How Are Works of Art a Reflection of Cultural and Personal Identity

Chapter 8: Art and Identity

Peggy Claret and Pamela J. Sachant

8.1 LEARNING OUTCOMES

After completing this chapter, you should exist able to:

• Proper noun and categorize ways that artists explore the concept of identity

• Understand how art serves equally a commentary on society

• Analyze how politics and societal concerns may influence art

• Understand how art expresses individual and grouping identity

• Understand how art preserves national culture and personal identity

viii.2 INTRODUCTION

One of the more than important themes emerging from the concluding century has been the individual'southward search for identity. For case, genealogical websites have proliferated and special tv set programs are devoted to the subject. Since information technology outset aired on PBS in 2012, Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s Finding Your Roots has been a pop program. The British version, The Guardian , has been successful since 2006.

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

Early humans created twoand three-dimensional likenesses of themselves in their surround to aid understand who they were in relation to the other members of their group. Contemporary humans do the same; they make 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 social club, for example, in social gatherings, organizations, and religious settings. This means, higher up all, that we must place ourselves within the world in order to obtain identity. Children search for their identity at a very young age past observing and recognizing their parents and family members. Their markings within a simple drawing of self and family—like to those of early humans—assistance them to vindicate and confirm who they are and how they are perceived by their family group.

Like children, artists sometimes explore their identity through self-portraits and symbolically in works of art that relate to ancestry or culture. Doing and then allows them to take a look inside their core and see how they fit within their contemporary culture; this investigation of self plays an important role in how artists sympathize their environment and the world.

Vincent van Gogh is known equally a person who spent much of his time in solitude. He painted more than thirty self-portraits between the years 1886 and 1889, placing him among the most prolific self-portraitists of all time. Indeed, some of his most respected works are his self-portraits that trace his prototype throughout the final years of his life, the nigh crucial to his career. (Figures eight.1, eight.ii, and 8.3) While Van Gogh used the study of his own epitome to help develop his skills as an artist, these self-portraits also give united states insights into the artist's life and well being, how he fit in club, and his identify among the groups with whom he associated.

Effigy 8.one | Self-Portrait with Harbinger Hat

Artist: Vincent van Gogh

Author: Met Museum

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Figure eight.2 | Cocky-portrait every bit a painter

Artist: Vincent van Gogh

Writer: Spider web Museum

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Figure viii.3 | Self-portrait with a bandaged ear

Artist: Vincent van Gogh

Author: The Courtland Institute of Art

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Like Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso painted a number of self-portraits. Throughout his career, Picasso painted various likenesses that reflected changes in himself, his style, his creative development, as well as in his life manner and beliefs—all of which may be viewed closely from the content of his paintings. (Figures 8.four and 8.five) The first cocky-portrait, painted in 1901 while he was establishing himself as an creative person in Paris, France, and all the same spending fourth dimension in Barcelona, Spain, reflects the somber fashion and tones of his Blue Period (1901-1904). The second, dated to 1906, at the very finish of his Rose Catamenia (1904-1906), Picasso depicts himself as the creative person who by that fourth dimension was moving in artistic circles, gaining respect, and acquiring patrons.

Figure viii.4 | Cocky-portrait

Artist: Pablo Picasso

Source: WikiArt

License: Public Domain

Figure 8.5 | Self-portrait

Creative person: Pablo Picasso

Source: WikiArt

License: Public Domain

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954, Mexico) used the iconography of her Mexican heritage to paint herself and the hurting that had go an integral function of her life following a coach accident at the age of xviii in which she suffered numerous injuries. She identified every bit a group member of her country, with Mexican culture and ancestry, and equally belonging to the female gender. Kahlo's self-portraits are dramatic, bloody, cruel, and at times overtly political. ( Self-Portrait , Frida Kahlo ) In seeking her roots, she voiced concern for her land as it struggled for an independent cultural identity. She spoke to her country and people through her art. Kahlo'due south art was inspired past her public beliefs and personal sufferings; she wanted her art to speak from her consciousness.

