In this essay, I explore the political context surrounding Botticelli's decision to render The Calumny of Apelles. My aim is to address the Renaissance artist’s attraction to such an old tale. He takes the subject matter of his painting from Alberti’s written description of Apelles’ autobiographical painting, but adds a twist. Apelles was a prominent painter around the year 350 B.C.E., when the Egyptian king Ptolemy abruptly sentenced him to death. Botticelli transforms Apelles' portrayal of the evil king into a contemporaneous depiction—the ruler of Florence, Piero de’ Medici. In doing so, Botticelli transforms the original subject matter into a modern political context. Like Apelles, Botticelli paints an autobiographical scene. He depicts a young man, wearing only a cloth, being dragged into a royal chamber. Darkly clothed cohorts attempt to convince the Medici prince, sitting on the throne, of the dragged-in figure’s guilt. All the while, the female figure carrying the prone nude form into court bears a cold ominous expression. I use scholarship from Herbert Horne, Giorgio Vasari, and Rudolph Altrocchi to lay out the historical events associated with Botticelli's The Calumny of Apelles. My purpose is to highlight Botticelli's political commentary and the complexities of Piero de’ Medici’s court.

Within the vast and astounding collections of the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples resides a 15^th century painting, the Annunciation with Saints, which has largely escaped scholarly attention. Its authorship has not yet been satisfactorily determined, although it is often attributed to the Florentine painter Filippino Lippi or to his artistic circle. In the debate over the identity of the artist, the theological and intellectual nuances of the painting are often ignored. Only brief comments have been made about the unusual inclusion of a view of Florence in the background, and about potential artistic sources for the painting in both Florentine and Northern European art. It is these neglected details, however, which are most useful for interpreting the painting’s underlying messages and ultimately attributing it to a particular artist. A clearer understanding of the work requires an examination of the cognitive processes that led to this unusual composition, the motivation for the selection of particular artistic sources, and the similarities between the Annunciation with Saints and other paintings by Filippino. I propose that this painting should be accepted as an early autograph work by Lippi, in which the artist engages with complex visual and theological strategies to create an effective and highly nuanced devotional image.

William Eggleston is sometimes called “the father of color photography.” While his subject matter is banal, all his images contain very strong formal elements of line and shape. More to the point, they all emphasize saturated hues. In this paper I look at his dye transfer photographs and the quality of their color, which is unsurpassed by anyone in the medium even today. Primarily though, I focus on his most famous image Greenwood, Mississippi, commonly referred to as “The Red Ceiling,” which is known for its overwhelming, spectrally brilliant red tone. In my research, I look at Eggleston’s work from formalist and iconographic perspectives to see what it is that makes his images, which are devoid of traditional subject matter, so captivating. To do so, I compare “The Red Ceiling” and other Eggleston works to Ernst Haas’s formalist compositions. I compare each artist’s use of color and form to understand the different functions of each artists work. I argue that Eggleston’s images are not subjectless or banal, but that they are in fact heavily steeped in symbolism and comment on American urbanization and social dynamics.

 In 1737, Gaspar Miguel de Berrio painted El Patrocinio de San José. Now housed in La Casa Nacional de Moneda de Bolivia, the canvas is one of reverent exuberance. In an aura of golden sand, Saint Joseph’s cloak gently shelters earthbound saints, separating them from the ethereal realm above. The holy figures appear attentive to Christ’s foster father, raptly gazing at the golden glinting figure. Like other Andean Baroque painters, de Berrio juxtaposed European and Pre-Columbian details, though his paintings in particular are exceptional in their subtle yet innovative reappropriations and combinations of motifs. In this presentation, I explore de Berrio’s choice to enclose the saints surrounding Joseph in relationship to Medieval images of the Virgin Mary. Though this connection has been marginally noted in the literature, a proper study of such a striking feature remains necessary to understand the adoption and modification of European iconography by Andean Baroque artists. Studying de Berrio’s oeuvre in relationship to European references, I argue that Gaspar Miguel de Berrio not only intentionally depicted Saint Joseph in a manner similar those medieval virgins in his El Patrocinio de San José , but that this artistic choice reveals the power of the Cult of Saint Joseph in the Viceroyalty of Peru.

