Art Histroy

The Roman tomb at Milas of the 2nd century BCE, built after the style of the Mausoleum of Mausolus, one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World, is found with a ceiling decor that resembles the Hoysala style of India. This article analyses the similarities and comes to the conclusion that the Stupa culture of Buddhism of the 3rd century and before, enclosing the relics of venerated people, had inspired the concept and ceiling dome of the Mausoleum which housed the urn pots of the ashes of the Mausolus couple.

Photography's particular histories in west Africa suggest that the medium has been profoundly shaped by subsequent viewers and owners who have altered and adapted photographs for their personal use. Rooted in the objects and conceptual frameworks of family collections in Accra and Cape Coast, Ghana, this paper explores portraiture as a technology of multiples layered with non-photographic techniques , and these objects' "creative audiences." Photography here has long been a performative and socially expansive category of object and subject.

My undergraduate thesis tries to answer the questions which are linked to a specific work of
art, namely Leda and the Swan, painted between 1936 and 1938 in Zagreb by a Croatian
Secessionist painter Robert Auer. Taking a closer look at the social, artistic and stylistic
circumstances at the time, which affected the artist’s path, I also devoted myself to the broader
context of Auer's life and his education, provided by famous professors at the prominent
painting institutions in Zagreb, Vienna and Munich. Inside this framework, I tried to show the
impacts and role-models that are essential for artist's eclectic style. Furthermore, I took a closer
look at the story of Leda and the Swan and its origin in mythology, and tried to find and explain
the various versions from different writers. Therefore, I gave an overview and an iconographic
analysis of the motif in Central European Art – from preantics to the first half of the 20th
century. In the end, supporting my research with iconographic and stylistic analyses, I tried to
place the artwork inside the wide Bavarian – Viennese – Zagrebian »triangle«, and search for
similar artwork among his colleagues and inside his own work.

Terminology in the scope of painting materials has changed continuously over the course of centuries. Many of the ancient technical terms have vanished or have suffered a semantic change. This often complicates the interpretation of historical
terms. Polvos azules is one of them. The term was initially found in South American documents of the 17th century and was interpreted as azurite (Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2). But the enormous quantities of polvos azules and the relative cheap price found in archival documents of the 17th and 18th century, cast doubt on indicating azurite. Based on these documents this paper focuses on specific European technical and economic literature, comparing the described characteristics and applications.
The study leads to the conclusion that polvos azules refers to smalt, the well known blue pigment, because the pulverized blue cobalt glass (K, Co(Al), SiO2) had far more uses very common in 17th a an 18th centuries, but which have nowadays fallen into oblivion.

La terminología técnica en el ámbito del material artístico ha cambiado
durante los siglos. Muchos de los antiguos vocablos cayeron en desuso o
han variado de significado, complicando así la interpretación de los términos
históricos. Polvos azules es uno de ellos. Se encontró primeramente en
documentos de los virreinatos españoles a partir del siglo XVII y se solía
relacionar con el pigmento azul de azurita (Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2). Pero las
enormes cantidades encontradas y el precio relativamente bajo pusieron en
duda esta interpretacion. Sobre la base de estos documentos, este artículo
se centra en la literatura tecnológica y económica específica de Europa,
comparando las características y aplicaciones descritas. El estudio llevó a la
conclusión que el término polvos azules se refiere al pigmento de esmalte,
porque el vidrio azul de cobalto pulverizado (K, Co(Al), SiO2) tuvo muchos
más usos en los siglos XVII y XVIII, los que hoy día han caído en el olvido.

