tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/art-history-3522/articles
Art history – The Conversation
2024-03-27T17:05:53Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/224909
2024-03-27T17:05:53Z
2024-03-27T17:05:53Z
Why is Jesus often depicted with a six-pack? The muscular messiah reflects Christian values of masculinity
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581073/original/file-20240311-24-gmrsj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=35%2C0%2C2360%2C1350&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">(L-R) The Rockox Triptych by Rubens (1613–1615), Christ as the Man of Sorrows by Maerten Jacobsz van Heemskerck and The Last Judgement by Michelangelo (1541).</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp/Sistine Chapel</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Have you ever wondered why so many images depicting the crucifixion show Jesus with a very defined, slender and toned body? Either slim, but with a six-pack, or displaying muscles and brawn. While these images are hardly a reflection of what little can be surmised about <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35120965">the historical Jesus</a>, they certainly reflect social and cultural ideas about masculinity and <a href="https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/96438/1/Edwards%2C%20Sporting-BR1%20copy.pdf">idealised notions of manhood</a>. </p>
<p>In many images of the crucifixion, Jesus is depicted as both strong and vulnerable. Crucifixion paintings showing a muscular messiah suggest that Jesus could perhaps physically have overcome his fate, had he wanted to. This interpretation of the crucifixion story amplifies the emotional and spiritual strength of his sacrifice.</p>
<p>The Bible is full of strong men and pumped prophets. Working the land is <a href="https://www.biblestudytools.com/genesis/3-17.html#:%7E:text=Genesis%203%3A17%20In%2DContext&text=rule%20over%20you.%22-,17%20To%20Adam%20he%20said%2C%20%22Because%20you%20listened%20to%20your,the%20days%20of%20your%20life.">Adam’s punishment</a> for eating from the Tree of Knowledge. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%206%3A14-16&version=NIV">Noah builds a massive ark</a>, filling it with every bird, animal and food. Samson has <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges+14%3A6&version=NIV">superhuman</a> <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges+14%3A19&version=NIV">strength</a> in the book of <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges+15%3A14&version=NIV">Judges</a> – his only weakness is women.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%201&version=NIV">opening of Matthew’s Gospel</a> details Jesus’ genealogy in detail, and it is clear that he has other hardmen in his DNA. It speaks of Abraham and David, particularly. In <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2014&version=NKJV">Genesis 14</a>, we learn how Abraham gathered an army of over 300 men and launched an attack to save his family. In <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+21%3A+1-5&version=ESV">Genesis 21</a>, he also fathers a child at the age of 100 – his son, Isaac. </p>
<p>David is also mentioned as an ancestor of Jesus. He was famous for <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Samuel%2017&version=NKJV">killing Goliath</a>, whose immense stature <a href="http://www.davidacook.com/uploads/1/0/8/8/10887248/reconsidering_the_height_of_goliath.pdf">has been estimated as 9ft 9in</a>. In <a href="https://biblehub.com/1_samuel/18-27.htm">the Book of Samuel</a>, David kills 200 Philistine men and <a href="https://biblehub.com/1_samuel/18-27.htm">brings their foreskins</a> to King Saul, so that he will allow him to marry his daughter, Michal.</p>
<p>While some portrayals of Jesus have caused outrage, like those, for example, that represent him as <a href="https://theconversation.com/sexualised-jesus-causes-outrage-in-spain-but-christians-have-long-been-fascinated-by-christs-body-222343">feminine or sexualised</a>, a similar outcry does not seem to follow the muscular Jesus. </p>
<p>There is a story in the gospels of Jesus’s physical strength, when he <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2021%3A12-16%2CLuke%2019%3A45-47%2CJohn%202%3A13-16&version=NASB#:%7E:text=13%20The%20Passover%20of%20the%20Jews%20was%20near%2C,My%20Father%E2%80%99s%20house%20a%20%5B%20b%5Dplace%20of%20business%21%E2%80%9D">drives out</a> those who were buying and selling in the temple, overturning tables in his anger. In the New Testament, the gospels even narrate a <a href="https://www.bible.com/bible/406/LUK.11.21-28.ERV#:%7E:text=21%2D28%20ERV-,%22When%20a%20strong%20man%20with%20many%20weapons%20guards%20his%20own,with%20the%20other%20man%27s%20things.">Parable of the Strong Man</a>. </p>
<p>The endurance of physical torture before the crucifixion has been well documented in religious iconography, such as the <a href="https://www.catholic.org/prayers/station.php">Stations of the Cross</a>, as well as in films such as Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (2004). Jesus also has to be mentally strong to overcome Satan, so depictions of his physical strength are perhaps supposed to echo his superhuman, spiritual strength.</p>
<h2>‘Behold the man!’</h2>
<p>Paintings that depict Jesus with a six-pack have influenced factions of Christianity. In the 19th century, the idea of <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/6637/chapter-abstract/150662543?redirectedFrom=fulltext#:%7E:text=%27Muscular%20Christianity%27%20was%20a%20term,could%20and%20should%20promote%20this.">“muscular Christianity”</a> took hold. The term, invented in 1857, describes those Christians who see moral and religious value in sports. </p>
<p>In his book <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Gods-Gym-Divine-Male-Bodies-of-the-Bible/Moore/p/book/9780415917575">God’s Gym</a> (1997), professor of religion Stephen Moore explores the quest for Jesus in a perfect human masculine form, and how this is connected to physical culture and male narcissism. Masculine Christian spirituality is often aligned with the values of <a href="https://cmn.men/collections/workbooks">courage, strength and power</a>.</p>
<p>While his ministry isn’t known for its exercise focus, Jesus’s fitness can be seen in some interpretations of the gospels. He <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%204-6">walked for 40 days in the vast wilderness</a> and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2019:17-42&version=NIV">carried a heavy cross</a> on his back. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Jesus feeding his disciples" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581658/original/file-20240313-24-a6n6ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581658/original/file-20240313-24-a6n6ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581658/original/file-20240313-24-a6n6ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581658/original/file-20240313-24-a6n6ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581658/original/file-20240313-24-a6n6ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581658/original/file-20240313-24-a6n6ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581658/original/file-20240313-24-a6n6ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An illustration from the Armenian Daniel of Uranc gospel (1433) showing the feeding of the 5,000.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Feeding_the_multitude,_Daniel_of_Uranc,_1433.jpg">Matenadaran</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Through the Eucharist (“take and eat, this is my body”), Jesus’s body became sacrament. This has palpable implications for many modern Christians. If Jesus’s physical fitness is a sign of his holiness, then it is something to aspire to.</p>
<p>Theologian Lisa Isherwood’s book <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Fat_Jesus/a7K1Bil8HcAC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">The Fat Jesus</a> (2008) explores Christian women’s weight-loss cultures through programmes such as “Slim for Him”. Feminist theologian Hannah Bacon’s book <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/feminist-theology-and-contemporary-dieting-culture-9780567659958/">Feminist Theology and Contemporary Dieting Culture</a> (2019), meanwhile, analyses the problematic use of “sin/syn” to refer to “bad” foods in weight-loss programmes.</p>
<p>For some Christians, depictions of Jesus as strong and muscular represent the ideal of a man’s body. They interpret Biblical stories in ways that mirror these paintings. Many of these groups believe that Biblical ideas of <a href="https://www.mensalliancetribe.com/about/what-we-believe">masculinity are under attack</a>. In response, they put on events designed to attract men to church and promote the ideals of biblical manhood. Praising a muscular body ideal for men – and for Jesus – is part of that.</p>
<p>So next time you’re looking at a painting of Jesus in a church or gallery, do remember that such images reflect contemporary social and cultural attitudes to men’s bodies, rather than authenticity, in their artistry. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224909/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Greenough does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The Bible is full of strong men and pumped prophets.
Chris Greenough, Reader in Social Sciences, Edge Hill University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/222189
2024-03-01T17:24:55Z
2024-03-01T17:24:55Z
Alopecia in art history: the many ways women’s hair loss has been interpreted
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575695/original/file-20240214-28-28jr2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C20%2C3344%2C1866&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Met Museum/National Portrait Gallery</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>At least 40% of women experience <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2684510/">hair loss or alopecia over their lifetimes</a>. This could be alopecia areata (patchy hair loss), traction alopecia (strained hair loss) or another form. The different ways that women’s hair loss has been depicted across art history demonstrates the many different ways it has been interpreted over the years. </p>
<p>In 16th and 17th century Britain, for example, women’s alopecia was sometimes interpreted as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/SCJ27867791">retribution for sins</a>, including adultery. </p>
<p>Some historical art, however, depicts a more neutral, or even positive, attitude towards women’s alopecia. In religious or mythical art, it was sometimes idealised as divine. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two paintings of Madonna and baby Jesus, in which Madonna has a receding hairline" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574083/original/file-20240207-33-ro1k4j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574083/original/file-20240207-33-ro1k4j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574083/original/file-20240207-33-ro1k4j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574083/original/file-20240207-33-ro1k4j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574083/original/file-20240207-33-ro1k4j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574083/original/file-20240207-33-ro1k4j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574083/original/file-20240207-33-ro1k4j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Left: Madonna and Child by Carlo Crivelli (circa 1490). Right: Madonna and Child with St. Mary Magdelene and St. Jerome by Cosmè Tura (circa 1455).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.407.html">National Gallery of Art/Musée Fesch</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Madonna and Child, painted in the 15th century by Italian Rennaisance artist Carlo Crivelli, shows Jesus and Mary embracing in a gold, stylised setting. The pair sit behind a religious altar surrounded by ripe fruit and adorned with halos. Madonna has a high forehead and her blonde hair recedes, particularly on her right temple. </p>
<p>This association between alopecia and divinity is echoed in a work by another Renaissance Italian artist, Cosmè Tura. His <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cosm%C3%A8_Tura_-_The_Madonna_of_the_Zodiac_-_WGA23139.jpg">Madonna and Mary Magdalene</a> (circa 1490) depicts both mother and child with prominent foreheads. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Prudence depicted in stone as two headed, with balding woman one side." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571879/original/file-20240129-29-981pd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571879/original/file-20240129-29-981pd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571879/original/file-20240129-29-981pd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571879/original/file-20240129-29-981pd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571879/original/file-20240129-29-981pd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571879/original/file-20240129-29-981pd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571879/original/file-20240129-29-981pd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Prudence by Andrea della Robbia (circa 1475).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/194838">Met Museum</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A glazed terracotta piece created by the Italian sculptor Andrea della Robbia in 1475 features Prudence, a human embodiment of Christian morality, as a balding two-headed person. </p>
<p>Baldness in women has been connected to the divine for various reasons. It took the emphasis off of personal appearance in favour of deeper, more spiritual, priorities. But intentional hair removal played a role too. For some religious people, such as Buddhist nuns and Haredi Jewish wives, a bald head is thought to be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12147-007-9043-3">purer</a> and shaving can represent a <a href="https://doi.org/10.30674/scripta.67392">regular, sacrificial ritual</a>. </p>
<h2>Ancient depictions</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Egyptian painting of two princesses" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575688/original/file-20240214-30-dgx556.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575688/original/file-20240214-30-dgx556.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575688/original/file-20240214-30-dgx556.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575688/original/file-20240214-30-dgx556.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575688/original/file-20240214-30-dgx556.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575688/original/file-20240214-30-dgx556.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575688/original/file-20240214-30-dgx556.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Two Princesses (circa 1353 to 1336BC).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/557782">Met Museum</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Artwork on the walls of the tomb of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh, Akhenaten who ruled from 1351 to 1334BC, depicts two of his daughters, naked, with bald heads. Head shaving as well as natural baldness was common among the ancient Egyptians, including women.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575689/original/file-20240214-28-1bs0gz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="statue of a bald headed princess" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575689/original/file-20240214-28-1bs0gz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575689/original/file-20240214-28-1bs0gz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575689/original/file-20240214-28-1bs0gz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575689/original/file-20240214-28-1bs0gz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575689/original/file-20240214-28-1bs0gz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575689/original/file-20240214-28-1bs0gz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575689/original/file-20240214-28-1bs0gz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The bald head of an ancient Egyptian princess (circa BC 1352–1336).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/547692">Met Museum</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In fact, ancient Egyptians had <a href="https://doi.org/10.21608/ijthm.2019.77625">distinct terms</a> for female and male alopecia. This attests to just how common baldness, head shaving and wig wearing were for both sexes in ancient Egypt.</p>
<p>And it isn’t just Egypt. Partial and full head shaving has historically been common among women across sub-Saharan Africa. As <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3337689">one traveller observed</a> among the inhabitants of the 18th century Kingdom of Issini (modern-day Ghana): “Some only shave one half of the head … Others leave broad patches here and there unshaved.”</p>
<h2>Medieval and Renaissance alopecia</h2>
<p>The 15th century painting, Portrait Of A Woman With A Man At A Casement, by the Italian artist, Fra Filippo Lippi, features an aristocratic profile of a woman facing a man. She has a prominent forehead and high hairline.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575686/original/file-20240214-22-cy04ht.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Portrait of a balding woman in profile." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575686/original/file-20240214-22-cy04ht.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575686/original/file-20240214-22-cy04ht.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575686/original/file-20240214-22-cy04ht.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575686/original/file-20240214-22-cy04ht.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575686/original/file-20240214-22-cy04ht.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575686/original/file-20240214-22-cy04ht.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575686/original/file-20240214-22-cy04ht.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Portrait Of A Woman With A Man At A Casement by Fra Filippo Lippi (circa 1440).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436896">Met Museum</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The appearance of recessed frontal hairlines in Medieval and Renaissance Europe <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3679214">may have been fashionable</a> and even considered a sign of intelligence, encouraging customs of forehead shaving and eyebrow plucking.</p>
<p>The 16th century queen of England, Elizabeth I, was often painted in this way. <a href="https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portraitConservation/mw02076/Queen-Elizabeth-I">One undated oil portrait</a> of the British monarch depicts her in bejewelled robes, with a pearl emblazoned veil and a prominent forehead. </p>
<p>The removal of female bodily hair at this time, including on the forehead, wasn’t just a matter of fashion. It also arguably arose due to patriarchal ideas that women’s body hair was <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781787442443.005">dirty and even dangerous to men</a>. </p>
<h2>Modern alopecia</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2013.777596">Adverts</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/13591053211024724">research</a> today tend to discuss hair loss exclusively through medical terms, as a kind of detrimental disease. A recent <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-68367795">BBC article</a> refers to people with alopecia areata as “patients” and their experience of it as “profoundly challenging”. This certainly reflects some experiences, but not those who interpret their hair loss more neutrally, or even with <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CxJLSUtvf_j/?next=%2Femmina97%2F&hl=cs&img_index=1">pride</a>. </p>
<p>Pharmaceutical and cosmetic products are promoted as “necessary” treatments. A newly licensed drug, litfulo or ritlecitinib, has been <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-68367795">hailed this week</a> as the “first treatment” and “medicine” for alopecia. But as many forms of alopecia are not delimiting and as the “treatments” on offer have limited efficacy and potential safety issues, this should <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxwPZY3_sR4">not be the default response</a>. For example, the <a href="https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/documents/overview/litfulo-epar-medicine-overview_en.pdf">European Medicine Agency</a> notes that ritlecitinib results in 80% hair regrowth but only for 36% of people taking it. About 10% are at risk of diarrhoea, acne and throat infections. </p>
<p>Another study <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2022.950450">noted that</a> similar alopecia drugs, that operate through immunosuppression, only seem to work if they are taken continuously, yet their long-term safety has not been established. </p>
<p>Depictions of alopecia throughout art history are a reminder of the many complicated ways women’s hair loss has been viewed. Sometimes weaponised as a way to shame women, sometimes venerated as a sign of the divine, the truth is that hair loss really indicates nothing about a woman’s worth, morality or status. </p>
<p>But historical depictions of women’s alopecia and baldness provide hope. They show that alopecia has been conceptualised differently at different times. This means the current framing of alopecia as an inevitably disadvantaging disease in need of certain “treatments” might be biased too. They suggest if our societal interpretation of alopecia improves (as something that shouldn’t be stigmatised), then so too may the individual experience (as something that shouldn’t be dreaded). </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222189/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Glen Jankowski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
What changing artistic depictions of women’s alopecia tells us about hair loss today.
Glen Jankowski, Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences, Leeds Beckett University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/221166
2024-01-18T16:49:19Z
2024-01-18T16:49:19Z
Ai Weiwei says art that can be replicated by AI is ‘meaningless’ – philosopher explains what that means for the future of art
<p>Ai Weiwei, China’s most famous dissident and artist, has called art that can be easily replicated by artificial intelligence (AI) “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/jan/11/art-that-can-be-easily-copied-by-ai-is-meaningless-says-ai-weiwei#:%7E:text=Art%20that%20can%20be%20easily%20replicated%20by%20artificial%20intelligence%20is,had%20existed%20in%20their%20era.">meaningless</a>”. What I find most striking about this comment is how it manages to look both backwards into the intricate corridors of art history and forwards into the uncertain future of the art world. </p>
<p>Does Ai Weiwei mean that AI should make us rethink our appreciation of the works of art of the past? Or is AI so powerful that it should shape the mission of future artists?</p>
<p>The undertones of this double challenge are familiar to philosophers of art, who have, at times, seriously entertained the claim that art can come to an end. </p>
<h2>Exploring art’s goal</h2>
<p>Among the most famous and influential voices are <a href="https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hegel/works/ae/index.htm">G. W. Hegel</a> in the early 19th century and <a href="https://archive.org/details/philosophicaldis0000dant/page/n7/mode/2up">Arthur Danto</a> in the late 20th century. Both have argued that while artworks can continue to be produced in great numbers – and perhaps even in new and exciting ways – there is a sense in which the progress of art has reached its peak. </p>
<p>According to their arguments, art has “ended” because it has completed its goal. This claim might seem obscure to a contemporary audience, but what both Hegel and Danto were getting at is pretty simple. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569322/original/file-20240115-27-vq1nzr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Portrait of G.W Hegel" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569322/original/file-20240115-27-vq1nzr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569322/original/file-20240115-27-vq1nzr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=781&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569322/original/file-20240115-27-vq1nzr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=781&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569322/original/file-20240115-27-vq1nzr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=781&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569322/original/file-20240115-27-vq1nzr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=982&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569322/original/file-20240115-27-vq1nzr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=982&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569322/original/file-20240115-27-vq1nzr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=982&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">G.W Hegel was a prominent philosopher of art.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Wilhelm_Friedrich_Hegel#/media/File:1831_Schlesinger_Philosoph_Georg_Friedrich_Wilhelm_Hegel_anagoria.JPG">Alte Nationalgalerie</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If you think about art as having some sort of innermost goal, then you can imagine that at some point in time, that goal has been attained. Art always does something in that it has an effect. An effect on the artist creating it, on its audience and ultimately on the world. But that intended overall effect can change. </p>
<p>Danto claimed that looking into the history of art, we can extract a narrative, or a story, about how art has achieved its goal. </p>
<p>The first narrative, capturing centuries of art history from classical Greek sculpture to Renaissance paintings, was focused on verisimilitude – here art’s goal was to create realistic representations of its subject. </p>
<p>The second of art’s narratives, Danto believed, was triggered by a crisis which came from the technological advancement brought by the camera. Since art’s first goal – of creating perfect representations – had been superseded, art needed a new one. The second goal was to enquire into what art itself could be, seeking out its own limits. </p>
<p>The works of various modernist artists – such as Pablo Picasso’s The Aficionado (1912) or Wassily Kandinsky’s Bustling Aquarelle (1923), up to <a href="https://philamuseum.org/collection/object/89204">Andy Warhol’s Brillo Boxes</a> (1964) – could then be understood as a quest for establishing what it means for an object to be an artwork and asking: “What is the meaning of art itself?”</p>
<p>Writing in 1967, Danto believed that even this second goal had been fulfilled – but perhaps its repercussions haven’t quite been felt yet. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hegel-is-considered-the-hardest-philosopher-but-his-views-arent-actually-that-outlandish-196066">Hegel is considered the hardest philosopher, but his views aren’t actually that outlandish</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A third goal for art</h2>
<p>This is where I think Weiwei’s new perspective is refreshing. It seems to suggest that AI technology might be pushing us towards a new goal for art. The new challenge would be establishing what a truly digital future of art might look like – and what our human contribution to it might be.</p>
<p>We can then ask how art can be meaningful again in our AI-shaped social worlds. And what the role of the artist should be in creating this meaning. </p>
<p>Philosophers of various convictions, from <a href="https://archive.org/details/deweyjohnartasanexperience">John Dewey</a> to <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/marvelous-images-9780195177947?cc=gb&lang=en&">Kendall Walton</a>, have pointed to such a solution for a long time. We can create new meaning for art by exploring new forms of expression – by doing new things with both new and old tools.</p>
<p>Art not only adapts to new tools and technology, it does something new with them, and in that process, it has the potential to become something new itself. </p>
<p>Ai Weiwei himself touches upon this in one of his quotations in his book <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691157665/weiwei-isms">Weiwei-isms</a> (2012), when he says that art is: “About freedom of expression, a new way of communication. It is never about exhibiting in museums or about hanging it on the wall … I don’t think anybody can separate art from politics.”</p>
<p>The subtle slide here, from new forms of expression to new ways of contributing to political conversations, prompts another important question: how can art contribute to political conversations in distinctive ways? </p>
<p>In his new book, <a href="https://shop.royalacademy.org.uk/artists-remake-the-world-a-contemporary-art-manifesto">Artists Remake the World: A Contemporary Art Manifesto</a>, philosopher Vid Simoniti suggests a possible answer. He claims that art provides a distinct mode of political expression which enables audiences to reflect on central issues while momentarily setting aside binary judgments of right or wrong. </p>
<p>Art permits engagement with political matters without imposing the burden of adopting a specific stance. It is moored to the real world, but allows also for an open-ended space where new positions can be imagined, explored and inhabited. Could AI create those artistic spaces with us, or for us? Perhaps confronting this challenge could set a new goal for the digital art of the future. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221166/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maria Serban does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Philosophers of art have, at times, entertained quite seriously the claim that art can come to an end.
