Undergraduate Research in Egypt

Matt Treasure repairs an early 5th/late 4th century BCE Phoenician Torpedo Jar found at Mendes, a major center of perfume production in antiquity. This jar was used to transport oil scented with cedar chips used in manufacturing perfume.

Matt Treasure repairs an early 5th/late 4th century BCE Phoenician Torpedo Jar found at Mendes, Egypt.

Senior Art History major Matt Treasure has recently been awarded a Grant-in-Aid of Scholarship from Truman’s Office of Student Research. He will use these funds to travel to Egypt in December where he will photograph and sketch the wall reliefs and architraves at the Temple of Esna. This is part of the research for his senior thesis in Art History.

Last summer Matt participated in an archaeological field school at the ancient city of Mendes located in the north-central Egyptian Delta. Members of the Mendes Expedition repaired broken pottery, documented, identified, and sketched lithics, small finds, and bones, and excavated two locations inside the ancient city’s walls.

Members of the team also had the opportunity to visit various museums, temples, pyramids, and archaeological sites throughout Egypt. Some of the highlights of the Mendes study tour were pyramids at Giza, Saqqara, and Dahshur, temples at Karnak, Luxor, Dendera, Philae, Kom Ombo, Abydos, and Edfu, and archaeological sites from Aswan to Alexandria.

Members of the Mendes Expedition at the Avenue of Sphinxes just outside the Karnak Temple Complex. Matt is on the left of the lower row.

Members of the Mendes Expedition at the Avenue of Sphinxes just outside the Karnak Temple Complex. Matt is on the left of the lower row.

Alumni News

We were thrilled to see that the research of Art Department alumnus Dr. John Garton (BA:  Art History and Studio Art, 1997) has been getting a lot  of circulation recently in the Boston area.  While Dr. Garton’s Ph.D. and current research continue his Senior Thesis  focus at Truman on painting in Renaissance Venice, he maintains an active secondary specialization in Latin American art, especially art of the pre-Columbian period.  Most recently his interdisciplinary, collaborative research on Olmec sculpture has resulted in a short piece in the Boston Globe and a video feature which will be displayed in the galleries of the Worcester Art Museum and can be viewed on line.  Dr. Garton is Associate Professor of Art History at Clark University in Massachusetts.  Congratulations!

Grant Kniffen (BSE: Art, 1984) stopped by when he was in town this September, when he told Bob Jones, Professor of Art, that he retired in 2013 after teaching 27 years at Parkway North High School in Saint Louis, Missouri. In 1995, Grant was selected Secondary Art Teacher of the Year by the Missouri Art Education Association. He was Parkway School District’s High School Teacher of the Year during the 1996-1997 school year. You can see his work in a variety of mediums on his website.

If you are an alum and have news to share, please write to us at art@truman.edu!  We’d love to hear from you.

 

Survey II students explore Renaissance manuscripts

Special Collections Ren mss 027(The picture above was taken during last year's visit to Special Collections with director of Special Collections Elaine Doak)

Students in Survey II (ART223 Art in Europe and America from the Renaissance to the Present Day) spent this morning's class time exploring Truman State University's Renaissance manuscript holdings.  Students paged through and studied French, Spanish, Italian, and Latin manuscripts dating from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and including the University's beautiful late fifteenth-century book of hours. This semester's visit also featured manuscripts on loan to the University from The Remnant Trust (on view in the west display corridor until November 6, 2009), including a mid-fifteenth-century Latin manuscript with beautiful illuminated initials.  The visit connected with class study of Renaissance art history and students' research work with primary sources. 

Special Collections Ren mss 006 (Page spread from the Book of Hours (France, late fifteenth century) showing the Adoration of the Magi on the left page)

Special Collections is on the third floor of Pickler Memorial Library (PML303) and is open Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. so go see these manuscripts yourself!  http://library.truman.edu/departments/specialcollections.asp