Vanderbilt University History of Art Blog

Tracy Miller Lectures on Chinese Architectural History in Beijing

Tracy Miller, associate professor of history of art, was invited to present two lectures on Chinese architectural history at Beijing Technical University (Beijing Gongye daxue) on December 7.

The first lecture was titled “Perfect Geometries and the Blossoming of Buddhist Ritual Space in Medieval China.”   Her other lecture addressed “The New Wheel-Turning Song of Heaven:  Song Taizong’s (r. 976-997) Construction of Imperial Legitimacy and its Architectural Legacy.”

The lectures brought in scholars and students from art history and architectural schools in Beijing, Tianjin, and as far away as Chengdu, Sichuan.  Her presentations were translated into Chinese by Ren Sijie, a doctoral student in Chinese architectural history at the University of Pennsylvania.

Miller’s research focuses on the culture of ritual sites in middle-period China (618-1644), specifically the ways in which identity was expressed visually through the media of temples and their artistic programs.

Posted by vrcvanderbilt on December 23, 2015 in HART, Lectures, VRC

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Tracy Miller Delivers Lecture at Ringling Museum of Art

Tracy Miller, associate professor of history of art, presented a lecture last month in conjunction with the new exhibition of Ming court art at the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, FL.   Her lecture, entitled “Architecture and the Yongle Emperor’s (r. 1402-1424) Imperial Vision,” was one of several presentations by noted Ming Dynasty scholars from American museums and universities that built on examples of the rich material culture of this period featured in the exhibition Royal Taste: The Art of Princely Courts in Fifteenth-Century China.

On view through January 10, the exhibit was curated by Fan Zhang, the Helga Wall-Apelt Associate Curator of Asian Art at the Ringling Museum.  Zhang earned a master’s degree in art history from Vanderbilt in 2003.  His thesis, “Reading Murals in the Eastern Mausoleum: The Qidan Construction of Ethnic Identity,” was done under the direction of Miller, a specialist in the history of Asian art and architecture, especially the ritual architecture of imperial China.

Miller’s research focuses on the impact of belief in divinity on the production of art, architecture, and spaces for spiritual encounters.  She is author of The Divine Nature of Power: Chinese Ritual Architecture at the Sacred Site of Jinci (Harvard University Asia Center, 2007).

Primarily through Zhang’s efforts, the exhibition has brought many objects to the United States for the first time and will provide a more complete understanding of the importance of the Ming princes and the role they played in shaping Ming culture.  Royal Taste offers a unique glimpse into the luxurious lifestyles and religious practices of princely courts in early- and mid-Ming China (1368-1644).  The exhibit reveals some lesser known aspects of palatial lives, religious patronage, and afterlife beliefs of Ming princes, whose world has long been a mystery.

One of a pair of gold hairpins in the shape of a phoenix, mid-16th century, 25 x 7.1 x 1.5 cm.  On loan from the Hubei Provincial Museum, P.R. China.

 

 

Posted by vrcvanderbilt on December 23, 2015 in HART, Lectures, Student/Alumni, VRC

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Jalen Chang Awarded Fall 2015 Downing Grant

Jalen Chang, an Arts and Science senior and HART major, has received a Downing Grant for travel during the fall semester to Hamburg and Dresden, Germany for research on his Honors thesis, Nationalism in Context—Viewing Friedrich’s Landscapes in their Homeland.  Chang’s Honors thesis advisor is Christopher Johns, the Norman L. and Roselea J. Goldberg Professor of History of Art.

The Department of History of Art awards grants for travel to exhibitions and research centers to supplement academic instruction for students in the History of Art department at Vanderbilt in the Honors Program, in senior seminars (HART 4960), or in “W” (writing) courses.  These Downing Grants, which provide assistance for up to $1,500 in travel costs, are awarded in the fall and spring of each academic year.

