This thesis concerns a shift in the historiography of the Venetian painter Giorgione (c1477- 1510). In important ways, this change was caused by Joseph Archer Crowe (1825-1896) and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle (1819-1897) in their A History of Painting in North Italy (1871). This text met seminal reactions from Walter Pater (1839-1894) in his essay “The School of Giorgione” (1877) and from Giovanni Morelli (1816-1891) in his Die Werke italienischer Meister in den Galerien von München, Dresden und Berlin (1880). Following a method of close reading, the analysis will concentrate on the intertextual relationship between these three works. This thesis contends that Crowe and Cavalcaselle comprehensively problematised scholarship on the artist, creating a “new” Giorgione; that Pater responded dialectally to scientific connoisseurship with aesthetic criticism, intellectually justifying and morally absolving his interpretation; that Morelli responded by offering a noticeably different catalogue of paintings, and by making Giorgione function within his anti-authoritarian rhetoric as a validation for his method; however, in so doing, Morelli was conducting an ironic problematisation of connoisseurship in general. The thesis begins with an introduction to the “old” Giorgione, before discussing the concepts of aestheticism and connoisseurship. It is then divided into three studies and a conclusion. The first part considers how the artist was understood in the nineteenth century prior to Crowe and Cavalcaselle’s research, before discussing the nature of the two connoisseurs’ enquiry. The second part focuses on Pater and his relationship with Giorgione, placing his essay in the context of The Renaissance (1873); after this the study follows Pater as he defines his theory of aesthetic criticism and responds to what he understands as scientific history, before analysing his interpretation of Giorgione. The third and final part of this thesis will seek to understand Morelli’s ambiguous text and the function of the artist within it; examining his method, rhetoric, and polemic with Crowe and Cavalcaselle, it will conclude by arguing that irony was an active concept in Morelli’s thinking. By attending to a specific artist’s historiography at a particular time, this thesis indirectly reveals the way art history on Italian painting operated in this period, when the discipline was undergoing the processes of professionalisation and institutionalisation.

In 1959, Federico Zeri isolated an Umbrian painter and named him the Master of the Greenville after the Madonna and Child with Angels tondo in Greenville, South Carolina. Through connoisseurship, scholars have since attributed over thirty-two works to the Master of the Greenville, categorizing the anonymous artist as a close follower of Perugino's style. My research focuses on a Nativity panel now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg, Florida. It is called the Jonas Nativity after its former owner, the late art collector Harriet H. Jonas. Through connoisseurship, scholars have almost exclusively focused on attributing the Jonas Nativity to an artist in the framework of Perugino's stylistic influence. Although the Jonas Nativity is clearly indebted to Perugino, the emphasis on naming the artist has led to formal analyses that almost exclusively rely on connoisseurship. As a result, there is virtually no critical analysis on the Jonas Nativity outside the context of this method. Pietro Scarpellini has argued that scholars place too much emphasis on Peruginoís stylistic influence when interpreting Umbrian art ñ he labeled this problem the ìmyth of Perugino.î Scarpellini asserts that the myth is a methodological emphasis on Peruginoís stylistic influence on Umbrian images. Scarpellini traces the origins of the myth to Vasari, who wrote in Peruginoís biography that he established a significant stylistic following in Umbria. Later, Vasariís account was interpreted by writers of the Romantic Period as an Umbrian School of Painting dominated by Perugino; this viewpoint has remained prevalent in critical interpretations on Umbrian art through today. This study recognizes the general stylistic impact of Perugino on the Jonas Nativity, but shifts focus by shedding light on how the painting likely fit into the culture of late fifteenth-century Umbrian patronage and workshop practices. In doing so, I show how the Jonas Nativity can be read as a product of a patronage system largely dominated by Umbriaís ruling families during the late fifteenth-century. While Peruginoís art affected the stylistic qualities of the Jonas Nativity, the market demands of Umbriaís ruling noble patrons greatly dictated the structure and output of workshops in which the Master of the Greenville probably worked. My investigation intends to expand the critical inquiry of the Jonas Nativity and lay the groundwork for a methodological balance between the influence of Perugino and the cultural forces shaping Umbria's early modern images.

