CERAMICS IN BRITAIN (1840-90): MEANINGS AND METAPHORS

The intention of this thesis, “Ceramics in Britain (1840–90): Meanings and Metaphors” is to present new approaches for interpreting ceramics in nineteenth-century Britain by situating, problematizing, and contextualizing pottery and porcelain in the popular debates of the day within the methodologies of material culture, design, cultural and art histories. I ask how did ceramics—portable, functional, and often decorative objects—contribute to shaping modes of experiences? Crockery, tableware and blue-white-porcelain, admittedly largely mediated in texts and paintings, are at the centre of this research to examine how they imposed symbolism and influenced the engagement of their subjects beyond their intended meanings and functions. This thesis tracks a common rhetoric shared by writers and artists across genres and understood by readers and viewers: crockery in the cupboard, on the mantel, the table or the floor were popular motifs exemplifying class, gender, character, etiquette, and taste. This thesis also seeks to map ceramics’ relations with other objects and people depicted. Their meanings and metaphors changed, depending on their exchange with other objects in the room and who uses them. The conventions of representing ceramics dictated a particular grammar that writers and artists used, critiqued, discarded or personalized. The examination of ceramics mediated in text and image especially in comparison with extant objects invites a deeper probing of both material culture and artistic practice, which helps to situate the agency of the ceramic objects themselves. Also this thesis, in attempt to explore new methodological approaches for ceramic studies, examines the social life of the mid-Victorian relief-moulded “Minster” Jug in the Gardiner Museum in Toronto. The product originating in Staffordshire in 1843 and exported to the colonies holds significance due to its multiple life histories. Viewing the “Minster” through the lenses of curator, collector, consumer, and critic its layered lives unfold to reveal the protocols of museum praxis as well as important aspects of mid-nineteenth-century British society related to design reform, gender, imperialism and consumption patterns. This thesis contends that the British experienced ceramics in sometimes unexpected ways, unrelated to their original purpose, such as tools of violence or containers of solace, and transformative fantasy.

Stitching Settler Identities: Canadian Quilts and Their Makers, 1800-1880

Stitching Settler Identities: Canadian Quilts and their Makers, 1800-1880 explores the making, use, and circulation of handmade settler quilts as representation of nineteenth-century women’s social, cultural and economic histories in Canada. An important part of Canadian settlement history is the making and use of handmade quilts in the settler homestead. Handmade coverlets that provided both physical and emotional warmth in the home were a measure of a settler-woman’s careful management of resources and a display of her innovation and creativity. Few settler women recorded their daily experiences; however, most women could sew and quilts offered a method of expression that allowed them to reflect and portray their identities. Thus far, the few studies of quilts have been limited to exhibition catalogues or research that considers a quilt’s aesthetics or its historic significance. While several scholars have called for a reclassification of textile production and needle arts to advance the way in which settler women were viewed as social beings – creating, producing, communicating, and circulating cultural values, most studies on quilts have overlooked a coverlet’s materiality. This study aims to expand the research on quilts as material culture within the context of art history by also considering a quilt’s materiality and when possible, its maker's biography.

The Gentleman-Scholar at Home: Domesticity, Masculinity, and Civility in Dutch Seventeenth-Century Genre Painting

This dissertation examines the gentleman-scholar depicted at home in Dutch seventeenth-century genre paintings, focusing primarily on art created in the Northern Netherlands from the 1630s through the 1670s. The methodological approach is art historical but also pertains to history of architecture, history of dress, and gender studies. Employing the framework of the 'Ages of Man', this thesis investigates three related pictorial themes: the student, the scholar in his prime, and the aged scholar. Variations of male scholarly figures and the accoutrements of the study have a long history in Europe. Prototypical sources include religious history paintings of learned hermit-saints; artistic interest in the allegorical Saturnine persona; portraits of famous scholars; and the iconography of scholarly melancholy implied through vanitas allusions in portraiture and genre paintings. While the majority of Dutch genre paintings pertain to themes of women, male domestic routines form a small but important subset of this imagery and have not been studied. By the 1640s, this subject is readily identified by his setting, clothing, and actions. The ubiquity of scholarly attributes, such as books and globes, paired with the wearing of scholarly robes suggest the merits of intellectual curiosity and the privileges of studying as a pastime and designating a room as a study (studeerkamer). Distinct themes in genre also imply the challenges and rewards of scholarly activity pursued in concert with masculine civic and familial duty. Central to the development of this pictorial theme were: the innovative treatment of learned men by Rembrandt and his circle; the fijnschilder subjects of Dou; and the practice of amateur study by elite men, as suggested by the art of Vermeer. As this dissertation reveals, this convention did not grow to be consistent across the Northern Netherlands, nor was artistic interest limited to university towns. Rather, the larger relevance of scholars in Dutch society is evident in visual and literary sources. The domesticity of this figure in genre painting suggests that scholars mediated between an active and a contemplative life. Societal respect was garnered for scholars through their balance of familial and social duties with the honorable pastime of scholarly leisure.

