AH final contexts Flashcards
Artemision Zeus, 5th century BCE, Classical Greece
- Contrapposto pose (measured balance, tense vs relaxed → rhythmos in the suggested movement) → Greek letter chi
- Idealism - the perfect greek man to represent divinity
- Symmetria → commensurability → everything was perfectly measured out
- Naturalism - a work depicting a form in a way that is representative of reality
- Missing the thunderbolt, Zeus’s identifying attribute
Iktinos and Kallikrates, The Parthenon, 5th century BCE, Classical Greece
- On the acropolis of Athens, the patron of which is the goddess of wisdom, Athena → Athena won over the town (vs poseidon) with her gift of an olive tree
→ Elements of the parthenon: Athena Parthenos was representative of Athena’s virginity and therefore the “untouched” nature of Athens, Temple of Athena Nike (victory), Athena Promachos - the statue of her warrior identity, protector of the city - Subtle adjustments to the measurements of certain elements to seem perfect to the human eye
→ Ex. The adjustment of the proportion of the columns (entasis) makes the lintel at the top look like its supporting it, while the columns have a softer look of rythmos (doric columns with ionic features), showing weight of the building
→ Stylobate (platform at the base) is curved to adjust to the human eye - Is doric order, but uses ionic features as well such as the frieze and four ionic columns inside → Frieze of the parthenon depicts narratives, including Panathenaic procession of the gifting of the peplos (the square cloth used to clothe the Athena Parthenos)
Symbol of democracy:
→ 454 BCE Perikles had the treasury of the Delian League moved to the Acropolis where annual processions celebrated the payment of tributes.
→ 447 BCE Funded by spoils of the Persian war and the Delian treasury (a confederation of Greek city-states (poleis)
led by Athens in opposition to the Persians. Member states pay tributes to Athens for their
Protection.), construction begins on the Parthenon, in part, as an economic policy providing jobs to Athenian artisans and laborers
Belived to be a treasury as it doesn’t have an altar outside like other greek temples of worship (you don’t go in)
Polykleitos, “Canon” or Doryphoros (Spear Bearer), 5th century BCE, Classical Greece
- Chiastic pose - contrapposto
→ Weight of the body is shifted to one side, the rest of the body counterbalances - “normative beauty”: a historical concept of beauty in which ideal traits are to be found in the norm, the average, or mean. Every greek = ideal greek → Can be extended to politics as democracy - who is voted for the most by everyone
- Spear bearer used as a measure against indigenous peoples to represent greek culture as evolved and pure, and others as barbaric → Contributes to colonialism → “collecting” cultures, extracting resources
- Fingernails are measured, everything else is proportionally measured using the fingernails
Augustus of Prima Porta, 1st century CE, Imperial Rome
- Cuirass symbolism (breastplate and backplate)
→ Roman Eagle standard: a ceremonial insignia symbolizing the presence of Rome’s authority
→ Pax romana: “Roman peace,” a period of relative stability within the empire, Suggests roman authority is going to spread like the sun across the earth, thanks to the leadership of Augustus - In his statues, Augustus was always depicted as youthful, even as he aged
- Augustus of Prima Porta alludes to Canon - The use of Greek Idealism in Roman art → Augustus defeated Cleopatra and Mark Antony at Actium, putting an end to the civil war in 31 BCE, rise of the Roman empire, and of hellenistic influence
- Deification: Portraying something in a divine light → Augustus is depicted as ideal, commanding with divine authority
Standing Bodhisattva Maitreya, 3rd century CE, Ancient Gandhara, Pakistan.
Bodhisattvas: those on the path to becoming a Buddha, but who remain in the mortal plane in order to help enlighten others → Buddha: “the enlightened one”
- Ushnisha: protuberance or topknot bun symbolizing enlightenment, Urna: tuft of white hair between the eyes, sign of auspiciousness, Long earlobes with holes remaining from the expensive jewelry that he has cast off (Refers to the first buddha, the Indian prince Siddhartha Gautana) → Rejects material wealth to embrace spirituality. Long arms of generosity, Sanghati: a monk’s robe, formed from long cloth draped over the body.
