The dissertation pushes the boundaries of biblical interpretation by formulating relationships between passages of the Hebrew Bible and unrelated works of Modern art. While a growing field of criticism addresses the representation of scriptural stories in painting, sculpture and film, the artwork in this study does not look to the Bible for its subject matter. The intertextual/intermedia comparisons instead address five different genres of biblical literature and read them according to various dynamics found in Modern images. In forming these relationships I challenge traditional perceptions of characters and literary style by allowing an artistic representation or pictorial method to highlight issues of selfhood, gender and power and by revaluing narrative and poetry in nuanced aesthetic terms. The comparative analysis derives its two-subject structure for each section from the undergraduate art history seminar, in which two slides are projected and the group encouraged to identify similarities between disparate works. My use of this heuristic method then appropriates secondary sources to forge a relationship in which art criticism ultimately speaks for the biblical text. Chapter I juxtaposes the figure of Michal in 2 Samuel 6 against that of Queen Guenevere (1858) by William Morris in an essay that questions the portrait popular opinion has painted of the barren daughter of Saul. The Pre-Raphaelite painting and Morris’s related poetry help to build a defence for Michal against those who inflict her barrenness upon her as if it were a punishment from God. Morris’s sympathy for his adulterous heroine allows us to see the Deuteronomistic History’s maligned queen as one whose character and action in fact seem very in tune with the prophetic agenda of the greater work. In Chapter II, a woodcut portrait of Friedrich Nietzsche (1905) by Erich Heckel provides a counterpart to Abraham’s representation in Genesis 23. The German Expressionist reduced his palette to a bold black on white to memorialise the Modern father of great men. The comparison frames Abraham as the embodiment of the Übermensch, as one who laid waste to his father’s heritage and followed his own God. His role as one who lives ‘over’ others casts the haste with which he gets up and buys Sarah’s plot as a sign of his will to possess. Luce Irigaray’s Marine Lover of Friedrich Nietzsche (1991) is then incorporated to create a dialogue between the dark space of the portrait (symbolic of Abraham’s masculine ego) and the white space caused by Sarah’s death. Sarah thus speaks to ‘Abraham the Overman’ as the ‘Marine Lover’, beckoning him down from his high place and resisting the force in him that wants to bury her out of his sight. Chapter III turns to prophecy and reconsiders Isaiah 44 first as a collage made in exile and then as a performance piece conducted in diaspora. The Merzbild by Kurt Schwitters entitled Green Over Yellow (1947) takes a critical Modern step away from representation and forward to abstraction. Schwitters assembled his cut-up forms to give them new visual value and made conspicuous their arbitrary edges and artful overlapping—a compositional and structural ethos not unlike the collage of forms in the exilic prophecy. Schwitters’ relative ease as an exile and expatriate in Britain also fuels questions scholars have asked about the nature and scale of the biblical exile. Finding that the text does not fully orient itself towards Jerusalem, a second part to this comparison introduces an alternative analogue for Is. 44 by treating it as a record of performance and drawing upon the work of Ana Mendieta (1948-1985) to discuss the passage’s broad approach to land and identity. The fourth chapter hangs an individual lament alongside Jackson Pollock’s Cathedral (1947), likening its parallelisms to streams of paint poured across the canvas and foregrounding the site of Psalm 13 as a field of/for abstract expression. Short though this hymn may be, its generalised language makes it accessible to a universal audience and lets emotion be splattered about in a personal protest against pain. Finally, Chapter V envisions wisdom literature and the character of Qoheleth with an understanding for the genre’s ‘conceptual’ outlook and the speaker’s sense of irony. A readymade gambler’s bond by Marcel Duchamp is projected opposite the opening chapter of Qoheleth’s reflections to introduce the wise man as a dandy who entertains his admirers through pleasing words. The comparison thus establishes a context in which a book that scholars have attempted to classify as either the work of an optimist or a pessimist can be appreciated for the attitude of witty indifference its author appears to affect. The project actively conceives of the biblical text as a ‘Modern’ phenomenon by emphasising areas in which it seems to invite abstract or metaphorical modes of understanding over literal interpretation. It utilizes an understanding of Modernism based not on the rejection of tradition but on the desire to rectify it. And it draws out the ways in which the Bible scandalizes the pious pictures critics have painted of it. Thinking not only of reading and visualising the Bible as an artistic process, the analysis aims to illustrate the legitimacy of viewing the text itself as a work of art.