Maria Serban, Lecturer in Philosophy, University of East Anglia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/218775
2023-12-07T17:28:12Z
2023-12-07T17:28:12Z
This 17th-century portrait was given plumper lips years after it was finished – an expert explains why
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562774/original/file-20231130-21-e8zx58.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C14%2C1091%2C762&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Diana Cecil, Countess of Elgin, by Cornelius Johnson. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.historicenglandservices.org.uk/heritage/english-stately-homes-kenwood-house-art-kenwood-suffolk/johnson-diana-cecil-countess-elgin-j920193-8766638.html">English Heritage</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For the everyday visitor to a gallery or museum, alterations to artworks made years, sometimes decades, after their original creation are rarely obvious. After all, the skill of the modern art conservator is for their work to remain imperceptible at normal viewing distance, thus retaining the integrity of the original artwork. </p>
<p>Modern-day art conservators tend to favour minimal interventions – avoiding both painting over original paint and changing the picture. The idea these days is that any interventions – such as cleaning varnish, mending tears, or in-painting (retouching) – should not interfere with the artist’s original intent.</p>
<p>Early restorers took a <a href="https://archetype.co.uk/our-titles/studies-in-the-history-of-painting-restoration/?id=100#:%7E:text=Studies%20in%20the%20History%20of%20Painting%20Restoration%20reveals%20an%20interesting,and%20the%20care%20of%20paintings.&text=M.,Kirby%20Talley%2C%20Jr">completely different approach</a>. Art restorers of the past quite often used oil paints to retouch, for example, which becomes difficult to remove and changes colour over time. Past restorers sometimes even undertook radical restorations to the subject itself. </p>
<p>Such is the case for a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/nov/24/conservators-remove-kylie-jenner-treatment-from-17th-century-portrait">portrait of English aristocrat Diana Cecil</a> (1596–1654), owned by English Heritage. Alterations to her features that were revealed recently during contemporary conservation show the extent to which early restorers could change an image in their attempt to “improve” an artwork. Using a rather broad-brush approach, the results of their work can remain for hundreds of years – as this case has shown.</p>
<p>Cecil’s features were altered by adding a layer of new paint over the original portrait, plumping her lips and thickening her hair. With modern scientific examination, it is possible for conservators to accurately distinguish between later additions and original paint. Nowadays, removal of over-paint happens under a microscope, using surgical methods.</p>
<p>The idea of conserving originality and removing the over-paint seems right. After all, it is the work of the original artist, <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/cornelius-johnson-297">Cornelius Johnson</a>, and not the anonymous restorer that the viewer wishes to see, though the additions do lend an interesting element to the painting’s story. </p>
<h2>Restorers of the past</h2>
<p>In many cases, these dramatic changes were a result of poor skills. But early restoration decisions were also influenced by changing fashions for beauty and dress, modesty and the desire to cover naked bodies, politics, or simply practical necessity – such as difficulty with cleaning or having to hide traces of damage.</p>
<p>A particularly famous case was the botched <a href="https://nypost.com/2016/03/12/infamous-botched-jesus-painting-now-a-major-tourist-attraction/">Ecce Homo</a> (more commonly, Spanish Jesus) painting, whose memorable makeover manifested as a complete obliteration of the original. </p>
<p>Another interesting example is the <a href="https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/584337">portrait of noblewoman Suky Trevelyan</a> which now hangs at Wallington Hall, Northumberland. In 1771, its owner, John Hudson Trevelyan (Suky’s husband) made the first payment for alterations to her portrait. The final payment was made in 1776 by Trevelyan herself, by then a widow, in order <a href="https://researchportal.northumbria.ac.uk/en/publications/disrobing-suky-one-mistress-but-two-masters-the-examination-of-a-">to change the image yet again</a>. The painting had originally been commissioned by her father for her 25th birthday. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562775/original/file-20231130-27-6ip1qp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Portrait of Susanna 'Suky' Trevelyan," src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562775/original/file-20231130-27-6ip1qp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562775/original/file-20231130-27-6ip1qp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=774&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562775/original/file-20231130-27-6ip1qp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=774&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562775/original/file-20231130-27-6ip1qp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=774&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562775/original/file-20231130-27-6ip1qp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562775/original/file-20231130-27-6ip1qp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562775/original/file-20231130-27-6ip1qp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Susanna ‘Suky’ Trevelyan, by Thomas Gainsorough (1761).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/584337">National Trust</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The then-relatively unknown <a href="https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/thomas-gainsborough">Thomas Gainsborough</a> was hired to paint the portrait in 1761. However, it appears the work did not prove as popular as Trevelyan’s father had hoped. It was frequently <a href="https://archive.org/details/thomasgainsborou00goweuoft">dubbed “The Hat and Ruffles”</a> by family members, indicating that Trevelyan’s likeness was somewhat obscured by her outsized choice of apparel. </p>
<p>As a result, the entire image was repainted during the 1770s by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joshua-Reynolds">Sir Joshua Reynolds’ studio and drapery painters</a> – covering up the large hat and abundant ruffles as well as Trevelyan’s dog, which she had fondly held in her arms. In 2011, I was able to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-12765671">reveal the original image</a>, which hadn’t been seen for centuries, by taking an X-ray of the painting. </p>
<p>In this case, removal of over-paint would be akin to altering the sitter’s choice of presentation (in modern terms, editing the selfie). While capturing the likeness of a sitter is the skill of the artist, the accuracy of this particular “likeness” was dictated by the client, who may have had very specific views and requirements.</p>
<p>In contrast to Cecil’s recently uncovered touch-ups, the drapery artist who altered Trevelyan’s painting was careful not to paint over the original face. It’s possible that this was out of respect for the original, as Gainsborough was still an active and well-known artist. </p>
<p>Cecil’s portrait was probably restored after her lifetime, when she would no longer have a say in how she was presented. Thanks to modern conservators, Johnson’s fine brushwork has been revealed again. It bears signs of cracks and ageing but, after hundreds of years, it is not surprising the wrinkles are beginning to show. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218775/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicky Grimaldi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Early restoration decisions were influenced by changing fashions and politics, or practical necessities such as difficulty with cleaning.
Nicky Grimaldi, Assistant Professor of Arts, Northumbria University, Newcastle
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/212346
2023-10-03T19:05:18Z
2023-10-03T19:05:18Z
Is marriage modern? Anna Kate Blair’s novel poses the question, but doesn’t answer it
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548247/original/file-20230914-27-hba3sy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C18%2C4147%2C3116&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Suzana Duljic/Pexels</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Is marriage modern? This is the circuitous premise of Australian writer Anna Kate Blair’s debut novel, <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/The-Modern/Anna-Kate-Blair/9781761421242">The Modern</a>, set in contemporary New York and centred on the life, half-loves and near-loves of Sophia, an Australian research fellow at MoMA (the Museum of Modern Art). </p>
<p>Sophia’s fellowship at MoMA is coming to an end. About to turn 30, she is facing future job precarity. In this transitional state, she becomes engaged to her longtime boyfriend, Robert – an academic and avid hiker, who plops a marriage proposal onto her lap, then embarks on a five-month trek through the Appalachian Mountains.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: The Modern – Anna Kate Blair (Scribner)</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Sophia’s engagement shakes out a constellation of loose questions about potential choices, possibilities and limitations. Her relationships have previously been with women, her queerness suppressed in a longstanding heterosexual relationship that is easy and affirming, but ultimately, the reader feels, taken for granted – not so much by Robert as by Sophia herself. </p>
<p>When Robert departs, Sophia meets the mercurial, filament-like Cara, an unlikely assistant in a little-frequented New York wedding boutique. In her spare time, Cara makes art using photographed wedding-dress remnants. Sophia falls for her. Cara does not reciprocate.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548989/original/file-20230919-23-vhrr4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548989/original/file-20230919-23-vhrr4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548989/original/file-20230919-23-vhrr4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548989/original/file-20230919-23-vhrr4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548989/original/file-20230919-23-vhrr4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548989/original/file-20230919-23-vhrr4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548989/original/file-20230919-23-vhrr4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548989/original/file-20230919-23-vhrr4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anna Kate Blair’s debut novel explores the ‘life, half-loves and near-loves’ of an Australian at New York’s MoMA.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Is marriage modern?</h2>
<p>The question “Is marriage modern?” is less the fulcrum of Sophia’s personal narrative than, increasingly, a perplexing nonsense rhyme, or rhetorical question weighed down by its own glowering question mark. </p>
<p>Is marriage modern? <em>Are clothes modern?</em> Sophia asks. <em>Are houses modern? Children modern? Rats modern?</em></p>
<p>The question feels decidedly oxymoronic. In the context of same-sex marriage, which Blair touches upon, marriage <em>is</em> modern, so long as you don’t drill down to its ideological underpinnings: the history of marriage as property transfer, its requisite reproductive labour, the spectacle of grim-lipped, decades-long resentments sustained under the oath of “til death do us part”. </p>
<p>By what barometer might we gauge “modernity” in marriage? Happiness? Unhappiness? Equality? Freedom to realise the self within the safety of mutuality? </p>
<p>Or is it all, in the end, about <em>the dress</em>? </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/can-adultery-be-inherited-kate-legge-investigates-after-the-king-hit-of-her-husbands-affair-which-seems-to-run-in-his-family-197428">Can adultery be inherited? Kate Legge investigates after the 'king hit' of her husband's affair – which seems to run in his family</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Smacked in the face by a dress</h2>
<p>Like Sophia, the idea of marriage has always repelled me, but then (also like Sophia) one day I found myself <em>hit by a dress</em>. Smacked in the face by it. A flounce-ridden, gorgeously deep-red <a href="https://theconversation.com/wedding-dresses-and-bikini-bodies-20052">wedding dress</a> in a Moonee Ponds wedding boutique window. </p>
<p>For one second, I entertained the idea of a wedding, but only because of that dress. Sophia has similar swooning moments imagining, choosing, thinking about the dress. </p>
<p>She goes dress-shopping with her overly conscientious mother-in-law-to-be; she considers the instances of wedding dresses in art and the emblematic 1954 painting <a href="https://whitney.org/collection/works/1292">Grand Street Brides</a> by abstract expressionist painter <a href="https://www.moma.org/artists/2520">Grace Hartigan</a>: six ghoulishly clad brides outside a wedding shop, a shimmer of white and crimson and green that bodes ill as much as good. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uUhhii2jy-o?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Grace Hartigan’s six ghoulishly clad brides bode ‘ill as much as good’.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the phenomenon itself – the overweening presence of the wedding dress in young women’s lives – remains under-explored. Sophia is constantly taking photographs and uploading them to Instagram, but her conjuring of ideas feels like a once-posted, easily forgotten exercise. </p>
<p>It’s as though simply posing questions and thrusting them out into cyberspace is sufficient: the archival evidence of having had a thought or idea about something precluding the need to explore that idea further. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/no-woman-could-paint-the-story-of-art-without-men-corrects-nearly-600-years-of-male-focused-art-criticism-184458">'No woman could paint': The Story of Art Without Men corrects nearly 600 years of male-focused art criticism</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Modern art ‘at every turn’</h2>
<p>If the novel’s central question is not answered or adequately dissected, questions of modernity in art are more fulsomely, if curatorially, examined. The Modern tosses “modern” artists and art at the reader at every turn, assuming a familiarity with art history on the reader’s part. </p>
<p>This is not a bad thing, of course, but I was glad to have seen photographer <a href="https://www.moma.org/artists/7532">Nan Goldin</a>’s 1980s New York exhibition, <a href="https://nga.gov.au/exhibitions/nan-goldin/">The Ballad of Sexual Dependency</a>, at the National Gallery of Australia recently. It gave me a touchstone for Sophia’s descriptions of these tender, bruising countercultural images. Other works, other artists, skated past me without feeling synchronous with the narrative, or like they expanded it. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Cag_2c0jTS4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Nan Goldin on The Ballad of Sexual Dependency.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Modern overflows with ideas: musings on modern art, and on the masculinist orientation of art institutions, in which female curatorial assistants doggedly do the work their male supervisors put their names to. </p>
<p>And musings on the nature of marriage as a “ceremony that [sits] awkwardly between the libidinal and the legal” – a ceremony to which Sophia is curiously drawn, in spite of her rational instinct to repudiate it.</p>
<p>Sophia’s relentlessly self-reflecting narrative is shot through with titbits from the life of Grace Hartigan, her dissertation subject. Grand Street Brides functions as an almost-motif throughout the novel, its Picasso-esque, post-<a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cube/hd_cube.htm">cubist</a> awkwardness reflecting Sophia’s own ambivalence about marriage. </p>
<p>Sophia’s curatorial instinct cannot help but see weddings as “huge installations with a performance element”, the wedding dress as a shimmering fabric monument (to be later dyed black and re-used). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548998/original/file-20230919-17-7z704n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548998/original/file-20230919-17-7z704n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548998/original/file-20230919-17-7z704n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548998/original/file-20230919-17-7z704n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548998/original/file-20230919-17-7z704n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548998/original/file-20230919-17-7z704n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548998/original/file-20230919-17-7z704n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548998/original/file-20230919-17-7z704n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Curator Sophia can’t help but see weddings as ‘huge installations with a performance element’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pixabay/Pexels</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Curated, rather than known</h2>
<p>The Modern charts Hartigan’s life – three marriages, three significant relationships, an important friendship with curator and poet <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/frank-ohara">Frank O’Hara</a> (champion of <a href="https://www.moma.org/artists/4675">Jackson Pollock</a>) – but she remains an under-exploited (or perhaps I should say under-illuminated) throughline in the novel. She is curated rather than known; she’s a collection of iterations. </p>
<p>Perhaps this is Blair’s intention: Hartigan as surface, knowable only through her work, her private self inured to the public gaze. But every character in The Modern feels somewhat like a bit-part: fleeting, insubstantial, or, in Robert’s case, downright wooden. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548992/original/file-20230919-27-my42jr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548992/original/file-20230919-27-my42jr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548992/original/file-20230919-27-my42jr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548992/original/file-20230919-27-my42jr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548992/original/file-20230919-27-my42jr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548992/original/file-20230919-27-my42jr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548992/original/file-20230919-27-my42jr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548992/original/file-20230919-27-my42jr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The only knowable entity is Sophia herself, and even she tumbles and falls in what feels like an “imitation of collapse” rather than the real messy, muddy dissolution of self that might make the reader <em>feel</em> for her.</p>
<p>There are moments of grace and intelligence in this novel: poignant moments, moments that might have been opened further out, or borne interesting fruit – or pods, or leaves. But instead, they funnel into the ongoing introspection of Sophia’s ever-changing insecurities. </p>
<p>“I wonder if I could use Frank O’Hara as a model for a new form of art history, one that acknowledged love,” Sophia says at one point. </p>
<p>Discussing <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/a/abstract-expressionism">abstract expressionism</a>, the style with which Hartigan struggled as a female artist, Sophia says: “It felt essentialist, and just wrong, to say that strength and energy belonged to men.” I wanted to clutch onto these observations, and see them take flight, play out in the narrative.</p>
<p>Blair is extremely good at asking pertinent, urgent questions. But they remain loose and untethered: helium balloons that, once hoisted, float swiftly out of sight.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212346/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Edwina Preston has received funding from Australia Council for the Arts and Creative Victoria. She currently works for the Australian Education Union</span></em></p>
The Modern, a debut novel centred on an Australian researcher at New York’s MoMA, muses on modern art and relationships – riffing off MoMA artists like Grace Hartigan and Nan Goldin.
