My paper argues that Isabella d’Este (1474-1539) was not an anomalous collector but rather belonged to a lineage of female patrons who collected analogously. Previous scholarship has anachronistically dismissed Isabella’s art patronage as unintelligent, typically feminine, and motivated purely by aesthetics. Now, I join a conversation of scholars working to reclaim Isabella’s collection and illuminate other early modern women collectors. I use imprese (personal emblems) as a case study for how Isabella and her matriline legitimized their competing masculine and feminine virtues. Baldassare Castiglione’s Il Cortegiano (1528) is foundational in establishing early modern Italian notions of gender conventions. I compare the portraiture of the Este-Gonzaga women in terms of political signaling and cultural influence. Finally, I compare Este-Gonzaga architectural commissions and Isabella’s studiolo (study) as gendered spaces. Cumulatively, my research aims to synthesize scholarship on Isabella and her female relatives to illuminate how these women successfully navigated the strict social and political gender conventions of the Quattrocento and how Isabella’s individual success was influenced by her contemporaries.

In 1558, through the streets of Brussels, a magnificent funerary ship flanked by sea monsters, processed under a banner of Charles V’s emblem, depicting submerged Herculean columns labeled “PLVS VLTRA”. This device, and the spectacle of the procession, asserted his aspiration to surpass the heroes of the ancient world, and dominate the sea, as well as the lands beyond. This thesis investigates how bodies of water were navigated, understood, and symbolized in the Holy Roman Empire during the rule of Charles V through overlapping frameworks of geospatial, mythological, political, and scientific thought. My paper examines the sea as both a physical and symbolic obstacle to conquest in Charles V’s military campaigns, and the use of those waters to construct his imperial identity. Contemporary ceremonial and battle armor depicted mythological sea creatures or transformed the wearer himself into a fearsome hybrid being. Newly discovered, and rumored, marine animals were recorded in cartography and taxonomies in the emerging field of natural science. Wunderkammers, and collected artifacts, assembled objects from across the oceans as a means of marveling at foreign cultures while distancing and defining one’s own identity by contrast. In tapestries, armor, sculpture, allegorical paintings, prints, books and cartography, we can view how Charles V’s court used maritime imagery to legitimize his authority, invoking the indomitable power of the sea. This thesis aims to show the ways that water, both real and imagined, shaped contemporary images of power, conquest, and the unknown.

St. Agatha’s story is a dramatic and memorable account of resisting imperial interests and remaining virtuous while representing unfaltering Christian faith. Her story describes a young Sicilian woman who is pressured by a Roman consul to abandon her Christian faith, but who is unwavering and virtuous. Enraged, the consul orders the torture and removal of her breasts with pincers. In some versions of the story, her breasts are restored by God or St. Peter and she is made whole again. Fulfilled by her religious ecstasy, she prays and asks God to take her life so that she might go to Heaven, and he fulfills this wish; Quintiaus is not able to continue his torture; she is finally out of his cruel reach.

As a Virgin saint who is metaphorically sexually assaulted, the paradox of her existence complicates her visual depiction. The act of exposure, torture, and removal of her breasts elicits a strong emotional, religious, and even sexual reaction. Other paintings show her as androgynous or even masculine to set her apart from other female saints and establish her sacred equality with male saints. In being separated from her breasts and from her gender, she has been de-sexed and made more holy. This thesis examines examples of paintings from Sicily, Naples, Italy, and Spain in the 1630’s and compares their messages and implications as they relate to themes of deserved suffering, gendered punishment, and sexualized torture through the lens of ambiguity of gender presentation and translation. This paper is narrowed to Sicily, Naples, Italy, and Spain because of their closely tied artistic exchanges through the mechanism of the Spanish empirical system and the significance of St. Agatha specifically to occupied Spanish-Sicily.

