Breaking Icons: Passivity and Asexuality in Representations of the Three Graces and the Renaissance Madonna

Abstract

This thesis will examine my artistic practice in relation to a feminist critique of pop cultural imagery through the lens of historical/theological constructs of beauty and passivity. I will look specifically at the ideals of feminine beauty and virtue embedded in classical archetypes such as the Three Graces and the Renaissance Madonna. Discussion of the thesis work will also be situated in relation to the history and symbolic connotations of the Black Madonna.