- The base shows donors and monks venerating a stupa, drapery makes the figure appear otherworldly with its defiance of gravity
- Bodhisattva’s goal is to achieve Nirvana: freedom from personal suffering and samsara (endless cycle of death, life, rebirth)
Gandhara at the intersection of Persian, Hellenistic, and Indian culture - A region stretching from North-East Afghanistan, Northern Pakistan and North-West India → Among the first to represent the Buddha in human form.
Monks devote their lives to seeking nirvana, revering the Buddha and studying his teachings, they live together in monasteries, which are open to the public who may venerate stupas within. Monks are not isolated, they interact with society.
The Great Stupa at Sanchi, 3rd century BCE, Mauryan Empire, India.
- Early Buddhism is predominantly practiced outdoors, aided by circulation around stupas - Charged place to practice prayer (reliquaries holding the ashes of Buddha, Bodhisattvas, or monks.
- As you follow the railed path for circumambulation (pradakshina patha), you ascend further into the spiritual realm. As you walk, you reflect on your relationship with Buddha
- Covered in limestone - reflects a deity’s light
- Umbrellas (chattra - stone at the top of the stupa) marks important figures
Sadashiva, 6th century CE, Elephanta, India.
- Because of the view within the temple, the image of Sadashiva radiates out in an amalaka (sunburst)
- Housed in the Great Cave of Shiva, a Garbhagriha: inner sanctum for the image of the deity; the cosmic centre or axis mundi in the temple as a metaphorical mountain
- The eternal shiva = on left is destroyer, right creator with a lotus and in the middle joined by the preserver
- Darshan - devotees go to figures to take darshan, a ritual of sight in which the figure is presented with something nice to look at so it views favorably on the devotee. Seeing and being seen by the deity is the ultimate gift of sight in Hinduism.
- Deity is believed to inhabit the sculpture - why the eyes are opened last, through ritual painting
Icon of Christ Pantocrator, 7th century CE, Byzantine empire
- Byzantine icons - Acts as a mediator between the prototype and the worshiper. They’re meant to be more as a window to the divine figure rather than representing them directly.
- Jesus Christ is the incarnation of God (God becoming flesh - He is an aspect of God), conceived in the womb of Virgin Mary (Immaculate conception)
God was incarnated so that he could teach humanity of God’s will and compassion through preaching and through miracles; 12 disciples and other major followers like his mother, the Virgin Mary or Madonna
→ Jesus christ is sacrificed to allow humans salvation to be admitted into heaven - The painting’s left side is meant to represent humanity, while the right is divinity. It is said that if your eye drifts to the right, you are being judged by Christ. After his crucifixion, christ was resurrected, declaring he’d return for the second judgement.
- Its an early icon from the byzantine empire - made in caustic (Egyptian Encaustic: a mixture of beeswax and pigment to give a more fleshy look to the work of art) - this one particularly was not destroyed from mount Sinai during the iconoclastic period (8th - 9th century)
- Icons were also thought to have agency which could be activated by human intervention (offerings, processions).
Khludov Psalter, 9th century CE, Byzantine Empire
- A book of devotional hymns or songs from the Bible, Illuminated manuscript on vellum, one of the only surviving artifacts from the icononocalstic period
- Demonstrates the crucifixion of Christ, dying for the sins of man
Byzantine iconoclastic controversy 8th-9th century CE:
→ Argument that god was angry about being depicted - Based on moses 10 commandments, one of which was that he would not be prayed to as an image
→ The iconophillic position: Argues that JC came to be so he could be visible (further supported by achaeropoieta, an image “not made by human hands”) and the commandment was from the old testament, not new. Devotees are not worshiping the image itself, they are worshiping the figure through the conduit.
Saqsa Wayman, 15th century CE, Inkan Empire, Peru.
- Saqsa Wayman, a fortress citadel, treasury, and temple in the hills north of Cusco - Megalithic walls → Solidified Inkan empire’s power with ability to command the earth to their protection
Stones as Earth Beings:
- Saycum: Quechua for “tired stone” → stone that will not be moved, rebelling against masons, they would cry for being displaced. Sometimes these stones would rebel by crushing workers.
- Taming nature - turning something wild into controllable. You had to “negotiate” with the stones, as they had agency. They must allow themselves to be a part of the wall. They must be treated with empathy and you must respect their wishes - sentience.
