This dissertation explores how modern physiological studies and cognitive theory can yield new readings of medieval art objects in the form of embodied responses by medieval viewers. Cognitive theory is useful for understanding the dynamics, or interactivity, between medieval viewers and objects. The mechanics of cognitive reception occur at a physiological level; thus, integrating studies of how the human brain visually processes art objects allows us to understand reception as an embodied response. This dissertation uses cognitive theory as a methodology to investigate three bodies of artwork: thirteenth-century Apocalypse manuscripts, secular ivory mirror cases from fourteenth-century France, and select folios from the fourteenth-century cleric Opicinus de Canistris. The paper not only assesses the value of cognitive theory in understanding the reception of medieval art but also predicts potential audiences, rather than universal ones, for each body of work. In Chapter 2, I investigate how medieval viewers may have perceived images of the Dead Whore of Babylon from thirteenth-century Apocalypses. The depiction of the Whore as a woman instead of a city in Revelation 19 is limited to a few manuscripts. Contrary to scholarship that suggests that this image of the Whore would disengage a medieval audience, I argue that medieval viewers may have had a sympathetic or empathetic response to the Whore's image. I cite scientific studies involving the human brain's response to body position and eye contact as evidence of an embodied response in this chapter. An empathetic response could potentially override the totally negative characterization of the Whore in the text of Revelation. In Chapter 3, I argue that viewers would have had individual, variable embodied responses to the male and female figures on secular ivory mirror cases. The narrative reference of these objects is highly ambiguous, so I suggest that viewers would have assessed the dynamic between male and female figures based upon their degree of eye contact or lack thereof. Scholarship discusses the relationship between these men and women based upon a theoretical assessment of 'the gaze," while I apply scientific studies to uncover its physiological implications. Here, cognitive theory allows us to understand the mechanics behind reception and the highly individual interpretations by medieval viewers. Chapter 4 investigates the role of text and textual schemata as navigational devices that encourage embodied responses in medieval viewers. The textual and visual components of fol. 24r are too complex to speculate about the general medieval reception of the image, so I construct a hypothetical cognitive map for a limited audience comprising learned men. Scientific studies demonstrate that motor neurons allow a viewer to conceive of Opicinus's work as an artistic device that could lead to a spiritual embodied response. I conclude that, when properly applied, scientific studies and cognitive theory are useful tools for understanding the physiological aspects of the reception of medieval art objects by medieval audiences. Each type of art object demands different studies and applications of cognitive theory. In addition, the embodied responses of medieval viewers are always hypothetical because an individual viewer's cognitive map, or unique understanding of the world, always mediates the brain's physiological responses. Despite the fact that embodied responses are ultimately subjective, physiological and cognitive studies allow art historians to hypothesize about medieval reception in new terms. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Art History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2014. / April 10, 2014. / Includes bibliographical references. / Paula Gerson, Professor Directing Dissertation; Irene Zanini-Cordi, University Representative; Lynn Jones, Committee Member; Lauren Weingarden, Committee Member.

This dissertation examines anatomical images in Early Modern Spain and their corresponding texts as critical material agents in the reorganization of the human body in print. My research shows that Spanish artists and anatomists under investigation in this study reflect the dynastic and scientific ambitions of the Spanish Empire where observation and practical experience were valued over theory and inflated Latin erudition. Galvanized by this unwritten mandate, Spanish anatomists embarked on projects that many historians have classified as plagiarisms. These images have suffered neglect in discourses that often privileged originality, aesthetics or anatomical accuracy; however, I argue that these considerations limit our understanding of proto-scientific text production in the early modern period when issues of authorship were porous. These images engaged and contributed to contemporary intellectual processes, rather than just acting as passive copied illustrations. My project considers these images as vital points of epistemic convergence: images that illustrated theories, attempted to replace them, and induced anxiety over their reliability. Most of the images included in this study are from medical publications, like Valverde’s Historia de la Composicion Humana, but others were included in artist’s manuals, like Arfe’s De Varia Comensuracion, and yet others were included in broadsheets and popular publications. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Art History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2018. / April 4, 2018. / Anatomy, Arfe, Early Modern, Prints, Renaissance Spain, Valverde / Includes bibliographical references. / Stephanie Leitch, Professor Directing Dissertation; Robinson Herrera, University Representative; Jack Freiberg, Committee Member; Paul Niell, Committee Member.

