self-Fashioning In Baroque Female Archetypes, Rebecca Digiovanna

Theses and Dissertations

Highlighting the fissures that run through Early Modern ideas of manliness and femininity, this paper seeks to describe how, alongside pervasive imagery of pensive gentlemen, female artists of the seventeenth century developed their own deeply symbolic form of melancholic posturing, offering a groundbreaking redefinition of gender and genius in the Seicento.

Stourhead In Arcadia Ego: The English Countryside And The Expanding British Empire In Eighteenth-Century, Rachel C. Sherr

Theses and Dissertations

Stourhead Gardens, an emblematic eighteenth-century landscape, reflects Britain's socio-cultural and imperial changes. Owned by the Hoare family, it melds classical influences and Enlightenment ideals. Existing research deciphers its iconography, but this thesis broadens the perspective, placing Stourhead in its era's socio-cultural context. It's a narrative rich in cultural and historical significance, shedding light on identity, art, and culture, past and present.

Simone Martini's St. Louis Altarpiece: Materiality, Franciscan Propaganda, And Sacral Angevin Dynastic Object, Charles Morrow

Theses and Dissertations

Simone Martini makes lavish use of gold, silver, gilt glass, paste pearls and gems in the St. Louis Altarpiece, and these materials carry underlying meanings that support the panel’s sacred, dynastic and Franciscan elements. Actor Network Theory is used to present visualizations of the networks in which the altarpiece participates.

The Lives And Afterlives Of The Arenberg Gospels: Materializing Medieval Oaths, Sarah Ganzel

Theses and Dissertations

The “social life” of the Arenberg Gospels, a gospel book later used as an oath book in ecclesiastical officiation ceremonies, illuminates the impact and meaning of oath books in medieval Europe. This thesis traces the manuscript’s materiality throughout its life, showing why both words and flesh mattered to oath rituals.

Tractatus De Herbis, Botanical Guide To The Universe: A Case Study For Morgan Ms M.873, Darya Badikova

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the development of the late medieval pharmacopoeial treatise Tractatus de herbis illustrated in M.873, a fourteenth-century manuscript from the collection of the Morgan Library in New York. Particularly, the thesis considers the use and reception of this encyclopedic work by elite contemporary audiences of the Venetian Republic through material and medical history.

Laying Out A Space: Spectral Geographies, Fictions Of The Soul, Erin D. Yerby

Theses and Dissertations

Laying out a Space: Spectral Geographies, Fictions of the Soul, arises out of my artistic practice, and thoughts behind my current project and MFA exhibition, Spectral Geographies.

Linking the problem of the world ‘out there’ or external space, to inner experience through painting as both medium and practice, my work expresses what I call inner geographies, spaces where intimate immensities, folding inside and outside, find expression. I think of my paintings as beginning with this gesture of laying out a between-space where the intimacies of waking dreams and visions are opened by, and grow into, actual places, …

A Sculpir Qui Cose Divine: The Spiritual Non-Finito In Michelangelo's Pietà, Kaitlin Arbusto

Theses and Dissertations

The evolution of Michelangelo Buonarroti’s faith – rooted in his contemplation of salvation and his own mortality in art and the written word – is explored in this thesis via an investigation of his four surviving Pietà. Each of these artworks, like the nature of his spirituality, is considered in relation to the non-finito.

Power Dressing: Feather Fans And The Visual Language Of Female Portraiture, Charlotte Svetkey

Theses and Dissertations

Feather fans in sixteenth-century portraiture not only allowed the female sitter to express her own claims to wealth, status, and power but also acted as a visual indicator of changes that were occurring on the global stage. Both fans and sitters will be evaluated through ideas of gender and class.

The Last Horseman: Albrecht Dürer’S Horsemen Of The Apocalypse, Megan L. Crosby

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes Albrecht Dürer’s Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse through comparisons with examples from the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, as well as the artist’s own numerous representations of Death. These comparisons will show the way Dürer interpreted and changed the iconography of the Four Horsemen.

Pure And Fresh: A Typology Of Formal Garden Scenes From Private Eighteenth Dynasty Theban Tombs Prior To The Amarna Period, Jayme Rudolf Reichart

Theses and Dissertations

Gardens in ancient Egypt are known from the Early Dynastic Period to the Graeco-Roman Period from archaeological, textual, and pictorial evidence. From this evidence, one can differentiate between simple and formal gardens. This thesis exclusively produces a typology of the S- and Domain of Amun formal garden scenes (the xnty-S-, kAmw-, sS-, at-nt-xt-, and Hrrt-S-formal gardens) represented in the early to mid-late Eighteenth Dynasty Theban private tomb art prior to the Amarna Period (TT E2, TT 39, TT 63, TT 80, TT 81, TT 85, TT 87, TT 90, TT 93, TT 96, TT 100, TT 109, TT 161, and …

Sacred Blood And Burning Coal: The Garnet Carbuncle In Early Medieval Europe, Sinead L. Murphy

Theses and Dissertations

The social and religious symbolism of garnets are examined in the context of the Merovingian period. Garnet jewelry was worn by early medieval Christians as symbols of their faith, and after death garnets took on additional religious significance.

Spectacle, Spectatorship, And A New Reading Of The Nine Heroes Tapestries, Katherine L. Rachlin

Theses and Dissertations

This theatrical and performative interpretation of The Nine Heroes tapestries (1390–1410) argues for their connection to civic spectacles, courtly rituals, and enactments of the Nine Worthies in medieval performance traditions such as entry ceremonies. Consideration is given to the tapestries’ materiality, mediality, and their visceral impact on viewers.

Judith Leyster: A Study Of Extraordinary Expression, Nicole J. Cardinale

Theses and Dissertations

Judith Leyster’s innovative application of expression in her Self Portrait serves as the focus, whereby she is shown to blend conventional painting categories, preserve a sense of innocence, and confidently flaunt her skills. In turn, Leyster challenged the male-centric art market and stood apart from her artistic predecessors and contemporaries.

Projections On Glass: Reconsidering Glass Pilgrim Vessels From Byzantine Jerusalem, Roxanne D. Jacobson

Theses and Dissertations

Taking an object-orientated approach, this paper reconsiders a series of glass pilgrim vessels that survive from Byzantine Jerusalem and argues against the previous studies that focused solely on iconography to determine the vessels' function.

The Medallion Portraits Of Ariadne And Theodora On The Consular Diptychs Of Clementinus And Justinus: Finding Traces Of Helena, Pulcheria, Verina, And The Theotokos, Marguerite B. Lee

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the 513 Clementinus Diptych and the 540 Justinus Diptych and their disruption of the secular and masculine character of consular diptychs through the inclusion of Christian symbolism, a cross and an image of Christ, and medallion portraits of the empresses Ariadne and Theodora, respectively.

The Chôra Of Dionisy’S Wall-Painting (1500-1502) At The Nativity Of The Mother Of God Sobor, Ferapontovo Monastery, Maria M. Shevelkina

Theses and Dissertations

The structure, spatiality, and wall-paintings of the Nativity church together emulated the Platonist Chôra through transparency, fluidity, circular movement, veils, and Marian imagery. Dionisy’s wall-paintings are studied through a phenomenological lens, considering the process as a reflection of hesychast thought in the post-Byzantine Russian north.

In Present Past: Sun Tunnels And The Historic Reconstruction Of Vision, Patrice M. Capobianchi

Theses and Dissertations

The following study investigates how Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels makes effective use of time and land to reprogram the modern viewer’s eye. By utilizing sculpture that is reminiscent of pre-historic observatories as an observational framing device against the landscape topography, the artwork succeeds in presenting a historic reconstruction of vision.