This thesis is an investigation of the way in which the painter May Stevens (b. 1924) synthesizes her personal experiences and political philosophy to form complex and enduring works of art. Primary data was accumulated through an extended interview with May Stevens and by examining her works on exhibit in New York and Boston. An analysis of selected works from her "Big Daddy" and "Ordinary/Extraordinary" series revealed how her personal feelings about her own family became entwined with larger political issues. As an important member of the feminist art movement that evolved during the 1970s, she celebrated this new kinship among women in paintings that also explored the contradictions in their lives. In more recent work she has explored complex social issues such as teenage prostitution, sexism, and child abuse in a variety of artistic styles and media. This study investigates how May Stevens continues to portray issues of international significance in works that consistently engage the viewer on a personal, almost visceral level.

The purpose of this thesis is to give a concise view of stylistic, iconographical, and iconological trends in Southern genre paintings and illustrations between 1830 and 1890 by native Southern artists and artists who lived at least ten years in the South. Exploration of artworks was accomplished by compiling as many artworks as possible per decade, separating each decade by dominant trends in subject matter, and researching to determine political and/or social implications associated with and affecting each image. Historical documents and the findings of other scholars revealed that many artworks carried political overtones reflecting the dominant thought of the white ruling class during the period while the significance and interpretation of other artworks was achieved by studying dominant personal beliefs and social practices.

This study investigates the liturgical attire of the Church of England from the seventeenth through the nineteenth century, by studying the major Anglican vestments, observing modifications and omissions in the garments and their uses, and researching the reasons for any changes. Using the various Anglican Prayer Books and the monarchial time periods as a guide, the progressive usages and styles of English liturgical attire are traced chronologically within the political, social and religious environments of each era. By examining extant originals in England, artistic representations, and ancient documentation, this thesis presents the religious symbolism, as well as the artistic and historical importance, of vestments within the Church of England from its foundation to the twentieth century.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze and discuss the relationship between the images and texts concerning Amazons and warrior-women in the collected works of Christine de Pizan. It evaluates Christine's interpretation of the ancient story in light of her career as an author and publisher, and it compares her imagery to other representations of Amazons and warrior-women. This study indicates that Christine reworked the myth in a way that reflects her positive of women and her desire to influence the queen of France, Isabeau de Baviere, who was the original owner of the manuscript.

Informed by the methodology utilized in Peter Williams's Houses of God: Region, Religion, and Architecture in the United States (1997), the thesis examines Mark Lemmon's Gothic Revival design for the Highland Park Presbyterian Church (1941) with special attention to the denomination and social class of the congregation and the architectural style of the church. Beginning with the notion that Lemmon's church is more complex than an expression of the Southern cultural region defined by Williams, the thesis presents the opportunity to examine the church in the context of the unique cultural region of the city of Dallas. Church archival material supports the argument that the congregation deliberately sought to identify with both the forms and ideology of the late nineteenth-century Gothic Revival in the northeastern United States, a result of the influence of Dallas's cultural region.

This thesis investigates the iconography, iconology, and style of Juan Bautista Maino s Adoration of the Shepherds (1615-1620) located at the Meadows Museum, Dallas, Texas. The study begins with an overview of general information on Maino and his works. Chapter 2 explores the evolution of the Adoration of the Shepherds depiction in art, while examining social and political factors which may have influenced Maino's iconographical choices. Chapter 3 is a comparative analysis of the Meadows Adoration of the Shepherds to two other Adoration of the Shepherds by Maino, revealing a stylistic progression and presenting an argument for the dates the Meadows painting was rendered. Chapter 4 reviews the findings and suggests further study on this and other paintings by Maino.

This study is the first comprehensive analysis of the fatal woman motif in the writings and art of Edvard Munch from the early 1890s to 1909. It uses a background of the women in the artist's life as well as the literary and artistic worlds in which Munch participated. Following separate accounts of Munch's relationships with five women, the manner in which the artist characterizes each as a fatal woman in his writings and art is discussed and analyzed. Next, the study describes the fatal woman motif in late nineteenth century art and literature. It begins with a discussion of the origin of the Symbolist and Decadent Movements and an ideological examination of the fatal woman motif as it is manifested in the writing and art of these two groups. In addition, it compares Munch's visual manifestations of the femme fatale with the manner in which the artist's contemporaries depicted her. Finally, this study describes two groups of men with whom Munch was particularly close: the Christiania Bohéme and the Schwarzen Ferkel Circle. An examination of the literary works of these men helps to determine the way in which they affected Munch's pictorial perception of the fatal woman.

