Early African Art Communicates Identity Through Objects That Represent Quizlet

Chapter 8: Art and Identity

Peggy Claret and Pamela J. Sachant

8.1 LEARNING OUTCOMES

After completing this chapter, you should be able to:

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

• Understand how fine art serves as a commentary on order

• Clarify how politics and societal concerns may influence art

• Sympathise how art expresses individual and group identity

• Sympathise how art preserves national culture and personal identity

8.two INTRODUCTION

1 of the more important themes emerging from the final century has been the individual'south search for identity. For example, genealogical websites accept proliferated and special television programs are devoted to the subject. Since it commencement aired on PBS in 2012, Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s Finding Your Roots has been a popular programme. The British version, The Guardian , has been successful since 2006.

Some anthropologists advise 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 first to understand the concept of the family tree and the perception of self in a family unit and in gild. ¹ If continued through claret, people have the tendency to be more than willing to care for each other; a mutual interest and support organization is readily realized within a clan or a group.

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

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

Vincent van Gogh is known every bit a person who spent much of his fourth dimension in solitude. He painted more than xxx self-portraits between the years 1886 and 1889, placing him among the well-nigh prolific self-portraitists of all fourth dimension. Indeed, some of his almost respected works are his self-portraits that trace his paradigm throughout the concluding years of his life, the most crucial to his career. (Figures 8.ane, eight.2, and 8.3) While Van Gogh used the written report of his own image to assistance develop his skills as an artist, these self-portraits likewise give u.s.a. insights into the artist's life and well being, how he fit in society, and his place amidst the groups with whom he associated.

Figure 8.1 | Self-Portrait with Straw Hat

Artist: Vincent van Gogh

Author: Met Museum

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Effigy 8.2 | Cocky-portrait as a painter

Artist: Vincent van Gogh

Author: Web Museum

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Effigy 8.iii | Self-portrait with a bandaged ear

Artist: Vincent van Gogh

Author: The Courtland Institute of Art

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Similar Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso painted a number of cocky-portraits. Throughout his career, Picasso painted diverse likenesses that reflected changes in himself, his style, his artistic development, besides as in his life style and beliefs—all of which may be viewed closely from the content of his paintings. (Figures 8.four and 8.5) The first cocky-portrait, painted in 1901 while he was establishing himself as an artist in Paris, French republic, and all the same spending fourth dimension in Barcelona, Spain, reflects the somber manner and tones of his Blueish Menstruum (1901-1904). The second, dated to 1906, at the very end of his Rose Period (1904-1906), Picasso depicts himself as the artist who by that time was moving in artistic circles, gaining respect, and acquiring patrons.

Effigy 8.4 | Self-portrait

Creative person: Pablo Picasso

Source: WikiArt

License: Public Domain

Figure 8.5 | Cocky-portrait

Artist: Pablo Picasso

Source: WikiArt

License: Public Domain

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954, Mexico) used the iconography of her Mexican heritage to paint herself and the pain that had get an integral part of her life post-obit a motorcoach accident at the age of 18 in which she suffered numerous injuries. She identified as a group member of her country, with Mexican culture and beginnings, and as belonging to the female gender. Kahlo's self-portraits are dramatic, encarmine, brutal, and at times overtly political. ( Self-Portrait , Frida Kahlo ) In seeking her roots, she voiced concern for her country equally it struggled for an contained cultural identity. She spoke to her land and people through her art. Kahlo's fine art was inspired past her public behavior and personal sufferings; she wanted her art to speak from her consciousness.

Although self-portraits of today may exist slightly different from those of earlier decades, they still draw self-exploration and identity through lodge and groups that communicate who we are. Cai Guo-Qiang (b. 1958, China, lives USA) exploded small charges of gunpowder to create an epitome of himself. ( SelfPortrait: A Subjugated Soul , Cai Guo-Qiang ) Different from those by Van Gogh, Picasso, and Kahlo, Cai's self-portrait does not have any likeness or resemblance to his personal features, but it too sends a message about our gild and how Cai relates to it. For case, the creative person associates the lack of identifying data, rendering him anonymous, with gimmicky society, and the fired gunpowder with both anarchy and transformation.

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

8.3 INDIVIDUAL VS CULTURAL GROUPS

Oft when one thinks of an artist, the image is of someone doing solitary work in a studio. During the Romantic period of the late eighteenth century until around 1850, artists, writers, and composers were associated with individualism and with working alone; this trend continued to develop up until recent times. The Romantic catamenia valued and historic 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 equally Francisco Goya, Eugène Delacroix, William Blake (1757-1827, England), and Antoine-Jean Gros (17711835, France). (Figures 8.vi and 8.7) Artists of the period exemplified the Romantic values of the expression of the artists' feelings, personal imagination, and creative experimentation as opposed to accepting tradition or popular mass opinion. Artists in the flow bankrupt traditional rules; indeed, they considered it desirable to suspension the rules and overthrow tradition.

