Mary Edwards

Mary Douglas Edwards, PhD, publishes on the painting and sculpture of late medieval Italy, Native American art & architecture and twentieth-century painting. Her primary interests are iconography, text-and-image problems, the handling of pictorial narrative, the Gesamtkunstwerk, and artistic patronage. She has traveled extensively in Europe, especially in Italy and also visited numerous Native American communities and archaeological sites. At Pratt she has taught Native American Art and Architecture; Giotto’s World; Twentieth Century Art; Telling Stories with Pictures; and the First Year Survey. In 2020 she published Doppelgangers, Alter Egos and Mirror Images in Western Art 1840-2010 (McFarland) which she edited, contributing four articles and an afterword. In 2012, together with Elizabeth Bailey, she published Gravity in Art: Essays on Weight and Weightlessness in Painting, Sculpture and Photography (McFarland), contributing two chapters. In 1978 she published Wind Chant and Night Chant Sand Paintings: Ten Paintings from the Bush Collection of Religion and Culture, Columbia University, co-authored with N. C. Christopher Couch. Edited by Thomas Shaw, the catalog was prepared for the 1978 exhibit at the Oklahoma Museum of Art, “100 Years of Native American Painting.” Dr. Edwards’ articles have appeared in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Studies in Iconography, Source: Notes in the History of Art, Il Santo: rivista francescana, Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, and elsewhere. She has chaired sessions and read papers at the meetings of the College Art Association, the International Congress on Medieval Studies, and the Southeastern College Art Conference. A life member of the Art Students League, she also has read papers before the Columbia Seminar on the Renaissance. Her awards include a Samuel H. Kress Dissertation Fellowship; an NEH Travel to Collections Grant; the Delmas Foundation Grant; and several of Pratt Institute’s Faculty Development Fund Awards. She was past president of the 14th-century Society, a former member of the Executive Council of Southeastern Medieval Association and a two-term associate of the editorial board of Medieval Perspectives.

B.S., M.L.S., M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D., Columbia University

PUBLICATIONS : BOOKS

Doppelgangers, Alter Egos and Mirror Images in Western Art 1840-2010, Critical Essays, editor and contributor, McFarland Publishing Company, 2020 

Gravity in Art: Essay on Weight and Weightlessness in Painting, Sculpture and Photography, co-edited with Elizabeth Bailey, McFarland Publishing Company, 2012.

PUBLICATIONS : EXHIBITION CATALOG

Wind Chant and Night Chant Sand Paintings, New York, 1978 (with N. C.  Christopher Couch; edited by Thomas Shaw).

PUBLICATIONS : ENCYCLOPEDIA ENTRIES 

“Simone Martini,” in Key Figures in Medieval Europe: An Encyclopedia, eds. Richard K. Emmerson and Sandra Clayton-Emmerson, London: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, 2016, pp. 454-457.

“Lorenzo Maitani,” in Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia, 2, ed. Christopher Kleinhenz, New York, Routledge, 2004, pp. 671-72.

“Simone Martini,” in Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia, 2, ed. Christopher Kleinhenz, New York, Routledge, 2004, pp. 688-91.

PUBLICATIONS : ARTICLES 

“The Idea of the Double in Text and/or Image from Antiquity to the end of the 20th Century,” in Doppelgangers, Alter Egos and Mirror Images … (See above, “PUBLICATIONS: BOOKS”) pp. 3-30

“Narcissus in the Art of Waterhouse, Dalí, Kusama, Collishaw and

Muñoz,” in Doppelgangers, Alter Egos and Mirror Images… (See above, “PUBLICATIONS: BOOKS”), pp. 84-97.

“Doubling, Pairing and Halving in Some Self-Portraits by Frida Kahlo,” in Doppelgangers, Alter Egos and Mirror Images … (See above, “PUBLICATIONS: BOOKS”) pp. 129-143

“Morrisseau’s Thunderbird with Inner Spirit (circa 1978) in Doppelgangers, Alter Egos and Mirror Images … (See above, “PUBLICATIONS: BOOKS”) pp. 151-161.

“Afterword,” in Doppelgangers, Alter Egos and Mirror Images … (See above, “PUBLICATIONS: BOOKS”) pp. 215-222. 

