Description: This thesis examines Hieronymus Bosch's Table Top of the Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things. Instead of using an iconographical analysis, the thesis investigates the relationship between Bosch's art and the Devotio Moderna, which has been speculated by many Bosch scholars. For this reason, a close study was done to examine the Devotio Moderna and its influence on Bosch's painting. Particular interest is paid to the seven day prayers of the Devotio Moderna, the subjects depicted in Bosch's painting, how Bosch's painting blesses its viewer during the time of one's prayer, and how the use of gaze ties all of these ideas together.

Description: This thesis studies the style of Native American portrait photographs of William S. Soule (1836-1908), John K. Hillers (1834-1925), and William E. Irwin (1871-1935), who worked in Oklahoma from 1869 to 1904. The examination of the three men's work revealed that each artist had different motivations for creating Native American portrait photographs, and a result, used a distinct style. However, despite the individual artistic styles, each artist conformed to Native American stereotypes common during the nineteenth-century. The thesis includes a discussion of the history of the area, photographer biographies, a stylistic analysis of the photographs, and how the images fit into American Indian stereotypes.

Description: This thesis uses reception theory, as formulated by the late Wolfgang Iser, as well as ideas about interpellation or hailing, to compare and analyze two paintings: The Annunciation (c. 1435) by Roger van der Weyden and Personal Values (1952) by René Magritte. It demonstrates that interpellation and reception are part of the same process, and that reception theory is especially suited to this comparison and analysis-because it allows consideration of ways in which the comparable pictorial structures of both paintings facilitate their intentions. It argues that those intentions are to engage viewers in a dialogue that ultimately is beneficial to both pictures and viewers. Furthermore, based on this shared intent, and on visible structural similarities, it argues that each of the two paintings identifies and receives the other as a picture of the same image-that is, of the Annunciation.

Description: This thesis will examine the iconography of late-thirteenth- through fifteenth-century images of St. Veronica's veil, also known as vernicles. In the late Middle Ages, vernicle iconography changed from iconic representations of Christ's face toward graphic imagery of Christ's suffering during his Passion. These passionate transformations, as I have called them, were affected by the Roman Sudarium relic, popular devotion to Christ's suffering and humanity during his Passion, and the Catholic ritual of Mass. This thesis will consider how the function of vernicle images during Mass was reflected in their iconography throughout Europe between 1250 and 1500.

Description: The Universalis Ecclesiae of 1508 authorized Spanish colonization of the Americas in return for the conversion of native populations to Christianity. From its inception therefore, the Mexican nation lived an alliance between Church and State. This alliance promoted the transfer of Castilian Catholicism to American shores. Catholic practices, specifically the ex-voto tradition, visualize this intermingling of religion and politics. The ex-voto is a devotional painting that expresses gratitude to a religious figure for his/her intervention in a moment of peril. It is commissioned by the devotee as a means of direct communication to the divine. This project analyzes 40 Mexican ex-votos for their reflection of political issues in Mexico. I assert that the Mexican ex-votos engage discussions of social politics. To support this argument, visualizations of socio-political discourses such as the Virgin of Guadalupe as a national religious symbol, police action and economic disparity were examined.