Many scholars have examined Ancient Rome’s reliance on enslaved labor and many more have investigated the inner workings of the cura annonae (“care of the grain supply”), the state-funded welfare program which provided free wheat to citizens under a certain income level. However, few have studied the foundation role that enslaved and other exploited labor played in the administration of the cura annonae. In this paper, I describe the history of the Ancient Roman food supply, the origins of the cura annonae, and its complex logistics. I outline the steps of the supply chain: the wheat plantations, grain ships, ports, mills, distribution, and bureaucratic administration. Using primary sources, archeological evidence, and scholarly theories, I focus on the instances of labor exploitation within the system. By applying world system theory and dependency theory to the institution of the cura annonae, I show how modern sociological and economic theories can enhance our understanding of the ancient world.

The Ardashrinama, known as the Book of Ardashir in English, is a 14th century Judeo-Persian epic poem which combines the life of the Sassanid emperor Ardashir with the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible, equating Ardashir with the biblical Persian king Achashverosh. This paper focuses on an illuminated version of this poem, which was created between the years 1650 and 1680, during or immediately after a period of intensified persecution of Jews under Shah Abbas II, marked by forced conversions to Islam and expulsions from metropolitan areas. The illuminations of the Ardashirnama are similar stylistically to well-known Islamic Safavid miniature paintings of the time, but they reflect rabbinic commentary on the book of Esther alongside Islamic mystical ideas, showcasing a partial assimilation of Persian Jewish art, literature and culture into the wider Islamic Persian community while maintaining a distinctly Jewish identity.

Bernini's David (1623) attempted and—in some capacities—succeeded in breaking the barrier between the viewer and the art. David's narrative is only completed through audience participation and then furthered through dialog with the other works displayed in the same space. Bernini's motivation for creating is key to understanding his incessant cultivation of technical skill and his drive to push the boundaries of possibility in Baroque sculpture. The work functions both alone and as a key sculpture in the oeuvre of Bernini. Framing the work with analysis from Wittkower, Wallace, and Lavin, I dissect what made David different from Bernini's earlier sculpture and how David became the precursor for his later work.

Huincha sin fin (endless band) is an artwork which poses the question “where are they” in reference to missing persons during Chile’s Pinochet dictatorship of the 1970s and 80s; understanding where the work itself is illuminates the concerns of an artist living in a politically tumultuous era of Chile’s history and provides important context for Latin American conceptualism. Using political, feminist, and archival frameworks to analyze not only this work but the artist Luz Donoso herself, this paper will reveal art as action and provide a deeper understanding of the socio-political backdrop. This artwork is rarely expanded upon in the analysis of Chilean art or Latin American conceptualism, even though it acts as an ideal example of art during this time. Analyzing Huincha sin fin in greater detail exposes its exemplary nature and offers an important alternative viewpoint of a time when art, thought, and people were being silenced.

Recorded as horrific and savage by European colonizers in Brazil, ceremonial cannibalism was practiced by Indigenous groups, such as the Tupinambá, as way to pay respect and empathize with their enemies. The idea of cannibalism would later resurface in Oswald de Andrade’s Cannibalist Manifesto (1928) and was compared to the act of consumption as a symbolic and ritualistic act important to the establishment of a unique Brazilian identity. Throughout the twentieth century, the concept of antropofagia [cannibalism] has been interrogated more fully by artists and art historians in Brazil to understand a cultural syncretism. For example, contemporary artist Adriana Varejão’s Proposal for a Catechesis, Part I Diptych: Death and Dismemberment (1993) illustrates two powerful scenes connected to the colonial history of Brazil: the Catholic rite of transubstantiation and the engagement of Indigenous ritualistic consumption. Thus, this paper analyzes how Varejão’s comparisons between Catholicism and Indigenous religions demonstrate that cannibalism can be further troubled as it continues to be utilized as a stand-in for Brazilian culture. Her work demonstrates that beyond cannibalism’s reclamation and revitalization, a deeper reflection surrounding Christian religious rites might be examined.