Although self-portraits of today may be slightly different from those of earlier decades, they all the same draw self-exploration and identity through society and groups that communicate who nosotros are. Cai Guo-Qiang (b. 1958, Mainland china, lives Us) exploded small charges of gunpowder to create an image of himself. ( SelfPortrait: A Subjugated Soul , Cai Guo-Qiang ) Different from those by Van Gogh, Picasso, and Kahlo, Cai's cocky-portrait does not have whatever likeness or resemblance to his personal features, just it too sends a message almost our lodge and how Cai relates to it. For example, the artist associates the lack of identifying information, rendering him bearding, with contemporary 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.iii Private VS CULTURAL GROUPS

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

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

Artist: William Blake

Author: Tate United kingdom

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Effigy 8.seven | The Battle of Abukir, 25 July 1799

Artist: Antoine-Jean Gros

Author: User "DcoetzeeBot"

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

From the Medieval to the Baroque periods, withal, 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 preparation. Large-scale commissions often required numerous hands to complete a work, emphasizing collaboration. Nevertheless, the artwork was expected to have a consequent manner and quality of adroitness. To satisfy those various needs, artists often specialized in a particular type of subject thing. For instance, Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640, Federal republic of germany, lived Flemish region) and Jan Brueghel the Elderberry (1568-1625, Flanders) collaborated on more than twenty paintings over twenty-five years. (Effigy 8.viii) In their Madonna in a Garland of Roses , Rubens'southward 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 round arrangement of flowers painted with accurateness and delicacy past Brueghel, who was known for his lively nature scenes.

Figure 8.8 | Madonna in a Garland of Flowers

Artist: Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder

Writer: The Bridgeman Art Library

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

A recent report by a Yale University researcher found the perception of high quality art today is that it is produced past a single individual. If produced past two or three people, as in a mural or public piece of work projects, the value of the art drops. For creative works, perceptions of quality therefore appear to be based on perceptions of individual, rather than total effort. Nevertheless, a new tendency across the world in full general suggests that this tradition, which first arose in the West during the Renaissance, is non the norm around the globe; that is, the value of fine art every bit located in the single creative person who produces art individually and lonely 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 retrieve that the word "art" derives from a root that means to "join" or fit together. A whole constellation of ideas and practices can be achieved through networking and collaboration as artists participate in group residencies and apprenticeships similar to workshop traditions of centuries agone to acquire the customary methods and advanced techniques of their fine art.

8.3.1 Nation

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

One of the benefits of dealing with merchants-sailors who traveled the seas was the variety of goods they brought with them and were eager to trade for foodstuff grown or refined by the Edo people. In detail, the Edo treasured contumely and coral, forth with the ivory they acquired through elephant hunts. Those materials were reserved for the oba and his court, and were used in abundance in the wide assortment of ceremonial and sacred objects created under each ruler. Kingship was passed from father to firstborn son, and, upon ascending to the throne, the new oba was expected to create an altar fabricated of brass for his father, as well every bit one for his female parent, generally in ivory, if she had attained the status of queen female parent. The new oba also created a contumely head to honor his predecessor. (Effigy 8.ix) Over time, objects such as 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 formalism and symbolic back up 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 brass head of an oba, for example, is not meant to be a portrait of an private king and then much as a representation of the divine nature and power of being male monarch. The oba derives his power from his interactions with and command over supernatural forces. He is allied with and assisted past 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 own ability and that of his people and nation.

The welfare of the kingdom rests on the oba'due south caput, a heavy burden, which is emphasized in representations of him using a proliferation of objects weighing upon him ( Oba Erediauwa ). Just, he does not bear the weight of ruling alone; he works with and relies on his advisors and subjects every bit they back up him. That support is shown literally when the oba is in full ceremonial regalia. In this photograph of the electric current oba, Erediauwa, the Male monarch 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 behave the weight of kingship on behalf of the nation of Edo people.

Following George Washington'southward celebratory visit to Charleston, S Carolina, in May 1791, the Charleston City Council voted to celebrate the national hero past having John Trumbull (1756-1843, USA) pigment a life-size portrait of the President and hero of the Revolutionary State of war (1775-1783) to "mitt downwards to posterity the remembrance of the man to whom they are so much indebted for the blessings of peace, liberty and independence." ² Having been Washington'south aide-de-camp during the War of Independence, Trumbull chose to portray Washington as the steadfast and majestic full general at the start of the Battle of Trenton, a pivotal engagement for colonial troops discouraged in the aftermath of several recent defeats. (Figure 8.10) The painting depicts clouds in a dark, overcast heaven turning pink with the ascension sun juxtaposed with the general's horse, frightened by the ongoing battle, held tightly by his aide. Washington stands with confidence, one glove off to hold a spyglass in his correct hand, looking in the altitude equally if heeding a faraway telephone call for victory.

