Susan Verdi Webster's Books

Lettered Artists and the Languages of Empire

Painters and the Profession in Early Colonial Quito

By: Susan Verdi Webster

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Lettered Artists and the Languages of Empire

Painters and the Profession in Early Colonial Quito

By: Susan Verdi Webster

Quito, Ecuador, was one of colonial South America's most important artistic centers. Yet the literature on painting in colonial Quito largely ignores the first century of activity, reducing it to a "handful of names," writes Susan Verdi Webster. In this major new work based on extensive and largely unpublished archival documentation, Webster identifies and traces the lives of more than fifty painters who plied their trade in the city between 1550 and 1650, revealing their mastery of languages and literacies and the circumstances in which they worked in early colonial Quito. Overturning many traditional assumptions about early Quiteño artists, Webster establishes that these artists—most of whom were Andean—functioned as visual intermediaries and multifaceted cultural translators who harnessed a wealth of specialized knowledge to shape graphic, pictorial worlds for colonial audiences. Operating in an urban mediascape of layered languages and empires—a colonial Spanish realm of alphabetic script and mimetic imagery and a colonial Andean world of discursive graphic, material, and chromatic forms—Quiteño painters dominated both the pen and the brush. Webster demonstrates that the Quiteño artists enjoyed fluency in several areas, ranging from alphabetic literacy and sophisticated scribal conventions to specialized knowledge of pictorial languages: the materials, technologies, and chemistry of painting, in addition to perspective, proportion, and iconography. This mastery enabled artists to deploy languages and literacies—alphabetic, pictorial, graphic, chromatic, and material—to obtain power and status in early colonial Quito.

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Page Count

352

Publisher

University of Texas Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1477313281

ISBN 13

9781477313282

Finding Caspicara

Double Identities, Hidden Figures, and the Commerce of Sculpture in Colonial Quito

By: Susan Verdi Webster

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Finding Caspicara

Double Identities, Hidden Figures, and the Commerce of Sculpture in Colonial Quito

By: Susan Verdi Webster

An examination of sculpture and authorship in eighteenth-century Quito that documents Caspicara as a participant in the innovative artistic production of the city’s workshops and its widespread commerce of polychrome sculptures. Who is Caspicara? Nothing is known of Caspicara’s life, and not a single sculpture has been documented as his work. Yet traditional histories laud him as a prolific Indigenous sculptor in eighteenth-century Quito who created exquisite polychrome figures and became a national artistic icon. Drawing on extensive archival, historical, and object research, Susan Verdi Webster peels away layers of historiographical fabrication to reveal what we do and do not know about Caspicara and his work. Rather than being a solitary master, Caspicara collaborated with other, largely Indigenous artists in Quito’s protoindustrial workshops, manufacturing sculptures now credited to him alone. The high quality of Quito sculptures produced by anonymous artists turned the city into a hub of wide-ranging commerce in religious icons. The art world and post-independence Ecuadorians have lionized the one named sculptor, Caspicara, according to the Western model of the artist-genius, amplifying the market for works bearing his name and creating a national hero on par with European masters. Lost in this process were the artists themselves. Webster returns to their world, detailing their methods and labor and, for the first time, documenting a sculpture made by Caspicara.

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Page Count

200

Publisher

University of Texas Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1477329749

ISBN 13

9781477329740

Verdi, Opera, Women

By: Susan Rutherford

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Verdi, Opera, Women

By: Susan Rutherford

Prologue : Verdi and his audience -- War -- Prayer -- Romance -- Sexuality -- Marriage -- Death -- Laughter.

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Page Count

308

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1107043824

ISBN 13

9781107043824

Soundies and the Changing Image of Black Americans on Screen

One Dime at a Time

By: Susan Delson

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Soundies and the Changing Image of Black Americans on Screen

One Dime at a Time

By: Susan Delson

In the 1940s, folks at bars and restaurants would gather around a Panoram movie machine to watch three-minute films called Soundies, precursors to today's music videos. This history was all but forgotten until the digital era brought Soundies to phones and computer screens—including a YouTube clip starring a 102-year-old Harlem dancer watching her younger self perform in Soundies. In Soundies and the Changing Image of Black Americans on Screen: One Dime at a Time, Susan Delson takes a deeper look at these fascinating films by focusing on the role of Black performers in this little-known genre. She highlights the women performers, like Dorothy Dandridge, who helped shape Soundies, while offering an intimate look at icons of the age, such as Duke Ellington and Nat King Cole. Using previously unknown archival materials—including letters, corporate memos, and courtroom testimony—to trace the precarious path of Soundies, Delson presents an incisive pop-culture snapshot of race relations during and just after World War II. Perfect for readers interested in film, American history, the World War II era, and Black entertainment history, Soundies and the Changing Image of Black Americans on Screen and its companion video website (susandelson.com) bring the important contributions of these Black artists into the spotlight once again.

