College of Arts & Humanities
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations.
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Item Inspiring a Choral Revolution? The Polyphonic Music of Edward IV’s Burgundian Exile, 1470–1471(2021) Allies, Patrick; Haggh-Huglo, Barbara; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In the second half of the fifteenth century, at least half a dozen prominent polyphonic choirs in England were transformed, both in terms of their numbers and their vocal range. The most prominent example was at St. George’s Collegiate Church, Windsor, where under Edward IV the number of boy choristers and lay clerks doubled, and the boys were trained to sing polyphony for the first time. One possible contributory factor to this burst of choral development is the polyphonic music Edward is likely to have experienced during his exile in the Burgundian territories from 1470–1471. Edward’s principal host while in exile was the nobleman Louis de Gruuthuse. While staying at Gruthuuse’s Bruges palace, Edward would have been able to hear polyphonic music at the neighboring Church of Our Lady, in the Lady Mass, guild services and during the concert-like “lof,” established in 1468. At around this time, Gruuthuse began constructing an upper-level oratory looking into Our Lady’s Church, and Edward subsequently built a similar space at St. George’s Windsor. These structures are part of a wider Anglo- Burgundian pattern of music patrons building raised oratories in the period 1450–1500. Oratories may have been built, in part, to improve the experience of listening to larger, louder choirs. Listening from the oratory would have both reduced the initial-time-delay gap and created an unobstructed line of listening to the choirboys, allowing their higher frequencies to be heard more clearly. Despite complex political circumstances, Edward did spend time at Charles the Bold’s court. His visits followed a period in which Charles was especially concerned with expanding his choir. The duke’s chapel ordinances of 1469 specify six upper voices for singing polyphony. This may have been part of a wider phenomenon in the Burgundian territories and later, in England, of groups of six choirboys being established in choirs where their role specifically included polyphony. The choir at St. Donatian’s in Bruges had at least fifty years of history of boys and men singing polyphony together by 1470, and its recruitment and training allied to an attractive income and career prospects for its singers made this one of the finest choirs of its kind in Europe by the late fifteenth century. The years 1470–1471 would have been a peak in the choir’s activity due to the unprecedented spending on copying of music by Gilles de Joye in the year’s 1468–1471. The arrangements of St. Donatian’s choir are a possible model for the changes Edward went on to make to his choir at Windsor.Item Competing Constructivisms: Modern Architecture and Design in Japan and Korea, c. 1925-1940(2015) Kim, Suzie; Mansbach, Steven A.; Art History and Archaeology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation focuses on a set of dynamic Japanese and Korean architects and artists who, during the interwar period, actively adopted and transformed the principles of Russian Constructivism, the Bauhaus, and International Architecture into their own artistic style. This study provides the first comprehensive study of the multifaceted connections between Europe, Japan, and Korea to explore the richness of this relatively underrepresented, but decisive, modern aesthetic impulse. Prior to and during the period of the activities of the two major architectural groups in Japan, Bunriha Kenchikukai (1920-1928) and the Sousha (1923-1932), Yamaguchi Bunzo (1902-1978), the leader of the Sousha, demonstrated a strong commitment to Marxism and promoted gorishugi kenchiku (rationalist architecture), which acted on his vision of social transformation through a rationalist and functional approach to architectural design. In contrast, Yamawaki Iwao (1898-1987) enjoyed a rather socially neutral perspective of Constructivism and searched for a synthesis between the principles of the Bauhaus style and traditional Japanese interior designs of private houses. Furniture designer Kurata Chikatada (1895-1966), the leader of Keiji Kobo (1928-1940), employed the idea of standardization derived from the Bauhaus workshops, and tried to find a way to mass-produce handcrafts. Whereas Yamaguchi, Yamawaki, and Kurata used Constructivism to open up a wide field of modernist opportunity and inventiveness, Korean architects and artists, who worked under circumstances defined mostly by the colonial status of the nation, embraced the international movement only in a rather informative and redemptive way--a "local" way to assert a suppressed national dynamism. The first generation of Korean architects, which included Park Gil-ryong (1898-1943) and Park Dong-jin (1899-1981), suggested a way to incorporate the qualities of Constructivist style into Korean homes. Korean artists Lee Sun-seok (1905-1986) and Yoo Youngkuk (1916-2002), who studied in Tokyo during the 1930s, adapted the Constructivist style to suit the local customs and artistic conventions of Korea after they returned to their homeland. This comparative study will provide new insights into the history of modern architecture and design in Japan and Korea and a reassessment of the significance of these architects and designers who, from the mid-1920s, contributed to make Constructivism internationally recognized.Item THE ARCHITECTURAL VESSELS OF THE MOCHE OF PERU (C.E. 200-850): ARCHITECTURE FOR THE AFTERLIFE(2010) Wiersema, Juliet Benham; Pillsbury, Joanne; Venit, Marjorie; Art History and Archaeology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation investigates sculpted representations of ritual architecture produced by the Moche (C.E. 200-850), a complex and socially-stratified society occupying Peru's north coast centuries before the formation of the Inca Empire. My study focuses on a single artifact type--the Moche architectural vessel--a portable fine ware ceramic container with a stirrup-shaped handle and straight spout which supports a miniature modeled building. Moche architectural vessels mimic the form of structures and features