Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Virginia, 1985. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 284-295).

This creative project has explored the combining of multiple paintings and multiple nodes of painting into a coherent and unified whole, directed toward a more complete and truer representation of man, especially the “born again” man. This study employed the unifying and transitional characteristics of various modes of painting, together with a structural format of a three-paneled, folding triptych, with the intent of enlightenment in the area of spiritual “oneness.” This study centered on Jesus Christ as the entrance to spiritual “oneness,” (more appropriately identified as The Kingdom of God, or being born again) and primarily by way of symbolism and the juxtaposition of ideas, modes of painting, and painted panels, sought to reveal that truth.

Thesis--Tübingen. / Vita. Includes indexes. Includes bibliographical references (p. 180-195).

Thesis--Tübingen. / Vita. Includes indexes. Includes bibliographical references (p. 180-195).

Zugl.: Heidelberg, Universiẗat, Diss., 2006.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Yale University, 1992. / Fourteen unnumbered p. containing figures 1-25 have not been filmed at the request of the author. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 222-227).

Duccio’s Maestà, made between 1308 and 1311 for the high altar of Siena Cathedral, is one of the best-known works of medieval painting. Astoundingly complex, with dozens of individual fields and several narrative cycles, it measured around 15 feet or four meters square. It was, and long remained, the largest panel painting ever made. But why did its designers reach so far outside the bounds of normal altarpieces, and why did they stretch the media of panel painting to new heights? Replacing Duccio’s Maestà within its original Trecento context demonstrates that the altarpiece cannot be explained by either earlier Cathedral images or by earlier Marian panel paintings made for monastic churches, whose imagery the Maestà appropriated but drastically expanded. Instead, the creation of Duccio’s Maestà comes into clearer focus when understood in its original setting, the civic Cathedral. Santa Maria della Assunta comprised not just its particular physical space, but a political and economic one. Duccio’s Maestà interacted with the specific, material building, especially the Cathedral’s unique hexagonal crossing and its dense green-black and white stripes; both features may have contributed to a reading of the Maestà’s central Virgin as a symbol for Ecclesia, occupying her own Temple of Solomon. But the Maestà also crucially served as the backdrop to the city’s biggest annual holiday, the Feast of the Assumption. Though generally characterized by scholars as a unifying event, the Feast was in fact a means of social control, regulated by the state, where participation was enforced by law and on point of fine, and whose main event was the legally mandated presentation of candles to the Virgin in the Cathedral. Moreover, Duccio’s high altarpiece was commissioned during a troubled period: threatened by plotting nobles, and having steered the city through a sensitive election for a new bishop, the Government of the Nine was increasingly intent on regulating the Assumption Feast and the Cathedral’s commissioning body, the Opera del Duomo, which was largely funded through the wax donated on the Assumption. Confronted by unique pressures, Duccio and his unknown potential collaborators created unique solutions, contextualizing popular Marian imagery within the Cathedral’s theological and political concerns through the use of elaborate narrative cycles. Faced with the puzzle of fitting an entire image program onto a panel painting, Duccio privileged a coherent spatial setting, drawn largely through carefully-depicted architecture, that allowed him to keep figure size constant and that therefore to create a smooth spatio-temporal reading of the altarpiece; his arragement of the narrative scenes allowed for new meanings and cross-readings; Duccio further used different perspectival constructions to direct the viewer’s reading of the altarpiece. Duccio thus turned painting’s limitation, its lack of time, into a strength, showing new ways in which images could be deployed to interpret narrative; he also spurred a long conversation among artists on the very nature of their medium and what, exactly, it could accomplish: Within 40 years, four altarpieces, occasioned again by architecture, were commissioned for the Cathedral’s patronal altars. Located near to Duccio’s high altarpiece, these altarpieces would reflect their artists’ reception of Duccio’s Maestà. These radical works by Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi, Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti, and Bartolommeo Bulgarini include the first narrative altarpiece and probably the first painting to pretend it is a view through a window in Western art. Above all, the patronal altarpieces demonstrate an interest in narrative, played out in the depiction of time and an attendant depiction of commensurate pictorial space.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Jack Freiberg, Florida State University, College of Visual Arts, Theatre, and Dance, Art History Dept. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Jan. 12, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 245 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Les anciennes peintures sur bois représentent une part importante du patrimoine culturel européen. Depuis longtemps, il est connu que les conditions de stockage peuvent entraîner des dégradations et endommagements aux panneaux. Une bonne compréhension de l'état actuel des peintures sur bois ainsi que la prédiction de leur comportement dans diverses conditions climatiques est essentielle pour mieux les conserver et les restaurer. De telles analyses peuvent être faites par le biais de la modélisation numérique. Cependant, la modélisation numérique est efficace que si les paramètres des matériaux sont équivalents à ceux de la réalité. Dans ce travail, les modifications mécaniques, physiques et chimiques qui se produisent au cours du vieillissement naturel ont été étudiées pour le bois et les couches de peintures. Les possibilités d'accélérer le vieillissement par des traitements thermo-hydrique ont été appliquées avec succès au bois. Une loi de vieillissement du bois a été trouvée pour la résistance radiale et la luminosité de la couleur. Malheureusement, une tel loi n'a pas été trouvé pour les couches de peinture. Ensuite, un modèle numérique tridimensionnel sur le comportement hygroscopique et mécanique des panneaux peints a été développé. La comparaison entre ce modèle et des expériences sont en bon accord. Finalement, une analyse de risques sur une ancienne peinture a montré que des fluctuations d'humidité relative normales ne devraient pas promouvoir de dommages dans le support en bois, mais la fissuration de la couche picturale est possible. / Ancient wood panel paintings represent an important part of the European cultural heritage. Since long time it is known that the storing condition can degrade and damage them. Understanding of the actual state of old panel paintings and the prediction of their behaviour under various climatic conditions is essential to better conserve and restore them. Such analysis could be done by numerical modelling. However, numerical modelling can achieved good predictions only if the materials parameters are adequately determined. In this work, the mechanical, physical and chemical modifications occurring during natural aging have been investigated for wood and paint layers. The possibility to accelerate the aging with thermo-hydro treatments has been successfully applied to wood. A wood aging law has been found for the radial strength and the lightness. Unfortunately, no such law has been found for the paint layers. The hygroscopic and mechanical behaviour of panel paintings has been then simulated in 3D by finite element method model including time dependent behaviour. The comparison between the model and experiments shows good agreement. Finally, risk analysis on an old painting shows that normal climate fluctuation should not promote cracks in the wooden support but the cracking of the ground layer is possible.

The Master of the Budnany Altarpiece (in other circumstances also called Master of the Vejprnice Altarpiece) appears to be a painting workshop operating in the 1590s, probably in Prague or hypothetically in Cheb (Eger). It is a construct created by art historians on the basis of a group of surviving works that show significant stylistic similarities. It includes three torsionally preserved painted altarpieces. These are the Budňany altarpiece, the Pruhonice altarpiece and the altarpiece of the Knights of the Cross monastery. Mostly these are works of lower quality, which, according to current interpretation, illustrate the average production of Prague workshops at the end of the 15th century. Stylistically, they are strongly derived from the production of the Nuremberg Painting Centre, but also, allegedly, from the problematically defined contemporary "court" painting in Prague. The so-called "Vejprnice panel", originally the main part of another painted altarpiece, was also included in the group for a time because of its stylistic affinity, which transformed the naming of the anonymous workshop master. The author of this conception was Jaroslav Pešina, who was by far the most active on the subject, most recently in 1978, and this thesis thus partly polemics with his conclusions. The content of this thesis...