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History of Art's Mark Castro defends dissertation on Baroque artist Cristóbal de Villalpando

May 7, 2018 Image: 'Saint Francis Defeats the Antichrist', Cristóbal de Villalpando, 1691-92, Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Image: 'Saint Francis Defeats the Antichrist', Cristóbal 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: Cristóbal de Villalpando's Paintings of the Life of Saint Francis."

Mark's research explores the paintings of Mexican artist of the Spanish Baroque period, Cristóbal de Villalpando (1649-1714). His project is an in-depth study of Villalpando’s 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’s conception of their mission in the Americas.

Congratulations Mark!