Figure 8.10 | General George Washington at Trenton

Artist: John Trumbull

Source: Fine art Gallery at Yale

License: Public Domain

Trumbull was pleased with "the lofty expression of his blithe expression, the high resolve to conquer or to perish" that he captured in George Washington before the Battle of Trenton. ^three His patrons in South Carolina were non, though, and rejected the portrait when he presented it to them in 1792. Speaking on behalf of the people of Charleston, South Carolina Congressman William Loughton Smith "thought the city would be better satisfied with a more matter-of-fact likeness, such as they had recently seen him calm, tranquil, peaceful." ⁴ This was non an isolated occurrence: the question of how a statesman and armed forces hero should be represented had not been resolved to the satisfaction of artists or patrons in the eighteenth century, in the years both earlier and afterwards the founding of the United States. Every bit a representative democracy, the country's leaders should exist depicted as a commander-in-chief who is also one of the people, many argued. Only 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 as examples. Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641, Flanders), who was court painter to the King of England, effectually 1635 painted Charles I at the Hunt . (Effigy 8.11) The informal yet dignified stance van Dyck adopted for his image of the sovereign, a gentleman out in nature, quickly became the favorite pose for aristocrats and other dignitaries sitting for a non-ceremonial portrait. The pose still remained a standard at the time Trumbull painted George Washington earlier the Battle of Trenton , only, as indicated by the painting's reception, information technology was non considered appropriate in a representation of the leader of a democratic nation. In addition, as the portrait was to commemorate Washington'due south visit to Charleston, townspeople thought the battle setting should be replaced with a view of that city.

Effigy viii.11 | 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'due south pose remains about unchanged, Trumbull lightened the sky and inserted a view of Charleston Bay with the city on the far shore. Charleston leaders were satisfied and Trumbull promised delivery of the painting later on some modest additions. The addition turned out to be the Full general's equus caballus, simply reversed from the original painting, with its hindquarters prominently displayed in the space betwixt Washington's canary yellowish breeches and his walking stick, and the afar metropolis visible between the horse'due south legs. The painting even so hangs in the Historic Quango Bedroom of Charleston City Hall.

8.three.2 Cultural Heritage and Ethnic Identity

1 of import aspect of cultural and ethnic identity is shared histories or mutual memories. Such histories are our heritage. However, heritage is not the full history. Information technology connects to civilisation and ethnicity in order to convey the full story about who we were and who nosotros have go as a society or individual. Cocky or national identity is congenital on its foundation. Defining terms will aid in agreement how each interplay to place who we are equally an individual or nation.

Christian Ellers, a pop contemporary writer on cultures, defines identity equally whatsoever a person may distinguish themselves past, whether it exist a detail land, ethnicity, religion, organization, or other position. Identity is one manner among many to define oneself. Ellers defines ethnicity as a group that normally has some connections or common traits, such as a mutual linguistic communication, common heritage, and or cultural similarities. The American Dictionary defines culture equally the way of life of a particular people, especially as shown in ordinary beliefs, habits, and attitudes toward each other or 1's moral and religious beliefs ("Culture"). We volition look 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 past exploring the roots of her Korean culture. She draws upon tradition and history by selecting familiar everyday items such as fabric to communicate her message. Cloth wrapped into a bundle known equally a "bottari" is ordinarily used to transport, bear, or store everyday objects in Korean civilisation. What is different is Kimsooja'south utilise of fabric as an art form. Since 1991, Kimsooja has used fabric, sometimes in the grade of a bottari, in an on-going serial, Deductive Objects , exploring Korean folk customs, daily and common activities, and her cultural background and heritage in relation to her life and experience. ( Bottari Truck-Migrateurs , "Je Reviendrai", Thierry Depagne and Jaeho Chong ) In this example, she photographed figures draped in Korean printed cloth that conceals their ethnicity, culture, and identity. Their identity is left to the viewer'due south imagination, and their culture is left for the viewer to consider, using the print of the fabric as a clue.

A number of artists such as Kimsooja cull to communicate through their art who they are in relation to their civilization 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 singled-out civilization with a common artistic sensibility. Their national self-image is, on one level, unambiguously divers by the convergence of territorial, ethnic, and cultural identities. The geographical atmospheric condition of the Korean Peninsula provide a self-contained nautical and continental environment with plenty of resources with which to create and be innovative. These weather have given the people since prehistoric times a rich and unique culture to draw from and make contributions to humanity. Koreans take groovy pride in their homogeneous culture, and in their heritage.

Russian federation, similarly cocky-contained, for many centuries developed cultural characteristics and ethnic identities distinctly their own, besides. Russian federation'due south rich cultural heritage is visually stunning, from its vivid folk costumes to its elaborate religious symbols and churches. (Figure viii.12) Most Russians place with the Eastern Orthodox (Christian) faith, only Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism are too practiced in Russian federation, making it a rich land of various ethnic groups and cultures. St. Basil's Cathedral, located on the grounds of the Kremlin in Moscow, and hundreds of other orthodox churches symbolize Russia'south heritage; indeed, citizens proudly identify pictures of the cathedrals in their homes and offices. The churches in Russia are astonishingly beautiful and very much a part of Russian federation'due south heritage.