Figure 8.6 | Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing

Artist: William Blake

Writer: Tate Uk

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Figure 8.7 | The Battle of Abukir, 25 July 1799

Artist: Antoine-Jean Gros

Author: User "DcoetzeeBot"

Source: Wikimedia Eatables

License: Public Domain

From the Medieval to the Baroque periods, however, 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-scale commissions oft required numerous hands to complete a work, emphasizing collaboration. Nevertheless, the artwork was expected to have a consequent style and quality of craftsmanship. To satisfy those various needs, artists oft specialized in a particular blazon of subject matter. For example, Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640, Germany, lived Flanders) and Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625, Flemish region) collaborated on more than than twenty paintings over twenty-5 years. (Figure 8.8) In their Madonna in a Garland of Roses , Rubens'due south celebrated skill equally a figurative painter can be seen in the serenely glowing face of the Virgin Mary and energetic cavorting of the cherubs surrounding the circular system of flowers painted with accurateness and delicacy past Brueghel, who was known for his lively nature scenes.

Figure viii.8 | Madonna in a Garland of Flowers

Creative person: Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder

Author: The Bridgeman Art Library

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

A contempo report past a Yale Academy researcher establish the perception of high quality art today is that it is produced by a unmarried individual. If produced by ii or 3 people, as in a landscape or public work projects, the value of the art drops. For creative works, perceptions of quality therefore appear to be based on perceptions of private, rather than full attempt. Nevertheless, a new tendency across the world in general suggests that this tradition, which get-go 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 think that the word "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 similar to workshop traditions of centuries agone to acquire the customary methods and avant-garde techniques of their fine art.

8.3.i Nation

The Kingdom of Benin, located in the southern region of mod Nigeria and habitation to the Edo people, was ruled by a succession of obas , or divine kings. Information technology 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 second half of the nineteenth century, prior to foreign rule. The metropolis of Benin prospered and grew through trade with the Portuguese, Dutch, and British.

I of the benefits of dealing with merchants-sailors who traveled the seas was the diversity 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 contumely 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 wide array of formalism and sacred objects created under each ruler. Kingship was passed from male parent to firstborn son, and, upon ascending to the throne, the new oba was expected to create an chantry made of contumely for his father, equally well as one for his female parent, 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 8.9) Over time, objects such equally plaques, bells, masks, chests, and additional altars made of brass or ivory, some adorned with coral, were added. Some were used to commemorate momentous events and honor heroes, but the majority of royal objects were used in ceremonial and symbolic support of the oba, his ancestors and subjects, and the kingship itself.

Figure eight.9 | Head of an Oba

Source: Met Museum

License: OASC

This nineteenth-century contumely caput of an oba, for instance, is non meant to be a portrait of an individual king and then much every bit a representation of the divine nature and power of being king. The oba derives his power from his interactions with and command 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 chain, the oba strengthens his ain power and that of his people and nation.

The welfare of the kingdom rests on the oba's head, a heavy burden, which is emphasized in representations of him using a proliferation of objects weighing upon him ( Oba Erediauwa ). Just, he does not deport the weight of ruling alone; he works with and relies on his advisors and subjects equally they support him. That back up is shown literally when the oba is in total 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 bellboy, supporting his right arm, is helping Oba Erediauwa bear the weight of kingship on behalf of the nation of Edo people.

Following George Washington's celebratory visit to Charleston, South Carolina, in May 1791, the Charleston Metropolis Council voted to celebrate the national hero by having John Trumbull (1756-1843, USA) paint a life-size portrait of the President and hero of the Revolutionary War (1775-1783) to "hand down to posterity the remembrance of the man to whom they are then much indebted for the blessings of peace, liberty and independence." ² Having been Washington's aide-de-military camp during the War of Independence, Trumbull chose to portray Washington as the steadfast and imperial general at the start of the Boxing of Trenton, a pivotal engagement for colonial troops discouraged in the backwash of several recent defeats. (Figure eight.10) The painting depicts clouds in a dark, overcast sky turning pink with the rising sun juxtaposed with the general'south horse, frightened past the ongoing battle, held tightly by his adjutant. Washington stands with confidence, one glove off to hold a spyglass in his right hand, looking in the distance every bit if heeding a faraway call for victory.

