History of Art - Assignment Example

Prof’s Extra Credit Assignment In the Article “Hatshepsut, Wicked Stempother or Joan of Arc,” Peter F. Dorman of University of Chicago analyzes the long history of Hatshepsut, and her place in history as a wicked stepmother to an older relative. Though he acknowledges the emotional appeal of the “brothers Grimm” style narrative about her wickedness, he indicates that new evidence casts significant doubt on this idea. One of the pieces of evidence most commonly pointed at as evidence that Hatshepsut was a wicked stepmother as well as a Queen was the fact that her successor, her step-son, erased all memory of her immediately upon his ascent to the throne. This, historians argue, represents a long awaited revenge of a step-son who had to suffer agregiously through his mother’s wickedness during her regency. But Dorman indicates that new evidence makes this narrative seem less likely – the fact, for instance, that the images of Hatshepsut did not begin to be excised from records until twenty years after her successor took over the throne. As Dorman states, revenge is unlikely to wait “two decades” before being enacted – so there must be something else going on here (Dorman). Furthermore, it appears that her take over of kingly duties was somewhat gradual – she began being portrayed as a religious leader then became more and more kingly as time progressed. She seemed to have simply pragmatically done what was needed in order to keep the dynastic line intact, which proved problematic for her son, who then had to erase her to legitimize his own claim. Extra Credit 2 It is always interesting to compare works of art across cultures and time periods. There are several universal aspects of human life that, despite their universality, are dealt with very differently across cultures. One such universal aspect of life is death – everyone dies, and every culture has unique ways of dealing with this fact. It is thus very interesting to compare Pericles’ Funeral Oration with Rogier van der Wyden’s Decent from the Cross, because they show two distinct but similar reactions to death. These two works show very different kinds of death – Pericles’ oration talks about the deaths of many in a recent war, while Decent shows the immediate aftermath of a death of a religious leader. One of the most interesting things about this is that both works show very strongly gendered reactions to death. Pericles spends most of his oration honoring the dead, then closes with a call for men to live up to the example left for them by their departed comrades. Women are completely absent from the work until the very end, when he simply enjoins women, who will “henceforth be widows” to “not show more weakness than is natural to her sex.” Van der Wyden similarly shows varying levels of gendered expectations when dealing with death – he depicts the victim’s mother, Mary, as collapsing, and Mary Magdaline as having something of a fit – yet the men are expected to spring into action, dealing with Christ’s body. Women are, however, expected to play the role of caretaker for survivors: above Mary a woman shows great concern over her wellbeing. These two works both express highly gendered death rituals. Extra Credit 3 Any leader’s historical image is of great importance to them, and they go to great lengths to ensure their place in history. In Augustus Caeser’s time, two great works were installed in order for Augustus to cement his place in history. The first, Ara Pacis Augustae, was a monument completed after his successful return from conquests in Gaul. The second, Res Gestae Divi Augusti, was written by Augustus himself and installed as an inscription in public sight. They both show similar themes of bringing peace and prosperity, but Res is much more concerned with establishing legitimacy. Both works have as their central argument the idea that Augustus brought peace to the Roman republic. One of the major sections of the Ara, the panel of Tellus, features Tellus, mother earth, and on her lap are Augustus’s two heirs, his nephews. By connecting a god who intrisicly personifies the harvest, peace, tranquility and so on with the future of Augustus’s dynasty, the Ara emphasizes Augustus’s role as the creator of a long lasting peace which will outlive his time. Augustus seems similarly interested in highlighting his role as a peacemaker in Res. Though he speaks explicitly about his warfare, he concentrates on the idea that these battles brought peace, and that when he conquered an area he “preferred to spare rather than destroy.” Though both works concentrate on Augustus as peacemaker, they differ significantly on the question of legitimacy. Augustus in his Res seems intent on the idea that he was the legitimate ruler of Rome – he concentrates on the fact that the Senate gave him power and responsibility, and that he chose to decline the role of dictator and consul for life. Ara, on the other hand, treats him almost like a king, presupposing that his heirs will take over his role as leader of Rome. Extra Credit 4 One of the amazing things about this exhibit is the fact that it fully demonstrates the first mass produced art in the history of the West – these prints could be made in the thousands with incredibly little challenge, and yet were incredibly detailed, almost the match of painting of that time. My favorite peace was the one by Albrecht Durer, depicting Mary and Christ. This piece is interesting for a variety of reasons. One is that both Christ and Mary are treated as normal people, to be connected to as humans rather than in divine status. If not for the fact that we know them to be Christ and Mary through subtle features (such as Christ’s offering of a blessing to the viewer), it would almost look like a simple portrait of a mother with her child. Furthermore, Durer shows incredible ability in engraving and print making, and is possibly the most technically