This project looks at two members of Florence’s Medici family, Cosimo il Vecchio (1389-1464) and Duke Cosimo I (1519-1574), in an attempt to assess how they used the patronage of art to facilitate their rule. By looking at their individual political representations through art, the specifics of their propagandist works and what form these pieces of art came, it is possible to analyze their respective rules. This analysis allows for a clearer understanding of how these two men, each in very different positions, found art as an ally for their political endeavors. While they were in power only one hundred years apart, they present uniquely different strategies for the purpose of creating and maintaining their power through the patronage of art.

Caravaggio was a complicated man, working in a complicated day, in a complicated city. As he ushered in the Baroque movement, playing with contrast, bending light with darkness, the Church was preoccupied with the game of highlighting or suppressing voices to maximize their power and minimize dissent. A well-known product of this is the struggle Galileo had in confirming that the earth revolved around the sun and not the other way around. Giordano Bruno was publicly burned at the stake for similar reasons. Often excluded from historical narratives of this time is the public execution of Beatrice Cenci and her family for reasons that leaned more towards political power and less towards moral judgement. Many Caravaggio historians point to Cenci’s death as the inspiration behind the common motif of beheadings in his paintings. Able to navigate between both the high and low cultures of Rome, Caravaggio provides a window into the way these societies interacted, one of many things that drew me to him and his story. He was also a person in his own right, with thoughts and feelings that we may never have the complete picture of, though he’s left us clues in his works and actions. Far less has been preserved of Prospero, Anna, Fillide, and Mario. This is my attempt to fill in the blanks.

This thesis examines a selection of eight photographs in the History Portraits series by American photographer, Cindy Sherman, produced from 1989 to 1990. The photographs are based on Renaissance paintings of biblical and secular women painted by old master artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, and Raphael. Sherman focused on the female types of Biblical mother and femme fatale, as well as wives and models. These types are defined in their relation to men and are depicted by men. In Sherman’s reinterpretations of their portraits, she retells the stories of these women in ways that reaffirm their independence and power that have been shrouded in a history told and controlled by men. With herself as her model, she altered aspects of the images, using the technique of caricature for humor as well as critique. Sherman subverts the idealization of the Renaissance portraits of women by exaggerating features and eliminating aspects of the original portraits to reassert the women’s individuality.

ABSTRACT THE ARCHITECTURE OF KNOWLEDGE: THE JESUIT COLLEGE OF OAXACA (XVI-XIX CENTURIES). By Marina Mellado Corriente, MA. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Art Historical and Curatorial Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2015 Major Director: Michael Schreffler, Associate Professor, Department of Art History The educational endeavor that the Jesuits – members of the religious order known as the Society of Jesus – carried out in Mexico in the course of the colonial period, when this territory belonged to the Viceroyalty of New Spain (sixteenth to nineteenth centuries), was exceptional. Even though this endeavor has been extensively studied, not much has been written about the edifices, and their significant artistic contents, that not only facilitated the endeavor, but also allowed it to thrive. With the aim of contributing to fill that gap in the scholarly literature, this study engages in an artistic and architectural examination of one among the dozens of school complexes that the Jesuits built and decorated in New Spanish territory: the College of Oaxaca. This establishment was the primary educational institution in one of the most prosperous cities of the viceroyalty, and it ranked third in importance among the colleges that the Jesuits founded in New Spain, representing a clear example of the process of spiritual, intellectual and material expansion that the Society of Jesus carried out in Spanish America. By locating, transcribing and interpreting primary sources (primarily inventories and commissions for works of art) that have not been noticed before or have remained unpublished, and by analyzing the material remains that have survived to this day, it has been possible to reveal that the former Jesuit complex – which today serves, simultaneously, as an apartment building, an indoor parking, a series of storefronts, and a church served by a community of Jesuits – once featured a significantly rich artistic and architectural program, the result of assimilating, but also of rejecting, local and Jesuit traditions. This program, unfortunately, has been progressively disappearing since the expulsion of the Jesuits from Oaxaca in 1767.

