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The RUTGERS A.RT REVIEW Published by the Graduate Students of the Department of Art History at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Volume XIV, 1994 Rutgers Art Review Volume XIV Co-Editors: Pamela Phillips and Zbynek Smetana Editorial Board: Adrienne De Angelis Joanna Gardner Carol Guttzeit Alison Licalsi Maggie Patrick-Sternin Marice Rose Johanna Schiller James Zemaitis Faculty Advisor: Matthew Baigell Consulting Editor: Shelly Adams Advisory Board: Sarah Brett Smith Patricia Fortini Brown Frema Hofrichter Joan Marter Sarah Blake McHam The Editorial Board of the Rutgers Art Revieiv Volume XIV gratefully acknowledges the sound advice and expertise of the faculty of the Department of Art History, and in particular of our faculty advisor Matthew Baigell. We are also very grateful to all of the professional readers of papers submitted for this issue. The Editors of Volume XIV extend special thanks to Anand Commissiong, Office Director of the Catharine R. Stimpson Graduate Publications Office of Rutgers Univer­ sity, without whom this issue would never have been published. The Rutgers Art Review would like to extend appreciation and gratitude to Nikola Stojsin and Donald Fallon, members of the Graduate Student Association/Graduate Publications Committee, Rutgers University. Their continued financial assistance and professional support have been crucial to the ongoing success of the RAR. Benefactors ($1,000 or more) The Graduate School, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey The Graduate Student Association, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Contributors ($100 or more) Shelly Adams and Edgar Morales Robert Bergman Rona Goffen Sarah Blake McHam Friends ($25 or more) Barbara Anderman A.S. Arbury Evan Brownstein Arnold Victor Coonin Marianne Ficarra Maggie Patrick-Sternin Marice Rose David G. Wilkins The Rutgers Art Review is run entirely by graduate students of the Department of Art History of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, with assistance from the RAR's faculty advisor and advisory board. The RAR publishes articles on a wide range of topics concerning the history of art, architecture, and material culture, and considers submissions on art criticism, aesthetics, film, and photography. Each volume features an interview with a prominent art historian or a contemporary artist. The RAR may be found in over one hundred of the finest academic, public, and museum library collections in the U.S. and abroad. Articles appearing in the Rutgers Art Review are indexed/abstracted in America: History and Life, Artbibliographies Modern, Historical Abstracts, Repertoire d'Art et d'Archeologie, RILA, Ulrich's International Periodical Direc­ tory, and Zeitschrift fiir Kiinstgeschichte. Guidelines for Submissions: All graduate students of art history and related disciplines are eligible to submit papers, including those who have completed their Ph.D. degrees within the last year. Each manuscript must be an original, scholarly contribution, and only after the recommendation of the editorial board and two outside scholars may a paper be published. For matters of usage and form, authors should consult the most recent version of the Art Bulletin, noting the following exception: the RAR uses endnotes rather than footnotes, and does not augment them with a bibliography. Manuscripts submitted for consideration should be in duplicate. Once accepted for publication, final maunuscripts must be submitted both on paper and computer disk in a commonly employed wordprocessing program. Authors are responsible for supplying all photographs to be used, and for securing necessary rights to reproduce them. Photographs should be submitted with the final version of the manuscript. Copies of manuscripts and correspondence should be directed to: Editors Rutgers Art Review Department of Art History Voorhees Hall, CAC Rutgers University New Brunswick, NJ 08903 Copyright ©1996 by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America ISSN 0194-Q49X Typeset by Anand Commissiong, Pamela Phillips, and Zbynek Smetana at the Catharine R. Stimpson Publications Center, Graduate Student Association. Contents Volume XIV 1994 ARTICLES A Mystery Solved: The Discovery of a Sixteenth-Century Expulsion of Adam and Eve 1 Anne Turpin Three Rosette Ivory Caskets with Scenes from the Lives of Adam and Eve 5 Lilian H. Zirpolo Reconsidering the Influence of African Art on Cubism 29 Stephanie Peeples Johnson The Portrait of an Abbess: Lucrezia Agliardi Vertova 43 Cheryl A. Schutt Brown INTERVIEW An Interview with Marilyn Aronberg Lavin 53 Pamela Phillips and Zbynek Smetana Fig. 1 Dirk Vellert, The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, n.d., pen and brown ink, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Gift of Professor Alfred Moir Rutgers Art Review, 14 (1994) A Mystery Solved: The Discovery of a Sixteenth Century Expulsion of Adam and Eve Anne Turpin Previously given the descriptive title Nude Man