Colonialism, political unconscious and cognitive mapping in the space of the film "Captain Phillips"

The purpose of this article has been made through a Marxist analysis of the US film "Captain Phillips" (PaulGreengrass, 2013), based on a true story. I have found how the evolution of capitalism in the West continuesto consolidate the belief reified in a historical and geographical superiority of the political and socioeconomicwestern models regarding Africa and Asia lowers models. At the same time, through categories like dialecticalmaterialism, criticism of diffusionist theory and application of cognitive mapping to large geopoliticalspaces located in most poor areas of the world, I have realized a remark about currently being articulatingthe political unconscious of working class in rich countries and the poor in poor countries, establishing arelationship between the ideological representation that takes an individual from his historical reality (ona scale that moves from local to global), and how he has developed a mental ability to escape of the responsibilityto make a critical review of what's happening around him in all areas. Finally, through physicalspace captured in the film, I have realized a materialist critique of globalized business process that takesplace through the carriage of goods, outlining spatial and cognitively limits of the mentality of our time, bothamong "winners"as among the "losers", based on the spatial movement of capital.

Del bodegón a la basura. Representaciones de alimentos en la historia del arte desde la perspectiva de la fotografía contemporánea

El artículo habla de la representación de alimentos en la Historia del Arte; estudia porqué las representaciones de comida tradicionalmente han sido consideradas como un género menor y plantea la hipótesis de su revitalización en el mercado del arte contemporáneo a través de la fotografía. Mediante el análisis de imágenes de comida en diferentes épocas, el texto explica que los bodegones casi siempre han sido símbolos de la superabundancia, presentando fundamentalmente alimentos, y en algunas ocasiones desperdicios. Continúa con la idea de que las sobras en las antigüedad eran orgánicas y sin embargo, en la actualidad los still life se han convertido en representaciones de basura, de desechos, y desperdicios en todas sus acepciones. El texto demuestra, mediante el análisis de algunas obras contemporáneas fotográficas, que el tema de la comida hoy es mucho más relevante de lo que la crítica de arte argumentaba en el pasado. Las imágenes de objetos conforman un sistema de representación y significado en continua evolución que es el reflejo de nuestra cultura. Estas fotografías nos hablan de sociología, política y economía mostrándonos en la actualidad el impacto que está sufriendo el medioambiente debido a nuestras rutinas cotidianas.

Andrienne Pauline Macaire (1796-1855): una artista en los márgenes

Durante el siglo XIX diversos artistas europeos emprendieron el viaje hacia diferentes puntos del continente americano. Entre ellos, mucho se dedicaron a la litografía, logrando en ciertos casos un amplio éxito comercial. Este artículo examina la trayectoria de la artista ginebrina Andrienne Pauline Macaire (1796-1855), dueña junto a su esposo de un temprano emprendimiento litográfico en la ciudad de Buenos Aires. Macaire puede ser considerada la primera artista profesional de renombre activa en esa ciudad. En efecto, es posible diferenciar su trayectoria de las de otras artistas contemporáneas, de las cuales se dispone de menos información y de las que han sobrevivido menos obras. En una primera parte del texto se analiza su inscripción en la literatura artística nacional. A continuación, se describe su formación en Ginebra y se estudia su importante actividad en Buenos Aires, estableciendo conexiones con el panorama artístico local. A lo largo del artículo se presentan obras y fuentes inéditas, o insuficientemente exploradas, a fin de justipreciar su carrera artística y de brindar elementos para futuras investigaciones.

Sweat Lodges in Iron Age Iberian Peninsula: New Data, Typologies and Interpretations

Three questions on the study of NO Iberian Peninsula sweat lodges are posed. First, the new sauna of Monte Ornedo (Cantabria), the review of the one of Armea (Ourense), and the Cantabrian pedra formosa type are discussed. Second, the known types of sweat lodges are reconsidered underlining the differences between the Cantabrian and the Douro - Minho groups as these differences contribute to a better assessment of the saunas located out of those territories, such as those of Monte Ornedo or Ulaca. Third, a richer record demands a more specific terminology, a larger use of archaeometric analysis and the application of landscape archaeology or art history methodologies. In this way the range of interpretation of the sweat lodges is opened, as an example an essay is proposed that digs on some already known proposals and suggests that the saunas are material metaphors of wombs whose rationale derives from ideologies and ritual practices of Indo-European tradition.