During the height of Spain’s Hapsburg Empire and Counter-Reformation, Spanish art academies were hard at work codifying a standard for what religious art was allowed to depict and how it ought to depict it. Painters and sculptors from Madrid to Seville responded to the demand for highly emotional, even ecstatic worship following that of Spanish mystics St. Ignatius and St. Theresa, but they were also facing pressure from the Protestant Reformers to clean up the theology surrounding the use of religious images, lest worshipers slip into idolatry. It was under these circumstances that Francisco de Zurbarán, one of the finest artists to come out of the Sevillian School, painted his 1627 Crucifixion for the monastery of San Pablo el Real. We know from historical records that this peculiar painting, featuring only Christ and the cross on a pitch-black background, appeared to its viewers in a dim chapel as a sculpture rather than a painting. And in fact, Zurbarán intentionally heightened this effect by painting Christ’s body in the manner of a still-life, rather than a portrait. Why, when working with a medium praised for its ability to convey the light and energy of life, did Zurbarán choose to paint an inanimate sculpture? Considering Zurbarán’s artistic and religious context, I argue that not only was this genre-bending a feature of seventeenth-century Spanish expression (although one more commonly found in literature), but that Zurbarán’s Crucifixion is a clever response to the Reformation rhetoric used to condemn or justify sacred images. My analysis aims to incorporate themes of trans-materiality, affect, and the agency of objects into the study of Counter-Reformation art in a way that brings to light the complex ways a work of art can respond to its context.

Who owns the image when it is a copy? Is it the one that copied it, or the original artist who created the image? While artists such as Sherry Levine and Andy Warhol have notoriously raised these questions in their artwork, David Teniers II, working in seventeenth-century Holland raises similar questions of originality and authorship. Teniers worked as a court painter creating paintings for Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, a Habsburg who was a governor in Antwerp. In the beginning of Teniers’ service to Wilhelm he completed a series of Gallery Pictures which each consisted of dozens of reproductions of famous Venetian paintings by well-known artists such as Titian and Giorgione. Around 1656, Wilhelm quit his position in the Netherlandish courts and moved back to Vienna. Before he left, he gave Teniers permission to create the Theatrum Pictorium, a catalogue of prints of the Italian masterworks Teniers had shown in his gallery paintings. Teniers painted small scale reproductions of the original Italian works before they were moved to Vienna. He then gave these reproductions to a team of printmakers who would create etchings based on them. The Theatrum Pictorium was marketed across Europe, citing Teniers as its author and publisher. To most, the images inside would be as close as they could get to the original, made through a copy of a copy and the image often reversed due to the printing process. Teniers gained popularity by sharing these exclusive works to the world, differentiating him from most copyists. Through an analysis of one of his recreations, Titian’s The Bravo, postmodern theory reveals that Teniers functions as a pseudo-author to the works in the catalog to further his reputation in the art world.

During the seventeenth century in Europe, Baroque artists developed “Tenebrism,” a representation of dramatic lighting in which highlights are rendered in harsh bright tones as if spotlit, while shadow descends to inky blackness. This harsh contrast between light and dark is so stark that the setting is often indiscernible, and figures appear to emerge from complete obscurity. As the production of paint was not standardized, artists were responsible for obtaining the necessary materials and transforming them into workable oil paintings. Consequently, various treatises and manuscripts were produced during this period, to compile and share the most refined techniques and materials artists used to create their work. Unfortunately, historians have paid little attention to the specific processes and pigments artists employed to create these rich dark tones. While contemporary scholars have begun exploring this area of study, there is still a lack of research regarding the unique techniques and materials used for tenebrism. With this in mind, through the Virginia Commonwealth University Undergraduate Research Fellowship, a catalog was developed, containing the most prominent materials used to extract darker pigments, their origin, and color preparation and application techniques mastered by European Baroque artists to achieve the illusion of condensed light through condensed darkness. To achieve this, it was necessary to continuously read, translate, and compare primary sources, such as biographies and art treatises, as well as research the networks of exchange and the economic and political contexts of the time, given their potential impact on commerce, as well as the stylistic preferences that arose in seventeenth -century Europe and led to the high demand of specific materials. Furthermore, after analyzing two art pieces by iconic figures of the time, this project has uncovered the ideal pigments to create dark backgrounds, the visual effects of different varnishes, and how economic contexts influenced artistic practices.