Drystone masonry - not stuck together with mortar, fit together using hammerstones, the act is called nibbling → bringing nature into order
- Subjects of conquered land were expected to pay tributes to the Inkan empire→ labor tributes - extracting of resources in each region and sending people to Cusco for manual labor (labourers known as mit’a)
Fan Kuan, Travelers by Streams and Mountains, 10th century CE, Northern Song, China.
- Hanging scroll, 7ft tall
Taoism/ Daoism: “the way” or “the path’ in the sense of the way to coexist with nature. The cosmic order of nature - Complementary forces of Yin and Yang.
Shanshui hua: “mountain water painting” or “landscape painting” →Opposing forces coming together in harmony
Wenfangsibao: “The Four Treasures of the Scholar’s Study”; the four essential implements that the scholar needs: Paper/silk, Brush, Ink cake (made from carbonized pine wood usually, charcoal made into a cake), Inkstone - where the cake goes, adding water to pool into a reservoir to give ink
Mixing elements used to depict the harmony of nature - full circle → Ex. the pine trees being depicted using charcoal made from pine
Religious Context: Neo-Confucianism - “emphasized self-cultivation as a path not only to self-fulfillment but to the formation of a virtuous and harmonious society and state.”
→ Li - cosmic order of the world and Qi- vital force or energy that inhabits all living beings
- Literati painting (wenrenhua) - “Prioritzes individual style, simplicity, and expressive brushwork”
Chen Rong, Nine Dragons, 13th century CE, Southern Song, China.
- Dragons - During the song dynasty, when there was an understanding of the water cycle and the zoomorphic representations of dragons coexisted, there were dragon paintings to mediate the relatiobnship belween the environment and humans.
- Rituals to summon rain during droughts, after 3 days of rain you chuck the painting into the water, returning the dragon to its home
- “Painted Dragon Method of Praying for Rain,” one of the state-mandated rain-summoning rituals during the Song Dynasty, as recorded in the Song shi (The History of the Song Dynasty), 14th century (during the Yuan Dynasty).
Taoism/ Daoism: “the way” or “the path’ in the sense of the way to coexist with nature. The cosmic order of nature - Complementary forces of Yin and Yang.
- Chen Rong was a politician of the Southern Song dynasty, specialized in his paintings of dragons. Served the state through ritual paintings of dragons, believed to be a rainmaker with control over meteorological events
Michelangelo, Tomb of Julius II, 16th century CE, Renaissance Italy
- Designed for Pope Julius II, who was a huge patron of the arts
- Captive figures were meant to represent dying of the arts along with their largest patron, though they were never finished and included in the final sculpture
- Was meant to be three stories, freestanding with sixteen figures lining the bottom, but of the sixteen intended figures only Moses was finished along with Racheal and Leah in the niches by his sides
- Interruptions, like the Pope asking Michelangelo to paint the sistine ceiling, his death and election of a new pope, and other patrons who had commissioned Michelangelo led to this to take 30 years to complete, and not to the desired standard.
“Renaissance”: means “rebirth,” referring to a revival of classical or Greco-Roman antiquity in art, philosophy, and literature.
- Destroys the myth of the isolated genius, patronage deeply impacts the outcome of the tomb, hindering the process. Also Michealangelos increasing consciousness of the cost of the marble, not wanting to waste as much of the block which can be seen in the carving of Racheal and Leah.
Michelangelo, Old Sacristy, 16th century CE, Renaissance Italy
- Pietra serena (material) - highlights the geometrical organization of the surface of the wall with its blueish colour. The entablature creates a sense of movement.
→ Egg and dart motif an example of the work Michelangelo offloaded to intaliatori (specialist carvers) - Patron was Giulio de Medici, who eventually becomes Pope Clement the 7th, wanted a tomb project for his father and uncle, as well as their descendents → Medici were very economically and politically powerful
- Intended portraits in the center niche, allegorical figures on either side, spoils of war on top and sarcophagus below and night and day personifications on top, rivers below to represent the distance of the Medici reach
- Had to be scaled back, left as a platform, with the Virgin Mary and Child, and saints on either side, opposite an altar on the side, and you can see there are no river gods, and all of these tabernacle spaces are now what are called blind tabernacles - there’s nothing in them.
