My research focuses around the “whys” in art history – I am interested in how the commissioning and ownership of art, and the ways in which it is displayed and arranged, reveal social and ideological agendas. I work primarily on courtly environments of the 17th century in Northern Europe. This is a period of widespread change in social, religious and economic structures, of newly global and colonial perspectives, and of artistic innovation. In the early modern period no art form existed in the magnificent isolation of today’s museums, and much of my work is concerned with how to bring back together the visual components of constructed courtly settings. Interpreting these environments, and how they conveyed meaning, is also part of my enterprise. I am currently writing a book on the role of court patronage of art and architecture in the Dutch Republic. I am also interested in the colonial world in this period, and on issues of trade, cultural transmission and artistic exchange between Europe, Mexico, and the New World, and between Holland and India.

Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, NY. History of Art.
M.A. 1994, Ph.D. 2002.

Bryn Mawr College, PA. A.B. in History of Art. 1988.

Phillips Exeter Academy, NH. 1984

Contact
719.389.6646
RTucker@ColoradoCollege.edu

Courses
AH112 Introduction to Art History
HS120 Renaissance Culture (FYE)
AH221 Art of the Renaissance
AH223 16th Century Art of Europe
AH231 Art and Empire: 17th Century Art of Europe
AH232 Art of the Dutch Republic
AH275 Dante and Michelangelo: Art and Influence in the Renaissance
AH415 Senior Thesis
AH200 Spanish Colonial Art

Publications and Research Projects
The Rhetoric of Power: Art, Architecture and Display at the Court of Orange in the Dutch Golden Age. Manuscript in preparation.

Secrets and Symbols: Decoding the Great Masters. New York: Rizzoli, expected publication Fall 2009. Co-author with Paul Crenshaw.

“A Dutch Artist Abroad: Cornelis Claesz. Heda and the International Market for Artists in the Early Modern Era.” Article, in preparation;
submission expected Fall 08.

“The Patronage of Rembrandt’s Passion Series: Art and Princely Display at the Orange Court.’” Submitted for publication (April 2008).

“Inside the Dutch Garden: Prince Frederik Hendrik and the Development of the Honselaarsdijk Gardens,” Studies in the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes 26 (2006), pp. 209-36.

“His Excellency at Home: Frederik Hendrik and the Noble Life at Honselaarsdijk Palace,” Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 51(2000), pp. 83-102