Past Downing Grants have supported research on projects ranging from an 18th-century “folly” in Ireland, to a Marcel Duchamp installation in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, to the Elgin marbles from the Parthenon in the British Museum, to a Gothic reliquary in the Louvre.

 

 

Posted by vrcvanderbilt on November 11, 2015 in HART, Student/Alumni, VRC

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Susan Kane Lectures on Threats to Libya’s Cultural Heritage

Cyrene, Leptis Magna, Sabratha, Ghadames.  Stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the heart of the Sahara, Libya was a crossroads for many ancient cultures, including the Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans.  Today Libya’s cultural heritage is facing significant threats and damage.  Since the revolution of 2011, these dangers include not only unmanaged, unregulated development, but also increasing acts of civil disorder.  Violence and vandalism are destroying archaeological sites across Libya—from ancient cities to prehistoric rock art. Susan Kane, Mildred C. Jay Professor of Art at Oberlin College, addresses these threats in her Archaeological Institute of America lecture, Libya’s Cultural Heritage Under Threat, held at the Nashville Parthenon on November 10 at 6:00 pm.

“Professor Kane has excavated for many years at the Greek city of Cyrene in Libya, and her lecture was difficult to schedule because she has been called to Washington, DC to testify on just such threats to the antiquities of North Africa,” said Barbara Tsakirgis, associate professor of classics and art history.

“With two de facto governments claiming authority in the country, no constitution yet written, no clearly operating legal system, no defined property rights, no organized police force, many contesting militias, and rising religious extremism, more damage is being done to the country’s cultural heritage than was caused by the events of the 2011 revolution,” Kane said.

During Muammar Gaddafi’s 42-year regime, Libya’s cultural heritage from the pre-Arab period was “seen as a painful reminder of Libya’s colonial past and thus neglected for political reasons,” she pointed out.  “Virtually all of Libya’s heritage sites still suffer from a lack of ongoing maintenance and inadequate security.  In the context of the many challenges facing the new Libya, it is not surprising that cultural heritage struggles for recognition and protection from both governmental authorities and the population at large.”

Kane emphasizes the need for educational programs to promote public awareness and appreciation of the long history of Libyan culture, adding that the attitudes of the next generation must be developed.  “Just after the revolution in 2011, there were hopeful signs as NGOs and local initiatives to support cultural heritage were being organized all over Libya, many with the support of the foreign missions working in the country,” Kane said.  “But now Libya is engaged in a burgeoning civil war.  The country is fighting for its very soul.  It remains unclear what the future will hold for the cultural heritage of Libya.”

Kane’s research interests include Greek, Etruscan, and Roman sculpture and architecture, the study of ancient building technologies and building materials, and the use of archaeological sciences in the study or archaeology.  She is the director of the Cyrenaica Archaeological Project in Cyrene, Libya and of the Sangro Valley Project in Abruzzo, Italy.  Kane was the recipient of the 2005 Research and Exploration Award from the National Geographic Society and the 2013 Presidential Award from the Society of American Archaeology.  She holds degrees from Bryn Mawr (MA and PhD) and Barnard College (BA).

Sponsors of Kane’s lecture are the Nashville Society of the Archaeological Institute of America, the Conservancy for the Parthenon and Centennial Park, and Vanderbilt’s Department of Classical Studies.

*The Temple of Zeus at Cyrene, Libya [Credit:  David Stanley/WikiCommons]

 

Posted by vrcvanderbilt on November 11, 2015 in Events, HART, Lectures, VRC

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Riyaz Latif on Panel at the Frist to Discuss Art and Literature of Islamic World

Persian epic literature is filled with daring heroes, doomed lovers, and mighty rulers.  Join Riyaz Latif, Mellon Assistant Professor of History of Art at Vanderbilt, Paul Vasterling, artistic director and CEO of the Nashville Ballet, and Ginny Soenksen, assistant curator of interpretation, Frist Center for Visual Arts, for a discussion of two important tales, the Shahnama, or Persian Book of Kings, and Layla and Majnun, an allegorical tale of love and loss, on Tuesday, November 10, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Frist.