This article focuses on two experimental films from the 1960s: Yvonne Rainer's Hand Movie (1966) and Richard Serra's Hand Catching Lead (1968). It scrutinizes the way both works exhibit a hybridized and indeterminate approach to artistic media. It offers an empirical reading of the films' movement and contextualizes them historically to move on to a theory of medium informed by Deleuze, Levinson, and Rajewsky. How does Rainer's move from the time-based media of dance and choreography, and Serra's move from the object arts of painting and sculpture, into the medium of film, advance our understanding of what is at stake aesthetically when boundaries of media are dissolved, transited, or displaced? Dance aesthetics requires that we show how movement gets translated into medium. I propose that the movement of media creates a displacement that is parallel to the displacement from the empirical to the theoretical in this article, where displacement becomes a form of reflection and critique.

Una estampa sobre mito, realidady patrones culturales...

"...En el camino de mi vida me ha tocado ver cómo se incrementa un tipo de mujer, cuyo rasgo fundamental pudiéramos calificar como el de un animus exacerbado. Se regodea en la exposición de sus facetas viriles y no oculta el rechazo y aborrecimiento de lo que antigua o clásicamente se tenía por el fino hilar de lo femenino..."

De zeventiende eeuw in de Nederlanden is een Fundgrube van liefde voor de oudheid. De welopgeleide klasse, die in de steden van Holland, Zeeland en de provinciën aanzienlijk was, deed zich volop tegoed aan klassieke kunst en literatuur. De beeldende kunsten door deze te verzamelen, de literatuur door te lezen en in bibliotheken te vereeuwigen en beide door veelvuldig te imiteren. In de architectuur werden uit de oudheid gedestilleerde voorschriften nagevolgd in nieuwe bouwkunst. Deze beweging kan als het classicisme worden aangeduid, in navolging van de hoge status die de klassieke kunst in de Italiaanse renaissance genoot. In deze bijdrage ga ik in op een zeventiende-eeuwse Amsterdammer die exemplarisch was voor deze verzamel- en imitatiedrift: Jan Six (1617-1700). Behalve door zijn vooraanstaande positie als koopman, bestuurder en burgermeester van Amsterdam in 1691, werd hij ook beroemd door het patronaat van een door anderen in zijn tijd vaak miskende kunstenaar: Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669).

Özet:
Sümerlerin bilgelik - su tanrısı Enki ve yardımcıları olan Yedi Bilgelerin gerçekleştirdiği inisiyasyon törenleri Mezopotamya sanatına özellikle Yeni Assur ve Yeni Babil Dönemlerinde damgasını vurmuştur. Enki Kültü, devletin en üst kademesinin temsil edildiği saraylarda ziyaretçileri ve elçileri kapıda bekleyen doğaüstü varlıkların koruyucu heykelleriyle karşılayıp, taht odasına gidene dek, iki taraflı koridorlarda tüm görkemini gözler önüne sermiş ve en güzel örneklerini kralın arkasında bulunan duvarlardaki kabartmalarda göstermiştir. Kraliyet ailesinin kişisel eşyaları ve yaşam alanlarını süsleyen motifler, bilgelerin hayat ağacı etrafında gerçekleştirdikleri - zaman zaman kralların da katıldığı - ritüellerin anlatıldığı sahnelerden oluşur. Bakraç ve çam kozalağı ile serpe işlemi yapan bilgelere stilize hayat ağacı motifi yanında lotus çiçeği, keçi (Enki’nin kendisini temsil eder), aslan ve kuş başlı insan gövdeli kanatlı varlıklar yada aslan ve boğa vücutlu insan başlı kanatlı varlıklardan oluşan figürler eşlik eder. Bu kültün halk inançlarında da önemli bir yer tuttuğu gözlenmiştir. Kapı altlarına gömülen heykelcikler ve silindir mühürlerde bu izler kendini hemen belli eder.
Mezopotamya’da geniş bir etki alanına sahip Enki Kültü; Hitit, Urartu ve Phryg sanatını etkisi altına almış; kabartmalarda, kralların kişisel eşyalarında, süsleme sanatı ve edebiyatta yer edinmiştir. Hitit ve Phryglere ait yerleşim alanlarından Alacahöyük, Arslantaş, Aslantepe, Kargamış, Kalaba Köyü, İlhamlı Köyü, Etimesgut ve Ahi Yakup’taki kabartmalar incelendiğinde inisiyasyon töreni yapan bilgeler, demonik varlıkların gerçekleştirdiği ritüel sahneleri Mezopotamya’daki örneklerinin birer kopyası mahiyetindedir. Urartular için de durum pek farklı sayılmaz. Sanatsal form Mezopotamya’daki aslına uygun şekilde devam ettirilmiştir.

