Medusa is an ongoing traditional subject within art. However, she is often depicted as an objectified version of her decapitated head or as a demonised version of a woman. In this research, I...Show moreMedusa is an ongoing traditional subject within art. However, she is often depicted as an objectified version of her decapitated head or as a demonised version of a woman. In this research, I analysed if contemporary artworks were depicting Medusa as feminine and monstrous by researching and discussing her physical features, as well as determining what these aspects can tell us about contemporary society. This was achieved through the use of three case studies; Luciano Garbati’s Medusa with the Head of Perseus, Damien Hirst’s The Severed Head of Medusa, and PichiAvo’s Medusa. Through visual analysis and comparison, combined with literary and visual contextualisation from both contemporary and historic times, it was determined that contemporary artworks tend to stray from the stereotypical media portrayal of Medusa as a beast. Each artwork had feminine and monstrous aspects, each with different intentions and reasons. What they ended up showing within society is that Medusa’s story is being retold and the arts are helping convey this message. While some still focus on the monetary gains of art, others use their artworks of Medusa to support female empowerment.Show less
The Aztec are frequently defined by their ruthless battles, blood sacrifices, magical shamans and ancient culture. This narrative has been maintained in museums of ethnography, where emphasis is...Show moreThe Aztec are frequently defined by their ruthless battles, blood sacrifices, magical shamans and ancient culture. This narrative has been maintained in museums of ethnography, where emphasis is put on religion and ritual, at the expense of technological innovation. This paper examines the Aztec uses of highly advanced technology (i.e., civil engineering, architecture, agriculture, metallurgy, information technology) and whether these aspects are represented in the collections of the British Museum (London), the Pitt Rivers Museum (Oxford) and the Volkenkunde Museum (Leiden). Furthermore, this paper offers a rhetorical analysis on how these collections are being displayed in the museums’ permanent exhibitions and what narrative the museums are persuading their visitors of. It concludes that the collections within the museums in question are not indicative of innovative advancements, resulting in the primitivizing of the Aztec Empire and condemning them further back in the alleged evolutionary timeline.Show less
Despite their recent, steep rise in prominence and value, non-fungible tokens - abbreviated to NFTs - remain a still under-researched form of digital art. Beyond this thesis, no studies have been...Show moreDespite their recent, steep rise in prominence and value, non-fungible tokens - abbreviated to NFTs - remain a still under-researched form of digital art. Beyond this thesis, no studies have been conducted which address curatorial strategies for their museum exhibition. Such institutions are reputedly technology-averse - a notion reflected in their broadly slow, hesitant uptake and exploration of the NFT medium. Accordingly, this thesis aims to furnish the museum sector with awareness, inspiration, and confidence regarding NFT art, leading to and influencing its future display. It ascertains the extent to which current strategies for NFTs’ digital display reflect the works’ medium-specific attributes as well as that to which they subvert entrenched museum hierarchies between artist, curator, and visitor. To do so, three digital NFT exhibitions and platforms are focalised: Katsushika Hokusai on La Collection, Ethereal Aether in the Celestial Hermitage, and the eponymous Victor Castillo on Decentraland. Each is distinct in its mode of NFT curation and is analysed individually prior to comparatively. Curated by the British Museum and State Hermitage respectively, the initial two platforms stand amongst the largest scale museum engagements with NFT to date. Decentraland is no museum but a user-owned metaverse world within which NFTs are displayed. Its decentralised nature mirrors the form of NFTs themselves, yet whether its mode of exhibition ought to be replicated within the museum sector remains debatable owing to financial and technological barriers. Here, no ideal framework is proposed. Instead, aspects of each platform should both caution and inspire.Show less
The recent field of Museums in Health researches the outcomes of museum projects, exhibitions, and visits on the health and wellbeing of the public. While a growing number of studies are aimed at...Show moreThe recent field of Museums in Health researches the outcomes of museum projects, exhibitions, and visits on the health and wellbeing of the public. While a growing number of studies are aimed at researching collaborative museum projects and exhibitions, a wider evidence base demonstrating museums’ essential role in public health and wellbeing is still lacking. This research is aimed at determining the correlation between museum projects and the mental and physical health and wellbeing of project participants. This correlation is examined through an analysis of the Messy Realities project, held between 2018 and 2022 at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford; qualitative data provided by the project team is reviewed and compared to similar initiatives based in the United Kingdom. This research has found that the Messy Realities project had positive outcomes on the health and wellbeing of the project’s community participants: these outcomes were found to be related to role enactment practices, object handling activities, and to the museum as a collaborative environment. Nevertheless, further research based on quantitative evidence is recommended to unequivocally demonstrate a positive correlation between collaborative museum projects and the enhancement of health and wellbeing.Show less