and Woman Fleeing Man Bearing Torch, this drawing by Dirk Vellert in the collection of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art represents the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Paradise (Fig. I).1 The artist composed the work with elements seemingly incongruous to the biblical story: a torch, a wingless angel, extraneous figures, and monumental architecture. Though these factors initially prohibited a decisive subject identification, they can be inter­ preted through close observation and pictorial precedent. The monogram D*V, visible below the right figure's arm, was not identified as belonging to the Sixteenth Century Flemish artist Dirk Jacobsz. Vellert until Gustav Gliick established the connection in 1901.2 Before this time, the initialled works were attributed to such names as Dirk van Staren and Thiery van Star—the latter employed specifically by Adam Bartsch.3 In addition to the monogram, the artist often inscribed his works with the day, month, and year. Unfortunately, The Expulsion of Adam and Eve has no such date. A stained glass roundel, The Triumph of Time, is Vellert's earliest known work dated 21 April 1517; the latest is an engraving called The Flood of 1544.4 Most famous for his stained glass window designs, the artist is particularly noted for those at Kings College Chapel, Cambridge (c. 1515-1530). The original biblical account of the Expulsion, Genesis 3:24, reads: He [God] drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden He placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the tree of life. Upon close inspection, Vellert's drawing reveals that the torch held by the pursuer is actually a sword—the blade defined by faint contour lines stretching through the fire and smoke. This flaming sword establishes the initial link between the text and the drawing. This subject designation can be further grounded by showing compositional precedent for it. In his instrumental passage on the Expulsion in Iconographie de L'Art Chretien, Louis Reau explains that early Christian art followed the staging suggested in Genesis by placing God in the role of the expeller.5 After the thirteenth century, a new convention emerged: the pursuer became an angel bearing a sword. Reau further elaborates by specifying that the free hand of the angel is often placed on either Adam or Eve who is turned away. Among the more pertinent examples of this figural composition are those by Albrecht Durer (B.2) and Lucas van Leyden (B.4), both of whom were major influences on Vellert. Focusing on Lucas' 1529 Expulsion, Reau emphasizes that it breaks with the tradition of representing the event in somber slow- motion and, alternatively, puts the figures into flight "as if they had the devil at their heels."6 Though now the drawing does not seem as enigmatic, some unexplained elements remain. Why does the angel have no wings? Could the figure be God? According to Reau, this method of composing the story had ceased two hundred years previously. In addition, God is never depicted partially clad or carrying the flaming sword. Perhaps the drawing is unfinished, as the transparency of the sword's blade suggests. In apparent contradiction of the story of the first man and woman, two pairs of figures stand at the end of the tunnel. However, their shared presence with the foreground couple can be understood in terms of a continuous narrative. Lucas van Leyden demonstrates a more fully realized use of this technique in his 1512 woodcut The Fall of Man. In Vellert's drawing, the tunnel thrusts back into space to focus on the small, unfinished figures. The pair on the right is smaller and barely visible. Possibly, these two sets of figures are evidence of the artist's two separate attempts to render effectively a related moment in the Creation story. One of the more troublesome aspects of Vellert's version of the Expulsion, the monumental architecture, refuses to be dismissed as a mere "Gate of Paradise," a common pictorial convention added to the biblical text. Again, this oddity can be explained through a comparison to Lucas van Leyden's woodcut which includes a fortress-like structure with a city wall extending from it. A later version of the Lucas van Leyden woodcut (1516-19) with a similar, though reversed composition features a Romanesque church (B. 2). And yet another Creation scene depicting extensive architecture is that of Marcantonio Raimondi, an artist often suggested as an influence on Vellert (B. I).7 Frequently, Vellert employed similar monumental backdrops. He also repeatedly emphasized three-dimensional space with a variety of compositional devices such as the barrel vault (B. 8) and windows which open to distant views (B.9). It is interesting to note that his vaulted passageway in the Santa Barbara drawing by Vellert (Fig.l) is not unlike that of Lucas' depiction. Vellert's inclusion of architecture in The Expulsion serves purposes other than the creation of a more dramatic and focused drawing.

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