- Michelangelo’s consciousness about material waste and cost → Marble, workers, transportations, rope, loss of marble and life in trying to transport it → Oversees eventually over 100 workers, carefully tracked expenses and conditions of the workshops → The puzzling together of the bays and the pillars lends to michealngelos consciousness of the size and waste of each marble block, his detailed notes on dimensions of each
Zoffany, The Academicians of the Royal Academy in London, 18th century CE, England
- All of the members of the royal academy are present except for the women, who are represented by the two paintings on the wall → Women were rarely allowed within the academy, and when they were, they were not given equal access to resources such as life drawing
- Although there were two women in the society, it was seen as improper to have them sit in on a drawing session with a male nude model
- Man in the corner with his cane on top of the woman’s bust sculpture exemplifies the hierarchy of men
- Men’s dominion over women was reinforced with biological claims that women are prone to irrationality due to their “colder body temperature” which also made them better suited for indoor work, less manual labour like art could be. → Also reinforced through religion with the original sin - Eve eating the apple in Eden
- Plethora of resources, but all of them not accessible to women. Even foreign artists who had business in London were allowed into these spaces while women with memberships were not
- Linda Nochlin’s “why have there been no great women artists” - question itself presumes that social conditions allowed for equal opportunities for men and women both to aspire to greatness.
Sofonisba Anguissola, Self-Portrait, 16th century CE, Renaissance Italy
- A noblewoman of Italy, set up with an apprenticeship by her father, who also acted as her agent and chaperone
- Portrait artist - portraits were considered less intellectual, lower art forms and therefore more socially acceptable for women (due to thought that women were less rational due to their “cold” body temperature) - thought to be a copy of a likeness, requires less invention
- In her portrait, she includes herself painting a narrative scene, more “man’s work”, using detail brushes and maulstick, tying in the societal expectations for women to only work on fine motor arts → Further awareness using her father’s reputation and signing her portraits as “virgo” to represent maideness and her virginity/purity
- Anguissola also known for her brother crying, demonstrates her intelligence through invention in a narrative work Boy Bitten by a Crayfish
Lavinia Fontana, Self-Portrait in the Studio, 16th century CE, Renaissance Italy.
- First portrait of an artist’s private studio
- The detail on the lace is what is usually expected of women when it comes to dainty work→ Embroidery on the cuffs is reminiscent of the book of embroidery that reframes women’s capacity to use their imagination to mix and match patterns, showing the same intelligence as required for narrative works, a campaign for higher recognition of embroidery that’s shown with pattern books.
- She was not a domestic housewife, her husband stepped down from his artistry to act as her agent → Defies social expectation as laid out by Vasari’s Lives of the Artists passage on de’ Rossi, which praises her for her artistry, but notes the expectations of continuing household obligations → Fontana breaks social norms while Anguissola manipulates them
- Portrait artist - portraits were considered less intellectual, lower art forms and therefore more socially acceptable for women (due to thought that women were less rational due to their “cold” body temperature) - thought to be a copy of a likeness, requires less invention
Bini-Portuguese Saltcellar, 16th century CE, Benin Kingdom, Nigeria
- Make by a Benin artist to be sold to Portuguese merchants
- The riders are meant to be portuguese - made for a salt seller which was one of the biggest products for trade, the artists are translating the figures from cards to ivory → translating european imagery to “exotic african material”
- Benin empire’s people’s belief that the Portuguese were the spirits of their ancestors as a gift from the sea god Olokun and the god of death Ogiwu as they came from the sea and were pale → Belief that the spirits of their ancestors travelled across the sea to a larger kingdom when they died
- Elephant ivory as a spiritual material to the Benin people, as an exotic African material to the portuguese
Head of an Oba, 16th century, Benin Kingdom, Nigeria
- Coral beads → a signifier of wealth, as it was brought to West Africa from the Portuguese, a trade agreement in which the Obas facilitate. → Coral comes from the sea and from Europeen trade - spiritual connection to the sea
Ewuare would give coral as favors to his supporters
→ Supporters had to re sanctify beads annually - kept them in line and under control
- Thread made to tie the beads were made from elephant tail - signifier of royalty and physical strength
- The sculpture of Oba Ewuare was meant to have an elephant tusk sticking out of the head → Manifests the idea that the Oba is a divine conduit of the elephants intelligence and collective knowledge of all Obas who came before → Tusks are carved with animals and even with depictions of the Portuguese as a representation of the Obas access to the spirit realm
- “These heads serve as potent visual references to each ruler’s destiny (ehi), authority, wisdom, succes, and happiness, reflecting Benin associations of the head with knowledge, intelligence, character, judgment, and family leadership”
- The head would be placed at his shrine after his death, where his son, the new Oba, would come to seek counsel from his ancestors to strengthen his own power and spiritual influence
Benin Bronze plaque featuring the Oba Palace, 16th or 17th century CE, Benin Kingdom, Nigeria.
