Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Baroque architecture'

This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Thesis: M. Arch., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, 2019
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 99-101).
The thesis looks at the very specific economic and political circumstances in post-Communist Bulgaria that led to the emergence of Mafia Baroque as a distinct architectural style and an instrument for communicating power. Building on the context of the economic meltdown of the mid-1990s, the urban development out-pacing the changing regulatory environment due to corruption, , and the unclear laws relating to land restitution and private development- it seeks to understand how these mafia individuals exploited the construction industry and architecture, and what the future manifestations of these mechanisms could be. A new wave of rural migration to the cities and the current construction boom, present an opportunity for these macho nationalist "businessmen" to establish themselves as "righteous members and builders of society". The thesis will neither seek to create a dialectical- "cleaned up" version of Mafia Baroque nor will it just serve as a cautionary tale projecting a bleak future. If ornament used to be a direct product of crime, could it now express its patron's ulterior motive for an improved urban environment as it takes on additional collective functions besides communicating power? The previous flat kit bashing of parts will be replaced with new programmatic and spatial explorations that seek to project a new synthetic urban condition replacing the individualized enclaves of the present.
by Borislav Angelov.
M. Arch.
M.Arch. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture

Blenheim Palace, designed for the 1st Duke of Marlborough by Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor, is not only an outstanding exemplar of English baroque architecture, and also one of the best documented; yet it has not been the subject of focussed monographic study since the 1950s. In this thesis I reconsider the design and construction of Blenheim between 1705 and 1712, in an attempt to shed light on its historical meanings that it was originally intended to embody. In my first chapter, I introduce Marlborough and Vanbrugh, arguing that both built careers by exploiting the implicit exchange between service and reward at the heart of early modern court life. In my second chapter, I explore how Vanbrugh, with Hawksmoor’s increasingly important assistance, set about designing Marlborough a ‘martial’ and ‘magnificent’ residence suited to his roles as Queen Anne’s leading courtier and most successful general. In my third chapter I argue that the standard accounts misrepresent the chronology of important aspects of Blenheim’s design and construction, obscuring the existence of a highly cohesive phase of enlargement and aggrandisement in 1707. In my fourth chapter, I suggest that this transformation can be linked, circumstantially and chronologically, to the effects of Marlborough’s military victories of 1706 and, especially, to his elevation to the rank of sovereign prince of the Holy Roman Empire. Offering an alternative to some recent iconographic approaches to the palace, I show how the palace’s sculptural programme was designed to reflect and consolidate this exceptional status. Taken together, these findings significantly refine, and in some respects revise, our basic knowledge of the design and construction of Blenheim, and also reveal with new clarity the extent to which English ‘baroque’ architecture must be understood in the context of early modern English—indeed, European—court culture.

Guarino Guarini C.R., (1624-1683) is now recognised as one of the great architects of the High Baroque. Author of imposing works on natural philosophy, mathematics and astronomy, plus a posthumous architectural 'trattato', the nature of his thought and its relation to his architecture is still unresolved. My enquiry is to investigate this legacy under the themes of geometry and light. In the 12th century Robert Grosseteste proposed that light was the substantial form of all things, and both he and his followers united spiritual and corporeal light through geometry, thus founding a lightmetaphysic, which flourished in Dante, and was augmented by the Platonism of the Florentine School. In the 16th century, printing had strengthened the spread of these doctrines. With the sixteenth-century recovery of Greek geometry 'Perspectiva', i.e. optics, was recognised as the eighth Liberal Art, and among the schoolmen, light was treated in the First Day of the Hexaemeron. Francesco Maurolyco (1494-1577) is the first modern scientist of light, and with the Galilean observations, optics moved to the forefront of European debate, as Johannes Kepler founded the theories of the lens and illumination, still inside the metaphysical tradition. Meanwhile the Neoplatonism of Francesco Patrizi da Cherso (1529-1597), undermined the philosophy of both light and ancient cosmology, a rupture of the great significance. My enquiry, guided by Guarini's references, starts with Patrizi, and examines the traditional formulations of Fortunio Liceti, Marin Cureau de la Chambre and Ismael Boulliau/Bullialdus. The new 'mechanisme' of Paris is represented by the Minim Father Marin Mersenne who depended on his friends Descartes and Hobbes. The light-encylopaedia and geometry of Father Athanasius Kircher S.J. is a vital component, complemented by the remarkable mathematical imagery of Mario Bettini S.J., a key authority for Guarini. On this foundation, Guarini's mathematics and complex light-theory is studied, and his overall philosophy is related to the symbolism of his Royal Chapel of the Holy Shroud, Turin, as an achievement of Baroque architecture, paradoxically in the context of the seventeenth-century scientific crisis.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2006.
Page 101-102 blank.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 95-97).
Perast, a baroque town on the Montenegrin coast, and a UNESCO protected site, is an amalgam of nearly three hundred buildings that capture the region's unique history. A vibrant regional center in the XVII and XVIII centuries, Perast today is a dormant town in danger of suffocating under the burden of its own past. My architectural intervention, a conservation school dispersed in five locations around strategically selected ruins in Perast, seeks to reconcile the competing claims of preservation and development: it offers heritage-related vocational training as an economic as well as cultural benefit to the local population. In its architectural ambition to interconnect the historic architecture with the contemporary addition in an innovative way, the conservation school becomes a criticism of the overly sentimental approaches to building in protected historic cities in favor of more invigorating ones.
by Jelena Pejkovic.
M.Arch.