Figure 8.12 | St. Basil Cathedral, Moscow

Writer: User "Ludvig14"

Source: Wikimedia Eatables

License: CC By-SA 3.0

Ironically, then, in low-cal of such a rich internal history, why did Russian federation'due south rulers await to western European artists and artistic 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, Russian federation, in 1716, is associated with the formation of Russia's "new" civilisation. Equally a young artist, Rastrelli moved from his native Florence during an economic downturn to Paris in search of greater opportunities. The lavish and imperial works he created there in the late Bizarre style did not earn him the success he sought, but did bring him to the attending of Tsar (and after Emperor) Peter the Bang-up (r. 1682-1725), who lured him and his son Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli (1700-1771, France, lived Russia) to the Russia court.

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

Carlo Bartolomeo Rastrelli and his son Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli were amongst the painters, sculptors, and architects, then, who were instrumental in introducing to Russia the new conventions and styles that supplanted Russia'southward cultural heritage and identity. For example, Carlo Rastrelli's portrait bosom of Peter the Great bears a striking stylistic resemblance to a portrait bust of French King Louis XIV (r. 1643-1715) past sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680, Italy). (Figures eight.13 and 8.14) Bernini'southward bust, created during a visit to Paris in 1665, shows Louis XIV as a visionary and regal leader who is literally to a higher place vagaries of human existence such as the wind that billows his drapery. Carlo Rastrelli'southward portrait of Peter the Great, completed posthumously in 1729, draws upon the aforementioned traditions—dating back to images of Roman emperors such as Augustus (encounter Effigy 3.23)—of showing absolute authority through such devices as the elevator of the head, eyes scanning the altitude, and wearing of military armor.

Figure 8.13 | Peter I

Author: User "shakko"

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: CC By-SA 3.0

Effigy eight.14 | Bust of Louis 14 of France

Artist: Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Author: User "Coyau"

Source: Wikimedia Eatables

License: CC Past-SA 3.0

His son Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli was an architect who likewise worked in the Bizarre style. He received his get-go majestic committee in 1721, at the age of twenty-one, but he is mainly known for opulent and imposing buildings he designed later Peter the Nifty's death in 1725. Continuing the modernization and transformation of St. Petersburg, Francesco Rastrelli'due south structures are associated with luxurious exuberance of the Baroque, and Russia'due south Romanov rulers of the eighteenth century. I of Francesco Rastrelli's about famous buildings is the Winter Palace, also bears a hit stylistic resemblance to a French palace: Versailles, built for Louis Xiv by architects Louis Le Vau (1612-1670, France) and Jules-Hardouin Mansart (1746-1708, France). (Figures viii.15 and 8.16)

Effigy 8.fifteen | Winter Palace, Leningrad

Author: User "Florstein"

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: CC Past-SA 4.0

Figure eight.16 | Versailles

Writer: Marc Vassal

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: CC By-SA 3.0

8.3.iii Sex/Gender Identity

Kehinde Wiley (b. 1977, Usa) is a gimmicky portrait painter. In his piece of work, he refers back to poses and other compositional elements used by before masters in much the same way that Trumbull did in his portrait of George Washington. Wiley means for his viewers to recognize the earlier work he has borrowed from in creating his painting, to make comparisons betwixt the two, and to layer significant from the before piece of work into his own. Due to the stiff contrasts betwixt the sitters in Wiley'southward paintings and those who posed for the earlier portraitists, however, this comparison often makes for a complex interweaving of meanings.

Wiley's 2008 painting Femme piquée par united nations serpent, or Woman bitten by a ophidian, ( Femme Piquée par un Snake, Kehinde Wiley ) is based upon an 1847 marble work of the same name by French sculptor Auguste Clésinger (1814-1883, France). (Figure viii.17) When Clésinger'southward flagrantly sensual nude was exhibited, the public and critics alike were scandalized, and fascinated. It was not uncommon in European and American art of the nineteenth century to employ the subject of the piece of work as justification for depicting the female person nude. For case, if the subject 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'south indecent writhing was the ophidian bite, which, coupled with the roses surrounding the woman, was meant to suggest an allegory of honey or beauty lost in its prime number rather than merely a salacious depiction of a nude. Unfortunately, the model was easily recognized as a real person, Apollonie Sabatier, a courtesan who was the writer Charles Baudelaire's mistress and well known among artists and writers of the day. Clésinger dedicated his sculpture as an artful study of the homo form just, having used the features and trunk of a contemporary woman, his sculpture's viewers objected to the image as too real. Wiley's painting is the reverse: it is clearly intended to be a portrait of one individual, but he is clothed and inexplicably lying with his back to the viewer while turning to wait over his shoulder. In his painting, Wiley retains the extended arms, and twisted legs and torso of Clésinger's figure, but the sculpted woman's thrown back head and closed eyes are replaced by the homo's turned head and mildly quizzical gaze.

