MA, University of Cincinnati, 2003, Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning : Art History

Portraiture was very popular in seventeenth-century Amsterdam, and not only among the city's Christian citizens. Due to economic opportunities and a tolerant atmosphere, both Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews developed communities in Amsterdam. The Sephardic Jews in particular commissioned portraits. However, while Jewish portraiture was common in Amsterdam, it was very unusual throughout the rest of Europe at this time. This thesis explores the reasons behind Amsterdam's strong tradition of Jewish portraiture. The first chapter is and overview of the Jewish settlement in Amsterdam. The second and third chapters examine the economic and cultural factors that influenced the commissioning of portraits by Jews. The last chapter compares Jewish portraiture in other European countries to Amsterdam.

Committee: Kristi Nelson (Advisor) Subjects: Art History

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2007, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

BA, Oberlin College, 2019, Art

This paper analyzes the role of the disabled body in Golden Age Spanish court portraiture, focusing in particular on Diego Velazquez's work for Philip IV. Although this body of work has been examined extensively, few scholars have investigated what it implies about 17th-century Spaniards' conception of human divergence, and fewer still have done so without falling back on outdated models of disability. I thus hope to demonstrate through this thesis both disability's continued cultural importance and the utility of an analysis grounded in contemporary disability theory. Expanding upon Tobin Siebers' concept of "disability aesthetics" and Rosemarie Garland-Thomson's theory of "misfitting," I seek to determine what purpose the disabled body served for portraitists like Velazquez and patrons like Philip IV, as well as how visual representations of disabled subjects helped shape broader Spanish understandings of the borders of normalcy and who "fits" in their social and physical environments. I ultimately argue that the disabled body uniquely enabled Spanish artists and patrons to communicate ideas about the court, the monarchy, and the inner-workings of their own bodies and minds that they could not otherwise express.

Committee: Christina Neilson (Advisor); James Paul Hansen (Committee Member); Catherine B. Scallen (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History; European History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2017, History of Art

Author portraits, those initial introductions to the creator of a text that are usually located on the very first folio, are ubiquitous in medieval illuminated manuscripts, yet this subject has not been the focus of a systematic art historical survey. For this reason, few are aware of the evolution of this genre over the course of the Middle Ages, moving beyond the early static figures of authors posing with their works, or seated writing on scroll or codex. This dissertation expands our understanding of this tradition, focusing on a limited selection of examples drawn from a variety of popular formats for author portraits that were employed in the fourteenth century. In particular, this study addresses representations of contemporary scholars - authors shown dreaming of their subject matter, accompanied by personifications or objects representing the content of their text, diligently engaged in translating an important work from Latin into the vernacular, or meeting privately with the recipient to deliver and discuss their work. Each category is explored through close examination of one outstanding example, and includes an analysis of the entire manuscript, in order to place the image within its textual, socio-political, and art-historical context. Although each case study embodies a different role for the author, as a group they reflect changing perceptions of authorship in the Late Middle Ages, and the increasing understanding of and respect for both the physical and intellectual labor required. These depictions of scholastic authors provide visual evidence of the interest in the author as an individual that Alastair Minnis, in his seminal work, Medieval Theory of Authorship, ultimately associated with the implementation of the “Aristotelian prologue” type, an introductory tool employed in education and commentary which encouraged reflection on an author's life, reputation and working methods. The images suggest a narrowing of the gap between ancient (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Karl Whittington PhD (Advisor); Barbara Haeger PhD (Committee Member); Christian Kleinbub PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History; Medieval History; Middle Ages

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, History of Art

This dissertation examines the understudied topic of portraiture during the July Monarchy (1830-48), the constitutional regime that has long been associated with both the social and political rise of the bourgeoisie as well as the development of an extensive commercial culture in France. The second quarter of the nineteenth century witnessed the proliferation of portraits executed in a variety of alternative media that allowed for their mechanical reproduction and subsequent distribution to a mass audience of cultural consumers. This phenomenon coincided with the development of a new kind of celebrity, one that was dependent upon a brand of notoriety generated by the rapidly expanding press as opposed to lineage or professional accomplishment, the sources of more traditional forms of personal fame. This dissertation examines these intertwined phenomena in detail and posits them as evidence of a fundamental reconceptualization of the notion of the self during the July Monarchy. Both media-driven celebrity and the reproduction and large-scale distribution of portrait imagery attest to the fact that the self was no longer a solidly fixed identity emanating from some internal “essence” of the individual, but rather the product of an increasingly complex network of perceptions and representations. This dissertation begins with an investigation of the theoretical literature on selfhood and how it pertains to the crisis of self in the post-revolutionary age. Concurrent with the explosion of portraits in printed media was an unprecedented rise in the production of traditional, one-of-a-kind painted portraits and their public display at the Salon. As representations of contemporaries, portraits served as discursive and participatory sites not simply for aesthetic debates about representation but, more largely, about questions of class, politics, and gender—debates that in turn contributed to the generation and constantly changing discourses of the self. The second ha (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Andrew Shelton (Advisor); Lisa Florman (Committee Member); Christian Kleinbub (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2008, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Art History

Dutch family portraits from the seventeenth century have been approached from two scholarly perspectives. One view focuses primarily on the concern to show familial harmony, while the other emphasizes the wish to convey prosperity. In my thesis I will argue that a third scholarly perspective should be combined with the other two viewpoints. I discuss three family portraits, one by Jan Miense Molenaer and two by Jacob Ochtervelt, that exemplify a visual representation of harmony, prosperity, and transience conveyed in the seventeenth-century Dutch family portrait.