The intent of this research is to create a qualitative framework to guide perceptions and observations about informal self-directed learning in the arena of contemporary Web 2.0 e-learning. Drawing influence from the studies on self-directed learning conducted by Allen Tough and his associates, the writings on educational connoisseurship and criticism by Elliot Eisner, as well as research and literature about contemporary e-learning contexts, this exploratory study is comprised of a hermeneutic analysis that seeks to discover themes, patterns and points of intersection in these three areas. The analysis presents the application of the resulting framework to three illustrative scenarios, constructed from ideas and themes drawn from the major elements of the study, and discusses the findings revealed by the investigation. The study concludes with reflection and recommendations for application and further research.

The intent of this research is to create a qualitative framework to guide perceptions and observations about informal self-directed learning in the arena of contemporary Web 2.0 e-learning. Drawing influence from the studies on self-directed learning conducted by Allen Tough and his associates, the writings on educational connoisseurship and criticism by Elliot Eisner, as well as research and literature about contemporary e-learning contexts, this exploratory study is comprised of a hermeneutic analysis that seeks to discover themes, patterns and points of intersection in these three areas. The analysis presents the application of the resulting framework to three illustrative scenarios, constructed from ideas and themes drawn from the major elements of the study, and discusses the findings revealed by the investigation. The study concludes with reflection and recommendations for application and further research.

This thesis examines conflicting attitudes regarding artistic authenticity and differing approaches to connoisseurship vis-à-vis the field of Chinese art and its reception in Europe and North America. Although this thesis examines both Chinese and Western approaches to the copy and highlights different cultural methods, this is not a Chinese versus the West argument. This thesis displays how concepts are combined in the Western art field to reach differing conclusions about a painting's authenticity. Specifically, this thesis analyzes the art of Chinese painter Zhang Daqian (1899-1983) and the debate surrounding Along the Riverbank, a painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection attributed to 10th century Chinese painter Dong Yuan (c. 934-c. 962). Many believe this painting is one of Zhang's forgeries. The controversies surrounding Zhang's art and forgeries reveal diverging conceptions of art education and methods of determining authenticity and the complexities of evaluating Chinese art in non-Chinese academic contexts.

Studies have attempted to explain the linkage between achieving success in the field of entrepreneurship and the pedagogy instituted to teach the skills entrepreneurs need to achieve success in their chosen endeavors. It is widely known and well documented that people have experienced entrepreneurial success with limited, and sometimes no formal entrepreneurial training. The ever present question of “can entrepreneurship be taught” has been debated from many varying perspectives. The late Peter Drucker pragmatically once said “The entrepreneur mystique? It’s not magic, it’s not mysterious, and it has nothing to do with the genes. It’s a discipline. And, like any discipline, it can be learned” (Drucker, 1985). A study conducted by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity recently determined that almost half of Americans with college degrees are overqualified for their jobs. Many studies have also concluded that college graduates accumulate greater lifetime earnings than non-college graduates. Yet the escalating costs of attending college and the diminishing prospects of job security after attaining a college degree have brought the cost of education to the precipice of a potential “education bubble”. Student loan debt exceeds One Trillion Dollars and the typical student loan needs to be repaid over ten years at nearly seven percent interest. Similar to the recently experienced “housing bubble” there is a genuine concern, as it relates to education, that today’s populace is paying too much for something that yields limited value. Therefore, the question of “can entrepreneurship be taught” should be supplanted with “can entrepreneurship be learned?” “Are graduates capable of applying their academic training to produce tangible results?” If there are too many academic degrees being generated that are unable to be absorbed into a stagnant job market, it would stand to reason that a college degree, from a business school iv or any co-curricular discipline, without significant concentration in the study of entrepreneurship, serves only a limited purpose in a growing, capitalistic society that is predicated on job growth. Centers for entrepreneurship provide an excellent foundation for invigorating new college graduates from multiple academic disciplines with the motivation and desire to achieve success in business as entrepreneurs. This comparative analysis of two thriving and vibrant Centers for Entrepreneurship at major universities in the growing central Florida region examines their best practices and compares them to current national guidelines established by the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers, a 200 + member organization domiciled in the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana that serves as the key junction for university-based entrepreneurship centers across the United States to collaborate, communicate and jointly advance excellence in entrepreneurship (www.globalentrepreneurshipconsortium.org). The evaluator and author of this dissertation implemented procedures similar to those used in accreditation reviews and applied professional judgment techniques to design a connoisseurship evaluation of entrepreneurship centers at two major universities --- The Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of South Florida in Tampa, FL and The Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, FL. We have all heard the Horatio Alger “rags to riches” stories of entrepreneurs who “bootstrapped” their business ideas without benefit of any formal business or entrepreneurial education. But it is just as great a likelihood in the coming years that we will admire those who give the credit for their success to the concepts they mastered in an entrepreneurial studies program and how their alma maters provided mentors through their centers for entrepreneurship who saved them from committing an abundance of mistakes by trial and error as they transported v their business ideas from conceptualization to realization. This research will assist centers of entrepreneurship as they strive to incorporate standards of excellence to benefit students who endeavor to become business and job creators in the future.