Panelists will explore how both stories were represented in the visual arts and culture of Islamic societies during the twelfth through fifteenth centuries and how they continue to resonate today.   Latif and Soenksen will contextualize works of art currently on view in Ink, Silk, and Gold:  Islamic Art from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.  Latif will focus on the art of the Ilkhanids, the ruling house under which the Great Mongol Shahname was produced,  and Vasterling will discuss how the romantic, mystical and lyrical narrative of Layla and Majnun inspired him to create a new ballet.

In partnership with Vanderbilt’s Office of Community, Neighborhood, and Government Relations, the Frist Center is featuring “Food for Thought: Ink, Silk, and Gold—Exploring the Historic Empires of the Islamic World through the Visual Arts and Culture,” a three-part series of lunchtime conversations presented by Vanderbilt professors, Frist Center curators, and members of the Nashville community.

Islamic art is not a product of one country or one mindset, or from one moment in history, because the Islamic world is multifaceted and multi-ethnic. The exhibition  features art from the eighth century to the twenty-first and from Spain to Indonesia. By spotlighting distinct moments in history and geographic locations, this series of panel discussions will provide the community with an opportunity to learn about the diversity and vibrancy of Islamic art and culture.

Lunch begins at 11:30 a.m. with panel discussion to follow at noon.  For more information or to reserve a place, call the Vanderbilt office at 615.322.8585.

*Couple with attendants, Uzbekistan (Bukhara), mid-16th century. Ink, color, and gold on paper. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 14.584. Photograph © 2015 MFA, Boston.

Posted by vrcvanderbilt on November 9, 2015 in Events, HART, Lectures, VRC

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Morna O’Neill Addresses the Intersection of Photography and Art

Former HART Professor Morna O’Neill returned to the Vanderbilt campus on October 29 to deliver two lectures in conjunction with Vesna Pavlović’s “Lost Art” exhibition on display at Zeitgeist Gallery.  O’Neill, associate professor of art history in the Department of Art at Wake Forest University, teaches courses in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European art and the history of photography.  A major interest of hers is nineteenth-century Victorian photography.  Pavlović, assistant professor of art,  teaches courses in photography in the Department of Art at Vanderbilt.

O’Neill led an informal conversation at the Heard Library on “Everyday Images:  Vernacular Photography and the History of Art” and the ways in which photography has shaped our understanding of the past.  We also viewed some of the photographs by amateur and/or unknown photographers included in an exhibition at the Heard Library, “Picturing Our World,” and considered how these photographs have challenged the history of art to address image culture more broadly.

In an evening lecture entitled “The Screen and the Curtain:  On the Intersection of Photography and Art,” O’Neill explored aspects of the history of photography in relation to the history of painting as one way  to understand Pavlović’s “Lost Art” show at Zeitgeist Gallery.

“One early photographer referred to his practice as ‘the art of capturing a shadow,'” said O’Neill.  “In this conception, the photograph itself acts as a screen of the image made by light.  The history of painting, on the other hand, is often told in terms of the curtain:  the artist pulls back the drapery to reveal his or her skill in rendering the world.”  O’Neill explored how these two stands came together in the late nineteenth century, “when art historians began projecting paintings as slides, at the same moment when curators began hanging paintings on curtains.”

Prior to teaching at Vanderbilt and Wake Forest, O’Neill served as a postdoctoral research associate at the Yale Center for British Art.  She has published on British art, design, and photography, including Walter Crane:  The Arts and Crafts, Painting, and Politics (Yale University Press, 2011), which won the Historians of British Art Book Prize for 2012.

*Tracy Miller, Kevin Murphy, Morna O’Neill, and Mary Anne Caton view photographs in the “Picturing Our World” exhibit at the Heard Library.