Up until the 1990s, the topic of the artist’s signature in European paintings and sculpture had never been fully discussed in academic literature. Furthermore, the question of the role of the artist’s signature in European art in the context of authorship and the relationship between the artist and the audience throughout the development of the Western Canon has yet to be explored. In this paper, I examine not only the changes in how the signature developed from the sixteenth century to the early twentieth century in European art, but also how this change developed in due part because of the artistic time period these signatures appeared in. Previous scholarship has focused mainly on individual time periods, with most research focusing on the role of the signature during the Renaissance. Examining the evolution of the signature in European art will not only bridge the gap between scholarship focusing on the signature in individual time periods but also to explain why the implementation of the signature changed throughout the centuries. I primarily focus on three artistic movements: the Renaissance, early Romanticism, and early Modernism, with an examination of two artworks from each period, specifically their use of signature.

What I argue is that the use of the signature in the Renaissance was primarily a symbol of religious dedication and an implication of status. For the early Romantics, the signature was mainly a symptom of the Enlightenment, because of the loss of religious dedication and the rise of the art market. In early Modernism, the signature broke all form and function as part of the Modernist modus operandi. These findings will hopefully introduce a new methodology of the history of signatures into art history, and will help us consider how signatures were connected to the artistic period they appeared in.

During the seventeenth century, the Dutch Republic became one of Europe’s wealthiest and most influential nations. Its economy flourished due to trade and colonial ventures through the establishment of the Dutch East India Company in 1602. At the same time, the Dutch Republic experienced a pivotal period for art. Because of the thriving economy, the middle class of merchants was growing, creating a new market for art with a new demographic of patrons. As a result, commissions began to favor still life paintings, landscapes, and genre scenes, which depicted scenes of daily life. This paper concentrates on still life paintings and genre scenes, examining the shift from compositions describing everyday life to scenes of opulence as Dutch artists began integrating exotic imports–such as spices, textiles, and porcelain–into their work. By investigating the role of Chinese porcelain in seventeenth-century Dutch works, this study discusses how these imported objects shaped artistic and cultural narratives centered around luxury, transience, and identity.

Invented most likely in the early eighth century BCE, the Greek alphabet represented a leap forward in the recording of human language. As the first writing system to phonemically record speech by introducing vowel signs, this system enabled people from all levels of society to participate in this realm of exchange. But the alphabet is not simply a collection of letters in a vacuum. Instead, its changing use—both in the letters themselves and their varied applications—can shed light on a society’s cultural values, conflicts, and priorities. Building on recent studies from philological and archaeological perspectives, this paper examines the ever-evolving relationship between the denizens of Attika and their writing system. Seventh-century votive offerings reveal early attempts to grapple with the profound implications of writing, especially in light of its rarity. In the centuries that follow, writing benefitted from an explosive spread in the region; literary sources and vase paintings betray the interconnectedness between the growth of writing in Attika and the rise of the polis, democracy, and civic identity. Moving forward to the turn of the fourth century, the Athenians’ official adoption of the Ionic alphabet is inseparable from its immediate political context, as the Athenians sought to redefine their place in the Hellenic world after their loss in the Peloponnesian War. This survey of Attic literacy frames the alphabet’s history within its historical context to show how the alphabet’s spread, widespread use, and modification reflected the Athenians’ central values and their ever-changing sociopolitical environment.

Cult statues played a prominent part in cult and ritual across the Greek world, acting as focal points of worship. As a result of this involvement in ritual activities, worshippers regularly came into contact with cult images – the statues were touched, spoken to, washed, dressed, given meals, and carried in procession. Given the fact that cult statues were not only seen as representations of deities, but to some extent or another the deity itself, these rituals were not purely symbolic and instead constituted actual practical services for deities.

Two ritual services performed for cult statues–washing and dressing–closely resemble human-like acts of care and required direct physical contact with the statues and the deities they represented. This study therefore focuses on these two types of rituals and examines different manifestations of the washing and dressing of cult statues to explore the nature of the relationship between worshippers and the deity, as well as how the ritual acts of care express a humanized divinity associated with the cult statues. This study uses a range of visual, epigraphical, literary evidence. These sources inform a discussion of relevant rituals that took place across the Greek world, including the deities the cult statues depicted, the participants, the processes involved, and the significance of the practices.