Figure 8.ten | General George Washington at Trenton

Creative person: John Trumbull

Source: Art Gallery at Yale

License: Public Domain

Trumbull was pleased with "the lofty expression of his animated expression, the loftier resolve to conquer or to perish" that he captured in George Washington before the Battle of Trenton. ³ His patrons in South Carolina were not, though, and rejected the portrait when he presented information technology to them in 1792. Speaking on behalf of the people of Charleston, South Carolina Congressman William Loughton Smith "idea the city would be improve satisfied with a more matter-of-fact likeness, such equally they had recently seen him calm, tranquil, peaceful." ⁴ This was non an isolated occurrence: the question of how a statesman and military hero should exist represented had not been resolved to the satisfaction of artists or patrons in the eighteenth century, in the years both earlier and afterwards the founding of the United states of america. As a representative democracy, the state's leaders should exist depicted as a commander-in-principal 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 state that they used equally examples. Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641, Flanders), who was court painter to the Male monarch of England, around 1635 painted Charles I at the Hunt . (Effigy 8.xi) The informal yet dignified stance van Dyck adopted for his prototype of the sovereign, a gentleman out in nature, apace became the favorite pose for aristocrats and other dignitaries sitting for a non-ceremonial portrait. The pose nevertheless remained a standard at the time Trumbull painted George Washington earlier the Battle of Trenton , but, as indicated past the painting'southward reception, it was not considered advisable in a representation of the leader of a autonomous nation. In addition, as the portrait was to commemorate Washington'southward visit to Charleston, townspeople idea the battle setting should be replaced with a view of that metropolis.

Figure 8.eleven | Charles I at the Hunt

Artist: Anthony van Dyck

Author: User "Tetraktys"

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Trumbull took notation of his patrons' wishes and painted another version. ( General George Washington at Trenton , John Trumbull ) While Washington's pose remains virtually unchanged, Trumbull lightened the heaven 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 pocket-size additions. The addition turned out to be the Full general'southward horse, but reversed from the original painting, with its hindquarters prominently displayed in the infinite betwixt Washington'southward canary yellow breeches and his walking stick, and the distant city visible between the horse'south legs. The painting still hangs in the Historic Quango Chamber of Charleston Urban center Hall.

8.3.2 Cultural Heritage and Ethnic Identity

Ane important aspect of cultural and ethnic identity is shared histories or mutual memories. Such histories are our heritage. Even so, heritage is not the total history. Information technology connects to civilisation and ethnicity in order to convey the full story about who we were and who we have get as a gild or individual. Self or national identity is built on its foundation. Defining terms will aid in understanding how each interplay to identify who we are every bit an private or nation.

Christian Ellers, a pop contemporary author on cultures, defines identity as whatever a person may distinguish themselves by, whether it be a particular state, ethnicity, religion, organization, or other position. Identity is one way among many to define oneself. Ellers defines ethnicity as a group that normally has some connections or common traits, such equally a mutual language, common heritage, and or cultural similarities. The American Lexicon defines culture every bit the fashion of life of a item people, especially as shown in ordinary behavior, habits, and attitudes toward each other or one's moral and religious beliefs ("Culture"). We will wait at these terms as 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 as material to communicate her message. Fabric wrapped into a bundle known equally a "bottari" is commonly used to ship, carry, or store everyday objects in Korean civilisation. What is unlike is Kimsooja's use of cloth as an fine art form. Since 1991, Kimsooja has used cloth, sometimes in the form of a bottari, in an on-going series, Deductive Objects , exploring Korean folk customs, daily and common activities, and her cultural background and heritage in relation to her life and experience. ( Bottari Truck-Migrateurs , "Je Reviendrai", Thierry Depagne and Jaeho Chong ) In this case, she photographed figures draped in Korean printed fabric that conceals their ethnicity, civilisation, and identity. Their identity is left to the viewer's imagination, and their civilization is left for the viewer to consider, using the print of the fabric as a clue.

A number of artists such equally Kimsooja cull to communicate through their art who they are in relation to their culture and ethnicity. Their art becomes a means of validating their self-identity. Her Korean heritage represents a treasury of symbols that commemorates who they are as a people and a distinct culture with a common artistic sensibility. Their national self-image is, on one level, unambiguously defined by the convergence of territorial, ethnic, and cultural identities. The geographical conditions of the Korean Peninsula provide a self-contained nautical and continental environment with plenty of resource with which to create and exist innovative. These conditions have given the people since prehistoric times a rich and unique culture to draw from and make contributions to humanity. Koreans take great pride in their homogeneous culture, and in their heritage.

Russia, similarly self-contained, for many centuries developed cultural characteristics and indigenous identities distinctly their own, too. Russia's rich cultural heritage is visually stunning, from its vivid folk costumes to its elaborate religious symbols and churches. (Figure 8.12) Most Russians identify with the Eastern Orthodox (Christian) religion, merely Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism are also practiced in Russian federation, 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 Russian federation'southward 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 Russian federation's heritage.

Effigy viii.12 | St. Basil Cathedral, Moscow

Writer: User "Ludvig14"

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: CC BY-SA 3.0

Ironically, and so, in light of such a rich internal history, why did Russia's rulers await to western European artists and creative traditions to develop a new artistic identity in eighteenth century?