Posted by vrcvanderbilt on November 5, 2015 in Events, HART, Lectures, VRC

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HART Professors Speak at Symposium on Campus Land Use Plan

From exploring city planning in the ancient Mediterranean world to understanding how theater can play a role in classroom design, the Vanderbilt University Land Use Symposium on November 2 includes experts participating  from across campus as the university begins to develop a comprehensive land use plan.  Held in Alumni Hall, the all-day symposium features a full roster of speakers and is open to the Vanderbilt community.

Among the speakers are HART professors Betsey Robinson and Kevin Murphy.  Robinson, associate professor of history of art and classical studies, will address “First Principles:  Lessons in Land Use and Planning from Ancient Greece.”  Last summer she coordinated Water Cult & Culture in the Mediterranean World of the First Millennium BCE, an international symposium held at the American School of Classical Studies and the École française in Athens, Greece.  Murphy, chair of the history of art department, is leading a session entitled “Things of Quality Have No Fear of Time:  Campus Environments, Design and Preservation.”

The symposium is an initial step in the process of developing a campus land use plan, which is intended to articulate a comprehensive vision for the university’s footprint and to provide a basis for campus stewardship that enhances the university’s mission, according to Eric Kopstain, Vice Chancellor for Administration.  To help in this endeavor, Vanderbilt has selected the New Haven architecture firm Pelli Clarke Pelli, which has overseen master land use plans at other major universities around the world.

“The end goal is to develop a plan—through the use of forums and discussions with the broader campus community and with the help of our partner firm Pelli Clarke Pelli—that will guide investment in physical spaces that support Vanderbilt’s academic mission and create an even more vibrant campus for living and learning,” Kopstain said.  “At its foundation, the land use plan must be guided by those values related directly to our mission of teaching, research and discovery. This symposium will provide an opportunity for campus community members to hear from our world-class faculty on topics from which we can develop themes that relate directly to our planning process and begin to shape the values that will serve as the foundation for our work in the years ahead.”

*The newly renovated Alumni Hall on the Vanderbilt University campus

 

 

Posted by vrcvanderbilt on November 2, 2015 in Events, HART, VRC

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HART Alumni Reception Held October 23 in Cohen Atrium

Please join the Department of History of Art at a reception for our HART alumni and friends on Friday, October 23, from 4:10-5:00 pm in Cohen Memorial Hall.  Those attending the reception can view Syria Widowed:  Remembering Palmyra, an exhibit in the rear atrium that commemorates recently destroyed monuments at Palmyra, only one of a growing number of ancient sites devastated by ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant).  On view through December 10, the exhibit was organized by Betsey A. Robinson, associate professor of the history of art, and E.B. Armstrong, a junior in the College of Arts and Science.

“Relying on the power of images, we respond to ISIL not with scenes of violence and destruction but with memories of more peaceful times,” said Robinson.  “By celebrating the history and humanity encapsulated in the stones of what was an amazing place, we hope to make Palmyra, and Syria, more real and accessible to our community.”

Also on view during the reception are two exhibits currently housed in the Fine Arts Gallery near the front entrance to Cohen.  In honor of the centenary of World War I, Forging Identity—Imagining the Enemy: American Propaganda and the Great War features posters by some of the early twentieth century’s most accomplished artists and illustrators, who found their role in wartime by appealing to the hearts and minds of the American people.   The exhibit was curated by Margaret F. M. Walker, art curator assistant.

Presented in honor of Mathew Ramsey, professor emeritus of history, Selma Freeman Ramsey and the Social Realist Tradition explores 150 years of art about city life, work, and community. The daughter of Eastern European Jewish immigrants, Ramsey took a distinctly social-minded approach to her artwork of the 1930s, with a focus on the working class. Her art from this period, along with that of other social realists featured in the exhibition such as Reginald Marsh and Isabel Bishop, grew out of a tradition of exposing through art the lives of the downtrodden and those whom society tends not to see.  The exhibit was curated by Joseph S. Mella, gallery director.

