Quiz on Chapters 8 and 9 for Introduction to Art

Affiliate 8: Art and Identity

Peggy Blood and Pamela J. Sachant

eight.ane LEARNING OUTCOMES

Later completing this chapter, y'all should exist able to:

• Name and categorize means that artists explore the concept of identity

• Understand how fine art serves as a commentary on gild

• Clarify how politics and societal concerns may influence art

• Understand how art expresses individual and group identity

• Understand how art preserves national culture and personal identity

8.2 INTRODUCTION

One of the more important themes emerging from the last century has been the individual's search for identity. For instance, genealogical websites have proliferated and special television programs are devoted to the discipline. Since it first aired on PBS in 2012, Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s Finding Your Roots has been a popular program. The British version, The Guardian , has been successful since 2006.

Some anthropologists suggest that the deep-rooted interest in identity or ancestry is partly shaped by evolutionary forces dating back to early humans supporting each other in extended family groups. Anthropologist Dwight Read theorizes that the Neolithic people were the outset to understand the concept of the family unit tree and the perception of self in a family unit unit and in society. ¹ If connected through blood, people take the tendency to be more willing to care for each other; a common interest and support arrangement is readily realized within a clan or a grouping.

Early humans created twoand three-dimensional likenesses of themselves in their environment to assistance sympathize who they were in relation to the other members of their group. Gimmicky humans practice the same; they make records of themselves with family members, most commonly in photographs and Selfies, and on Instagram. It is the same central concept and placement in an environment that collectively identifies who nosotros are in society, for example, in social gatherings, organizations, and religious settings. This means, to a higher place all, that we must place ourselves within the world in order to obtain identity. Children search for their identity at a very young age past observing and recognizing their parents and family unit members. Their markings within a simple drawing of self and family unit—similar to those of early humans—help them to vindicate and confirm who they are and how they are perceived by their family group.

Like children, artists sometimes explore their identity through cocky-portraits and symbolically in works of art that relate to ancestry or culture. Doing so allows them to take a look within their core and see how they fit within their contemporary culture; this investigation of self plays an of import function in how artists sympathise their surroundings and the earth.

Vincent van Gogh is known as a person who spent much of his fourth dimension in solitude. He painted more than thirty cocky-portraits betwixt the years 1886 and 1889, placing him among the most prolific self-portraitists of all time. Indeed, some of his nearly respected works are his self-portraits that trace his image throughout the last years of his life, the nearly crucial to his career. (Figures 8.1, 8.2, and 8.3) While Van Gogh used the study of his own prototype to help develop his skills as an artist, these self-portraits also give us insights into the artist'due south life and well being, how he fit in society, and his identify among the groups with whom he associated.

Effigy 8.i | Self-Portrait with Harbinger Lid

Artist: Vincent van Gogh

Author: Met Museum

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Figure 8.2 | Self-portrait as a painter

Artist: Vincent van Gogh

Author: Web Museum

Source: Wikimedia Eatables

License: Public Domain

Figure 8.3 | Cocky-portrait with a bandaged ear

Artist: Vincent van Gogh

Author: The Courtland Institute of Fine art

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Like Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso painted a number of self-portraits. Throughout his career, Picasso painted various likenesses that reflected changes in himself, his style, his creative development, as well equally in his life manner and behavior—all of which may be viewed closely from the content of his paintings. (Figures viii.four and viii.5) The first cocky-portrait, painted in 1901 while he was establishing himself as an artist in Paris, France, and still spending time in Barcelona, Spain, reflects the somber way and tones of his Bluish Period (1901-1904). The 2d, dated to 1906, at the very end of his Rose Period (1904-1906), Picasso depicts himself as the artist who past that time was moving in artistic circles, gaining respect, and acquiring patrons.

Figure 8.iv | Cocky-portrait

Artist: Pablo Picasso

Source: WikiArt

License: Public Domain

Figure viii.5 | Self-portrait

Creative person: Pablo Picasso

Source: WikiArt

License: Public Domain

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954, United mexican states) used the iconography of her Mexican heritage to paint herself and the pain that had get an integral office of her life following a bus blow at the age of 18 in which she suffered numerous injuries. She identified as a group member of her country, with Mexican civilisation and ancestry, and every bit belonging to the female person gender. Kahlo's self-portraits are dramatic, bloody, barbarous, and at times overtly political. ( Self-Portrait , Frida Kahlo ) In seeking her roots, she voiced business concern for her country as it struggled for an independent cultural identity. She spoke to her state and people through her art. Kahlo'due south art was inspired past her public beliefs and personal sufferings; she wanted her art to speak from her consciousness.

Although self-portraits of today may be slightly unlike from those of earlier decades, they still describe self-exploration and identity through guild and groups that communicate who we are. Cai Guo-Qiang (b. 1958, Communist china, lives The states) exploded small charges of gunpowder to create an epitome of himself. ( SelfPortrait: A Subjugated Soul , Cai Guo-Qiang ) Unlike from those by Van Gogh, Picasso, and Kahlo, Cai's cocky-portrait does not have any likeness or resemblance to his personal features, but information technology too sends a message about our guild and how Cai relates to it. For instance, the creative person associates the lack of identifying information, rendering him anonymous, with contemporary society, and the fired gunpowder with both chaos and transformation.

Despite the distance in time that separates early and modern humans, the search for their place in guild and who they are remains of fascination and a mystery to all humans regardless of their fourth dimension in history.