This thesis examines images of women shopping in the art of Kenneth Hayes Miller and Reginald Marsh during the 1920s and 1930s. New York City's Fourteenth Street served Kenneth Hayes Miller and Reginald Marsh, respectively, as a location generating the inspiration to study and visually represent its contemporaneity. Of particular interest to this thesis are relationships between developments in shopping and the images of women shopping in and around Fourteenth Street that populate the paintings of Miller and Marsh. Although, as Ellen Todd Wiley has shown, the emerging notion of the New Woman helped to shape female identity at this time, what remains unstudied are dimensions that geographically specific, historical developments in shopping contributed to the construction of female identity which, this thesis argues, Marsh and Miller related to, by locating in, the department store and bargain store.

This thesis examines Pieter Bruegel the Elder's Fortitude, 1560, a print from the Seven Virtues series. Fortitude stands out as an anomaly within the cycle because it contains several allusions to the Book of Revelation. The linkage of Fortitude to the writings of St. John is important because it challenges previous iconographic and iconological analyses of the composition. Analysis of Fortitude's compositional elements is provided, along with an examination of the virtue tradition. Additionally, an exploration of sixteenth-century apocalypticism is included, as well as an examination of the artistic influences that may have inspired Bruegel. This thesis concludes that Fortitude's apocalyptic allusions do not seem unusual for an artist familiar with St. John's prophecies, influenced by Hieronymus Bosch, and living in an age of apocalypticism.

The problem of this thesis is to determine the evolution of the architectural design of the Kimbell Art Museum building from its origin as a concept to its realization in the completed structure. This study has two objectives.The first is to discover the process by which the physical museum building cam into being. The second is to trace the conceptual evolution of the Kimbell Art Museum building. This problem has three parts, each of which has been made the subject of a chapter. The first, "Concept Development," sets forth the pre-design concepts of the founder, the director, and the architect. The second, "Design Development," establishes a chronological sequence of architectural design presentations. The third, the "Conclusion," compares the pre-design concepts to the finished building.

Despite having produced an impressive body of work and having been well-received in his lifetime, the career of nineteenth-century American expatriate artist Walter MacEwen has received virtually no scholarly attention. Assimilating primary-source materials, this thesis provides the first serious examination of MacEwen's life and career, thereby providing insight into a forgotten episode in American art.

This thesis analyzes the destruction of imagery dedicated to Saint Thomas Becket in order to investigate the nature of sixteenth-century iconoclasm in Reformation England. In doing so, it also considers the veneration of images during the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Research involved examining medieval and sixteenth-century historical studies concerning Becket's life and cult, anti-Becket sentiment prior to the sixteenth century, and the political circumstances in England that led to the destruction of shrines and imagery. This study provides insight into the ways in which religious images could carry multifaceted, ideological significance that represented diversified ideas for varying social strata--royal, ecclesiastical and lay.

El Santuario de Chimayo is a small community shrine that combines both native Tewa Indian and Christian traditions. This study focuses on the interaction between traditions through analysis of the shrine's two major artworks: a crucifix devoted to El Senor de Esquipulas (Christ of Esquipulas) and a statue of the Santo Nino (Holy Child). The shrine and its two primary artworks are expressions of the dynamic interaction between native and European cultures in New Mexico at the beginning of the nineteenth century. They frame the discussion of native and Christian cultural exchange about the relationships between religious images, how they function, and how they are interpreted.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the use of alchemy within the work of Rebecca Horn, to elucidate its presence in her work, and to illuminate its purpose as a personal philosophy and as a creative tool. The use of alchemy within Horn's work occurs as a process of revelation and transformation. Alchemy is revealed as a spiritual philosophy and as an interpretative system through the changes that occur in Horn's oeuvre. Throughout Horn's career, alchemy has developed into an interpretive system, a type of spiritual and cosmic perspective, that allows the artist to study, access, and meld diverse realities (sacred and profane) and diverse social systems (religious and scientific) into a more holistic and spiritually infused reality for herself and society-at-large. The purpose of her work is to help reinvest contemporary life with a spiritual presence by offering a model and a means of bringing the sacred into the profane.

This thesis identifies and analyzes gendering in the art writing devoted to Lee Bontecou's metal and canvas sculptures made from the 1959 - 1964. Through a careful reading of reviews and articles written about Bontecou's constructions, this thesis reconstructs the context of the art world in the United States at mid-century and investigates how cultural expectations regarding gender directed the reception of Bontecou's art, beginning in 1959 and continuing through mid-1960s. Incorporating a description of the contemporaneous cultural context with description of the constructions and an analysis of examples of primary writing, the thesis chronologically follows the evolution of a tendency in art writing to associate gender-specific motivation and interpretation to one recurring feature of Bontecou's works.

This thesis argues that art criticism published during Soutine's lifetime emphasizes ethnicity, nationalism and geography in discussions of the artist's style. These critical discussions have influenced the historiography of Soutine published after his death, resulting in a continued emphasis on style that includes references to ethnicity. Ethnicity, nationalism and geography are identified in the critical reception and historiography by noting references, both specific and implied, to Jewishness, French art, and foreign status (among others). These references are analyzed in terms of existing scholarship that addresses concepts of ethnicity and nationalism, and with consideration to how the critical reception has impacted the historiography.