Parking is available in Lot 95 outside Cohen Hall, off 21st Avenue South on the Peabody campus and across from Medical Center East. For more information, call the department at 615.322.2831.

*Ruines d’un Arc de Triomphe, à Palmyre, from Voyage pittoresque de la Syrie, de la Phoenicie, de la Palaestine, et de la Basse Aegypte, volume 1, published 1799, copper-plate engraving

Posted by vrcvanderbilt on October 22, 2015 in Events, Fine Arts Gallery, HART, Student/Alumni, VRC

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“Drawing a Life of Michelangelo” with William Wallace on November 5

William E. Wallace, internationally renowned expert on Michelangelo Buonarroti, will deliver the Norman L. and Roselea J. Goldberg Lecture in Art History entitled “Drawing a Life of Michelangelo” on Thursday, November 5, at 4:10 pm in Cohen Memorial Hall, room  203.  A reception will follow in the Cohen atrium.

Wallace, who is the Barbara Murphy Bryant Distinguished Professor of Art History and Director of Undergraduate Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, will speak on the Michelangelo drawings from the Casa Buonarroti in Florence that will be on view at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, beginning October 30.  By placing the drawings in their historical and personal contexts, Wallace will elucidate the many facets of Michelangelo’s prodigious activity as a sculptor, painter, architect, and engineer.

Wallace received his Ph.D. in Art History from Columbia University in New York in 1983.  He teaches Renaissance art and architecture from 1300-1700, and is an internationally recognized authority on Michelangelo and his contemporaries.  In addition to more than 90 essays, chapters and articles (as well as two works of fiction), he is the author and editor of seven different books on Michelangelo, including Michelangelo at San Lorenzo: the Genius as Entrepreneur (Cambridge, 1994); Michelangelo: Selected Scholarship in English (Garland, 1996), Michelangelo: The Complete Sculpture, Painting, and Architecture (Hugh Lauter Levin, 1998), and Michelangelo: Selected Readings (Garland, 1999).  His biography, Michelangelo: The Artist, the Man and his Times appeared with Cambridge University Press in 2010, and was issued in paperback in 2011.

Most recently, he has published Discovering Michelangelo: The Art Lover’s Guide to Understanding Michelangelo’s Masterpieces with Rizzoli International Publications in 2012.  He has held fellowships and distinguished visiting professorships at Villa I Tatti, Harvard University’s Center for Renaissance Studies in Florence, the American Academy in Rome, Williams College in Williamstown, MA, and the University of Miami in Miami, FL.

Sponsored by the Department of History of Art, the Goldberg Lecture is free and open to the public.  Parking is available in Lot 95 outside Cohen Hall, off 21st Avenue South on the Peabody campus and across from Medical Center East.  For more information, call the department at 615.322.2831.

Michelangelo Buonarroti. Study for the Head of Leda, ca. 1529. Red chalk. 354 x 269 mm. Casa Buonarroti, Florence, inv. 7F

Posted by vrcvanderbilt on October 21, 2015 in Events, HART, Lectures, VRC

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Faculty Discuss Cultural Destruction in Syria on Local TV Program

Inside Politics host Pat Nolan discusses the cultural destruction in Syria with Professors Betsey Robinson, Art History and Classics, Richard McGregor, Religious Studies, and David Michelson, Divinity School, on Friday, October 2, at 7:00 pm on CBS affiliate WTVF News Channel 5, Nashville (Xfinity channel 250 and 1005).

It will also be aired via live streaming on newschannel5.com. Rebroadcast can be seen on Saturday, October 3, at 5:00 am and 5:30 pm; and again on Sunday, October 4, at 5:00 am and 12:30 pm.

Posted by vrcvanderbilt on October 2, 2015 in Events, HART, HART in Nashville, VRC

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