The culture at the ducal court of Sigmund and Albrecht IV of Bavaria-Munich was characterised by a coexistence of traditional as well as novel concepts and interests, which were expressed in the dukes’ artistic, architectural and literary patronage. Apart from examining the orthodox means of aristocratic self-aggrandizement like jousting, clothes, decorative arts and precious, exotic objects, this thesis discusses ‘innovative’ tendencies like the forward-looking application of retrospective motifs, historicising styles as well as the dukes’ genealogy, the ducal government’s imprint on the territory and the aesthetic qualities of the landscape. The study of a selection of buildings and works of art with the methodologies of the stylistic analysis, iconology and social history emphasises the conceptual relations between the ducal court’s various cultural products, which were conceived as ensembles and complemented each other. The elucidation of their meanings to contemporaries and the patrons’ intentions is substantiated with statements in contemporary written sources like travel reports, chronicles and the ducal court’s literary commissions. The principal chapters explore three thematic strands that are idiosyncratic for the culture at the court of Sigmund and Albrecht IV between 1460 and 1508, because they were consistently realised in several buildings and works of art. The first chapter provides an overview of the history of Munich, the Duchy of Bavaria and the Wittelsbach dynasty. The second chapter explores the princely self-conception at the threshold of the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era by considering the application of clothes, decorative arts, knightly skills, exotic animals, and monuments of the patrons’ erudition as means of social communication and differentiation. The third chapter considers the dukes’ awareness as well as ‘manipulation’ of their genealogy and history as a forward-looking means for legitimating and realising their political objectives. It also examines the symbolism and origins of historicising motifs in art and architecture like the Church of Our Lady’s bulbous domes that acted as markers of the ducal sepulchre. The fourth chapter scrutinizes the impact of the dukes’ government and artistic as well as architectural patronage on their territory. It also considers emergence of poly-focal panoramic views from the interiors of castle and palaces into the surrounding countryside by examining the origins of this phenomenon and the perception of the landscape’s aesthetic qualities.

This thesis attempts to present a controlled sociological examination of Art Nouveau in Glasgow from the eighteen-nineties into the first decade of the twentieth century. The phenomenon of Glasgow Art Nouveau (its ideological groundings, its socio-cultural base, and the nature of its artistic production), provides a case-study of avant-gardism. The main intention is to illustrate, with historical exemplification, to what extent Art Nouveau can be interpreted as a radical social critique underpinned by specific theoretical and ideolgoical concerns. I begin by examining (a) the analytic means whereby statisfactory criteria are developed for the purpose of defining Art Nouveau as an artistic style; the specific manifestations of this style in a variety of European countries, and its transformation from organic/symbolic to abstract/geometric form-language; and (b) Art Nouveau as a distinctive cultural movement which was attempting to transform the public sphere in accordance with artistic principles. The second chapter has a dual purpose: firstly, it examines the status of Art Nouveau as an avant-garde movement, and, secondly, it attempts to construct the basis for a specifically sociological theory of Art Nouveau by bringing together the arguments of certain social theorists who have made significant reference to the phenomenon. Subsequently, it is demonstrated that, within the sphere of influence of the Glasgow School of Art, continental avant-gardiste trends at the end of the nineteenth century provided the frame of reference for the understanding of new artistic movements in Glasgow. This leads to an analysis of Mackintosh's extant writings in order that a reconstruction of the essentials of Scottish Art Nouveau's distinctive ideology can be presented. It is argued that Glasgow Art Nouveau had a coherent viewpoint in many respects deriving from the formulations of the Edinburgh sociologist and theorist Patrick Seddes. As well as demonstrating the closeness of Mackintosh's theorising to that of certain Viennese Art Nouveau exponents (Wagner, Hoffmann) with whom he had contact, it is shown to what extent Scottish Art Nouveau was attempting to transcend the traditional distinction between the utilitarian and the artistic, and address the issue of a social environment transformed in accordance with modern social needs. The remainder of the thesis substantively examines crucially related aspects of the Glasgow cultural context. Firstly, it focusses upon the Art School as institutional context within which Art Nouveau emerges, and demonstrates the relevance of the implementation of an experimental approach to art teaching there. Secondly, it examines the issue of the actual and potential production of goods manifesting the new form-language. Thirdly, the nature of the reception given to the new form-language is investigated: this invovles an analysis of relevant reportage in Glasgow. The reasons for the failure of the movement to gain ground in Glasgow are shown to be connected with a number of complex factors ranging from moral outrage at its `decadence' to the absence of the kind of technical expertise capable of consolidating its innovations for a mass society.