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This dissertation examines the acquisition and dissemination of the famous Brazilian collection of Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen (1604-1679), the governor-general of Dutch Brazil from 1637 to 1644. Maurits amassed an extraordinary collection of ethnographic images and objects while governing the Dutch colony, which he then distributed as a series of diplomatic gifts to the Elector of Brandenburg Frederik Wilhelm I, Danish King Frederik III, and French King Louis XIV. I argue that Maurits's Brazilian gifts--which traveled from Brazil to The Hague, Berlin, Copenhagen, Cleves, Paris, Malta, and St. Petersburg--acted as temporal registers of alterity, responding to and initiating nuanced narrative shifts when they changed hands. It is a fundamental argument of this dissertation that the cross-cultural circulation of people, objects, and ideologies in the early modern period yielded dynamic shifts in meaning resulting from disparate geographic and temporal trajectories. My approach, therefore, situates Maurits's gifts within a broad spectrum of exchange that extends from Brazil to Western Europe. First, I examine the significance of Maurits's role as governor-general, arguing that he carefully constructed an identity as a colonial ruler based on his experiences and education in both Europe and Brazil, which provided the foundation for his participation in an exchange culture in both contexts. Then, I examine the practice of exchange in The Netherlands and Brazil, demonstrating that gift-giving became a vehicle for articulating fluctuating narratives of social order that could neutralize political tensions or amplify the appearance of authority. I also contend that visual representations of exchange encounters, which were underwritten by European notions of imperialism and dominance, played an essential role in imagining complex systems of social negotiation. Finally, I closely examine Maurits's gifts to Frederik Wilhelm, Frederik III and Louis XIV, arguing that these presentations initiated alternate modes of display and reception, which underscores the importance of geographic and temporal distance as meaningful factors in exchange.

In February 1912 the Italian Futurists presented Les peintres futuristes italiens, their first international exhibition in Paris, at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune. This event is regarded by scholars as a lynchpin moment for the movement and even the historic avant-garde as a whole. Modern literature on this period of Futurism presents the show as the culmination of a full movement stylistic shift from Italian Divisionism to Cubism, largely under the guidance of Umberto Boccioni. Scholars have continuously presented Boccioni as the leader of Futurist painting, and his oeuvre is often discussed as the most iconic visual interpretation of the tenets of Futurism. This study serves as an alternate reading of early Futurist painting. Using three of the five founding Futurist painters as case studies I argue against traditional scholarship's appraisal of both the exhibition at the Bernheim-Jeune and Umberto Boccioni. Although I recognize that the exhibition marks a major turning point for the movement, I do not support the notion that it was the culmination of a total shift from Divisionism to Cubism. Boccioni's Futurism was neither the only vision of Futurist painting developed during this period, nor was it the only version presented at the Bernheim-Jeune. In this thesis I contend that the 1912 show at the Bernheim-Jeune was the occasion for a great moment of diversity and multiplicity within Italian Futurism and that each of the five Futurist painters presented independent artistic visions. This thesis is organized into three chapters. Each chapter is a case study illustrating a different approach to Futurist painting in 1912. Period documents including manifestos, exhibition reviews, and personal correspondence are crucial to my assessment of the exhibition. Chapter one is devoted to Gino Severini, the painter most closely associated with the French avant-garde and early Cubism. Luigi Russolo is the subject of chapter two. His art challenges the perceived shift from Divisionism to Cubism more than that of any other Futurist painter as the work he submitted to the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune was associated by period critics with German Expressionism and French Symbolism. Chapter three addresses Umberto Boccioni's hybridization of Divisionism and Cubism not as the predestined path of Futurism but as one among several possible avenues. My study thus challenges traditional assessments of the transformations taking place in Italian Futurist painting in 1912 in favor of a broader sense of the possibilities available to these artists. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Art History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2012. / March 22, 2012. / Bernheim-Jeune, Cubism, Divisionism, Expressionism, Futurism / Includes bibliographical references. / Adam Jolles, Professor Directing Thesis; Lauren Weingarden, Committee Member; Karen Bearor, Committee Member.