identified in full-scale Moche architecture. When discovered archaeologically, these objects accompany elite burials found within or in close proximity to Moche ritual architecture, or huacas. For art historians and archaeologists, these portable artifacts constitute one of the most important sources of data on Moche ritual architecture and as such, permit us a more nuanced understanding of ancient ceremonial structures which have been compromised by centuries of erosion, treasure hunting, and cataclysmic events. While Moche architectural vessels have been considered simple and somewhat generic representations of temples or temple complexes, my study suggests these objects instead relay explicit information about geographically, temporally, or ideologically specific ritual structures. In this dissertation, I propose a practical method for "decoding" these objects and demonstrate that, once deciphered, Moche architectural vessels can elucidate the original form, function, and ideological significance of Moche ceremonial architecture. My research draws upon several disciplines including art history, anthropology, ethnography, and ethnomusicology. Important contributions include the assembly of the first Moche architectural vessel corpus (169 vessels), the creation of a detailed 10-type Moche architectural vessel typology, a new method for visualizing these objects, and the discovery that several vessels are additionally acoustic artifacts. My study presents a new investigative model, applicable to other areas in the ancient Andes and Mesoamerica, where, for millennia, ceramic representations of architecture formed an important part of burial ritual. Moche architectural vessels also engage in a cross-cultural dialogue with architectural representations made for burial by other ancient cultures around the globe, including Han Dynasty China, Middle Kingdom Egypt, Iron Age Italy, Ancient West Mexico, and Aztec Mexico. They also illuminate the rich potential of ceremonial objects made by advanced societies without text-based histories.Item Function versus Form in Czech Cubism: Architecture and Furniture Design(2010) Bratton, Lyndsay; Mansbach, Steven A; Art History and Archaeology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis seeks to negate the idea, prevalent among scholars in the field, that form became more important than function in the works of Cubist applied artists and architects. Cubist theory flourished in these sectors of the arts among young Czech artists who rejected the rationalism of their teachers, Otto Wagner and Jan Kotera. The work of Pavel Janák, Vlastislav Hofman and Josef Gocár provides the case study by which I argue that Czech architects during the Cubist movement from 1911 to 1925 were not only concerned with the utility of their works, but they also applied new functions to architecture and the applied arts--functions entirely different from mere practical concerns. These included the expression of the artists' own inner visions and spirituality through formal design, the conveyance of the possibilities of dynamic movement of mass through the creation of space and its outer shell, and, after World War I, the articulation of nationalism through the synthesis of Rondocubist form and decorative folk elements.Item Under the Arch of Friendship: Culture, Urban Redevelopment and Symbolic Architecture in D.C. Chinatown, 1970s-1990s(2009) Khoo, Evelyn; Gao, James Z; History/Library & Information Systems; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis explores the history of the urban development and architectural changes in Washington, D.C. Chinatown in the late twentieth century. Urban development in D.C. Chinatown traces the way in which local politics, ethnic community elites and the larger international backdrop of geopolitics and the globalizing economy found expression in the visual streetscapes and architecture in the neighborhood perceived to be a predominantly ethnic site. This essay argues that the case of D.C. Chinatown represents a larger call for a spatial turn in Chinese American history, where more emphasis can be placed on the uses of symbolic architecture in determining Chinese American identity and settlement.Item Underneath The Music(2008-05-21) ROBINSON, ELLINGTON RUDI; Pinder, Jefferson; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)I see my work as an expression of a young man growing up in a household of music, books, and highly influential people. During the crack era that becomes prevalent under the tenure of President Reagan. The influences of the past will be the guides to surviving in a time when many friends parish as victims from the abundance of violence. The influences and tragedies are translated into motifs that are metaphors combined to create forms of communication. The hardwood floors, record jackets, tape, and railroad tracks provide a catalyst. These motifs are combined and isolated to tell an intense story that is layered with the history of the Civil Rights Movement, hip hop culture, drugs and music. The work is a conduit to release years of pain dealing with loss and oppression. It is also a vehicle to celebrate the philosophy that joy and pain are synonymous with life.Item "Live in the country with faith": Jane and Ralph Whitehead, The Simple Life Movement, and Arts and Crafts in The United States, England, and on The Continent, 1870-1930(2008-01-23) Nasstrom, Heidi; Sies, Mary C.; American Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)American artist Jane Byrd McCall Whitehead (1858-1955) and her English husband Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead (1854-1929) are best known for co-founding the Byrdcliffe Art and Crafts school and colony in Woodstock, New York, which was active from 1903 into the present. Long before Byrdcliffe, however, the Whiteheads formulated plans for an "art convent" founded on principles of the simple life movement. A rejection of repressive social mores and materialistic behavior and a critique of social inequality in the modern world, the Whiteheads' simple life was enacted in rural places where nature served as a model for spirituality and aesthetics in art and the built environment, and where handwork in the form of art and craft and working the land were balanced with intellectual activity, leisure time and