This study will show how these ritual acts of service were frequently carried out by women for cult statues of usually female deities. I will argue that the associated humanized divine presence often corresponds with transitions between various life stages for the individuals partaking in them. At community level, they also often appear to be part of the negotiation of the relationship between deities and the communities worshipping them, serving as a renewal and a reminder of this relationship.

This paper examines the research progress of the archaeological grape seeds from the site of Cetamura del Chianti in its early stages at Florida State University. My role was to facilitate this research by forming a team, gathering the necessary background information, and to spearhead the beginning of the research progress at Florida State University to lay a foundation for future students to pick up a leading role in this project. These goals have been accomplished over the course of my honors project, with the seeds arriving in Tallahassee and all of the preparatory work being done for the experimentation. The seeds are currently stored in the Bass Laboratory at the Florida State University Department of Biological Sciences, a genetics research laboratory, where DNA extraction and sequencing and morphometrics will also be performed. Along with the Bass Laboratory, partnerships have been formed with the Florida A&M University Viticulture Center and Beta Analytic to expand this project and establish an enduring research collaboration. The study of ancient grape seed DNA can lead to new insights into the history of wine, both in Italy and beyond, and into the cultural and economic history of the ancient Etruscans and Romans.

The human remains of the ancient coastal town of Herculaneum and Pompeii serve as an interesting exploration of how the intersection of art/new media and archaeology can serve a way of helping retain the humanity of ancient remains. This is best exemplified through the work of three separate archaeologists throughout the history of Pompeii and Herculaneum excavations. The first was Giuseppe Fiorelli in the nineteenth century, discovering voids in the ash, he filled them with plaster creating statues of the victims frozen in time. This serves as one of the first times that the faces of Pompeii and their clothes were visible to the public. Later in the twentieth century Dr. Sara C. Bisel participated in the archaeological dig that uncovered the boathouse bodies of Herculaneum. Following the dig, she wrote a children’s book with illustrations and reconstructions of the bodies of Herculaneum. This provided an accessible platform for children to connect and humanize the bodies of Herculaneum. The work of humanizing the bodies of Pompeii and Herculaneum continues in the twenty-first century with the documentaries of Andrew Wallace Hadrill. The act of filming the remains and ruins provides an increased level of personalization for the viewers, enabling greater humanization of the people that died there. The continuing artistic efforts over the years at Herculaneum and Pompeii highlights the hopeful implications and provides the groundwork for the re-humanization of human remains in other locations.

This paper will reconstruct the experience of the Nile Mosaic at the Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia in Praeneste through 3D digital representation to shed light on viewership through kinetics, scale, perspective, and water, crucial to Hellenistic and Early Republic Sanctuary design. This new perspective will inform a discussion reevaluating current scholarship through the consideration of spatial relationality, farming the Roman exoticizing gaze on Egypt as the representation of an imperial display of power within the sanctuary context. For so long, scholars interacted with the mosaic hung on the museum’s wall, not considering its relational composition within the artificial grotto in the apsidal hall of the lower complex. The dark, rough, and humid cave is forgotten. Considering the mosaic as a spatial composition, it is used as a lens to reconsider previous scholarship, asking questions such as if the lower complex can be a library if the architecture purposely introduced water and humidity into the space. How does the shallow pool of water animate the representation of the Nile? How is light reflected? How does the viewer’s place at the pool’s edge alter the perception of the multi-perspectival representations of the figures, architecture, and landscape? Utilizing a methodology of architectural 3D modeling and digital visualization, this paper will reconstruct and explore the implications of a viewer’s experience of the mosaic in situ.

