All News

History of Art's Mark Castro defends dissertation on Baroque artist Crist贸bal de Villalpando

May 7, 2018 Image: 'Saint Francis Defeats the Antichrist', Crist贸bal de Villalpando, 1691-92, Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Image: 'Saint Francis Defeats the Antichrist', Crist贸bal de Villalpando, 1691-92, Philadelphia Museum of Art

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences proudly congratulates History of Art's Mark Castro on the successful defense of his doctoral dissertation, "Inspired Invention: Crist贸bal de Villalpando's Paintings of the Life of Saint Francis."

Mark's research explores the paintings of Mexican artist of the Spanish Baroque period, Crist贸bal de Villalpando (1649-1714). His project is an in-depth study of Villalpando鈥檚 cycle of paintings depicting the life of Saint Francis of Assisi, commissioned in 1691 for the Franciscan Convent in Antigua, Guatemala. This seminal group has not been the subject of a focused study since 1986, even as scholarly understanding of Villalpando's career and the painting of New Spain has flourished. Mark's dissertation involves the first close reading of these works in decades as it expands our understanding of Villalpando's strategies for developing his compositions and, in a broader context, reveals something about the Franciscan鈥檚 conception of their mission in the Americas.

Congratulations Mark!