Abstract:
The initiation ceremonies performed by Enki the Sumerian god of wisdom and water and his servants Seven Sages left their marks on Mesopotamian art especially the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods. The Enki Cult, welcomed the visitors and envoys by protective statues of supernatural beings waiting at the gates of the palaces in which the senior government officials are represented, presented all its glory in two sided hallways up to the throne room, and showed its masterpieces on the reliefs on the walls behind the king. The ornaments decorating the personal belongings and spaces of royal family were composed of scenes of rituals – attended by the kings at intervals- performed by the sages around the tree of life. The sages shaking pine cone with bucket was accompanied by the stylised tree of life, lotus flower, goat (represents Enki), and winged creatures with lion and bird headed human body or winged creatures with human headed lion and bull body figures. This cult had also an important place among the popular beliefs. Statuettes buried under the doors and cylinder seals carry these beliefs.

The Enki Cult which had a broad sphere of influence in Mesopotamia affected the Hittite, Urartian and Phrygian art as well; found a place on reliefs, personal belongings of the kings, decorations, and literature. When the reliefs of Alacahöyük, Arslantaş, Aslantepe, Kargamış, Kalaba Village, İlhamlı Village, Etimesgut, and Ahi Yakup from the Hittite and Phrygian Periods examined, the sages performing initiation ceremony, and the ritual scenes of the demonic creatures are the counterparts of the Mesopotamian samples. The situation was the same for the Urartian as well. The artistic form was followed by the Anatolians as it was in Mesopotamia.

El Calvario que el escultor de Calatayud (Zaragoza) Pedro Martínez el Viejo (doc. 1579-1609) hizo en 1605 para el altar del racionero Domingo Moros en la colegiata de los Sagrados Corporales de Daroca (Zaragoza) es coetáneo de su intervención en la capilla Terrer de Valenzuela del mismo templo, una de las empresas artísticas más relevantes del momento en Aragón, cuya portada había contratado en 1603 junto a los canteros Hernando Larroza y Domingo Pontones. Fundado en los modelos que Juan de Anchieta y sus discípulos habían dejado años atrás en la capital aragonesa, constituye una bella creación en la que el artista aragonés ofrece su interpretación de un tema básico en la imaginería de la Contrarreforma que dispone, además, de un paralelo cercano en el Calvario que él mismo esculpió para el retablo mayor (hacia 1605-1610) de la catedral de Santa María de la Huerta de Tarazona (Zaragoza).
The Calvary that the sculptor from Calatayud (Zaragoza) Pedro Martinez the old (documented 1579-1609) made in 1605 for the altarpiece of Domingo Moros in the Colegiata of the sacred bodies of Daroca (Zaragoza) is contemporary to his intervention in the Terrer de Valenzuela’s chapel of the same temple, one of his most outstanding works of the time in Aragon, which façade had contracted in 1603 with the stonemasons Hernando Larroza and Domingo Pontones. It is based in the models Juan de Anchieta and his disciples had left some years earlier in the capital city of Aragon. It is a beautiful creation in which the artist offers his interpretation of a basic topic in the Counter-reform’s sculpture that it is also similar to the calvary he himself sculpted for the major altarpiece (1605-1610) of the cathedal of Santa María de la Huerta of Tarazona (Zaragoza).

