The Bronze Age brought about new knowledge and technology throughout the Aegean world. The new-found technology the Aegean world acquired brought about the creation of the earliest swords, Type A and B, which ultimately revolutionized both combat and societal wealth. Even though the creation of the sword defined the new era of warfare, only the late sword types, Type C through Naue ii, are thoroughly discussed concerning Bronze Age combat over their predecessors, due to the high number of surviving blades. Although only a small amount of Type A and B swords have been uncovered, it is clear these earlier sword blades were deadly weapons just as much as they were elite art objects. By focusing on these swords as such, this paper seeks to highlight the duality that both the Type A and B swords represented to the peoples of the Aegean. / Art History

This thesis analyzes the role of warfare on Crete during the Early and Middle Minoan periods (EM and MM). Defensive architecture and weaponry production, utilization and representation are used as evidence for warfare during these periods. Furthermore, this thesis builds upon the scholarship of Minoan warfare in order to define the limitations of the defensive capabilities of Minoan Crete. The EM and MM periods on Crete show a slow advancement towards more sophisticated warfare practices. This is demonstrated by the intensification of defensive architectural programs and advanced weaponry technology of the early MM period. At the same time, population increase and social complexity may have caused extensive tension within communities, perhaps causing an increase in small-scale warfare or violence. Additionally, trade with settlements in the Aegean and the Levant may have inspired and initialized new practices in defensive mechanisms. Thus, the archaeological record of EM and MM Crete provides enough evidence to suggest warfare not only existed, but continually advanced in strategy and tactics. / Art History

The overall goal of this dissertation is to identify and examine the neglected aspects of the literature on Mark Rothko's 1958-1959 project to make murals for the Four Seasons restaurant (see Figs. 1-12) in the then-newly opened Seagram Building in Manhattan. These include Rothko's attempts to merge the mediums of painting and architecture in order to create an antagonistic environment in the restaurant; how his visits to Italy before and during the project reinforced this goal; how a good deal of the figurative paintings from Rothko's earliest career anticipated his blend of aggression and architecturally-related themes; the connection between Rothko and Mies van der Rohe, the architect of the building, in regard to the theme of transcendence; and how his experiments with architectural subjects and motifs aligned Rothko with some of the most influential vanguard artists in New York in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Discussions of these topics will suggest that his career-long references to architecture functioned, for him, as something intended to produce discomfort in the viewer. I will show that his acceptance of a lucrative commission to make paintings for a lavish restaurant that might seem at first to suggest pandering to an élite audience had the paradoxical effect of condemning that audience. I intend also to demonstrate that Rothko understood that the project was not merely about making paintings. Instead, for him, it dealt more with the challenge of uniting architecture and painting. / Art History

This dissertation examines trends in the production of pottery at Mycenae in the Late Helladic (LH) IIIC period (ca. 1200–1125 B.C.E) through the analysis of published ceramic material from the site. It includes my own study of select unpublished material from recent excavations on the Citadel (Building Kappa) and in the Lower Town. The LH IIIC period, considered the beginning of the Dark Ages in Greece, immediately followed the end of the Mycenaean palatial system, a phenomenon referred to as the Collapse. The Collapse is characterized by the complete destruction of many sites, possible loss of population, and a decrease in the number of occupied areas, and the subsequent LH IIIC period is associated with socioeconomic, demographic, and artistic decline. There are, however, notable indications of continued activity at many Greek mainland sites, a notable sign being the proliferation of elaborate vase painting. Through an examination of how certain pottery shapes and decorative styles were manufactured and utilized at LH IIIC Mycenae, key trends and developments can be discerned, and the changing preferences of the market for which these objects were produced can be understood. I conclude that these developments can be characterized as intentional responses of potters to the crisis that followed the demise of the palatial administration. Potters in LH IIIC were able to create and exploit a sustainable market, one that both reflected and influenced shifting political and social realities of communities now operating outside of a palace-dominated system; their advances would influence pottery production in Greece for centuries to come. / Art History