Edwina Preston, PhD Candidate, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/209755
2023-10-03T11:25:53Z
2023-10-03T11:25:53Z
What the new Assassin’s Creed game tells us about ninth-century Baghdad – from the art historian who worked on the game
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550882/original/file-20230928-17-wwyv5w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Detail from a 15th century manuscript recounting the siege of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Bagdad1258_%28cropped%2C_4to3landscape%29.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Gamers the world over will be familiar with the incredibly <a href="https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/334498352/Mashing_Up_History_and_Heritage_in_Assassin_s_Creed_Odyssey.pdf">detailed</a> historic <a href="https://theconversation.com/even-in-the-colourful-world-of-video-games-most-players-demand-historical-accuracy-172307">cityscapes</a> the <a href="https://theconversation.com/assassins-creed-after-13-years-12-games-and-a-ton-of-sales-whats-the-secret-to-the-franchises-success-150265">Assassin’s Creed franchise</a> has produced so far. Following earlier forays into ancient Damascus and Athens, the forthcoming instalment, Mirage, <a href="https://www.gamesradar.com/a-new-assassins-creed-mirage-art-book-offers-a-gorgeous-behind-the-scenes-look-at-the-games-richly-realised-world/">takes players into ninth-century Baghdad</a>, the capital of the Abbasid caliphate.</p>
<p>As an <a href="https://glairedanderson.com/">expert</a> in Islamic architecture, art, and history, I worked with world design director Maxime Durand and Mirage historian Raphaël Weyland to bolster the game’s historical grounding, including the <a href="https://news.ubisoft.com/en-gb/article/3q7ANVXHm68MIG99qNrPCl/assassins-creed-mirage-introduces-history-of-baghdad-feature-to-bring-players-closer-to-history">new educational feature</a>, entitled The History of Baghdad. Gamers will be able to explore, in an interactive way, the economy, government, arts, beliefs and daily life of the time.</p>
<p>Little of medieval Baghdad remains today. In the 13th century, the city was sacked by the Mongols and mostly destroyed. To my mind, though, this very absence of archaeological evidence from the ninth century has been an opportunity to showcase the diversity of Islamic art and architecture.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/x55lAlFtXmw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Baghdad, the Round City</h2>
<p>Generations of <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/76/4/1198/62273">medieval scholars</a> described, in minute detail, what Baghdad had been before the Mongol invasion in 1258. Founded in 762 by al-Mansur, the Abbasid <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-caliph-the-islamic-state-tries-to-boost-its-legitimacy-by-hijacking-a-historic-institution-126175">caliph</a> or ruler, Baghdad was one of the largest and most important cities of the medieval globe. It was a focal point of international politics, intellectual life, the arts and a booming global economy. </p>
<p>Architectural historians Saba Sami Al-Ali and Nawar Sami Al-Ali have discussed how, despite the lack of archaeological remains, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/iraq/article/abs/images-of-round-baghdad-an-analysis-of-reconstructions-by-architectural-historians/8BD21CCA3B37DB2906D47749F0C0A99F?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=bookmark">scholars have long reconstructed</a> the Round City’s basic parts.</p>
<p>Built on a <a href="https://brill.com/display/title/62133">circular plan</a>, Baghdad continued <a href="https://theconversation.com/irans-cultural-heritage-reflects-the-grandeur-and-beauty-of-the-golden-age-of-the-persian-empire-129413">ancient Sasanian</a> urban planning practices. In the 9th century, it measured about 3,000 metres in diameter and was built of mud-brick, the favoured building material of this region since antiquity. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An old map of ancient Baghdad." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550376/original/file-20230926-15-r1utvd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550376/original/file-20230926-15-r1utvd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550376/original/file-20230926-15-r1utvd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550376/original/file-20230926-15-r1utvd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550376/original/file-20230926-15-r1utvd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550376/original/file-20230926-15-r1utvd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550376/original/file-20230926-15-r1utvd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A map of the Round City from 1883.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Baghdad_150_to_300_AH.png">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The city counted two concentric circular walls, surrounded by a moat and punctuated by four domed gates, each topped with a figure holding a lance. Within the walls was a vast empty space. The massive domed Golden Palace of the Abbasid caliph rose at its centre. </p>
<p>Next to the palace was the main mosque, described as being half the size of the palace, as well as elite houses and official government spaces. Grand avenues led from the domed gates to the surrounding quarters and suburbs, where there were other palaces, gardens, canals, bridges, houses, markets, baths and industrial areas.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.archnet.org/collections/2352">archeological remains</a> in Baghdad today date, in fact, back to the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/edinburgh-scholarship-online/book/42231">13th century</a>, the later Abbasid period. The <a href="https://round-city.com/inside-al-madrasah-al-mustansiriya-a-medieval-abbasid-era-gem-in-the-heart-of-baghdad/">Mustansiryya Madrasa</a>, which was one of the city’s most important educational institutions, boasts a 16-metre tall monumental gate with intricate geometric patterning and a long inscription dedicated to the building’s patron, Al-Mustansir. </p>
<p>Elsewhere, there are fragments of a <a href="https://round-city.com/exploring-baghdads-rebuilt-abbasid-landmark-al-khulafa-mosque-by-mohamed-makiya/">minaret</a> that was once part of the al-Khulafa Mosque and the Dhafariya (or al-Wastani) Gate. There is also the <a href="https://www.archnet.org/sites/4329">shrine of ‘Umar al-Surawardi</a>, a 12th-century Persian sufi. This mausoleum and mosque complex features a conical muqarnas dome, the design of which is typical of the region from the 11th century. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A medieval fortified gate in Iraq." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550879/original/file-20230928-27-irzk45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550879/original/file-20230928-27-irzk45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550879/original/file-20230928-27-irzk45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550879/original/file-20230928-27-irzk45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550879/original/file-20230928-27-irzk45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550879/original/file-20230928-27-irzk45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550879/original/file-20230928-27-irzk45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The al-Wastani gate from 1120.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidstanleytravel/29868515833">David Stanley|Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A lack of archeological evidence</h2>
<p>The Islamic art historian Bernard O’Kane <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004513372_004">has proposed</a> that a marble prayer niche (or <em>mihrab</em>), preserved today in the Iraqi National Museum, may be one surviving remnant from the ninth-century palace city. Nothing else remains, though, from before the Mongol sacking. </p>
<p>The best evidence for what the city looked like at the time is found in other archaeological sites. Research has shown that two cities – Al-Rafiqa, at Raqqa in Syria and Qadisiyya (or al-Mubarak), near Baghdad – were effectively <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781119069218.ch6">imitations</a> of the Round City. </p>
<p>The archeological site of <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/276">Samarra</a> provides even more clues. Founded in the 9th century, this ancient Islamic city housed the Abbasid court and its military. Its <a href="https://reichert-verlag.de/en/author/s/saba_matthew/9783954905195_impermanent_monuments_lasting_legacies_the_dar_al_khilafa_of_samarra_and_palace_building_in_early_abbasid_iraq-detail">huge brick palaces</a> and monumental gates suggest what visitors to Abbasid Baghdad would have encountered. Mosques, minarets and houses would likely have been decorated with similar carved and painted stucco, ceramic and glass tiles and shimmering mosaics. </p>
<p>Baghdad, as presented in the Mirage <a href="https://youtu.be/nruL1RS4gKs">trailers</a>, is breathtaking. It’s also completely fantastical – a Baghdad that never was. </p>
<p>In the art and architecture it comprises, the game evokes a plethora of other times and places beyond Baghdad and the caliphal age – from Isfahan and Delhi to Samarkand. Encased within the Round City gamers may encounter elements reminiscent of medieval North African gates and fountains, early modern Iranian bazaars and mosques, the domed tombs from south and central Asia and the tiled interiors from the Iberian peninsula. </p>
<p>Scholars of Islamic art and architecture may be disappointed – dismayed, even – at these liberties taken. To my mind, though, this has represented an opportunity to showcase the riches of Islamic art and architecture, across space and time. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Detail of Iranian mosque tilework" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550884/original/file-20230928-29-9hxi8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550884/original/file-20230928-29-9hxi8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550884/original/file-20230928-29-9hxi8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550884/original/file-20230928-29-9hxi8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550884/original/file-20230928-29-9hxi8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550884/original/file-20230928-29-9hxi8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550884/original/file-20230928-29-9hxi8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A wealth of art historical riches.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bocko-m/37375371750">BockoPix|Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/sir-banister-fletchers-global-history-of-architecture-9781472589989/">Islamic architecture</a> is one of the world’s great traditions, yet also one of the most misunderstood and unfamiliar to those outside of the Muslim-majority regions of the world. Most people are <a href="https://theconversation.com/contemporary-muslim-artists-continue-to-adapt-islamic-patterns-to-challenge-ideas-about-fixed-culture-176656">simply not familiar</a> with it – certainly not the way they are with Egyptian, Greek, or Roman architecture, or the various European traditions. </p>
<p>What people think they know about the visual culture of Muslim societies is also not supported by historical evidence. To give just one example, the oft-repeated and <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/koran-does-not-forbid-images-prophet-298298">false notion</a> that figural representation is forbidden in Islamic art. </p>
<p>Mirage is an homage to the <a href="https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/A-Companion-to-Islamic-Art-and-Architecture-by-Finbarr-Barry-Flood-editor-Glru-Necipoglu-editor/9781119068662">history of Islamic art and architecture</a>, across centuries and regions. Making these riches visible and relevant to today’s global audiences may well be the game’s most significant contribution.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209755/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Glaire Anderson has consulted for Ubisoft and has bought shares in the company. She has received funding from UKRI/ ESRC and the Barakat Trust.</span></em></p>
The new game takes liberties with what medieval Baghdad looked like but reveals more about Islamic art and architecture as a result.
Glaire Anderson, Senior Lecturer in Islamic Art , The University of Edinburgh
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/209775
2023-09-26T21:31:39Z
2023-09-26T21:31:39Z
Reclaiming Dada women’s art history shouldn’t mean amplifying orientalism and sexism
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549129/original/file-20230919-23-on9z6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C59%2C4256%2C2740&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">1920s Dada artist Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven was known as 'the Living Dada.' </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsa_von_Freytag-Loringhoven#/media/File:Baroness_Von_Freytag_-_Loringhoven_LCCN2014714092.jpg">(Library of Congress)</a></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/reclaiming-dada-womens-art-history-shouldnt-mean-amplifying-orientalism-and-sexism" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Digital archives have become powerful platforms for <a href="https://doi.org/10.24242/jclis.v1i2.27">women artists who were excluded from official art history</a>, allowing them to claim their rightful place posthumously. </p>
<p>This is evident in dedicated digital projects for early-to-mid 20th century avant-gardists <a href="https://mina-loy.com">like artist, writer and entrepreneur Mina Loy</a>, antiwar activist and cabaret artist <a href="https://www.perfectduluthday.com/2022/06/11/avant-garde-women-emmy-hennings-shining-star-of-the-voltaire">Emmy Hennings</a> or Dada <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/655737/body-sweats-by-elsa-von-freytag-loringhoven-edited-by-irene-gammel-and-suzanne-zelazo/9780262529754">artist Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven</a>. The latter was better known as the Baroness or Baroness Elsa following her 1913 New York City Hall marriage to an impoverished German baron who was then residing in the United States. The Baroness has been the subject of my research. </p>
<p>However, amid the legitimate excitement of bringing overlooked female artists into the foreground through archival work, there are problems <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08164649.2017.1357009">when digital copies of archives proliferate</a> and aren’t critically contextualized. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1697326620573335572"}"></div></p>
<h2>‘The Living Dada’</h2>
<p>Dada, an anti-bourgeois art movement <a href="https://magazine.artland.com/what-is-dadaism/">that emerged during the First World War</a>, challenged western institutions of art through its rabble-rousing manifestos, collages and performances. </p>
<p>Among Dada’s controversial, albeit less well-known practitioners, was Freytag-Loringhoven (1874-1927), a German emigree poet and performer. She was known as the “living Dada” in New York. </p>
<p>My research has documented Baroness Elsa’s value as <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262572156/baroness-elsa">an early feminist performance artist</a> who made bold statements through her attire. She drew on the irrational to express the trauma of the era, <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262600668/irrational-modernism">as art historian Amelia Jones chronicles</a>. Writer Caroline Knighton has <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/modernist-wastes-9781350129047">examined how Baroness Elsa used waste products in art</a> to subversively link art to <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-subversive-artists-made-thrift-shopping-cool-82362">thrift culture</a>. </p>
<p>The University of Maryland’s online accessibility to <a href="https://archives.lib.umd.edu/repositories/2/resources/22">Freytag-Loringhoven’s manuscripts and papers</a> has played a pivotal role in restoring the artist’s rightful place in history. </p>
<p>Using <a href="https://www.proquest.com/docview/304923596?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true">digital methods, literature scholar Tanya Clement</a> has explored Freytag-Loringhoven’s experimental poetry through the lens of “textual performance.” </p>
<h2>Unverified images</h2>
<p>As the Baronness’s profile has been raised through research, so have less authoritative depictions of her work. A photograph lacking proper attribution and sourcing is presented on various websites as Freytag-Loringhoven. A reverse image search reveals the photo to be <a href="https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-f43d-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99">from a Russian theatre performance of the play <em>The Blue Bird</em></a> (1884-1940). Other research confirms the photo actually shows Russian actress Maria Germanova. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1613971114744745984"}"></div></p>
<p>This image also points to a deeper interplay between the Baroness and the West’s <em>fin-de-siecle</em> fascination <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9780415249126-H014-1">with orientalism</a>, a harmful cultural practice originating in the west in a context of imperial domination that conceptualizes the East in alluringly exotic and sensualist terms. </p>
<p>Seeing this image asks us to question how the Baroness was conceptualized and stereotyped within orientalist terms during her era, her relationship to this lens and how these issues manifest in current depictions of her. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"535076785818304512"}"></div></p>
<h2>Orientalist, sexist 1915 descriptors</h2>
<p>In 1915, the <em>New York Times’</em> Dec. 5 issue introduced the Baroness’s artmaking in orientalist terms. Her Polish descent, the article asserts, “accounts for a certain Oriental strain in her appearance and temperament.” The Baroness is described as being “lithe in figure, and as graceful as a leopard.” </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549175/original/file-20230919-23-4fk5c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549175/original/file-20230919-23-4fk5c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549175/original/file-20230919-23-4fk5c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549175/original/file-20230919-23-4fk5c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549175/original/file-20230919-23-4fk5c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1016&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549175/original/file-20230919-23-4fk5c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1016&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549175/original/file-20230919-23-4fk5c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1016&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Costume for a 19th century performance of ‘Semiramide.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiramide#/media/File:Rossini_-_Semiramide_-_Paris_1825_-_Hippolyte_Lecomte_-_Semiramis_1er_Costume_(Mdme_Fodor)_(cropped).jpg">Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Bibliothèque-musée de l'opéra, D216-19 (fol. 58).</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The story said she was modelling for a painting depicting “Semiramide, the turbulent queen of the East of Yore.” This refers to <a href="https://www.metopera.org/user-information/synopses-archive/semiramide">Gioachino Rossini’s eponymous opera</a> which the Metropolitan Opera in New York performed in 1892, 1894, and 1895, popularizing orientalism. I have not been able to locate this painting.</p>
<p>In the story, the Baroness explains she has worked until 3 a.m. that night to finish a new dress to wear to pose for a drawing class. She relays she has applied to the German consulate for support because her husband is a prisoner of war. The story is headlined: “Refugee baroness poses as a model.” </p>
<p>In amplifying an orientalist framing and sexually objectifying the Baroness, the news story suggests an eroticized narrative of her social downfall instead of amplifying her artistic vision and competence to earn a living as an artist. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/no-woman-could-paint-the-story-of-art-without-men-corrects-nearly-600-years-of-male-focused-art-criticism-184458">'No woman could paint': The Story of Art Without Men corrects nearly 600 years of male-focused art criticism</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The story also grapples with understanding her avant-gardism, saying “Perhaps some might call her bizarre in attire.” Her garments are seen in several December 1915 photographs. One depicts a see-through silk cape. Another shows her posing with a <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/nyc-fireboat-rebranded-vibrant-dazzle-camouflage-commemorate-wwi-180969683">geometric pattern evocative of the “dazzle” camouflage on war ships</a>. </p>
<p>Both images present her boundary-breaking avant-garde poses and design aesthetics. Her bold stare at the camera is unconventional for a woman of that era, though this is mainstream today. Avant-garde aesthetics have been routinely appropriated into the mainstream. </p>
<p>According to art historian Francis M. Naumann’s book <em><a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/New_York_Dada_1915_23.html?id=SF5QAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">New York Dada</a></em>, the year 1915 marked the beginning of the Dada movement in New York. </p>
<p>As Amy Malek warns in her 2021 study “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877920957348">Clickbait Orientalism and Vintage Iranian Snapshots</a>,” “latent orientalist ideologies continue to circulate,” even as their manifest forms change over time. Images that trade on “gendered orientalist tropes” attract attention and revenue. </p>
<h2>Complicated relationship to orientalism</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538133/original/file-20230718-17584-jq63gx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A photograph of a woman in profile view with hand lettering underneath." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538133/original/file-20230718-17584-jq63gx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538133/original/file-20230718-17584-jq63gx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1066&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538133/original/file-20230718-17584-jq63gx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1066&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538133/original/file-20230718-17584-jq63gx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1066&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538133/original/file-20230718-17584-jq63gx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538133/original/file-20230718-17584-jq63gx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538133/original/file-20230718-17584-jq63gx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Baroness Elsa seen in a photograph decorated by her with stylized lettering, which appeared in ‘The Little Review,’ vol. 7, no. 3, September-December 1920.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsa_von_Freytag-Loringhoven#/media/File:Baroness_Elsa_von_Freytag-Loringhoven.png">(Modernist Journals Project)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Baroness had a complicated relationship to orientalism. She was part of contemporary art movements that mobilized and were affected by this cultural lens, and she included references to the sphinx and Buddha in her poetry published in <em>The Little Review</em> which represent orientalist tropes. </p>
<p>Simultaneously, in her <a href="https://archives.lib.umd.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/11123">autobiographical writings</a>, she ridiculed these same male artists for stereotyping women as hetaeras, ancient Greek prostitutes who were also intellectual companions. She was quick to point out appropriations as artistic fetishes. </p>
<p>In her poem “<a href="https://digital.lib.umd.edu/resultsnew/id/umd:59516">Arabesque</a>,” a Dadaist stream of words breaks their conventional meanings, as in the lines “upon honeysuckle fists/ arabesque grotesque/ basks […]/ beetle.” Arabesque refers to <a href="https://theconversation.com/contemporary-muslim-artists-continue-to-adapt-islamic-patterns-to-challenge-ideas-about-fixed-culture-176656">floral or biomorphic decoration appropriated from Islamic ornamentation in western arts</a>. </p>
<p>This rendering may be interpreted as disrupting or mocking <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/orie/hd_orie.htm">popular orientalist fads</a> in the west, in lieu of uncritically reproducing them. </p>
<h2>Images shape identity, perception</h2>
<p>Images have the power to shape our identity and perception. A diligent effort should be made to accurately source and responsibly contextualize images. It is also crucial to refrain from framing digital objects in manners that reinforce the allure of orientalism. </p>
<p>Custodians of archival websites must take responsibility in engaging in critical inquiry about the societal and ethical impact of images they post. </p>
<p>By doing so, we can ensure the ethics of digitization related to documenting feminist histories are robust. And, by critically challenging orientalist images and ideologies, we help ensure a renewed appreciation and understanding of the true significance of the Baroness.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209775/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Irene Gammel receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>
Digital archives can have an important part in creating more inclusive art histories, but paying attention to ethical research practices when sharing and circulating resources is critical.
