Material Devotion

Erica Kinias College Student Voices Devotional representations of Saint Barbara, a Christian martyr whose legend extended across both Western and Eastern medieval worlds, flourished in fourteenth-century Europe. An examination of the Providence Saint Barbara reveals a sculptural tradition with a complex and colorful practices of medieval devotion to the cult of saints.

The Dramatic Effects of Subtlety

A Fifteenth-Century Virgin and Child Josie Johnson College Student Voices This late fifteenth-century Virgin and Child was created with subtlety, flexibility, and portability in mind. These features were central to its medieval use—and its use at the RISD Museum.

Christ in the House of Simon the Jew?

Contemporary Perceptions of Pharisees in Germany Michal Goldschmidt College Student Voices This article argues that Simon the Pharisee would have been viewed as an explicitly Jewish character by sixteenth-century viewers.

Crusading Saint

Lia Dykstra College Student Voices In the Middle Ages, several saints were represented as knights in art, making it difficult to identify RISD’s Crusading Saint. This article will explore his possible identities.

Drawing as Interpretation: The thousand languages of a pictograph

Noël Lefebvre Educators Construction with Central Anchor is an image that I return to frequently with students in K-12 classrooms and in the RISD Museum. Rendered in a muted, multicolored palette, the composition is organized in an orthogonal grid, and within each window of the grid, we find a pictograph. As a symbol representing a word or phrase, the pictograph is a pervasive and powerful agent of communication.

When Then Is Now

Martin Boyce's Connections to the RISD Museum Collection Dominic Molon Curator An exploration of the intriguing relationships between works in Martin Boyce's mid-career survey exhibition at the RISD Museum and objects by Alexander Calder, Charles and Ray Eames, and Dan Flavin in the museum's collection.

Photographing David Greene's LogPlug and other drawings

Erik Gould Portfolio

Ingres Study in Three Parts

Maureen C. O’Brien Curator Insights into Ingres's studio practice and clues to his intellectual process