La historia del arte como ciencia: la inserción Imre Lakatos en la definición de la disciplina

El artículo pretende definir la Historia del Arte dentro del campo de la ciencia. Entenderemos ciencia bajo el amparo de las teorías del filósofo de la ciencia Imre Lakatos. El texto quiere demostrar la posibilidad de pensar la Historia del Arte desde el punto de vista racional, con la idea de que es posible fabricar tanto reconstrucciones racionales históricas relativas a lo que la disciplina estudia, como una reconstrucción racional de la historiografía del arte.

Site Machines

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-07

Revising Devotion: the role of wooden sculptures in affecting painting and devotion in the Late Medieval period in Italy (XII-XV century)

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Catherine Tekakwitha et la peinture missionnaire : stratégies de conversion en Nouvelle-France au 17e siècle

Pour respecter les droits d’auteur, la version électronique de ce mémoire a été dépouillée de certains documents visuels et audio-visuels. La version intégrale du mémoire a été déposée au Service de la gestion des documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Imaginer l’Amérique : Québec à travers les vues d’optique des graveurs allemands Habermann et Leizelt

Publiées dans la Collection des prospects durant la guerre d’Indépendance américaine, les vues d’optique Vuë de la Place capitale dans la Ville basse a Quebec, Vuë de la haute ville a Quebeck, Vuë de la basse Ville a Quebec vers le fleuve St-Laurent, Vuë de la rue des recolets de Quebeck et Vuë de Quebeck gravées par les Allemands Franz Xaver Habermann (1721-1796) et Balthasar Frederich Leizelt (1755-1812) entretiennent des liens ténus avec la configuration réelle de la ville de Québec qu’elles représentent. L’escamotage du paradigme documentaire dans ces images est l’enjeu principal de ce mémoire. Il permet de mettre l’accent sur les contraintes formelles découlant du dispositif optique de lecture utilisé ainsi que sur les modèles culturels concernant la perception du territoire urbain américain ayant prévalu lors de la création et de la réception des cinq vues d’optique à l’étude. L’analyse de la vision fictionnelle du paysage donnera également des indices sur les orientations idéologiques et l’imaginaire du lieu, perçu comme un ailleurs lointain, par un ensemble politique qui n’exerce pas de domination directe sur la colonie installée sur le bord du fleuve Saint-Laurent.

L’espace comme matériau : l’architecture moderne et le complexe du Bauhaus à Dessau

Pour respecter les droits d’auteur, la version électronique de ce mémoire a été dépouillée de certains documents visuels. La version intégrale du mémoire a été déposée à la Division de la gestion des documents et des archives.

A educação do século XXI nas mãos da inteligência coletiva : narradores midiáticos nos reflexos dos narcisos digitais

Com a proliferação das mídias, conectadas à rede mundial de computadores, tem-se expandido as oportunidades de expressão e criação de um público cada vez mais crescente. Este advento tecnológico, associado às características do sujeito pertencente ao conceito denominado modernidade líquida, vêm alterando gradualmente as relações sociais. A motivação deste trabalho advém da urgência em sinalizar ao contexto educativo, desde o ensino básico ao acadêmico, sobre as alterações ocorridas no perfil de seu público alvo, tornando-se necessária uma revisão nos métodos, para que esses venham acrescentar abordagens aos desafios emergentes. O primeiro objetivo, a partir do referencial teórico e estudo de caso, visa identificar as características do sujeito influenciado pelo consumismo midiático, apontando para as narrativas transmídia como influências advindas do mercado de consumo interativo, destacando, contudo o interesse pela arte da narrativa. O segundo objetivo, na mesma estrutura, procura destacar exemplos de metodologias que têm o contexto acadêmico como lócus de integração e diálogos entre áreas afins. Também, procura aproximar do contexto dos meios de comunicação transmidiáticas, em seus regimes de controle, recursos de consumo e processos formativos informais, advindos destas dinâmicas. O terceiro objetivo propõe reflexões sobre os resultados de uma proposta com dois grupos de pesquisa e os expectadores de uma instalação de arte digital intitulada E-Reflexos. A dinâmica permeou em integrar os estudantes e espectadores em mestiçagens, unindo abordagens metodológicas aos conhecimentos prévios, na criação de narrativas e jogos, onde os conceitos e reflexões, advindos deste trabalho, foram problematizados e avaliados. O quarto objetivo integra reflexões sobre os principais resultados dos objetivos acima, considerando que é possível ao contexto acadêmico mediar propostas que venham reverter o potencial narrador midiático emergente para o contexto cultural, destacando a relevância das áreas de Arte nesse processo formativo.

Figure(s) de sang : amours secrètes, troubles fratries et « miscégénation » dans The Searchers, The Unforgiven et The Missing

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