Abstract The purpose of this article is to interpret a selection of El Greco’s Italian paintings (1560-1576) based on Bible texts in which ideas current during the Catholic Counter- Reformation are symbolised. At the age of nineteen El Greco, who was born in Crete in 1541 and was initially an icon painter in the Byzantine tradition, went to Venice. Through study and experiment, and by following the examples of other artists who had achieved artistic mastery and was of proven Catholic orthodoxy, he educated himself as an artist in the Western manner. Even during his years as an apprentice El Greco’s art is proof that he aspired to the highest humanly accessible values exemplified by Renaissance artistic theory, humanism and Christian spirituality — all of which later came to fruition in an unprecedented original combination in Toledo, Spain, where he settled permanently in 1577.

Many modern artists paint in oil or oil-modified alkyd paints over acrylic grounds. In some cases the oil based paints do not remain adhered to the ground. In a set of composite samples of oil or alkyd paints, over acrylic grounds, naturally aged for nine years, some of the samples delaminated. Samples were analyzed with X-ray fluorescence (XRF), inductively coupled plasma (ICP), Fourier transform infrared - attenuated total reflectance (FTIR-ATR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), pyrolysis gas-chromatography mass-spectrometry (PY-GC/MS), laser desorption/ionization mass-spectrometry (LDI-MS), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and other methods, in order to find what the delaminating ones have in common. In addition, two examples of severely delaminating paintings were examined, to confirm the results from the laboratory-prepared samples. Results indicate the main cause of delamination is metal soaps in the oil paint and particularly zinc soaps. There is some evidence that metal soaps were more concentrated at the interface between the layers and this disrupted the adhesion. The ground is a minor consideration as well, rougher grounds providing better adhesion than smooth ones. / Thesis (Master, Art Conservation) -- Queen's University, 2008-09-26 16:44:35.814

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The thesis on which I have based my research proposes that while the European perception of the Native American from 1750 to 1850 came to be mediated via all the visual arts, it was specifically via the graphic media that the proliferation of imagery concerning the Native American developed certain iconic and representational conventions and that these consistently overwhelmed other sources of information, from experience to written interpretation. The ubiquity of certain modes of presentation, of figure-types, and of synecdoches which stood for the Native American (e.g. feather decoration or the tomahawk) resulted almost entirely from graphic methods of visual elucidation. The tyranny of such visual types lies not only in their effective re-constitution of known, familiar imagery but also in the qualitative characterization of the Native American figure. In their reduction of the figure to symbolic and emblematic patterns of content, these few visual tokens belied the greater, complex reality of Native American existence, and left the European perception of it in a static position. It is only through the collation and analysis of all the various modes of visual expression, both graphic and ‘high’ art instances, that these tokens of the visual representation of the Native American can be discerned and their proliferation be analysed as a determinant in the ‘construction’ of the Native American.

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No description available.

Thesis--Toulouse-Le Marail. / Fold. map of cave inserted. Errata slip inserted. Includes bibliographical references (p. 285-289).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This work is based on the comparative iconographic analysis of a distinct corpus of paintings within the Later Stone Age, Bushman or San art of southern Africa. They are distinct from the rest of the paintings of the region in age, numbers, variety, complexity and density. It defines in detail the principles that determined the form of the paintings - where the primary concern was to depict objects through outline alone - and the canon - the very restricted range of subjects that were depicted. It demonstrates that the human imagery established a set of archetypes, expressing concepts of the roles of men and women in the community through a set of readily legible attributes. The art was thus in essence conceptual and, of its nature, not concerned with the individual, illustration, narrative, documentation or anecdote. Within this framework, the paintings focused on concepts of the various forms and degrees of supernatural energy or potency that all San have believed to be inherent in every person. Further studies demonstrate how large and dangerous animals, particularly the elephant, were conceived as symbols of potency and their hunting as a metaphor for trance. Compositions based on oval shapes and the dots within and emanating from them are shown to be further symbols of aspects of potency. Many recurrent and hitherto ignored motifs attached to human figures are shown to be a graphic commentary on the metaphysics of the archetypes. The study is set in the context of the archaeology of the sub-region, recent studies of San concepts, perceptions and beliefs, a review of previous research, and a critique of influential recent South African work which first integrated paintings with San beliefs.