The Art Bulletin

Art historians have consistently discussed National Socialist architecture in terms of the symbolic implications of forms rather than the functional relationship of the building process to broader state policies. Yet understanding this relationship is necessary if we are to analyze the connection between specific architectural projects in Nazi Germany and the destruction of the Jews. Berlin is a case in point: in order to realize Albert Speer’s plans for the redesign of the capital, the and his staff formulated an anti-Semitic policy that linked their architectural goals to state measures aimed at the Jewish community.

Cultural historians of the United States tend to discuss the locus of middle-class masculinity from the late nineteenth century on as increasingly situated in bodily strength and fortitude. Norman Rockwell’s humorous illustrations of the figures of the sissy and the fog from early in this century have rarely been taken seriously as cultural texts, yet they offer a point of access for the consideration of an overlooked contemporary manliness fashioned through men’s dress. This sartorial masculinity--a conduit for codes of class, race, sexuality, and nationality--endowed even the most lithesome figure with manhood through mass-produced consumer goods.

A study of selected episodes from the duc d'Antin’s tenure as head of the French royal department of Batiments (1708-36) suggests that he made a distinction between patronage and performance in his commissioning and deployment of pictures for a mainly court audience. A closer examination of a seeming exception, the history painting competition of 1727, analyzes how d'Antin’s proposal of the event confirmed this pattern, and how its execution outstripped his probable intentions, producing a figuration of modern exhibitions and publics markedly unlike older models.

This essay examines two paintings of Dr. Frederik Ruysch (1638-1731) conducting public anatomy lessons in the Amsterdam dissecting theater. Painted by Adrian Backer and Jan van Neck respectively, they were part of a series of portraits commissioned by the Amsterdam surgeons' guild between 1603 and 1758. Ruysch’s primary contribution to anatomy was his invention of revolutionary techniques for preserving human body parts, which he displayed in his cabinet of curiosities, melding anatomical demonstration with emblematic vanitas art. Forfeiting truth in favor of spectacle, the viewer was always meant to be aware of Ruysch’s role as creator of both image and specimen.

When Rubens painted A Wolf and Fox Hunt (ca. 1616), he wanted to do more than simply revive the courtly hunting scene. This essay argues that the Hunt celebrates the Flemish nobility and the Hapsburgs, and alludes to specific regional circumstances. Taking as his starting point the hunting legislation of 1613, Rubens designed a scene illustrating the Hapsburg policies of law and order in the Spanish Netherlands and their restoration of the noble life-style, epitomized by hunting. Besides discussing other readings of the Hunt, this paper also considers the role of science in shaping Ruben’s representation of the prey.

Tintoretto’s paintings (now in S. Stefano) for the Venetian parish church of S. Margherita were designed to go in an aisle above the banco (bench and desk) of a Confraternity of the Sacrament; so were his paintings in S. Marcuola, S. Simeon Grande, and S. Polo. This article examines two topics hitherto virtually ignored: the physical and conceptual considerations attending a painting made for a banco, and the problem of designing a large composition for a narrow aisle. The rule books (mariegole) of the confraternities have furnished essential information, including previously unpublished dates for two of the projects.