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Page Count

417

Publisher

Indiana University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0253058554

ISBN 13

9780253058553

Lionel Robbins

By: Susan Howson

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Lionel Robbins

By: Susan Howson

By the time of his death the English economist Lionel Robbins (1898–1984) was celebrated as a 'renaissance man'. He made major contributions to his own academic discipline and applied his skills as an economist not only to practical problems of economic policy – with conspicuous success when he served as head of the economists advising the wartime coalition government of Winston Churchill in 1940–45 – and of higher education – the 'Robbins Report' of 1963 – but also to the administration of the visual and performing arts that he loved deeply. He was devoted to the London School of Economics, from his time as an undergraduate following active service as an artillery officer on the Western Front in 1917–18, through his years as Professor of Economics (1929–62), and his stint as chairman of the governors during the 'troubles' of the late 1960s. This comprehensive biography, based on his personal and professional correspondence and other papers, covers all these many and varied activities.

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Page Count

1177

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1139501097

ISBN 13

9781139501095

Feminine Endings

Music, Gender, and Sexuality

By: Susan McClary

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Feminine Endings

Music, Gender, and Sexuality

By: Susan McClary

A groundbreaking collection of essays in feminist music criticism, this book addresses problems of gender and sexuality in repertoires ranging from the early seventeenth century to rock and performance art. ". . . this is a major book . . . [McClary's] achievement borders on the miraculous." The Village Voice"No one will read these essays without thinking about and hearing music in new and interesting ways. Exciting reading for adventurous students and staid professionals." Choice"Feminine Endings, a provocative 'sexual politics' of Western classical or art music, rocks conservative musicology at its core. No review can do justice to the wealth of ideas and possibilities [McClary's] book presents. All music-lovers should read it, and cheer." The Women's Review of Books"McClary writes with a racy, vigorous, and consistently entertaining style. . . . What she has to say specifically about the music and the text is sharp, accurate, and telling; she hears what takes place musically with unusual sensitivity."-The New York Review of Books

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Page Count

246

Publisher

U of Minnesota Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

145290636X

ISBN 13

9781452906362

Diversity Matters

Judicial Policy Making in the U.S. Courts of Appeals

By: Susan B. Haire,Laura P. Moyer

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Diversity Matters

Judicial Policy Making in the U.S. Courts of Appeals

By: Susan B. Haire,Laura P. Moyer

Until President Jimmy Carter launched an effort to diversify the lower federal courts, the U.S. courts of appeals had been composed almost entirely of white males. But by 2008, over a quarter of sitting judges were women and 15 percent were African American or Hispanic. Underlying the argument made by administration officials for a diverse federal judiciary has been the expectation that the presence of women and minorities will ensure that the policy of the courts will reflect the experiences of a diverse population. Yet until now, scholarly studies have offered only limited support for the expectation that judges’ race, ethnicity, or gender impacts their decision making on the bench. In Diversity Matters, Susan B. Haire and Laura P. Moyer employ innovative new methods of analysis to offer a fresh examination of the effects of diversity on the many facets of decision making in the federal appellate courts. Drawing on oral histories and data on appellate decisions through 2008, the authors’ analyses demonstrate that diversity on the bench affects not only individual judges’ choices but also the overall character and quality of judicial deliberation and decisions. Looking forward, the authors anticipate the ways in which these process effects will become more pronounced as a result of the highly diverse Obama appointment cohort.

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Page Count

130

Publisher

University of Virginia Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813937191

ISBN 13

9780813937199

Finding Caspicara

Double Identities, Hidden Figures, and the Commerce of Sculpture in Colonial Quito

By: Susan Verdi Webster

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Finding Caspicara

Double Identities, Hidden Figures, and the Commerce of Sculpture in Colonial Quito