I will build an argument utilizing the Hôtel de Soubise as a case study for the way in which the division between exteriors and interiors depicts the shifting cultural fabric of 18th-century French society.

This thesis sets out to shed light on the contribution of the Jesuit Order, often known as the Society of Jesus, to the dissemination of ideas about military architecture in the Baroque age. In the first chapter, it is shown that the Jesuits developed an extraordinarily militant form of religious expression that included in its agenda their involvement in 'just wars' against Protestant 'heretics' or Turkish infidels, these being considered to be the two prime enemies of the Catholic Church. The 'military mind' of St Ignatius of Loyola, the preaching, confessional and wider educational ministries of his Order and the compilation of early Jesuit books on war ethics are all addressed together with the relationship that quickly evolved between the mathematical disciplines entrenched in the Jesuit curriculum of studies known as the Ratio Studiorum and the geometry of war. In the context of the great religious divides and numerous wars that characterized early modem Europe, it is shown in the second and third chapters how the Jesuits assisted Catholic leaders by using the mathematical faculties attached to many of their colleges and seminaries for nobles to disseminate knowledge on fortification matters. This was achieved through teaching (both classroom and private), writing (treatises in manuscript or book form), consultations (letters and reports) and, at times, even active service in the field by Jesuit fortification experts attached to Catholic armies. Such military activity was by no means restricted to the European continent. In SQuth America. the Philippines and China, the Jesuits formed armies, built fortresses and manufactured cannons to protect and propagate their missionary work Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam. The involvement of Jesuits in military matters and their many fortification treatises, not surprisingly, sometimes provoked a negative reactiQn from Generals of the Order who saw them running counter to Loyola's religious vision of world evangelization. But the expertise was real and recognized as such by contemporaries. By examining a late seventeenth-century Spanish treatise on military architecture entitled Escuela de Palas, the third chapter confirms that Jesuit mathematicians who taught and wrote on fortification (sometimes using pseudonyms to protect their identity) were often regarded as experts in military architecture, rivalling the achievements in this field of knowledge of leading military engineers such as Vauban. In the fourth chapter, the career of the Sicilian Jesuit mathematicus Giacomo Maso has been examined in depth because it provides a good case study of the controversy and crisis of conscience that Jesuits contributing to the dissemination of fortification knowledge often had to face. In conclusion, it has been shown in the fifth and final chapter that the interest of several Jesuits in the subject of military architecture remained strong in the 1773-1814 suppression period, after which, however, it was discontinued.

Autour des années 1990, le mot baroque ressurgit dans certains discours sur l’architecture numérique naissante et sur les changements qu’induisent les nouveaux logiciels de conception et de production par ordinateur. Peut-on dire que certains architectes vont jusqu’à prolonger un élan baroque dans de nouveaux modes d'exploration de la forme architecturale par les outils numériques ? Cette thèse propose une approche croisant la philosophie, l’anthropologie et la linguistique pour analyser les discours de deux architectes pionniers dans le développement des technologies informatiques. Greg Lynn (USA, 1967*) aborde la conception par des algorithmes qui génèrent des formes dites complexes, alors que Bernard Cache (France, 1958*) explore et théorise le file-to-factory, c’est-à-dire une chaîne continue entre la conception et la production. Ils se rapprochent tous deux par leur interprétation de Le Pli, Leibniz et le Baroque, de Gilles Deleuze (1988), ouvrage dans lequel ils puisent de nombreux concepts pour approcher les thèmes de la continuité, de la variation infinie des formes, et du non standard. L’analyse se concentre sur l’implication du baroque dans les stratégies discursives en tant qu’homologie structurante de leur pensée, et soulève sa dimension fictionnelle. La notion, en plus de constituer un archétype fondateur de l’imaginaire architectural de ces architectes, constitue d’une part un outil opératoire utile à leurs productions théoriques et architecturales. Elle est d’autre part instrumentalisée pour répondre aux enjeux intellectuels de leur époque
During the 1990s, the word baroque reappears in some discourses on emerging digital architecture and the changes induced by new design and production softwares. Can we say that some architects are extending a baroque impetus in new exploratory modes of architectural form by digital tools? This thesis proposes an approach that combines philosophy, anthropology and linguistics to analyze the speeches of two architects, pioneers in the development of digital technologies. Greg Lynn (USA, 1967*) approaches the design by algorithms that generate complex forms, while Bernard Cache (France, 1958*) explores and theorizes the file-to-factory, which is a continuous chain between design and production. They become closer in their respective interpretation of The Fold, Leibniz and the Baroque, Gilles Deleuze (1988), a philosophical work from which they pull out many concepts to theorize the themes of continuity, the infinite variety of forms, and the non-standard. The analysis focuses on the involvement of the baroque in the discursive strategies as an homology structuring their thoughts, and raises its fictional dimension. The concept, in addition to be a founding archetype of the imaginary of these architects, is a useful operating tool in their theoretical and architectural productions. However, it is adapted to answer the intellectual challenges of their time

In the sixteenth century, the nocturne genre developed in Italian art introducing the idea of a scene depicted in the darkness of night. This concept of darkness paired with intense light was adopted by Caravaggio in the late sixteenth century and popularized by himself and his followers. The seemingly sudden shift towards darkness and night is puzzling when viewed as individual occurrences in artists’ works. As an entire genre, the night scene bears cultural implications that indicate the level of influence culture and society have over artists and patrons. The rising popularity of the theater and the tension between Protestantism and Catholicism intersected to create a changing view on the perception of darkness and light. This merging of cultural phenomena affected Caravaggio and his contemporaries, prompting them to develop the nocturne genre to meet the growing demands for darker images.