Figure 8.17 | Femme Piquée par united nations Serpent

Artist: Auguste Clésinger

Writer: User "Arnaud 25"

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

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

Ideas well-nigh gender identity, that is, the gender one identifies with regardless of biological sex, have developed scientifically and socially, and take in recent years become both more complex and more fluid in numerous cultures. Within other cultures, however, in improver to male person or female person, at that place has traditionally been a third gender, and gender fluidity has been part of the material of society for thousands of years. Among the ancient Greeks, for instance, a hermaphrodite, an individual who has both male and female sex characteristics, was considered "a higher, more than powerful form" that created "a third, transcendent gender." ⁵ In Samoa, there is a stiff accent on one's role in the extended family, or aiga . Traditionally, if at that place are not enough females within an aiga to properly run the household or if in that location is a boy who is specially fatigued to domestic life, he is raised as fa'afafine or "in the manner of a woman." Thus, fa'afafine are male person at birth but are raised as a third gender, taking on masculine and feminine behavioral traits.

In Republic of india, those of a third gender are known every bit hijra , which includes individuals who are eunuchs (men who accept been castrated), hermaphrodites, and transgender (when gender identity does not lucifer assigned sex). The part of hijras is traditionally related to spirituality, and they are frequently devotees of a god or goddess. For case, the hijras or devotees of the Hindu goddess Bahuchara Maja are ofttimes eunuchs, having had themselves castrated voluntarily to offer their manhood to the deity. Other hijras live as part of the mainstream customs and dress as women to perform only during religious celebrations, such equally a birth or wedding, where they are invited to participate and bequeath blessings.

Although hijras had been a respected 3rd gender in much of Southeast Asia for thousands of years, their status inverse in late nineteenth-century Republic of india while under British rule. During the twentieth century, many hijras formed their own communities, with the protection of a guru, or mentor, to provide some financial security and safekeeping from the harassment and discrimination nether which they lived. In 2014, the supreme court of India ruled that hijras should be officially recognized as a third gender, dramatically changing for the amend the educational and occupational opportunities for what is estimated to be half a one thousand thousand to 2 one thousand thousand individuals. ⁶

Tejal Shah (b. 1979, Republic of india) is a multi-media artist who ofttimes works in photography, video, and installation pieces. She began the Hijra Fantasy Series in 2006, ( Southern Siren Maheshwari from Hijra Fantasy Serial, Tejal Shah ) creating "tableaux in which [three hijras ] enact their ain personal fantasies of themselves." ^vii Shah was interested in how each woman—they all had transitioned from male to female person—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 run across with a typical male person hero." ^viii

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 photograph and the others in the series, Shah found it noteworthy that each hijra , participating fully in the artistic procedure, expressed feelings virtually herself past using visual cues and types from mainstream sources such as, in this example, Indian popular culture. How each hijra represented herself was the stuff of universal human fantasies, Shah found, regardless of sexual or gender identity: "existence beautiful, glamourous and powerful, having a family, giving beloved and being loved in render." ⁹

viii.3.4 Class

Maria Luisa of Parma was a member of the highest circles of European royalty. Born in 1751, she was the youngest daughter of Phillip, Duke of Parma, Italy, and his wife, Princess Louise-Élisabeth of France, the eldest daughter of King Louis XV. In 1765, she married Charles 4, Prince of Asturias. She was the Queen consort of Kingdom of spain from 1788, when her husband ascended to the throne, until 1808, when King Charles IV abdicated his throne under pressure from Napoleon.

Royal marriages were intended to foster allegiances and cement alliances. The bride and groom generally did not meet one another until later on lengthy negotiations were completed and the wedding ceremony engagement was near. It was not uncommon for portraits of the prospective couple to be exchanged; in addition to the descriptions by the negotiators and others, an artist's representation was the merely mode to learn what one'due south possible spouse looked like at a time when journeys were non easily or quickly undertaken. At the fourth dimension of their date, Laurent Pécheux (1729-1821, French) painted this portrait of Maria Luisa (Effigy 8.xviii) in 1765 for Princess Maria Luisa fiancé's family.