Irene Gammel, Professor & Director, Modern Literature and Culture Research Centre and Gallery, Toronto Metropolitan University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/210744
2023-09-22T13:15:46Z
2023-09-22T13:15:46Z
Andrey Rublev has been called the ‘greatest Russian artist who ever lived’ – but one of his most famous works is at risk under Putin
<p>Andrey Rublev (or Rublyov – nobody is sure how his name was pronounced) <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/slavic-review/article/the-byzantine-commonwealth-eastern-europe-5001453-by-dimitri-obolensky-history-of-civilization-series-london-weidenfeld-and-nicolson-1971-xiv-445-p-400-new-york-praeger-publishers-1971-1500/D37C15C58DC899000E28AA07D693AEA1">has been described as</a> “the greatest Russian artist who ever lived”, whose work had “a clarity of composition and suave tranquillity of mood peculiarly his own”. </p>
<p>In May 2023, it was announced that under Putin, one of Rublev’s most famous works was to be removed from its restoration team and donated to the Russian Orthodox Church. This has prompted concerns about the conservation of his work.<br>
My new book <a href="https://reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/andrey-rublev">Andrey Rublev: The Artist and His World</a> is an overview of the master medieval Russian painter. Rublev, active around 1400 in and near Moscow, was a monk and painter of icons, frescoes and (possibly) manuscripts in the tradition of the Orthodox Church. </p>
<p>He was highly regarded in his lifetime and for at least a century thereafter. He is mentioned in the proceedings of the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Moscow_Stoglav_hundred_Chapters_Chur.html?id=4RgsAQAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">Council of the 100 Chapters</a> in 1551 (a major council ordering the practices of the Russian Church) and in <a href="http://www.nostalghia.com/TheTopics/RublovDocumentation.html">Tale of the Holy Icon Painters</a> in the 17th century.</p>
<p>He is generally thought to have been born in the 1360s. He must have taken monastic orders sometime before 1405, when he was part of a team painting the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Cathedral-of-the-Annunciation">Kremlin Annunciation Cathedral</a>. He spent his last years in the relatively small <a href="https://orthodoxwiki.org/Andronikov_Monastery_(Moscow)">Andronikov Monastery</a> on the edge of Moscow (where <a href="https://all-andorra.com/andronikov-monastery/">a museum</a> is now dedicated to him). A gravestone recording his death on January 29 1430 was found in the 18th century. It has since been lost.</p>
<p>The beautiful cathedral of the <a href="https://www.inyourpocket.com/moscow/spaso-andronikov-monastery_37918v">Andronikov Monastery</a>, now the oldest standing building in Moscow (though damaged in Napoleon’s invasion and fire of 1812), dates from the late 1420s. I believe, though it can’t be proved, that Rublev had a hand in its construction. He certainly did in its painting. As I write <a href="https://reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/andrey-rublev">in my book</a>, we know little or nothing about the beginnings of Rublev’s life or career.</p>
<h2>Searching for Rublev</h2>
<p>Any search for Rublev must begin with the icon known as the Old Testament Trinity, properly known as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_(Andrei_Rublev)#/media/File:Angelsatmamre-trinity-rublev-1410.jpg">Hospitality of Abraham</a>. It stood prominently for centuries in the small cathedral of the <a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/06/21/russias-trinity-icon-to-stay-at-moscows-christ-the-savior-cathedral-for-month-longer">Trinity Monastery</a> in hilly, forested country approximately 70kms northeast of Moscow.</p>
<p>This monastery had been founded in the previous century by the hermit and spiritual leader <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Sergius-I">Sergius</a>, who was later canonised and considered the patron saint of Russia. It stood above the disputes of princes as a common spiritual centre. The icon was painted in memory of Sergius, a symbolic overcoming of enmity in a fractious land (still under Tartar rule).</p>
<p>Three elegant figures are seated round a plain table. They are neither evidently young nor old, male nor female, but are winged and haloed. They are angels, the figures who appeared to Abraham and Sarah, as recounted in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2018&version=NIV">Genesis 18</a>. </p>
<p>They are God’s messengers and deliver the news that, though elderly, Abraham and Sarah will have a son named Isaac. These three figures were taken as symbolic of the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit</p>
<p>From the traditional scene, Rublev entirely omits Abraham and Sarah, but includes three symbolic items behind the wings – house, tree and mountain. All this has been apparent only since 1919, when the icon had its first proper cleaning. Until then the painting was obscured, first, by darkening of its varnish, then by the elaborate metal casing fitted over it by subsequent tsars. </p>
<p>Since then, historians have been astounded by the rhythm and poise of the figures, their symbolic meaning and the brilliant colouration based on blood-red and ultramarine blue. Soviet art historian M. Alpatov <a href="https://biblio.sg/book/art-treasures-russia-alpatov-m-w/d/262969929">wrote</a>: “In the history of the arts, there is no other one work that, to the same extent as the Trinity, embodies the best spiritual forces of an entire nation.”</p>
<h2>What we know about Rublev’s art</h2>
<p>Beyond this icon, what did Rublev definitely paint? In 1408, with his fellow monk Daniil, he worked on the great <a href="https://catholicshrinebasilica.com/dormition-cathedral-vladimir-russia/">Cathedral of the Dormition</a> in Vladimir, considered the mother church of middle Russia. Its frescoes are in poor condition, but still show Rublev as an artist of great verve. Though the Last Judgement is represented, there are no scenes of hell.</p>
<p>Beyond these, three probable Rublev icons were found in a woodshed in Zvenigorod, west of Moscow, with links to the Trinity Monastery. The icon of St Michael is so like the Trinity angels that it is usually taken as from the same hand. Around 1400 a series of fine gospel books was made for the main Moscow cathedrals. </p>
<p>Among them was the <a href="https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/andrei-rublev-alpatov-pub-1972-1779587820">Khitrovo Book</a>, a work of a quality that leads me to suspect Rublev’s work. Rublev’s final project, small decorative window-splays in the <a href="https://www.inyourpocket.com/moscow/spaso-andronikov-monastery_37918v">Andronikov Monastery</a> is still intact.</p>
<p>The Trinity icon was moved to the <a href="https://www.tretyakovgallerymagazine.com/articles/%E2%84%963-2013-40/andrei-rublev-image-holy-trinity">Tretyakov Gallery</a> in the 1920s, and – considerably battered, as it was – has been carefully studied, restored and displayed, latterly in an air-conditioned capsule. </p>
<p>So things remained, until in May 2023, when <a href="https://anglican.ink/2023/05/16/putin-returns-andrey-rublevs-icon-the-holy-trinity-to-the-russian-orthodox-church/">President Vladimir Putin announced</a> that it would be donated to the Russian Orthodox Church, in time for Trinity Sunday (June 4). The restoration team was outraged in view of its fragility – they had no guarantee that the work would be protected once it left their care – but had to submit. </p>
<p>Why should Putin behave in this way? To keep his ally, Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox church, on side? To show that, as boss, he can dispose of valuable possessions? Or (most likely) because he needs that icon’s “help” in his war? Rublev’s great masterpiece went, apparently unprotected, to the modern <a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/06/21/russias-trinity-icon-to-stay-at-moscows-christ-the-savior-cathedral-for-month-longer">Christ the Saviour Cathedral</a> in Moscow.</p>
<p>However, to the surprise of visitors, the icon was temporarily spirited away from the cathedral in late July, so that a different, non-Tretyakov restoration team could work on it. It seems the journey of this masterpiece isn’t yet over.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight,
on Fridays. Launches August 4. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210744/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robin Milner-Gulland does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Rublev, active around 1400 in and near Moscow, was a monk and painter of icons, frescoes and (possibly) manuscripts in the tradition of the Orthodox Church
Robin Milner-Gulland, Emeritus Professor of Russian, University of Sussex
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/210250
2023-09-20T12:25:02Z
2023-09-20T12:25:02Z
Art and science entwined: This course explores the long, interrelated history of two ways of seeing the world
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548572/original/file-20230915-19-g2hz53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C12%2C4207%2C1961&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Art or science? Trick question.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/glowing-and-shining-dna-strands-double-helix-close-royalty-free-image/1195280829">Leonardo da Vinci via Wikimedia Commons; libre de droit/iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Text saying: Uncommon Courses, from The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/uncommon-courses-130908">Uncommon Courses</a> is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.</em> </p>
<h2>Title of course:</h2>
<p>Art & Science from Aristotle to Instagram</p>
<h2>What prompted the idea for the course?</h2>
<p>The idea for this course came out of my own research on intersections between art and science in the <a href="https://smartencyclopedia.org/content/early-modern-period/">early modern period</a>, roughly 1400-1700. In this time, the division between the arts and sciences was not as stark as people perceive it to be today. Many natural philosophers – the scientists of their day – like <a href="https://moon.lindahall.org/p2.html">Galileo Galilei</a> made images in the process of conducting their studies. However, they also relied on artists and artisans to communicate their ideas to a wider audience – they needed engravers, draftsmen and other graphic arts practitioners to make the images that would go into their books and published works.</p>
<p>In addition, throughout history the development of new technologies has affected artistic practices. The invention of the printing press and new photographic technologies allowed scientific ideas to be communicated in new ways to new audiences, but these inventions simultaneously created new artistic media. </p>
<h2>What does the course explore?</h2>
<p>In contemporary society, art and science are often characterized as diametrically opposed. However, knowledge making has been inextricably linked to image making since antiquity.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548655/original/file-20230916-25-tbcn9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="engraving of a caterpillar and two butterflies on a pomegranate plant" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548655/original/file-20230916-25-tbcn9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548655/original/file-20230916-25-tbcn9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548655/original/file-20230916-25-tbcn9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548655/original/file-20230916-25-tbcn9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548655/original/file-20230916-25-tbcn9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548655/original/file-20230916-25-tbcn9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548655/original/file-20230916-25-tbcn9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This image, made by Maria Sibylla Merian in 1705, is both a naturalist’s documentation and a work of art.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://collections.artsmia.org/art/75550/blue-butterflies-and-pomegranate-after-maria-sibylla-merian">Maria Sibylla Merian via Minneapolis Institute of Art</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One way we explore this relationship is by studying people from antiquity to the present who cross these realms. Leonardo da Vinci is a great example. People think of him as a master Renaissance painter, and he painted what is widely considered the most famous painting in the world, the <a href="https://focus.louvre.fr/en/mona-lisa">Mona Lisa</a>. But at the same time, he also pursued scientific questions about <a href="https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/30/collection/912281/the-cardiovascular-system-and-principal-organs-of-a-woman">anatomy</a>, <a href="https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/8/collection/912422/sprigs-of-oak-and-dyers-greenweed">botany</a> and <a href="https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/3/collection/912380/a-deluge">motion</a> and was <a href="https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/13/collection/912716/designs-for-a-water-clock">an inventor</a>.</p>
<p>But there were other examples of people who pursued science and art together. In the 19th century, <a href="https://www.moma.org/artists/231">Anna Atkins</a> was one of the first people to use an early photographic technique – the cyanotype – to study British plants and algae. The <a href="https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/search/objects?set=RP-F-2016-133#/RP-F-2016-133-11,11">images she created</a> are aesthetically beautiful but also created new knowledge within botany.</p>
<p>In the course, we also explore different technological developments that affected the arts, creating new materials and media. These include technologies such as the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/printing-press">printing press</a>, <a href="https://mymodernmet.com/camera-obscura/">camera obscura</a>, <a href="https://www.loc.gov/collections/daguerreotypes/articles-and-essays/the-daguerreotype-medium/">daguerreotype</a> and <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/d/digital-art">digital art</a>.</p>
<h2>Why is this course relevant now?</h2>
<p>We live in a visually saturated world, yet we often take in these images uncritically. My students encounter images in every aspect of their lives, in greater quantity and at a greater rate than ever before. Yet, people frequently accept these images as true depictions of reality, even when they are not.</p>
<p>Why do people assume a scientific image is divorced from the same aesthetic choices and manipulation that are applied to the image on a magazine cover? Why do people accept a scientific image as objective and not a created object like a painting? Issues like photoshopped images or AI-generated artworks may seem unique to the modern moment, but concerns about manipulation and deception have a long history.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4ob-vrR_pNY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">An artist’s eye can be as valuable to science as a microscope.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What’s a critical lesson from the course?</h2>
<p>Today, the perceived division between empirical and quantitative science and creative and qualitative arts is even more pronounced than in the past. </p>
<p>In my classes, I find science students often think that a scientific image made today is strictly true or objective. Yet during the course they discover that many choices get made in constructing that image. What information should be included? What information should be left out? </p>
<p>The art students in the class soon come to realize that many of the artistic materials and media they rely on, be it synthetic pigment or digital technologies, were developed for scientific or engineering purposes. </p>
<h2>What materials does the course feature?</h2>
<ul>
<li><p>“<a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0168%3Abook%3D10">The Republic</a>” (fourth century BCE) by Plato, where we consider his skepticism of the arts due to their ability to deceive.</p></li>
<li><p>“<a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/358129">De Humani Corporis Fabrica</a>” (1543) by Andrea Vesalius, an important book on human anatomy where the illustrations and text were equally influential.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2008/news-2008-10.html">Images from the Hubble Space Telescope</a>, and how they can be considered both works of art and science.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>What will the course prepare students to do?</h2>
<p>It is my hope that after taking this course, students will have gained the skills to be more discerning in how they think about the ways the visual information around them is created. They will not only have a greater appreciation for the processes of creating artistic and scientific knowledge but also have gained a critical lens for assessing the images they see around them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210250/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katherine Reinhart receives funding from the NEH. During the 2019-2020 academic year, I was the NEH postdoctoral fellow at the Consortium for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Philadelphia.</span></em></p>
Art and science may seem like opposites, but throughout history the disciplines have fed off each other − and still do today.
Katherine Reinhart, Assistant Professor of Art History, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/202719
2023-08-21T04:09:37Z
2023-08-21T04:09:37Z
Painting the unfamiliar: why the first European paintings of Australian animals look so alien to our eyes
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522531/original/file-20230424-24-mvgd9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C1%2C1276%2C1074&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Kongouro from New Holland, 1772, George Stubbs </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-573621">National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1772, Joseph Banks commissioned the foremost painter of animals in England, George Stubbs, to paint a dingo and a kangaroo. </p>
<p>To our modern eyes the paintings lack the vitality and strength of the animals we are familiar with in Australia. The kangaroo more closely resembles a rodent than a bipedal marsupial. The dingo’s glassy-eyed stare lacks any animation.</p>
<p>Stubbs was renowned for how well he captured horses and dogs. Even today, those paintings of his capture the lifelike individual essence of his subject. So why did his paintings of the dingo and kangaroo – some of the earliest European representations of Australian animals – look so strange?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-australia-v-england-in-battle-over-stubbs-masterpieces-19921">It's Australia v England, in battle over Stubbs masterpieces </a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>‘To compare it would be impossible’</h2>
<p>Stubbs had not travelled with the 1768 Endeavour expedition to the South Seas. Instead, Banks commissioned him to paint from skins collected during the voyage. </p>
<p>While the journey was officially to chart the transit of Venus across the Sun from the vantage point of Tahiti, King George III also <a href="https://www.nla.gov.au/digital-classroom/senior-secondary/cook-and-pacific/indigenous-responses-cook-and-his-voyage/secret">secretly instructed</a> James Cook to search for the fabled Terra Australis Incognito and </p>
<blockquote>
<p>with the consent of the Natives […] to take possession of a Continent or Land of great extent […]in the Name of the King of Great Britain. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Banks collected the skins of a “large dog” and a “kongouro” (thought to be a misinterpretation of the Guugu Yimidhirr word gangurru, which refers to the Grey Kangaroo) when the Endeavour pulled into safe harbour for repairs after striking the Great Barrier Reef in June 1770. </p>
<p>Banks recorded his <a href="https://statelibrarynsw.tumblr.com/post/147361252859">first impressions</a> of this very unfamiliar animal in his journal entry dated July 14 1770. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>To compare it to any European animal would be impossible as it had not the least resemblance of any one I have seen. Its fore legs are extremely short and of no use to it in walking, its hind again as disproportionately long; with these it hops 7 or 8 feet at each hop in the same manner as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerboa">Gerbua</a>, to which animal indeed it bears much resemblance, except in size […]</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522532/original/file-20230424-16-lksybg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A simple pencil sketch." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522532/original/file-20230424-16-lksybg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522532/original/file-20230424-16-lksybg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=875&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522532/original/file-20230424-16-lksybg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=875&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522532/original/file-20230424-16-lksybg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=875&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522532/original/file-20230424-16-lksybg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1099&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522532/original/file-20230424-16-lksybg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1099&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522532/original/file-20230424-16-lksybg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1099&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The first European drawing of a kangaroo, by Sydney Parkinson in 1770.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/first-european-drawing-of-a-kangaroo">Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sydney Parkinson, one of the artists who accompanied Banks, made five sketches of the dead animal after it was shot by one of the ship’s gamekeepers. </p>
<p>These sketches, the flayed (and possibly inflated) skins, Banks’ journal entry and his personal memories were the material that informed Stubbs as he made his preparations to paint these very unfamiliar animals.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-art-of-the-colonial-kangaroo-hunt-102169">Friday essay: the art of the colonial kangaroo hunt</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The semantic memory</h2>
<p>Stubbs was lauded for his anatomically correct forms of horses and dogs. On occasion, Stubbs also painted exotic animals like the lions housed in the Royal Menagerie. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522534/original/file-20230424-26-80rbgd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A beautiful horse" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522534/original/file-20230424-26-80rbgd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522534/original/file-20230424-26-80rbgd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=719&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522534/original/file-20230424-26-80rbgd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=719&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522534/original/file-20230424-26-80rbgd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=719&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522534/original/file-20230424-26-80rbgd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522534/original/file-20230424-26-80rbgd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522534/original/file-20230424-26-80rbgd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Whistlejacket by George Stubbs, 1762.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/george-stubbs-whistlejacket">National Gallery</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But his paintings of the dingo and kangaroo were the first time he painted animals he had never studied from life.</p>
<p>Stubbs capitalised on the swell of interest in the return of the Endeavour by exhibiting the paintings at the Society of Artists in London 1773. </p>
<p>This brought the dingo and the kangaroo to the scientific community and public’s attention. The animals became the two most associated with the new world of Australia – adding greatly to Great Britain’s sense of national pride as the conqueror of new worlds.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522535/original/file-20230424-28-u53w6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522535/original/file-20230424-28-u53w6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522535/original/file-20230424-28-u53w6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522535/original/file-20230424-28-u53w6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522535/original/file-20230424-28-u53w6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522535/original/file-20230424-28-u53w6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=640&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522535/original/file-20230424-28-u53w6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=640&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522535/original/file-20230424-28-u53w6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=640&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Portrait of a Large Dog (dingo) by George Stubbs, 1772.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-573620">National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Stubbs’ kangaroo painting set the standard for future representations of the animal until well into the 19th century, serving as a model for engravings and illustrations used in <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/G/bo7919484.html">scientific</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Account_of_the_Voyages">popular</a> publications.</p>
<p>But Stubbs’ kangaroo more closely resembles the rat-like Gerbua of Banks’ description than the creature we know today. This can perhaps be explained by Stubbs’s unfamiliarity with the animals. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543604/original/file-20230821-230558-4ympol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543604/original/file-20230821-230558-4ympol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543604/original/file-20230821-230558-4ympol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1003&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543604/original/file-20230821-230558-4ympol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1003&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543604/original/file-20230821-230558-4ympol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1003&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543604/original/file-20230821-230558-4ympol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1260&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543604/original/file-20230821-230558-4ympol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1260&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543604/original/file-20230821-230558-4ympol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1260&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An animal of a new species found on the coast of New South Wales. 1773 engraving based on Stubbs’ painting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Museum of Australia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As an artist who had made a lifelong study of the anatomy and movement of animals, he would normally have relied on what psychologists refer to as “<a href="https://www.livescience.com/43353-implicit-memory.html">implicit memory</a>” when painting his subject in the studio. That is, the unconscious memory he would instinctively rely on from years of painting animals he was familiar with. </p>
<p>It’s a bit like riding a bicycle: once learned, it’s never forgotten. </p>
<p>In this case, Stubbs primarily relied on “<a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/semantic-memory.html">semantic memory</a>”, or general knowledge of his experiences in the world, to paint the unfamiliar by utilising the knowledge, written material and personal recollections Banks had given to him.</p>
<p>Having been told a kangaroo was a giant rat-like gerbua by Banks, it is understandable that Stubbs also relied on his implicit memory of rats and gerbuas to depict the kangaroo. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543606/original/file-20230821-153592-8a4cch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A kangaroo with a joey." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543606/original/file-20230821-153592-8a4cch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543606/original/file-20230821-153592-8a4cch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=987&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543606/original/file-20230821-153592-8a4cch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=987&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543606/original/file-20230821-153592-8a4cch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=987&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543606/original/file-20230821-153592-8a4cch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1240&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543606/original/file-20230821-153592-8a4cch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1240&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543606/original/file-20230821-153592-8a4cch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1240&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An animal found on the coast of New Holland called kanguroo, 1809, by Thomas Thornton, based on Stubbs’ painting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Library of Australia.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Rendering the unfamiliar</h2>
<p>As an artist, I can relate to this. My paintings of unfamiliar landscapes in Scotland and Ireland always seem to depict trees that look like eucalypts. </p>
<p>Despite using the same brand of watercolours I have used my whole artistic life, the way I paint the interplay of light, shadow and hue on mountain passes, birch groves and fields of heather and gorse usually seems more gaudy than the dull blue-grey colours of the Australian bush. </p>
<p>Unconsciously, I overlay the hues of the Australian landscape onto my paintings of the British landscape in order to tone the gaudiness down – much like the English painters who conversely depicted the Australian bush as English landscapes. </p>
<p>Rendering the unfamiliar familiar. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/terra-nullius-interruptus-captain-james-cook-and-absent-presence-in-first-nations-art-129688">Terra nullius interruptus: Captain James Cook and absent presence in First Nations art</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202719/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Janelle Evans does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
How did George Stubbs, one of England’s foremost painters of horses and dogs, get Australian animals so wrong?