This study is devoted to a critical examination of the architectural structure and sculpture of the church of San Cayetano de La Valenciana in Guanajuato, Mexico, concentrating on the ornamentation of the exterior portals and the interior altar retables. This paper traces the development of the Churrigueresque phase within the Baroque period of Mexican religious architecture and analyzes specific application of this style to the church of La Valenciana. Stylistic and iconographic components are discussed and a review of significant literature on this subject is included.

Le peintre Francisco Rizi (Madrid, 1614-Madrid, 1685), issu de la communauté d’artistes italiens qui gravitait autour de la Cour d’Espagne depuis la construction de l’Escorial, est l’une des figures majeures de la peinture baroque espagnole de la seconde moitié du XVIIe siècle. Cette thèse présente uné étude monographique qui étudie sa carrière et ses liens sociaux et professionnelles, étude accompagnée d'un premier catalogue raisonné de son œuvre. Malgré le fait que Francisco Rizi ait été le peintre attitré d’une Cour dont le souverain était à la tête d’une constellation d’états européens, où on était au courant des principaux courants artistiques du continent, sa vie et son œuvre ont été souvent analysés dans une approche très localiste. Par conséquent, l’image traditionnellement véhiculée a été celle d’un artiste de second rang qui n’eut guère de portée. Mais contrairement à cette idée reçue, la carrière de Francisco Rizi fut loin de se cantonner à un cadre local. Avec cette étude, on redécouvre un artiste inventeur de modèles de sculptures, d’architectures, de scènes de théâtre et même de pièces d’orfèvrerie. On révèle là un plaisir de la forme qui apparente Rizi à des artistes baroques tels que Rubens, Bernin ou Le Brun. Pourtant, dans son cas, aucun mythe ne s’était forgé. Bien au contraire, ses contributions en architecture et en sculpture lui valurent une véritable diabolisation. Dans ces domaines, l’artiste fut condamné par la critique néo-classique comme responsable de la décadence des arts en Espagne sous le règne de Charles II, mépris qui finit par déteindre sur son œuvre peinte. D’un autre côté, ses contributions pour le théâtre ne laissèrent aucune trace et tombèrent dans l’oubli. Notre contribution permet de confirmer que Rizi joua un rôle majeur dans les domaines de l’architecture décorative, dévoile tout à fait son rôle dans la conception de modèles pour la sculpture et permet de détailler pour la première fois les modalités de la confection des décors de théâtre. De toutes ces interventions, restées pour la plupart inédites, s’offre ici un premier corpus.Par ailleurs, cette thèse a mis l’accent sur les relations professionnelles du peintre et sur ses modes de production, sans pour autant négliger l’étude stylistique de sa production picturale et de ses dessins, ainsi que des rares gravures d’après ses compositions. Le catalogue de ses œuvres, expurgés de celles indûment attribuées au maître et augmenté de nombreux inédits, permet désormais une perception plus juste de l’art de Rizi. Toutefois, il faut reconnaître qu’à ce stade de la connaissance de l’artiste, ce catalogue ne peut inclure que les œuvres dûment attestées par la documentation connue à ce jour, ainsi que celles présentant sans équivoque le style typique du peintre. Des futures recherches devront élargir ce catalogue aux éventuels dessins présentant des ébauches et des études partielles encore non identifiés, ainsi qu’aux œuvres réalisées en collaboration avec d’autres artistes. Par ailleurs, les résultats de cette recherche permettront de faire surgir très certainement, on l’espère, des œuvres nouvelles à présent dispersées et inédites. Certains pans de l’œuvre de Rizi ont été redécouverts. C’est le cas notamment de son œuvre comme architecte et comme décorateur de fêtes théâtrales de la cour. Mais il est ainsi également de sa production de peintre murale, dont on connaît mieux à présent ses contributions et son organisation. Ces aspects permettent de nuancer la vision qu’on avait jusqu’à présent de l’artiste, dévoilant un rôle de premier ordre sur la scène artistique à Madrid pendant la seconde moitié du XVIIe siècle, presque incontournable dans les chantiers les plus prestigieux de la Cour. Rizi ne fut pas un peintre exclusivement religieux, comme les œuvres aujourd’hui conservées ont pu le suggérer. Longtemps resté méconnu et incompris, Rizi ne réussit pas seulement à devenir l’un des artistes les plus importants de son temps à travers une carrière brillante comme peintre de cour, mais également dans l’influence qu’il a eu sur son atelier, sur ses collègues et sur les artistes plus jeunes.Notre étude sur Rizi, cependant, ne s’est pas cantonnée à la confection du catalogue raisonné. Elle a également mis l’accent sur la relecture et l’analyse des sources positives et une étude prosopographique de l’entourage de l’artiste (dans la mesure où l’état de la question nous l’a permis). L’étude du milieu d’origine a permis de mettre en lumière que Rizi fut un héritier. Certes, il était le dernier représentant de toute une tradition artistique et le dernier bénéficiaire d’une stratégie du groupe socio-professionnel de l’ancienne colonie d’artistes de l’Escorial. Son père, le peintre Antonio Ricci, bien que peintre de second, voir troisième rang, abritait des grandes ambitions pour sa propre carrière et pour celle de ses fils. Ses relations dans les milieux des courtisans, notamment parmi les Italiens, ses affaires et ses projets variés à Madrid invitent à le confirmer. Dans le cadre d’une stratégie certainement bien réfléchie, Antonio plaça ses enfants chez deux maîtres peintres très en vue à la Cour, tous les deux d’origine et éducation italiennes. Juan Andrés a été placé chez le Père Mayno, maître de dessin du Roi, et Francisco chez Carducho, peintre du Roi à la tête de l’atelier le plus important de Madrid. Fortuné et influent, peintre érudit par excellence, Carducho était haut placé au sein de l’élite artistique et littéraire. Il transmit à Francisco l’héritage de la tradition académique du peintre inventeur cristallisé dans la Péninsule autour du chantier de l’Escorial, qui y joua un rôle comparable de celui de Fontainebleau dans le contexte français, et de l’éphémère Academia de San Lucas à Madrid. Mais l’héritage légué à Francisco par Antonio Ricci et par Vicente Carducho ne fut pas seulement d’ordre théorique et artistique. Il consista également en des relations socio-professionnelles dans le milieu des peintres, sculpteurs et