- At least 850 plaques lined the pillars of the royal palace until the 18th century CE. They were then removed and stored.
- Royal treasury looted by British soldiers in 19th century and sold at auction.
→ Plaques are now dispersed across collections in the UK, America, and Nigeria. - In 21st century, the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin returned 512 objects acquired from the 1897 expedition.
- These bronze plaques lined the Oba’s palace, demonstrating tradition to go along with oral storytelling
- “Two religious chiefs stand in front of the altar compound. Beside them are two fan-carrying pages, naked because pages purportedly received their first clothing only after the king had given them permission to marry and leave his service.” → thought to be a representation of Oba Ewaure’s altar
Hip mask of Iyoba Idia, 16th century CE, Benin Kingdom, Nigeria.
- Hip pendant for the Oba
→ Thought to be a portrait of the first queen mother (Iyoba) - Oba Esigie stopped the tradition of ritual sacrifice of the past Obas wives (to join their husbands in their afterlife) → the queen mother became a source of counsel for Esigie, supported him in his overtaking of his brother Arhuaran for the throne → although, Iyobas lived outside of the city so the Oba and Iyoba only communicated through messangers
- Four marks of scars (Ikharo) for females
- The alternating Portuguese and mudfish that makes up her hair demonstrates the spiritual capital of the Oba through European trade → Made to look similar because they can both travel on land and water - seen as messengers of Olokun
Mir Sayyid ‘Ali, Nighttime in a City, 16th century CE, Mughal Empire, India.
An islamic miniature painting, meant to go in a book
→ We’re not sure exactly what the story is, however it seems to depict a household of servants providing for a wealthy figure or it’s many different windows combined
→ Similar to a lot of islamic manuscript paintings in the use of space, color and fine details → inclusion of persian and chinese styles
Made in royal workshops - large factories of painters from different traditions, coming at the invitation of the leader of the region and teaching eachother their cultural styles → Painters of different aspects of the albums of paintings, ex calligraphers and border paintersc → Islamic minature paintings were an example of the emperors power in his ability to pull artists from different regions to come work in his royal workshops (karkhanas)
Paintings gathered in albums comprised of poems, historical chronicles, personal memoirs, or personal collections. → Meant for private viewing
- Connoisseurship - manuscripts were a demonstration of the emperors resources (pulling artists from conquered territories) and knowledge of distinctive styles and ability to differentiate them
Bichitr, Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to Kings, 17th century CE, Mughal Empire, India.
- Shaikh: a spiritual guide or scholar in Sufism which is a religious practice of Islamic mysticism
- Sulh-i kull: “peace with all,” a policy of religious tolerance and co-existence in the Mughal empire. Issued by Akbar in 1582.
- Shaikh sitting on the hourglass to represent his eternity → The halo - spiritually enlightened
- Handing the figure the book wrapped in an apron as they’re not meant to touch
Below the Shaikh is the king of England, being cast below the Emperor and the scholar, representing that the emperor values spirituality before politics
Self insert of the artist → Audacity to put himself in the same space of these important figures
Muhammad Kahn, Flower Studies and Exotic Flowers, 17th century CE, Mughal Empire, India.
Similarities to Flemish studies of plants and also Song dynasty’s studies
“[Jahangir] was fascinated by natural phenomena and, following the Koranic injunction to know the Signs of God, commissioned natural history studies of flora and fauna, which were of extraordinary quality. These were bound in large albums (muragqa) with other works that aroused his interest.”
“Folios of calligraphy were also bound in the albums with borders decorated with vignettes of court or country life or floral motifs.”
Studies of flora and fauna were especially useful for pieces like the velvets that decorated the floors of the emperor’s palace
“The trend to naturalism in depicting plants, animals, and the human figure was felt in all media. The flowering plant motif, which was indebted to European herbals as well as to natural history painters, crystalized in the 1620s and reached its zenith under Shah Jahan” → the bringer of spring/paradise
Flowers as symbolism of paradise, as shown in the Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal, 17th century CE, Mughal Empire, India.