The function of the endometrium is to mediate implantation of the embryo. During the early stages of implantation, the endometrial stroma undergoes differentiation known as decidualization, a process critical for successful embryo implantation. The precise mechanisms involved are not clearly understood but extracellular matrix (ECM) remodelling is a key feature. Fibronectins (FNs) are large glycoproteins abundant in the ECM of the human endometrium. Up to twenty isoforms of FNs are generated from alternative splicing, including the EDIIIA+ and EDIIIB+ variants. This thesis investigated changes in endometrial stromal ECM levels, in particular FN and its splice variants, during decidualization and in response to the endometrial cytokines and growth factors that drive the implantation process. Furthermore, the influence of these splice variants on the functional properties of FN was explored, including cell attachment, spreading and proliferation, integrin binding and focal adhesion kinase activation. Structural studies including crystallization trials were carried out to investigate how the insertion of EDIIIA modulates the conformation of FN and accessibility of its integrin binding sites. These combined studies allow us to test the hypothesis that the regulation of alternative splicing provides a biological mechanism for modulating function of FN in the endometrium. The main findings from this study can be summarized as follows: Immunocytochemistry and immunoblotting demonstrated reduced endometrial stromal levels of EDIIIA+FN, total FN and tenascin during in vitro decidualization. Substrate-associated FN production by endometrial stromal cells was reduced in response to the endometrial cytokine TNFalpha as detected by ELISA. Recombinant FIII7-12A±B± fragments were expressed, purified and mediated endometrial stromal cell adhesion. Inclusion of EDIIIA in the recombinant FIII7-12 fragment decreased binding affinities to integrin alpha5beta1. These findings suggest that production of FNs in the endometrial stroma is modified during in vitro decidualization and in response to endometrial TNFalpha. This modification in ECM composition is likely to result in modulation of cellular processes, perhaps to allow for cellular differentiation and migration that is required for invasion of the implanting embryo.

Current practice for sample size computations in clinical trials is largely based on frequentist or classical methods. These methods have the drawback of requiring a point estimate of the variance of treatment effect and are based on arbitrary settings of type I and II errors. They also do not directly address the question of achieving the best balance between the costs of the trial and the possible benefits by using a new medical treatment, and fail to consider the important fact that the number of users depends on evidence for improvement compared with the current treatment. A novel Bayesian approach, Behavioral Bayes (or BeBay for short) (Gittins and Pezeshk, 2000a,b, 2002a,b; Pezeshk, 2003), assumes that the number of patients switching to the new treatment depends on the strength of the evidence which is provided by clinical trials, and takes a value between zero and the number of potential patients in the country. The better a new treatment, the more patients switch to it and the more the resulting benefit. The model defines the optimal sample size to be the sample size that maximises the expected net benefit resulting from a clinical trial. Gittins and Pezeshk use a simple form of benefit function for paired comparisons between two medical treatments and assume that the variance of the efficacy is known. The research in this thesis generalises these original conditions by introducing a logistic benefit function to take account of differences in efficacy and safety between two drugs. The model is also extended to the more general cases of unpaired comparisons and unknown variance. The expected net benefit defined by Gittins and Pezeshk is based on the efficacy of the new drug only. It does not consider the incidence of adverse reactions and their effect on patients’ preferences. Here we include the costs of treating adverse reactions and calculate the total benefit in terms of how much the new drug can reduce societal expenditure. We describe how our model may be used for the design of phase III clinical trials, cluster randomised clinical trials and bridging studies. This is done in some detail and using illustrative examples based on published studies. For phase III trials we allow the possibility of unequal treatment group sizes, which often occur in practice. Bridging studies are those carried out to extend the range of applicability of an established drug, for example to new ethnic groups. Throughout the objective of our procedures is to optimise the costbenefit in terms of national health-care. BeBay is the leading methodology for determining sample sizes on this basis. It explicitly takes account of the roles of three decision makers, namely patients and doctors, pharmaceutical companies and the health authority.