Effigy eight.18 | Maria Luisa of Parma

Creative person: Laurent Pécheux

Source: Met Museum

License: OASC

Maria Luisa of Parma depicts the fourteen-twelvemonth-old helpmatehoped-for property a snuffbox in her correct hand containing a miniature portrait of her time to come hubby within its lid. This item was a formula in formal engagement portraits: the sitter holds a gift such every bit this finely made and plush trinket to express appreciation and budding amore for one's 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 Order of the Starry Cantankerous 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 optics or shape of her nose. This portrait is a statement about the prestige and power she will bring to the spousal relationship, and a congratulatory note to the groom'southward family on the beauty and worth of the mutually beneficial asset they are gaining.

Maria Luisa's dress is the exclamation point to that visual statement. She is wearing a style known as a mantua or robe a la française (in the French style), a wearing apparel for formal courtroom occasions, of silk brocade woven into alternating bands of aureate thread and pink flowers on a cream field. This very costly material, probably made in France, is stretched over panniers, or fan-shaped hoops fabricated of pikestaff, metal 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 1'south wealth and status, a sign of which was one's comportment, that is, one'southward bearing and behavior. And, it was indeed a challenge to stand up or move with the grace expected of a blue-blooded woman in eighteenth-century society while wearing such cumbersome, restrictive, and heavy habiliment. Maria Luisa, however, is depicted as poised and charming, the perfect consort for a king.

Twenty-iv years after her portrait by Pécheux, Maria Luisa was thirty-eight years old and had borne x children, five of whom were yet alive, when Francisco Goya created this portrait, Maria Luisa Wearing Panniers . (Figure 8.xix) , Francisco Goya was named painter to the court of Charles IV and Maria Luisa in 1789, and in celebration of Charles Four'southward ascension to the throne, created a portrait of the Male monarch, to continue with the Queen's portrait. Neither the years nor Goya were kind to Maria Luisa. (Between 1771 and 1799, she would have xiv living children, six of whom grew to adulthood, and ten miscarriages.)

Figure viii.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 depiction, she is fifty-fifty more richly dressed than in her before portrait, but her elaborate and sumptuous costume serves but to provide an unflattering contrast with the Queen's demeanor. Goya depicts Maria Luisa with her arms awkwardly held to each side to arrange her rigid, box-like tontillo (the Spanish variation of panniers); her manifestly, expressionless face up is well-nigh comically topped by a complexly constructed hat of lace, silk, and jewels. The hat represents ane improvident trend in women's style of the 1780s, and Goya did paint its proliferation of textures and surfaces with great skill and sensitivity, but the contrast betwixt the Queen'due south hat and her features makes them appear even more coarse and unrefined, regardless of her wealth and class.

What explanation could there have been for the court painter to create such an unflattering representation of Maria Luisa, Queen espoused of Spain? In her years of living in her adopted state, she had not endeared herself to members of court or her subjects. Because that the King preferred to hunt, running the country fell largely on the shoulders of Maria Luisa, who was vain and bad-tempered. Goya'due south presentation does not, in fact, contradict that assessment. The emphasis on her luxurious and elegant attire and on the robe and crown to Maria Luisa's correct—signaling her status equally Queen espoused—represent that she is the private who is literally in affect with the robes of state. This work and her engagement portrait of virtually twenty-v years earlier were non and so much depictions of her as a person as they were means to communicate the ability and prestige of her place and her office.

Honoré Daumier (1808-1879, French republic) in 1864 painted a different sign of prestige, or lack thereof, in The Third-Class Railroad vehicle ; it was one of three paintings in a series commissioned by William Thomas Walters. (Figure 8.20) The other 2 paintings were The Start-Class Railroad vehicle and The 2nd-Grade Carriage , the only one in the series thought to exist finished. (Figures eight.21 and viii.22) Walters, an American man of affairs and art collector, would later establish the Walters Fine art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, with work from his collection, including these iii paintings.

Figure 8.20 | The Third Grade Railroad vehicle

Artist: Honoré Daumier

Source: Met Museum

License: OASC

Figure 8.21 | The First Class Wagon

Artist: Honoré Daumier

Writer: Walters Art Museum

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Figure 8.22 | The 2nd Form Wagon

Artist: Honoré Daumier

Writer: Walters 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 xl years. In his lifetime, he would create approximately 5,000 prints, 500 paintings, and 100 sculptures. From the outset of his career, he was interested in the impact 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 bitter satire of politics and political figures, and his less stinging, ironic commentary on current society and events. Because of the subject affair he chose—everyday people, contemporary life—and the straightforward, true, and sincere manner in which he depicted them, Daumier is considered to be part of the Realist movement or style in fine art.

In The Third-Class Wagon , the artist presents four figures in the foreground, bathed in light, 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 comprehend 4 generations, every bit well as different stages of life. Although the passengers sit down well-nigh one some other, they appear isolated from each other. They, including the boy, are probably traveling to or from work in the metropolis, and both their body postures and facial expressions convey the toll of hard labor and long hours. Daumier shows pity for these workers whose lives concur nil merely repetitious drudgery.