architectes qui se révélèrent capitales dans la carrière de Rizi, mais aussi des relations dans les échelons de l’administration du Palais et dans les cercles ecclésiastiques et aristocratiques.La mort de son père et de Carducho en 1635 et 1638, alors que Rizi (à ce que l’on croit) n’avait pas encore démarré sa carrière en tant que maître indépendant, ne lui fit pas de tort ;bien au contraire. Ceci l’obligea, probablement, à offrir ses services dans d’autres ateliers, favorisant aussi, vraisemblablement, cette inventivité et cette capacité d’adaptation que nous avons signalées comme caractéristiques de l’œuvre de Rizi, caractéristiques qu’une formation dans un seul atelier dirigé par un seul et même maître aurait pu étouffer, éventuellement. Ses expériences dans des ateliers en compagnie de Pedro de la Torre, Francisco Fernández, Núñez del Valle et Antonio de Pereda (et peut-être aussi Cosimo Lotti) ont dû donner à Rizi l’opportunité d’enrichir et contraster son enseignement auprès de son père et de Carducho, et de ne retenir que ce qui pouvait lui être utile dans la suite de sa carrière. Mais surtout, Rizi put compléter son savoir-faire en matière d’organisation et de production à plusieurs mains, un aspect dans lequel il passera maître. Les dessins et la confection de modèles pour des tiers constituent un pan essentiel de sa production, négligé auparavant, et que notre étude a permis de mettre en lumière.Les relations tissées grâce à ses origines ouvrirent à Rizi les portes pour recevoir des commandes au Palais, et l’introduire dans les cercles du cardinal Moscoso et l’inquisiteur général Arce y Reinoso et du premier ministre Don Luis de Haro. Ainsi, les deux prélats devinrent ses protecteurs au début de sa carrière palatine. Il devint leur « créature », selon le langage de la cour. En effet, Rizi sut tirer profit des bouleversements produits à la Cour d’Espagne pendant les années qui suivirent la chute du ministre Olivares, à la différence d’un Alonso Cano ou d’un Antonio de Pereda. Dès la fin de 1648, à partir du mariage de Philippe IV avec Marianne d’Autriche, les commandes du Palais se succéderont, avec le seul malentendu produit pendant la Régence, en raison de la crise politique vécue alors. Sur la fin de sa carrière, les soutiens du cardinal Aragón, du prince Juan José d’Autriche et du jeune Charles II viendront confirmer sa place de choix à la Cour, et des commandes de prestige se suivirent.Les sources auxquelles Rizi s’est abreuvé dans son art sont multiples et variées. Il a hérité de son maître Carducho la maîtrise de la grande composition dans les tableaux d’histoire, à la laquelle il a su ensuite ajouter le dynamisme et la théâtralité du rubénisme. Ensuite et en parallèle, il s’est essayé dans l’introduction de la mode néo-vénitienne en Espagne, prenant principalement les modèles du Tintoret comme référence, pour devenir ensuite l’initiateur de l’intégration des nouveautés de Pietro de Cortona et de Carlo Maratti provenant de Rome, celles de Agostino Mitelli et de Michelangelo Colonna de Bologne et celles de Luca Giordano de Naples. Ces influences le situèrent à l’avant-garde de la production de grandes décorations et de tableaux d’autel monumentaux et lui permirent d’exercer une influence durable sur les peintres plus jeunes, même après sa mort. On en jugera à travers l’imposant Martyre de saint Gênes d’Arles et du décor de San Antonio de los Alemanes, qui s’inscrivent au rang de ses chefs-d’œuvre. L’œuvre de Rizi représente à lui seul l’évolution de la peinture d’histoire baroque à la cour d’Espagne, passant du style sage et monumental héritier de l’école toscane, au rubénisme plus mouvementé, au néo-vénétianisme plus chatoyant et décoratif, aux effets de la quadratura pour finir sur les grandes compositions peuplées de personnages et sagement agencées qui triompheront à la fin du siècle et prépareront l’arrivée à Madrid de Giordano. L’ardeur avec lequel ses collègues, ses élèves et ses suiveurs ont assimilé et perpétué l’une ou l’autre de ces tendances, voire plusieurs, ont contribué à conférer à la peinture du Baroque plein réalisée à Madrid l’homogénéité et la haute qualité qui la caractérisent.
Doctorat en Histoire, art et archéologie
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Doutoramento em Arquitectura
Trabalho sobre a ARQUITECTURA BARROCA do SECULO XVIII, PRIMEIRA METADE, em Portugal, na REGIÃO DE LISBOA, em que são analisadas a INFLUÊNCIA ITALIANA no nosso barroco final e a INFLUÊNCIA DA TRATADÍSTICA, a obra dos arquitectos italianos que se deslocaram a Portugal nesse período e dos arquitectos que trabalharam em Itália para D. JOÃO V. MONOGRAFIA de MANUEL DA COSTA NEGREIROS (1702 - 1750), arquitecto que além de ter exercido como mestre pedreiro em MAFRA e no AQUEDUTO DAS AGUAS LIVRES foi o inspector das obras do palácio das NECESSIDADES e Arquitecto da CASA DO INFANTADO e do Priorato do Crato. São historiadas e focadas sobre o ponto de vista formal, as seguintes obras: Religiosas -Igreja de SANTO ESTEVÃO de Alfama, convento e capela real das NECESSIDADES, capela do paço da BEMPOSTA, ermida do Senhor Jesus da BOA NOVA, ermida da CARREIRA dos Cavalos, e torre sineira do convento da GRAÇA. Obras Civis: Palácio das NECESSIDADES, palácio BARBACENA, palácio do CORREIO-MOR em Loures. Na parte final são relacionados os diferentes autores desse período e é feita uma análise das formas próprias e dos SINAIS e SINTEMAS identificadores de cada um deles. Anexos, DADOS biográficos e curriculares sobre ARTISTAS do período (1700 - 1750). Relação de obras de Lisboa erigidas ou intervencionadas nesse mesmo período.
The portuguese BAROQUE ARCINTECTURE, in LISBON, on the first half of the eighteen century, during KING JOHN THE FIFTH'S reign (1 706-1 750) The INFLUENCES felt in the portuguese architecture from the ITALIAN ARCHITECTS that worked for Portugal, and, from architectural theoretical writings. Monograph study of MANUEL DA COSTA NEGREIROS, mason and architect that worked in MAFRA and in the AQUEDUCT OF ÁGUAS LIVRES, was chief inspector of the construction of NECESSIDADES'S PALACE focusing specially: the Church of SANTO ESTEVÃO, chapels of NECESSIDADES, BEMPOSTA, BOA NOVA and CARREIRA. The belfry of GRAÇA convent. The palaces of NECESSIDADES, BARBACENA and CORREIO-MOR. Related activity of all the royal architects during that period. A global interpretation of personal FORMAL SIGNS used by those artists. Files on ARTISTS that lived and worked in Lisbon in the period (1700-1750), and a file on all the MONUMENTS BUILT and refurbished in those days, in Lisbon.

