Huang, Tzu-hsuan. / Thesis Ph.D. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2015. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 633-641). / Abstracts also in Chinese. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on 24, October, 2016).

Thesis (doctoral)--Rijksuniversiteit te Utrecht, 1982. / In English, with summary in Dutch. Includes bibliographical references and index.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1978 P47 / Master of Science

This thesis seeks to re-establish the significance of choir stalls in Venice and northern Italy and seeks to place stalls in their artistic, liturgical and spatial context. Although now situated in remote locations in the church, stalls were once highly prized items of furniture and considered to be praiseworthy artistic structures in their own right. As the location for religious ritual, the elevated status of the choir area was reflected in the detailed and sophisticated design of its wooden furniture. Through an analysis of visual and documentary material, stalls will be brought to the fore to consider broader questions. What can documents reveal about Renaissance workshop practices and the relationship between craftsmen and patrons? How did the form of stalls reflect their use in religious ritual and the organisation of sacred space? How did choir furniture develop as an independent medium within the artistic context of the Renaissance church interior? Four main topics will be considered in the first four chapters: the visual history of stalls; the contracting procedure; the use of stalls in liturgical practices; and changes to choir placement. Chapter One reconstructs the stylistic history of north-Italian choir stalls from the fourteenth to early sixteenth centuries and contains an excursus on the development and meaning of intarsia iconography. Chapter Two focuses on choir contracts, which confirm that choir furniture was a considerable investment and a potential source of rivalry between church communities Chapter Three moves the focus away from stalls as material objects to their role in liturgical practices. An excursus on the established use of misericords in Carthusian liturgy will demonstrate the close interaction between form and function in stall design, and places Italian stalls in the context of their European counterparts. The placement of choirs in the church interior will be examined in Chapter Four using case studies of choir placement in different secular and religious houses, in particular the Franciscan Observants, Franciscan Conventuals and the Dominicans. Although changes in choir placement are often associated with liturgical reforms implemented by the Council of Trent, church renovations in fact occurred well before this period. Two Venetian case studies demonstrate the value of examining individual choir precincts in their original stylistic and spatial context. Chapter Five focuses on stalls in the Benedictine nuns’ church of San Zaccaria in Venice, completed by the Cozzi workshop in 1464. The choir precinct in the Frari in Venice is amongst the best-preserved choir precincts in Italy and is discussed in detail in Chapter Six; the circumstances of its construction are closely related to new choir furniture in the Santo in Padua. Specific terminology is explained and collated in the Glossary and an Appendix contains transcriptions and translations of significant documents.

The picture frames used by the American painter James McNeill Whistler developed stylistically throughout his career. This thesis identifies these developments, defines the characteristics indicative of each design, and contextualises their creation within Whistler’s larger body of work. First-hand examinations of over a hundred frames, in both the United Kingdom and the United States, resulted in challenging the generic understanding that a ‘Whistler frame’ is characterised only by reeded ornamentation. These physical examinations are cross-referenced with the significant amount of correspondence existing between Whistler and his contemporaries, thanks in large part to the publication of the on-line edition of The Correspondence of James McNeill Whistler. This thesis argues that the stylistic developments present in Whistler’s frames are directly linked to his understanding and perception of the frame’s function. Chapter 1 outlines that a picture frame can serve one of three functions: (1) as a decorative art object linking the painting to the environment, (2) as a decorative art object dividing the painting from the environment, or (3) as an extension of the painting. This thesis also applies the additional approach that the picture frame functions as an indicator of the provenance for both the painting and frame. Chapter 2 explores this method of provenance by examining Whistler’s reframing habits. Chapter 3 explores Whistler’s friendship with Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his early designs from 1864. These frames are observed as extending the painting to become a cohesive whole. Chapter 4 documents Whistler’s earliest attempt at painted frames and their development into incised ornament. Chapter 5 explores the effect that Whistler’s interior designs (including the Peacock Room) had on his frames. Chapter 6 focuses on the frame created during the 1880s and addresses the framing of Whistler’s works on paper. Chapter 7 examines Whistler’s working relationship with Fredrick Henry Grau and the preparations made for the 1892 Goupil Gallery exhibition Nocturnes, Marines and Chevalet Pieces.