- Shah Jahan built a tomb for his wife Mumtaz Mahal - the exalted one of the palace
→ Representation of the wife’s palace in paradise
→ Uses urban zones and gateways to mark the transition between ordinary and extraordinary world of the Taj Mahal
Ewan entrances framed by pishtaqs (the flat wall framing the recess of the iwan - recessed hall, vaulted and open on one side) and minarets, which are slender towers to call for prayer
→ Important for the anniversary of the wife’s death - a lot of recitation of the Qur’an around the tomb
Chahar bagh - “Fourfold Garden”
→ Divided into four to represent the four rivers (milk, honey, water, wine) to represent paradise
→ The flowers of paradise, both in the garden and inlaid in the walls (Inlaid coloured stone using a
technique called pietra dura) → some of the flowers are not real as they’re only to exist in paradise
- Shah jahan (emperor) as a bringer of spring/paradise
Whistler, Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket, 19th century CE, American in Britain
Aestheticism: Art for Art’s Sake - Formalism and Medium Specificity
Formalism: the study of visual forms in their own right and without concern for contextual meanings. A concern with formal beauty - harmony of colour and spacial arrangement → Experiencing the piece as one would music with the raw emotion represented by colour
- Displayed at Grosvner Gallery
- Slammed by art critic John Ruskin → trying to define what art is; should it have a narrative→ Whistler sued him for slander
Avant Garde: a military term for the advanced forces in a battle, used in the nineteenth century and twentieth century to refer to art, or its artist, that attacks artistic conventions and social conventions.
“He believed that art is not a vehicle for public reform any more than it is a means to reproduce the appearances of nature. We shouldn’t keep looking outside the painting for its purpose, but rather enjoy it for what it in fact is: a surface covered with harmonious arrangements of color.”
- The autonomy of art - “We should not compare the work with nature to judge how true-to-life it is”
Marcel Duchamp, The Fountain, 20th century CE, French is the USA
- Part of DADA (an anti-movement) - Challenges what art is - “readymade” → found object
- Société des indépendants → eliminates social hierarchies of the academy by displaying everything submitted to them, but Refused to allow The Fountain into the exhibition
- Duchamp contributed to a magazine called The Blind Man, one of the first publications slandering the society for denying his work
- The fountain alludes to artists repeating formulas by using something already made and massed produced → Change in function - meaning making through labeling →” In part, this insistence on truth to materials arose in the nineteenth century because of the proliferation of low-quality, mass-produced manufactured goods”, formalism in materials
Avant Garde: a military term for the advanced forces in a battle, used in the nineteenth century and twentieth century to refer to art, or its artist, that attacks artistic conventions and social conventions.
Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles D’Avignon, 20th century CE, Spanish in France
→ Analytical cubism: demonstrates every way in which an object can exist, from every perspective all at once → not deformed by human perception
- Represents women of a brothel, displayed from multiple angles showing all realities in which they exist → Changes in the composition with the removal of the men puts the viewer in the position of the man entering the brothel
→ Overt sexuality - Distortion of the two women’s faces on the right could be linked to Picasso’s fear of getting syphilis, which was rampant at the time → The faces of the women on the right is appropriating African masks
→ Appropriation: a dominant culture that displaces an aspect of a culture, taking it out of its culture and commodifying it by removing its original functions - Fruits → fertility, eroticism and abundance
Avant Garde: a military term for the advanced forces in a battle, used in the nineteenth century and twentieth century to refer to art, or its artist, that attacks artistic conventions and social conventions.