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

The artist represents different life expectations based on course through the way he paints the windows and through his apply of light in each of the three paintings. In The Third-Grade Railroad vehicle , the figures in the foreground accept light shining on them from a window to the left, outside the film aeroplane. In that location are windows in the background, equally well, but nothing tin can be seen exterior of them. Daumier is implying there is nothing to be seen, especially in the case of the literally non-existent window. In The Second-Class Carriage , a landscape can exist seen through the window, and ane of the figures looks out intently. The other 3, paying no attention to the world outside, are cocooned in their wintertime clothes in an attempt to fend off the cold in their unheated train auto. Only the man who leans forward to observe the passing scenery appears to exist younger and is perhaps more eager and capable of adapting to and moving upward in the world of concern—suggested by the bowler hat he is wearing, which at the time was associated in city life with ceremonious servants and clerks. In Excellent Carriage , the passengers are all alert, each attending to their own business organisation. One immature woman looks out at a green landscape; considering her lightweight outerwear, it appears this is a springtime scene, which is suggested, also, by the colorful ribbons on the two women's stylish bonnets. With their relaxed postures and placid, composed expressions, these first-class passengers give the impression of confidence. They are more secure in themselves and their places in the world than either the second-class or tertiary-grade passengers.

8.3.five Group Amalgamation

History suggests that the quality of human survival is best when humans function as a group, assuasive for collective support and interaction. Social psychological enquiry 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 do good individuals receive is the satisfaction of belonging (to a grouping, culture, nation or) to a greater community that shares some common interests and aspirations. The unity of groups is achieved through members' similarities or their having experiences based on the history that brought them together.

Artists throughout history have been associated with groups, movements, and organizations that protect their interests, forward their crusade, or promote them as a group or as individuals. The most visible groups during the Renaissance period in Italy, for instance, were people belonging to the Catholic Church building and other religious organizations, wealthy merchant families, civic and government groups, and guilds, including artists' guilds. (Figures viii.23 and 8.24)

Effigy 8.23 | The Syndics of the Amsterdam Drapers' Gild,

known every bit the "Sampling Officials"

Artist: Rembrandt

Writer: Google Cultural Institute

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

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

Creative person: Frans Hals

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

8.3.6 Personal Identity

The metropolis of Palmyra, in modern Syria, had long been at the crossroads of Western and Eastern political, religious, and cultural influences, every bit it was a caravan finish for traders traveling the Silk Route between the Mediterranean and the Far E. In the first century CE, the city came under Roman rule and nether the Romans, the urban center prospered, and the arts flourished. Following a rebellion by Queen Zenobia of Palmyra in 273 CE, Roman Emperor Aurelian destroyed the urban center, ending the menstruation of Roman control.

The Palmyrenes, or people of Palmyra, built 3 types of elaborate, large-scale monuments for their dead called houses of eternity. The first was a belfry tomb , some as high as four stories. The second was a hypogeum , or surreptitious tomb, and the third was a tomb congenital in the shape of a temple or house. All were used by many generations of the aforementioned extended family and were located in a necropolis, a city of the dead, what we today phone call a cemetery. Inside the tombs were loculi , or small, divide spaces, each of which formed an individual sarcophagus, or stone bury. Inside the opening to the tomb, the beginning sarcophagus held the remains of the association'south founder; it was often faced with a stone relief sculpture depicting him every bit if attending a feast and inviting others to join him. Surrounding the founder in the loculi , on the face of each family member'due south 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, old during the era of Roman dominion. (Figure 8.25) The man is reclining on a couch busy with flower motifs inside circles and diamonds. He holds a bunch of grapes in his right hand and, in his left, a vino cup busy with flowers similar to those on the couch. His 2 daughters flank his son in the background; the son holding grapes and a bird. The son and daughters all wear necklaces. Additionally, the daughters wear pendant earrings and brooches holding the drapery at their left shoulders. The chiton, or tunic, and himation, or cloak, that each daughter wears has some affinities with Greco-Roman types of clothing, but the style of the ornamented veil covering their heads is a local type of garment, based on Parthian, or Persian, styles. Besides wearing local garments, the two males wear a loose fitting tunic and trousers, each with a decorative border. The fine fabrics indicated by the embellished borders of both men and women's habiliment indicate goods and wealth amassed from trade, as does the abundant use of precious metals and gems in the variety 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 viii.25 | Funerary Relief