This dissertation examines the nature of luxury and luxury branded products, and the meanings attached to them. This is the first study of its kind as materials, manufacturing, sales and marketing processes are analyzed in relation to the retail environment to establish tiers of luxury relevant in today’s global market. Existing literature about the definitions and implementation of marketing strategies that impact on luxury brands (e.g. Danziger, 2005; Kapferer et al, 2009; and Okonkwo, 2007) demonstrate a lack of clarity as marketeers concentrate on adding value to mass produced products. In essence, terminology is employed, it is argued, that artificially elevates the product by attribution. The dissertation goes on to examine the complexity of the marketing tools used to add value to mass-produced products and a taxonomy of luxury is established to differentiate categories of products. Luxury is a single category that is demonstrably unstable and it is manifested in the changing landscape of the luxury brand market which is considered as part of the fashion cycle where luxury brands continue to extend their product offer to satisfy a continually growing consumer market. Branding has become increasingly important and as a result the proposed taxonomy of the luxury and luxury brands market contributes to a better understanding of the sector. Distinctions are made through the use of three Case Studies (Louis Vuitton, Prada and Tanner Krolle) to address the differences between the luxury and luxury brand markets through the analysis of products within the leather goods category. Thus this dissertation redefines concepts of luxury that are established through new materials, techniques and production methods. Existing definitions of luxury are unstable due to an ever changing cyclical market and are exacerbated by marketing, branding, advertising and mass production. It is important to remove the façade of marketing and branding, despite, or because, of them being powerful forms of communication, in order to provide a perspective that acknowledges the change and importance of fashion business methodologies to ensure business growth. At the same time it is also important to recognize the fundamental significance of luxury brand heritage and the convenient message this sends to the consumer. This work provides an important new platform for future research in terms of a more nuanced debate on luxury in all its guises. Evidence of the broad research potential of this dissertation exists, for example, in the growing demand for luxury and luxury branded products and services of the emerging economies in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries. In addition as the market changes and demands for luxury increases, luxury and luxury brand companies could use this research to connect more meaningfully to their heritage when defining new luxury goods and services. It is evident that concepts of luxury will continue to be defined as part of a complex structure of understanding and interpretation. In light of this, one must not lose sight of the importance of the knowledge of the craftsmen and women and their ability to communicate the intricacies of their skills in order to provoke and challenge the perpetuating luxury debate.