Janelle Evans, Senior Lecturer, Critical and Theoretical Studies, Victorian College of the Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/210004
2023-07-25T16:32:09Z
2023-07-25T16:32:09Z
I toured Westminster Abbey’s Cosmati pavement in my socks – here’s what I saw
<p>In the months before King Charles III was crowned on May 6 2023, Westminster Abbey <a href="https://theconversation.com/cosmati-pavement-walk-on-the-755-year-old-floor-where-king-charles-iii-will-be-crowned-but-take-off-your-shoes-first-198194">announced</a> that the public would be able to see its fabled <a href="https://www.westminster-abbey.org/about-the-abbey/history/cosmati-pavement">Cosmati pavement</a> up close – in their socks. </p>
<p>The 13th-century mosaic floor had been covered up by thick carpets to protect it for as long as anyone alive could remember. The guided tour dates sold out <a href="https://advisor.museumsandheritage.com/news/westminster-abbeys-offers-shoes-off-tour-of-coronation-site/">within 24 hours</a>. Visitors jumped at this chance to collect the dust of ages on their feet and take it home. </p>
<p>I went in July. On the day, I chose my socks very carefully. Black, with a repeating pattern of Jonah and the whale in blue and yellow, a little something from the Wells Cathedral giftshop. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A pair of besocked feet on a floor mosaic." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538987/original/file-20230724-17-yla81f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538987/original/file-20230724-17-yla81f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538987/original/file-20230724-17-yla81f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538987/original/file-20230724-17-yla81f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538987/original/file-20230724-17-yla81f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538987/original/file-20230724-17-yla81f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538987/original/file-20230724-17-yla81f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The author’s Jonah and the whale socks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Liz James</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/%7Eucfbrxs/Homepage/WestminsterAbbeyMortars.pdf">Cosmati pavement</a>, of course, played a stellar role during the coronation ceremony. It is the floor on which the king was literally crowned and across which, most memorably, Lord President of the Council <a href="https://www.tatler.com/article/penny-mourdant-opens-up-about-her-star-role-at-king-charles-iiis-coronation">Penny Mordaunt</a> walked and stood guard, carrying two antique swords vertically out in front of her while balancing on undeniably high heels. </p>
<p>As an art historian and <a href="https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/37173/chapter-abstract/323752853?redirectedFrom=fulltext">mosaic expert</a>, I found the experience of walking on this medieval treasure myself to be brilliant. Not so much for following in Mordaunt’s footsteps – her feat of endurance notwithstanding – but for the encounter with the floor itself. </p>
<h2>Intricate patterns</h2>
<p>Up close, the first thing you notice is that the stones feel cool underfoot and the pavement is not flat. I suspect it would have been much flatter in the 13th century. But time and wear and restorations have made it uneven. That adds to the visitor’s sensations. You explore the complex, bewildering <a href="https://archive.bridgesmathart.org/2008/bridges2008-369.pdf">patterning</a> with your feet as well as with your eyes.</p>
<p>These stonework patterns are what make the pavement the most fabulous thing. Overhead aerial photographs show the floor in all its glory. The central portion comprises circles arranged in a quincunx (four points at the corner of a square and one in the middle, like the five on a die). The border counts five circles strung around each corner with single rectangular panels between the corner groupings. </p>
<p>Up close, however, what strikes you are the intricacies of the patterning within each of these elements as well as the almost psychedelic alternations of colours and the dazzling effect this has on the eyes. It is almost like looking at a kaleidoscopic Bridget Riley painting. </p>
<p>This floor, when first laid, would have shimmered and moved, almost like a silk carpet (but not as soft). Whatever the possible meanings of the designs, or the links with Rome and the Papacy, this is what people would have experienced and felt first in the abbey. After the most recent restoration work, between 2008 and 2010, the abbey’s head conservator Vanessa Simeoni <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/may/05/archaeology.art">reportedly said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When this floor was new it would have blazed with colour. The materials were chosen for their brilliance and shine, and the quality of the craftsmanship is actually shocking, the ultimate that could be achieved. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>None of the patterns are quite the same: there is surprisingly little uniformity. The stones subtly change in size, shape and the alternation of colours. </p>
<h2>Centuries of wear</h2>
<p>The floor as we have it now is not all 13th century. There have been various interventions and restorations, most notably by <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/%7Eucfbrxs/Homepage/WestminsterAbbeyMortars.pdf">Sir George Gilbert Scott</a> between 1859 and 1871. As Simeoni <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv13gvh7k">has observed</a>, one of the hardest things in the restoration process was working out what pattern went where and what to put in those areas where whole sections had been lost.</p>
<p>The pavement around the high altar is Scott’s work (and design). He used large discs of purple porphyry presented by Lord Elgin (of Parthenon marbles fame) and commemorated with a Latin inscription along the edge of the middle step of the altar platform. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A close-up of an inscription on a mosaic floor." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538934/original/file-20230724-19-z31wsu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538934/original/file-20230724-19-z31wsu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538934/original/file-20230724-19-z31wsu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538934/original/file-20230724-19-z31wsu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538934/original/file-20230724-19-z31wsu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538934/original/file-20230724-19-z31wsu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538934/original/file-20230724-19-z31wsu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Latin inscription on the steps to the High Altar.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Liz James</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The central rectangle of the eastern border is also Scott’s work. It is good and thoughtful restoration, with considerable effort taken to match the stones. By standing above it, you can make out how the marble is slightly different in colour, slightly more regular in its cut (presumably the difference between hand-cut in the 13th century and machine-cut in the 19th), and much smoother and flatter than the earlier bits of the pavement. As Simeone points out, however, Scott cut the stones too thinly and so they will work loose. </p>
<p>Elsewhere, in earlier restorations, there are places where green serpentine (from the Lizard in Cornwall) has replaced green porphyry, red Belgian marble and black Belgian marble have been used. In the 2008 restoration, where the original Purbeck marble had deteriorated too far as a result of damp conditions, new pieces of Purbeck, this time from Dorset, were introduced. </p>
<p>The marble is the basic material used for the matrix, the lines holding the pattern together. It polishes up beautifully. From close up you can see the fossilised shells of which it is comprised.</p>
<p>What is also not clear until you are on the floor are the issues in conservation that remain. Two key areas –- decorated tomb covers to the left and right of the floor – are exactly where seating for the clergy needs to be when the abbey is used for worship. Heavy Victorian benches had caused considerable damage. </p>
<p>During the conservation work between 2008 and 2010, protective floor coverings called “eyemats” – printed with full-sized images of the mosaic – were placed over the tomb covers. New lighter furniture is now in use. </p>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00004-998-0008-y.pdf">The story goes</a> that the carpets with which the floor was covered until 2008 were first laid down for Queen Mary (wife of George V), who insisted on wearing heels across the pavement. What I wanted to know, though, was whether Mordaunt’s heels had damaged the floor. I suspect I wasn’t the first or the last to ask this question. The reply was a model of tact and diplomacy. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ajGRV5ZS9uQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Actually, my socks were in good condition afterwards. It turns out that the dust of ages is in short supply. </p>
<p>The floor is regularly vacuumed to remove debris, and the surface – which has been waxed both to protect the stones and to heighten their patina – is buffed weekly and before major events – not too much to create a skid hazard, but enough to keep the stones glimmering.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210004/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Liz James does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Up close, Westminster Abbey’s fabled floor boasts intricate patterning and psychedelic alternations of colours.
Liz James, Professor of History of Art, University of Sussex
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/207802
2023-06-15T14:14:59Z
2023-06-15T14:14:59Z
New book sheds light on surrealist artist Leonora Carrington’s extraordinary life and work
<p><a href="https://thamesandhudson.com/surreal-spaces-the-life-and-art-of-leonora-carrington-9780500025512">Surreal Spaces: The Life and Art of Leonora Carrington</a>, Joanna Moorhead’s latest book on the pioneering surrealist painter and writer who lived from 1917 to 2011, captures <a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/02/03/surrealist-collection-with-pioneering-interest-in-exiled-and-female-artists-heads-to-christies">a wave of fascination</a> for surrealist women artists. </p>
<p>Carrington’s many selves dazzle at every turn in this evocative study of the spaces and places of the artist’s life and work. It showcases her resilience, zest, intellectual curiosity and defiant pursuit of personal autonomy and uncompromising artistic authenticity.</p>
<p>Moorhead, whose father was Carrington’s cousin, offers an immersive reading of each place Carrington lived in, capturing their distinct atmospheres and registering the passage of time. She also detects the spirit of each place in Carrington’s surrealist landscape paintings, where the real and the fantastic meet mesmerically.</p>
<p>The journey begins with Carrington’s Anglo-Irish childhood in Cockerham, Lancaster, spent in mock-Gothic halls brimming with Celtic mystery and legend. It continues through her rebellious convent school days and her “refusenik debutante” phase. Sheathed in white satin and chaperoned by her mother Maurie, Carrington was presented to London high society in 1935, but kicked back against the culture of privilege and expectation. </p>
<p>There followed her art training at the Ozenfant Academy in London, and her inaugural encounter with surrealism – notably with future husband Max Ernst’s art (and subsequently with Ernst himself) – at the first <a href="https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/features/our-archive-international-surrealist-exhibition-1936">International Surrealist Exhibition</a> in 1936.</p>
<p>Living with Ernst in the creative and emotional hothouse of Paris led to a strong friendship with the Argentine-Italian painter <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leonor-Fini">Leonor Fini</a> and to fisticuffs with Ernst’s then-wife, who was consumed by jealousy at his affair with the beautiful, headstrong and much younger Carrington.</p>
<p>Moorhead captures a vivid sense of the creative communities where Carrington shaped ideas, forged artistic and personal affinities, and resisted the paternalism and patronising of the surrealist men. It also explores her relationship with her father, a self-made industrialist intent on his daughter realising his social ambitions for the family.</p>
<p>Moorhead tracks her subject from her native Lancashire to the Americas via a summer retreat at Lambe Creek in Cornwall. There, Carrington enjoyed artistic ideas and hedonism in the company of photographer <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lee-Miller">Lee Miller</a>, poet <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Paul-Eluard">Paul</a> and model <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/nusch-eluard-8145">Nusch Éluard</a>, and artists <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-roland-penrose-1755">Roland Penrose</a> and <a href="https://www.moma.org/artists/3716">Man Ray</a>. </p>
<p>From there, the author explores Carrington’s life and work at Saint-Martin d’Ardèche, the village home in remote southern France she shared with Ernst in the early days of the Nazi occupation. Its walls became an enduring canvas for their art, before the two were separated by Ernst’s (second) imprisonment as an “enemy alien”.</p>
<h2>Carrington in Mexico</h2>
<p>Surrealist Spaces spans myriad other destinations including Mexico City and the American north-east. The central chapters document Carrington’s intellectual and personal flourishing in international cultural hubs. </p>
<p>There was her medieval and Renaissance revelation on an early educational visit to Florence, where she was mesmerised by the art of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cimabue">Cimabue</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Piero-della-Francesca">Piero della Francesca</a>. The creative communities of New York and Chicago sustained her midlife – but her sense of being at home, authentically, was achieved in Mexico City.</p>
<p>There, <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/leonora-carrington-7615/love-friendship-rivalry-surreal-friends">a happy second marriage</a> and the raising of two sons combined with enlivening encounters that spanned the Mexican muralist tradition and the compelling feminist lifestyle of Frida Kahlo.</p>
<p>Moorhead also plots her subject’s affective development: the childhood unease and rebellion, the young painter’s passion and angst, the mature woman’s vision and pragmatism, and the aged artist’s generosity of spirit and irony.</p>
<p>Carrington’s discovery of nature – and of human nature – is captured through the exquisite reproductions of her work. Across her formative phases, Moorhead describes each selected artwork discerningly, attentive to colour, textures, atmosphere, symbolism and the narrative freight of each piece.</p>
<p>We learn that the artist’s lifelong fascination with avian, equine and organic motifs was nourished by the woodland freedom that was the flipside of the emotionally chilly upbringing at Crookhey Hall in Cockerham. Her representation of tortured souls and visions of adversity and trauma were shaped by extreme real-life experiences of loss, separation, and the terror of her confinement in a Santander asylum, where she was subjected to seizure-inducing drugs.</p>
<p>Down Below, Carrington’s painted account of her psychiatric experience (encouraged by French writer <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Andre-Breton">André Breton</a>, who had denounced psychiatric medicine in his iconic narrative <a href="https://monoskop.org/images/2/2e/Breton_Andre_Nadja_1960_EN.pdf">Nadja</a> in 1928) is an indictment of institutional and clinical abuse that resonates today. </p>
<p>The episode illustrates Carrington’s capacity for extrication from the family tentacles that reached out to entrap her, in the hope of a cure for her “madness” or, at least, social containment of a “disreputable” daughter.</p>
<p>Moorhead’s book is a major sense-making project that unfolds slowly, taking readers vividly – sometimes viscerally – into the places and phases of Carrington’s biography. She invites us to imagine their influence on the development of the artist and writer, always weaving the intricate mesh of her life and work. </p>
<p>Surreal Spaces paints a portrait of fragility and strength, passion and determination, and Carrington’s resolute sense of the geographical, artistic and emotional place she wanted to occupy at every stage of her life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207802/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Harrow does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Surreal Spaces paints a portrait of fragility and strength, passion and determination.
Susan Harrow, Professor of French Language and Literature, University of Bristol
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/200735
2023-06-08T20:06:54Z
2023-06-08T20:06:54Z
Pierre Bonnard: the master of shimmering luminosity, who painted difficult paintings and yet made them lucid and accessible
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530761/original/file-20230608-23-6y4gv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C2939%2C2024&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pierre Bonnard, French, 1867-1947, Coffee, 1915. Oil on canvas, 73.0 x 106.5 cm. Tate, London. Presented by Sir Michael Sadler through the NACF 1941. Photo © Tate</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Pierre Bonnard, unlike his older contemporary, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Gauguin">Paul Gauguin</a>, never visited Australia, yet Bonnard’s influence on Australian art is pervasive and profound. </p>
<p>This unusual and magnificent exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria allows us to see Bonnard like never before. </p>
<p>In part, this is due to the exceptional depth in the selection of the more than 100 works by Bonnard for this exhibition, largely drawn on the extensive collection held by Paris’s Musée d’Orsay. </p>
<p>Also, in part, by a stroke of genius in commissioning the celebrated Paris-based architect and designer India Mahdavi to create the exhibition’s scenography. </p>
<p>The exhibition is like a creative collaboration between the artist and the designer. Architectural props, painted walls, special carpets and furnishings all combine to create an intimate environment, setting the mood to be captivated by the magic of Bonnard’s colour. </p>
<h2>A solitary path</h2>
<p>Like his contemporary, the Russian artist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassily_Kandinsky">Wassily Kandinsky</a>, Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947) initially studied law. After graduating, he abandoned it to pursue a career as an artist. </p>
<p>Also like Kandinsky, he lived and worked in the centre of the art world of his day. He was associated with many of the key artists, and yet, in the final analysis, Bonnard – like Kandinsky – was essentially a loner who traced for himself a solitary path.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530759/original/file-20230608-28-lb28wc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530759/original/file-20230608-28-lb28wc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530759/original/file-20230608-28-lb28wc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1198&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530759/original/file-20230608-28-lb28wc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1198&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530759/original/file-20230608-28-lb28wc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1198&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530759/original/file-20230608-28-lb28wc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530759/original/file-20230608-28-lb28wc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530759/original/file-20230608-28-lb28wc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pierre Bonnard ,Paris, Rue de Parme on Bastille Day, 1890. Oil on canvas, 79.2 x 40.3 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Photo: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the final decade of the 19th century, Bonnard together with several other young Paris-based artists, including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89douard_Vuillard">Edouard Vuillard</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Denis">Maurice Denis</a> and the sculptor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristide_Maillol">Aristide Maillol</a>, formed an artistic brotherhood on similar lines to that of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazarene_movement">Nazarenes</a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Raphaelite_Brotherhood">Pre-Raphaelites</a>. </p>
<p>They called themselves “<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/n/nabis">The Nabis</a>” (a Hebrew and Arabic word meaning “prophets”) and essentially adopted Gauguin’s aesthetic stance of <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/synthetism">Synthetism</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-computer-science-was-used-to-reveal-gauguins-printmaking-techniques-37733">How computer science was used to reveal Gauguin’s printmaking techniques</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The basic argument of Synthetism was that the art object an artist produced was a synthesis of the artist’s own vision, training, the medium involved, as well as the stimulus of the scene or object depicted. </p>
<p>In other words, it was a theory which gave the creative person greater artistic licence in interpreting a scene or composition in a work of art, rather than merely transcribing it.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530737/original/file-20230608-21-wn3fwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530737/original/file-20230608-21-wn3fwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530737/original/file-20230608-21-wn3fwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530737/original/file-20230608-21-wn3fwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530737/original/file-20230608-21-wn3fwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530737/original/file-20230608-21-wn3fwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530737/original/file-20230608-21-wn3fwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530737/original/file-20230608-21-wn3fwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pierre Bonnard, Twilight, or The croquet game, 1892. Oil on canvas, 130.0 × 162.2 cm. Musée d’Orsay, Paris Gift of Daniel Wildenstein through the Society of Friends of the Musée d'Orsay, 1985. Photo © RMN - Grand Palais (Musée d’Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Early Bonnard Nabis masterworks include Twilight, or The croquet game (1892), and Paris, Rue de Parme on Bastille Day (1890). These revel in the qualities of the flattened picture plane, the unexpected viewpoints and the strong ornamental properties. </p>
<p>Siesta (1900), a great painting from the NGV’s own collection, has Bonnard moving towards a lighter and more luminous palette with adventurous spatial constructions. </p>
<p>Ostensibly, it is simply a painting of the model shown within the intimate space of the artist’s studio. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530735/original/file-20230607-18-bm4n8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530735/original/file-20230607-18-bm4n8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530735/original/file-20230607-18-bm4n8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530735/original/file-20230607-18-bm4n8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530735/original/file-20230607-18-bm4n8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530735/original/file-20230607-18-bm4n8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=632&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530735/original/file-20230607-18-bm4n8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=632&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530735/original/file-20230607-18-bm4n8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=632&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pierre Bonnard French 1867-1947 Siesta (La Sieste) 1900 oil on canvas 109.0 × 132.0 cm National Gallery of Victoria Felton Bequest, 1949.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, as you enter the picture space, you realise the figure is being presented from a high angle. You literally peer into the space where the mass of crumpled sheets and soft sensuous flesh meet the richly patterned wallpaper and carpet that seem to envelop and surround them. </p>
<p>Although the figure in her pose may allude to a well-known statue from classical antiquity, the rendition is thoroughly modern. The bedside table thrusts diagonally towards the figure and opens the work to a whole host of Freudian interpretations. </p>
<p>While Bonnard here may well be drawing on artistic sources as diverse as Manet, Matisse and Cézanne, the painting itself is a wonderfully resolved and unified artistic statement – a triumph of visual intelligence.</p>
<p>It is displayed together with the photographs Bonnard took of his model that may have served as source material for the artist.</p>
<p>Bonnard was inspired by photography and the unexpected angles and the cropping of images and implemented these strategies in his art.</p>
<h2>The window</h2>
<p>The window (1925) is a beautiful and lyrical painting executed by Bonnard while staying with a woman called Marthe in a rented holiday villa at Le Cannet, near Cannes, in the south of France. </p>
<p>Looking out of the window, we see the red roofs of the little town of Le Cannet and beyond that sweeping Cézannesque hills. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530736/original/file-20230607-23-icn0yy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530736/original/file-20230607-23-icn0yy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530736/original/file-20230607-23-icn0yy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=733&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530736/original/file-20230607-23-icn0yy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=733&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530736/original/file-20230607-23-icn0yy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=733&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530736/original/file-20230607-23-icn0yy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530736/original/file-20230607-23-icn0yy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530736/original/file-20230607-23-icn0yy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pierre Bonnard, The window, 1925. Oil on canvas, 108.6 × 88.6 cm. Tate, London. Presented by Lord Ivor Spencer Churchill through the Contemporary Art Society, 1930. Photo © Tate.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Although his chief preoccupation appears to have been with the attempt to balance the tonal values of his palette and to create the compositional structure through colour, the artist also seems intent on loading the work with a private iconography.</p>
<p>In the foreground on the table lies a book and a sheet of paper with writing implements. On the balcony, in a central position, appears the head of Marthe, shown in profile reading. </p>
<p>The book is clearly identified by an inscription on its cover as the novel <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/337140">Marie</a> by Peter Nansen that Bonnard illustrated. </p>
<p>If one adds together the visual clues, one possible interpretation is Marie was Marthe’s real name and in the year the painting was painted, 1925, Bonnard finally married Marthe. One could speculate that the piece of paper alludes to a marriage certificate.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/who-was-marthe-bonnard-new-evidence-paints-a-different-picture-of-pierre-bonnards-wife-and-model-137723">Who was Marthe Bonnard? New evidence paints a different picture of Pierre Bonnard’s wife and model</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The master of shimmering luminosity</h2>
<p>Ultimately, Bonnard was the master of shimmering luminosity who painted very clever and difficult paintings and yet made them appear lucid and accessible. The open window, the doorway and particularly a mirror were his favourite ploys to give space an ambiguous but convincing formal structure. </p>
<p>His painted surfaces have a textural presence with choppy, visible brushstrokes. </p>
<p>Unlike the Impressionists who followed the reliable path of contrasting complementary colours to make them visually vibrate, Bonnard would set himself impossible tasks such as juxtaposing pink and orange or lemon yellow and olive green. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530760/original/file-20230608-20-c1dw4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530760/original/file-20230608-20-c1dw4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530760/original/file-20230608-20-c1dw4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530760/original/file-20230608-20-c1dw4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530760/original/file-20230608-20-c1dw4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530760/original/file-20230608-20-c1dw4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530760/original/file-20230608-20-c1dw4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530760/original/file-20230608-20-c1dw4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pierre Bonnard, The studio with mimosa, 1939-46. Oil on canvas, 127.5 × 127.5 cm. Centre Pompidou, Paris, Musée national d’art moderne - Centre de création industrielle. Purchased from Charles Terrasse, 1979. Photo © Centre Pompidou, MNAM - CCI, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Bertrand Prévost.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>He then would cast his central figures against the light and would work on a solution until each tone appears alive, shimmering and vibrating.</p>
<p>In the context of Australian art, scores of artists responded to his work – <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._Phillips_Fox">Emanuel Phillips Fox</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethel_Carrick">Ethel Carrick</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brack">John Brack</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/fred-williams-in-the-you-yangs-a-turning-point-for-australian-art-83884">Fred Williams</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Molvig">Jon Molvig</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/brett-whiteleys-drawings-reveal-the-artist-as-a-master-draughtsman-37041">Brett Whiteley</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Robinson_(painter,_born_1936)">William Robinson</a> among them.</p>
<p>While I have viewed many Bonnard exhibitions in Australia and abroad, this is the most moving and subtle display that I have encountered. I left the show spiritually refreshed and with tears in my eyes. </p>
<p><em>Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi is at the National Gallery of Victoria International until October 8.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pierre-bonnard-at-the-tate-the-surprising-reasons-we-love-art-110828">Pierre Bonnard at the Tate: the surprising reasons we love art</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200735/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sasha Grishin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
An unusual and magnificent exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria allows us to see Bonnard like never before.
