This thesis is on the work and life of the American printmaker, Morris Henry Hobbs. In the 1930s and 1940s, Hobbs received national attention for his print series of Europe, Chicago, New Orleans and nudes as well as miniature prints known as 'postage stamp' etchings. Stylistically, he remained faithful to the representation tradition of the American 'Second Etching Revival' movement Hobbs exhibited regularly in regional and national exhibitions. Twice he had the distinction of having one-man shows at the Smithsonian Institution. His prints appeared in the leading annuals and journals of the day, including Pencil Points, Fine Prints of the Year, Contemporary American Etchers, Print Collector's Quarterly and Prize Winning Prints of the Twentieth Century. Hobbs' prints can be found in the collection of the Carnegie Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Library of Congress, Toledo Museum of Art, Tulane University, The Historic New Orleans Collection and Louisiana State Museum / acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation investigates how ancient Maya artists and ruler-patrons adapted traditional visual conventions to the dramatic socio-political changes of the ninth century AD. Shared visual conventions used throughout southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and northern Honduras formed a coherent communicative system, particularly in the eighth century, an era that also witnessed significant growth of the elite class and an increased frequency of inter-polity warfare. Resulting economic and social stress catalyzed dramatic changes in the ninth century, leading to the abandonment of most Maya cities. Some polities, however, enjoyed political success in this era, effectively adapting to the changing social landscape. This study considers the ninth-century sculpture at two such polities, Machaquila and Seibal. Sculptors at each site produced a series of ruler-portrait stelae proclaiming the political power of local kings following the violent demise of the region's dominant Mutal polity. The 'visual discourse' model applied herein situates stela production in the context of artist-patron-audience interaction and highlights the socio-political implications of drawing upon specific visual precedents and of adapting and implementing them in particular ways Initially, sculptors at each site portrayed local ruler-patrons as the regional successors of Mutal kings by adopting the visual conventions of that polity. Subsequently, however, stelae at Machaquila and Seibal diverged significantly. Machaquila's conservative stelae presented increasingly streamlined, 'legible' compositions to stress socio-political stability and expand the potential audience to include non-elite Maya and foreign audiences. In contrast, Seibal's artists heterogeneously employed old, new, and foreign visual devices. Seibal's late stelae implement traditional Maya visual conventions primarily to contrast with non-local modes of expression, reflecting a decline in that system's social power. The eclecticism of Seibal's late stelae contradicts past proposals of foreign invasion and takeover. Instead, Seibal's rulers chose to present themselves as 'cosmopolitan' in a context of increasingly international interaction The concluding chapter elucidates several possible socio-political explanations of Machaquila's and Seibal's visual discourses by considering each city's geopolitical situation, the increasing social power of merchants, a conceptualization of eighth-century Maya visual expressions as excessively sophisticated, and the roles of the artists, patrons, and audiences involved in the production and reception of the stelae / acase@tulane.edu

The Classic Maya lords utilized many strategies to obtain and maintain control of their domains, but only a few left traces that can be studied by archaeologists. One such strategy was the erection of monuments and the construction of buildings within city centers. These monuments and structures were vital aspects of the Classic Maya landscape and in a sense were 'living' entities. They were given proper names by their creators, which were intended to reflect the nature of the monument or structure. For monuments this often meant that their names described whom they embodied or what ritual function they fulfilled. For structures the names provide insight into their intended political, social, or religious function The dissertation provides a systematic study of proper names of monuments and structures constructed by the Classic Maya. Using the known body of hieroglyphic texts and archaeological data, it examines the relationship between text and landscape for the Classic Maya. Based on this information, several patterns were identified: for example, the naming of monuments was a circumscribed phenomenon limited to the sites of Copan and Quirigua, and the choice of subject matter for these sculptures was driven by the political and religious atmosphere at the time of their carving. As an artistic convention and as a tool for political propaganda, the use of names on portrait stelae shows a clear development over time, culminating in the Late Classic In contrast to named monuments, named structures are found all over the Maya area. Although names from several sites are discussed in this dissertation, data from Palenque provides a 'case study' for understanding the relationship between structure names, structure iconography, and history. In the course of the study, I have reevaluated previous interpretations of Palenque structure names and suggested several new or modified interpretations Proper names of monuments and structures provide important information about Maya history, politics, religion, and the landscape. This study provides a new look at this dynamic and productive phenomenon in order to better understand how and why the Maya constructed and modified their landscape / acase@tulane.edu

