Hardie, Glasgow;
(2025)
Uncertain Bodies: The Transient Nature of Colour in Early Modern European Painting.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
'Uncertain Bodies' examines colour in early modern European painting not as representational, but as a temporal and perceptual force. Through close analysis of artists including Caravaggio, ter Brugghen, de la Tour and Manfredi, the thesis shows how colour behaves duration ally - lingering, resisting, and shaping embodied experience - at a moment when early modern thought was redefining time, matter, and divinity. Bringing together phenomenology, theology, and queer theory, the project develops a chromatic method of looking that treats perception as unstable, affective, and unfolding in time. Transhistorical comparisons, particularly with 20th and 21st century photographic practices, demonstrates how colour's temporal behaviour extends beyond the early modern period and across media. By reframing colour as an active agent in visual experience, the thesis challenges hierarchies that privilege line and fixed meaning. It offers a new methodological framework - a chromatic methodology - for art history that foregrounds time, embodiment, and the dynamics of perception.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Uncertain Bodies: The Transient Nature of Colour in Early Modern European Painting |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2025. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/deed.en). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| Keywords: | Early Modern, Colour Theory, Phenomenology, Queer Theory, Post-Structuralism, Affect Theory, Embodiment, Painting, Photography, Caravaggio, Hendrik ter Brugghen, Georges de la Tour, Manfredi, Lucas Samaras |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of History of Art |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10217651 |
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