The thesis explores how digitisation of museum collections in Mauritshuis museum and Kunstmuseum Den Haag has helped make collections more accessible, promoted online and preserved for future...Show moreThe thesis explores how digitisation of museum collections in Mauritshuis museum and Kunstmuseum Den Haag has helped make collections more accessible, promoted online and preserved for future generations. The first chapter explores how the digitisation of collection has materialised and how the Covid-19 pandemic has shaped the ways museums can provide access and promote cultural heritage. The second chapter dives into each criteria – accessibility, promotion and preservation, exploring benefits and limits of connecting with the audience through the web. The third chapter goes into comparison between approaches and visual access of the digitised collections in the Mauritshuis and the Kunstmuseum Den Haag. Through the comparison, the paper highlights that the Mauritshuis museum has a significant advantage in the 360 Gigapixel museum that allows the visitors to enter the 3D model of the museum through a devise, while as the Kunstmuseum is still in the process of digitising its vast collection and puts greater emphasis on the preservation, by digitising their exhibitions as well.Show less
Copying other artists' paintings was an essential practice in the nineteenth century and has a rich culture. For art students, copying and that way learning from the old masters was seen as a vital...Show moreCopying other artists' paintings was an essential practice in the nineteenth century and has a rich culture. For art students, copying and that way learning from the old masters was seen as a vital element of their education. Also for artists it was essential to control the techniques of great artists to develop their inventiveness. The Sistine Madonna altarpiece by Raphael (1483-1520) was famous among students and artists who wanted to copy Raphael’s painting skills, sell a copy on the art market, or keep it in their possession. This painting also caught the attention of Paul Tétar van Elven (1823-1896), a Dutch artist who made nine painted (partial) copies of the Sistine Madonna next to some drawings. However, some of Tétar's copies are not faithfully copied, but instead, he has managed to add his own touches. This research investigates the copying culture and creative freedom of copyists in the nineteenth century, treating the copies of the Sistine Madonna by Paul Tétar van Elven after Raphael as a case study. The research question of this thesis therefore addresses the context in which the nineteenth-century Dutch artist Paul Tétar van Elven added his own touches to his (partial) copies of the Sistine Madonna after Raphael.Show less
In the twenty-first century, many artists show an interest in early modern collections, and this fascination has manifested itself in their artistic practice. Especially the cabinet of curiosity is...Show moreIn the twenty-first century, many artists show an interest in early modern collections, and this fascination has manifested itself in their artistic practice. Especially the cabinet of curiosity is frequently reintroduced, cited and reappropriated, with underlying concepts and visual tactics resurfacing. It will be determined to what extent visual or conceptual phenomena are reinterpreted or referenced by discussing the work of Steffen Dam, Damien Hirst, Marc Dion, and Marc Quinn. In their art, there is a revival of the traditions of collecting, classifying, categorising, ordering and displaying the natural world. Furthermore, the interrelationship between art and science forms a prominent factor. This study aims to identify the main influences, strategies and connections to the curiosity cabinet and explore to what extent these are reflected in work by these artists. Various case studies will be discussed using visual analysis. Primary and secondary sources will be used to support this visual analysis to uncover possible connections and gain insight into the artists' sources of inspiration and intent. It will be considered how far their methods are tied to curiosity collections. The goal is to determine the collective characteristics present in those case studies. This will add to the comprehension of the main historical influences on these artists and the interconnection between their artistic practices.Show less
The Brazilian portraits made by Maurits’ court painter Albert Eckhout have been frequently discussed by scholars and were presented in, among others, the exhibition In Brazil with Albert Eckhout....Show moreThe Brazilian portraits made by Maurits’ court painter Albert Eckhout have been frequently discussed by scholars and were presented in, among others, the exhibition In Brazil with Albert Eckhout. In the literature, the paintings were multiple times described as ethnographic portraits. However, it was in doubt if these life-size portraits can be identified as ethnographic portraits as this genre of the ethnographic portrait developed ages later when photography was invented. This research aimed to answer what position Eckhout’s life-size portraits of the Tapuya people in Brazil of the seventeenth century occupy in relation to Abraham de Bruyn’s costume book of 1581 and the portraits of the Navaho people made by Edward S. Curtis in his photo book The North American Indian. Based on art historical analysis, and visual analysis it can be concluded that Eckhout’s life-size portraits can be placed in a transitional space between the national type of the sixteenth-century book costumes based on attributes and costumes and the ethnographic portraits of the nineteenth century.Show less
This thesis explores the underrepresentation of women artists in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, Venice, and in particular, the placement and the display features of...Show moreThis thesis explores the underrepresentation of women artists in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, Venice, and in particular, the placement and the display features of women’s works exhibited in December 2021. It uses concepts, theories, and methods of analysis developed by feminist art and museum scholars. Furthermore, the research focuses on the history of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, shedding light on Guggenheim’s unequal interest for men’s and women’s art of her time. Thus, the thesis examines the role Peggy Guggenheim played in shaping postwar modernism by promoting largely men artists. Moreover, the sociocultural position of women at that time is investigated, illustrating that other factors beyond Guggenheim’s bias explain the small number of women represented in the collection. Lastly, the study confronts possibilities of transforming a male dominated collection into a more gender-balanced one in order to emphasize women’s contribution to modernism in the museum narrative.Show less