This study presents a preliminary examination of the pottery from Building Kappa, a recently excavated building on the citadel of Mycenae. Resulting from a formal detailed analysis of a portion of the recovered ceramic assemblage, this research corrects several errors recorded in notebooks at the time of excavation before the pottery was washed and studied. The excavated area of Building Kappa contained three different levels: Stratum 4/6, a deposit associated with the structure that shows it went out of use in the LH IIIB period; Level 3, a deposit consisting of baulks left unexcavated by early expeditions in the 1890's, which consists of an LH IIIC level from habitation near this area after the building went out of use; and Deposit 2beta, a modern backfill containing both Bronze Age and Hellenistic pottery that was spread across the site in modern times. The importance of the study is that it clarifies the stratigraphy of the area of Building Kappa and allows preliminary observations about the nature of the occupation at this location. More importantly, this research indicates the need for a more detailed examination of the remainder of the unstudied ceramic assemblage. / Art History

The German artist Anselm Kiefer and German author W. G. Sebald are prominent and innovative figures in their individual fields whose works deal with many of the same themes, such as destruction, memory, and mourning. Their historical retellings are mediated by their own experiences of growing up in postwar Germany and hover between reality and fiction. Kiefer and Sebald are not the only German artist and author to address themes related to World War II and the Holocaust; however, their works share similar approaches to those themes that are not universally utilized by their peers. Despite this, there is no in-depth analysis of the similarities between the artist and author. This paper examines multiple works by Kiefer and Sebald in order to analyze shared approaches that are evident in Kiefer’s artworks and Sebald’s novels. Their works focus heavily on the archive, take advantage of the documentary aspect of photography, and feature the histories and responses of Holocaust survivors. By examining these similarities, insight is gained into a postwar mindset shared by both Kiefer and Sebald. / Art History

This thesis will use a case study approach with the purpose of analyzing three female patrons from the early modern period, each serving as individual models for locating forms of identity and self-fashioning through the art they respectively commissioned. As women in unique positions of power, Isabella d' Este, the Marchioness of Mantua, Bess of Hardwick, the second wealthiest woman in Elizabethan England--second only to the queen--and Marie de' Medici, Queen of France, each constructed and maintained a visual program of self-identity through art and architecture. Through an examination of the patronage of these women from different geographical and chronological moments it becomes evident the way in which powerful women were especially capable of exploiting marital and familial circumstances. Twentieth-century Renaissance scholarship has been greatly influenced by the study of individuality and by an effort to understand a uniquely Renaissance experience and manufacturing of identity. I have selected these three particular patrons, from three distinct countries and generations of the early modern period to draw out similarities in their collective experience as women in positions of power. The notion of constructing identity through patronage will be explored in an effort to locate the common factors that further illustrate the fact that in the Renaissance both the internal, subjective experience of self and the more objective experience of collective social, political and religious forces be considered to create a cohesive explanation of the Renaissance formation of identity. / Art History

Thomas Hart Benton was commissioned to paint murals depicting Indiana history for the Indiana state pavilion at the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago. The completed Indiana murals were twelve feet high and over two hundred feet long, wrapping around the entire exhibition hall. Visitors to the Indiana pavilion experienced Indiana’s history through a continuous stream of narrative imitating the flow of time. After several years of storage following the fair, the panels were given to Indiana University in Bloomington in 1938, where they currently reside. While most scholarship has focused on the original message and context of the Indiana murals, the murals’ nearly seventy-five year display at IU necessitates a more thorough analysis of the murals at the university, with specific attention to the contextual changes since the time of the fair. The relocation of the murals to IU and the resultant restructuring of their historical narrative have altered perceptions of their imagery and attributed new meanings to the historical scenes Benton depicted. The aim of this study it to better understand the complex nature of Benton’s Indiana murals by exploring the ways in which changes in context result in alteration of the original message and the viewers’ reception of the murals. My research explores the murals’ role in university politics, reactions to the murals by their university audience, and recent controversies. A study of the Indiana murals in terms of the fluidity of historical construction and the effects of collective memory on their reception is significant because it leads to a greater understanding of the present’s cultural ideals, and begins to explain why the murals continue to elicit such strong reactions from viewers—whether to protest against their presence at the university or promote their preservation for the benefit of future generations. / Art History

No description available.

No description available.