Titian painted Sacred and Profane Love in honor of the marriage of Niccolo Aurelio and Laura Bagarotto. Art Historian, Walter Friedlaender suggests Titian not only commemorates the special occasion but also represents a scene from Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. In contrast, Erwin Panofsky suggests that this painting represents Marsilio Ficino’s Neoplatonist views of love. This viewpoint is further reflected in its name, Sacred and Profane Love. More recently, Rona Goffen proposes the women represent more than idealized forms of Venus. In this paper, I explore how these scholars come to their analyses and how together they provide a fuller interpretation of the painting. In doing so, I link opposing theories on iconography and gender studies.

This presentation examines the architectural design of the Jefferson County Museum of Art and History in Port Townsend, Washington. It address how the industrial boom of the 1890's shaped the city’s architectural environment and we look at how the building functioned within the community. With the use of historical photographs, first hand accounts and economic know-how, I seek to examine the environment that built this impressive structure only to leave it to crumble a few decades later. After falling into disrepair in the forties, the building in question was decapitated, leaving an incomplete image of a time bygone. Square pseudo-classical columns with sandstone Corinthian capitals add a touch of grace to its current stout silhouette, but it was meant to be so much more. This elegant imagery signifies what Port Townsend was intended to be: a vibrant port town in competition with Seattle. I seek to compare the Romanesque façade of the Jefferson County Museum of Art and History to the similarly styled Pioneer building in downtown Seattle, Washington. I discuss how the similarities in architectural choice reflect their competitive status for primary port town in the region and the cultural legacies they represent. By looking at the consequences of drastic spending in an inflated economy, I hope to look towards the future by recognizing the posthumous signs of economic collapse and how this past applies to our future.

My project’s source is an unpublished journal in Arabic written by Alexander Svoboda, a young Baghdadi from an originally European family who traveled from Baghdad to Europe in 1897. Svoboda describes his visits to historical sites in Iraq and Syria, many of which are now threatened with partial or complete destruction. Threats to these sites include assaults and theft by parties such as ISIS. Through such activities, the group strives to obliterate the cultural genome of their alleged enemies. My project highlights the urgency of protecting and preserving the cultural heritage of this region. My research employs three open source digital tools: StoryMap JS, StoryMap Gigapixel, and Simile Widget. StoryMap JS displays an interactive map that tracks and visualizes Svoboda’s journey in chronological order. This tool is supplemented by contextual information about each city taken from the original diary with images of the cultural artifacts in each location. The tool contains own user interface and functionality, but I will customize the appearance of my work by adapting elements of the source code. Images are displayed using StoryMap Gigapixel, which lends visual depth and encourages user engagement with stories created in StoryMap JS. By comparing 19th-century images of cultural centers with modern photographs, the tool enables a virtual tour of an object or place—then and now, with details of the minutest features. This comparison of varying perspectives and details reveals patterns of attrition and loss. I supplement these maps and images using an interactive timeline tool, Simile Widget which displays dates of creation and destruction of culturally significant sites and visualizes the duration of endangerment. The display is explorable by site or date and contains brief historical summaries with links to relevant articles and videos. This kind of hands-on engagement with history can be a significant awareness-raising tool.

In this paper, I explore transgenic art created by SymbioticA co-founders Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr, and transgenic/bio artist Eduardo Kac. I begin with a discussion on Catts and Zurr’s biological art project Tissue Culture & Art, which deals with semi-living cells. Their central approach is through the use of tissue technologies and how tissues can be used as a medium for artistic expression. Catts and Zurr depict transgenic art as a complex organism that can live as something outside of the body. They emphasize an interest “in the new discourses and new ethics/epistemologies that surround issues of partial life and the contestable future scenarios they offer” from something being seen as semi-living. In comparison, I look at some of Eduardo Kac’s genetically modified transgenic pieces, in particular his work Edunia. In this transgenic work, Kac presents a genetically engineered flower that is a hybrid of himself and a petunia. Exploring the idea of what it means when a work is defined as semi-living, I present various criticisms. I focus on bioethics and controversy regarding of what can be defined as a bioethical practice of art.