Fine art, in the form of oil paintings, prints and drawings, accounts for a considerable proportion of the collection formed by the Scottish anatomist, Dr William Hunter. This thesis examines the contexts for the various works of art that were either bought or commissioned by him or were the result of donations and gifts. It covers the period from the 1740s, when Hunter arrived in London until his death in 1783 and follows his collecting activities from their origins in the specialist, anatomical-antiquarian interests of his predecessors in the 1750s to the more elaborate works that were increasingly available to him through his contacts with artists and dealers by the 1770s. This involves placing Hunter within a chronology of collecting during the eighteenth century, a period characterised by an expansion of cultural activity within all the arts. Such a commodification of culture brought with it various implications for the production and reception of the arts that had been predominantly the reserve of the aristocracy. William Hunter was a professional, a new type of Gentleman Connoisseur, whose motivations to collect were inspired by an innate empirical curiosity that dominated the era. Therefore, curiosity as a type of investigative phenomenon is considered in the thesis as the driving force behind the accumulation and calculation of of collectible objects. Hunter's incorporation of a fine art collection within a museum dominated by anatomy and natural history calls for a re-considertation of the place of art derived from the close study of nature during the period. His influence as a teacher and patron of the arts is also re-considered here by a closer examination of the part he played in the community of artists that emerged in London during the 1760s. The thesis employs a methodology that combines the techniques of micro-history, a close cultural-anthropological analysis viewed through a framework of more general, theoretical themes, classicism, antiquarianism and consumerism that seek to impose an understanding on the sheer diversity and range of interrelated ideas that constitute the practice of collecting during the eighteenth century. It reveals that, rather than standing on the periphery, William Hunter played a crucial, if not central, role in the promotion and dissemination of the fine arts in Britain.

This thesis is an ethnographic study of theatre audiences and the ways in which they experience community. It is positioned within current debates on the mediatization and globalization of society, and the ongoing discussion as to whether social change has an adverse effect on community experience. Methodologically it emphasizes the investigation of audience contexts and collaborative practices among actors and theatregoers and between researcher and respondents. Audiences’ own terminology is considered vital to understanding what community means to them. The thesis examines community experience across the whole trajectory of the theatregoing event, from theatregoers’ backgrounds, through interactions at theatre performances, to discussion outside the auditorium and in their everyday lives. It argues that while theatre audiences conform to the perception that they tend to be middle aged and predominantly female, there are modifications to Bourdieu’s findings that cultural consumption is closely related to social class gradations. In particular, mainstream theatregoers extend across the spectrum of the middle class and their tastes in theatre are eclectic. Similarly, the research finds that there are other ways than through habitus that theatregoers acquire cultural tastes and practices. A close consideration of interactions at theatre performances, and the physical contexts in which they take place, identifies features of interaction and auditoria that encourage or discourage community, and relates them to interaction in everyday life. An investigation of why theatregoers prefer live to mediatized performance, and an examination of changes in audience perception and how much they are shared with others, contribute to an assessment of the transformative power of theatre and of how far face-to-face community is perennial in society.