Queen Christina of Sweden (1626-1689) utilized art in many ways to promote herself and assert power in Baroque Europe. Previous scholars have addressed either Christina’s use of art to safeguard authority as Swedish regnant, or her expressions of sovereignty as an erstwhile Protestant queen in Rome, but no scholarship to date has addressed the topic of how Christina’s patronage developed, or explored how motifs employed early on later reappeared. This dissertation brings together both sides of the equation to provide a comprehensive understanding of how Queen Christina’s patronage developed in Stockholm, and how her approach evolved as she became a fixture in Rome. The deployment of the arts was necessary to assert Christina’s authority in a patriarchal environment and ultimately, to politically legitimize herself as an independent royal woman. An initial review of royal imagery of her father King Gustav II Adolf (1594-1632) provides the background for examination of early patronage promoting Christina, which drew upon Gustav’s precedents while beginning to establish her as a majestic leader in her own right. Originally the queen’s autonomy was limited by a constitutional rewrite as others steered her image for their own benefit, but Christina matured to make her own choices and developed an approach to patronage that continued throughout her life. My research contributes to our understanding of Christina’s development as art patron by examining commissions that counteract this administrative system that restrained her sovereignty. Portraits from her majority rule relied on iconography and visual rhetoric to influence a select audience, while her coronation and abdication proceedings, by contrast, were multisensory public events that broadly proclaimed her capacity to rule. Hence my analysis ranges from the subtle reading of particular images to taking stock of the language of sheer pageantry of those more public visual displays. After abdication Queen Christina had virtually no political clout, but as dowager regnant, she wielded art and patronage to maintain social standing and power. My research considers how Christina deployed the arts to craft her public persona and express her individuality within the male-dominated political structure of the Vatican even as others played off her remarkable abdication with patronage of their own. Christina’s approach was based on precedents developed in Sweden, and she applied them to her Roman situation with varied success. Through many challenges, scandals, and adversities, art was a potent vehicle both for Christina and for those around her to capitalize on her unique status in the history of Baroque Europe.

