Jeannette Alexis Martinez
Born in Southern California, Jeannette’s parents warmly supported her creative endeavors at a young age and nurtured her intellectual interests in art, history, and theology.
In 2019, Jeannette graduated magna cum laude from Loyola Marymount University as a double major in art history and theological studies. During this time, she academically challenged herself to graduate in three years while undertaking independent research projects and maintaining high honors.
Syracuse Florence Fellow ‘23
A few years later, she graduated in 2023 with a master’s degree in art history through Syracuse University, where she received a fully funded fellowship to conduct research in Florence, Italy. As a Syracuse Florence Fellow, she delivered countless lectures for graduate-level audiences and presented novel research at a symposium attended by expert art historians. Her master’s thesis focused on Giorgio Vasari’s altarpiece of the Madonna of the Rosary (1569), located in the Florentine church of Santa Maria Novella.
Through her interdisciplinary approach, Jeannette made new discoveries by considering crucial religious and artistic influences on this altarpiece. Previous scholarship on Vasari’s Madonna of the Rosary primarily discussed the painting within a broader survey of this iconographical type or as part of the Vasarian program of altarpieces within the basilica. The few scholars offering a visual analysis of the painting failed to adequately address pre-existing traditions of visual iconography found in printed rosary manuals and prominent legends central to sixteenth-century Dominican spirituality. As a result, the literature on Vasari’s Madonna of the Rosary contained gaps, unsupported claims, and errors. Jeannette’s deeper contextual approach offered more definitive identifications of the protagonists and objects depicted in the altarpiece as the basis of a new iconographic interpretation that addresses Dominican spirituality.
Watch a presentation on this research here!
Routing the Rosary: Mapping Visual Tradition in Sixteenth-Century Italian Paintings of the Madonna of the Rosary
Following the completion of her master’s degree, Jeannette remained committed to this research topic. She employed her master’s thesis to serve as the foundation of a large-scale geographic information system (GIS) project titled “Routing the Rosary: Mapping Visual Tradition in Sixteenth-Century Italian Paintings of the Madonna of the Rosary.” Through GIS technology, my website uses geospatial information that links the visual tradition of rosary iconography in printed materials to sixteenth-century Italian paintings of the Madonna of the Rosary.
In 2024, Jeannette was accepted to pursue a dual Phd degree at Claremont Graduate University, a graduate-only research institution part of the Claremont Colleges consortium. Here, she has been pursuing a PhD in Cultural Studies and PhD in Religion.
Through a combination of fieldwork, archival study, and art historical analysis, Jeannette’s PhD research examines Immaculate Conception imagery in Nicaragua.