“Cross-dressing in the Arena Chapel: Giotto’s Virtue Fortitude Reexamined,” in Receptions of Antiquity, Constructions of Gender in European Art, 1300-1600, ed. Marice Rose and Alison C. Poe, Brill Publishers, Leiden, 2015, pp. 37-79.

“Masaccio’s Shivering Neophyte” in Source: Notes in the History of Art, XXXIV, No. 3 (Spring 2015), pp. 9-16.

“A Memento Mori Motif in Nicola Pisano’s Pulpit in the Baptistery at Pisa,” Medieval Perspectives, XXVII, 2012, pp. 27-45.

“ ‘Straight and without Deviation’: the Mission of Saint Lucy as Told in Fresco by Altichiero, 1379-84,” Il Santo: rivista francescana di storia dottrina arte, LII, fasc. 1-2, 2012, pp. 259-275.

“An Analysis of Diverse Medieval Images within Their Cultural Context,”

Medieval Perspectives,  XXIV, 2009 [2011], pp. 88-126.

“Monstra et Narra: Mea Peregrinatio Recens…,” Medieval Perspectives, XXIII, 2008 [2011], pp. 130-153.

“On Duccio’s Christ and the Woman from Samaria, Painted for the Maestà,” in Source: Notes in the History of Art, XXIX, No. 4, 2010, pp.10-15.

“Parallelism in the Frescoes in the Oratory of St. George in Padua (1379-84),” Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, LXXI, number 1, 2008, pp. 53-72.

“The Symbolic and Expressive Use of Gravity and Levity in the Oratory of St. George in Padua: Altichiero’s Debt to Giotto,” Il Santo: rivista francescana di storia dottrina arte, XLVI, 2006, pp. 385-98.

“The Circular Plan in Altichiero’s Cycle of St. Lucy in the Oratory of St. George in Padua (1379-1384) and Its Impact on Masaccio,” in Watching Art : Writings in Honor of James Beck = Studi di storia dell’ arte in onore di James Beck, eds. Lynn Catterson and Mark Zucker, Todi (Perugia),  Ediart, 2006, pp. 129-41.

“Singing the Survey,” SECAC Review, XV, number 1, 2006, pp. 23-30.

“Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights Ploughed Under, Reseeded, and Harvested Anew,” in Medieval Perspectives, XXI, 2005, pp. 38-57.

“Duccio’s Entry into Jerusalem: A New Reading,” in Studies in Iconography, XXV, 2004, pp. 47-88.

“Lorenzo Maitani,” in Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia, 2, ed. Christopher Kleinhenz, New York, Routledge, 2004, pp. 671-72.

“Simone Martini,” in Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia, 2, ed. Christopher Kleinhenz, New York, Routledge, 2004, pp. 688-91.

“Ambrogio Lorenzetti and the Arch of Constantine,” in Proceedings of the Tenth and Eleventh Annual Meetings of the Oklahoma Conference of Art Historians, 2000 and 2001, ed. Margaret Flansburg, Edmond, OK and Oklahoma City, University of Central Oklahoma and Oklahoma

City University, 2004, pp. 74-92.

“The Exceptionally Large Person of Cerne Abbas (Dorset): A Feminist Reading,” in Medieval Perspectives, XVII, part 2, 2002, pp. 68-78.

“Leaps of Faith: The Metaphorical Use of Gravity in the Portinari Altarpiece,” in Medieval Perspectives, XVII, part 1, 2002, pp. 85-104.

“Prophets of the Savior: The Impact of the Dioscuri of the Quirinal on Some Fourteenth-Century Paintings,” Medieval Perspectives, XVI, 2001, pp. 39-49.

“Reflections on Two Works by Simone Martini,” Medieval Perspectives, XV, 2000, pp. 74-81.

“The Handling of Narrative in the Cycle of St. Catherine of Alexandria in the Oratory of St. George in Padua (1379-1384),” Il Santo: rivista francescana di storia dottrina arte, XXXVII, 1997, pp. 147-163.

“Bertram G. Goodhue (1869-1924),” in Long Island Country Houses and their Architects, 1860-1940, ed. Robert MacKay, et al., New York and London, 1997, pp. 193-197.

“A Possible Antique Model for a Motif in the Exorcism of the Demons at Arezzo in San Francesco at Assisi,” Studies in Iconography, XIV, 1995, pp. 188-206.

