During the past decade one of the bestsellers in the American art market was a group of figurative-representational paintings from post-Unification Germany. Dubbed “New German Painting”, this body of work included artists with explicit East German affiliations, such as the so-called “New Leipzig School”, as well as artists who trained at academies in former West Germany. While the American art critical discourse predominantly promoted the art as a new kind of German history painting, which confronted the country’s recent past of division and reunification, the reception amongst German art critics was more negative by far. The latter did not see a serious engagement with recent German history in the new body of art, and dismissed the painting as catering to a growing post-socialist nostalgia industry. Moreover, the traditional figurative style of painting, which was adopted in particular by artists trained at academies in post-Wende East Germany, was often criticized as an aesthetically and politically reactionary artistic position. In spite of the obvious social and political connotations of the art critical discourse on the “New German Painting”, art historical scholarship has barely examined this new body of art in light of underlying interactions between the painting’s aesthetic content and the social-political context of post-Unification Germany. This is a surprising omission, considering that scholars of modern German art are traditionally deeply concerned with the interplay between aesthetic and political continuities and discontinuities. A possible explanation for this gap in the literature is that art history lacks a framework to capture the intersecting aesthetic and social-political notions that have emerged in the discourse on the painting. This thesis aims to overcome this shortcoming by examining the phenomenon “New German Painting” from an interdisciplinary perspective that combines sociological with art historical approaches. The theoretical perspective builds on innovations in the sociology of art, which complement established concerns with social structure with a sensibility for aesthetic specificity. In the empirical parts of the thesis this perspective is used to trace continuities between the new painting and its reception with earlier moments in German post-World War II art history; as well as to examine the social context and historical moment in which the painting emerged. Particular attention is paid to affinities between the discussion of the “New German Painting” and current crossdisciplinary academic literature on nostalgia in post-Wende Germany. Overall, the thesis argues that this more encompassing approach is better suited for revealing how the phenomenon “New German Painting” sits at the centre of debates about collective memory and cultural identity in post-1989 Germany, including the complex relations between the former East and West that characterise these debates.

The dissertation recontextualizes the iconographical developments of the Last Judgement scene in Central Italian mural painting in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries by exploring the theological and political contexts in which these scenes were produced. Two striking events mark the evolution of the Late Medieval Last Judgement scene: first, the revival of the 'complete' Last Judgement after a period of contraction, and second, the separation of Heaven and Hell from the Last Judgement. Both of these features reflect an increasing anxiety about the fate of the soul in the afterlife: a fate which, by the end of the thirteenth century, had moved from the end of time itself to the moment of an individual's death. The first chapter concerns Pietro Cavallini's fresco in S.Cecilia in Trastevere (c.1293), its place within the Roman tradition of Last Judgement scene, and its role as the earliest surviving monumental example of the 'complete' Last Judgement. Chapter II concerns the frescoes of S.Maria Donnaregina in Naples (c.1317-23), patronized by the Angevin queen, Maria of Hungary. In 1266 the Papacy conferred on Charles I of Anjou the Kingdom of Naples in exchange for defense of the Papal States, and the Angevins became the chief administrators of civil and penal justice throughout the Papal States and independent Guelf city-states. A discussion of Angevin iconography establishes a connection between Angevin self-image and the Last Judgement scene. Chapter III is devoted to Giotto's Last Judgement at the Arena Chapel in Padua (c.1305) and its imitator at S.Maria Maggiore in Tuscania (c.1320). The chapter includes a discussion of thirteenth-century papal decrees concerning the fate of the soul in the afterlife, the appearance of the penitent patron at the foot of the cross, and the possibility of a Papal-Angevin-Guelf influence on the production of both of these frescoes. Chapter IV on the "Angevin Connection" begins with a reinterpretation of the iconography of the Florence Baptistery mosaics (c.1271-1330) in terms of their patronage by the Church and the exclusively Guelf Guild of the Calimala. The first instance of the separation of Paradise and Inferno from the Last Judgement, in the Magdalen Chapel of the Bargello in Florence (c.1322), is discussed in light of the civic function of the chapel and of Angevin control of the office of podesta. The relief panels of the façade of Orvieto Cathedral (c.1290-1330) are also considered in view of Papal and Angevin domination of that city. In Chapter V the influence of the Magdalen Chapel's separation of Heaven and Hell is linked to the increasing secularization of the Last Judgement scene as evidenced in the Campo Santo, Pisa (c.1330) and the nave of S.Croce, Florence (c.1330). The revival of the 'complete' Last Judgement scene in Late Medieval Central Italy was the result of theological changes concerning the afterlife, the rise of the penitential movement, and the formation of the Papal-Angevin-Guelf alliance for whom the triumphant scene of judgement became emblematic. The individual's anxiety about the fate of his soul at the moment of death and the appropriation of the Last Judgement for use in secular contexts affected the separation of Heaven and Hell from the Last Judgement and brought about the secularization of a traditionally sacred scene.