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Little did Hadrian know in 130 A.D. that when he deified his beloved departed Antinous, in order to provide a unifying symbol of worship for his diverse empire, that he was instead creating a lasting symbol of the antique world. This thesis examines the power of nostalgia and its successful use by two formidable men from different eras in Rome: The Emperor Hadrian and the extravagantly wealthy Renaissance merchant Agostino Chigi. Though separated by centuries, each man used the nostalgic allure of the beautiful youthful male figure of Antinous to gain power and influence in his own time and to leave a lasting impact on generations to come. Using the statue known as the Farnese Antinous I will show that these very different men were not so different after all: each understood the human tendency to romanticize the past, and each attempted to evoke a feeling of nostalgia for the past from those they sought to “conquer.” Hadrian used portraits of Antinous to unite an empire and cement his place in history; Agostino used one of those very same portraits in commissioned artworks by Raphael to earn his place among the nobility of his day, and to leave a lasting legacy for his descendants.

Early modern representations of witchcraft have been the subject of considerable recent scholarship; however, three significant aspects of the corpus have not received sufficient attention and are treated independently here for the first time. This dissertation will examine how witchcraft imagery invited discourse concerning the reality of magic and witchcraft and suggested connections to contemporary issues through the themes of the witch’s violent autonomy, bestial passions, and unnatural interactions with the demonic and the dead. These three themes address specific features of the multifaceted identity of the witch and participate in a larger discussion that questioned the nature of humanity. Analysis of each issue reveals a complex, ambiguous, and often radically open treatment of the subject that necessitates a revision of how witchcraft imagery from this period is understood. Each understudied aspect of witchcraft imagery is explored through a series of case studies that have not appeared together until now. Previously unexamined artworks with inventive content are introduced and canonical pictures are examined from new perspectives. These images were created in the principal artistic centers, the Italian city-states, the German provinces, and the Low Countries, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when the controversy over witchcraft was at its peak. Although they are few in number, these highly innovative images are the most effective and illuminating means by which to access these themes. These works of art provide valuable insights into important issues that troubled early modern society. Chapter 1 reveals how witchcraft imagery produced in the Low Countries is concerned with the witch’s violent rejection of the social bonds and practices upon which the community depends for survival. Chapter 2 examines how the figure of the witch was used to explore concerns about the delineation and transgression of the human-animal boundary. Chapter 3 exposes an interest in the physical possibility of witchcraft; artists questioned the ability of witches and demons to manipulate the material world. Issues include the witches’ capacity to reanimate dead bodies and create monstrous creatures. Together these images demonstrate active and meaningful engagement with the theories, beliefs, and practices associated with witchcraft.

Early modern representations of witchcraft have been the subject of considerable recent scholarship; however, three significant aspects of the corpus have not received sufficient attention and are treated independently here for the first time. This dissertation will examine how witchcraft imagery invited discourse concerning the reality of magic and witchcraft and suggested connections to contemporary issues through the themes of the witch’s violent autonomy, bestial passions, and unnatural interactions with the demonic and the dead. These three themes address specific features of the multifaceted identity of the witch and participate in a larger discussion that questioned the nature of humanity. Analysis of each issue reveals a complex, ambiguous, and often radically open treatment of the subject that necessitates a revision of how witchcraft imagery from this period is understood. Each understudied aspect of witchcraft imagery is explored through a series of case studies that have not appeared together until now. Previously unexamined artworks with inventive content are introduced and canonical pictures are examined from new perspectives. These images were created in the principal artistic centers, the Italian city-states, the German provinces, and the Low Countries, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when the controversy over witchcraft was at its peak. Although they are few in number, these highly innovative images are the most effective and illuminating means by which to access these themes. These works of art provide valuable insights into important issues that troubled early modern society. Chapter 1 reveals how witchcraft imagery produced in the Low Countries is concerned with the witch’s violent rejection of the social bonds and practices upon which the community depends for survival. Chapter 2 examines how the figure of the witch was used to explore concerns about the delineation and transgression of the human-animal boundary. Chapter 3 exposes an interest in the physical possibility of witchcraft; artists questioned the ability of witches and demons to manipulate the material world. Issues include the witches’ capacity to reanimate dead bodies and create monstrous creatures. Together these images demonstrate active and meaningful engagement with the theories, beliefs, and practices associated with witchcraft.

ChronARG, the result of international collaboration, is a critical presentation of recent scholarship pertinent to the study of ancient Greek material religion, published annually in Kernos.

ChronARG, the result of international collaboration, is a critical presentation of recent scholarship pertinent to the study of ancient Greek material religion, published annually in Kernos.