Carlo Bartolomeo Rastrelli (1675-1744, Italy, lived Russia), an Italian sculptor who moved to St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1716, is associated with the formation of Russian federation's "new" culture. As a immature creative person, Rastrelli moved from his native Florence during an economical downturn to Paris in search of greater opportunities. The lavish and majestic works he created there in the tardily Baroque style did not earn him the success he sought, but did bring him to the attention of Tsar (and afterwards Emperor) Peter the Swell (r. 1682-1725), who lured him and his son Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli (1700-1771, France, lived Russian federation) to the Russia court.

Peter the Great co-ruled with his brother, Ivan 5, and other family members until 1696, when he was twenty-four years former. At that time, Russia was still very much tied to its internal religious, political, social, and cultural traditions. Peter the Great set out to modernize all aspects his state, from the structure of the military to instruction for children of the nobility. The Tsar traveled widely in Western Europe, implementing governmental reforms and adopting cultural norms he saw there. France was the model for sweeping changes he had carried out in court life, fashion, literature, music, art, architecture, and even linguistic communication, with French becoming the language spoken at court over the course of the eighteenth century.

Carlo Bartolomeo Rastrelli and his son Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli were among the painters, sculptors, and architects, and then, who were instrumental in introducing to Russia the new conventions and styles that supplanted Russian federation's cultural heritage and identity. For instance, Carlo Rastrelli's portrait bosom of Peter the Neat bears a hit stylistic resemblance to a portrait bust of French King Louis XIV (r. 1643-1715) by sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680, Italy). (Figures 8.xiii and 8.14) Bernini'due south bust, created during a visit to Paris in 1665, shows Louis XIV equally a visionary and royal leader who is literally above vagaries of human being being such as the air current that billows his drapery. Carlo Rastrelli'southward portrait of Peter the Great, 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 accented authority through such devices as the elevator of the head, optics scanning the distance, and wearing of military armor.

Figure 8.13 | Peter I

Author: User "shakko"

Source: Wikimedia Eatables

License: CC BY-SA 3.0

Figure viii.xiv | Bust of Louis Xiv of France

Artist: Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Author: User "Coyau"

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: CC BY-SA 3.0

His son Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli was an architect who also worked in the Bizarre way. He received his first royal committee in 1721, at the age of xx-i, but he is mainly known for opulent and imposing buildings he designed later on Peter the Slap-up'southward death in 1725. Continuing the modernization and transformation of Leningrad, Francesco Rastrelli's structures are associated with luxurious exuberance of the Baroque, and Russia'due south Romanov rulers of the eighteenth century. Ane of Francesco Rastrelli's most famous buildings is the Winter Palace, likewise bears a striking stylistic resemblance to a French palace: Versailles, built for Louis Fourteen by architects Louis Le Vau (1612-1670, France) and Jules-Hardouin Mansart (1746-1708, France). (Figures 8.15 and eight.xvi)

Effigy 8.15 | Winter Palace, Petrograd

Author: User "Florstein"

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: CC BY-SA 4.0

Figure viii.16 | Versailles

Writer: Marc Vassal

Source: Wikimedia Eatables

License: CC Past-SA iii.0

8.3.3 Sexual activity/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 by before masters in much the aforementioned way that Trumbull did in his portrait of George Washington. Wiley ways for his viewers to recognize the before work he has borrowed from in creating his painting, to make comparisons betwixt the two, and to layer meaning from the earlier work into his own. Due to the stiff contrasts between the sitters in Wiley'due south paintings and those who posed for the earlier portraitists, however, this comparison often makes for a complex interweaving of meanings.

Wiley'southward 2008 painting Femme piquée par un serpent, or Woman bitten past a serpent, ( Femme Piquée par united nations Serpent, Kehinde Wiley ) is based upon an 1847 marble work of the aforementioned name by French sculptor Auguste Clésinger (1814-1883, France). (Figure 8.17) When Clésinger's flagrantly sensual nude was exhibited, the public and critics akin were scandalized, and fascinated. It was not uncommon in European and American art of the nineteenth century to employ the subject of the work every bit justification for depicting the female nude. For example, if the field of study was a moral tale or a scene from classical mythology, that was an acceptable reason for showing a nude figure. In Clésinger's sculpture, the pretext for the woman'southward indecent writhing was the ophidian bite, which, coupled with the roses surrounding the woman, was meant to suggest an apologue of love or beauty lost in its prime rather than simply a salacious delineation of a nude. Unfortunately, the model was easily recognized as a existent person, Apollonie Sabatier, a courtesan who was the writer Charles Baudelaire'southward mistress and well known among artists and writers of the solar day. Clésinger defended his sculpture every bit an artful written report of the human grade only, having used the features and body of a gimmicky woman, his sculpture's viewers objected to the image as too real. Wiley's painting is the contrary: it is clearly intended to be a portrait of one individual, but he is clothed and inexplicably lying with his dorsum to the viewer while turning to look over his shoulder. In his painting, Wiley retains the extended arms, and twisted legs and trunk of Clésinger's figure, but the sculpted woman'south thrown dorsum head and closed eyes are replaced by the man's turned head and mildly quizzical gaze.