This thesis analyses artefacts belonging to the playwright, socialist and critic Bernard Shaw, which form part of the collections at Shaw’s Corner, Hertfordshire, now managed as a National Trust property. My original contribution to knowledge is made by revealing Shaw through the artefacts in new or under-explored roles as socialist-aesthete, art patron, connoisseur, photographer, celebrity, dandy, and self-commemorator. The thesis therefore challenges the stereotypical views expressed in the literature which have tended to focus on Shaw at Shaw’s Corner as a Fabian with ascetic characteristics. The thesis aims are achieved by contextualizing the Shaw’s Corner Collections, both extant and absent. Historically the artefacts in the house have been viewed from the perspective of his socialist politics, ignoring his connoisseurial interests and self-fashioning. Hence there was a failure to see the ways in which these elements of his consuming personality overlapped or were in conflict. By examining artefacts from the perspectives of art and design history, focussing on furniture, private press books, clothing, painting and sculpture, Shaw is shown to be a highly complex and at times contradictory figure. The discontinuities and ambiguities become clearer once we examine the possessions from the house which were removed and sold by the National Trust after Shaw’s death. Whilst some Shavian scholars and art historians have acknowledged Shaw’s role as an art critic and the impact it had on his dramaturgy, there has been little recognition of the ways in which this influenced his domestic interiors, consumption, and personal taste, or indeed his interest in the decorative arts and design. Artefacts and furniture in the house today reflect Shaw’s role as a socialist-aesthete, and his involvement with Arts and Crafts movement practitioners and Aestheticism. As an art patron Shaw also shared the aims of artists, connoisseurs and curators working in the first decades of the twentieth century, and we see evidence of this through certain artefacts at Shaw’s Corner. With a strong aesthetic sense, he devoted time to matters of beauty and art, but was equally governed by economics and a desire to bring ‘good’ art and design to everyone. Shaw was considered to be one of the greatest cultural commentators and thinkers of his generation, but he was at the same time a renowned celebrity and influential figure in the mass media. The literature has tended to dismiss the latter role in order to preserve his place among the former, but I argue here that Shaw did not necessarily view the two as separate endeavours. In fact items from the house, notably Shaw’s clothing and sculpture, are considered as the bearers of complex philosophical, symbolic or iconographic meanings relating to his self-fashioning, aesthetic doctrines, and desire for commemoration, which demonstrate the links between the celebrity and the critic. By considering the artefacts in conjunction with the Trust’s archive of Shaw photographs, as well as his representation in popular culture, and by then relating this material dimension to his writings, the thesis brings a new methodological approach to the study of Shaw. More importantly this thesis reveals new knowledge about the philosophical ideas, humanity, generosity, and personal vanity of the man that lay behind those artefacts.

In eighteenth-century Britain, many aristocrats studied music, participated as amateurs in musical clubs, and patronized London’s burgeoning concert life. Richard Fitzwilliam, Seventh Viscount Fitzwilliam of Merrion and Thorncastle (1745-1816), was one such patron and amateur. Fitzwilliam shaped his activities – participation, patronage, and collecting – in a unique way that illustrates his specialized tastes and interests. While as an amateur musician he sang in the Noblemen’s and Gentlemen’s Catch Club (the premiere social club dedicated to musical performance), he rose to the highest level of patronage by spearheading the Handel Commemoration Festival of 1784 and serving for many years as a Director of the Concert of Antient Music, the most prestigious concert series in Georgian Britain. His lasting legacy, however, was his bequest to Cambridge University of his extensive collection of art, books and music, as well as sufficient funds to establish the Fitzwilliam Museum. At the time of his death, Fitzwilliam’s collection of music was the best in the land, save that in the Royal Library. Thus, his collection is ideally suited for examination as proof of his activities, taste and connoisseurship. Moreover, the music in Fitzwilliam’s collection shows his participation in the contemporary musicological debate, evidenced by his advocacy for ancient music, his agreement with the views of Charles Avison and his support for the music of Domenico Scarlatti. On one side of this debate were proponents of learned, ancient music, such as Fitzwilliam and Avison, whose Essay on Musical Expression of 1752 was a milestone in musical criticism. On the other side of the discussion were advocates for the more modern, “classical” style and genres, led by historian Charles Burney.

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