This article focuses on two experimental films from the 1960s: Yvonne Rainer’s Hand Movie (1966) and Richard Serra’s Hand Catching Lead (1968). It scrutinizes the way both works exhibit a hybridized and indeterminate approach to artistic media. It offers an empirical reading of the films’ movement and contextualizes them historically to move on to a theory of medium informed by Deleuze, Levinson, and Rajewsky. How does Rainer’s move from the time-based media of dance and choreography, and Serra’s move from the object arts of painting and sculpture, into the medium of film, advance our understanding of what is at stake aesthetically when boundaries of media are dissolved, transited, or displaced? Dance aesthetics requires that we show how movement gets translated into medium. I propose that the movement of media creates a displacement that is parallel to the displacement from the empirical to the theoretical in this article, where displacement becomes a form of reflection and critique.

This monograph provides the first substantial analysis of the visual arts commissioned by Scots in France prior to Mary Queen of Scots. It examines how Scottish identity was represented and promoted through patronage of the visual arts. Tying together previously unpublished archival documents with under-researched visual and material culture, this monograph examines how Scots used patronage to establish their place in French society thus furthering the reputation of the royal house of Scotland, and progressing their own social, political, and diplomatic aims. Incorporating analysis of grand architectural projects, such as the foundation of the Sainte-Chapelle at Vic-le-Comte, and studies of extraordinary manuscripts such as the Monypenny Breviary and the military manuals of Bérault Stuart, this work highlights recurring themes within architectural history, art history, and material culture studies. By addressing broader questions of Scotland's historic relations with Europe, it makes a necessary contribution to modern day concerns.

Explores the links between patronage, identity and Franco-Scottish relations in the late medieval and early modern periods

    * This monograph is the first book-length study of Franco-Scottish relations and the visual arts in the late-medieval and early modern periods
    * Offers new interdisciplinary approaches to Franco-Scottish history, that challenge traditional accounts where there has been a failure to investigate visual material
    * Based on extensive archival research and making use of unknown and little-known visual and archival evidence, this work examines material from collections held in Scotland, France, the Netherlands, and Italy
    * Applies innovative interdisciplinary approaches, combining patronage studies and a consideration of artistic agency. It develops new methodologies combining art historical methods with insights drawn from political, military, and architectural histories and manuscript studies
    * Forms a significant contribution to our understanding of the history of Scotland’s place in Europe and the significance of its historic ties to France in particular

Arguably the first truly global artistic style, the Baroque achieved extraordinary reach during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, spreading far beyond its original European context. Little regard, however, has been paid to non-Western aspects of the Baroque outside the colonial framework, despite the style’s manifest impact on regions such as the Ottoman Empire, the Indian subcontinent, and East and Southeast Asia. This session seeks to explore the Baroque’s global dimensions in a manner commensurate with the phenomenon itself, encompassing themes and geographies that fall outside the field’s traditional purview. Challenging established notions of hegemonic and unidirectional European influence, the papers address various ways in which non-Western cultures actively participated in the Baroque, its dissemination, and its diversification. Topics include the use of imported Western artifacts to express locally resonant concepts; ornament as a cross-cultural carrier of taste and meaning; the reception, conceptualization, and adaptation of European artistic models in Asia; Baroque aesthetics as a means of display and self-representation; and the role of non-Western designers in shaping European aesthetic trends. The session thus opens up prevailing notions of Baroque art and architecture and expands the framework of scholarly inquiry to better reflect the material’s global implications.


PAPERS TO BE PRESENTED:

Sylvia Houghteling (Yale University), “The Tree of Life and the World of Wonder: South Asian ‘Ajā’ib Imagery as Baroque Grotesque”

Rangsook Yoon (Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College), “Images of Exotic Animals between East and West: The Case of an Eighteenth-Century Korean Folding Screen”

Greg M. Thomas (University of Hong Kong), “An Imperial Chinese Baroque at Yuanming Yuan”

Marsely L. Kehoe (Columbia University), “A Slippery Surface: The Global Aesthetic of Blue-and-White at the Shrine of Sunan Gunung Jati, Java”