Mapping the Renaissance: Worldmaking in Europe from the 13th to 16th Century

Maps in the Renaissance could take many forms, not all of which (or even most, perhaps) were designed for navigational use. Some maps formed monumental decorative schemes, painted directly onto the walls of lavish buildings, while others appeared in printed books for a more general (though literate) audience. These printed images recorded the forms of islands, distant lands, and so-called “portraits” of modern cities. These maps also appeared in context with textual descriptions, creating a partnership of word and image. Many took propagandistic views, either political or religious, making judicious representations of geography to fit specific frameworks.


As a time of exploration and discovery, the Renaissance saw political, religious, and geographic identities being forged, as well as a renewed thirst for knowledge of the world. As word spread of new and exciting places that few would ever get the chance to see, maps were available to fulfill that desire.

This exhibit, created by students from Professor Leslie Geddes’s Spring 2020 course Mapping the Renaissance, closely examines maps found in books from Tulane University Special Collection’s Rare Books collection and the Latin American Library. The foremost point that this project illuminates is that maps are truly diverse objects, and the selected objects demonstrate this point. The earliest image in the following exhibition is the Hereford Mappa Mundi from the 13th century, a monumental painted map that will set the stage for the following centuries. From the library’s own collection of early printed books, we have included the Nuremberg Chronicle, the Cosmographia, and the Isolario, all from the 15th and 16th centuries. Finally, we have curated a display of medieval and Renaissance devices used for navigation, offering a sort of foil to the maps at hand that did not serve this function themselves.
-Carly Rose Lacoste

View the complete exhibit online: https://exhibits.tulane.edu/exhibit/mapping-the-renaissance/mapmaking-tools/

Curated By: Members of Dr. Leslie Geddes's Spring 2020 course "Mapping the Renaissance":

Madeline Brown, Rachel Cline, Jennifer Fialkowski, Lily Gagliano, Olivia Geier, Eliana Klein, Carly Rose Lacoste, Nicolette Levy, Alexa Prounis, Sabrina Romano, Meg Roppolo, Darby Trimble, and Willem Vandermeulen

With assistance from Eli Boyne, Rare Book Library Associate, Tulane University Special Collections

Astrolabe diagram: Madeleine Brown and Willem VanderMeulen

Art History Student Art Awards

The Newcomb Art Department is pleased to announce the 2020 Art History Student Art Awards.

The Marilyn Brown Award for Outstanding Art History Major  Carly LaCoste
Carly LaCoste has been an exceptional student and citizen for her entire career at Tulane. Her thesis for the 4 plus 1 MA program on images of the Last Judgement in French medieval manuscripts promises to be thoughtful, original, and impactful. Carly's scholarship is all of her courses is outstanding; she writes clear papers and is highly motivated and self-directed. Her professors consistently remark that her work in seminars is already on par with graduate student work. She will make a wonderful contribution to the field of art history.


Nell Pomeroy O'Brien Award for a Sophomore or Junior in Art History   Kamryn Pigg
Kamryn is an exemplary art history student.  She has an exceptional ability to synthesize key ideas from lectures, discussions, and readings, and her visual analysis skills are truly impressive.  Her written work and contributions to class discussions consistently reflect the sophistication of her engagement with the course material and her deep curiosity about art history.  It has been a true pleasure having her in class.”


Henry Stern Prize Paper in Art History Rachel Cline
'She Lives in Vice’: Depreciation of Aztec Cultural Practices Through Images of the Auiani and Noblewomen in the Florentine Codex
 “‘She Lives in Vice’: Depreciation of Aztec Cultural Practices Through Images of the Auiani and Noblewomen in the Florentine Codex,” was written for Prof. Elizabeth Boone’s seminar on Mexican Manuscript Painting in fall 2019.  Rachel’s outstanding paper investigates the visual and textual descriptions of Aztec women found in the monumental encyclopedia of Bernardino de Sahagún, revealing how Sahagún’s artists framed female identities by drawing on imagery from both the indigenous and European traditions.  Moreover, she successfully argues that these artists and scribes employed many of the same visual and text tropes for Aztec noblewomen that they used to describe auiani (“pleasure women”), creating a paradox that effectively undercut the honor of Aztec noblewomen.  Rachel dug deep into the specialist literature with keen insight and crafted a well-supported argument that raises our understanding of the cultural mediation between Aztecs and Europeans in early colonial Mexico.


