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Corpus Hypercubus: Salvador Dalí’s Surrealist Crucifixion
No full textThesis (B.A. in Art History, Minor in Art and Design/Classical Studies)--John Cabot University, Fall 2022.In the latter period of his career, Dalí departed from some of the surrealist paradigms and imagery of the interwar period, and the politics that increasingly determined the group’s direction and identity. Instead, this new era is characterized by his theory and artistic application of "Nuclear Mysticism" (the relating of quantum physics to the conscious mind), Christian imagery, and engagement with the exemplum of Old Masters. This is especially present in his oil painting from 1954 Corpus Hypercubus (Crucifixion). Here, Christ’s cross is replaced with a polyhedron net of a tesseract, while Gala poses as Mary Magdalene within an ambiguous landscape. After exploring the implications of Dali’s post-war creative practice and activities, and his explicit references through primary source-led visual analysis; this thesis will ultimately explore how Dalí locates iconic images of religious figures into the Surreal subconscious. Ultimately reworking his own Surrealist paradigms into the aim for a “New Renaissance”, reveals a strategic and forceful synthesis of theories and references that are nonetheless complimentary to his earlier practice
A Land for Chickpeas: Gianfranco Baruchello’s Agricola Cornelia and Post-Humanism
No full textMaster of Arts in Art History -- John Cabot University, Spring 2022.In 1973 the Italian artist Gianfranco Baruchello established a limited agrarian company called Agricola Cornelia S.p.A. in the northern Roman countryside. The production of food was intended as an artistic gesture meant to criticize the alienating rhythms and politics of our capitalist society. Until 1981, Baruchello farmed land, bred animals, and made art there. In these eight years, Baruchello’s initial political premise organically grew into a personal connection with the natural world. As this thesis attempts to show, the evolution of this engagement was the result of a profound and authentic interaction with the land, characterized by symbolic visions, emotional involvement, and daily practical efforts. By relying mainly on primary sources, this thesis argues that Agricola Cornelia precociously manifested an ecological sensibility absent instead in other contemporary art practices. Baruchello’s personal connection to nature is, further, examined through the lens of 21st -century post-humanist studies that argue for an ecology of enmeshed, interconnected, multispecies existence. Agricola Cornelia appears, in this light, precocious in its progressive ecological thinking that, while not post-human per se, speaks to the urgent need to cure the damaged relationship between humans and nature
The Cappella degli Angeli in the Gesù: Angels as Intercessors for Souls in Purgatory
No full textMaster of Arts in Art History -- John Cabot University, Spring 2022.In 1579, Federico Zuccari completed his work on the cupola celling fresco of Last Judgement Day in the Duomo of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. Fifteen years later, 1594 Zuccari was commissioned by the Jesuits (in the person of Cardinal Farnese) to decorate an entire chapel in the Gesù in Rome. This chapel may be found in the third niche on the right-hand side of the Gesù and it is called the Cappella degli Angeli [Chapel of the Angels]. The patrons of the chapel were Curzio and Defini Vettori. Zuccari’s bravura lay in his ability to create a personal monument for the family, yet at the same time, an easily understood iconographic progam which has stood the test of time for its beauty and extraordinary interpretation of the writings of the Jesuit missionaries and church founders. In particular, the theme of angels was developed, as a highly sophisticated appeal to a largely illiterate Roman public, schooled, howeer, in the lore of images. Angel iconography in Southern Italy has its origins or is first manifested in an ancient fresco of the Seven Archangels in the Cappella Maggiore in Palermo. Art historian Gauvin Alexander Bailey notes, “the devotion of the Seven Archangels had been brought to Rome first by the Sicilian prelate Antonio Lo Duca.” The Papal authorities became interested in the Cult of the Angels along with the Queen of the Martyrs and this iconography began to flourish in Catholic churches in Rome. The frescos Zuccari paints in the Cappella degli Angeli are a representation of Purgatory, Heaven, and Hell, themes which derive directly from the writings of the earliest members of the Society of Jesus including Ignatius of Loyola, Roberto Bellarmino and Luigi Gonzaga. The primary texts of the founding fathers of the Society of Jesus constitute the Meditation Exercises and Evangelicae Imageines. They document a cult of angels with ancient origins, which was adapted and given new interpretations by the later sixteenth century. The Cappella degli Angeli followed on the heels of the first church dedicated to this veneration —Santa Maria degli Angeli, built in the Baths of Diocletian and was designed by Lo Duca and Michelangelo. The cult of the angels was subsequently manifested in many other churches in Rome and this specific iconography became a reflection of the teachings of the Jesuit order