Sasha Grishin, Adjunct Professor of Art History, Australian National University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/206049
2023-05-25T12:26:20Z
2023-05-25T12:26:20Z
What is vernacular art? A visual artist explains
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527842/original/file-20230523-29-vkachs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=36%2C22%2C4883%2C3231&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Henry Darger worked as a hospital custodian. After his death in 1973, hundreds of his illustrations were discovered.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/amberjol/26616919145">Brooklyn Taxidermy/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/the-error-of-margins-vernacular-artists-and-the-mainstream-art-world-5067/">Vernacular art</a> is a genre of visual art made by artists who are usually self-taught. They tend to work outside of art academies and commercial galleries, which have traditionally been the purview of white, affluent artists and collectors.</p>
<p>In the U.S., vernacular art – which can also be called folk art or outsider art – is dominated by the works of African American, Appalachian and working-class people. In many cases these artists took up making paintings, sculptures, quilts or textiles outside of a day job, or later in life. </p>
<p>In early 2023, Christie’s held an <a href="https://www.christies.com/en/auction/outsider-and-vernacular-art-29693/overview">auction of outsider and vernacular art</a>. Featuring work by American artists such as <a href="https://www.moma.org/artists/28600">Henry Darger</a>, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/08/the-utterly-original-bill-traylor">Bill Traylor</a>, <a href="https://www.soulsgrowndeep.org/artist/thornton-dial">Thornton Dial</a>, <a href="https://high.org/exhibition/really-free-the-radical-art-of-nellie-mae-rowe/">Nellie Mae Rowe</a>, <a href="https://americanart.si.edu/artist/minnie-evans-1466">Minnie Evans</a> and <a href="https://www.moma.org/artists/26683">Joseph Yoakum</a>, the sale grossed more than US$2 million.</p>
<p>Awareness and recognition of this genre has grown over the past few decades, with the Smithsonian Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C.; the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore; Atlanta’s High Museum; and the Milwaukee Art Museum building significant collections.</p>
<h2>Art history as artist history</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528039/original/file-20230524-7504-jrqr6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Colorful drawing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528039/original/file-20230524-7504-jrqr6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528039/original/file-20230524-7504-jrqr6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=808&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528039/original/file-20230524-7504-jrqr6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=808&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528039/original/file-20230524-7504-jrqr6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=808&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528039/original/file-20230524-7504-jrqr6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1016&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528039/original/file-20230524-7504-jrqr6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1016&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528039/original/file-20230524-7504-jrqr6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1016&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Adolf Wölfli’s ‘General view of the island Neveranger’ (1911).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Adolf_W%C3%B6lfli_General_view_of_the_island_Neveranger%2C_1911.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the 1940s, the French artist Jean Dubuffet came up with the term “<a href="https://blog.artsper.com/en/a-closer-look/definition-of-art-brut/">art brut</a>,” which translates as “raw art,” to describe art made by mental patients, prisoners or children. The drawings of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Adolf-Wolfli">Adolf Wölfli</a>, who died in 1930, inspired Dubuffet’s term.</p>
<p>Wölfli was a patient with schizophrenia in a mental hospital in Bern, Switzerland, who was given pencils and paper as a form of therapy. Working mostly in pencil, Wölfli created elaborate drawings with decorative borders that included symbols, letters and his own system of musical notation.</p>
<p>In an effort to promote this genre, in 1972 the British art historian Roger Cardinal advanced the term “<a href="https://mediumisticart.com/publications/outsider-art/">outsider art</a>” to expand the canon and include more artists, such as <a href="https://madgegill.com/">Madge Gill</a>, who died in 1961. Gill, a British self-taught artist who spent much of her childhood in an orphanage, started making highly patterned drawings at the age of 38, claiming to compose the works while communicating with spirits.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527802/original/file-20230523-17-a6sb7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Drawing featuring faces and patterns." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527802/original/file-20230523-17-a6sb7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527802/original/file-20230523-17-a6sb7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527802/original/file-20230523-17-a6sb7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527802/original/file-20230523-17-a6sb7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527802/original/file-20230523-17-a6sb7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527802/original/file-20230523-17-a6sb7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527802/original/file-20230523-17-a6sb7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A detail from Madge Gill’s ‘The Transformation.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gogginsworld/48537908822">Goggins World/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In his 2004 book “<a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/E/bo3621838.html">Everyday Genius: Self-Taught Art and Culture of Authenticity</a>,” sociologist Gary Allen Fine explains that a common facet of vernacular art is an emphasis on the artist’s biography: their personal, family and employment history. Fine observed that to collectors and dealers, these stories seemed to imbue the art with more meaning – and value. <a href="https://arttable.org/cubeportfolio/brooke-davis-anderson/">Some curators</a> have argued that vernacular art should be included in exhibitions of contemporary art and not merely exist in its own siloed category.</p>
<p>But the relationship between vernacular artists and their promoters can be complicated.</p>
<p>In her 1998 book “<a href="https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&u=googlescholar&id=GALE%7CA61185779&v=2.1&it=r&sid=googleScholar&asid=da1ead40">The Temptation: Edgar Tolson and the Genesis of Twentieth-Century Folk Art</a>,” sociologist Julia Ardery explored the ways that <a href="https://americanart.si.edu/artist/edgar-tolson-4834">Tolson</a>, a self-taught woodcarver from rural Kentucky, interacted with faculty and students from the University of Kentucky, and she analyzed their influence on his art.</p>
<p>Much of Tolson’s work was acquired by Michael Hall, who taught at the University of Kentucky at the time. Hall helped Tolson receive a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3675514">National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship in 1981</a>, but he also ended up selling a portion of his collection to the Milwaukee Art Museum in 1989 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/26/arts/arts-artifacts-folk-art-with-an-eye-toward-the-modern.html">for $1.5 million</a>. </p>
<p>As the sale of Tolson’s work shows, when huge sums of money enter the picture, the line between appreciation and exploitation gets blurred.</p>
<h2>Why vernacular art matters</h2>
<p>Vernacular art extends the artistic canon in the same way that folk music reflects broader traditions of expression. It reminds everyone that art is a universal human pursuit.</p>
<p>As the late Chris Strachwitz, the founder of <a href="https://folkways.si.edu/arhoolie">Arhoulie Records</a>, has pointed out, Black traditions of blues and roots music were not formally taught but were passed down from one generation to the next in local communities.</p>
<p>Similarly, the architect <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/19/obituaries/robert-venturi-dead.html">Robert Venturi</a> promoted vernacular architecture in his 1972 book “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_from_Las_Vegas">Learning from Las Vegas</a>.” In it, he highlighted the ways that Las Vegas casinos and hotels were designed to accommodate the automobile and were meant to be seen as symbols, with massive, outlandish signs – an approach that most schools of architecture would have scoffed at. In doing so, Venturi ushered in <a href="https://blogs.ethz.ch/prespecific/2013/09/18/venturi-learning-from-las-vegas/">more playful forms</a> of architecture.</p>
<p><a href="https://volweb.utk.edu/%7Eblyons/spelvinissues.htm">Concepts of authenticity</a> are central to the appeal of vernacular art. Fine art and culture can sometimes be esoteric and exclusionary, and in a time when artificial intelligence has put authorship in question, vernacular art has even more resonance. It is made by the artists’ hands, using common materials, in ways that reflect their own unique life and artistic visions. </p>
<p>This work represents a pre-digital form of expression, accessible to anyone, that showcases what it means to be resourceful, creative and human.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qpYGAeenvy0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Nellie Mae Rowe wasn’t able to pursue her artistic ambitions until she was in her late 60s.</span></figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206049/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I once created a traveling exhibition of fictive folk art as a parody of the genre. </span></em></p>
The genre – also known as ‘folk art’ or ‘outsider art’ – serves as a reminder that art is a universal human pursuit.
Beauvais Lyons, Chancellor’s Professor of Art, University of Tennessee
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/202873
2023-03-31T11:41:33Z
2023-03-31T11:41:33Z
The Pope Francis puffer coat was fake – here’s a history of real papal fashion
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518162/original/file-20230329-24-yl530w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1748%2C1153&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The AI-generated images of Pope Francis that fooled much of the internet. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.reddit.com/r/midjourney/comments/120vhdc/the_pope_drip/">Created by Midjourney</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Before news of his <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-65125655">hospitalisation for a respiratory infection</a> this week, a fake image of Pope Francis wearing a <a href="https://time.com/6266606/how-to-spot-deepfake-pope/">Balenciaga-style</a> white puffer jacket was <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/midjourney/comments/120vhdc/the_pope_drip/">posted to Reddit</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/singareddynm/status/1639655045875507201?s=20">Twitter</a>. The image – created through AI programme <a href="https://www.midjourney.com/home/?callbackUrl=%2Fapp%2F">Midjourney</a> – had many viewers fooled into believing that the head of the Catholic church had dramatically updated his style.</p>
<p>As an art historian and an ecclesiastical historian, the image has fascinated me, not least in thinking about the rich history of papal fashion.</p>
<p>First of all, it caught my eye because it looks like shot silk (fabric made of silk woven from two or more colours producing an iridescent appearance). Intentionally or not, it’s a nice nod to the <a href="https://aleteia.org/2019/08/28/why-does-pope-francis-wear-a-sash/"><em>fascia</em></a>, a sash worn by clerics over their cassocks.</p>
<p>This detail hints at the way papal dress and indeed the attire of many people in formal positions works. It not usually just about the shape and colour, but also the quality or materials used. </p>
<p>Being the pope is a bit like dressing for a wedding every day: even as a guest you wouldn’t turn up in your denims. You honour your hosts by wearing the best you possibly can.</p>
<h2>The palette of the Pope</h2>
<p>In the 21st century, popes have increasingly worn only white, now generally identified as the papal colour. But red is also a pope hue of choice – for example, John Paul II (1920-2005) usually wore white, but he also wore <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Colorization/comments/nbfhyj/pope_john_paul_ii_by_yousuf_karsh_in_1979/">red capes and cloaks</a>.</p>
<p>Benedict XVI (1927-2022) brought back the <em>camauro</em> – <a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/la-xpm-2013-feb-17-la-oe-allen-pope-fashion-20130217-story.html">nicknamed the “Santa hat”</a> – which is a red silk and velvet cap trimmed with ermine reserved for the pope’s use. The <em>camauro</em> goes back to at least the 12th century when it was related more closely to philosophers and teachers and the hat they wore, known as a <em>pileus</em>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518229/original/file-20230329-1469-5kepao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Painting of Pope Gregory the Great writing at a desk wearing a shiny red cape." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518229/original/file-20230329-1469-5kepao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518229/original/file-20230329-1469-5kepao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=842&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518229/original/file-20230329-1469-5kepao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=842&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518229/original/file-20230329-1469-5kepao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=842&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518229/original/file-20230329-1469-5kepao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1058&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518229/original/file-20230329-1469-5kepao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1058&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518229/original/file-20230329-1469-5kepao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1058&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pope Gregory the Great (c. 540–604), in a painting by Carlo Saraceni (c. 1610).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gregorythegreat.jpg">National Gallery of Ancient Art, Rome</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Historically, portraits of senators, lawyers and academics often show them wearing red which is used to communicate a message of “official”. </p>
<p>Cardinals, the most senior clerics in the Roman Catholic Church next to the pope, wear red precisely because it is a papal colour and their power (or more accurately, influence) derives entirely from the pope.</p>
<p>Pope Paul II (1417-1471) tried to ensure quality over quantity when, amid shortages, <a href="https://www.academia.edu/17934885/ONCE_UPON_A_TIME_THE_KERMES">he officially reserved</a> the very best red dye for himself and his cardinals.</p>
<p>As a result of the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, trade from the eastern Mediterranean was disrupted. This meant that the supply of red dye kermes – which derives from the galls produced by parasitic wasps on oak trees indigenous to the Mediterranean basin and eastern Continent – was severely curtailed.</p>
<p>It was not until the middle of the 16th century that <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/cochineal">cochineal</a> – which comes from parasitic insects on prickly pear cactuses – became available in Europe because of Spanish and Portuguese expansion into South America. </p>
<p>Whatever the dye, papal quality is also communicated by fabrics which hold unparalleled depths of hue: silk, not cotton or linen, alpaca not ordinary wool.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518230/original/file-20230329-22-h8xtel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Portrait of John Paul II wearing a red cape and holding a wooden crucifix." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518230/original/file-20230329-22-h8xtel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518230/original/file-20230329-22-h8xtel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518230/original/file-20230329-22-h8xtel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518230/original/file-20230329-22-h8xtel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518230/original/file-20230329-22-h8xtel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518230/original/file-20230329-22-h8xtel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518230/original/file-20230329-22-h8xtel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Portrait of John Paul II wearing a red cape, by Guido Greganti (1983).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/rome-italy-august-28-2021-portrait-2060097083">Renata Sedmakova/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Historians know from <a href="https://archive.org/details/RationaleDivinorumOfficiorumDurandoEBeletho/page/n7/mode/2up">13th century sources</a> that popes have always worn white next to their skin (though from at least the 15th century <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-and-off-the-avenue/where-the-pope-gets-his-socks">their socks have been red</a>). </p>
<p>White represents Christlike purity, innocence and charity, while red symbolises compassion and the pope’s willingness to sacrifice himself for his people.</p>
<p>In ancient Rome, red was the colour of imperial power whereas white was associated specifically with the city. So, the papal colours represent the pope’s universal significance as head of the Catholic church as well as his local position as Bishop of Rome.</p>
<p>Popes can also wear blue – <a href="https://archive.org/details/diuominiillu00vesp/page/30/mode/2up">Pope Nicholas V</a> (1997-1455) particularly liked this colour. John Paul II, on one of his famous hiking trips, wore his white cassock <a href="https://www.monacosporthotel.com/en/activities/itineraries/the-hiking-trails-of-pope-john-paul-ii-_63c20.html">under a padded blue jacket</a>.</p>
<p>For papal fashion purposes, blue can stand in for red. In penitential seasons (<a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/42900/what-is-advent-anyway-a-cna-explainer">Advent</a> and <a href="https://christianity.org.uk/article/what-is-lent">Lent</a>) or during periods of mourning, bright colours are not appropriate. But dip your bright red silks in a final dye bath of indigo and you get peacock (<em><a href="https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004415447/BP000041.xml">pavonazzo</a></em>) which has the iridescence of the bird’s feathers.</p>
<p>Someone with the social conscience of Pope Francis I probably doesn’t give two hoots about what he wears. But as a Jesuit – one of the most highly educated, intellectual and thoughtful of all the groups in the Roman Catholic Church – he would understand the values of continuity and devotion communicated by both what he wears and how he wears it.</p>
<p>I would like to imagine, as he recovers from his respiratory infection, that he would be cheered up by high-tech mashups, such as this image of himself in a puffer coat – so long as they play within the rules of such a dignified man in such a venerable office.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202873/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carol Richardson receives funding from British Academy/Leverhulme Trust. </span></em></p>
Popes wear white to represent Christlike purity and red to symbolise compassion.
