<p> While there is a tradition that the population of Rapa Nui was large during prehistory, there is remarkably little evidence used to support to these claims. This study represents an empirically-based estimate of pre-contact agricultural productivity to create a sound evaluation of Rapa Nui&rsquo;s prehistoric population. In this study, I map the spatial distributions of lithic mulching using satellite imagery, RPV aerial photography, <i> in situ</i> spectral reflectance analyses, and supervised and sub-pixel image classification methods. Using the results of these analyses, I estimate the total mapped lithic mulch area and combine this estimate with previously documented distributions of <i>manavai</i>. Together these analyses provide an estimate of the extent of these two important cultivation practices and an upper-limit magnitude of prehistoric food production. The spatial data, when evaluated in conjunction with appropriate agricultural cultivation statistic proxies, are then used to conservatively quantify the island&rsquo;s carrying capacity. In my final analysis, I argue that the prehistoric productivity was insufficient to support the large populations that have been suggested. </p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--The University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / (UMI)AAI3266946. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-05, Section: A, page: 2017. Adviser: Thomas G. Palaima.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Classical Studies, 2005. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-08, Section: A, page: 2905. Adviser: Eleanor W. Leach. Title from dissertation home page (viewed Oct. 5, 2006).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2359. Adviser: Eric Hostetter. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 163-176) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

In this thesis, I consider how Odilon Redon symbolized the theme of evil in many of his black and white prints. I examine Redon's compilation of these prints into portfolios in dialogue with literary interpretations of evil in Charles Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil, Gustave Flaubert's Temptation of Saint Anthony, and the New Testament Book of Revelation. I consider word and image interaction in Redon's engagement of these traditional and contemporary literary sources. I demonstrate that Redon's prints participated in Symbolist discourses, using traditional myths and symbols in new and evocative ways. Further, I show that Redon's prints, like the Symbolist texts with which they were in dialogue, participated in wider cultural discourses informed by traditional and contemporary theories of evolution and degeneration. I argue that the symbolism in these prints aligns with Redon's writings on art and spirituality, representing evil as a duality and part of a dialectical process of enlightenment. Redon's writing represented evil as false morality and unreflective adherence to societal norms in decadent society. Redon's portfolios depicted evil and alienation in bourgeois culture, using light and dark symbolism and the tropes of the Devil, the serpent, and the skeleton to connect with canonical myths while symbolizing resistance to dogma and contemporary materialism. I demonstrate that Redon symbolized evil in these prints, in alignment with his writings, as an element to be overcome in a dialectical process of spiritual growth. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Art History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester 2009. / April 20, 2009. / Discourse, Degeneration, Evolution, Decline, Decay, Twighlight, Crepuscular, Skeleton, Serpent, Escapism, Redon, France, Noirs, Decadence, Evil, Spirituality, Nineteenth Century, Prints, Symbolism, Spiral, Dialectic, Appocalypse, Myth, Satanic, Anthony, Flaubert, Baudelaire, Alienation / Includes bibliographical references. / Lauren Weingarden, Professor Directing Thesis; Adam Jolles, Committee Member; Richard Emmerson, Committee Member.