By: Susan Verdi Webster

Caspicara was the most renowned sculptor of the eighteenth-century Andean world. Yet many works that are attributed to this Indigenous artist cannot be firmly documented as he is nearly absent in traditional archival records. Susan Webster seeks to analyze not only the visual imagery and material culture of his many works, but she also seeks to lay the foundation for understanding how scholars can revive the life and records of artists and other historical figures--many of whom were Indigenous in this period--with different methodologies. By cultivating artistic theory, popular religious devotion, and specific styles of sculpture, Webster's examination of the labor and workshop practices of this period contextualize the extensive commercial networks that existed within Quito and emanated beyond it. Webster explores the reason why authors constructed an almost completely fictional life story and canon for this artist that continued for two centuries, how this story fueled the agendas and goals of these authors in melding the colonial past with a newly independent country that could measure itself against western European culture, and as a potent story for tourists. She then considers the ways in which Caspicara's work was at the center of debates of sculpture versus painting in Quito. These debates and their development in the city also add context to notions of authorship, and how it was documented (or not). By exploring the professional world where he worked, Webster's analysis of Indigenous sculptors and their family networks of labor and apprenticeship in the arts allow us to understand the changing workforce and materials for sculptures. This analysis also reveals what day-to-day life may have been for Caspicara, and how this routine informed the artistic choices available to him. Archival materials indirectly offer glimpses into how patrons regarded Caspicara and his work, and how the work of others later embellished or altered his original vision. Throughout the chapters, visuality, materials, and reception challenge the typical obsession of art historians, museum curators, and auction houses in their hunger to attribute authorship in ways that increase the value, both for prestige and monetary reasons, and in ways that end up obscuring authorship and intent"--

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Page Count

200

Publisher

University of Texas Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1477329722

ISBN 13

9781477329726

Wedding Days

When and how Great Marriages Began

By: Susan J. Gordon

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Wedding Days

When and how Great Marriages Began

By: Susan J. Gordon

In 366 wedding stories, spanning 1,500 years, Susan J. Gordon reveals how extraordinary couples met, courted, and wed, sharing with readers their tales of surprise, humor, and passion. Included are the stories of Samuel Clemens and Olivia Langdon, Thomas Edison and Mina Miller, and Daniel Boone and Rebecca Bryan. 12 photos.

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456

Published Date

ISBN 10

0688148603

ISBN 13

9780688148607

Art and Ritual in Golden-Age Spain

Sevillian Confraternities and the Processional Sculpture of Holy Week

By: Susan Verdi Webster

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Art and Ritual in Golden-Age Spain

Sevillian Confraternities and the Processional Sculpture of Holy Week

By: Susan Verdi Webster

For nearly five centuries, lay religious groups throughout the Spanish-speaking world have staged elaborate public processions commemorating the events of Christ's passion during Holy Week. In the Golden Age, such processions featured extraordinarily lifelike sculpted images that were naturalistically painted, elaborately clothed and adorned, and surrounded by convincing stage properties and scenography--all of which combined to create a profound impression on spectators. Long dismissed as a minor form of popular art, these polychrome wood sculptures emerge from this book as a unique genre, one that can be best understood within its ritual context. Here, Susan Verdi Webster explores the Holy Week processions of penitential confraternities in Golden-Age Seville, for which many of Spain's greatest sculptors created some of the most illusionistic works ever. She demonstrates how the pivotal role of the sculptures in procession transformed them from carved wooden objects to catalysts for intense spiritual and emotional experiences shared by spectators in the streets. Drawing on extensive archival evidence and contemporary chronicles, Webster is among the first to examine in depth Spanish processional sculpture, its patrons, and its ritual function. Her inquiry wends through a kaleidoscopic variety of arenas--artistic, religious, social, cultural, and political--to provide a fascinating perspective on popular religious devotion in Golden-Age Spain and on a previously undervalued dimension of Spanish sculpture.

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Page Count

298

Published Date

ISBN 10

0691048193

ISBN 13

9780691048192

Almanac of Famous People, A-I

By: Susan L. Stetler

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Almanac of Famous People, A-I

By: Susan L. Stetler

Brief summaries of the careers of famous people, with occupation, places and dates of birth and death, and sources of information. Includes living and deceased persons.

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Page Count

1778

Publisher

Gale Cengage

Published Date

ISBN 10

0810369893

ISBN 13

9780810369894

Book's by Susan Verdi Webster

Lettered Artists and the Languages of Empire

Lettered Artists and the Languages of Empire

Finding Caspicara

Finding Caspicara

Verdi, Opera, Women

Verdi, Opera, Women

Soundies and the Changing Image of Black Americans on Screen

Soundies and the Changing Image of Black Americans on Screen

Lionel Robbins

Lionel Robbins

Feminine Endings

Feminine Endings

Diversity Matters

Diversity Matters

Finding Caspicara

Finding Caspicara

Wedding Days

Wedding Days

Art and Ritual in Golden-Age Spain

Art and Ritual in Golden-Age Spain

Almanac of Famous People, A-I

Almanac of Famous People, A-I

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