skilled artist featured. Despite only being able to use relatively rough lines and white and black, he creates a depth of shading that is almost impossible to imagine. The folds of cloth, though somewhat stiff (which might simply represent the fabric he was trying to depict) have excellently composed shadows which boggle the mind. Finally, I like that Durer’s engravings show a growing recognition of artists as important in and of themselves, rather than simply as craftspeople – he chooses to date his engraving on the engraving himself, as well as sign it through the “AD” symbol on the ground at Mary’s feet – Durer knows he is skilled, and is not shy about it. Extra Credit 5 There has long been a fascination with the idea of becoming a “Reneissance Man,” that is, someone who has more or less mastered a significant percentage of the knowledge and skills available at the time one lived. Leon Battista Alberti, a Genoese man who lived between 1404 and 1472 was perhaps a prototypical renaissance man. There are several reasons he would be considered a renaissance man, but the crux of the matter is that he was widely skilled in a variety of fields, largely a result of his education which allowed for deep exploration into many different areas of study. As was common in his time, Alberti received a humanist education, which entailed learning everything from history to mathematics and art. What made Alberti a renaissance man was his ability to take learning from one field and execute it effectively in another. For instance, the art of painting was growing rapidly in complexity during his time, and Alberti showed great interest in this work. Though he was not an incredibly talented painter himself (when compared to Leonardo da Vinci, for instance, who was another prototypical renaissance man), he was still able to use his training and talent to advance the field – he used his understanding of mathematics to create what was possibly the greatest treatise on perspective that had been written at the time, giving artists who had previously been trying to understand the process through trial and error mathematical principles upon which to base their paintings. The ability to take one aspect of learning and translate it seamlessly to another was what made Alberti a complete renaissance man; he was able not only to master a variety of fields, but to use them to inform each other in his work. Extra Credit 6 I chose to compare and contrast the two place settings featured under the “Place Settings” page of the Brooklyn Museum’s website. These two place settings represent two sides of the coin of feminist action – the need for unity and an organic understanding of self while dealing with the disunity created by the oppressive system under which one lives. The first place setting, featured to the left, invokes a sense of harmony and of natural unity. The color palette is soft and natural, featuring greens and earth tones, and organic patterning along the margins of the setting. The plate itself features similar colors, and a kind of barely off symmetry that invokes a feeling of naturalness – like a tree that is mostly symmetrical in form, but asymmetrical in detail. The right place setting, however, invokes nothing but division. The place mat features geometric shapes, mostly triangles, giving the whole composition a fractured feeling, while the plate features three different faces, one crying, one angry and one silent and impassive in the middle. This middle face could be one of two things – it could be a veil worn over the woman, showing how her anger and sadness at oppression are made invisible by society, or it could be an impassive (male) oppressor, causing the two reactions on either side. I believe the first interpretation to be more valid. These two works, when taken together, show the fundamental challenge of feminist activism – the need to embrace unity, while recognizing the anger, sadness and disunity that is forced upon one by an oppressive society. Extra Credit 7 America has had a long and varied artistic history, with a huge variety of influences including indigenous art, colonial art, along with art that developed in truly American form, as a mix of many of these cultural influences. The following four objects featured in the “Creating America” exhibit, show some of the evolution of American art in the last several hundred years: The Mantel Clock (1806), Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives (1870), Hotel de France (1928), and Tree (1934). They show two distinct cycles that interweave American art – the acceptance and rejction of foreign influence, and the alternate love of urbanization and nature. The first object shows an obsession with European heritage – it is entirely in a colonial style, and though it features some American iconography (such as the American eagle holding an olive branch), it still rests squarely in the ornate French tradition. If one fast-forwards several decades, and examines “Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives,” one sees a marked change in American expression. Rather than a foreign focus, there is entirely an American one: the representation of Jerusalem invokes a sense of the American west, of the borderline between urban and rural areas, and of the expanse of untamed wilderness that promised the future for so many Americans. Fast forward another few years, and “Hotel de France” shows an entirely different aesthetic – the foreign is back in style, as is the urban, which now represent the future of America. Finally, the last piece, “Tree,” invokes a love for nature in an entirely different way than “Jerusalem” does – it views nature as part of the past, a thing to be admired in detail because of its scarcity, something to be loved rather than exploited. In this we see two patterns: the varying acceptance and rejection of the foreign, and the acceptance and rejection of urban or expansive living. Read More