‘Nec sepulcra legens vereor ne perdam memoriam.’ So reads the inscription added to Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione’s etching Temporalis Aeternitas, dated 1645. The Latin phrase, engraved on the plate probably under the initiative of its publisher, Giovanni Domenico De Rossi, is clearly addressed to the beholder. This learned quote, traceable to a classical source, actively engages with the imagery of Castiglione’s inventive composition while also inviting further speculation on the themes evoked; namely, the uncertainty about the nature of time and man’s relationship to time, eternity and memory.
In the print, four men and a young boy are shown in a ruined cemetery, gathered by a tomb inscribed TEMPORALIS AETERNITAS 1645. The scene, taking place in a nocturnal setting, is pervaded by a solemn mood. Both its iconography and its visual qualities imbue Temporalis Aeternitas with a sense of mystery. The Genoese artist’s penchant for technical virtuosity is combined with strategies aimed at captivating the beholder. Consequently, the viewer’s experience of looking at the print seems to parallel the very act of deciphering the carved inscription, being performed by the protagonists of the scene.
Departing from previous interpretations, which have focused on the issues of transience and time’s destructive power, I will argue that the work’s core theme is that of memory – connected to man’s place within the course of time – specifically within the framework of Counter Reformation Italy. Castiglione’s invention can be convincingly connected to the erudite interest generated by Antonio Bosio’s survey of the early Christian catacombs, Roma Sotterranea, as well as to specific Jesuit texts. This lecture will thus offer an interdisciplinary investigation of Castiglione’s print, and of a closely connected body of work, and contribute to our understanding of early modern conceptions and experiences of time as reflected in artistic artifacts.

The website is the result of a seminar at the University of New Mexico, for which students curated s museum show and developed an online exhibition catalog. The project focused on the ways prints and photographs from the 17th to the 19th centuries promoted and manipulated identity as constructed by artist and sitter. Looking at the physical nature and the use of printed portraits, this exhibition and website reflects on how images constructed public and private personas.

Conventionally, portraits reflect the likeness of a person. This exhibition challenges the traditional role of portraiture and the parameters by which it is defined. The selection of images exhibited in the gallery proposes the understanding of portraiture as a reflection of identity, which can be attributed to people, monuments, and regions.

Seminar students are the exclusive authors of this website. Susanne Anderson-Riedel edited the entries as well as supported the student's curatorial efforts.

Published in an issue on modern and contemporary artist's books, my article discusses a selection of livres d’artistes/livres de peintres from the collection of the Van Gogh Museum, which are often considered the predecessors of the contemporary artist’s book. The livres d’artistes mark the blurring of the boundaries between artist, writer, illustrator, and publisher in the production process of books. The book collection in the Van Gogh Museum has recently been digitized, and will be presented on the forthcoming website on fin de siècle printmaking.

This essay contribution to a new monograph about Emily Mason (b. 1932) provides an overview of the artist's inventive and unorthodox prints made throughout the last 25 years. Mason is known for breaking the established "rules" of printmaking by reimagining innovative applications of existing methods. Further distancing herself from printmaking’s conventions, Mason rarely produces editions, but instead pursues what she calls “unique states,” allowing her to explore a multitude of effects. The catalogue is richly illustrated with over 100 color plates.

Whistler and Roussel: Linked Visions, an exhibition catalogue that accompanies that current Art Institute show by the same title, explores the relationship and artistic collaboration between James McNeill Whistler and Theodore Roussel. The exhibition and catalogue offer a new perspective on the artists, their artistic circle, and the resulting innovation. The catalogue features an in-depth essay and an illustrated checklist accompanied by 214 images that feature the works of art that are in the show. Funded by the Lunder Foundation this catalogue utilizes the ChicagoCodeX, which served as the foundation of the open-source, digital publishing platform OSCI Toolkit (oscitoolkit.com).