Figure viii.17 | Femme Piquée par un Serpent

Artist: Auguste Clésinger

Author: User "Arnaud 25"

Source: Wikimedia Eatables

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. Or does information technology? By using the conventions for depicting the female nude, Wiley asks u.s.a. to examine the post-obit: what happens when the figure is clothed—with a suggestion of eroticism in the glimpse of brownish skin and white briefs above his low-riding jeans; what happens when a young human gazes at the viewer with an unguarded expression of open inquisitiveness; and what happens when a blackness male presents his body in a posture of weakness, potentially open to attack? The artist uses these juxtapositions of meaning to challenge 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 at odds with contemporary conventions of (male) physicality and sexuality.

Ideas about gender identity, that is, the gender one identifies with regardless of biological sex, accept adult scientifically and socially, and have in recent years go both more than circuitous and more fluid in numerous cultures. Within other cultures, nevertheless, in addition to male or female, there has traditionally been a tertiary gender, and gender fluidity has been part of the textile of guild for thousands of years. Among the aboriginal Greeks, for example, a hermaphrodite, an individual who has both male and female person sexual activity characteristics, was considered "a higher, more powerful form" that created "a tertiary, transcendent gender." ⁵ In Samoa, there is a strong accent on 1's function in the extended family, or aiga . Traditionally, if there are not enough 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 every bit fa'afafine or "in the manner of a woman." Thus, fa'afafine are male at nascency simply are raised as a third gender, taking on masculine and feminine behavioral traits.

In Bharat, those of a third gender are known as hijra , which includes individuals who are eunuchs (men who have been castrated), hermaphrodites, and transgender (when gender identity does not match assigned sex activity). The function of hijras is traditionally related to spirituality, and they are often devotees of a god or goddess. For example, the hijras or devotees of the Hindu goddess Bahuchara Maja are oft eunuchs, having had themselves castrated voluntarily to offering their manhood to the deity. Other hijras alive as part of the mainstream community and dress every bit women to perform only during religious celebrations, such as a birth or wedding, where they are invited to participate and bestow blessings.

Although hijras had been a respected third gender in much of Southeast Asia for thousands of years, their status changed in late nineteenth-century India while under British dominion. During the twentieth century, many hijras formed their own communities, with the protection of a guru, or mentor, to provide some financial 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 ameliorate the educational and occupational opportunities for what is estimated to be half a million to two 1000000 individuals. ⁶

Tejal Shah (b. 1979, Republic of india) is a multi-media creative person who frequently 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 own personal fantasies of themselves." ^vii Shah was interested in how each adult female—they all had transitioned from male to female—envisions her own sexuality, separate from the perceptions and projections of others. As described past Shah, "In Southern Siren—Maheshwari , the protagonist envisions herself as a classic heroine from South Indian cinema in the throes of a passionate romantic encounter with a typical male person hero." ⁸

In the tableau , or staged scene, Masheshwari sees herself as resplendently dressed in a blueish sari, a traditional Indian draped gown, an object of admiration and desire. In this photo and the others in the series, Shah found it noteworthy that each hijra , participating fully in the artistic process, expressed feelings almost herself by 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 found, regardless of sexual or gender identity: "being beautiful, glamourous and powerful, having a family, giving love and beingness loved in render." ⁹

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, Knuckles of Parma, Italian republic, and his wife, Princess Louise-Élisabeth of France, the eldest daughter of King Louis XV. In 1765, she married Charles 4, Prince of Asturias. She was the Queen consort of Spain from 1788, when her husband ascended to the throne, until 1808, when King Charles IV abdicated his throne under force per unit area from Napoleon.

Royal marriages were intended to foster allegiances and cement alliances. The helpmate and groom more often than not did not run into one some other until subsequently lengthy negotiations were completed and the wedding engagement was near. It was not uncommon for portraits of the prospective couple to exist exchanged; in add-on to the descriptions past the negotiators and others, an artist's representation was the only way to learn what one's possible spouse looked like at a time when journeys were not easily or quickly undertaken. At the fourth dimension of their engagement, Laurent Pécheux (1729-1821, French) painted this portrait of Maria Luisa (Figure 8.18) in 1765 for Princess Maria Luisa fiancé'southward family unit.