“Semi-circle and Square in Piero della Francesca’s Baptism of Christ, Their Meaning, Their Antecedents and Their Possible Debt to Altichiero,” Il Santo: rivista Antoniana di storia dottrina arte, XXXIII, 1993, pp. 299-312.

“The Intersection of Art with Science and Technology: A Selected and Annotated Bibliography,” Science & Technology Libraries, XII, no. 1, 1991, pp. 109-122.

“Petrarch and the Phoenix in the Chapel of San Felice in the Basilica of Sant’ Antonio in Padua,” Il Santo: rivista Antoniana di storia dottrina arte, XXXI, 1991, pp. 379-402.

“How Much is That Painting Worth? An Essay on the Value of Art,” Art Education, XLIV, no. 1, January 1991, pp. 913.

“The Expression of Time in the Frescoes of the Oratory of St. George in Padua: The Place of Altichiero and Avanzo in the Tradition Established by Giotto and Carried Forward by Masaccio,” Il Santo: rivista Antoniana di storia dottrina arte, XXX, 1990, pp. 316.

“The Impact of Rome on Giotto,” Bollettino del Museo Civico di Padova, LXXIX, 1990, pp. 135-154.

“A Roman Source for a Panel in Duccio’s Maestà,” Source: Notes in the History of Art, X, no. 1, 1990, pp. 913.

“Altichiero as Architect,” Il Santo: rivista Antoniana di storia dottrina arte, XXIX, 1989, pp. 303331.

“Apollo and Daphne in the Arena Chapel,” Bollettino del Museo Civico di Padova, LXXVII, 1988, pp. 1535.

“Picasso and Mantegna,” Source: Notes in the History of Art, VIII, no. 1, 1988, pp. 3440.

“The Meaning of the Apertures in the Oratory of St. George in Padua (ca. 13761384),” Il Santo: rivista Antoniana di storia dottrina arte, XXVIII, 1988, pp. 5769.

“The Chapel of San Felice in Padua as Gesamtkunstwerk,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, XLVII, 1988, pp. 160176.

“The Holly and the Ivy [Leaf Symbolism in a Fresco by Giotto],” Bollettino del Museo Civico di Padova, LXXVI, 1987, pp. 113125.

“Two Sentences,” It Was a Dark and Stormy Night: The Best (?) from the Bulwer-Lytton Contest, compiled by Scott Rice, London, New York, Ontario, Victoria and Auckland, Penguin Books, 1984, pp. 54 and 70-71.

“The Condottiere Raimondino de’ Lupi, His Tomb in Padua and Its Influence on the Memorials of Other Condottieri in the Veneto,” Athanor, III, 1983, pp. 915.

“The Tomb of Raimondino de’ Lupi: Its Form and Its Meaning,” Konsthistorisk tidskrift, LII, 1983, pp. 95105.

Six Entries in The Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects, ed. A. Placzek, New York, 1982.

“A Possible Vitruvian Intrusion into a Painting by Giotto,” Source: Notes in the History of Art, I, no. 4, 1982, pp. 68.

“The Tomb of Raimondino de’ Lupi and Its Setting,” The Rutgers Art Review, III, 1982, pp. 3649.

“Ambrogio Lorenzetti and Classical Painting,” Florilegium, II, 1980, pp.  14660.

“Hans Hollein,” in Visionary Drawings of Architecture and Planning, ed. George R. Collins, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England, 1979.

PUBLICATIONS : EXHIBITION REVIEWS

“The Plains Indians: Artists of Earth and Sky,” Review of the Exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: March 3 – May 10, 2015, SECAC Art Inquiries, XVII, no. 1, 2016, pp. 68-71.

“Tipi: Heritage of the Great Plains,” Review of the Exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum: February 18-May 15, 2011, Southeastern College Art Conference Review, XVI, no. 2, 2012, pp. 218-220.

“Current Picasso Exhibit Includes Major Works,” COLUMBIA OWL, March 29, 1972, p.  8.

“Mondrian Retrospective at Guggenheim Museum,” COLUMBIA OWL, December 1, 1971, p. 12.

“Picasso’s Artistry of 70 Years on View,” COLUMBIA OWL, October 27, 1971, p. 10.

“A Plastic Presence,” COLUMBIA OWL, February 4, 1970, p. 4.

EXHIBITION CURATED

Wind Chant and Night Chant Sand Paintings, Oklahoma Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, March 5 through April 16, 1978 (Co-curated with N. C. Christopher Couch)