About “Inclination,” an Art History Project.

The name “Inclination,” comes from an oil painting by Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi titled “Allegory of Inclination,” further explored in our blog’s seminal post, linked here. This work was commissioned by Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger as one in a series of paintings representing the eight “personifications,” of virtuous qualities a “Renaissance master,” ought to embody. Gentileschi was tasked with representing “inclination,” this idea of an innate creative ability natural to great artists. Gentileschi is considered one of the most accomplished artists of the seventeenth-century, though her life was marked by injustice and often tragedy as a result of her assigned sex. Despite this, Gentileschi exhibited great talent, showing an “inclination,” towards art that can be considered “genius,”: descriptors which have been historically leveled at male artists over female.

This project seeks to underscore the voices of students studying Art History at Queens University of Charlotte in our Department of Art, Design, and Music. We want to expand upon this theme of “inclination,” investigating Art History’s place in pop culture from film to literature, showing the place of Art History on our campus beyond classroom study, and platforming student voices. We seek to showcase work that is informed by global education; our Art History cohort (alongside Graphic Design and Studio Art students) will be participating in a Study Abroad opportunity in the Summer of 2023 to Florence, Italy; an opportunity which we hope will result in both written and visual material for publication on this blog.

We intend to publish everything from informal writing, academic essays or reflections written as elements of coursework, opinion pieces in conversation with our faculty and teachers, as well as film and photography from our campus galleries showcasing our exhibits as they’re featured. “Inclination,” is a project which centers the submerged artistic voices of history while providing students with the opportunity to publish their work and engage with a network of global digital citizens, understanding that there is an innate creative impulse which exists in all of us that not exclusive to the skills of a great “Renaissance master.”