8.3 Individual VS CULTURAL GROUPS

Often when one thinks of an creative person, the paradigm is of someone doing alone piece of work in a studio. During the Romantic period of the late eighteenth century until effectually 1850, artists, writers, and composers were associated with individualism and with working alone; this trend continued to develop upward until recent times. The Romantic period valued and celebrated individual originality with musical and literary geniuses such Ludwig van Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, John Keats, Edgar Allen Poe, and Mary Shelley. The visual arts boasted such geniuses as Francisco Goya, Eugène Delacroix, William Blake (1757-1827, England), and Antoine-Jean Gros (17711835, French republic). (Figures 8.6 and 8.vii) Artists of the menses exemplified the Romantic values of the expression of the artists' feelings, personal imagination, and artistic experimentation equally opposed to accepting tradition or popular mass opinion. Artists in the menstruation broke traditional rules; indeed, they considered it desirable to interruption the rules and overthrow tradition.

Figure 8.vi | Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing

Creative person: William Blake

Writer: Tate Britain

Source: Wikimedia Eatables

License: Public Domain

Figure 8.7 | The Battle of Abukir, 25 July 1799

Artist: Antoine-Jean Gros

Writer: User "DcoetzeeBot"

Source: Wikimedia Eatables

License: Public Domain

From the Medieval to the Baroque periods, notwithstanding, artists worked together in workshops and guilds, and schools were formed that stressed the importance of preserving heritage and history through rigorous and systematic artistic training. Large-calibration commissions often required numerous hands to complete a piece of work, emphasizing collaboration. Nevertheless, the artwork was expected to have a consequent style and quality of adroitness. To satisfy those various needs, artists often specialized in a particular type of subject thing. For instance, Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640, Federal republic of germany, lived Flemish region) and Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625, Flanders) collaborated on more than twenty paintings over xx-v years. (Effigy eight.8) In their Madonna in a Garland of Roses , Rubens'due south celebrated skill every bit a figurative painter tin can be seen in the serenely glowing face of the Virgin Mary and energetic cavorting of the cherubs surrounding the circular organization of flowers painted with accuracy and delicacy by Brueghel, who was known for his lively nature scenes.

Figure 8.8 | Madonna in a Garland of Flowers

Artist: Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder

Author: The Bridgeman Art Library

Source: Wikimedia Eatables

License: Public Domain

A recent study past a Yale Academy researcher found the perception of high quality art today is that it is produced by a unmarried individual. If produced by ii or iii people, every bit in a mural or public work projects, the value of the art drops. For creative works, perceptions of quality therefore announced to be based on perceptions of individual, rather than total effort. Nonetheless, a new trend across the world in full general suggests that this tradition, which offset arose in the West during the Renaissance, is not the norm around the globe; that is, the value of art as located in the single artist who produces art individually and alone may be more specifically based in certain cultures. Artists in the twenty-first century are collaborating with others through social media and/or face-to-face encounters. It is interesting to remember that the word "fine art" derives from a root that means to "join" or fit together. A whole constellation of ideas and practices tin can be accomplished through networking and collaboration every bit artists participate in group residencies and apprenticeships like to workshop traditions of centuries ago to learn the customary methods and advanced techniques of their art.

8.iii.one Nation

The Kingdom of Benin, located in the southern region of modern Nigeria and home to the Edo people, was ruled by a succession of obas , or divine kings. It grew from a city-state into an empire during the reign of Oba Ewuare the Great (r. 1440-1473). From 1440, obas ruled the kingdom until it was taken over past the British in 1897. Remarkably, the obas and people of Republic of benin remained in control of their trading relations with Europeans and without interference from the rulers of the nations they traded with until the 2nd half of the nineteenth century, prior to strange dominion. The city of Benin prospered and grew through trade with the Portuguese, Dutch, and British.

One of the benefits of dealing with merchants-sailors who traveled the seas was the variety of goods they brought with them and were eager to trade for foodstuff grown or refined by the Edo people. In particular, the Edo treasured brass and coral, along with the ivory they acquired through elephant hunts. Those materials were reserved for the oba and his court, and were used in affluence in the broad array of ceremonial and sacred objects created nether each ruler. Kingship was passed from father to firstborn son, and, upon ascending to the throne, the new oba was expected to create an altar fabricated of brass for his father, likewise equally i for his mother, generally in ivory, if she had attained the status of queen mother. The new oba also created a brass head to honor his predecessor. (Figure 8.ix) Over fourth dimension, objects such as plaques, bells, masks, chests, and boosted altars made of brass or ivory, some adorned with coral, were added. Some were used to commemorate momentous events and honour heroes, simply the majority of royal objects were used in formalism and symbolic back up of the oba, his ancestors and subjects, and the kingship itself.

Figure 8.9 | Head of an Oba

Source: Met Museum

License: OASC

This nineteenth-century contumely head of an oba, for case, is not meant to exist a portrait of an individual rex so much as a representation of the divine nature and power of being king. The oba derives his power from his interactions with and control over supernatural forces. He is allied with and assisted by his deified ancestors, whom he honors through rituals, offerings, and sacrifices. In stressing this continuity of kingship and his rightful place in that unbroken concatenation, the oba strengthens his own ability and that of his people and nation.

The welfare of the kingdom rests on the oba'south caput, a heavy burden, which is emphasized in representations of him using a proliferation of objects weighing upon him ( Oba Erediauwa ). But, he does not bear the weight of ruling alone; he works with and relies on his advisors and subjects as they support him. That support is shown literally when the oba is in full ceremonial regalia. In this photo of the current oba, Erediauwa, the King is shown in his royal garb, heavily beaded in coral with ivory bracelets and plaques at his waist; an attendant, supporting his right arm, is helping Oba Erediauwa conduct the weight of kingship on behalf of the nation of Edo people.

Post-obit George Washington's celebratory visit to Charleston, South Carolina, in May 1791, the Charleston City Quango voted to celebrate the national hero past having John Trumbull (1756-1843, USA) paint a life-size portrait of the President and hero of the Revolutionary War (1775-1783) to "manus down to posterity the remembrance of the man to whom they are so much indebted for the blessings of peace, liberty and independence." ² Having been Washington's adjutant-de-camp during the War of Independence, Trumbull chose to portray Washington as the steadfast and purple general at the starting time of the Battle of Trenton, a pivotal engagement for colonial troops discouraged in the aftermath of several recent defeats. (Figure 8.10) The painting depicts clouds in a dark, clouded sky turning pink with the rising sun juxtaposed with the general's horse, frightened by the ongoing boxing, held tightly by his adjutant. Washington stands with confidence, one glove off to hold a spyglass in his right paw, looking in the distance equally if heeding a faraway call for victory.

