History of Multicultural Arts - Essay Example

The young Moorhead depicted Wheatley in the act of writing one of her books. The open manuscript or book on her desk is proof enough that she is an educated woman from the African descent. She looks like she is deep in thought with her hands raised towards her cheeks and seems to pen, perhaps, one of her poems in the book. This portrait gives a distinguished view of an African woman during the colonial America (Cadge-Moore 67). Wheatley is noticeably in expensive clothes that a domestic servant during the colonial era would wear.

The portrait gives viewers an approach into the lives of black people in New England. The portrait of Charles Calvert by John Hesselius, a white American artist during the colonial era, can be said to adhere to the traditions of colonial portraiture (Cadge-Moore 64). The portrait shows two young boys, one of them is black and the other one is white. They are both in detailed outfits; one is Charles Calvert, the son of Benedict Calvert, while the other is a young slave who belonged to the Calvert family.

The African American slave seems to tilt his head quite stiffly to one side. These are the precedents found in the depictions in the 18th-19th century of African American slaves and their masters. . The shade of color for the boy is extremely white, whereas the slave is shaded in as much of a dark color like the background. These two portraits differ substantially; in Scipio Moorhead's portrait, the focus is on the dignified view of the African woman during the colonial period. As aforementioned, Moorhead’s portrait gives insights of what educated black slaves did during the colonial era in New Zealand.

John Hesselius’s portrait focuses on the duties and color of the characters. There is no mentioning of what the characters do as their social activities and the drawing only promotes the differences that exist between the two races. Question 1: La Malinche also identified as Malinali or Dona Marina, was from the Gulf Coast of Mexico. She was a Nahua woman who played a hand in the Spanish conquest of Mexico and acted as a lover, interpreter and the intermediary for Hernan Cortes. Marina was among the slaves given to Cortes from the Tabasco natives in the year 1519.

People identified La Malinche as Cortes’ mistress. They had their first son regarded by all as the Mestizos, their layman’s term for a person of indigenous American ancestry and mixed European. Her historical figure is still mixed with the legends in Aztec, where there is a woman who weeps for lost children. Originally, artists portray La Malinche as an evil temptress in novels, drama, and paintings. Additionally, people viewed as a disloyal Mexican and today in Mexico there are numerous, conflicting aspects in which different people share their views.

In the modern day world, she can represent a symbolic mother, a victim or temptress. Question 2: Syncretism can be defined as a