Figure viii.18 | Maria Luisa of Parma

Artist: Laurent Pécheux

Source: Met Museum

License: OASC

Maria Luisa of Parma depicts the xiv-year-one-time bride-to-exist belongings a snuffbox in her right manus containing a miniature portrait of her future hubby inside its lid. This detail was a formula in formal engagement portraits: the sitter holds a gift such equally this finely fabricated and plush trinket to limited appreciation and budding amore for one'south matrimonial. Additionally, to demonstrate her wealthy and cultured family groundwork, 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 Lodge of the Starry Cross suspended from a diamond-encrusted bow on her breast, and diamond stars in her powdered hair. While this is indeed a likeness of the princess, the portrait is meant to convey far more than the color of her eyes or shape of her nose. This portrait is a statement almost the prestige and power she will bring to the marriage, and a congratulatory note to the groom'due south family on the beauty and worth of the mutually benign asset they are gaining.

Maria Luisa'due south dress is the assertion point to that visual argument. She is wearing a mode known as a mantua or robe a la française (in the French style), a dress for formal court occasions, of silk brocade woven into alternating bands of gold thread and pink flowers on a foam field. This very costly cloth, probably fabricated in France, is stretched over panniers, or fan-shaped hoops made of cane, metallic or whalebone extending side-to-side. The panniers create a horizontal but flattened silhouette that allowed the tremendous quantity of magnificent fabric 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, 1'due south begetting and behavior. And, it was indeed a claiming to stand up or move with the grace expected of a highborn woman in eighteenth-century social club while wearing such cumbersome, restrictive, and heavy clothing. Maria Luisa, notwithstanding, is depicted equally poised and charming, the perfect consort for a king.

Twenty-four years after her portrait by Pécheux, Maria Luisa was thirty-eight years one-time and had borne ten children, five of whom were still alive, when Francisco Goya created this portrait, Maria Luisa Wearing Panniers . (Figure eight.xix) , Francisco Goya was named painter to the courtroom of Charles Iv and Maria Luisa in 1789, and in celebration of Charles Iv's ascension to the throne, created a portrait of the Rex, to become along with the Queen'southward portrait. Neither the years nor Goya were kind to Maria Luisa. (Between 1771 and 1799, she would have fourteen living children, six of whom grew to adulthood, and x miscarriages.)

Figure eight.19 | Maria Luisa of Parma Wearing Panniers

Artist: Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes

Author: Prado Museum

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

In Goya's delineation, she is even more richly dressed than in her before portrait, but her elaborate and sumptuous costume serves simply to provide an unflattering dissimilarity with the Queen's demeanor. Goya depicts Maria Luisa with her arms awkwardly held to each side to accommodate her rigid, box-similar tontillo (the Spanish variation of panniers); her plain, expressionless confront is almost comically topped by a complexly constructed lid of lace, silk, and jewels. The lid represents one extravagant trend in women'due south fashion of the 1780s, and Goya did paint its proliferation of textures and surfaces with neat skill and sensitivity, but the contrast betwixt the Queen'southward hat and her features makes them appear even more coarse and unrefined, regardless of her wealth and grade.

What caption could there have been for the court painter to create such an unflattering representation of Maria Luisa, Queen espoused of Kingdom of spain? In her years of living in her adopted land, she had not endeared herself to members of courtroom or her subjects. Considering that the King preferred to hunt, running the state fell 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's right—signaling her status as Queen espoused—represent that she is the individual who is literally in bear upon with the robes of land. This piece of work and her engagement portrait of near 20-five years earlier were not so 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 dissimilar sign of prestige, or lack thereof, in The Third-Class Railroad vehicle ; information technology was one of iii paintings in a series commissioned by William Thomas Walters. (Effigy eight.xx) The other two paintings were The First-Class Wagon and The 2d-Class Wagon , the only one in the series idea to be finished. (Figures 8.21 and 8.22) Walters, an American businessman and art collector, would later found the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, with work from his collection, including these 3 paintings.

Figure 8.twenty | The 3rd Course Wagon

Creative person: Honoré Daumier

Source: Met Museum

License: OASC

Figure viii.21 | The Offset Class Railroad vehicle

Artist: Honoré Daumier

Author: Walters Art Museum

Source: Wikimedia Eatables

License: Public Domain

Effigy 8.22 | The Second Class Carriage

Artist: Honoré Daumier

Writer: Walters Fine art Museum

Source: Wikimedia Eatables

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 v,000 prints, 500 paintings, and 100 sculptures. From the offset of his career, he was interested in the touch on 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 electric current society and events. Because of the subject area thing he chose—everyday people, contemporary life—and the straightforward, truthful, and sincere manner in which he depicted them, Daumier is considered to be role of the Realist movement or style in art.

In The Tertiary-Course Carriage , the artist presents iv figures in the foreground, bathed in lite, with numerous, less individualized figures crowded in the background. The young mother nursing her baby, an elderly woman sitting with folded hands, and a boy sleeping with his hands in his pockets embrace four generations, every bit well equally different stages of life. Although the passengers sit down well-nigh one another, 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 price of hard labor and long hours. Daumier shows pity for these workers whose lives hold nothing but repetitious drudgery.

