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The Political Side of Street Art and its Role in the Market
No full textThesis (B.A. in Humanistic Studies, Minor in Art History)--John Cabot University, Fall 2021.In my thesis, I would like to focus on the figure of the street artists in contemporaryart and the role of street art in society. I will explain the main forms of street art, such asstencil, murals, stickers and urban installations, and explore how each form of street artactively engaged with the street. Also, I state also that urban outskirts over the worldcontributed to the spread of graffiti. I will also focus on the first generation of street artists,Haring and Basquiat, who started to expose their artworks in formal galleries and museums.While in his artworks Basquiat denounced racism in the art system, Haring sold his gadgetsto promote the idea that art should be for everyone and not just for wealthy people.Nowadays, Banksy takes his position against capitalism and consumerism and denouncessocial injustice with his stencils over the world. Indeed, Banksy gives voice to the weakestpeople in the planet by showing the negative effects of wars on people, especially children. Iargue that although Banksy and other street artists begun selling their artworks in the market,their investments in charitable organization make their art authentic and valid
The Form of the Pergamon Altar: Reflecting Its Commemorative & Funerary Function
No full textThesis (B.A. in Art History, Minor in Classical Studies and Philosophy)--John Cabot University, Spring 2021.Since the acquisition and display of the Great Altar at Pergamon in the Berlin State Museums in the 1870s, most academic writings have stated the function of the structure to be political and/or religious. These theories are due to its exterior Gigantomachy frieze and its sacrificial altar in the interior courtyard, respectively. However, this conclusion overlooks two significant contributors to the overall design of the structure and thus, to its function. These contributors include the cultural complexity of Western Anatolia at the time and the presence of the lesser Telephos frieze within the raised interior courtyard. This thesis aims to remedy this oversight by building on analyses of and comparisons with at least three structures - the Nereid Monument from Xanthos, the Stoa of Zeus at Athens, and the Attalids' Palace V in Pergamon. A comparison against these structures, though separate in both space and time, allows for a reinterpretation of the Great Altar as a heroön-mausoleum - a monument that commemorated the mythical founder and first king of Pergamon, Telephos. This needed reassessment of the structure's function seeks to encourage a broader view of ancient cultural complexity and fluidity, and the impact this then has how we view ancient monuments
The Building Projects of Sixtus V
Get PDFThesis (B.A. in Art History)--John Cabot University, Fall 2021.The city of Rome underwent radical changes during the pontificate of Sixtus V. Felice Peretti ascended to the throne of St Peter in 1585, and reigned for 5 years. A genius urban reformer, he erected some of the city’s most iconic monuments and boulevards. His enormous contributions to the Counter Reformation are still visible today, as he utilized public space to ideologically counter the schism that Martin Luther spawned. Traditional historiography has long portrayed Sixtus as an ascetic outsider who selflessly reformed the city, curtailing lawless brigands and returning Rome to an era of peace and justice. But this popular conception of Sixtus V is not the result of actual achievements, but the result of his ability as a propagandist. He utilized his numerous public works and monuments to craft a powerful public persona, one which would endure in Roman folk tales of “giustizie” for centuries. This paper will first analyze the political, religious, and economic motivations behind his major public works, before then examining the ways in which he utilized these works to craft a personal mythology that drew upon a myriad of past figures, both historical and mythological
Edwin Howland Blashfield and the British Arts and Crafts Movement
No full textMaster of Arts in Art History -- John Cabot University, Fall 2021.Edwin Howland Blashfield, in spite of his activity in arts revived by the British Arts and Craftsmovement, is in current literature regarded solely as part of the American Renaissance. Throughthe use of Edwin Blashfield’s archive at the New York Historical Society, the letters on thedecorating process from Library of Congress Manuscripts Division between Blashfield andBernard Green, by scouring contemporary writing referencing Blashfield, and by comparingBlashfield’s lectures and articles to the lectures, books, and articles of John Ruskin, WilliamMorris, and Walter Crane, I have found that Blashfield has indeed been influenced by the BritishArts and Crafts movement. Not only was Blashfield influenced by British Arts and Crafts, buthis contemporaries recognized that link. Through his writing, murals, and even his personal lifeBlashfield demonstrated a strong connection to the British Arts and Crafts movement
Performative Activism: What motivates students of a liberal arts college to carry out social justice activism and can elements of performative activism be identified?