In the mid-thirteenth century, the English monk, author, and artist Matthew Paris produced a rich collection of illustrated manuscripts. Although he is best known for his historical chronicles, Matthew also wrote and illustrated several saints' lives, including those of Saint Alban, Edward the Confessor, and Thomas Becket. The existing copies of these works reveal that Matthew frequently infused his saints' lives with additional historical material, blurring the lines between history and hagiography. This thesis focuses on the Life of Edward the Confessor (Cambridge, University Library, MS Ee.3.59) and explores the way in which Matthew visually represents the lengthy historical sequences that he has added to the more traditional account of the saint. I argue that these additions have a significant impact on the narrative and that they suggest that Matthew had an unusual understanding of how history and hagiography relate to one another. I begin with an exploration of the differing approaches that Matthew took in the illustration of his saints' lives as opposed to his chronicles and demonstrate that Matthew decorated both types of manuscripts with innovative images that were tailored to suit their accompanying texts. I then investigate the nature of Matthew's alterations to his Life of Edward the Confessor and argue that these historical additions provide a contextual frame for the hagiographic narrative by placing Edward's saintly life within the broader context of English history. Furthermore, I suggest that Matthew carefully designed the illustrations of this historical material in order to present his intended reader, Queen Eleanor of Provence, with a very special manuscript that suited her age, lineage, and status as an influential woman. I argue that Matthew's historical additions created a narrative that was not only spiritually affective, but also entertaining, educational, and representative of contemporary changes in the notion of both history and sainthood. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Art History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2009. / April 10, 2009. / Illustrated Saints' Lives, English Saints, Word and Image, Reception, Historical Manuscript Illustration, La Estoire de Seint Aedward le Rei, Chronica Majora, Narrative Structure, Medieval Manuscript Illustration, English History, St. Albans Abbey, English Manuscript Illustration, Thirteenth-Century England / Includes bibliographical references. / Richard Emmerson, Professor Directing Thesis; Paula Gerson, Committee Member; Stephanie Leitch, Committee Member.

This dissertation examines the intersecting space between word and image that characterizes the photographic essay as a distinct medium. To illustrate the power negotiations that occur in the interstices of word and image, this dissertation applies art critic Elizabeth McCausland's 1943 theory of the genre to four Depression-era photographic essays concerned with African-American life: Eudora Welty's "Black Saturday," Julia Peterkin and Doris Ulmann's Roll, Jordan, Roll (1933); Erskine Caldwell and Margaret Bourke-White's You Have Seen Their Faces (1937); and Richard Wright and Edwin Rosskam's 12 Million Black Voices (1941). By examining these photo-texts created and published during the interwar years, I hope to parse the medium-specificity of both the genre's constitutive parts (the photograph and the text) while also respecting the hybrid form (one marked by struggle rather than equality) that their combination creates. Investigation of these photographic essays within this theoretical framework and in the context of 1930s publishing practices illustrates the power of the photographic essay to construct racial identities and broadens the critical understanding of the compelling yet confusing genre that is the photographic essay. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Art History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2010. / April 26, 2010. / Word and Image, Eudora Welty, Documentary Photography, Photographic Essay, Great Depression, Richard Wright, Edwin Rosskam, Erskine Caldwell, Julia Peterkin, Doris Ulmann, Margaret Bourke-White / Includes bibliographical references. / Robert Neuman, Professor Directing Dissertation; Diane Roberts, University Representative; Lauren Weingarden, Committee Member; Adam Jolles, Committee Member.

"The Semblance of Things: Corporeal Gesture in Viennese Expressionism" examines the critical discourse surrounding the iconography of expressive gesture in fin-de-siècle Viennese visual culture, including their manifestation in early twentieth-century figural painting, modern cabaret and marionette theater productions, and alongside their theoretical explication in the emerging psychoanalytic discourse on clinical hysteria. Within this study, I consider how, and to what end, Viennese artists, actors, and playwrights experimented with the contorted, unnatural, and theatrical staging of corporeal form at the turn of the century, and the meaning these gestures were accorded in the visual and performing arts, as well as in psychological discourses examining the pathological body. My research demonstrates that a certain vogue for theatrical movements inspired by clinically-hysterical taxonomies, which I conceptualize as hysto-theatrical gestures, existed concomitantly among physicians, thespians, and playwrights in fin-de-siècle Central Europe, the latter of whom adapted these clinically-codified movements to the theatrical stage. Although modern psychological science would attempt to lay claim to these gestures and their meanings in the late nineteenth century, examples of these corporeal forms can nevertheless be identified in concurrent French Symbolist painting and modern German theater. Such hysto-theatrical gestures likewise provided the symbolic body language adopted by Viennese Expressionist painters in the early years of the twentieth century. This language was further imbricated by the widespread use of marionettes in avant-garde theater, the semiology of which was commonly understood as metaphors for human corporeality within the contemporary critical literature. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Art History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2010. / April 2, 2010. / Viennese Expressionism, European Modern Art, Hysto-theatrical Gesture, European Modern Theater, Oskar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele / Includes bibliographical references. / Adam Jolles, Professor Directing Dissertation; Natalya Baldyga, University Representative; Roald Nasgaard, Committee Member; Robert Neuman, Committee Member.