Effigy 8.x | General George Washington at Trenton

Artist: John Trumbull

Source: Art Gallery at Yale

License: Public Domain

Trumbull was pleased with "the lofty expression of his animated expression, the high resolve to conquer or to perish" that he captured in George Washington before the Battle of Trenton. ^three His patrons in Southward Carolina were not, though, and rejected the portrait when he presented it to them in 1792. Speaking on behalf of the people of Charleston, South Carolina Congressman William Loughton Smith "idea the city would be meliorate satisfied with a more thing-of-fact likeness, such as they had recently seen him calm, tranquil, peaceful." ⁴ This was not an isolated occurrence: the question of how a statesman and military machine hero should be represented had not been resolved to the satisfaction of artists or patrons in the eighteenth century, in the years both earlier and after the founding of the The states. As a representative democracy, the country'southward leaders should exist depicted as a commander-in-chief who is also one of the people, many argued. But American artists unfortunately had no clear model for a "matter-of-fact likeness" in the portraits of European royalty and heads of country that they used as examples. Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641, Flanders), who was court painter to the King of England, around 1635 painted Charles I at the Hunt . (Figure 8.11) The informal however dignified opinion van Dyck adopted for his prototype of the sovereign, a admirer out in nature, quickly became the favorite pose for aristocrats and other dignitaries sitting for a non-ceremonial portrait. The pose still remained a standard at the time Trumbull painted George Washington before the Battle of Trenton , but, as indicated past the painting's reception, information technology was not considered appropriate in a representation of the leader of a autonomous nation. In addition, as the portrait was to commemorate Washington's visit to Charleston, townspeople thought the battle setting should be replaced with a view of that metropolis.

Effigy 8.11 | Charles I at the Chase

Creative person: Anthony van Dyck

Writer: User "Tetraktys"

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Trumbull took note of his patrons' wishes and painted another version. ( General George Washington at Trenton , John Trumbull ) While Washington's pose remains most unchanged, Trumbull lightened the sky and inserted a view of Charleston Bay with the city on the far shore. Charleston leaders were satisfied and Trumbull promised delivery of the painting after some minor additions. The addition turned out to be the Full general'due south horse, only reversed from the original painting, with its hindquarters prominently displayed in the space between Washington'southward canary yellowish breeches and his walking stick, and the distant city visible betwixt the horse'south legs. The painting withal hangs in the Celebrated Council Chamber of Charleston City Hall.

8.three.2 Cultural Heritage and Ethnic Identity

One important aspect of cultural and indigenous identity is shared histories or common memories. Such histories are our heritage. However, heritage is not the full history. It connects to culture and ethnicity in gild to convey the full story about who we were and who we accept become as a society or individual. Self or national identity is congenital on its foundation. Defining terms volition help in agreement how each interplay to identify who nosotros are as an private or nation.

Christian Ellers, a popular contemporary writer on cultures, defines identity as any a person may distinguish themselves by, whether it be a particular state, ethnicity, organized religion, organization, or other position. Identity is i fashion amidst many to define oneself. Ellers defines ethnicity as a group that normally has some connections or mutual traits, such as a common linguistic communication, common heritage, and or cultural similarities. The American Dictionary defines civilization every bit the way of life of a detail people, particularly every bit shown in ordinary behavior, habits, and attitudes toward each other or one's moral and religious beliefs ("Culture"). We will look at these terms equally they relate to artists, the visual documentarians of society.

Kimsooja (b. 1957, South Korea), a multi-disciplinary conceptual, reflects on her group identity by exploring the roots of her Korean culture. She draws upon tradition and history past selecting familiar everyday items such every bit textile to communicate her message. Fabric wrapped into a package known equally a "bottari" is commonly used to transport, bear, or store everyday objects in Korean culture. What is different is Kimsooja's use of fabric equally an art form. Since 1991, Kimsooja has used fabric, sometimes in the form of a bottari, in an on-going serial, Deductive Objects , exploring Korean folk customs, daily and common activities, and her cultural background and heritage in relation to her life and feel. ( Bottari Truck-Migrateurs , "Je Reviendrai", Thierry Depagne and Jaeho Chong ) In this example, she photographed figures draped in Korean printed fabric that conceals their ethnicity, culture, and identity. Their identity is left to the viewer's imagination, and their culture is left for the viewer to consider, using the print of the cloth every bit a clue.

A number of artists such as Kimsooja choose to communicate through their art who they are in relation to their culture and ethnicity. Their fine art becomes a ways of validating their self-identity. Her Korean heritage represents a treasury of symbols that commemorates who they are as a people and a singled-out culture with a mutual artistic sensibility. Their national cocky-image is, on one level, unambiguously defined past the convergence of territorial, ethnic, and cultural identities. The geographical conditions of the Korean Peninsula provide a self-independent nautical and continental surround with plenty of resources with which to create and be innovative. These conditions have given the people since prehistoric times a rich and unique culture to draw from and make contributions to humanity. Koreans accept great pride in their homogeneous culture, and in their heritage.

Russia, similarly self-contained, for many centuries developed cultural characteristics and ethnic identities distinctly their ain, as well. Russia'due south rich cultural heritage is visually stunning, from its vivid folk costumes to its elaborate religious symbols and churches. (Figure 8.12) Most Russians place with the Eastern Orthodox (Christian) organized religion, but Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism are also practiced in Russia, making it a rich land of diverse ethnic groups and cultures. St. Basil's Cathedral, located on the grounds of the Kremlin in Moscow, and hundreds of other orthodox churches symbolize Russia's heritage; indeed, citizens proudly place pictures of the cathedrals in their homes and offices. The churches in Russia are astonishingly beautiful and very much a part of Russia'due south heritage.