Since its introduction in the 1980’s, digital artists have adopted the animated GIF (Graphic Interchange Format) as a means for artistic production, turning it into an internet mainstay. GIF’s afford artists the ability to connect and communicate with their viewers in a way that is unique to other forms of visual communication. Los Angeles based digital artist Kristyn Janae Solie (aka kyttenjanae) creates perplexing GIF-art that is comprised of glistening, highly affective forms. In Too Much, Not Enough (2015) and It’s Never Cathartic When You Want It to Be (2015), for example, she digitally fabricates vacant, mannequin-esque human figures. She then alters her figures, manipulating their anatomical structure, pulling and pushing their features to create distorted, otherworldly bodies. In other works such as Overstimulated (2015) Solie focuses on just a head; its bulbous shape dominates the frame and seems to undulate in a wavelike fashion, as goo pours from its mouth. She alters the figures in her work just enough to create a sense of discomfort in the viewer. Using Brian Massumi’s affect theory I will evaluate the ways in which the work of Solie is successful in eliciting an unsettling response and how she uses digitally altered forms to speak to the human condition associated with our physical senses.

This essay explores the work of new media artist, Tony Oursler. Beginning his career in video art during the seventies and eighties, his work has evolved into a mashup of techniques and mediums. He uses digital imagery, project, sound, paint and photography to create his provactively orchestrated scenes. For example, in his installation Face to Face (2012), Oursler displays twenty works in which each character of his creation consists of mismatched faces, distorted heads, and alien-like features.Additionally, the mutated forms spew moronic babble broadcasting senseless chatter through their unnerving glistening smiles and disconcerting puckered lips. Intent on tempting us, illuminating our vulnerabilities and desires for affection, the characters in Face to Face utlimately enterain us with their humorous antics. However, further scrutiny shows that Oursler's humor is a tool that unmasks discomfort. In the majority of his artwork, Oursler criticallly, paradoxically and humorously explores the connection between human and machine. In "Oursler's Laughing Machine," I compare his work to other digital artists' installations in order to deconstruct how Oursler uses altered forms of language, babbe and laughter, to elicit a diversity of emotive and highly fabricated states in the minds of his prospective viewers.

In Life of Phyllis (1979), video installation artist Tony Oursler uses a low-tech and “home-made” recording style. Emulating the “accidental” aesthetics of reality television, the artist includes his shadow, his hand, the camera and, even, a microphone. Oursler, however, is critical of this popular genre. His miniaturized set is constructed with everyday objects such as toys, strings and various craft supplies. And the camera awkwardly moves across his subject — a doll ironically meant to represent comedian and TV personality Phyllis Diller. The doll acts out horrific and grotesque news headlines. His 55-minute candid video acts as a hysterical response to and raging critique against reality television and the media personalities it produces. Referencing Baudrillard’s “Ecstasy of Communication,” I use a comparative and historical analysis to argue that advancements in technology have transformed our society into an invasive and penetrating screen in which celebrities unflatteringly act out their daily routines and relationships. In particular, I use Baudrillard’s ideas to comment on the presentation of virtual celebrities, from Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian to the spate of other such Instagram and Snapchat personalities. My research highlights the degree to which social media and commodity culture invade everyday life, transforming our social interactions into reality-like programs. Maybe not as viciously and exaggeratedly as Oursler has it, but nonetheless we become “overexposed,” or as Baudrillard states, “switching center[s] for all the networks of influence.”

The marble plaque showing parturition scene, from 400BC-300CE Ostia, Italy, depicts three women attending to a mother in the midst of her labor. On the left, one of the assistants holds a newborn with cloth covered hands as she observes the midwife delivering the placenta. The final attendant rings out a cloth as she locks eyes with the mother. The marble’s poignant composition draws the viewer in with its forceful narrative of childbirth. Despite its uniqueness and significance, this artwork has been neglected in the scholarship. In order to supplement the resulting deficiency, in my presentation I explore the plaque in relationship to Roman midwifery practices through period visual and literary sources. Paying special attention to the medical writings of Soranus of Ephesus, my inquiry delves into the qualifications of Roman midwives, their training, social status, and prestige. The dynamic and naturalistic aspects of the piece articulates a careful attention to Roman obstetrical, medical knowledge. Moreover, the relief demonstrates the esteem midwives held in Roman society, which is especially relevant considering the funerary function of this relief. The status of midwives is in itself a debated topic in the scholarship due to a lack of documentation, and therefore a careful study of the plaque is vital to our understanding of midwifery and childbirth in antiquity as well as its depiction in art.