Carol Richardson, Professor of Early Modern Art History, History of Art, The University of Edinburgh
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/197361
2023-03-22T11:28:37Z
2023-03-22T11:28:37Z
Van Gogh Museum at 50: Vincent van Gogh and the art market – a brief history
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503842/original/file-20230110-20-gccc7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4545%2C3387&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/amsterdam-october-3-van-gogh-museum-415294189">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Amsterdam’s <a href="https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en">Van Gogh Museum</a> turns 50 in 2023. The museum, dedicated to the art of one of the most famous artists in the world, attracts over two million visitors each year. </p>
<hr>
<iframe id="noa-web-audio-player" style="border: none" src="https://embed-player.newsoveraudio.com/v4?key=x84olp&id=https://theconversation.com/van-gogh-museum-at-50-vincent-van-gogh-and-the-art-market-a-brief-history-197361 &bgColor=F5F5F5&color=D8352A&playColor=D8352A" width="100%" height="110px"></iframe>
<p><em>You can listen to more articles from The Conversation, narrated by Noa, <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/audio-narrated-99682">here</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Yet, despite his fame today, Vincent van Gogh allegedly made only one documented sale of a painting during his lifetime. This was The Red Vineyard, produced near Arles in Provence in the autumn of 1888.</p>
<p>The enlightened buyer was Belgian painter <a href="https://annaboch.com/">Anna Boch</a>, whose brother was a close friend of the artist. She spotted the vibrant landscape at the 1890 exhibition of the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41825180">avant-garde group Les XX</a>, of which she was a member.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514286/original/file-20230308-26-9i4yw3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514286/original/file-20230308-26-9i4yw3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514286/original/file-20230308-26-9i4yw3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514286/original/file-20230308-26-9i4yw3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514286/original/file-20230308-26-9i4yw3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514286/original/file-20230308-26-9i4yw3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514286/original/file-20230308-26-9i4yw3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>This article is part of our <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/vincent-van-gogh-31028">Van Gogh Museum at 50</a> series. These articles mark the 50th anniversary of Amsterdam’s pioneering gallery and explore evolving cultural perceptions of one of the world’s most famous artists.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The price was 400 francs, the equivalent of around US$2000 (£1649) today, and would have seemed like a huge windfall to the struggling Van Gogh. If it were sold at auction today, the same painting could expect to fetch upwards of a hundred million US dollars.</p>
<p>Van Gogh dreamed of <a href="https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let670/letter.html">achieving posthumous fame</a> and it was not long after he took his own life in July 1890 that the market for his pictures began to develop.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503844/original/file-20230110-18-mkzgos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A landscape painting by Van Gogh depicting workers in a field at sunset." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503844/original/file-20230110-18-mkzgos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503844/original/file-20230110-18-mkzgos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503844/original/file-20230110-18-mkzgos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503844/original/file-20230110-18-mkzgos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503844/original/file-20230110-18-mkzgos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503844/original/file-20230110-18-mkzgos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503844/original/file-20230110-18-mkzgos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Red Vineyard, the only painting Vincent van Gogh is certainly known to have sold during his lifetime.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pushkinmuseum.art/data/fonds/europe_and_america/j/0000_1000/zh_3372/index.php?lang=en">Pushkin Museum, Moscow</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Boch went on to buy a second painting, <a href="https://arthistory.co/vincent-van-gogh-peach-blossom-in-the-crau/">Peach Blossom in the Crau</a>, in 1891. In the same year Vincent’s art dealer brother Theo died of syphilis. Van Gogh had given a handful of works to the artists’ colour merchant Père Tanguy in Paris, but it was Theo’s widow, <a href="https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/about/knowledge-and-research/completed-research-projects/research-project-biography-of-jo-van-gogh-bonger">Jo van Gogh Bonger</a>, who would inherit the bulk of his vast oeuvre, making her the main source of his paintings.</p>
<p>As a result, she controlled the market for Van Gogh in Paris, Berlin, London and, eventually, New York.</p>
<h2>Europe’s art market discovers Van Gogh</h2>
<p>In 1901 the French poet Julien Leclercq, with Van Gogh Bonger’s assistance, organised <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/libraries-and-research-centers/leonard-lauder-research-center/research-resources/the-modern-art-index-project/bernheim-jeune">the first Van Gogh retrospective</a> at the Bernheim-Jeune gallery in Paris. The event brought Van Gogh to the attention of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Paul-Cassirer">German dealer Paul Cassirer</a>, who went on to create a market for Vincent’s work in Berlin, supported by the influential art historian <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Julius-Meier-Graefe">Julius Meier-Graefe</a>.</p>
<p>By 1914 <a href="https://www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/books/by-appointment-only-cezanne-van-gogh-and-some-secrets-of-art-dealing-hardcover">it was estimated</a> that as many as 120 pictures by Van Gogh were in German collections and his work quickly increased in value.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503847/original/file-20230110-16-1ue118.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Sepia photograph of Jo van Gogh-Bonger. She wears a round pendant at her neck and her hair is tied back." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503847/original/file-20230110-16-1ue118.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503847/original/file-20230110-16-1ue118.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=707&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503847/original/file-20230110-16-1ue118.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=707&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503847/original/file-20230110-16-1ue118.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=707&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503847/original/file-20230110-16-1ue118.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=889&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503847/original/file-20230110-16-1ue118.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=889&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503847/original/file-20230110-16-1ue118.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=889&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jo van Gogh-Bonger (1862-1925).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/about/news-and-press/press-image-bank/images-exhibition-choosing-vincent/portrait-image-jo-van-gogh-bonger">Van Gogh Museum / Vincent van Gogh Foundation</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Britain, meanwhile, the art dealer with the closest links to Van Gogh <a href="https://discovered.ed.ac.uk/discovery/fulldisplay?vid=44UOE_INST:44UOE_VU2&tab=Everything&docid=alma9918126313502466&lang=en&context=L&query=sub,exact,Berenson,%20Bernard,%201865-1959">was Alexander Reid</a>. In 1887 Reid worked alongside Theo at the firm of Boussod & Valadon in Paris and briefly shared an apartment with both Van Gogh brothers.</p>
<p>However, despite his close physical resemblance to the artist (two portraits of Reid by Van Gogh, now in Glasgow and Oklahoma, were originally catalogued as self-portraits), <a href="https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publications/van-gogh-and-britain-pioneer-collectors">it was not until the early 1920s</a> that he began to exhibit and sell his pictures to <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Impressionism_Scotland.html?id=tYjrAAAAMAAJ">rich industrialists in Glasgow</a> and London. Among the most significant was the Scottish collector <a href="https://19.bbk.ac.uk/article/id/3001/">Elizabeth Workman</a>, the wife of a successful ship owner.</p>
<p>The most important early collector of Van Gogh’s work was another enlightened woman, <a href="https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/helene-kroller-muller/">Helene Kröller-Müller</a>, who – although German by birth – was based in Rotterdam in the Netherlands.</p>
<p>Advised by the Dutch painter and critic <a href="http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2020/05/16/the-art-of-henk-bremmer-1871-1956/">Henk Bremmer</a>, she bought her first work by Van Gogh in 1908. Supported by her industrialist husband Anton (who was initially sceptical of her new-found passion), she <a href="https://www.hatjecantz.de/renoir-monet-gauguin-bilder-einer-fliessenden-welt-8161-1.html">went on to acquire</a> no fewer than 91 paintings and over 180 works on paper.</p>
<p>Along with Cassirer, Bremmer <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25608496">helped to push up the price</a> of Van Gogh’s work. As a result, fakes began to appear in various galleries and exhibitions. The most famous forgery case was that of the dancer-turned-art dealer <a href="http://www.mystudios.com/gallery/forgery/history/forgery-18.html">Otto Wacker</a>, who was brought to trial in Berlin in 1932.</p>
<h2>Van Gogh’s art market goes global</h2>
<p>As the market for Van Gogh’s pictures increased, the importance of establishing the authorship of a painting or drawing became even more crucial.</p>
<p>In the 1980s, with the advent of <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Life-Arts/Arts/Forgotten-boom-the-legacy-of-Japan-s-1980s-art-buying-spree2">the Japanese craze for Van Gogh</a>, his work began to fetch world records at auction. In 1987 there was huge public debate around the authenticity of the Sunflowers acquired by the <a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/12/16/nazi-loot-van-gogh-sunflowers-german-jewish-banker-heirs-sue-sompo-museum-art">Yasuda Marine Insurance company</a> in 1987 for US$39.9 million. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503848/original/file-20230110-12-4zs8j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A self portrait in mainly blues using a pointillist technique." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503848/original/file-20230110-12-4zs8j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503848/original/file-20230110-12-4zs8j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503848/original/file-20230110-12-4zs8j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503848/original/file-20230110-12-4zs8j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503848/original/file-20230110-12-4zs8j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503848/original/file-20230110-12-4zs8j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503848/original/file-20230110-12-4zs8j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat by Vincent van Gogh (1887).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/s0016V1962">Van Gogh Museum / Vincent van Gogh Foundation</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Three years later the Japanese businessman Ryoei Saito paid the record price of US$82.5 million for the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/05/16/825-million-for-van-gogh/82375a1f-da49-4f49-8a15-4695d1ceac83/">Portrait of Doctor Gachet</a>. Most recently this record was smashed in November 2022, when a Van Gogh landscape of Arles from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s collection <a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/11/11/a-van-gogh-record-landscape-of-orchard-with-cypresses-soars-to-117m-at-paul-allen-auction">sold for US$117 million</a> to an anonymous bidder.</p>
<p>Today the Van Gogh Museum has the last word when it comes to authenticating the artist’s work. The Yasuda Sunflowers are now believed to be authentic, based on the picture’s provenance, which can be traced back to Jo van Gogh Bonger.</p>
<p>A more recent “discovery” of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/nov/15/newly-discovered-van-gogh-drawings-labelled-imitations-museum">a portfolio of Van Gogh drawings</a> in 2016, however, has not yet been accepted as genuine. But what is it about Van Gogh’s work that remains so compelling to prospective buyers, over 130 years after his death?</p>
<p>Today, as we are encouraged to focus on mental health, his work seems to have <a href="https://www.vangoghmuseumshop.com/en/alle-boeken/198246/all-books/32187/on-the-verge-of-insanity">more relevance</a> than ever. Whatever the reason, and despite <a href="https://v-a-c.org/en/publishing/the-glory-of-van-gogh">the scorn</a> that he endured during his lifetime, the market continues to be seduced – like Boch all those years ago – not only by his tragic personal story, but also by his artistic genius.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197361/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frances Fowle does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
An art historian explains how Vincent van Gogh went from an unknown painter to one of the world’s most expensive artists.
Frances Fowle, Personal Chair of Nineteenth-Century Art, History of Art, The University of Edinburgh
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/201836
2023-03-21T14:40:34Z
2023-03-21T14:40:34Z
Wild Isles: starling murmuration in BBC documentary reveals as much about people as it does about birds
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516349/original/file-20230320-1620-gb9640.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C21%2C3623%2C2050&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Starlings flock to the West Pier. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/catalog/licenses">SamuelJB/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I’m sitting on the sofa, watching starlings. There are thousands of them circling above and around me, swirling into spectacular, ever-shifting shapes. They curve and loop in a hypnotic dance, merging at times into thick knots of winding blackness.</p>
<p>The sound is equally astonishing: a wave of wing beats that pulses as the starlings snake across the sky. This compelling communal performance, known as a murmuration, culminates in the act of roosting. It’s the grand show put on before the starlings settle in for a winter night.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uV54oa0SyMc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A starling murmuration.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It takes some effort or luck to witness a murmuration of starlings outside, but from the comfort of my house – and within the frame of a television screen – I can access them easily. The second episode of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0f0t5dp">Wild Isles</a>, which premiered on the BBC last week and which was produced in partnership with the Open University, features an especially memorable and surprising sequence of starlings roosting on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall. </p>
<p>Sequences such as this, filmed using technology including drones and night cameras, are not just good value as entertainment, but are critical tools when it comes to understanding bird behaviour.</p>
<p>In the last few months, the BBC has also <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/c66pdw2n70dt">published several videos</a> of murmurations filmed across the United Kingdom, mostly shot by amateur filmmakers. These are equally valuable resources, not least because they foreground the humans behind the camera. </p>
<p>We don’t just see the birds here, but we get to hear the live reactions of people to the birds. This reminds us that a murmuration is an increasingly social event, exemplifying what <a href="https://oro.open.ac.uk/56977/1/morrisORO.pdf">cultural geographer Andy Morris</a> of Open University calls: “environmental entanglement between humans and non-humans”. </p>
<p>The spectacle of the murmuration tells us as much about people as it does about birds.</p>
<h2>The art of bird watching</h2>
<p>As an art historian, I find the questions of why and how humans look at animals fascinating and significant. What does it mean to sit on a sofa watching starlings? </p>
<p>Wild Isles is part of a long and complex tradition of representing or framing wildlife that includes a wide variety of images and objects. As I watched the episode, I wondered what a comparable experience might have been, say, 200 years ago.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Rijksmuseum" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515252/original/file-20230314-3596-mpbroo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515252/original/file-20230314-3596-mpbroo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515252/original/file-20230314-3596-mpbroo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515252/original/file-20230314-3596-mpbroo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515252/original/file-20230314-3596-mpbroo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=624&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515252/original/file-20230314-3596-mpbroo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=624&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515252/original/file-20230314-3596-mpbroo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=624&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Twee spreeuwen by Cornelis van Hardenbergh (c.1800).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/search/objects?p=3&amp;ps=12&amp;involvedMaker=Cornelis%20van%20Hardenbergh&amp;st=Objects&amp;ii=11#/RP-T-1920-47,32">Watercolour painting of two starlings.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When people couldn’t film birds, they drew or painted them, usually in such a way as to communicate complex information about appearance and behaviour, but not so much as to seem artless. </p>
<p>Cornelis van Hardenbergh’s watercolour painting, Two Starlings (c.1800), is a good example of this. It portrays a male and female starling in brilliant detail. The two birds, probably drawn from dead specimens, are carefully posed in a scenic landscape.</p>
<p>As a static image, so clearly dictated by the priorities of its human viewers, I can understand why this painting might not attract a large audience today. But I think there is much to be gained by comparing such images with their contemporary equivalents. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516355/original/file-20230320-16-vk6fir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A starling sitting on a stone in front of a church." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516355/original/file-20230320-16-vk6fir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516355/original/file-20230320-16-vk6fir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=694&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516355/original/file-20230320-16-vk6fir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=694&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516355/original/file-20230320-16-vk6fir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=694&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516355/original/file-20230320-16-vk6fir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=872&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516355/original/file-20230320-16-vk6fir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=872&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516355/original/file-20230320-16-vk6fir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=872&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Coloured starling wood engraving by J. W. Whimper (1813-1903).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/utuyrmna/images?id=kut3h6m6">Wellcome Collection</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Not only does it draw attention to the framing that still takes place within filmed representations of wildlife, but it can remind us of what is missing when we view animals through moving images, not least the opportunity to consider the birds at our leisure – and in silence. </p>
<p>Spend a few minutes with Van Hardenbergh’s painting and you might find it every bit as thrilling as a video of a murmuration. Van Hardenbrugh’s starlings are part of a group of images and objects that art historians have often struggled to classify. Is this art or does it belong to the history of science? </p>
<p>Paintings such as this can be found both in the collections of natural history museums and fine art museums (this example comes from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam). </p>
<p>What it means to look at an animal is the kind of question, ultimately, that requires knowledge of several disciplines. It challenges art historians to brush up on their biology. It also points to the vital role that art and visual culture have played – and should still play – within the natural sciences.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rn-SR5M-Rms?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Art and Climate Change.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I’m part of an interdisciplinary research group called <a href="https://fass.open.ac.uk/research/groups/open-ecologies">Open Ecologies</a> and one of our current projects, <a href="https://ordo.open.ac.uk/Open_Ecologies">Art and Climate Change</a>, considers the role that historic art can play in educating people about ecological breakdown. We believe that objects from the past, such as paintings, can be just as valuable as educational tools as videos created using the latest technologies. </p>
<p>We want to bring together objects and images from natural history and fine art museums, and to combine ideas from a range of disciplines, to tackle big questions about the way humans represent and understand non-human animals and habitats.</p>
<p>I’ve also been putting together an <a href="https://artuk.org/discover/curations/wild-isles-in-art">online exhibition</a>, which showcases the drama and diversity of UK collections, focusing on representations of species that feature in the BBC Wild Isles series. </p>
<p>Each week new items will be added. This week I’ve included some starlings: including a stunning <a href="https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/starlings-coming-in-to-roost-56273/search/actor:floyd-jimmy-18981974/page/1/view_as/grid">painting</a> of starlings by the Northumberland artist Jimmy Floyd. I believe the painting complements the moving images of murmurations with which we have become familiar. </p>
<p>There’s no stunning detail here: no extraordinary camerawork, no radical insights into bird behaviour. But as a representation of an experience, the painting is compelling. There have been, and are, many ways of seeing starlings – and they all have something to tell us.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201836/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel Shaw has in the past received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council</span></em></p>
Historic paintings can be just as valuable as educational tools as videos created using the latest technologies.