This paper traces the effects of romantic idealism promulgated in John Ruskin's (1814-1900), aesthetic, socio-economic and educational theories to the crafts revival in the Highland region of Southern Appalachia at the turn of the century. It follows the influence of Ruskin's thought through the Arts and Crafts Movement and the androgogical practices of American urban settlement houses and connects it with the Appalachian settlement schools' curriculum and goals. / The personal and social factors impelling Ruskin's revolt against Victorian social Darwinism and scientific materialism of the burgeoning industrial revolution are outlined. Ruskin's claim that only a just culture produces great art, and that aesthetic values reveal moral values is examined for its immediate implications and applications in reforming arts education and practice. His attempts to reform labor conditions and foster handicraft is scrutinized. Some early English and American school and workshop experiments based on this model are reviewed. / Ruskin's thought, first published in Modern Painters in 1843, inspired the English Arts and Crafts Movement. Led by William Morris, its founders combined democratic and socialist ideals with romantic idealism, and shaped handicraft education and manufacture along egalitarian and cooperative lines. The emphasis on arts and crafts education in early settlement houses is traced to these influences. / An examination of primary documents of certain Appalachian settlement schools and of their leaders link their values to Ruskin's romantic idealism, revealing close ties with the Arts and Crafts Movement and the urban settlement houses. The conclusion suggests that the revival of handicrafts in the Southern Appalachians was strongly affected by romantic idealism's veneration of handicrafts as a mode of instilling social values and building a sense of community, and offers suggestions for the relevance of romantic idealism to modern androgogical practices. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-06, Section: A, page: 1993. / Major Professor: Charles M. Dorn. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1991.

The study describes the nature of intellectual access to digitized art images using qualitative methodologies. Images of Caribbean paintings were digitized and the process of querying the Caribbean art images observed. Queries of art historians are analyzed and compared to retrieval parameters and image characteristics. Four major categories, developed during the coding of data, are: Queries, Manipulations, Recommendations, and Applications. Concepts are identified that relate the complexity of the query, the access points, and the types of computer manipulations needed to retrieve relevant answer sets. / Findings from the investigation include: (1) Queries are identified that include levels of complexity; (2) Queries change in levels of complexity when digital images are used; (3) Some queries cannot be answered by use of a surrogate image; and (4) There are identifiable characteristics of the images that relate in complexity to queries of style. / Based on identified relationships, a proposed model of intellectual access to digitized art images is depicted and described. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-11, Section: A, page: 3339. / Major Professor: Elisabeth Logan. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

The term apotropaia is conventionally understood to refer to a specific type of protective magic in which an object possesses a supernatural ability to avert evil from its human users, the practice of which is generally assumed to be a facet of human behavior so fundamental in nature that it is applied universally and rarely subjected to critical review. The application of such a universal approach to the tutelary magic of ancient Greece is problematic, particularly in light of the concept’s origination in outdated treatments of the ancient world. This study intends to examine the human agency that directs the selection and use of protective magic in the art of Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic Greece, to explore how, why, and under whose agency the visual expression of apotropaic motifs developed, and to situate all of these answers in their relevant historical and cultural contexts. A chronological examination of the evidence reveals a distinct shift in agency over time, in which early appeals to the gods for protection gradually give way to a preference for human ritual behaviors that purport to provide the same security. The apotropaic element of the iconography of the ancient gorgon is developed gradually, as it grows from an image that symbolizes divine action to one that can be used by humans with individual, non-divine agency, all of which occurs against a backdrop of larger changes in the perception of the roles of gods and men. These shifts reveal the existence of a clear human need, in the years following the Hellenistic period, to secure protection from non-standard sources, or, in those cases where the Greek gods are preferred, to use the deities as tools in service to human needs. Furthermore, these diachronic shifts in tutelary agency correspond to periods of socio-economic crisis, perhaps as the result of general losses of faith in the divine. As a result, a pattern emerges in which the early reliance on the gods for protection gives way to a human need to assert control over one’s circumstances by any means necessary. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Classics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2017. / May 5, 2017. / apotropaic, evil eye, gorgon, protective magic, ship eyes / Includes bibliographical references. / Christopher Pfaff, Professor Directing Dissertation; David Levenson, University Representative; Svetla Slaveva-Griffin, Committee Member; Daniel J. Pullen, Committee Member.

This dissertation focuses on the secular painting of Photis Kontoglou (1895-1965). Although Kontoglou is best known for leading a revival of Byzantine religious painting, he also produced a number of secular paintings which were rendered in the style of religious icons. In the course of my study, I suggest that these "secular icons" can only be understood by exploring his conception of the sacred. I show that the sacred for Kontoglou was not limited to the life of the Greek Orthodox Church but included a Romantic conception of Greek nationalism grounded in folk culture. I argue that Kontoglou's view of the sacred was broad enough to encompass numerous instances of pre-modern life and society, many of which were not confined to the Greek nation. The dissertation is organized in the following way. In Chapter 1, I explore the meaning of the term 'icon' within the theoretical framework of discussions about the categories of 'sacred' and 'secular,' especially those of Mircea Eliade. In the next section, I examine the wider context out of which Kontoglou's artistic views took shape. Chapter 3 explores Kontoglou's theory of Greek national continuity. Chapter 4 focuses on Kontoglou's conception of icon painting. Finally, Chapter 5 includes an analysis of five of Kontoglou's so-called 'secular icons' and seeks to account for the resemblance of these works to conventional religious icons.

Persistence of vision| Hamaya Hiroshi's Yukiguni and Kuwabara Kineo's Tokyo Showa 11-nen in the transwar era

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in Art History." Includes bibliographical references (p. 297-327).

Thesis (M.A.)--Lehigh University, 2009. / Adviser: Scott P. Gordon.