Modern scholarship's conception of Paul Cézanne as an artistic failure tortured by sexual and social anxieties stems from sensationalized narrative rather than historical fact. Through an examination of primary evidence, my thesis refutes the conception of failure to normalize Cézanne amongst independent artists of his time. Émile Zola's unflattering fictional representation of Cézanne in The Masterpiece (1885), Émile Bernard and Ambroise Vollard's exaggerated biographies of the artist, and the twentieth-century critical emphasis on psychoanalysis cemented Cézanne's negative legacy. Rather than follow the tradition of Cézanne's as a failure, I promote formalist critic Roger Fry and structuralist scholar Richard Shiff's analyses. While I concede that Cézanne's reclusive personality and lack of public exhibitions furthered the public's misconception of him as a failure, I disagree with modern scholars' portrayal of Cézanne as a victim of his own insecurities. An investigation of Cézanne's refusals by the Salon des Beaux-arts and his lack of gallery exhibition does not evidence technical failure, but rather individual artistic vision. Cézanne dismissed academic convention to focus on a tangible connection between the artist's eye, his hand, and his creation. In this thesis, Cézanne's late bather paintings provide a case study to disprove assumptions of failure. The three Large Bathers paintings are not manifestations of Cézanne's fear of women and discomfort with nude models, but studies in composition and figural abstraction. Referencing the 2012 Gauguin, Cézanne, Matisse: Visions of Arcadia exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Arts, I counter the presence of Arcadian myth within Cézanne's late work. Ultimately, my thesis argues that Cézanne's legacy should not be shrouded in a myth of rejection, but rather should emphasize the artist's revolutionary focus on plasticity, materiality, and experiential act of painting. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Art History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2013. / March 22, 2012. / Academic Salon, Bathers, Fin-de-siècle France, Historiography, Paul Cézanne, Psychoanalysis / Includes bibliographical references. / Lauren S. Weingarden, Professor Directing Thesis; Adam Jolles, Committee Member; Stephanie Leitch, Committee Member.

While Peasant Family in an Interior (c. 1642; Paris, Musée du Louvre) is undeniably one of the Le Nain brothers' most famous works, scholars have reached no consensus on the level of reality depicted in the image, or on the painting's meaning. This thesis argues that the represented scene is a constructed one and that it presents the allegory of the Ages of Man. By closely examining the details of the painting, it is apparent that the Le Nain brothers do not accurately portray seventeenth–century French peasant life, but rather depict an invented scene with clear allegorical significance. The figures of the children, the man and woman, and the elderly woman represent the three ages of childhood, adulthood, and old age. Consideration of the pictorial tradition of representing the Ages of Man, as well as texts on the theme, reveals that the Le Nains participated in a representational trend in depicting the allegorical theme in a naturalistic manner. In addition to exploring the style through which the motif is expressed, this thesis investigates the roles and responsibilities expected at each represented age as outlined by texts and images, and analyzes how the Le Nain brothers indicate these aspects in their painting of Peasant Family in an Interior. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Art History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2013. / March 4, 2013. / Ages of Man, Le Nain, Peasant / Includes bibliographical references. / Robert Neuman, Professor Directing Thesis; Jack Freiberg, Committee Member; Stephanie Leitch, Committee Member.

In this thesis I argue that Michelangelo's Cleopatra drawing for his friend Tommaso de'Cavalieri has been isolated from its historical circumstances, its literary and visual context, and ultimately its political context as well. Michelangelo's depiction of the ancient queen Cleopatra at the moment of her suicide fits into a substantial literary and visual tradition. Working through this extensive tradition, I provide multiple examples of powerful Renaissance patrons utilizing the image of Cleopatra for political ends. In this thesis I suggest that Michelangelo also utilized the complex iconography of Cleopatra's suicide to make a statement about his and Cavalieri's shared political beliefs. The meaning of Michelangelo's Cleopatra can best be understood by considering the historical context of the artist's relationship with Cavalieri. I provide in this thesis a new understanding of Michelangelo and Cavalieri's relationship based on both men's civic-mindedness, demonstrated through an active involvement in the government of their respective cities. In light of the significant role politics played in Michelangelo and Cavalieri's friendship, the artist's reference to a pivotal figure in the history of the Roman Republic takes on new meaning. I argue throughout this thesis that the Cleopatra conveyed heightened political meaning for the two friends. This study not only illuminates the meaning of the drawing, but also adds to our understanding of how politics informed Michelangelo and Cavalieri's life-long friendship. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Art History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2013. / March 22, 2013. / Cleopatra, Michelangelo, Politics in Renaissance Rome, Roman Republic, Tommaso de'Cavalieri / Includes bibliographical references. / Jack Freiberg, Professor Directing Thesis; Robert Neuman, Committee Member; Stephanie Leitch, Committee Member.

