<p> Because of the lack of provenance or accompanying text, the depictions of anthropomorphized animals on ancient Egyptian New Kingdom ostraca and papyri have long puzzled Egyptologists. Attempts to understand the ostraca usually focus on the role reversals where predatory animals serve their natural prey, which is evident in some of the motifs. Some scholars have suggested that these images are satirical and served as an outlet for mocking elite society. However, their social and cultural context, which has not been thoroughly explored until this dissertation, shows that it is unlikely that the images were considered to be negatively charged social satire. Rather, it is more likely that they were envisioned as humorous parodies of primarily elite imagery that were produced by individuals who considered themselves to be elite as well. "Anthropomorphized Animal Imagery on New Kingdom Ostraca and Papyri: Their Artistic and Social Significance" is also the first time the vignettes are given a full art historical treatment in which the formal qualities of the drawings are studied and evaluated. As a result, this dissertation addresses the aesthetic value of these drawings in ancient Egypt, which will be of interest to the discipline of art history on more general terms as well. Another section of this dissertation discusses the narrative potential of the papyri and ostraca on which these anthropomorphized images are drawn. Though the narrative qualities of these images have been discussed before, this dissertation addresses the broader concerns of visual narrative construction in ancient Egyptian art, which has thus far been given little scholarly attention. The figured ostraca and papyri on which these anthropomorphized animals are drawn show that visual narrative construction in ancient Egypt is not necessarily linear and sequential, but can also embody fluid, and more open-ended narrative constructions that is evident in not only the decorative programs of elite tombs, but in written ancient Egyptian literature as well.</p>

Thesis (M. Ed.)--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 1991. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2772. Abstract precedes thesis as [1] preliminary leaf. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [41-46]).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Delaware, 1982. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 172-203).

Texas has only recently taken an active interest in developing the fine arts as an important aspect of her culture. With the discovery of vast oil fields in Texas, an era of prosperity ensued that brought about rapid growth in population and wealth.

This thesis addresses the relationship between art and society by examining the production of culture on the Oregon Federal Art Project (FAP) of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The author examines the social conditions and decision-making processes which shaped the art that was produced and determined who produced and who consumed the art of the FAP. Also examined are the changing social relations of art prior tCI), during, and after the WPA's Federal Art Project. The research for the thesis utilized inductive methods of research aimed at theory construction rather than theory testing, although theoretical questions guided the gathering and analysis of data. Most of the data were obtained from primary sources, including interviews with fifteen people who had varying degrees of familiarity with the Oregon FAP; letters of correspondence, memos, and other primary documents on the Oregon FAP were used extensively. Secondary sources supplemented these primary sources by providing an overview of the national FAP and providing comparative data on the New York City FAP. An important factor in the establishment of the national FAP was the political activism of artists, particularly in New York. In Oregon, where only a handful of artists were politically active, the upper class administrators of the FAP seemed to have had more autonomy in shaping the direction of the program. It is argued that in many cases the goals of the FAP, to provide employment for artists on relief and to use the skills of these people to create socially useful projects, were undermined due to the orientations and inclinations of administrators and business sponsors of the projects who emphasized the professional art aspect of the FAP rather than the relief, socially useful aspect of the project. Nevertheless, the Oregon FAP brought about a change in the social relations among the artist and the art audience; not only was art made more available to the Oregon public through the public display of art works, and through the free instruction of art at community art centers, but artists, themselves, were for the first time employed to exchange their labor, as artists, for a wage. In this sense, the FAP was seen as a kind of "cultural revolution," although an examination of the social relations of art following the 1930s reveals that the cultural revolution took the form of an entrepreneurial, petit bourgeois revolution, rather than the socialistic revolution many artists had hoped for. It is suggested that the nature of this revolution stems, in part, from the characteristics of the FAP, where artists were government employees, yet were administered by a bureaucracy staffed by an elite which traditionally had been the patrons of art. The conclusions of this thesis are stated in the form of tentative propositions that await further testing in subsequent comparative studies of the FAP.

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This thesis examines the first seventeen years of the history of the Museum of Modern Art Oxford (MOMA), from its founding in 1965 until c. 1982. It is concerned with the changing relationships between the museum and its audience, focusing on those aspects of the museum's programming that shed light on its role as a public mediator of recent art. This provides a means to consider the underlying values and commitments that informed MOMA's emergence as a leading contemporary art institution. Chapter one examines the museum's relationship to utopian countercultures through the metaphor of the museum as 'garden'; chapter two considers the erstwhile 'permanent' collection and its connection to corporate patronage; chapter three investigates the parallel forces of institutional critique and institutionalization; and chapter four addresses didactic strains in the museum's representation of an emergent multiculturalism. Although dedicated to the history of a single regional gallery, the thematic structure of the thesis provides entry points into historical and theoretical issues of broader relevance. It is based on primary research in the previously neglected archive of what is now known as Modern Art Oxford, supplemented by interviews with artists and former staff members, and by close attention to British art periodicals and exhibition catalogues of the period. It is also informed by critical writings on museums and displays, and by artistic, social and museological histories, allowing the museum's activities to be situated within the cultural politics of these turbulent decades. The thesis suggests that institutional identity - as exemplified by the history of MOMA from 1965-1982 - is porous and discontinuous: the development of the museum over this period is animated by multiple and often contradictory ideals, continuously shaped by pragmatic considerations, and subject to a rich variety of subjective responses.