The Universalis Ecclesiae of 1508 authorized Spanish colonization of the Americas in return for the conversion of native populations to Christianity. From its inception therefore, the Mexican nation lived an alliance between Church and State. This alliance promoted the transfer of Castilian Catholicism to American shores. Catholic practices, specifically the ex-voto tradition, visualize this intermingling of religion and politics. The ex-voto is a devotional painting that expresses gratitude to a religious figure for his/her intervention in a moment of peril. It is commissioned by the devotee as a means of direct communication to the divine. This project analyzes 40 Mexican ex-votos for their reflection of political issues in Mexico. I assert that the Mexican ex-votos engage discussions of social politics. To support this argument, visualizations of socio-political discourses such as the Virgin of Guadalupe as a national religious symbol, police action and economic disparity were examined.

This thesis analyzes Benjamin West's altarpiece St. Paul Shaking the Viper from His Hand After the Shipwreck and his designs for thirty-three related artworks in the Royal Naval College Chapel, Greenwich, England, as a synthesis of the major influences in his life and as an example of both traditional and innovative themes in his artistic style of the late eighteenth century. This study examines West's life, the Greenwich Chapel history, altarpiece and decorative scheme, and concludes that the designs are an example of West's stylistic flexibility and are related thematically to his Windsor Royal Chapel commission.

I investigate why gendered images of Hatshepsut influenced androgynous images of Nefertiti in New Kingdom Egypt and how Nefertiti and Akhenaten used their images in the promotion of their monotheistic religion; through a contextual, stylistic and feminist examination of the images. Hatshepsut cultivated images of herself to legitimize her rule in relation to canonical kings before her. Similarly, Nefertiti represented herself as a figure indiscernible from Akhenaten, creating an image of female co-rulership. Although the visual representations of both Hatshepsut and Nefertiti differ, the concepts behind each are analogous. They both manipulated androgyny to create images displaying powerful women equal in status to male Egyptian kings.

This study examines the county courthouses of Arkansas with the purpose of discovering certain qualities which they possess as architecture. Stylistic influences are identified, as are influential architects, periods of building activity, and characteristics of age and condition. An historical overview provides information concerning nationwide trends in public architecture over the last century, allowing observations as to the effects which national and regional tastes had on Arkansas' county courthouse builders. It is concluded that Arkansas' county courthouses reflect, to some extent, the stylistic preferences and backwardness of southern and rural courthouses, respectively. The Georgian Revival is identified as the most popular style for courthouses still in use, although the most active building period is found to be the 1930s, when WPA design specifications dominated Arkansas courthouse architecture.

This thesis will examine the iconography of late-thirteenth- through fifteenth-century images of St. Veronica's veil, also known as vernicles. In the late Middle Ages, vernicle iconography changed from iconic representations of Christ's face toward graphic imagery of Christ's suffering during his Passion. These passionate transformations, as I have called them, were affected by the Roman Sudarium relic, popular devotion to Christ's suffering and humanity during his Passion, and the Catholic ritual of Mass. This thesis will consider how the function of vernicle images during Mass was reflected in their iconography throughout Europe between 1250 and 1500.

This thesis examines the roles of the sublime and the beautiful in the works of eighteenth-century French landscape painter Claude-Joseph Vernet. An introduction to the study, a history of the sublime and beautiful, and an overview of the way these ideas are portrayed in Vernet's calm and storm pendants are provided. How commissions for these pendants relate to theoretical developments of the sublime and beautiful and how Vernet became aware of the these ideas are addressed. The thesis shows Vernet was not dependent on British patrons or on the century's most influential aesthetic treatise on the sublime and the beautiful by Edmund Burke, because Vernet started painting such themes well before Burke's treatise (1757) and did so in response to French patrons.

This thesis provides the first formal and phenomenological analysis of the architecture in Paquimé, otherwise known as Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico. The eastern and western halves of the city are divided by a stone wall and reservoirs. The monuments on the east are rectilinear, puddled adobe structures used primarily for domestic and manufacturing purposes. The buildings on the west, on the other hand, are open earth mounds lined in stone for public displays. This thesis analyzes each building individually, the relationship of the structures to one another, and the entire layout of Paquimé in order to better understand Paquimian visual culture.

This thesis examines Hieronymus Bosch's Table Top of the Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things. Instead of using an iconographical analysis, the thesis investigates the relationship between Bosch's art and the Devotio Moderna, which has been speculated by many Bosch scholars. For this reason, a close study was done to examine the Devotio Moderna and its influence on Bosch's painting. Particular interest is paid to the seven day prayers of the Devotio Moderna, the subjects depicted in Bosch's painting, how Bosch's painting blesses its viewer during the time of one's prayer, and how the use of gaze ties all of these ideas together.