published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

The area of this work is distressed denim in women’s wear. Denim wear has been distressed by machines to imitate the individual patina that becomes from wearing e.g. a pair of unwashed jeans until the color strips from creases. This work uses challenges the faked used look, using a decorative motive in distressed denim. Lace has been used as a decoration of dress since medieval times. By using lace as the pattern for the distressing of denim one will decorate the denim in a destructive way that questions the perfection and delicate way that lace is usually used. Lace consists of threads and holes that builds an ornamental pattern, worn down denim often results in holes and threads at the most vulnerable areas of the garment. Denim is a warp faced cotton twill weave with blue indigo yarn in warp and natural white yarn in weft. By using a laser cutter to engrave a pattern on the warp faced side of the denim, one can set the settings on the laser cutter so that only the blue warp threads will be met by the laser beam. After wash the engraved warp threads will dissolve and depending on the scale and the design of the pattern the unengraved parts can dissolve as well. Therefor one needs to fix the unengraved parts of the pattern before wash if one wants the pattern to remain. There is several ways to fix the pattern before wash; this work includes fixing with laser cut fusing and with seams. Some of the garments aren’t engraved in this work but cut in the laser cutter. The two cutting techniques used is first a regular cut out technique and second a slicing technique. The shapes of the garments derives from typical denim and lace garments such as jeans, denim jackets, denim shirts, lace gown, wedding dresses and underwear such as negligees, corsets, bras and panties. Initially, experiments were done to understand the visual and technical effect of clashing materials and garments. The result is a collection, combining ideas from two different origins in fashion, denim from mineworkers and lace from nobles. The outfits manages how one can control distressed denim and shows a variation from lace, to garments where the traces of lace have completely or partially dissolved. The primary motive is to investigate surface possibilities in distressed denim through a specific pattern. The result is difficult to control and experiments in full scale are necessary to evaluate distressed experiments. The secondary motive is global. Can lasercutting and engravings be an alternative to sandblasting ? It is not dealt with in this investigation. However this investigation shows a selection of alternative expressions for distressed denim. This work challenges the idea of distressed denim as the only way to make a fake, torned effect. It points at new possibilities, using decorative motifs by lasercuts and engravings in combination with other treatments in search for alternative expressions in denimwear.

No description available.

This study considers the nature and purpose of the original furnishings and decoration of Hardwick Hall. It analyses surviving artefacts, inventories, accounts and other documentation, as well as other comparative contemporary literary and visual sources. It seeks to reveal more about Bess of Hardwick's motives and processes in creating the interior of Hardwick. The Introduction includes a brief biography of Bess and a survey of existing literature on Hardwick. It also indicates the scope for new work. Chapter Two provides a context for the later chapters by considering the organisation of space within the building and its social significance. In order to understand the relationship between the two Hardwick Halls a detailed analysis of the Old Hall's whole layout is offered for the first time. Chapter Three analyses the furnishings as physical objects. It asks what Bess owned, how she acquired it, how she used it and how her practices compared with other peoples'. Discussion is based on the 1601 inventory, Bess's household accounts, surviving artefacts and other comparative material. Bess's unpublished will and earlier inventories of Chatsworth and Northaw are also included in the analysis and presented as appendices. Chapter Four analyses three iconographic themes: the assertion of identity, the government of the self, and the government of the nation. This is done by making detailed case studies and seeking to interpret the objects through contemporary ideas, sources and examples. Chapter Five summarises the chief fmdings and interprets them in the context of Bess as a patron, her resources, influences and motivation. The principal conclusions are that Bess did not invest heavily in creating Hardwick, that she did not create a palace for her royal grand-daughter and, most surprisingly, that she did not seek to build a house for the Cavendish dynasty. Instead, she created a personal monument.