Committee: Diane Mankin (Committee Chair); Kim Paice (Committee Member); Teresa Pac (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2001, History of Art

This paper answers the question of whether or not there are Grand Tour portraits of women. Traditionally, the Grand Tour was considered an integral part of the education of young British aristocratic men, and women have been excluded from discussions of the subject in scholarly literature. A survey of the Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, 1701-1800 indicates that approximately one-third of the travelers were women. In addition, I discovered reproductions of twenty-nine portraits of British women painted abroad, which document their participation in the Grand Tour. These facts demonstrate that an updated definition of the Grand Tour is needed. This paper also attempts to advance understanding of women's experiences in the eighteenth century. The first chapter examines reasons why women went abroad and studies their activities while on the Grand Tour. I consider the implications of their travels, especially in relation to women's education in the eighteenth century. The second chapter traces the development of the portrait genre in England to provide a foundation for understanding the format and poses used in Grand Tour portraits. The third chapter deals with the Grand Tour portraits of women, analyzing them in terms of traditional representation of females in portraiture and also comparing them with Grand Tour portraits of men. The most successful portrait painters are discussed, including Pompeo Batoni, Anton Raphael Mengs, Angelica Kauffman, and Rosalba Carriera, as well as some lesser-known artists including Robert Fagan, Charles Grignion, and Louis Gauffier. The portraits in this study reveal differences in how men and women were portrayed. In Grand Tour portraits of men, recognizable architectural monuments, classical statues, or distinct landscape elements are a defining feature, but these elements are rare in Grand Tour portraits of women. It is unusual to see a Grand Tour portrait of a man as an allegorical figure, while women are commonly (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Arline Meyer (Advisor) Subjects:

MFA, Kent State University, 2010, College of Communication and Information / School of Visual Communication Design

This thesis explores the development of a series of illustrated portraits of current African American baseball players. It documents the artistic process and research necessary to make a narrative painting. In a world of instant communication and trash celebrity gossip photos, there exists an opportunity to surprise the viewer and gain attention with a well-conceived illustration. By advertising for baseball and the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities program with art, it could gain new life in an African American community that has abandoned the game.

Committee: Jerry Kalback (Advisor); Douglas Goldsmith (Committee Member); David Middleton (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; Communication; Design

MA, Kent State University, 2009, College of the Arts / School of Art

A series of four woven portraits portraying four of Youngstown's businessmen whose contributions shaped the history of Youngstown during a 170-period. The project is the continuation of a portrait series developed from research into local theatres and related business individuals. The four entrepreneurs represented include Richard Mills, developer of commerical real estate, Fred Lee manager of The Hippodrome Theatre, George Wick founder of the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company and German Lanterman, owner and operator of a water-powered gristmill. The portraits are woven using the double weave pick up technique and dyed yarns. The designs and images used in each portrait represent the individuals's business speciality and elements that are associated with their identity.

Committee: Janice Lessman-Moss MFA (Advisor); Robin Haller MFA (Committee Member); Chris Mastoianni MFA (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2013, Art

There are many ways to observe our lives. A Walker's Chronicle: Seeing Life and Death through Objects shows a way to see them through inanimate objects. Since these objects are always situated in some relationship with us, each of them tells a story about an aspect of our lives. For example, street litter discloses what people consume in their daily lives, and manhole covers show how people design their town. They are presented in a way that can call up or draw out the latent beauty and dignity of those objects. These things also serve as a record of my actions: traveling, walking and collecting.

Committee: Tony Mendoza (Advisor); Suzanne Silver (Committee Member); Alison Crocetta (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts

Bachelor of Arts, University of Toledo, 2012, English

During the mid to late Victorian period, Euripides' tale of Medea was given new life by the suffragette movement. As Victorians began to question women's rights and capabilities, Medea's story resurfaced as a cautionary tale showing the damage that occurs when women repress and shape their identities to fit uncompromising social expectations for their gender. In this thesis, I examine two Victorian women poets who interpreted Medea as a feminist statement: Augusta Webster, whose “Medea in Athens” (1870) was featured as the lead dramatic monologue in her collection Portraits, and Amy Levy whose closet drama “Medea: A Dramatic Fragment” (1881) was published as a part of her collection A Minor Poet and Other Verse. Both these writers examine Medea's psychology and the context in which she lives. Through their use of poetic conventions, Webster and Levy are able to suggest ways in which Medea's autonomy and identity are co-opted by a patriarchal society. I argue that Webster uses the tactics of the dramatic monologue to explore Medea's disintegrated sense of self, depicting her as a woman whose identity has been usurped by her husband's view of her. Levy appropriates the techniques of closet drama to focus on the voice of a patriarchal culture that excludes Medea long before her act of filicide. Through close readings of these two poems, I show the cultural impact and relevancy of Webster and Levy as female voices in the Victorian literary tradition.

Committee: Melissa Valiska Gregory PhD (Advisor); Matthew Wikander PhD (Committee Chair); Christina Fitzgerald PhD (Committee Chair) Subjects: Comparative Literature; Gender; Womens Studies