Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
open access
A study to the relation between the reputation of William of Orange and portrait prints for 1584-1702. I researched the changes in the reputation of the prince in this period, the different ways he...Show moreA study to the relation between the reputation of William of Orange and portrait prints for 1584-1702. I researched the changes in the reputation of the prince in this period, the different ways he was depicted in portraits and the iconography and texts on the cartouches of the portrait prints.Show less
Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
open access
This thesis analyzes the rhetoric of the Van Gogh Museum and exposes its communicative strategies holistically. An extensive and multi-faceted analysis on the persuasive character of the Rietveld...Show moreThis thesis analyzes the rhetoric of the Van Gogh Museum and exposes its communicative strategies holistically. An extensive and multi-faceted analysis on the persuasive character of the Rietveld building, the Kurokawa wing, and modern media shows that the communicative strength of the Van Gogh Museum is situated in its awareness of different audiences, their varying needs, and plural museum experiences. In a museum landscape where collection-oriented purposes are increasingly shared with public-oriented functions, the only way through which the museum is able to exert and preserve its expertise is by catering to its audiences. Revealing the rhetorical strategies behind the VGM’s communication results in an awareness that the postmodern museum is capable of transforming its commercial activities into valuable dialogues, in which the visitor is treated as an equal, active, and indispensable participant. Commercial museological practices do not threaten the educative value of the museum but carry the potential to actively encourage inclusivity and accessibility. The VGM emits this message in all of its inherently communicative elements.Show less
Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
open access
The Jarves Collection, the first collection of early Italian art in the United States, was created by James Jackson Jarves (1818-1888) in Florence in the 1850s, and brought to the USA in 1860...Show moreThe Jarves Collection, the first collection of early Italian art in the United States, was created by James Jackson Jarves (1818-1888) in Florence in the 1850s, and brought to the USA in 1860 hoping to create a “Free Gallery of Art.” Jarves presents medieval and Renaissance Florence as a democratic and religious model for the United States to emulate. The collection thus performed an educational function, literally carrying civilization – in the form of early Italian paintings – to the United States. Considering Jarves’s role within the history of American collecting and reception of Italian art, publications have focused on placing Jarves within the American history of collecting, while giving little thought to underlying structures in Jarves’s motivations and actions in assembling and promoting his collection. As Jarves presents history as a didactic and emancipatory model for the United States, this thesis asks what his stake was in presenting early Italian art as the model of civilization. Limited to the period from the early 1850s, when Jarves starts collecting, until 1871, when the collection was sold to Yale University, this thesis focuses on Jarves’s motivations, placed within contemporary trends. It is split into three parts: the first looks at the underlying structures that influenced the make-up of the collection; the second looks at Jarves's ideas as expressed through his writings, and at their connection to his collection. The final part looks at the Jarves's main aim for his collection: the creation of a national gallery of art for the education of the American public.Show less
Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
open access
In this thesis I aim to get a grip on ‘how’ a narrative is being told to a beholder of a Renaissance painting. I describe the condition in which a painting presents a story to a beholder. The...Show moreIn this thesis I aim to get a grip on ‘how’ a narrative is being told to a beholder of a Renaissance painting. I describe the condition in which a painting presents a story to a beholder. The condition is the representation of pictorial space. The representation of pictorial space has been characterized as naturalistic. Renaissance naturalism has to be interpreted through a theological lens, which helps us to understand the rhetoric behind Renaissance naturalism. A theological framework can explain the evaluation of the perceptions of natural sense experience and explains the function of composition, that is, to transform the beholder’s consciousness into a religious consciousness. Specific rules of composition contribute to ‘how’ a narrative is being told to a beholder of Renaissance art. By inquiring these rules we get a better understanding of how the Renaissance artist represents space; how the Renaissance beholder relates to the depiction of space; and how the modern viewer relates differently to the Renaissance painting.Show less