As the endurance of Wright’s soubriquet ‘of Derby’ shows, the association between Wright and Derby is distinctive in its ongoing cultural resonance. The legacy of this today is the Joseph Wright Collection at Derby Museum and Art Gallery – the largest collection of his work in the world. This thesis is, therefore, concerned not with arguing for the relationship between Wright and Derby but with attending to how it has been represented and claimed during the 19th-century. This will encompass both how the relationship influenced Wright’s posthumous reputation and how it was enlisted in Derby as the painter was incorporated into the town’s social and cultural fabric. The different claims made upon the artist’s life and locality will become apparent through this, demonstrating the changing relation between painter and place as it was adapted and appropriated according to different times, places, and discourses. This refurbishment of the painter throughout the 19th-century is significant as it provided cultural continuity at a time when the town was rapidly transforming. Exhibitions were an important medium through which the relationship was shaped and represented: within Derby there was a display of Wright’s work nearly every decade. These represent important moments in which Wright was enlisted as a source of cultural capital and in which his reputation was shaped and sustained. Following the natural chronology of the period, the thesis will first consider Wright’s immediate commemoration through the networks of people and circulation of objects involved in sales of his work and his literary representation. In 1839 the Derby Mechanics’ Institute exhibition was heralded as ‘Derby’s first exhibition’; Wright’s prominent display in this implicated him within the civic culture of the 1830s. As momentum around exhibitions and Wright built in the latter half of the century, the exhibitions in 1866, 1870, and 1877 will be considered in relation to one another, consolidating Wright’s presence within the town. Lastly, the thesis will close with the 1880s, when Wright’s association with Derby was celebrated and claimed through a large retrospective exhibition of his work, the beginning of a municipal art collection, the publication of his monograph, and a display at the Royal Academy in 1886.

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Using unpublished source material at Princeton University, the University of British Columbia, the British Library and the National Art Library in the V&A, this thesis aims to broaden current scholarly understanding regarding Rossetti's exposure to, interest in, and subsequent appropriation of aspects of monastic life and saintly legend in his religious and secular paintings and poems. The intention of part one of this thesis is to discuss and analyse Rossetti's early interest in monasticism and the legends of the saints. Rossetti's attraction to Catholic ritual and ceremony, both in terms of its aesthetic impact and the feelings of awe it engendered, will form the background to a discussion of his admiration for pre-Reformation art. The concern which he displayed in his own paintings and poems for saintly legend and theological mysteries will be shown to have its origins in early Christian art, as well as in the apocryphal lives of the saints and the writings of the Church Fathers, which had seen a resurgence in popularity in the wake of the Oxford Movement. Rossetti's growing fascination with art as a vehicle for the conveyance of religious ideas will be considered in relation to the early and mid-nineteenth century revival of interest in the medieval painter-monk and in the practice of illumination. Rossetti's 1856 watercolour Fra Pace will be examined in this context. The pertinence of the example of St Luke, who used his art as a preaching tool, will also be considered, Rossetti having returned to this concept directly, and obliquely, throughout his career in both his visual and poetic art. The influence of the quasi-monastic Nazarene painters, also called the German Brotherhood of St Luke, will be examined. Rossetti's suggestion of "Brotherhood" as an appendage to "Pre-Raphaelite" will be considered within a specifically monastic context, looking at the artist's family history, analogous artistic communities, and the revival of interest in ascetic institutions within the nineteenth century. The extent to which the works of the Pre-Raphaelite group showed a basis towards asceticism will be analysed, as will contemporary reactions to this.

The essay accompanied the submission of 5 books and seven articles for the degree of PhD by publication. It explains that the common thread that links the various publications is research into prints and drawings.

