Art History associate professor, Letha Ch'ien, has been awarded a full research fellowship with the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for her book on polytopos in Venetian art.
The project titled "Multiplicities of Time and Space in Venetian Images of Empire and Civic Identity from the Late Medieval through Early Modern Periods" is about Venetian cultural strategies of empire and managing a stratified multi-ethnic society through visual practices. Ch'ien has identified the idea of polytopos, a combination of multiple temporalities and places creating a many-space. By using a modal rather than stylistic analysis, her book is able to present the first coherent cultural model that explains what have previously been considered distinct unrelated historical epochs. Polytopos provides a new model for understanding cultural ideologies over time and moves beyond 'contact' as a model with discussing multicultural socities. The book addresses art historians, of course, but also scholars interested in thinking about art as ideology production in conjunction with politics, literature, and history.
Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, St. Mark Preaching in Alexandria, 1504-07. Oil on canvas. 340 x 770 c.m. Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera.