Date of Award

7-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Art History

Department

Art

First Advisor

Nadia McDonald

Second Advisor

Esperanca Camara

Third Advisor

Piper Hutson

Abstract

The visual construction, enactment, and legitimization of political authority is the subject of this thesis concerning Charles I and Henrietta Maria with their two eldest children, Prince Charles and Princess Mary (1632), painted by Anthony Van Dyck. Through examination of sovereign representation, gendered body, dynastic continuity, and spectators, this research argues that authority within Northern Baroque portraiture is not established as a single or unchanging entity. However, instead of a monolithic representation of authority, it arises from relational elements, including body language, gesture, space, family relations, and viewer engagement. Although Van Dyck's portrait is generally considered a dynastic image in honor of the Stuart Monarchy, this thesis illustrates that it acts as an extremely complex ideological apparatus by which Stuart legitimacy can be created, performed, and reinforced using visual components. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach combining formal visual analysis, structuralist analysis, feminist/gender theory, and reception theory, this research examines the ways in which all of these elements (composition, gesture, gaze, posture, costume, and hierarchy) collectively create and normalize sovereign power. In a structuralist approach, the portrait is situated through the lenses of seventeenth-century Stuart England’s politics and ideology. Feminist and gender-based approaches of Judith Butler and Griselda Pollock are used to illustrate how masculinity, femininity, motherhood and dynastic identity serve as forms of performance to reinforce and provide justification for the monarchy. Lastly, Hans Robert Jauss' and John Berger's reception theory shows how Stuart legitimacy is based on the active involvement of spectators/audiences through their interpretive engagement with Van Dyck's portraits. Ultimately, this thesis argues that Van Dyck's dynastic portraiture establishes an interactive and relational system of sovereign authority, one based on embodied interaction, continued family lines, gendered performance, and audience recognition.

Research Highlights

  • The Problem: Thesis investigates the visual construction, enactment, and legitimization of political authority within Anthony Van Dyck's 1632 portrait of Charles I, Henrietta Maria, Prince Charles, and Princess Mary.

  • The Method: The research applies an interdisciplinary framework combining formal visual analysis, structuralist analysis, feminist and gender theory, and reception theory to analyze seventeenth-century Stuart England's court culture.

  • Qualitative Finding: Sovereign authority in Northern Baroque portraiture is established relationally through body language, gesture, space, and family relations; gender roles and dynastic identity function as performances that justify the monarchy; Stuart legitimacy actively requires the interpretive engagement of audiences viewing the artwork.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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