Neste trabalho, apresentamos um amplo estudo das interações de longo alcance entre átomos de Rydberg frios na presença de campos elétricos estáticos. Nós observamos a transferência de população do estado quase molecular nD + nD para o estado (n+2)P após excitação pulsada na região de 29 ≤ n ≤ 41 em uma amostra de Rb aprisionada em uma armadilha magneto-óptica. A taxa de transferência pode ser manipulada com a presença de campo elétrico estático. Para explicar tais observações um modelo teórico multiníveis foi utilizado. O estudo de evolução temporal da população em (n+2)P mostrou que a dinâmica do processo é condizente com a interpretação clássica de uma transição diabática no domínio temporal. Utilizando um laser de excitação contínuo, realizamos experimentos envolvendo estados nD + nD, para 37 ≤ n ≤ 45, e estados nS + nS, para 39 ≤ n ≤ 47, onde foi possível estudarmos processos de transferência de população com resolução da estrutura fina. Também realizamos experimentos, tanto para estados nD quanto nS, para verificar a importância da estrutura hiperfina da estado fundamental no processo de transferência de população. / In this work, we present an extensive study of long-range interactions between cold Rydberg atoms in the presence of static electric fields. We have observed the population transfer from the quasi-molecular nD + nD state to the (n +2) P state after pulsed excitation for 29 ≤ n ≤ 41 in a sample of Rb trapped atoms in a magneto-optical trap. The transfer rate can be manipulated by the static electric field. To explain such observations, a multilevel theoretical model was used. The study of the time evolution of the population (n +2) P indicates that the dynamics of the process is consistent with a classical interpretation of a nonadiabatic transition in time domain. Using a CW laser excitation, experiments involving states nD + nD, for 37 ≤ n ≤ 45 states and nS + nS for 39 ≤ n ≤ 47, where performed with high spectral resolution. We also performed experiments for both states, nD and nS, to verify the importance of the hyperfine structure of the ground state in the process of population transfer.

This thesis draws together material and archival sources to investigate the long-overlooked portraits of English provincial gentry families commissioned between c.1550 and c.1680. Specifically, its focus is on portraits of family groups where more than one generation, connected through blood or kinship, is depicted in the same composition. The thesis identifies these as a coherent genre for the first time and examines the ways in which the gentry used such paintings to establish familial legacy and heritage for future generations. This thesis explains how these portraits respond to, and reflect, family memory and narratives, social networks, local histories, religious observance and artistic developments. They are important because the family, as the basic unit of society, was essential for the formation and transmission of belief and identity, and the place where children were socialised. The portraits simultaneously reflect broad social trends while also containing personal messages about the lives and relationships of individual families which were specific to their own particular place and time. The thesis argues for the significance of visual artworks and especially this genre of painting, in the construction of gentry status and self-fashioning over this key period of social change.

This thesis is concerned with representations of homosexual themes and subjects in the works of David Hockney (b. 1937). A male, homosexual British artist, Hockney came of age during a period in which homosexual acts between males remained criminalised in both Britain and the United States. Openly homosexual since the early 1960s, Hockney began to produce images concerned with homosexual themes during his Royal College of Art student years. This thesis explores Hockney’s discovery of texts, languages, images and publications relating to homosexuality from the 1960s onwards, and his personal and creative responses to these sources. The concept of a homosexual creative ‘canon’ existed amongst homosexual men of this period, albeit in an unofficial capacity; this wider context of historical creative and cultural precedent within homosexual subcultures has not previously been the subject of sustained critical engagement in relation to Hockney. In addition to the artist’s works dealing with homosexual themes produced prior to the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in Britain in 1967, this thesis looks beyond that period, and also considers Hockney’s personal self-fashioning and media engagements. Far from an anomalous maverick, Hockney and his works are shown to fit within a continuum of homosexual creative and cultural endeavour.

Over the past decade, there has been an ever increasing interest in the relationship between weather and climate and how they are portrayed artistically. The representations of skies, atmosphere, weather, climate and climate change through a variety of artistic media have been considered thus far (Eliasson 2003; Olson et al 2004, Kunz et al 2005; Thornes 1999, 2008a, 2008b). Furthermore, there have been a number of studies that have contemplated the use of environmental art as a form of proxy data for past weather, air pollution and climate change (Lamb 1967; Neuberger 1970; Brimblecombe and Ogden 1977, Baker and Thornes 2006 and Zerefos et al 2007). Monet’s series paintings can be considered as another example of art representing aspects of the weather and climate, for example, when Monet painted his scenes of London, he would include the sun when it was visible or a representation of the sun when it was obscured, trying to illustrate the atmosphere, and thus the weather, in his paintings. However, Monet also reworked many of his canvases with the intention of reflecting how the atmosphere appeared on specific days from year to year, therefore it seems it could be concluded that Monet was consciously painting the climate of London as well as the weather. For this reason, the opportunity to deconstruct Monet’s representations of the skies in his London Series (1899-1905) could not have come at a better time.