The eighteenth century saw the Ottoman capital Istanbul undergo some of its most significant physical changes. Restored as the seat of government in 1703 after the court had spent fifty years in Edirne, the city became the site of lavish architectural patronage intended to reinscribe the sultans' presence. This campaign culminated in the years 1740-1800 with two distinct but related developments: the revival of the imperial mosque as a building type, and the creation of a new architectural style--the so-called Ottoman Baroque--informed by Western models. Though these shifts have typically been viewed within a well-established decline paradigm branding the material decadent and derivative, this study demonstrates that the eighteenth-century mosques were powerful symbols of sultanic authority designed to reassert and redefine the empire's standing on a changing world stage.
History of Art and Architecture

In 1905, Caravaggio was resurrected as a figure of historical importance when art critic Roger Fry designated him as the harbinger of modern art. In his commentary on the artist, Fry declares that: “He was, indeed, in many senses the first modern artist; the first artist to proceed not by evolution but by revolution; the first to rely entirely on his own temperamental attitude and to defy tradition and authority.” Fry’s assertion of Caravaggio’s modernity is derived from early-modern biographies on the artist, which claim that Caravaggio self-consciously broke from the art of the past in a deliberate act of artistic revolution. The conflation of the artist’s biography with his work has remained a constant in Caravaggio scholarship since its inception. Modernity’s Caravaggio is a character with many guises – a painter, a sodomite, a pimp, a murderer, a fugitive, and a knight – all of which have molded our perception of a man who died centuries ago. Caravaggio’s modern appeal is evident in the numerous exhibitions, movies, miniseries, novels, and even a ballet, produced in celebration of the artist Fry proclaimed “one of the most interesting figures in the history of art.” This dissertation traces Caravaggio scholarship, as well as popular manifestations of the artist, through the twentieth century to present day by probing the theoretical and methodological trends that have shaped the discourse. My aim is to demonstrate that modernity’s Caravaggio is a construction derived from the most prevalent historical, aesthetic, and philosophical debates of the twentieth century.

Apres une etude historique et sociologique du substrat preexistant a l'art baroque, au xvieme siecle, puis a son evolution aux xviieme et xviiieme siecles, nous passons a l'analyse des problemes de datation des monuments. Nous analysons ensuite la materialite des realisations (techniques de construction, plans, elevations) avant de passer a la decoration interieure, autels majeurs et lateraux surtout, et au decryptage de son langage. Nous terminons par un inventaire repertoriant une soixantaine d'eglises classees en fonction de leur appartenance a un diocese. Suivent 78 planches dessinees de plans, coupes et elevations et une centaine de planches de photographies destinees a permettre au lecteur de suivre et verifier le developpement et le fondement de nos analyses esthetiques
Following an historical and sociological study of preexisting substratum of baroque art during xvith century, then its evolution during the xvii and xviii centuries, we continue with an analysis of the dating problems of these monuments. We then analyse the materiality of the structures (building technies, design and elevation) before mooving to interior decorations, majors and especially laterals altars, and a deciphering of their language. We end hour study with an inventory of about sixty churches classified according to their diocese. Following this are 78 plate drawings of the plans, section and elevations and 110 photographics plates designed to pemit the reader and vrify the developpement and foudation of an aesthetics analysis

Art History
Ph.D.
The Forum, once the most central and sacred part of the ancient city of Rome, evolved over the course of centuries into a cluttered space at the threshold of the built-up city and its more rural periphery. Among the rubble of antique monuments--destroyed by earthquakes, flooding, or purposeful spoliation--livestock grazed at the site, giving it the appellation Campo Vaccino, or cow pasture, in the early modern period. Despite these obstacles, the Forum remained a vital part of the spiritual life of Romans after several of its structures were Christianized beginning in the sixth century. It became the province of the Catholic Church, and underwent a significant rehabilitation through papal patronage in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The seven churches ringing the Forum's periphery were restored or rebuilt over the course of about fifty years, allowing the patrons to harness the symbolism of the pagan and Christian past of the site to promote the glorious reviving Church. In this dissertation, I examine the Forum from a variety of vantage points, in order to reconstruct the antiquarian understanding of the site, its monuments, and history in the seventeenth century. The first chapter examines the historiography of the Forum and its churches, while outlining the issues at stake in the refashioning of this urban center. Chapter Two provides an overview of the Forum's history up to the sixteenth century. In Chapter Three, I consider the phenomenon of the Paleochristian Revival of the Counter-Reformation, and the ways in which it manifested itself at the Campo Vaccino. Chapter Four begins a series of case studies, organized by papacy, to elucidate the state of the Forum and its churches. Clement VIII Aldobrandini's direct patronage and other projects dating to his papacy initiated the wave of renovations that continued over the next several decades. The papacies of Paul V Borghese and Gregory XV Ludovisi are the subject of Chapter Five, when the urban environment at the edge of the Forum underwent new developments, in addition to works at the churches themselves. In Chapter Six, I focus on the two projects commissioned by Urban VIII Barberini: SS. Cosma e Damiano and SS. Luca e Martina, which demonstrate two very different approaches to ancient buildings. Finally, Chapter Seven considers works in the Campo Vaccino during the reign of Innocent X Pamphili, and the unification of these disparate renovations by the dramatic remaking of the central space by Alexander VII Chigi. These numerous projects carried out between 1592 and 1656 completely remade the Forum, renewing its historical importance in the city while highlighting its connection to Rome's dual history. The imperial and Early Christian past at the Forum now stood alongside the monuments of early modern Rome. The seventeenth century project added a new layer to the palimpsest of this eminently historical site.
Temple University--Theses

