How important is medium for meaning? Can we even distinguish the two? Blek le Rats’ "Venus in Mexico" forces us to consider how meaning intertwines with medium.

When a group of Ethiopian artifacts went on special display at the V&A in 2018, they reopened an 11-year debate about the state of these objects and their repatriation. As the V&A faced mounting pressure to confront its colonial legacy over the return of the Mäqdäla Crown—an artifact bound to a defining moment in Anglo-Ethiopian history. Adapted from a seminar paper the author wrote for HIST0150K: Curators, Hoarders, and Looters during the Spring 2024 semester at Brown University.

As the Metropolitan Museum of Art opens its newest exhibition on Raphael’s works, Alexandra reflects on his piece Portrait of Young Woman with Unicorn alongside Leonardo da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine. In particular, she considers symbolism of animals and the relationship between technology and visual analysis.

The Culture Wars of the eighties saw a struggle for dominance between queer rights and conservatism. Campbell considers how prominent artists at the time pursued confrontational thematizations of queerness that destabilized public consensus on sexuality, race, and religion, transforming art into a confrontational political battleground.

Vanni’s painting of The Virgin and Child Appearing to Saint Francis of Assisi guides the viewer through a theatrical ultra-reality showing Saint Francis’s spiritual experience and the beauty of the divine.

Adam discusses the presence of the sciapod within medieval illustrations, examining it in light of St. Augustine’s views on the subject of monstrous races in The City of God and Camille’s modern view of marginal illustrations.