Figure 8.12 | St. Basil Cathedral, Moscow

Author: User "Ludvig14"

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: CC Past-SA 3.0

Ironically, then, in light of such a rich internal history, why did Russian federation'south rulers look to western European artists and artistic traditions to develop a new artistic identity in eighteenth century?

Carlo Bartolomeo Rastrelli (1675-1744, Italian republic, lived Russia), an Italian sculptor who moved to Petrograd, Russia, in 1716, is associated with the formation of Russia'south "new" civilization. Equally a immature artist, Rastrelli moved from his native Florence during an economic downturn to Paris in search of greater opportunities. The lavish and majestic works he created in that location in the late Baroque style did not earn him the success he sought, just did bring him to the attention of Tsar (and later Emperor) Peter the Not bad (r. 1682-1725), who lured him and his son Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli (1700-1771, France, lived Russia) to the Russia court.

Peter the Great co-ruled with his brother, Ivan V, and other family members until 1696, when he was twenty-four years old. At that time, Russia was still very much tied to its internal religious, political, social, and cultural traditions. Peter the Great fix out to modernize all aspects his land, from the structure of the military to education for children of the nobility. The Tsar traveled widely in Western Europe, implementing governmental reforms and adopting cultural norms he saw in that location. France was the model for sweeping changes he had carried out in courtroom life, fashion, literature, music, art, architecture, and even language, with French condign the language spoken at court over the grade of the eighteenth century.

Carlo Bartolomeo Rastrelli and his son Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli were amid the painters, sculptors, and architects, then, who were instrumental in introducing to Russian federation the new conventions and styles that supplanted Russian federation's cultural heritage and identity. For instance, Carlo Rastrelli's portrait bust of Peter the Cracking bears a hit stylistic resemblance to a portrait bust of French Rex Louis Fourteen (r. 1643-1715) past sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680, Italia). (Figures 8.xiii and 8.xiv) Bernini's bust, created during a visit to Paris in 1665, shows Louis Xiv as a visionary and majestic leader who is literally above vagaries of human existence such as the wind that billows his curtain. Carlo Rastrelli's portrait of Peter the Smashing, completed posthumously in 1729, draws upon the same traditions—dating back to images of Roman emperors such as Augustus (see Figure 3.23)—of showing absolute authority through such devices equally the lift of the head, eyes scanning the distance, and wearing of military armor.

Figure 8.13 | Peter I

Writer: User "shakko"

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: CC BY-SA 3.0

Figure 8.14 | Bust of Louis Fourteen of France

Creative person: Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Author: User "Coyau"

Source: Wikimedia Eatables

License: CC Past-SA three.0

His son Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli was an architect who likewise worked in the Bizarre style. He received his first royal committee in 1721, at the historic period of twenty-1, only he is mainly known for opulent and imposing buildings he designed after Peter the Smashing'due south death in 1725. Continuing the modernization and transformation of St. Petersburg, Francesco Rastrelli's structures are associated with luxurious exuberance of the Baroque, and Russia'south Romanov rulers of the eighteenth century. One of Francesco Rastrelli's well-nigh famous buildings is the Winter Palace, also bears a striking stylistic resemblance to a French palace: Versailles, congenital for Louis XIV by architects Louis Le Vau (1612-1670, France) and Jules-Hardouin Mansart (1746-1708, France). (Figures viii.15 and eight.xvi)

Figure 8.15 | Winter Palace, Petrograd

Author: User "Florstein"

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: CC BY-SA iv.0

Figure 8.sixteen | Versailles

Writer: Marc Vassal

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: CC BY-SA iii.0

8.three.3 Sex/Gender Identity

Kehinde Wiley (b. 1977, USA) is a contemporary portrait painter. In his work, he refers back to poses and other compositional elements used past earlier masters in much the same manner that Trumbull did in his portrait of George Washington. Wiley means for his viewers to recognize the earlier work he has borrowed from in creating his painting, to make comparisons betwixt the 2, and to layer meaning from the earlier work into his own. Due to the strong contrasts between the sitters in Wiley'due south paintings and those who posed for the before portraitists, however, this comparison often makes for a circuitous interweaving of meanings.

Wiley'southward 2008 painting Femme piquée par un serpent, or Woman bitten by a snake, ( Femme Piquée par un Snake, Kehinde Wiley ) is based upon an 1847 marble work of the same proper noun past French sculptor Auguste Clésinger (1814-1883, French republic). (Figure 8.17) When Clésinger's flagrantly sensual nude was exhibited, the public and critics alike were scandalized, and fascinated. It was non uncommon in European and American art of the nineteenth century to utilize the subject of the work equally justification for depicting the female nude. For case, if the subject area was a moral tale or a scene from classical mythology, that was an acceptable reason for showing a nude figure. In Clésinger'due south sculpture, the pretext for the woman's indecent writhing was the snake seize with teeth, which, coupled with the roses surrounding the woman, was meant to suggest an allegory of dear or beauty lost in its prime number rather than simply a salacious depiction of a nude. Unfortunately, the model was easily recognized as a existent person, Apollonie Sabatier, a courtesan who was the author Charles Baudelaire's mistress and well known among artists and writers of the solar day. Clésinger defended his sculpture every bit an artful study of the human form merely, having used the features and body of a contemporary woman, his sculpture'due south viewers objected to the epitome as too existent. Wiley'due south painting is the opposite: it is clearly intended to be a portrait of ane individual, but he is clothed and inexplicably lying with his back to the viewer while turning to look over his shoulder. In his painting, Wiley retains the extended arms, and twisted legs and torso of Clésinger's effigy, but the sculpted woman'due south thrown back head and closed eyes are replaced by the man'south turned caput and mildly quizzical gaze.