Cette thèse étudie les églises-halles comme structure architecturale et espace religieux et veut comprendre le succès qu'elles rencontrent en lorraine aux XVe et XVIe siècles. L'église-halle se définit par une nef de plusieurs vaisseaux de même hauteur (stricto sensu) ou de presque même hauteur ("a degrés"). L'enquête régionale recense 121 édifices. Leurs monographies sont réunies dans deux volumes de 526 pages et accompagnées d'un recueil de 510 cartes, plans, coupes, photos. Le volume de synthèse expose d'abord l'historiographie du concept d'église-halle : son apparition au XIXe siècle en Allemagne (Hallenkirche) et les interrogations qu'il suscite dans la recherche française. Puis l'étude développe cinq approches : 1. Dans le réseau hiérarchisé des églises domine par le type basilical, les églises-halles occupent un statut secondaire : beaucoup sont des églises rurales, contrairement aux églises-halles allemandes souvent urbaines. 2. Cependant, les églises-halles stricto sensu (seulement 33) sont souvent des édifices exceptionnels : bâtisseurs d'envergure, vastes dimensions et espace laissant deviner une véritable réflexion sur l’égalité : saint-vanne de Verdun, saint Etienne de Bar-le-Duc, Saint-Étienne de Saint-Mihiel, Blenod-les-Toul, Varangéville, Culey. . . 3. Les églises-halles "a degrés", majoritaires, constituent un compromis très malléable entre deux modèles : les halles majeures et les basiliques. D'où la proposition de les dénommer "halles-basiliques"
The thesis considers hallchurches both as architectural structures and as religious areas, and seeks to understand their success in Lorraine in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. A hallchurch comprises the combination of several naves, these being either of the same height (giving rise to a "hallchurch stricto sensu") or of similar heights (giving rise to a "hallchuch in steps"). The regional sample found 121 buildings. Details of these took up 2 volumes of 526 pages, together with a further volume comprising 510 maps, plans cross-sections and photos. The volume summarizing the findings of the thesis begins by setting out the historiography of the concept of the hallchurch from its beginning in the nineteenth century in Germany (Hallenkirche) and the questions which arose in research in France. Then it follows five lines of analysis: 1. In the hierarchy of churches covering the country, dominated by the basilical type, the hallchurch type enjoys only a secondary place: many of the hallchurches are rural churches, whereas in Germany, such hallchurches are often urban

An examination of the iconography (primarily ceiling fresco) in the library hall in the German monastery of Schussenried. Thesis deals with the historical context surrounding the creation of this space and how the depicted scenes reflect both the influences of the Counter Reformation and Enlightenment.

L'enquete repose sur l'etude des edifices lorsqu'ils subsistent, sur les archives, les plans originaux, les documents figures permettant de connaitre les motivations de louis, les modalites des creations et l'etat primitif des oeuvres. Nous avons reconstitue a partir de cette documentation, la vie de l7architecte et mene a bien l'analyse technique et artistique de ses oeuvres. La carriere de louis, tres feconde jusqu'a la revolution, a ete pratiquement interrompue a partir de ce moment ses creations permettent de saisir un temperament artistique plus que de definir un style. Rejete par les architectes de l'academie a cause de ses liens avec le marechal de richelieu pui le duc d'orleans, il a ete largement sollicite par une clientele privee qu'il a su satisfaire avec souplesse. Tenant du gout "a la grecque" pour la decoration, fortement marque par palladio, michel-ange, vignole, le bernin et piranese, il maitrise la tradition francaise des maitres-macons et sait en meme temps, user avec intelligence de techniques annoncant le 19e siecle
This research is based on the study of any buildings still extant, of archives, original plans and figured documents, which allow us to understand louis motivations, his creative methods, and original state of the works. With this we have been able to trace the architect's biography and to carry out the technical and artistical analysis of his works. Louis's career was very prolific until the french revolution, but was later virtually suspended. His creations enable us to apprehend an artistic temperament rather than to define a style. Rejected by the academy architects because of his ties with marechal de richelieu and the duc d'orleans, he was called upon by private clients who he satisfied with versatility. Champion of the "greek fashion" in decoration strongly influenced by palladio, michelangelom vignola, bernini and piranesi, he astered the french master masons tradition, while skilfully employing techniques foreshadowing the 19th century

An exploration of the various ephemeral sources of Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers. This thesis brings together other authors' observations of Baroque ephemera. Additional sources are proposed by the author to create a more complete discussion of the fountain and its relationship with Baroque ephemera.

Cette thèse doctorale consiste en une investigation sur la pénétration des différentes formes et types d’influence française sur la politique stratégique de l’Ordre de Saint Jean, et la perte graduelle de la domination espagnole à Malte. Elle examine l’influence française consécutive sur l’architecture maltaise au cours du XVIIᵉ siècle qui résulta de ce changement d’allégeance. À cette fin, les facteurs politiques, stratégiques, sociaux et esthétiques, ainsi que la formation et les carrières des différentes personnalités concernées, en particulier les ingénieurs militaires français, sont examinés afin de comprendre l’importance de leur rôle sur le développement des fortifications des îles maltaises et sur l’idiome architectural local. Les relations des chevaliers appartenant aux trois Langues françaises avec la Cour de France sont étudiées dans leur contexte historique. Cet aspect est aussi examiné à travers la fréquente correspondance entre les Grands Maîtres et les rois Louis XIII et Louis XIV. L’étude montre comment l’arrivée sur la scène locale d’ingénieurs militaires eminents, durant l’été 1645, signale le passage de l’Ordre de la sphère d’influence de l’Empire espagnol à la française. Les ingénieurs militaires français s’activent dans l’archipel maltais depuis que Vauban avait donné à la France la primauté du développement de l’architecture militaire dans la seconde moitié du XVIIᵉ siècle. L’importance de Médéric Blondel, le premier ingénieur résident français, comme catalyseur du développement de l’influence française sur l’architecture maltaise est démontrée. Ce travail examine comment son influence se reflètera sur les architectes maltais de la fin du XVIIᵉ siècle et sur les éléments classiques qui sont introduits dans l’architecture baroque maltaise imprégnée de l’école classique d’architecture française très appréciée par Louis XIV
This doctoral thesis consists of a research-based investigation on the different forms and types of French influence within the strategic politics of the Order of St. John and the gradual loss of Spanish domination in Malta. It examines the French influence on Maltese architecture during the seventeenth century that resulted from this change of allegiance. For this purpose the political, strategic, social and aesthetic factors, as well as the study of the formation and careers of the different personalities involved, are analysed in order to understand the importance of their role on the development of seventeenth century fortifications of the Maltese Islands and on the local architectural idiom. The various connections of the Knights belonging to the three French Langues with the French Court are therefore investigated in their historical context. This is also examined through the frequent correspondence between the Grand Masters and Kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV. The study shows how the arrival on the local scene of eminent French military engineers during the summer of 1645, marks the passage of the Order from the Spanish sphere of influence to the French. The French military engineers were active in the Maltese archipelago since Vauban had put France at the helm of the development of military architecture in the second half of the seventeenth century. The importance of Médéric Blondel, the first French resident engineer, as a catalyst of the development of French influence on Maltese architecture is investigated. The study examines how his influence is reflected on the work of Maltese architects at the end of the seventeenth century and on the classical elements which are introduced into Maltese baroque architecture that is highly influenced by the classical school of French architecture so greatly appreciated by Louis XIV

