Graduate Theses

ABSTRACT: Michelangelo’s New Sacristy at the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence is an incomplete 16th century family mausoleum commemorating the lives of four Medici members. The conception of the project in 1519 after the untimely death of the last legitimate Medici heir, Lorenzo de’ Medici, was intended to compliment Brunelleschi’s Old Sacristy within the same basilica. The incomplete chapel has raised much debate regarding theme and iconography; however, the marble reliefs of the two altar candelabra have yet to be proposed within studies of the 15th and 16th century grottesche genre. The candelabra present reliefs of gargoyles, animals, masks, jeering human-monster hybrids, and amphorae stacked upon one another in a candelabra- like manner. These forms show similar patterns of organization and iconography as late 15th and early 16th century grottesche expressions, originating from ancient Roman fresco painting. By tracking grottesche employment following the late 15th century rediscovery of the ancient Domus Aurea in Rome and the artists thought to be responsible for the New Sacristy candelabra, this thesis will maintain that the New Sacristy altar candelabra reliefs should be re-evaluated as grottesche expressions. Their aesthetic modes of resemblance and deviation from previous grottesche patterns prompts further investigation into the evolution of 16th century grottesche as it pertains to medium, size, and iconographic disposition.Michelangelo’s New Sacristy at the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence is an incomplete 16th century family mausoleum commemorating the lives of four Medici members. The conception of the project in 1519 after the untimely death of the last legitimate Medici heir, Lorenzo de’ Medici, was intended to compliment Brunelleschi’s Old Sacristy within the same basilica. The incomplete chapel has raised much debate regarding theme and iconography; however, the marble reliefs of the two altar candelabra have yet to be proposed within studies of the 15th and 16th century grottesche genre. The candelabra present reliefs of gargoyles, animals, masks, jeering human-monster hybrids, and amphorae stacked upon one another in a candelabra- like manner. These forms show similar patterns of organization and iconography as late 15th and early 16th century grottesche expressions, originating from ancient Roman fresco painting. By tracking grottesche employment following the late 15th century rediscovery of the ancient Domus Aurea in Rome and the artists thought to be responsible for the New Sacristy candelabra, this thesis will maintain that the New Sacristy altar candelabra reliefs should be re-evaluated as grottesche expressions. Their aesthetic modes of resemblance and deviation from previous grottesche patterns prompts further investigation into the evolution of 16th century grottesche as it pertains to medium, size, and iconographic disposition.

ABSTRACT: The façade of the Cathedral of San Rufino in Assisi is decorated with multiple animal sculptures that make it an outstanding example of Romanesque architecture. Overall, 166 various creatures are depicted on the façade, but one is given an exceptional prominence. This is a birdlike reptile with wings, two feet, often a beak and cock’s crest and a snaky tail makes up 23% percent of all the creatures represented on the façade of the cathedral. Most prominently the sculptures of the reptile, which the thesis identifies as basilisk, is employed in the embellishment of engaged colonnettes that decorate the main portal of the cathedral. The segments of the decorative arch that the colonnettes support are in turn decorated with a representation of King David enthroned holding a book of Psalms and figures hand in hand, in pairs dancing. These elements raise multiple questions on the iconographic meaning of the decorative programme. Through analysis of representations of King David in earlier and contemporary illuminated manuscripts and Romanesque architecture, the thesis proposes that the dancing figures should be viewed as an iconographic reference to King David depicted below them. With the employment of primary literary sources both from antiquity and the Middle Ages, the paper identifies the reptile as a basilisk and investigates the question whether this reptile was possibly conceived as a negatively charged symbol. With the conclusion that basilisk was viewed as the incarnate of the devil, which is supported in the Old Testament, the thesis views the representation of King David, the dancing figures and the basilisks on the colonnettes as one composition and provides a reading that derives from Christian scripture. The reading is based on the prediction of the arrival of the Messiah made in the book of Isaiah. The conducted research proposes a new iconographic reading of certain elements of the decorative programme of the façade that scholarship on the cathedral has paid little attention to.

ABSTRACT: Minoan textiles have long fascinated scholars, who study every aspect from their intricate patterns to the ways they connect the Minoans to their environment and other lands. At the same time, there is a significant lack of physical evidence of Minoan textiles. Thus, archaeologists must turn to their depiction in frescoes in order to hypothesize what these textiles might have been made of, what function they had in Minoan society, and what they could tell us about how the Minoans saw both themselves and their neighbors across the Aegean. This thesis primarily focuses on one of these represented textiles, the so-called star-and-dot pattern from the House of the Ladies at Akrotiri. While this pattern has been given some attention by archaeologists and textile historians, there are still no concrete conclusions. This research seeks to investigate the pattern, and to study its manufacture, its relationship to its surroundings, and its connections to the other frescoes in Akrotiri and the wider Aegean. This thesis also examines the use of exotica in Minoan culture, and realistically positions Akrotiri as a trading hub that would have come into contact with other cultures of the Eastern Mediterranean.

ABSTRACT: The Palazzo Carpegna is most well-known for a series of unconstructed plans designed by Francesco Borromini from approximately 1638 to 1644, currently held by the Albertina Museum in Vienna. The form of the proposed Palazzo Carpegna was frequently reconfigured to adjust to the functional requirements of its elite patrons while corresponding to the everchanging property lines and the adjacent Trevi piazza and fountain, which were also being expanded and renewed. Borromini made creative use of public space that was manipulated to further the interests of the Carpegna family, using existing laws and government expropriation. By the end of the seventeenth century, through extensive litigation and significant expense, the Carpegna site had expanded to a triangular-shaped wedge with its apex on the Piazza Cornaro, its east edge along the vicolo Scavolino extending to the via del Lavatore, and its western edge along via della Stamperia adjacent to the newly located Trevi Fountain and expanded piazza. Although there are a variety of studies on the forces that influenced the significant changes to early modern Rome, as well as expansive analyses of the Palazzo Carpegna, this thesis will directly relate the plans created by Borromini to the functional requirements of the aristocratic and ecclesiastical Carpegna family and the influences of papal patronage in the adjoining area of Rome. A specific focus will be on Borromini’s design process of the Palazzo Carpegna and how his plans responded to both the functional needs of the patron and the contextual features of the immediate environment, such as the ongoing design and construction of the Trevi Fountain and Piazza.