Motion design and visual communication in the era of ‘diffuse design’ paradigm: analysis and evaluation of a didactic experiment
No full textIn recent years, co-creation and collaboration platforms to create and deliver new products and services have taken a step forward; this has led to the development of a new active involvement of users, who from co-designers have become independent designers, even if not experts. Co-design is dynamic and provides the tools to generate democratic design processes guided by the users themselves. The democratization of design tools is the premise for a new paradigm defined ‘Diffuse Design’ by Manzini (2015). This contribution explores the approaches of open design and open production with particular attention to the field of visual communication and the production of motion design artifacts. After an introduction to the co-design framework, the main open-production visual communication platforms are presented to offer an overview of the topic. Next, the potential of online platforms to enable non-designers to produce animated artifacts is explored by examining student projects in a motion design University course. The most significant outputs of the student experience are then described and critically analyzed. Finally, the conclusions investigate the different perspectives for reading the democratization of tools for creating visual artifacts and lay the foundations for future lines of research
Policy Making and Laws Against Transphobic Crimes: Italy vs. USA
No full textThesis (B.A. in Political Science, Minor in Legal Studies)--John Cabot University, Spring 2022.This study aims at finding better solutions for the protection of the LGBTQ+ community, more specifically transgender people, from hate crimes they are constantly subjected to, through the usage of inductive research with an interpretivist approach, using qualitative research methodology, analyzing the experiences of the people involved and how it was perceived. To better answer the research question of “how effective are the policy making and laws in deterring transphobic crimes in Italy and USA?”, this thesis will be divided in four sections: historical analysis of the countries’ judicial advancements, definition of specific theories and terms, analysis of specific case studies of transphobic crimes and proposal of potential solutions. Moreover two cases of transphobic murders are going to be analyzed, one for the US and one for Italy, providing also a legislative and judicial outcome and explanation.Lastly, the conclusion will be composed by possible solutions and recommendations for the future
Performance Art as a Tool for Trauma Relief
No full textThesis (B.A. in Art History, Minor in Creative Writing)--John Cabot University, Spring 2022.As the feminist movement of the 1906’s and 70’s began to rise, female artists turned to the new and limitless field of performance. For this thesis, I have chosen artists with different sociopolitical and religious backgrounds to demonstrate the power of Performance art as trauma healer, the ability to use it as a weapon against unjust beauty standards, and how emphatic communication through performance women fight against gender inequality. Even though performance art is hard to define, I would like to point out three female artists working in this medium: Ana Mendieta, Marina Abramovic and Yōko Ono. This thesis will focus on the three central female figures of the Performance art movement, and how they used and shaped the new medium to make the audience emphatic, and thus raised awareness on different issues. Existing in real time and specific, differently from other art movements, performance can only be preserved through video recordings, or pictures, and similarly to theater can only be reconstructed from scripts, texts, photographs, and descriptions from the onlookers, and consequently be elaborated in one’s imagination. No more classical white canvases, no more wall hanging, no more strict art spaces. In Performance, artist use their bodies in acts that are spontaneous and visceral, but also aggressive and painful. By adapting the statement that the personal is political to the practice of art making, female artists used performance as a form of cultural intervention in which personal experiences, narratives and representations were drawn upon to question the prevailing social and political. Lastly, I have compared recent examples of artworks with older ones, and I aimed to highlight that women being treated unjustly is common and still a relevant issue nowadays
Reframing Antinous