Source: Met Museum

License: OASC

Coupled upon many Palmyrenes grave steles are inscriptions of text in both Aramaic and Latin that give the person's name and genealogy, markers of distinctive private and family unit traits. While many of the depictions of the frontal-facing, wide-eyed figures—a defining characteristic of Palmyrene art—show little individualization of features, the coupling with such inscriptions are axiomatic signs that each stele was intended to announce the characteristics of the person entombed inside. The figures actively engage the viewer, and provide the reminder that personal identity is an amalgamate 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 Country (ISIS) forces overtook the 3,000-year-one-time Assyrian city of Nimrud and destroyed its buildings and art. On May 21, 2015, ISIS overtook the urban center of Palmyra, inducing fearfulness that they would destroy buildings and art there as they did in Nimrud. On July 2, 2015, ISIS was reported to have destroyed grave markers similar to the i discussed here. ( Grave Marker Reliefs ) They lined up six bosom-length reliefs of people who lived in Palmyra nearly 2,000 years ago, and smashed them, obliterating the visual and written tape 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 united states of america memories of ourselves and our deeds, who nosotros identify with, and how we identify others.

8.4 BEFORE YOU Motion ON

Key Concepts

National and personal identities do not magically happen; they are built on and influenced by firsthand and past events, environments, traditions, and cultural legacies. Artists capture and document not only the physical conditions of a guild but too the emotional and mental conditions. They construct a sense of who nosotros were and are as a person and as a nation. Club'southward identity is always fluid. When we see identity every bit static, nosotros record people with stereotypes and practice not see them for who they are. Fine art is ane style to challenge static notions of identity by engaging the viewer in visual narratives that are unfamiliar to them, and that educate and challenge their previously held notions.

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

Test Yourself

1. On the surface Kim Sooja'southward art seems unproblematic, but underneath information technology is an enigma of traditions that make a metaphoric identity argument; for example, her utilize of fabric as an fine art form evokes intimacy and honor of her culture and history. Hash out and identify at-least two artists whose work makes a personal and historical statement. Be specific every bit you reference each image associated with your essay. (minimum of 500 words).

2. A number of circumstances throughout history have compelled artists to confront the context of social problems, select at-least two works of art that best describe an event or outcome. Hash out the issues associated with the issue, and how the event and art shaped the legacy or identity of the land or nation. Depict the power the work communicates, talk over 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 brand commentary on why yous selected the art works what you think about the art. (Attach selected piece of work with captions.) Reply to the question is located throughout the affiliate)

3. Throughout history building were constructed in a manner to symbolize power; spirituality; and godlessness. Structures business firm institutions that guide, influence and shape a society'south morals, values, politics, religious and social conditioning. Select 4 structures that all-time symbolize the identity or civilisation of a order. Describe its impact on influencing a nation, significance to the nation and how the structure contributes to national or individual identity. At the stop of your essay talk over why you selected the structures and the aesthetics of the building. (Attach selected structures with captions.)

4. Compare and contrast iv works of fine art that best describe a personal or national identity. Talk over with specifics how the artist is able to capture the character of the person or nation. At the end of your essay add a commentary why y'all selected the works and their significance. (Attach selected works with captions.)

8.9 KEY TERMS

Baroque : a manner of compages and art that originating in Italian republic in the early seventeenth century

Bottari : Cloth wrapped and tied effectually dress , fabric, or/and items into a bundle for behave

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

Hypogeum : an hush-hush prehistoric burial site

Impressionism : is a nineteenth-century art movement that developed in France during the tardily nineteenth century by a grouping of artists called the Anonymous Lodge of Painters, Sculptors

Impressionist : A painter whose painting have characteristics of the impressionism movement, emphasizing authentic depiction of light in its changing qualities, uses small-scale, thin, withal visible castor strokes, open composition,

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

Industrial Revolution : flow during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in western Europe and the United States when manufacture apace developed due to the invention of steampowered engines and the growth of factories. Cardinal changes occurred in agriculture, textile and metal manufacture, transportation, economic and policies, and had a major impact on how people lived

Obas : The championship of "oba," or king, is passed on to the firstborn son of each successive king of Benin, Africa at the time of his death

Renaissance Menstruation : a period of time from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century in Europe. The era bridged the time between the Centre Ages and modernistic

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

Tower tomb : are mausoleums, built in 1067 and 1093

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1. Ghose, Tia (Oct. 26, 2012). Why we care well-nigh our beginnings, Alive Science. ↩

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

3. Ibid ↩

4. Ibid ↩

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

6. http://world wide web.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/04/xviii/304548675/a-journey-of-pain-and-beauty-on-becoming-transgenderin-india ↩

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

8. Ibid. ↩

9. Ibid. ↩

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