Figure eight.17 | Femme Piquée par un Serpent

Creative person: Auguste Clésinger

Author: User "Arnaud 25"

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Wiley takes that pose and its meanings—indecency, exposure, vulnerability, powerlessness— and uses them in a context that seemingly makes no sense when the subject is a fully clothed black male person. Or does it? By using the conventions for depicting the female person nude, Wiley asks u.s. to examine the following: what happens when the figure is clothed—with a suggestion of eroticism in the glimpse of chocolate-brown skin and white briefs above his low-riding jeans; what happens when a boyfriend gazes at the viewer with an unguarded expression of open inquisitiveness; and what happens when a black male presents his body in a posture of weakness, potentially open to set on? The artist uses these juxtapositions of meaning to claiming our notions of identity and masculinity. By expanding his visual vocabulary to include traditions in portraiture going back hundreds of years, Wiley paints a young black human being at odds with gimmicky conventions of (male) physicality and sexuality.

Ideas about gender identity, that is, the gender one identifies with regardless of biological sex, have adult scientifically and socially, and have in recent years become both more complex and more fluid in numerous cultures. Within other cultures, however, in add-on to male or female, there has traditionally been a third gender, and gender fluidity has been function of the textile of social club for thousands of years. Among the aboriginal Greeks, for instance, a hermaphrodite, an individual who has both male and female sex characteristics, was considered "a higher, more than powerful form" that created "a third, transcendent gender." ⁵ In Samoa, there is a stiff accent on one'southward part in the extended family unit, or aiga . Traditionally, if in that location are not plenty females within an aiga to properly run the household or if there is a male person child who is particularly drawn to domestic life, he is raised as fa'afafine or "in the manner of a woman." Thus, fa'afafine are male person at nascency but are raised as a third gender, taking on masculine and feminine behavioral traits.

In India, those of a third gender are known as hijra , which includes individuals who are eunuchs (men who take been castrated), hermaphrodites, and transgender (when gender identity does not friction match assigned sexual activity). The role of hijras is traditionally related to spirituality, and they are often devotees of a god or goddess. For instance, the hijras or devotees of the Hindu goddess Bahuchara Maja are often eunuchs, having had themselves castrated voluntarily to offer their manhood to the deity. Other hijras live as part of the mainstream community and dress as women to perform only during religious celebrations, such as a nativity or wedding, where they are invited to participate and bequeath blessings.

Although hijras had been a respected tertiary gender in much of Southeast Asia for thousands of years, their status changed in late nineteenth-century India while under British rule. During the twentieth century, many hijras formed their own communities, with the protection of a guru, or mentor, to provide some fiscal security and safekeeping from the harassment and discrimination nether which they lived. In 2014, the supreme court of Republic of india ruled that hijras should be officially recognized as a third gender, dramatically changing for the better the educational and occupational opportunities for what is estimated to be half a million to two 1000000 individuals. ⁶

Tejal Shah (b. 1979, India) is a multi-media artist who often works in photography, video, and installation pieces. She began the Hijra Fantasy Series in 2006, ( Southern Siren Maheshwari from Hijra Fantasy Series, Tejal Shah ) creating "tableaux in which [three hijras ] enact their ain personal fantasies of themselves." ^seven Shah was interested in how each woman—they all had transitioned from male person to female—envisions her own sexuality, dissever from the perceptions and projections of others. Every bit described by Shah, "In Southern Siren—Maheshwari , the protagonist envisions herself as a classic heroine from Due south Indian movie house in the throes of a passionate romantic encounter with a typical male hero." ⁸

In the tableau , or staged scene, Masheshwari sees herself as resplendently dressed in a blue sari, a traditional Indian draped gown, an object of admiration and desire. In this photograph and the others in the series, Shah found it noteworthy that each hijra , participating fully in the artistic procedure, expressed feelings well-nigh herself past using visual cues and types from mainstream sources such as, in this example, Indian pop culture. How each hijra represented herself was the stuff of universal human fantasies, Shah institute, regardless of sexual or gender identity: "existence cute, glamourous and powerful, having a family, giving love and being loved in render." ^nine

8.3.4 Class

Maria Luisa of Parma was a member of the highest circles of European royalty. Born in 1751, she was the youngest daughter of Phillip, Duke of Parma, Italy, and his wife, Princess Louise-Élisabeth of France, the eldest daughter of King Louis 15. In 1765, she married Charles IV, Prince of Asturias. She was the Queen espoused of Spain from 1788, when her husband ascended to the throne, until 1808, when King Charles Iv abdicated his throne under pressure from Napoleon.

Imperial marriages were intended to foster allegiances and cement alliances. The bride and groom generally did not meet one some other until after lengthy negotiations were completed and the wedding date was near. It was non uncommon for portraits of the prospective couple to exist exchanged; in addition to the descriptions by the negotiators and others, an artist's representation was the but style to learn what one'southward possible spouse looked like at a time when journeys were not easily or rapidly undertaken. At the time of their appointment, Laurent Pécheux (1729-1821, French) painted this portrait of Maria Luisa (Figure viii.18) in 1765 for Princess Maria Luisa fiancé's family.

Figure 8.18 | Maria Luisa of Parma

Artist: Laurent Pécheux

Source: Met Museum

License: OASC

Maria Luisa of Parma depicts the fourteen-year-old bride-to-be holding a snuffbox in her right hand containing a miniature portrait of her future married man inside its hat. This item was a formula in formal engagement portraits: the sitter holds a souvenir such as this finely made and costly trinket to express appreciation and budding affection for ane'south betrothed. Additionally, to demonstrate her wealthy and cultured family background, Maria Luisa is posed within an interior setting displayed in a silk brocade gown trimmed with lengths of delicate, handmade lace, a medallion of the Social club of the Starry Cantankerous suspended from a diamond-encrusted bow on her chest, and diamond stars in her powdered hair. While this is indeed a likeness of the princess, the portrait is meant to convey far more the color of her eyes or shape of her nose. This portrait is a argument about the prestige and power she will bring to the wedlock, and a congratulatory note to the groom's family on the dazzler and worth of the mutually beneficial asset they are gaining.

