Elizabeth S. Bolman
Elizabeth S. Bolman is Chair of the Department of Art History and Art, and Elsie B. Smith Chair in the Liberal Arts. She engages with the visual culture of the eastern Mediterranean in the late ancient and Byzantine periods. Professor Bolman is best known for her work in Egypt, in which she has demonstrated the vitality of Christian Egyptian art and a new understanding of the nature of artistic production there in the early Byzantine period. She edited and was the principal contributor to the award-winning Monastic Visions: Wall Paintings in the Monastery of St. Antony at the Red Sea (Yale University Press and the American Research Center in Egypt, 2002) and to The Red Monastery Church: Beauty and Asceticism in Upper Egypt (Yale University Press and the American Research Center in Egypt, 2016). This recent book is the product of over a decade-long multidisciplinary project that she founded and directed, which included cleaning and conservation of the Red Monastery’s spectacular paintings. She is the recipient of fellowships and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, Fulbright program, National Endowment for the Humanities, Dumbarton Oaks, American Research Center in Egypt, and United States Agency for International Development.
Recent Department News
The Department of Art History and Art is delighted to announce the hire of Dr. Rachel Quist, who will be joining CWRU in the fall. Dr. Quist specializes in Buddhist visual culture of medieval Japan, and is especially interested in the interactions between Buddhist icons, their worshipers, and their natural environs. She received her doctoral degree from the University of Kansas with the dissertation “Forging Bonds through Icons and Ritual: Imperial Patronage of Daigoji,” which illuminates the centrality of sculptural icons within the complex interplay of medicinal rituals, imperial politics, and the cosmic worldview of premodern Japan.
Grad Awards Winners Announced
Art History students swept the grad awards this year! Cecily Hughes was named winner of this year’s Ruth Barber Moon Award, while Megan Alves and Claudia Haines were honored with Graduate Dean’s Instructional Excellence awards; Claire Sumner received the Pancoast; and Sarah Frisbie, Luke Hester, and Jillian Kruse received Friends of Art departmental awards. Congratulations to the winners!
Tracing Jewish Histories wins the MAA grant for Innovation in Community Building
Congratulations to our Mellon Fellow Reed O’Mara who, with her co-convenor Laura Feigen (the Courtauld), received the grant that will further support this international symposium that brings together fabulous speakers from all over the world and features a curatorial panel on the acquisition and display of Jewish material culture in museums.
Join us for the Provost’s Forum for Breaking Boundaries, where Professor Elina Gertsman and Maggie Popkin will present their ground-breaking research into mixed-reality modeling and their collaborative work with institutions across campus! More information on the event here.
Please join the department in congratulating MA candidate Madalyn Fox on her recent publication in CAN Journal! The article discusses the riveting work of sculptor Hannah Bates, whose work is now on view at the Sculpture Center. https://canjournal.org/reviving-the-rust-belt-hannah-batess-aggregate-at-the-sculpture-center/
Congratulations to Nikki DeLuca on the Publication of her First Book!
We are utterly delighted to announce that our very own alumna Dr. Nikki DeLuca just published her first book, Shades of Meaning: Shadows in Medieval Manuscript Illumination. Through the lens of fifteenth-century manuscript painting, the book investigates visual, metaphorical, and supernatural shadows in art to discover what they meant to the medieval viewer. Click here to go to the table of contents, acknowledgments, and other preliminary matter — and look out for copies at the KSL and the Ingalls!
Vivian Lewis presents at Vagantes
Congratulations to Vivian Lewis, our very own graduate and now an MA student in library science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who presented a version of her BA capstone, “Stronger Than Lions: Meaning-Making in a Medieval Jewish Aquamanile,” at the 24th Annual Vagantes Conference on Medieval Studies, co-hosted this year by UNC and Duke! This was a full-circle event for Vivian, who chaired a session as an undergraduate when CWRU hosted Vagantes just a few years ago. Vivian’s paper examined the Walters aquamanile, a rare 13th-century bronze lion-shaped vessel inscribed with a Hebrew prayer, to uncover a nuanced narrative of Jewish identity, resilience, and cultural adaptation in medieval Europe. One of the conference attendees, a fellow of the Medieval Academy, wrote to Prof. Gertsman about Vivian’s wonderful “presentation and contextualization of this amazing piece,” and added that “the depth of knowledge apparent in her answers to questions was truly impressive.” Well done, Vivian!
April 2: Julius Fund Lecture in Byzantine Art
Please join us for the annual Julius Fund Lecture in Byzantine Art presented this year by Pau Stephenson of Towson University! Entitled “Devastating Beauty: Some Reflections on Two Roman Things in the Cleveland Museum of Art,” the talk will take place at the Eldred Auditorium on CWRU's campus on...
Congratulations to Prof. Erin Benay and Prof. Elina Gertsman who were both nominated for the 2024-2025 Jackson Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Mentoring! The Jackson Award celebrates faculty and staff who have guided a student in their academic and career paths; fostered the student's long-term personal development; challenged the...