Forever irresolute the mainly agricultural society that existed in much of Europe and the United States prior to the 2nd one-half of the eighteenth century, the Industrial Revolution is the start of the mechanization and manufacturing that would pb 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 heart class every bit we know it today, Daumier was well aware that others were beingness left backside and were essentially trapped in a cycle of piffling education, unskilled labor, and low wages.

The artist represents different life expectations based on class through the fashion he paints the windows and through his use of light in each of the three paintings. In The Third-Class Carriage , the figures in the foreground have lite shining on them from a window to the left, exterior the film plane. There are windows in the background, as well, merely zippo can be seen outside of them. Daumier is implying in that location is cypher to be seen, especially in the case of the literally non-existent window. In The 2nd-Grade Carriage , a landscape can be seen through the window, and one of the figures looks out intently. 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 railroad train machine. Just the homo who leans forward to discover the passing scenery appears to exist younger and is mayhap more than eager and capable of adapting to and moving upward in the world of business—suggested by the bowler hat he is wearing, which at the fourth dimension was associated in city life with ceremonious servants and clerks. In Starting time-Class Carriage , the passengers are all alarm, each attending to their own business organization. One young adult female looks out at a greenish landscape; considering her lightweight outerwear, it appears this is a springtime scene, which is suggested, as well, by the colorful ribbons on the two women'due south fashionable bonnets. With their relaxed postures and placid, composed expressions, these get-go-form passengers give the impression of confidence. They are more secure in themselves and their places in the world than either the second-course or third-class passengers.

8.3.5 Group Affiliation

History suggests that the quality of human being survival is all-time when humans function as a grouping, allowing for collective 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 concluded that one benefit individuals receive is the satisfaction of belonging (to a group, culture, nation or) to a greater community that shares some mutual 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 every bit a grouping or every bit individuals. The most visible groups during the Renaissance flow in Italia, 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' Social club,

known every bit the "Sampling Officials"

Artist: Rembrandt

Writer: Google Cultural Establish

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Figure 8.24 | Officers of the St. George Civic Guard, Haarlem

Artist: Frans Hals

Source: Wikimedia Eatables

License: Public Domain

8.3.half dozen Personal Identity

The urban center of Palmyra, in modernistic Syria, had long been at the crossroads of Western and Eastern political, religious, and cultural influences, as it was a caravan stop for traders traveling the Silk Road between the Mediterranean and the Far E. In the first century CE, the urban center came under Roman dominion and under the Romans, the city prospered, and the arts flourished. Following a rebellion by Queen Zenobia of Palmyra in 273 CE, Roman Emperor Aurelian destroyed the city, catastrophe the menstruation of Roman control.

The Palmyrenes, or people of Palmyra, built iii types of elaborate, big-scale monuments for their expressionless called houses of eternity. The first was a tower tomb , some as high as 4 stories. The second was a hypogeum , or underground tomb, and the third was a tomb built in the shape of a temple or business firm. All were used by many generations of the same extended family and were located in a necropolis, a city of the dead, what we today call a cemetery. Inside the tombs were loculi , or small, separate spaces, each of which formed an individual sarcophagus, or stone bury. Within the opening to the tomb, the offset sarcophagus held the remains of the clan's founder; it was ofttimes 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'southward sarcophagus would be a relief portrait of each person interred there. ( Loculi )

This stele, a portrait of a father, his son, and two daughters, dates to between 100 and 300 CE, sometime during the era of Roman dominion. (Figure 8.25) The homo is reclining on a couch decorated with flower motifs within circles and diamonds. He holds a bunch of grapes in his right mitt and, in his left, a vino loving cup decorated with flowers similar to those on the couch. His 2 daughters flank his son in the background; the son property grapes and a bird. The son and daughters all wearable necklaces. Additionally, the daughters wear pendant earrings and brooches holding the mantle 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, merely the mode of the ornamented veil covering their heads is a local type of garment, based on Parthian, or Western farsi, styles. Besides wearing local garments, the two males wear a loose fitting tunic and trousers, each with a decorative border. The fine fabrics indicated past the embellished borders of both men and women's clothing indicate goods and wealth amassed from trade, as does the abundant use of precious metals and gems in the diversity of jewelry adorned by the Palmyrenes. Thus, the stele is a blend 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 requite the person'south proper noun and genealogy, markers of distinctive individual and family unit traits. While many of the depictions of the frontal-facing, wide-eyed figures—a defining feature of Palmyrene art—show trivial 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 city of Palmyra, its people, and its fine art were again in danger. In Apr of 2015, Islamic State (ISIS) forces overtook the 3,000-year-onetime Assyrian urban center 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 art there as they did in Nimrud. On July 2, 2015, ISIS was reported to accept destroyed grave markers similar to the i discussed here. ( Grave Marker Reliefs ) They lined upwardly six bust-length reliefs of people who lived in Palmyra almost 2,000 years agone, and smashed them, obliterating the visual and written record of each person. Then many have had their portraits made for posterity with the hopes of staying alive, against the odds. And, this is why we need art: it gives us memories of ourselves and our deeds, who nosotros place with, and how we identify others.