Maria Luisa'southward dress is the exclamation bespeak to that visual argument. She is wearing a manner known as a mantua or robe a la française (in the French style), a clothes for formal court occasions, of silk brocade woven into alternating bands of gold thread and pink flowers on a cream field. This very plush textile, probably made in France, is stretched over panniers, or fan-shaped hoops fabricated of cane, metal or whalebone extending side-to-side. The panniers create a horizontal simply flattened silhouette that immune the tremendous quantity of magnificent textile required to be fully displayed. To wear such a gown was a pronouncement of one's wealth and status, a sign of which was one'due south comportment, that is, one'south bearing and behavior. And, it was indeed a challenge to stand or motility with the grace expected of a blue-blooded woman in eighteenth-century social club while wearing such cumbersome, restrictive, and heavy vesture. Maria Luisa, however, is depicted as poised and charming, the perfect espoused for a king.

Twenty-four years subsequently her portrait past Pécheux, Maria Luisa was thirty-viii years erstwhile and had borne 10 children, v of whom were still alive, when Francisco Goya created this portrait, Maria Luisa Wearing Panniers . (Figure eight.19) , Francisco Goya was named painter to the courtroom of Charles IV and Maria Luisa in 1789, and in commemoration of Charles IV's ascension to the throne, created a portrait of the King, to go along with the Queen's portrait. Neither the years nor Goya were kind to Maria Luisa. (Between 1771 and 1799, she would have xiv living children, vi of whom grew to adulthood, and ten miscarriages.)

Effigy 8.19 | Maria Luisa of Parma Wearing Panniers

Creative person: Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes

Author: Prado Museum

Source: Wikimedia Eatables

License: Public Domain

In Goya's depiction, she is fifty-fifty more than richly dressed than in her before portrait, merely her elaborate and sumptuous costume serves only to provide an unflattering contrast with the Queen's demeanor. Goya depicts Maria Luisa with her arms awkwardly held to each side to accommodate her rigid, box-like tontillo (the Spanish variation of panniers); her plain, dead face is almost comically topped past a complexly synthetic lid of lace, silk, and jewels. The hat represents one extravagant trend in women's fashion of the 1780s, and Goya did paint its proliferation of textures and surfaces with great skill and sensitivity, merely the contrast between the Queen's hat and her features makes them announced even more fibroid and unrefined, regardless of her wealth and class.

What explanation could at that place have been for the court painter to create such an unflattering representation of Maria Luisa, Queen espoused of Spain? In her years of living in her adopted country, she had not endeared herself to members of courtroom or her subjects. Considering that the King preferred to hunt, running the state savage largely on the shoulders of Maria Luisa, who was vain and bad-tempered. Goya's presentation does not, in fact, contradict that cess. The emphasis on her luxurious and elegant attire and on the robe and crown to Maria Luisa'southward correct—signaling her status equally Queen espoused—represent that she is the individual who is literally in bear upon with the robes of state. This work and her appointment portrait of almost twenty-five years earlier were not then much depictions of her as a person as they were ways to communicate the power and prestige of her place and her role.

Honoré Daumier (1808-1879, France) in 1864 painted a different sign of prestige, or lack thereof, in The Third-Class Carriage ; it was one of three paintings in a series commissioned past William Thomas Walters. (Figure 8.20) The other 2 paintings were The First-Class Carriage and The 2d-Class Railroad vehicle , the only one in the series thought to be finished. (Figures eight.21 and 8.22) Walters, an American businessman and fine art collector, would later found the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, with piece of work from his collection, including these iii paintings.

Figure 8.20 | The Third Class Railroad vehicle

Artist: Honoré Daumier

Source: Met Museum

License: OASC

Figure 8.21 | The First Class Carriage

Creative person: Honoré Daumier

Author: Walters Art Museum

Source: Wikimedia Eatables

License: Public Domain

Effigy 8.22 | The Second Class Carriage

Artist: Honoré Daumier

Author: Walters Fine art Museum

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

When Daumier created the works, he had been working prolifically as a painter, printmaker, and sculptor for forty years. In his lifetime, he would create approximately 5,000 prints, 500 paintings, and 100 sculptures. From the beginning of his career, he was interested in the touch of industrialization on modern urban life, the plight of the poor, the quest for social equality, and the struggle for justice. He was especially known for his biting satire of politics and political figures, and his less stinging, ironic commentary on current society and events. Because of the subject thing he chose—everyday people, contemporary life—and the straightforward, truthful, and sincere way in which he depicted them, Daumier is considered to exist role of the Realist movement or style in art.

In The Tertiary-Class Carriage , the artist presents iv figures in the foreground, bathed in light, with numerous, less individualized figures crowded in the background. The young mother nursing her baby, an elderly adult female sitting with folded hands, and a boy sleeping with his hands in his pockets encompass four generations, every bit well as different stages of life. Although the passengers sit near one some other, they appear isolated from each other. They, including the boy, are probably traveling to or from work in the city, and both their body postures and facial expressions convey the toll of hard labor and long hours. Daumier shows compassion for these workers whose lives agree nothing but repetitious drudgery.

Forever irresolute the mainly agricultural society that existed in much of Europe and the U.s.a. prior to the 2d half of the eighteenth century, the Industrial Revolution is the start of the mechanization and manufacturing that would lead to people shifting from country to city life, and from farms to factories. While the shift to an industrial, money-based society improved the lives of many and created the centre class as we know it today, Daumier was well aware that others were being left behind and were essentially trapped in a cycle of little education, unskilled labor, and low wages.