No full textMaster of Arts in Art History -- John Cabot University, Spring 2022.Antinous has been the subject of scholarly fascination for centuries—due in no small part to the ubiquity of his image. He is the most frequently portrayed person in ancient art aside from Augustus and Hadrian. In this thesis, I advocate for revisiting the subject of his portraiture using methods established in the recent “material turn” in anthropological studies. By returning to the material of the sculptural corpus itself, it becomes clear that the large majority of portraits of Antinous with known provenance were discovered in elite second-century villas. This thesis explores the implications of that setting on interpretations of the portraits, which will be approached as social agents capable of impacting the humans and things around them. My central case studies are the assemblage of Antinous portraits discovered at Hadrian’s villa in Tivoli and the acrolithic cult statue of the youth from the villa of Herodes Atticus at Eva/Loukou. What can the inclusion of these portraits within the villa realm tell us about elite behavior and social expectations? What can it tell us about how Antinous functioned semantically within the world of the Second Sophistic? Ultimately, my aim is to continue to move studies of Antinous away from unproductive considerations of his biography and to instead investigate the opportunities that arise from engaging with the materiality of his depictions
Marine Frescoes in the Aegean Bronze Age: The Flying Fish of Phylakopi
No full textMaster of Arts in Art History -- John Cabot University, Fall 2022.In the Bronze Age, Minoans seemed to be mesmerized with images of nature. Throughout their cities and palaces, Minoans depicted landscapes, animals, flora and fauna in such beautiful compositions and with such accuracy that the images still enchant viewers today. Marine creatures were a special interest to the Minoan culture, as they were often depicted in their frescoes. However, as the Minoans constantly had access to the water, why would they have depicted the sea in their interior spaces? Throughout this thesis, this research will explore if there was significance to fish imagery in Minoan frescoes other than simply representing nature? For the purpose of this thesis, the focus is the Flying Fish Frescoes from the complex G3 from Phylakopi, Melos, as a central case study.In the course of researching the above question, I have compared the Flying Fish Frescoes to other marine frescoes, marine objects, and religious frescoes in order to deduce possible purposes of marine imagery. Additionally, the entire artistic program of the room in which the Flying Fish Fresco fragments were found, Room G3, is investigated in this thesis. Frescoes from Room G3 include the Nature Goddess, the Adorant, and a Marinescape. Furthermore, biological analysis, marine shrines, nature-based sanctuaries, and cultic objects are investigated as part of the assessment of these frescoes with respect to the G3 complex and Minoan culture. In conclusion, the evidence presented here suggests that the Flying Fish Frescoes of Phylakopi were a unique example of a marine fresco in Minoan Bronze Age art
Ed Ruscha’s Deadpan Mise-en-Scène
No full textThesis (B.A. in Art History, Minor in Communications)--John Cabot University, Fall 2022.Ed Ruscha’s artworks have often been discussed in relation to both cinema and deadpan aesthetics. While both issues have been extensively researched separately, they were not discussed concerning one another within Ruscha’s art practice, especially his oil paintings. What is more, even though the impact of cinema on Ruscha’s paintings and photographs has been extensively analyzed, his artworks have never been viewed through film theory itself. By focusing on Large Trademarks with Eight Spotlights (1962) as a case study, this thesis engages with the cinema, both Old Hollywood and experimental, film theory, and deadpan aesthetics in
order to show the uniqueness of Ruscha’s use of deadpan aesthetic through the visual devices of cinema
Madonna of the Magnificat and the Nineteenth Century “Rediscovery” of Botticelli
No full textMaster of Arts in Art History -- John Cabot University, Spring 2022.This thesis focuses on the nineteenth century display and reception of Sando Botticelli’s Madonna of the Magnificat within the Uffizi Gallery. As a part of Botticelli’s nineteenth century “rediscovery” as an artist, Madonna of the Magnificat captured the attention of Alexis-François Rio, Walter Pater, and John Addington Symonds during their visits to Florence in the mid-nineteenth century. Through returning to primary sources from the nineteenth century, this thesis investigates if there is a connection between the display of this painting and its nineteenth century critical reception. While the display did not influence the individual interpretations of the Madonna’s melancholic expression by these art critics, the display impacted how this painting captivated the attention of these art critics against the other paintings in the space