Felicia Marlene Else

Professor

Art and Art History

Contact

Email

felse@gettysburg.edu

Phone

(717) 337 - 6142

Box

Campus Box 2452

Address

Schmucker Hall
Room 112
300 North Washington St.
Gettysburg, PA 17325-1400

Website

curriculum vitae

Education

PhD Washington University in St. Louis, 2003

Academic Focus

Italian Renaissance Art

Felicia Else has been pursuing research on water, art, cartography, natural history and festivals in 16^th-century Florence, including the well-known Neptune Fountain in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence by Bartolomeo Ammannati. She is the author of The Politics of Water in the Art and Festival of Medici Florence: from Neptune Fountain to Naumachia (Routledge, 2019) and has published articles in Burlington Magazine, Sixteenth Century Journal, Imago Mundi and Sculpture Journal. She has contributed various scholarly studies to academic publications on water and wine fountains, pufferfish in the Renaissance and artistic representations of naval battles and water management. She is a co-editor and contributor to a forthcoming book, Giants and Dwarfs in European Art & Culture, c. 1350-1700: Real, Imagined, Metaphorical for Monsters and Marvels. Alterity in the Medieval and Early Modern Worlds (Amsterdam University Press).

Her teaching draws on her passion for art, history and study abroad. She recently served as the Resident Director for the Gettysburg College Interdisciplinary Study Abroad Program in England, leading an onsite course in London on Museums, Repatriation and Decolonization. Her courses cover art from Antiquity to the Baroque as well as a First-year Seminar on Art, Money and Power in Renaissance Florence. Working with Kay Etheridge in Biology, she helped students curate exhibitions that combined art and science in Schmucker Art Gallery, “The Gettysburg Cabinet” (2012), “Wonders of Nature and Artifice” (2017) and "Artful Nature and the Legacy of Maria Sibylla Merian" (2019). For images, videos and student research from these remarkable exhibitions, please visit: http://wonder-cabinet.sites.gettysburg.edu/2012/ , http://wonder-cabinet.sites.gettysburg.edu/2017/, and https://wonder-cabinet.sites.gettysburg.edu/artful-nature/. She has also promoted the use digital technology in art history, directing student research in the development of dynamic interactive websites on Renaissance works in Gettysburg College's Special Collections. These include sites by Daniella Snyder '18 on a 17th century Dutch World Map at http://daniellasnyder.sites.gettysburg.edu/maps_as_art/ and Sophia Gravenstein '22 on a Portrait of Martin Luther by the Workshop of Lucas Crananch the Younger at https://special-collections.sites.gettysburg.edu/martin-luther/gettysburg-colleges-luther/.

Courses Taught

An introduction to Western art from about 25,000 BC to the 21st century. Students learn some of the many relationships of visual art to various environmental contexts and some of the ways humans have employed art as a means to respond to life's experiences and also to influence those experiences. Additionally, students learn various methodologies of approaching art, such as formalist, feminist, Marxist. Through practice, students learn techniques of visual analysis and build skills to evaluate visual images.
Introductory survey of the art and architecture of Ancient Greece and Rome, beginning with the Bronze Age in the Aegean to the reign of emperor Constantine. The course covers the history, culture and social context of major works produced by these civilizations and analyzes developments in style, taste and use of materials. Recommended ARTH 125. Offered once a year. ARTH 201 and CLA 201 are cross-listed.
Introductory survey of the art of the Northern Renaissance, ranging from the meticulous detail of Jan van Eyck to the superb workmanship of Albrecht Dürer to the mysterious and grotesque figures of Hieronymus Bosch. In lectures, readings and class discussions, students explore the artistic styles, history, culture and social context of works produced during the 15th-16th centuries in Northern Europe. Topics include the rise of naturalism in the Renaissance, the pioneering advances in oil painting and printmaking, the use of “disguised symbolism”, portraiture and genre subjects, and the impact of religious conflict and the Reformation.
An overview of art and architecture produced across cultures from the 14th-17th centuries. The course looks at the vibrant array of visual works from different areas of the world to de-center the traditional Euro-centered definitions of “Renaissance” and incorporate diverse perspectives, techniques, materials, iconographies, social expectations and cultural contexts. This course draws on new approaches to art in a global context and explores how different geographies interacted with each other through the circulation of goods, resources and knowledge.
Survey of the art and architecture of the Italian Renaissance from the thirteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth century. Course explores the characteristics of this important historical period, traditionally defined as a time of rebirth. Class material introduces students to primary sources and biographies of prominent artists, including Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, as well as the broader historical context of patronage, politics and social customs. Prerequisite: ARTH 115, or 125, or 201, 202; or permission of the instructor. Offered once a year.
Art Study of painting, sculpture, and architecture in Europe, from the first decades after the Reformation through their transformation under the impact of the Counter Reformation. Artistic developments in Italy are discussed, as well as allied approaches in northern Europe and Spain. Works of some of the world's best known artists are examined, including Bernini, Caravaggio, Rubens, Rembrandt, Vermeer, El Greco, Velasquez, and Poussin. Prerequisite: ARTH 115, or 125, or any 200-level art history course; or permission of the instructor. Alternate years.
What makes a city great? We will explore this question by looking at one of Europe’s most prominent cities at the height of its power, Renaissance Florence. This class will be a stimulating introductory survey to the works of art and architecture that have made this city famous. We will look at a rich variety of multimedia sources and interdisciplinary writings that will bring this culture to life, getting to know influential personalities from the Medici to Michelangelo. Many issues still speak to us today—how material wealth and political power clash with ethical beliefs and religious devotion. We will explore research on gender, sexuality, social class, race and the impact of colonial power and trade in an emerging globalized world. From high art to street culture, from frescoes to fashion, from local Madonnas to marvels from the so-called “New World”, we will get to know this city inside and out. There will be a special focus on the study of art and culture beyond the classroom, as we take a field trip to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and hear about the rich experiences of travel abroad by guest speakers from the Center for Global Education.

Article "Bartolomeo Ammannati: Moving Stones, Managing Waterways and Building an Empire for Duke Cosimo I de' Medici," Sixteenth Century Journal 42/2 (Summer 2011), 393-425.
Article “‘La maggior porcheria del mondo'—documents for Ammannati’s Neptune Fountain,” Burlington Magazine, 147 (July 2005), pp. 487-491
Article “Spectacles of Fire and Water: Performing the Destructive Forces of Early Modern Naval Battles” Performance and Spectacle in Early Modern Europe, eds. by Margaret Shewring and Leila Zammar, Arti d
Book The Politics of Water in the Art and Festivals of Medici Florence: From Neptune Fountain to Naumachia Routledge
Article "Globefish, Sturgeon and Trout: Duke Cosimo I de' Medici, Bachiacca and the Consuming Culture of Fish," Medicea. Rivista interdisciplinare di studi medicei, n. 9 (June, 2011), 20-29