The artist represents different life expectations based on grade through the way he paints the windows and through his use of light in each of the iii paintings. In The Third-Class Railroad vehicle , the figures in the foreground have light shining on them from a window to the left, outside the film aeroplane. There are windows in the groundwork, likewise, but goose egg can be seen outside of them. Daumier is implying there is nothing to be seen, especially in the case of the literally non-existent window. In The 2nd-Class Carriage , a landscape can be seen through the window, and 1 of the figures looks out attentively. The other three, paying no attention to the world outside, are cocooned in their winter clothes in an attempt to fend off the cold in their unheated train automobile. But the man who leans forward to observe the passing scenery appears to exist younger and is mayhap more eager and capable of adapting to and moving upward in the world of business concern—suggested by the bowler hat he is wearing, which at the time was associated in city life with ceremonious servants and clerks. In Splendid Carriage , the passengers are all warning, each attending to their own business concern. One young adult female looks out at a dark-green landscape; because her lightweight outerwear, information technology appears this is a springtime scene, which is suggested, equally well, by the colorful ribbons on the two women's fashionable bonnets. With their relaxed postures and placid, composed expressions, these first-course passengers give the impression of confidence. They are more secure in themselves and their places in the earth than either the second-class or third-form passengers.

8.iii.5 Grouping Affiliation

History suggests that the quality of human survival is best when humans function as a grouping, assuasive for commonage support and interaction. Social psychological research indicates that people who are affiliated with groups are psychologically and physically stronger and better able to cope when faced with stressful situations. Gregory Walton, a social psychologist who studies group interaction, has ended that ane do good individuals receive is the satisfaction of belonging (to a group, culture, nation or) to a greater community that shares some common interests and aspirations. The unity of groups is achieved through members' similarities or their having experiences based on the history that brought them together.

Artists throughout history have been associated with groups, movements, and organizations that protect their interests, forward their cause, or promote them as a grouping or as individuals. The most visible groups during the Renaissance menstruum in Italy, for example, were people belonging to the Catholic Church and other religious organizations, wealthy merchant families, civic and authorities groups, and guilds, including artists' guilds. (Figures 8.23 and 8.24)

Figure 8.23 | The Syndics of the Amsterdam Drapers' Guild,

known as the "Sampling Officials"

Artist: Rembrandt

Author: Google Cultural Institute

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Effigy viii.24 | Officers of the St. George Civic Guard, Haarlem

Artist: Frans Hals

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

8.3.6 Personal Identity

The city of Palmyra, in modern Syria, had long been at the crossroads of Western and Eastern political, religious, and cultural influences, equally it was a caravan cease for traders traveling the Silk Road between the Mediterranean and the Far East. In the first century CE, the city came nether Roman rule and under the Romans, the metropolis prospered, and the arts flourished. Following a rebellion past Queen Zenobia of Palmyra in 273 CE, Roman Emperor Aurelian destroyed the metropolis, catastrophe the period of Roman control.

The Palmyrenes, or people of Palmyra, built three types of elaborate, large-scale monuments for their dead chosen houses of eternity. The beginning was a belfry tomb , some as high every bit four stories. The second was a hypogeum , or surreptitious tomb, and the third was a tomb congenital in the shape of a temple or house. All were used by many generations of the aforementioned extended family and were located in a necropolis, a urban center of the dead, what we today phone call a cemetery. Inside the tombs were loculi , or small, separate spaces, each of which formed an individual sarcophagus, or stone coffin. Within the opening to the tomb, the kickoff sarcophagus held the remains of the clan's founder; it was frequently faced with a rock relief sculpture depicting him as if attending a banquet and inviting others to join him. Surrounding the founder in the loculi , on the face up of each family member'due south sarcophagus would be a relief portrait of each person interred at that place. ( Loculi )

This stele, a portrait of a begetter, his son, and two daughters, dates to between 100 and 300 CE, one-time during the era of Roman rule. (Figure eight.25) The man is reclining on a couch decorated with blossom motifs within circles and diamonds. He holds a bunch of grapes in his right hand and, in his left, a wine cup busy with flowers similar to those on the burrow. His ii daughters flank his son in the background; the son holding grapes and a bird. The son and daughters all clothing necklaces. Additionally, the daughters clothing pendant earrings and brooches holding the drapery at their left shoulders. The chiton, or tunic, and himation, or cloak, that each girl wears has some affinities with Greco-Roman types of clothing, but the fashion of the ornamented veil covering their heads is a local blazon of garment, based on Parthian, or Persian, styles. Also wearing local garments, the two males wearable a loose fitting tunic and trousers, each with a decorative border. The fine fabrics indicated by the embellished borders of both men and women's wearable indicate appurtenances and wealth amassed from trade, as does the abundant utilize of precious metals and gems in the variety of jewelry adorned by the Palmyrenes. Thus, the stele is a alloy of Greco-Roman and Palmyrene (and larger Parthian) styles and cultural influences.

Figure 8.25 | Funerary Relief

Source: Met Museum

License: OASC

Coupled upon many Palmyrenes grave steles are inscriptions of text in both Aramaic and Latin that give the person's name and genealogy, markers of distinctive individual and family traits. While many of the depictions of the frontal-facing, wide-eyed figures—a defining feature of Palmyrene fine art—show little individualization of features, the coupling with such inscriptions are evident signs that each stele was intended to denote the characteristics of the person entombed within. The figures actively engage the viewer, and provide the reminder that personal identity is an anneal of individual, socio-cultural, spiritual, and historical influences.