Les cathédrales de France connurent, de la fin du XVIIe siècle à la Révolution, une période de mutations sans précédents depuis le XIIIe siècle. Tous les autels et décors de chœur furent remplacés ou transformés. Cette mutation a pour cadre la mise en application des décrets du concile de Trente. Cependant, les cathédrales furent, à cause du poids des destructions causées par les guerres de Religion et le conservatisme gallican du monde canonial, parmi les dernières églises de France à accepter d'ouvrir leur chœur clos d'un jubé pour rendre l'autel visible par les fidèles. Les grands travaux du XVIIIe siècle manifestent donc comment on a tenté, dans les cathédrales, d'associer le goût pour le nouvel art à la mode et la meilleure conservation possible des traditions gallicanes. Deux formules s'affrontent alors, qui toutes deux procèdent d'une réflexion sur une mémoire vivante des lieux. Les dispositions "romaines ", avec autel en avant du chœur s'inspirent du modèle de la basilique antique, alors que la formule parisienne consiste en un chœur simplement entrouvert où demeure l'ancienne disposition, associée à la gloire ou même au baldaquin.

ABSTRACT THE ARCHITECTURE OF KNOWLEDGE: THE JESUIT COLLEGE OF OAXACA (XVI-XIX CENTURIES). By Marina Mellado Corriente, MA. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Art Historical and Curatorial Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2015 Major Director: Michael Schreffler, Associate Professor, Department of Art History The educational endeavor that the Jesuits – members of the religious order known as the Society of Jesus – carried out in Mexico in the course of the colonial period, when this territory belonged to the Viceroyalty of New Spain (sixteenth to nineteenth centuries), was exceptional. Even though this endeavor has been extensively studied, not much has been written about the edifices, and their significant artistic contents, that not only facilitated the endeavor, but also allowed it to thrive. With the aim of contributing to fill that gap in the scholarly literature, this study engages in an artistic and architectural examination of one among the dozens of school complexes that the Jesuits built and decorated in New Spanish territory: the College of Oaxaca. This establishment was the primary educational institution in one of the most prosperous cities of the viceroyalty, and it ranked third in importance among the colleges that the Jesuits founded in New Spain, representing a clear example of the process of spiritual, intellectual and material expansion that the Society of Jesus carried out in Spanish America. By locating, transcribing and interpreting primary sources (primarily inventories and commissions for works of art) that have not been noticed before or have remained unpublished, and by analyzing the material remains that have survived to this day, it has been possible to reveal that the former Jesuit complex – which today serves, simultaneously, as an apartment building, an indoor parking, a series of storefronts, and a church served by a community of Jesuits – once featured a significantly rich artistic and architectural program, the result of assimilating, but also of rejecting, local and Jesuit traditions. This program, unfortunately, has been progressively disappearing since the expulsion of the Jesuits from Oaxaca in 1767.

A discussion of possible means by which the varnish of Master John's portrait of Katherine Parr (c.1545) might be conserved, providing historical context and a description of new conservation methods.

Leonardo da Vinci's art and science have a dynamic relationship that can be used to better understand the role of the individual and the human body within his art. Leonardo believed that movements of the body were expressions of the soul. He also thought that the body was as a microcosm of the physical world. The theories, based in ancient tradition, would be challenged by his work with the human anatomy. By studying his notebooks it becomes evident that Leonardo held nature to be the highest creator of the world but as he worked to understand the human body and through extension the physical world, his ideas about nature and the divine became more incomprehensible. Leonardo's art reflects this turn of perspective as he becomes unable to define the physical world through the human body.

Norton Simon was a unique collector because he let passion guide his collecting interests, but he controlled his passion by making his purchases based on smart economic decisions bolstered by years of experience in successful business negotiations. The Norton Simon Museum, today in Pasadena, California, displays the eccentric collectors life work as he created one of the greatest and most recognized collections on the west coast. By examining the progression and establishment of Norton Simon Inc., alongside the creation of the Norton Simon Art Foundation, multiple parallels can be drawn between Simons’ unique approach to business and the application of his unorthodox techniques to his purchases in the art world – Norton Simon’s “two hats”.