socializing in order to improve physical and psychological well being. This dissertation uses the wealth of primary source material on the Whiteheads--their personal papers, photographs documenting their lives, arts and crafts by them and their circle, built environs and landscapes--to trace the evolution of simple living as it was holistically expressed in the lifestyle and environs they constructed in their early years abroad; their first attempt at simple living as a married couple at Arcady in Montecito, California; and finally, their mature expression at Byrdcliffe in Woodstock, New York. Incorporating an interdisciplinary methodology involving a material culture approach that looks at the man-altered world as evidence for social and cultural history, this is the first scholarly effort to explore what simple living meant and looked like to these particular individuals, and the first project to look at the interconnectedness of simple living on a bi-coastal United States and trans-Atlantic scale between 1870-1930. It also seeks to restore an understanding of Jane's contributions to the simple life environs and art schools she formulated collaboratively with her husband, which were previously attributed solely to Ralph.Item Making Modern Homes: A History of Langston Terrace Dwellings, A New Deal Housing Program in Washington, D.C.(2007-05-30) Quinn, Kelly Anne; Sies, Mary C; American Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Langston Terrace Dwellings is a complex of 274 units of apartments and row houses in Washington D.C. that opened in 1938 under the auspices of the New Deal's Public Works Administration. Designed by Hilyard Robinson, this modern housing program was built principally by African American professionals for African American families. This study recasts our understanding of modern housing locating it in the broader historical context of modern architecture, urban planning and African American life. Design professionals and residents contributed to the program's early success as an aesthetically pleasing, socially significant community. This work chronicles how African American residents forged a life for themselves and their children in architect-designed modernist apartments and row houses. I begin with an analysis of the application process in which hopeful residents petitioned the federal government; I conclude with a consideration of the pioneering residents' place-making efforts. In Chapters One and Two, I introduce key figures: first, I highlight the ordinary Washingtonians who applied to move into Langston, and then I profile the architect principally responsible for the formal design program. The hopeful residents relied on individual strategies and extensive social networks to secure a spot in government housing; the architect Robinson also developed and honed individual strategies and extensive social networks to advance his architectural practice and to obtain a government contract. I explore the European interwar housing estates he visited in Chapter Three and offer a formal analysis of Langston in Chapter Four. In Chapter Five, I return to the ways in which the first cohort of residents worked to make homes and form community. I marshaled evidence from 2,263 letters applications; city directories; census manuscripts; government project files; private correspondence between architects, reformers and government officials; architectural plans; Sanborn maps; popular and architectural periodicals; and photographs. Additionally, I traced the project's precedents by conducting fieldwork in Europe and the United States. My assessment of the legacy of this project emerged from partnerships with current residents and neighbors. As such, this research relied on a number of interdisciplinary research strategies including graphic documentation, archival research, and community-based collaboration and investigation.Item Slithering Serpents and the Afterlives of Stones: The Role of Ornament in Inka-Style Architecture of Cusco, Peru(2005-11-22) Trever, Lisa Senchyshyn; Pillsbury, Joanne; Art History and Archaeology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Serpent reliefs and other pre-Hispanic motifs occasionally appear on the façades of early colonial Inka-style masonry buildings in Cusco, the former capital of the Inka empire, although similar carvings are only rarely seen on earlier Inka architecture. This research demonstrates that while some ashlars were reused from pre-Hispanic Inka walls, the reliefs were likely carved during the colonial era. Central to this analysis is the premise that the breakdown of Inka state iconoclasm allowed native masons greater decorative license. The appearance of Andean motifs on houses built for the city's Spanish inhabitants reveals the complexity of early colonial attitudes toward indigenous culture. The carvings provide an opportunity to investigate the shifting meanings of Andean symbols during the early years of the Spanish presence in Peru. Indeed, these motifs, carved after the Inka imperial collapse, have since become iconic of "Inka-ness" and are replicated in Cusco's twentieth-century municipal architecture.Item "A New Unity!" The Art and Pedagogy of Josef Albers(2004-08-10) Adler, Esther D; Mansbach, Steven A.; Art History and Archaeology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Josef Albers had an extensive and prolific career, both as an artist and a teacher. He was a crucial member of the faculties of the Bauhaus, Black Mountain College in North Carolina, and Yale University, producing a varied and ground-breaking body of his own work simultaneously. Albers's pedagogical philosophies were remarkably consistent throughout his teaching career, and all of his artwork reflects these philosophies to some degree. However, the artist's early engraved glass works, created while at the Bauhaus, and his later, architecturally-based sculptures were by far the most successful in communicating his message of the orderly, reasoned world he hoped transform through his art. Josef Albers was intent on challenging his viewer's "way of seeing," and he was able to accomplish this through his works with underlying architectural connections. These works allowed him to control the way they were perceived, and, by extension, the world seen figuratively through them.