In July 2015, the metropolis of Palmyra, its people, and its art were again in danger. In Apr of 2015, Islamic State (ISIS) forces overtook the iii,000-twelvemonth-old Assyrian city of Nimrud and destroyed its buildings and art. On May 21, 2015, ISIS overtook the city of Palmyra, inducing fear that they would destroy buildings and fine art at that place as they did in Nimrud. On July 2, 2015, ISIS was reported to accept destroyed grave markers like to the one discussed here. ( Grave Marker Reliefs ) They lined up 6 bust-length reliefs of people who lived in Palmyra nigh ii,000 years agone, and smashed them, obliterating the visual and written record of each person. So many take had their portraits made for posterity with the hopes of staying alive, against the odds. And, this is why we need art: information technology gives the states memories of ourselves and our deeds, who nosotros place with, and how we identify others.

viii.iv Earlier Yous MOVE ON

Key Concepts

National and personal identities do not magically happen; they are congenital on and influenced by immediate and past events, environments, traditions, and cultural legacies. Artists capture and certificate not only the physical conditions of a society but also the emotional and mental conditions. They construct a sense of who we were and are equally a person and every bit a nation. Lodge'southward identity is e'er fluid. When we see identity as static, we record people with stereotypes and practise not see them for who they are. Art is ane way to claiming static notions of identity by engaging the viewer in visual narratives that are unfamiliar to them, and that educate and challenge their previously held notions.

Since the 1970s, postmodern theories have challenged historical and traditional notions of indigenous and cultural identity by developing a model that views identity as beingness multifaceted, fluid, and socially constructed. Some scholars contend that we are in a period of post-identity and post-ethnicity, repudiating the old essentialist view of identity. Globalization of people, the Net, and travel have all brought about fluid cultures—which may have contributed to people's more fluid sense of identity, and likewise to their interest in researching their heritage, culture, and ethnic identity. Heritage is the treasure and symbols of pride for an individual, country, and nation. Many works of fine art are seen as part of national heritage because they help citizens capeesh their past. Art provides life to the past, something that can be visualized, touched, walk through, and identified as beingness part of a legacy and civilization.

Test Yourself

1. On the surface Kim Sooja's art seems simple, but underneath it is an enigma of traditions that make a metaphoric identity statement; for instance, her use of fabric every bit an fine art form evokes intimacy and honour of her culture and history. Discuss and identify at-least two artists whose piece of work makes a personal and historical statement. Be specific as you reference each epitome associated with your essay. (minimum of 500 words).

2. A number of circumstances throughout history have compelled artists to confront the context of social problems, select at-least 2 works of art that best describe an event or outcome. Discuss the problems associated with the consequence, and how the event and art shaped the legacy or identity of the country or nation. Describe the ability the piece of work communicates, discuss the significance of the piece of work and how it convey a message, and identity of the people in that period of fourth dimension. At the terminate of your essay brand commentary on why you selected the art works what y'all think about the art. (Attach selected work with captions.) Answer to the question is located throughout the affiliate)

3. Throughout history building were synthetic in a manner to symbolize power; spirituality; and godlessness. Structures business firm institutions that guide, influence and shape a guild'southward morals, values, politics, religious and social conditioning. Select 4 structures that best symbolize the identity or culture of a society. Describe its bear on on influencing a nation, significance to the nation and how the construction contributes to national or private identity. At the end of your essay hash out why you selected the structures and the aesthetics of the edifice. (Attach selected structures with captions.)

4. Compare and dissimilarity four works of art that all-time describe a personal or national identity. Discuss with specifics how the artist is able to capture the character of the person or nation. At the finish of your essay add a commentary why you selected the works and their significance. (Adhere selected works with captions.)

viii.9 Central TERMS

Baroque : a manner of architecture and fine art that originating in Italy in the early seventeenth century

Bottari : Textile wrapped and tied effectually clothes , fabric, or/and items into a parcel for carry

Grave stele : is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected usually in Greek cemeteries equally a monument, for funerary or commemorative purposes.

Hypogeum : an underground prehistoric burial site

Impressionism : is a nineteenth-century art movement that adult in France during the late nineteenth century past a group of artists called the Bearding Club of Painters, Sculptors

Impressionist : A painter whose painting have characteristics of the impressionism motility, emphasizing accurate delineation of low-cal in its irresolute qualities, uses small, thin, even so visible brush strokes, open up composition,

Individualism : emphasizes potential of manand cocky development own beliefs. The Individualism during the Renaissance flow became a prominent theme in Italian republic

Industrial Revolution : menses during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in western Europe and the Us when industry quickly developed due to the invention of steampowered engines and the growth of factories. Central changes occurred in agriculture, material and metallic manufacture, transportation, economical and policies, and had a major impact on how people lived

Obas : The title of "oba," or king, is passed on to the firstborn son of each successive male monarch of Benin, Africa at the time of his decease

Renaissance Period : a period of fourth dimension from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century in Europe. The era bridged the time betwixt the Middle Ages and modernistic

Tableau : is an incidental scene, as of a group of people

Tower tomb : are mausoleums, congenital in 1067 and 1093

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1. Ghose, Tia (Oct. 26, 2012). Why we care about our ancestry, Live Science. ↩

2. George and Martha Washington: Portraits from the Presidential Years , exhibition, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC, 1999, accessed July 6, 2015, http://world wide web.npg.si.edu/exh/gw/trenton.htm ↩

3. Ibid ↩

4. Ibid ↩

5. Aileen Ajootian, "The Only Happy Couple: Hermaphrodites and Gender" in Naked Truth: Women, Sexuality and Gender in Classical Art and Architecture , ed. Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow and Claire L. Lyons (New York: Routledge, 1997), 228. ↩

6. http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/04/18/304548675/a-journey-of-pain-and-dazzler-on-becoming-transgenderin-bharat ↩

7. Tejal Shah, Artist Statement, Hijra Fantasy Serial , accessed July 7, 2015, http://tejalshah.in/project/what-are-y'all/hi jrafantasy-series/ ↩

8. Ibid. ↩

9. Ibid. ↩

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