Rebecca Belmore, Artifact #671B, 20th century, Anishinaabekwe in Canada
- Performance art, protest against “the spirit sings” exhibition of indigenous art being hosted as part of the olympics
→ Paints indigeneity as a fading art, makes it into an object to be viewed
→ The performance art aspects protests the commodification of her identity - Shell apron as shell sponsored the event, saying essentially, she is a product of shell
→ Shell company was destroying Cree land and the environment all together
Colonial practices of museums:
- Belief that the host country is a beacon for the rest of the world - the furthest representation of progress, indigenous culture is represented as a dead culture, idea that the national identity is the ‘right’ identity
- Gathering works from around the world to display them in one place, belief that they could put those objects “into order” → Understand the pattern of the world
General history: Indigenous peoples displaced by French and British settlers, who were colonizing the land to take over fur trade (17th century). The british gave indigenous peoples hunting rights (18th century) without giving sovreignity, government released “protective” acts in 19th century. Residential schools then ran from 19th-20th century, societies such as the jesuits forced assimilation of indigenous peoples into catholic faith, erasing their indigeneity
Paul Kane, Indian Encampment on Lake Huron, 19th century CE, Canada
General history: Indigenous peoples displaced by French and British settlers, who were colonizing the land to take over fur trade (17th century). The british gave indigenous peoples hunting rights (18th century) without giving sovreignity, government released “protective” acts in 19th century. Residential schools then ran from 19th-20th century, societies such as the jesuits forced assimilation of indigenous peoples into catholic faith, erasing their indigeneity
- European myth (Vanishing Indian) that Indigenous peoples were dying out and unable to take care of themselves, rationalizing further control of the government → Painting indigenous life as simple, barbaric and not as evolved as European society
- Salvage paradigm - idea that by documenting a culture you can salvage a culture, but the representation itself perpetuates harmful views → White savior complex and guilt
- Clouds as if predicting the downfall of indigenous culture
Kent Monkman, Welcoming the Newcomers, 21st century CE, Cree Nation in Canada
- Part of a pairing called mistikôsiwak (Wooden Boat People) along with Resurgence of the People.
- Painting the indigenous perspective in a European style to familiarize it to a larger audience → Indigenous peoples as the saviours of Europeens, welcoming them into the land, Flips the script of needing to be saved
→ Uses works within the Metropolitan museum as a reference for representing the first contact with settlers, saving the beavers, the spread of measles due to Europeens and the creation of new Indigenous life (rebels against the myth of the vanishing Indian) - Miss Chief Eagle Testickle → A self insert alter ego that carries the narrative forward
→ Trickster, time traveler in indigenous culture, breaks rules through tricks and exposes the paradoxes of rules to reveal truths
General history: Indigenous peoples displaced by French and British settlers, who were colonizing the land to take over fur trade (17th century). The british gave indigenous peoples hunting rights (18th century) without giving sovreignity, government released “protective” acts in 19th century. Residential schools then ran from 19th-20th century, societies such as the jesuits forced assimilation of indigenous peoples into catholic faith, erasing their indigeneity
Kent Monkman, Resurgence of the People, 21st century CE, Cree Nation in Canada
Part of a pairing called mistikôsiwak (Wooden Boat People) along with Welcoming the Newcomers. Emulates the painting George Washington Crossing the Delaware River,
→ Demonstrates traditional european imagery to point out their colonialism → Flips the narrative, in the New York Metropolitan museum, as you go in you see Monkman’s work, reminding you that beyond it is art displayed from the European perspective
- Leading refugees of climate change, looking for safe harbour, as an allegory for displaced peoples of the present→ Again, do not need to be saved, are actively saving everyone else
→ Presentation of indigenous peoples as vibrant and alive - Desolate outcropping of police of America, resisting the arrival of those on the boats
General history: Indigenous peoples displaced by French and British settlers, who were colonizing the land to take over fur trade (17th century). The british gave indigenous peoples hunting rights (18th century) without giving sovreignity, government released “protective” acts in 19th century. Residential schools then ran from 19th-20th century, societies such as the jesuits forced assimilation of indigenous peoples into catholic faith, erasing their indigeneity
Literati Painting
Wenrenhua
- prioritizes individual style, simplicity and expressive brushwork
Vs. scholar official painting (shidafuhua)
“mountain water painting” –> opposing forces coming together in harmony
Shanshui hua
“The four treasures of the scholar’s study”
- paper/silk, brush, ink cake, inkstone
Wenfangsibao
Taoism/Daoism
- “the way” or “the path” in the sense of the way to coexist with nature. The cosmic order of nature –> complimentery forces of yin and yang
an image made “not by human hands”
Achaeropoieta
inner sanctum for the image for a diety: cosmic center or axis mundi in the temple (ex sadashiva)
Garbhagriha
What is following a path for circumabulation around the stupa?
Pradakshina patha
Byzantine icons
acts as a mediator between the prototype worshipper. Like a window to the prototype, not worshipping directly.
Mit’a
Labourers brought to the Inkan empire from conquered lands to pay tribute by working (ex. on saqsa wayman)