Leonardo da Vinci's decoration of the Sala delle Asse in the Castello Sforzseca in Milan is a fresco decoration commissioned by Ludovico Il Moro, the Duke of Milan in 1498. The work is best described as an emblem of ducal power. In this thesis I will provide interpretations for two of the principal motifs in the room. The fresco, which covers the walls and vault, is developed around an illusionistic structure formed by sixteen mulberry trees whose interlaced branches are bound by a golden, knotted rope. The trees and the rope both offer a wealth of symbolic and punning allusions. The mulberry, or moro tree, referenced the Duke's nickname, The Moor, and the knotted, arabesque rope provided additional wordplays. The complex, interlaced patterns of the rope represented Moresque, or Moorish designs. Ludovico Il Moro, The Moor, used these ornamental patterns as a personal symbol. The rope motif alludes to the name of the artist, as Moresque interlaces were also known as fantasia dei vinci. In addition to these puns, there are various layers of symbolic meaning encoded within the iconography of the room. Political, dynastic, and Platonic allusions are all referenced in the fresco decoration. In this study I will seek to integrate the iconographic elements of the room, which includes commemorative plaques honoring the Hapsburg Emperor Maximilian I, and a shield emblazoned with ducal arms. I will also trace the evolution of the mulberry tree as the personal symbol of the Duke, and address the function of this highly arcane imagery. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Art History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2011. / April 4, 2011. / Leonardo da Vinci, Ludovico Sforza, Sala delle Asse / Includes bibliographical references. / Jack Freiberg, Professor Directing Thesis; Stephanie Leitch, Committee Member; Robert Neuman, Committee Member.

In this thesis I argue that Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) composed the first volume of Le Antichità Romane (1756) to emphasize his expertise and knowledge of ancient Rome's monuments and topography. My study questions the objectivity of the volume's visual and textual components. In Volume I, views of the city, two topographic maps, an explanatory index of three hundred and fifteen monuments, trompe-l'oeil renderings of fragments of the Severan Marble Plan, and passages quoted from Frontinus seemingly verify Piranesi's archaeological conclusions. I analyze these elements, taking into consideration the role of this volume as the reader's inaugural experience of the work and the reference point for the other three volumes. I examine Volume I as a crafted construction: I begin my study by describing the contents of Volume I, and clarify that contrary to other assessments of the Antichità, the volume is not merely a pictorial survey of ancient Rome. Instead, the imagery of the volume coordinates with text to comprehensively describe the city through visual and verbal means. I follow this inventory with an analysis of Piranesi's use of trompe-l'oeil for many of the volume's images. I connect Piranesi's use of trompe-l'oeil to conventions in antiquarian illustration to show that this pictorial tactic was aligned with current anxieties regarding the preservation of the remains of antiquity. I demonstrate that illusion enables Piranesi to imply interaction with the antique artifacts, thus underscoring his involvement in contemporary antiquarian activities. Additionally, I posit that the use of this pictorial tactic enables Piranesi to blur the distinction between artifact and fiction: I show that not all of the artifacts depicted in the volume are accurately portrayed, and the distinction between Piranesi's hypothetical reconstructions and the artifacts is often intentionally blurred. Finally, my thesis concludes with my reconstruction of the reading experience of the volume. I isolate a specific location described through the maps, index entries, and a supplementary veduta as a case study for this examination. By tracing Piranesi's delivery of information about this site through the disparate media contained within the volume, I reveal the role that the organization of the volume's components plays in conveying archaeological data and in guiding the reader through the artist's deductions. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Art History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Summer Semester, 2008. / April 30, 2008. / Severan Marble Plan, Trompe l'oeil, Piranesi, Vedute / Includes bibliographical references. / Robert Neuman, Professor Directing Thesis; Lauren Weingarden, Committee Member; Stephanie Leitch, Committee Member.