Throughout the seventeenth century, ideas of the occult and mystique of witchcraft consumed public interest in artistic circles in Florence, Italy. Salvator Rosa (1615-1673), an Italian artist from Naples, participated in this movement from 1640 until his death. As interests in the occult heightened during his time in Florence, he participated in suspicions of witchcraft through his Scenes of Witchcraft (1645-1649). Located at the Cleveland Museum of Art, the series consists of four tondi, each portraying a witch with harrowing spectators at different times of the day. However, to ensure his esteemed prominence, he returned to Rome and produced religious works. The macabre interests that captivated Rosa in Scenes of Witchcraft (1645-49) became a vehicle of undermining the church through The Shade of Samuel Appears to Saul (1668) when the artist returned to Rome. In this paper I propose that through shared iconography, The Shade of Samuel Appears to Saul is a painting of witchcraft, and serves to undermine the authority of the church. Witches or other necromancing subjects were accepted solely to elevate the morality of biblical characters. By giving the witch of Endor agency, Rosa is offering an alternative subject that serves to rival the power of God.
“Squinting at the Details” looks at an artwork by Guercino titled “Mars with Cupid: and attempts to identify possible references and symbolism in the smaller details found in the work.
Abstract
The current infrastructure of horticulture in the United States of America, lacks BIPOC representation. The purpose of the review and research is to address the effects of white dominance in horticulture and combat the current system to create a more inclusive and welcoming environment for BIPOC in horticulture. By juxtaposing past, present, and future contributions to horticulture from BIPOC individuals to the current concepts exhibited in horticulture we observe 3 things: The contributions of BIPOC ideas to Horticulture, the current representation of BIPOC individuals in horticulture, and the theorized future with solutions applied. This research is based on existing diversity equity and inclusion research seen in other fields, which theoretically will apply in the same context with horticulture. Under this assumption, it can be understood that horticulture is not the sole perpetrator in non-inclusive work environments for BIPOC but is rather a subcategory of the many organizations and communities within the United States that are systemically oppressive to BIPOC.
Keywords: [BIPOC, horticulture, diversity in horticulture, inclusion in horticulture, colonization, culture, anti-racism, equity, colonialism]
Joan Miró, a Catalan artist, was religiously dedicated to the work of poets. In 1925, Miró felt it necessary to begin incorporating poetry into his paintings, shifting the essence of his work towards poetic impression. While his early works incorporated more obvious references to poetics, his large-scale murals of Blue I, II, and III from 1961 embody many of his earliest poetic influences in a less-obvious form. I will trace how poetics from the 20th century manifested in the works of Joan Miró to form the triptych of Blue I, Blue II, and Blue III.