This thesis analyses the changes in visual artists' living and working conditions and the ways in which visual artists reacted to these changes after German unification. It has sought to explore aspects of the interface between the state, the individual visual artists and the visual artists' community in a society of transformation and comments on the impact of change on the existence of such a relationship. The aims are twofold. First, to contribute to an understanding of visual artists' reactions to the dynamics of change created by changes of their working and living conditions after German unification. A second aim was to analyse the causes of the behaviour of the group of older visual artists. This study of change employed an interdisciplinary approach and combined sociology, psychology, history and cultural policy studies in order to analyse visual artists' responses to the challenge of German unification. Exploration of these themes has been informed by a qualitative empirical study of how visual artists respond to change in the East German region of Saxony. A theoretical framework was developed using grounded theory, which was used to code the following datasets: interviews with 30 visual artists, 10 administrators and 3 group discussions. The theoretical perspective adopted drew on organisational change theory, on sociology of culture and on socialisation theory. In this way it contributes to the relocation of visual artists as key actors in cultural policy research. The results of the research revealed that initial expectations of the swift adaptation of visual artists' to the new living and working conditions were not fulfilled and that visual artists moved between adaptation and resistance. Although the administrative transformation of the state was completed by 1998, the process of change is ongoing for the visual artists. Unification left the visual artists in a state of shock, a state they have been recovering from since 1990. The findings lead to development of the Visual Artists Adaptation Model, which as a unique approach combines the collective cultural shock model and human change role model with the responses of visual artists to German unification. It analyses the process of change experienced by visual artists in five stages (1. euphoria, 2. shock and disconfirmation, 3 adaptation, 4. stabilisation, 5. normalisation). In an ideal case scenario, the result of adaptation should be a career re-start, which can be achieved once visual artists manage to overcome cultural shock. I argue that adaptation is delayed when learning anxiety conflicts with survival anxiety and when a psychologically safe situation fails to be provided. This proved to be the case for the group of older visual artists. It is concluded that values, developed as part of a socialist socialisation, acted as key obstacles to adaptation to the capitalist system. These values and norms evolved in different ways over years due to successful indoctrination with Marxist-Leninist ideology.

Two main arguments are developed in this thesis: first is the claim that our ability to make and understand representational pictures has a natural basis in our capacity to see. In this respect, I have drawn on the ideas of the visual scientist, David Marr and on the theory of representation expounded by John Willats. Second, I argue that the view articulated by these theorists forms a theoretical backdrop for, but does not satisfactorily explain, how pictures may heighten our sense of bodily presence. A central aim of this thesis is therefore to show how this mode of expression is also non-arbitrarily linked to the process of seeing by virtue of its relationship with our visuomotor capacities. In order to give substance to these ideas, I have attempted to weave together knowledge of art history with neuropsychological evidence and phenomenological philosophy. In applying this view to the work of particular artists, I have largely focussed on the oeuvre of Cézanne and the Cubists. However, the general form of this argument is intended to have wider implications, indicating the development of a stylistic tendency in modern art and showing how it differs from that of the Renaissance tradition. In conclusion, my thesis expresses the view that vision – and hence representation – can be divided along two separate lines: one related to a conceptual form of seeing and the other related to a bodily form of perception. The "crisis of representation" in the late nineteenth century is therefore considered indicative of a rejection of the former mode of visuality. Instead, modern artists are said to re-structure the viewing experience so that it shows the reliance of sight on the body, thus permitting the beholder a more active and constitutive role in the perception of art.

St Nicholas was one of the most popular saints in medieval Italy. His cult attracted the attention of popes, kings and emperors, and his shrine at Bari became an important international pilgrimage destination. This thesis asks how the cult of St Nicholas came to be so widespread and popular in Italy, and why the saint attracted the attention of diverse groups and individuals. This thesis is structured around four chapters. The first demonstrates that through a process of Latinisation the cult of St Nicholas became integrated within Italian literary traditions and within a new spiritual era. Chapter Two reveals that this Latinisation also occurred within the saint’s iconography. Chapters Three and Four are case studies of the cult in Puglia and Venice, locations which claimed possession of the saint’s relics. These case studies show that the general developments that the cult of St Nicholas underwent in Italy, identified in Chapters One and Two, did not apply universally. Instead, the presence of the saint’s relics resulted in a different profile of the saint in Bari and Venice. Through the process of Latinisation, the cult of St Nicholas became updated and remained relevant for its new Italian audience; Chapters Three and Four show alternative ways that the cult of St Nicholas gained widespread popularity. This thesis presents for the first time an iconographical study of St Nicholas in Italian art, which develops existing research of the saint’s Byzantine iconography. Chapter Four presents a profile of the cult of St Nicholas in Venice in the Middle Ages, which is a significant oversight in the literature. The thesis uses a variety of visual and textual sources, in particular fresco and altarpiece representations, archival documents from Venice and Rome (including the Apostolic Visitations), and under-exploited contemporary and antiquarian Venetian sources.