No full textThesis (B.A. in Political Science, Minor in Communications and Legal Studies)--John Cabot University, Fall 2021.My aim with this research is to understand the experiences across various groups of young adults with different levels of involvement/participation in a liberal arts university following the political climate of 2020. This will help build a comprehensive understanding of what allyship is to these individuals. In addition, I will also develop a measure that will assess the differences in both internal and external motivations that lead individuals to engage in social media activism to see if there are any instances of performative activism present at John Cabot Universit
The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards: A Portrayal of 15th Century Courtly Society
No full textThesis (B.A. in Art History, Minor in Political Science and Legal Studies)--John Cabot University, Spring 2021.This thesis studies the Visconti-Sforza luxury cards, three illuminated tarot decks realized between Cremona and Milan during 15th century for the two ruling families, Visconti and Sforza. The three decks are a remarkable example of International Gothic style, but they also constitute a detailed representation of the Visconti and Sforza courts. This thesis specifically examines the way in which the gender and social extraction of the characters featuring on the cards determine their position within the hierarchical courtly system. Additionally, this thesis will aslso explain the way in which such hierarchical structure provides the basis for the rules of the games that were played with tarot cards during the 15th century. Ultimately, the game of tarot served the educational purpose of instructing the players of the game about how they should behave according to their gender and social position at court
Negotiating Public and Private Identities: Berthe Morisot’s "The Wet Nurse and Julie" (1879) Berthe Morisot’s The Wet Nurse and Julie (1879)
No full textThesis (B.A. in Art History)--John Cabot University, Spring 2021.The French painter Berthe Morisot (1841-1895) provides a perfect case study to examine the negotiation between the artistic ambitions and the personal identity of a female Impressionist. Although many feminist art historians have argued the ways in which women artists opted for a compromise between artistic practice and social demands, examining this experience, and its impact on personal identity has been overlooked. Hence understanding private and deep inner realities in relation to both context and to one’s own stylistic evolution have rarely been taken into consideration. This is the reason why this thesis attempts, first, to look at Morisot’s The Wet Nurse and Julie (1879) with regards to Impressionism, and in the relation between her claims to inner emotional instability and her dissolution of forms. This internal turmoil is not examined in psychoanalytic terms, but in social ones: it seems to stem in part from the anxiety provoked by social factors such as the wet industry, the anonymity of modern workers and the “cult of true womanhood”. The internal struggle that Morisot expresses, in her writings and painted works, and the way in which Morisot tried to find a compromise between professional identity and personal life — which culminates, she states, in becoming an affectionate mother — is analyzed in depth from the point of view of the tensions and negotiations apparent in The Wet Nurse and Julie. Indeed, by observing how Morisot emerged professionally in the artistic circles of the late 19th century and how this generated feelings of uncertainty and loneliness allows us to understand Morisot’s claim to have found self-fulfillment in marriage and motherhood. For Morisot, public and private identities found their angle of repose in a careful negotiation of self, art and family
Ekphrasis in the Postcolonial Novel: Midnight’s Children and Half of a Yellow Sun
No full textThesis (B.A. in English Literature, Minor in Classical Studies)--John Cabot University, Fall 2021.This thesis investigates the presence and role of ekphrastic writing in postcolonial novels. In this thesis I propose to investigate John Everett Millais’ The Boyhood of Raleigh in Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children and the Igbo pots in Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun, in order to explore how figurative art, in the context of these novels, both broadens the postcolonial discourse and serves as a medium of interaction between the colonizer and the colonized. I intend to look closely at Millais’ painting, which has come to represent the British expanding and colonizing influence, in the context of a novel, Midnight’s Children, centered on post-independence India, and at Richard’s, a white British man, obsession with the archaeological testimony of the Igbo autochthonous, pre-colonization, culture and art, as narrated in Half of a Yellow Sun. I intend to explore how the colonized relates to the art of the colonizer, as in Rushdie’s novel, and how the art of the colonized is observed and appropriated by the colonizer, as in Adichie’s. I propose to analyze both these cases of representation of visual forms of art as exemplifying instances of how figurative art can be explored, in postcolonial literature, as a means of cultural interaction between the colonized and the colonizer
The Mausoleum of Santa Costanza: Affirming the Identity and Cultural Heritage of the Greco-Roman World
No full textThesis (B.A. in Art History, Minor in Business Administration)--John Cabot University, Spring 2021.For its state of conservation, architectural uniqueness, and link with the Constantinian dynasty, the mausoleum of Santa Costanza is one of the dearest monuments to scholars of Roman Late Antique art. The mausoleum’s date of construction, patronage, and identity of its beneficiaries are still debated. The literature on this grandiose tomb tends to be stuck on the perceived conflict between paganism and Christianity which is presumed to characterize its extant mosaics and sarcophagus. This purported religious “conflict” in the imagery is also often glossed over, not directly or fully addressed. Although this thesis considers the mausoleum of Santa Costanza through a religious prism, it wishes to demonstrate that religious ambiguity has been more destabilizing to modern audiences than to those of the fourth century, especially when considering their understanding of its role in funerary commemoration. Through the analysis of both iconography and formal elements, the persistence of the pagan visual language in late antique art is here regarded as a lively expression of the cultural heritage of the Greco-Roman world and the affirmation of identity intended as cultural and social conservatism and traditionalism. This thesis also focuses on the different ways in which Dionysiac exuberance and benevolence could be comforting despite religious affiliation, but it also explores the Christian appropriation of Dionysiac imagery
Omnia Mutantur, Nihil Interit: Pythagorean Ideas of Vegetarianism and Metempsychosis in Antiquity
No full textThesis (B.A. in Classical Studies, Minors in Art History and History)--John Cabot University, Spring 2021.Pythagoras was the first known advocate to voice a claim of moral rationale in opposition to the religio-political structure of the ancient world in defense of vegetarianism. Pythagorean vegetarianism started a shift in consciousness and new perspective of animal life in comparison to human life that persisted largely unchanged throughout the Greco-Roman world, despite its deep subservience of the religio-political system upon which the states of Greece and Rome functioned. The concept of metempsychosis was carried through antiquity from Pythagoras to Ovid, and the adoption of vegetarianism based on transmigration of the soul is seen strongly into the early Roman Empire. In this thesis I investigated the scope of vegetarian thought in antiquity and concluded that the Pythagorean view of vegetarianism, based on the concept of metempsychosis, continued persistently through different philosophers such as Empedocles, Porphyry, Plutarch. I looked at the works of these authors in comparison to each other and in comparison to the social climate in which they were writing their works to compare their practices of vegetarian philosophy on grounds of morality and the ways in which it largely remained the same from the years 600BCE100CE