Roman round temples are usually discussed either in the context of round buildings like baths and mausolea or on a case-by-case basis. Both approaches fail to reveal what makes round temples a distinct architectural type and moreover, what reasons can account for their use throughout the Roman world. By examining round temples from the Republic, when they are first attested, to the early fourth century AD, this thesis aims to explain why the round form had such a lasting appeal. It follows a chronological approach, discussing the evidence for individual temples and situating them within their historical, social, topographical, and architectural contexts. In a comparative analysis, the building components, materials, techniques, decorative details, and proportions employed by round temples are outlined to reveal influences on their design. The round temples discussed in this study are concentrated in Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor. While the earliest examples in Rome draw on Italic traditions, from the late Republic, round temples begin to reflect Greek trends. Greek tholoi and the Greek decorative repertory, balanced by Roman developments in design, have a lasting influence on round temples. Based on tholoi, scholars have assumed that Roman round temples honored Vesta and divinized heroes. While they were celebrated with a few examples, the majority were dedicated to other gods and goddesses. As a result, religious, social, topographical and aesthetic reasons are proposed to explain the enduring appeal of round temples. Like the motivations behind their foundations, the plans, dimensions, and proportional relationships employed by round temples are noted for their diversity. For their individuality and inventive spirit, round temples make a significant contribution to the Roman architectural repertory.

This dissertation answers the question, "What are Halaf figurines?" In response to that question, this study examines a corpus of anthropomorphic figurines from archaeological sites dating to the Halaf period (Sixth Millennium cal BCE) known from excavations in Turkey and Syria. Included in this dissertation is a detailed catalog of 197 figurine examples, both whole and fragmented, and analysis of their excavated contexts from seven Halaf sites in Turkey and nine sites in Syria. The study also reviews and discusses existing literature on Halaf and figurine studies and examines and critiques modern biases, assumptions, and influences, especially as related to the interpretive concepts mother goddess and steatopygous. It proposes a different methodological approach to prehistoric figurines based upon morphology and typology rather than interpretation. It argues that this methodology of recording and analyzing figurine morphology, typology, and archaeological context brings the field closer to four points of human interaction in the object biographies of figurines including: conceptualization, making, use, and discard. This approach to the evidence, the dissertation suggests, can support theoretical ideas about how the lived body was conceptualized and adorned in the Halaf and allows consideration of ways that these embodied ideas and imagery were shared across settlements. A constructed typology consists of five overall types further divided by subtype and Halaf phase, based upon pose, technology, and morphology. Two appendices present the data associated with each figurine in catalog form. A final appendix presents the data condensed to 12 comparable elements. The results of this research are that the typology of Syrian and Anatolian Halaf figurine assemblages are quite different. While the well-known seated clay figurines are indeed most plentiful, they come from only a very tight geographic area in northeast Syria and only from late Halaf contexts. Standing figurines, by contrast, are known from all areas and phases but occur in lesser numbers and in great variety. Analysis of the archaeological contexts reveals that nearly all the figurines in the corpus were isolated finds amidst unremarkable fill contexts. Therefore, it can be concluded that, when Halaf figurines were no longer needed or wanted by the community, they were discarded without special circumstances amongst regular domestic refuse.

The Jiuquan tombs, on the western frontier of China and dated to the third and early fourth centuries, deploy architecture, paintings, and burial goods to redefine space and express new concepts in mortuary art. Constructed over a period of about fifty years, the consistent rendering of distinct areas across these eleven tombs reflects a consensus in the expectations related to commemorating the dead and the division of souls in the burial process. Aboveground features show that powerful families in Jiuquan disregarded imperial edicts for austere burials. Underground, each tomb features a “screen wall” that rearranges spatial compositions to situate the celestial realm in an iconic position near the bottom of a tall tower. The front chambers are presented as courtyards under an open sky, surrounded by an estate, farms, pastures and wildernesses. Here, tomb occupants are not portrayed in a grand cosmic setting or lauded as Confucian archetypes; instead they are dynamic agents at the center of the action. Pastoral peoples are displayed within a context of harmonious co-existence and cultural exchange. These images combine to reflect an optimistic outlook that ignores the upheavals in the Chinese heartland. By contrast, the rear chambers show a retreat to traditional styles and subject matters, creating a stillness that reinforces the solemnity of laying the corpse to rest. Jiuquan’s geographic location and topography made it both stable and prosperous while precipitating contact with migrants from the Chinese heartland, the northern steppes, and the Western Regions. The vibrancy and originality of the tombs at Jiuquan, as well as what they reveal about changes in beliefs, increase appreciation for the role of peripheral zones in shaping Chinese art and history.