Anni Albers (1899-1994), weaver, printmaker, and writer, began her studies at the Bauhaus in 1922, and she soon became a leading figure in the weaving workshop there. Leaving Germany in 1933 when the Bauhaus closed under the pressure of Nazi power, Albers permanently moved to America and began teaching at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Here, she headed her own weaving workshop, which was based on Bauhaus pedagogy. In 1935 she visited Mexico for the first of twelve times; she visited Peru and Chile in 1953. With each trip to Latin America, she developed an increased interest in the weavings of the ancient Americas. From the mid-1930s to the early 1960s, she allowed aspects of ancient textiles to figure into her own weavings, and she described her admiration for ancient weaving cultures in her numerous writings. Looking at the environments in which Albers worked, I situate her weavings and writings in the intellectual atmospheres of the Bauhaus, Black Mountain College, and her independent studies and travels in the Americas. Doing so reveals the complexity of her personal philosophy on art, which ultimately derived from the Bauhaus, and united art, craft, and design though universalism. Her weavings and writings from 1924 to 1966 reflect this art philosophy. Looking at the formal aspects of her wall hangings and analyzing her writings, I outline the extent of Albers's understanding of the theories proposed by intellectuals sharing her milieu, in particular Wilhelm Worringer (1881-1965). I show Albers borrowed aspects of his theories; however, I do not claim that she strictly adhered to Worringer's ideas. Instead, she deviates from them to emphasize characteristics unique to her medium of weaving and its history based in craft technique. This thesis begins by establishing Albers's understanding of geometric abstraction through the Bauhaus. I investigate claims that she was indebted to Worringer's Abstraction and Empathy: A Contribution to the Psychology of Style (1908), which she and others likely read at the Bauhaus. Worringer's argument put forward a way to link ancient and modern art through a shared psychic state, characterized by feelings of chaos and the need for order, which he believed was manifested as geometric designs. My study shows that Worringer offered Albers one way to relate the textiles of the ancient past to her modern weavings, but that she also found other connections after her move to the United States. After 1933 she became increasingly devoted to the textiles of ancient America. This is confirmed by her use of Peruvian textile constructions, her collection of ancient American textiles, and her discussions of these weaving cultures in her writings. Additionally, Albers encountered other artists working in North and South America who likewise sought to apply abstractions from ancient American art to modernism. I compare works by Joaquín Torres-García (1874-1949), Adolph Gottlieb (1903-1974), and Shelia Hicks (1934-) to show a pan-American desire to find indigenous roots applicable to the modern day through universalism. These different avenues of Albers's work, her Bauhaus education, study of Peruvian weavings, and dialogue with contemporary pan-American sources of universalism, point to her underlying belief that art was successful if it communicated a universal appeal and timelessness. In integrating Albers's weavings and writings in relation to her philosophy, I demonstrate the extent to which her art and writings engage intellectually and stylistically with modernism. This thesis contributes to the scholarship where previous studies of Albers have not thoroughly acknowledged her participation in the discourse of modern art through her use of modernist ideals, theories, and writings. I provide a unique intellectual history of a weaver's work that shows how theoretical foundations equate her weavings and writings with vanguardism. Using a language belonging to the plastic arts, she removed false divisions between art media and advanced her concept of universalism by creating a link between ancient craft and modern art. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Art History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2012. / March 22, 2012. / Albers, Bauhaus, Black Mountain College, Pre-Columbian, Textiles, Weaving / Includes bibliographical references. / Karen A. Bearor, Professor Directing Thesis; Adam Jolles, Committee Member; Michael D. Carrasco, Committee Member.

In light of recent calls to decolonise curricula at South African universities there has been a renewed interest in what decolonisation might specifically imply for particular academic disciplines. Art history in South Africa has long struggled to move away from its settler colonial origins towards a more Afrocentric focus and its art world has frequently been criticised for being elitist and dominated by white practitioners. To this end, one of the primary questions that this dissertation seeks to answer is to what extent indigenous, African art and African epistemology has been included in South African art history and the institutions that support despite the discourse's traces of colonialism. Through a discussion and analysis of South African art history this dissertation seeks to describe the changes in the discourse since the late twentieth-century in light of the entanglements of the national; the colonial and the decolonial. Such an analysis is provided through a discussion of the biases of art history as a discourse originating in Western Europe; the geographical location of museums and university departments; the character of South African art historical writing; the curatorial strategies used to display African art in South African museums and the specific nature of art history curricula as it is taught at South African universities. The dissertation that follows therefore aims to provide an overarching view of South African art history that takes into account a range of factors impacting its particular framing so that the question of decolonisation can be adequately addressed. The dissertation finds that South African art history has a specific, settler colonial character and that historical African art has been neglected in art historical discourse despite overt attempts to transform the nature of the discipline post-democracy. It is argued that this may be the result of a shift in focus towards contemporary practice in the twenty-first century and away from the historical as a result of a resistance to cultural or racial labels attributed to art due to the legacy of apartheid legislation. As such, I argue that South African art history may find a path towards decolonisation through a renewed focus on historical South African and African art that is perceived on its own terms.