The rediscovery of Greco-Roman antiquity during the Renaissance sent the city of Rome into a frenzy. As popes began sponsoring excavations of Roman sculpture, their intent was to strengthen the papal seat of power through Rome’s legacy as the glory of antiquity. Such an interest in an important albeit fragmentary ancient past suggested, to the men who engaged with it, elevated intellects and refined sensibilities. Close to one hundred years later, the allure of antiquity for artists, antiquarians, and collectors lay in its capacity to be presented as whole, rather than fragmented, works of art. Thus, the profession of the sculptor-as-restorer grew in popularity as artists excelled in transforming part to whole with works that boasted a dynamic weaving of ancient and modern forms that completed what time failed to protect. Once the stronghold of the Roman Empire for thousands of years, Rome again rose to prominence as the epicenter of the Baroque. My paper investigates the specific values of antiquity that were transposed through Baroque restorations of Greco-Roman statuary depicting divinities in Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi’s famed antiquities collection. Through a careful review of how Baroque artists interacted with ancient artifacts regarding taste and reception, I consider two well-known seventeenth-century restorations, Gianlorenzo Bernini’s Ares Ludovisi and Alessandro Algardi’s Hermes Ludovisi, which are still on view today at the Museo Nazionale Romano. This project promotes a reconsideration of the unique perspectives and limitless imaginations that Bernini and Algardi brought to their restorations, crafting a distinctly Baroque ‘New Rome,’ neither ancient nor modern, but something in between. I argue that these restorations were Cardinal Ludovisi’s way of appropriating and manipulating antiquity to establish himself and his legacy through his desire to revive ancient Rome.

The Colossus of Rhodes, sculpted by Chares of Lindos between 290 and 280 BCE, is one of the most iconic pieces of Hellenistic art, holding a presence in continued academic research and as an item of pop culture. Contrary to its longevity into the current era, the Colossus of Rhodes was destroyed centuries ago – no remains have ever been concretely found, and its exact design and placement is still unknown. Despite this, it holds steadfast in the cultural memory, inspiring myths and misconceptions of its creation and untimely end. In the modern world, Liberty Enlightening the World, commonly referred to as the Statue of Liberty, holds a similar space in representing the strength of an expanding empire. Erected in 1886, the statue, influenced heavily by Classical and Hellenistic art, has outlived the span of the Colossus of Rhodes physically, but culturally faces a contentious future. In this period of historical awareness and inclusivity, a heightened understanding of the bloodied past of the United States and its uncertain future with immigration has cast doubt over the all-accepting image of the Statue of Liberty. This paper and presentation outline the construction, design, and sociopolitical significance of The Colossus of Rhodes and Liberty Enlightening the World, through academic, historic, and contemporaneous sources. Furthermore, an analysis of academic literature and historic dialogue of both statues’ cultural presence show that the destruction of the Colossus of Rhodes has helped cement it in the cultural memory as a standing beacon of strength, while there is doubt over whether or not the longevity of the Statue of Liberty inhibits its own legacy. There are many parallels between the political contexts of the statues’ creations, however its destruction may have inadvertently saved the Colossus of Rhodes from fading into cultural obscurity, and worse, resentment.

This paper explores how the Acropolis of Athens, particularly the cult statue of Athena Parthenos and the Parthenon’s metopes, established an enduring archetype for symbols of national identity and wartime valor, influencing the creation of Soviet-era monuments and Slavic national propaganda. By examining parallels between ancient Greek artistic ideals and modern representations, the study investigates how the physical embodiment of a nation through monumental art has persisted and evolved.

The Athena Parthenos, a gold and ivory statue embodying wisdom and military strength, symbolized Athenian power and victory. It features a rigid poise, classical drapery, and allegorical elements, which became a template for later nationalistic monuments, particularly in Slavic cultures. The Ukrainian Motherland Monument and the Russian Motherland Calls statues, both created as Soviet symbols during the twentieth century, share aesthetic and ideological ties with the Greek archetype, from their elevated placement on natural hills to their use of symbolic drapery and martial iconography.

The study also analyzes the shifting interpretations of these monuments over time. Originally commemorating Soviet unity and triumph in World War II, the Ukrainian and Russian monuments have been recontextualized to reflect contemporary national identities, particularly in the wake of the dissolution of the USSR and the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Notably, Ukraine’s replacement of Soviet symbols on its Motherland Monument signifies a reclaiming of heritage and independence.

Finally, the paper explores how the Parthenon’s metopes influenced twentieth-century propaganda, using idealized heroism and dehumanized enemies to inspire wartime participation. By linking ancient artistic strategies with modern propaganda, the study reveals a consistent rhythm in humanity’s use of visual culture to define identity, valorize sacrifice, and galvanize collective action. This enduring archetype underscores art’s power to reflect and shape national narratives across centuries.