8.4 BEFORE Y'all MOVE ON

Key Concepts

National and personal identities do not magically happen; they are built on and influenced by immediate and past events, environments, traditions, and cultural legacies. Artists capture and document non only the physical atmospheric condition of a social club but also the emotional and mental atmospheric condition. They construct a sense of who we were and are as a person and every bit a nation. Society's identity is e'er fluid. When nosotros see identity equally static, we tape people with stereotypes and do non come across them for who they are. Art is 1 way to claiming static notions of identity past engaging the viewer in visual narratives that are unfamiliar to them, and that brainwash and claiming their previously held notions.

Since the 1970s, postmodern theories take challenged historical and traditional notions of ethnic and cultural identity past developing a model that views identity equally being multifaceted, fluid, and socially constructed. Some scholars argue that nosotros are in a period of post-identity and post-ethnicity, repudiating the onetime essentialist view of identity. Globalization of people, the Net, and travel have all brought near fluid cultures—which may take contributed to people's more fluid sense of identity, and also to their interest in researching their heritage, civilization, and ethnic identity. Heritage is the treasure and symbols of pride for an individual, state, and nation. Many works of art are seen as part of national heritage considering they help citizens appreciate their past. Art provides life to the past, something that tin exist visualized, touched, walk through, and identified as beingness part of a legacy and civilization.

Test Yourself

1. On the surface Kim Sooja's fine art seems unproblematic, only underneath it is an enigma of traditions that brand a metaphoric identity statement; for example, her use of material as an fine art form evokes intimacy and accolade of her culture and history. Discuss and identify at-to the lowest degree two artists whose work makes a personal and historical statement. Be specific every bit y'all reference each epitome associated with your essay. (minimum of 500 words).

2. A number of circumstances throughout history take compelled artists to confront the context of social issues, select at-least 2 works of art that best depict an event or issue. Talk over the bug associated with the outcome, and how the outcome and fine art shaped the legacy or identity of the country or nation. Describe the ability the piece of work communicates, discuss the significance of the work and how it convey a message, and identity of the people in that period of time. At the end of your essay make commentary on why you selected the art works what y'all call up about the fine 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 house institutions that guide, influence and shape a society's morals, values, politics, religious and social workout. Select 4 structures that best symbolize the identity or civilization of a society. Describe its impact on influencing a nation, significance to the nation and how the structure contributes to national or individual identity. At the cease of your essay discuss why y'all selected the structures and the aesthetics of the building. (Attach selected structures with captions.)

4. Compare and contrast four works of art that best describe a personal or national identity. Discuss with specifics how the artist is able to capture the graphic symbol of the person or nation. At the stop of your essay add together a commentary why you selected the works and their significance. (Attach selected works with captions.)

8.9 Central TERMS

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

Bottari : Cloth wrapped and tied around 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 every bit a monument, for funerary or commemorative purposes.

Hypogeum : an underground prehistoric burial site

Impressionism : is a nineteenth-century art movement that developed in French republic during the late nineteenth century by a grouping of artists called the Anonymous Order of Painters, Sculptors

Impressionist : A painter whose painting have characteristics of the impressionism movement, emphasizing accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities, uses small, thin, nevertheless visible brush strokes, open composition,

Individualism : emphasizes potential of manand self evolution own beliefs. The Individualism during the Renaissance period became a prominent theme in Italia

Industrial Revolution : menses during the belatedly eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in western Europe and the U.s. when industry speedily developed due to the invention of steampowered engines and the growth of factories. Fundamental changes occurred in agriculture, textile and metal manufacture, transportation, economical and policies, and had a major impact on how people lived

Obas : The title of "oba," or rex, is passed on to the firstborn son of each successive rex of Benin, Africa at the fourth dimension of his death

Renaissance Period : a period of fourth dimension from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century in Europe. The era bridged the time between the Eye Ages and modern

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

Belfry tomb : are mausoleums, congenital in 1067 and 1093

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1. Ghose, Tia (Oct. 26, 2012). Why nosotros intendance most our ancestry, Alive Scientific discipline. ↩

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 Fine 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-beauty-on-becoming-transgenderin-republic of india ↩

7. Tejal Shah, Artist Argument, Hijra Fantasy Series , accessed July 7, 2015, http://tejalshah.in/project/what-are-you/howdy jrafantasy-series/ ↩

8. Ibid. ↩

9. Ibid. ↩

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