Marilyn Brown Senior Honor Scholar Award   Kate Moranski
Kate’s senior honor thesis, “Visual Activism in the Photography of Carrie Mae Weems,” examines two of the artist’s photographic series from the perspective of the artist as political activist. Kate argues that Weems’ work combines text with appropriated imagery to create photographs that encourage her viewers to consider the ways representation can shift the politics of race, gender and class. Although Carrie Mae Weems’ work receives a fresh “rethink” in the thesis, Kate also outlines the ways in which contemporary artists in general can and do work toward the realization of visual activism.

Studio Art Student Art Awards

The Newcomb Art Department is pleased to announce the 2020 Studio Art Student Art Awards.

Class of 1914 award    Amelia Wiygul

Through the completion of majors in both Studio Art and Environmental Studies, Amelia Wiygul has demonstrated exceptional dedication to her academic and artistic pursuits at Tulane. Her work with drawing, painting, and mixed media presents unique visions of the natural world, including an ambitious hand-drawn eco-feminist graphic novel that envisions a future in which urban spaces and nature are no longer separate. Amelia’s commitment to her work is unwavering, and her interdisciplinary artistic endeavors offer a much-needed sense of hope for a sustainable environmental future.


Alberta “Rusty” Collier Memorial Award in 3D Art   Andrew Mahaffie

Andrew Mahaffie uses his sculpture as a reflection of his inner state with a focus on time.  He works with glass and metal to create both large scale and small detail heavy pieces.  In his larger works, he features domestic bottle glass and a variety of casting techniques to create visually dominating sculptures.  The recycled material creates a unique ability to have different opacities within the glass based on thickness, and the use of hot casting techniques adds a powerful physicality and prominent texture to the works.  In his smaller sculpture he works with blowing and hot sculpting techniques to create highly detailed dramatic series.  His adoption of so many different styles of working with glass reflects his love and fascination with the material and a desire to continue to accumulate techniques to shape it.


Sandy Chism Award in Painting    Elizabeth Hopmann

In her four years at Tulane, Elizabeth Hopmann has fearlessly embraced the expansive potential of ceramic and painting mediums.  Her experimentation and deep curiosities have sharpened, solidified, and refined her craft far beyond what instructors could individually impart.  She is truly and impressively a student of the material. Recent work offers a resolute self and social awareness as well as the pleasure and multivalency of paint as a communicative medium.  Elizabeth's work possesses the rare and promising balance of being simultaneously vulnerable and imposing.

Alberta “Rusty” Collier Memorial Award in 2D Art   Isabella Scott

Current and former professors of Isabella Scott have admired her sharp-eyed and steady focus, as well as her unwavering consistency as a student and painter.  Her attendance to class is foremost an attendance to her craft, which she has pursued rigorously for four years.  The images that come from her hand are fashioned with meticulous precision, tenderness, honesty, and fidelity.  Isabella's paintings emerge from what is personal and forthright, yet in their cumulative variety offer something magnetic and mysterious.

Nell Pomeroy O’Brien Award      Zora Parker

Zora operates under a quiet sense of mindfulness. She takes authority in her decisive artist practice but is not so stern that she is always open to suggestions and criticism. In class her works have shown her willingness to share her love of creatures and insects as well as her fascination with the fantastical. My hope is that she continues to develop her practice in printmaking because of her drive and attention to detail. She can truly excel in this medium.

Juanita Gonzales Memorial Fund in Ceramics     Emma Conroy

Emma Conroy has distinguished herself as a BFA student, presenting a successful thesis exhibition that investigates the individual's relationship to vulnerability, risk and power. Working in ceramics and glass, Emma had developed exciting new sculptures that reference organic forms such as spines and bones, suggesting structures that are dynamic and simultaneously fragile and menacing,  Emma's thoughtful work process reveals her long term commitment to visual art, and her interest in a dialog with a wide range of viewers. In her time at Tulane, Emma has gained excellent and comprehensive skills in ceramics, spanning clay fabrication, glaze experimentation and firing a wide range of kilns. Always a team played in the studio, her positive outlook and willingness to share information and help her colleagues, contribute to make her this years outstanding candidate for the Juanita Gonzales Memorial prize in Ceramics.