Samuel Shaw, Lecturer in History of Art, The Open University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/199756
2023-03-21T12:43:31Z
2023-03-21T12:43:31Z
In a Roman villa at the center of a nasty inheritance dispute, a Caravaggio masterpiece is hidden from the public
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515929/original/file-20230316-466-6e6j4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=68%2C61%2C4475%2C3044&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Villa Aurora in Rome, which houses works by Caravaggio and Guercino, is up for sale. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/this-photograph-taken-on-january-21-shows-the-casino-news-photo/1237878844?phrase=villa aurora rome&adppopup=true">Vincenzo Pinto/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://umass.academia.edu/MonikaSchmitter">I teach Italian Renaissance and Baroque art</a>, so when I was visiting Rome in January 2023, how could I not try to see a notorious villa that was up for sale and involved in a nasty inheritance dispute? </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.minorsights.com/2016/08/italy-villa-aurora-ludovisi.html">Villa Aurora</a>, named for the masterful fresco by <a href="https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.1364.html">the 17th-century artist Guercino</a> that adorns the ground-floor salon, also happens to house a rare ceiling painting by <a href="https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/michelangelo-merisi-da-caravaggio">Caravaggio</a>, the 17th-century “rebel artist,” whose name makes the art market salivate. </p>
<p>I wanted to see the Caravaggio, and not just because its <a href="https://www.aboutartonline.com/la-vendita-di-villa-ludovisi-dubbi-sulla-metodologia-applicata-per-la-stima-i-precedenti-e-il-caso-degli-affreschi-di-tiepolo-a-palazzo-barbarigo/">assessed value of US$331 million</a> drove up the estimated price for the villa, apparently scaring off buyers. </p>
<p>Perhaps because of the difficulty in reproducing the work or even viewing it, the Caravaggio has received remarkably little attention from art historians. The villa, which has gone through <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/14/us-born-princess-vows-to-stay-in-rome-villa-despite-eviction-order-caravaggio-ceiling-fresco">five failed auctions</a> – the first one asking a cool $502 million – needs maintenance, and Italian law dictates that the Caravaggio and other art cannot be removed.</p>
<p>It is not easy to see privately held art, and given the ongoing controversy, I figured my chances were especially slim. But I duly wrote to the email address I found online. </p>
<p>A week later I got a response, and after some back and forth, on the day before I was to leave Rome, I was invited to come to the villa at 6 p.m. sharp. </p>
<p>A woman named Olga met me at the door: “The principessa will be with you in a moment,” she said.</p>
<h2>More than one masterpiece</h2>
<p>The current inhabitant of the villa is an American-born princess named <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/11/28/the-renovation-rita-jenrette-princess-italy">Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi</a>. </p>
<p>A former Texas GOP opposition researcher, she was once married to a congressman caught in <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/abscam">the Abscam scandal</a> and posed for Playboy twice in the 1980s. Her second husband, <a href="https://villaludovisi.org/2018/03/25/in-memoriam-hsh-prince-nicolo-boncompagni-ludovisi-rome-21-january-1941-rome-8-march-2018/">Nicolò Boncampagni</a> Ludovisi, was Prince of Piombino. He owned the villa and promised her <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/usufruct">usufructuary rights</a>, meaning she should be allowed to occupy the villa until her death. </p>
<p>But the prince’s three sons from his first marriage are forcing the sale because, <a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/01/18/when-is-a-caravaggio-worth-zero-when-its-on-a-ceiling-and-you-may-not-remove-it-for-sale">according to Italian law</a>, inheritances must be divided between the surviving spouse and any descendants.</p>
<p>It’s a media story to die for: old-world aristocrats face off against a supposed bimbo and gold digger from Texas – with a Caravaggio thrown in for good measure. </p>
<p>The villa was historically known as the Casino Ludovisi, but it became famous among art historians for its ceiling painting by <a href="https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.1364.html">Guercino</a>.</p>
<p>In a tour de force of illusion, the ceiling is painted to look as through the architecture opens up to the sky with the goddess <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Eos-Greek-and-Roman-mythology">Aurora</a>, or Dawn, driving her chariot across the space above.</p>
<p>The Caravaggio, by contrast, barely registers in the voluminous scholarship on the artist. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516078/original/file-20230317-2393-ue4l9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Image of a ceiling fresco." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516078/original/file-20230317-2393-ue4l9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516078/original/file-20230317-2393-ue4l9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516078/original/file-20230317-2393-ue4l9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516078/original/file-20230317-2393-ue4l9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516078/original/file-20230317-2393-ue4l9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516078/original/file-20230317-2393-ue4l9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516078/original/file-20230317-2393-ue4l9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Guercino’s ‘Aurora on Her Triumphal Chariot’ at Villa Aurora.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/this-photograph-taken-on-january-21-shows-the-ceiling-news-photo/1237880015?adppopup=true">Vincenzo Pinto/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Meeting the principessa</h2>
<p>I looked down in dismay at my sneakers, my corduroy pants, and my purple Eddie Bauer jacket that has seen better days: I hadn’t anticipated meeting the principessa herself. </p>
<p>Olga guided me into a second room and introduced me to the principessa. She is most definitely American – tall, blond and looking much younger than her age of 73. </p>
<p>After talking extensively about the villa and its works of art, Rita, as she calls herself, introduced me to a dapper Italian man from the Ministry of Culture, whom, she explained, could hopefully stop <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/01/14/princess-rita-jenrette-faces-eviction-from-rome-villa/">her imminent eviction</a> from her home. She then showed me the magnificent painting by Guercino.</p>
<p>Then a journalist from the Italian newspaper La Stampa appeared, and the principessa was whisked away for an interview. She told me, in parting, “Olga will show you the Caravaggio.”</p>
<h2>Encountering the Caravaggio</h2>
<p>Olga led me up a spiral stairway to the second floor: “Here is the other Guercino,” she said. I looked up to see <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Guercino_-_Ceiling_painting,_Casino_dell%27Aurora,_11aurora.jpg">a second illusionistic fresco</a>, the same size as the one on the ground floor, this one depicting the figure of Fame flying through the sky.</p>
<p>I hadn’t known this one even existed.</p>
<p>Then Olga turned on the lights in what looked like a small hallway, its walls painted a bright, hospital white. I looked up to see Caravaggio’s painting, which depicts muscular nude men surrounding a translucent white globe.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515928/original/file-20230316-1658-fy5fg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Ceiling painting of muscular men and mythological creatures surrounding an orb." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515928/original/file-20230316-1658-fy5fg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515928/original/file-20230316-1658-fy5fg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515928/original/file-20230316-1658-fy5fg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515928/original/file-20230316-1658-fy5fg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515928/original/file-20230316-1658-fy5fg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515928/original/file-20230316-1658-fy5fg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515928/original/file-20230316-1658-fy5fg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Since it’s located in a private residence, Caravaggio’s painting at the Villa Aurora has been difficult for the public to view.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/this-photograph-taken-on-january-21-shows-jupiter-neptune-news-photo/1237878868?phrase=villa%20aurora%20rome&adppopup=true">Vincenzo Pinto/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The detail is intense, the colors bright and sharp in a way that is exceptional for a ceiling painting. </p>
<p>Caravaggio managed to make the three-headed dog <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cerberus">Cerberus</a> look as though it really existed – bringing to life the creature’s soft black and white fur, the red of its eyes, the pink ribbing of one upper mouth and the white glint of its teeth. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515916/original/file-20230316-19-qc1ez4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Painting detail of a three-headed dog." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515916/original/file-20230316-19-qc1ez4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515916/original/file-20230316-19-qc1ez4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515916/original/file-20230316-19-qc1ez4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515916/original/file-20230316-19-qc1ez4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515916/original/file-20230316-19-qc1ez4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515916/original/file-20230316-19-qc1ez4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515916/original/file-20230316-19-qc1ez4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A detail from Caravaggio’s ceiling painting depicts Cerberus, a mythical three-headed dog.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/italy-lazio-rome-villa-boncompagni-ludovisi-detail-three-news-photo/132705020?phrase=caravaggio%20villa%20ludovisi&adppopup=true">Mondadori Portfolio/Hulton Fine Art Collection via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I later learned that the picture had not been painted <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/fresco-painting">in the traditional fresco technique</a>, on wet plaster, but with the unusual application of oil on dry plaster, allowing Caravaggio to execute the precision, color, detail and texture.</p>
<p>Although some art historians have <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=HXc2MNp7ffIC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ViewAPI#v=onepage&q&f=false">questioned the attribution</a>, there is no doubt in my mind that this is Caravaggio. Only he would – even could – paint such a seemingly plausible Cerberus. </p>
<p>The composition works only in its original location, since the scale, height and curvature of the ceiling transform the work. The painting purports to show a rectangular opening in the ceiling through which viewers can see the sky and clouds. In the center, within a white globe depicting the universe, one sees the Sun, Moon and signs of the horoscope. </p>
<p>On each side of the globe are the nude, burly, he-men: on one side, Jupiter, awkwardly flying through the sky on an eagle, pushes the sphere; on the other, Jupiter’s brothers, Pluto and Neptune, stand as if at the edge of the opening in the ceiling, looking down.</p>
<h2>Suffused with impish subtext</h2>
<p>Given its lack of scholarly attention, the Caravaggio is much more compelling than I expected. </p>
<p>One 17th-century biographer, <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095457632;jsessionid=F7F4BCEDD2540BB7CF63AFD4296936AA">Pietro Bellori</a>, claimed that Caravaggio <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Giovan_Pietro_Bellori_The_Lives_of_the_M/Lm9gs8mXwOUC?hl=en">painted the work to silence critics</a> who alleged that he lacked the technical skill to pull off the tricks in perspective required for ceiling art.</p>
<p>But I think Caravaggio was up to something more complicated. His aim was not so much to prove he could paint with foreshortened figures and receding architecture, but rather to make fun of the fad for illusionistic ceiling paintings that render scenes “as if seen from below” – “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/sotto-in-su">di sotto in su</a>,” as it is termed in art history.</p>
<p>Running with the concept of “di sotto in su,” Caravaggio cheekily gives onlookers a graphic view from below Pluto’s penis and testicles, not to mention a novel perspective on his buttocks. </p>
<p>Caravaggio didn’t stop there. </p>
<p>Jupiter’s pose is almost incomprehensible, his face concealed, his limbs flailing in different directions – very undignified, particularly for an oversize Olympian god. It’s an NFL linebacker riding an overmatched eagle.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515918/original/file-20230316-386-o65sgt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Muscular man riding an eagle." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515918/original/file-20230316-386-o65sgt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515918/original/file-20230316-386-o65sgt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515918/original/file-20230316-386-o65sgt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515918/original/file-20230316-386-o65sgt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515918/original/file-20230316-386-o65sgt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515918/original/file-20230316-386-o65sgt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515918/original/file-20230316-386-o65sgt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jupiter riding an eagle in a detail of Caravaggio’s painting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/italy-lazio-rome-villa-boncompagni-ludovisi-whole-artwork-news-photo/132705019?phrase=caravaggio%20villa%20ludovisi&adppopup=true">Mondadori Portfolio/Hudson Fine Art Collection via Getty Images.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From between Jupiter’s legs emerges the very phallic long neck and beak of the eagle with his bright, dark eye glaring down at the mortals below. (In Italian, “bird” <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/italian-english/uccello">is slang for penis</a>.) </p>
<p>Pluto and Neptune also have their pets, which are themselves rivals: Pluto’s snarling dog frightens Neptune’s seahorse. Neptune, who is Caravaggio’s self-portrait, in turn looks threateningly at Pluto. And then there is the juxtaposition of Cerberus’ bared teeth and Pluto’s very exposed “equipment.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516080/original/file-20230317-20-skboj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two muscular nude men, a horse and a three-headed dog." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516080/original/file-20230317-20-skboj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516080/original/file-20230317-20-skboj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516080/original/file-20230317-20-skboj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516080/original/file-20230317-20-skboj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516080/original/file-20230317-20-skboj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516080/original/file-20230317-20-skboj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516080/original/file-20230317-20-skboj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A detail of Pluto and Neptune in Caravaggio’s painting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/this-photograph-taken-on-january-21-shows-jupiter-neptune-news-photo/1237879028?adppopup=true">Vincenzo Pinto/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When I consider the patronage of the painting, it all makes sense. </p>
<p>Caravaggio painted the ceiling in 1599 or 1600 when the villa was owned by his first important patron, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Caravaggio/The-patronage-of-Cardinal-del-Monte">Cardinal Francesco del Monte</a>.</p>
<p>Caravaggio lived in del Monte’s palace in town, and there is evidence to suggest that <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/b/bersani-caravaggio.html">they both enjoyed the company of young men</a>, and they <a href="http://www.glbtqarchive.com/arts/caravaggio_A.pdf">may even have been lovers</a>.</p>
<p>While it is difficult to confirm the men’s sexual preferences, there is no question that the ceiling is a product of their shared sensibility: locker room art for sophisticated, 17th-century cultural “jocks.”</p>
<p>The room was Del Monte’s “<a href="http://www.italianrenaissanceresources.com/units/unit-4/essays/a-room-of-ones-own-the-studiolo/">studiolo</a>,” a type of small room usually used by members of the wealthy elite to get away from it all and “study” (whatever that might entail). </p>
<p>The ceiling was to be shared by a bon vivant, learned cardinal with a select audience of like-minded men. Caravaggio never painted another ceiling because tricks of perspective were fundamentally incompatible with <a href="https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/0-271-02717-7.html">his realist inclinations</a>, but perhaps he did this one for his friend and patron as a kind of joke.</p>
<h2>Now what?</h2>
<p>I left the Villa Aurora that night with a new perspective on 17th-century art and full of thoughts about the role these works of art, created for members of an extraordinarily privileged elite of the past, play in our modern democratic society. </p>
<p>The same day as my visit, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/14/us-born-princess-vows-to-stay-in-rome-villa-despite-eviction-order-caravaggio-ceiling-fresco">the judge in the inheritance dispute ruled</a> that the principessa would be evicted from the villa to facilitate its sale. I suspect this is devastating for her, given how much effort she has put into <a href="https://villaludovisi.org/">preserving her husband’s legacy</a>.</p>
<p>But I also wonder what will happen to this villa and its unique collection of 16th- and 17th-century ceiling paintings. </p>
<p>I think it would be a travesty for them to remain in private hands, because everyone, including my students, should be able to see these works. Art historians know about the tensions between private property and cultural heritage, but this is a real opportunity for the new Italian Minister of Culture, <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/gennaro-sangiuliano-italy-culture-minister-2200501">Gennaro Sangiuliano</a>, to set an example, as his predecessors have done with the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/09/arts/venice-grimani-collection-sculpture.html">Palazzo Grimani at Santa Formosa in Venice</a>.</p>
<p>Once the residence of a wealthy and powerful noble family, Palazzo Grimani fell into disrepair until it was purchased in 1981 by the state. After many years of renovation, it opened as a public museum in 2008. </p>
<p>The frescoes in the Palazzo Grimani are not nearly as artistically significant as those in the Villa Aurora, but the museum today is one of the most interesting monuments in Venice.</p>
<p>I believe the Villa Aurora, restored and open to everyone as a museum of Renaissance and Baroque ceiling painting, could do the same for Rome.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199756/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Monika Schmitter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
What will happen to this villa and its unique collection of 16th- and 17th-century ceiling paintings?
Monika Schmitter, Professor and Chair of History of Art and Architecture, UMass Amherst
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/199531
2023-02-24T17:19:47Z
2023-02-24T17:19:47Z
The art of balding: a brief history of hairless men
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509817/original/file-20230213-16-23xyos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=42%2C19%2C737%2C724&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Man With a Tankard, by Frans van Mieris the Younger (1739).</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/1674">The Fitzwilliam Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Balding is really common, affecting more than <a href="https://www.alopecia.org.uk/androgenetic-alopecia-pattern-hair-loss">50% of men</a>. It’s also physically inconsequential (bald men live just as long as haired men). So why, in his memoir <a href="https://theconversation.com/prince-harry-early-leaks-came-from-a-spanish-translation-causing-confusion-about-what-was-really-said-198556">Spare</a>, does Prince Harry refer to his brother’s baldness as <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/prince-harry-william-alarming-baldness-diana-resemblance-spare-memoir-1771856">“alarming”</a>?</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509504/original/file-20230210-22-74qj84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A balding man working at a loom." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509504/original/file-20230210-22-74qj84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509504/original/file-20230210-22-74qj84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=879&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509504/original/file-20230210-22-74qj84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=879&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509504/original/file-20230210-22-74qj84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=879&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509504/original/file-20230210-22-74qj84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1105&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509504/original/file-20230210-22-74qj84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1105&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509504/original/file-20230210-22-74qj84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1105&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Ancient Egyptian depiction of a balding man.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000000DCF8#?cv=1152&c=0&m=0&s=0&xywh=-1869%2C-705%2C5031%2C3639">John Gardner Wilkinson / British Library</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a social psychologist with a special interest in balding (and author of an upcoming book entitled Branding Baldness), I know this didn’t used to be the case – as the presence of balding men in art history demonstrates.</p>
<p>Historically, baldness was treated with neutrality, as a regular part of daily life. In 2019, <a href="https://journals.ekb.eg/article_77625.html">Egyptology professor Samar Kamal</a> found evidence of 122 bald men painted in private Ancient Egyptian tombs, circa 2613 to 525 BC.</p>
<p>Most of these men were visibly aged (their remaining hair was white). They were depicted in varied spheres of Egyptian society, from farming and fishing to sculpting and scribing. </p>
<p>The art suggests that the Ancient Egyptians didn’t treat bald men any differently from their haired peers.</p>
<p>Kamal also observed that the Ancient Egyptians had <a href="https://hairanddeathinancientegypt.com/2013/07/17/hathor-and-baldness-in-ancient-egypt-symbolism/">specific terms for male baldness</a>, included a “baldness line” during mummification, and had different balding hairstyles (e.g. short all over or long at the back).</p>
<h2>Balding men in European paintings</h2>
<p>European art also showcases baldness’s historical ordinariness. Vincent van Gogh’s painting On the Threshold of Eternity (1890) features the balding Dutch pensioner <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrianus_Jacobus_Zuyderland">Adrianus Zuyderland</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509506/original/file-20230210-28-cn8tff.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A painting of an old man in a blue suit sat in a wooden chat. His head is in his hands which reveals his bald head to the viewer." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509506/original/file-20230210-28-cn8tff.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509506/original/file-20230210-28-cn8tff.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=790&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509506/original/file-20230210-28-cn8tff.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=790&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509506/original/file-20230210-28-cn8tff.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=790&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509506/original/file-20230210-28-cn8tff.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=993&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509506/original/file-20230210-28-cn8tff.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=993&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509506/original/file-20230210-28-cn8tff.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=993&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Vincent van Gogh’s On The Threshold Of Eternity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://krollermuller.nl/en/vincent-van-gogh-sorrowing-old-man-at-eternity-s-gate">Kröller-Müller Museum</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the painting evokes a sense of existential despair, Zuyderland’s baldness is an incidental – even attractive – feature of the artwork. Van Gogh <a href="https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let286/letter.html">described the painting</a> in his letters, writing: “What a fine sight an old working man makes, in his patched bombazine suit with his bald head.”</p>
<p>Zuyderland is not an exception – there are many other bald men featured neutrally in historical art. For example, Dutch Golden Age painter <a href="https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/man-with-a-tankard-5245">Frans van Mieris the Younger’s Man With A Tankard</a> (1793) depicts a bald man contentedly enjoying a pub lunch.</p>
<p>Balding men have also historically been idealised in art. For example, Italian Renaissance painter Paolo Veronese’s 16th-century <a href="https://www.meisterdrucke.ie/kunstwerke/500px/Paolo_Veronese_-_The_Eternal_Father_-_(MeisterDrucke-1196344).jpg">The Eternal Father</a> features a balding God performing an ethereal miracle. </p>
<p>Rembrandt’s Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp (circa 1632) shows multiple balding doctors studying dissection. Impressionist Pierre-August Renoir’s <a href="http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/gallery/807b72cf.html">Portrait of Ambroise Vollard</a> (1908) depicts the eponymous balding art collector.</p>
<p>And there is plenty of other historical evidence to challenge the claim that baldness is “alarming”.</p>
<p>Balding religious figures exist across <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Hair/PuZFAAAAYAAJ?hl=en">almost every faith</a>. There’s Buddha, the Christian saints Jerome and Augustine, and then there are bald deities including the Japanese gods <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Fukurokuju">Fukurokuju</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hotei">Hotei</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Six balding doctors gather round to watch a demonstration of a dissection." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509510/original/file-20230210-713-le3eqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509510/original/file-20230210-713-le3eqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509510/original/file-20230210-713-le3eqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509510/original/file-20230210-713-le3eqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509510/original/file-20230210-713-le3eqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509510/original/file-20230210-713-le3eqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509510/original/file-20230210-713-le3eqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp by Rembrandt (1632).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.mauritshuis.nl/en/our-collection/artworks/146-the-anatomy-lesson-of-dr-nicolaes-tulp/">The Hague</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Religious and political directives have also promoted baldness. This <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clindermatol.2011.08.004">ranges from</a> Christian monks’ <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonsure">tonsure</a>, where hair was grown around a centrally shaved part of the scalp, to the Manchu <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queue_(hairstyle)">“queue” haircuts</a>, where hair at the back of the head was grown into a long plait while the rest of the head was shaved.</p>
<h2>How baldness became ‘alarming’: advertising and mass media</h2>
<p>The mass marketing of anti-baldness products in the 20th century changed how baldness was seen. It transformed the perception of baldness from a benign aesthetic to a disadvantageous disease in need of “cure”. </p>
<p>Such “cures” ranged from expensive and ineffective “snake oil” products to the regulatory approved formulations that have some (though limited) hair regrowth properties, such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/starting-to-thin-out-hair-loss-doesnt-have-to-lead-to-baldness-34984">minoxidil</a>. </p>
<p>The advertising of these products fostered the idea that baldness is alarming. In 2013, sociolinguistics professor <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2013.777596">Kevin Harvey</a> observed that online anti-baldness adverts characterise haired men as attractive, successful and happy. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1WhfB4884wo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A Rogaine television advert from 2001.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In contrast, the same adverts promoted the claim that baldness was a disease that severely distressed and disadvantaged men. Adverts for anti-baldness shampoo <a href="https://www.adsoftheworld.com/campaigns/suicide-hair-cliff">Renaxil</a>, for example, depicted hair follicles on the verge of suicide. Renaxil bottles are shown extending a hand to save them. </p>
<p>In contemporary mass media, baldness is rarely seen beyond the few actors (such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqynKYDab2w&t=6s">Jason Statham</a>, <a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/entertainment/news/article/2001458020/vin-diesel-named-hottest-bald-man-alive">Vin Diesel</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp9XCwxKPtQ">Bruce Willis</a>) who have made lack of hair their unique selling point. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1207/s15506878jobem5002_7">Research conducted in 2006</a> found that just 3% of 1,356 characters in US popular children’s TV shows were balding. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"518371093694799872"}"></div></p>
<p>In a study I led of 5,000 images of men in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2014.07.010">popular magazines</a> published between 2011 and 2012, we found that just 8% were balding.</p>
<p>There are also negative stereotypes in many contemporary depictions of baldness. The website <a href="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BaldOfEvil">TV Tropes</a> indicates that bald TV and film characters tend to be <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Bald_Like_Me/aL-KAAAACAAJ?hl=en">villains or aged</a>. <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Bald_Like_Me/aL-KAAAACAAJ?hl=en">Another study</a> found that more than 60% of 1980s TV actors portrayed bald characters who were “ugly”, incompetent or lazy. </p>
<p>Alarm around baldness is even promoted in academic research. Myself and Dr Hannah Frith <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/13591053211024724">recently found</a> that about 80% of baldness psychology studies had links to businesses. The studies tended to depict baldness as a disease (77%), and promoted anti-baldness products (60%) without meaningful discussion of their limitations (68%).</p>
<p>Baldness representation matters. Modern depictions in TV, advertising and research sanction the claims that hair loss is a disadvantage and a disease. But a look at the art history of the balding man shows this hasn’t always been the case. Bald men can be healthy, successful and content – just as much as their haired counterparts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199531/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Glen Jankowski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Historically, baldness was treated with neutrality, as a regular part of daily life. Ancient Egyptians had different balding hairstyles
Glen Jankowski, Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences, Leeds Beckett University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/197978
2023-01-20T12:32:34Z
2023-01-20T12:32:34Z
Pompeii’s House of the Vettii reopens: a reminder that Roman sexuality was far more complex than simply gay or straight
<p>As Pompeii’s <a href="http://pompeiisites.org/en/comunicati/the-house-of-the-vettii-reopens-to-the-public-after-20-years-stunning-beauty-and-crude-reality-in-the-iconic-house-of-pompeii/">House of the Vettii finally reopens</a> after a long process of restoration, news outlets appear to be struggling with how to report on the Roman sex cultures so well recorded in the ruins of the city.</p>
<p><a href="https://metro.co.uk/2023/01/11/pompeii-home-that-doubled-as-a-brothel-has-some-interesting-wall-art-18078361/">The Metro</a> opened with the headline “Lavish Pompeii home that doubled as a brothel has some interesting wall art”, while <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/10/astonishing-pompeii-home-of-men-freed-from-slavery-reopens-to-public">the Guardian</a> highlighted the fresco of Priapus, the god of fertility (depicted weighing his oversized penis on a scale with bags of coins) as well as the erotic frescoes found next to the kitchen.</p>
<p>The Daily Mail, on the other hand – and arguably surprisingly – said nothing about the explicit frescoes and instead centred its story on the house’s “<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/real-life/article-11620515/Pompeii-house-owned-two-men-freed-slavery-reopened-public.html">historic hallmarks of interior design</a>”.</p>
<p>As a scholar who researches modern and contemporary visual cultures of sexuality, I was struck by how the heavy presence of sexual imagery in the ruins of Pompeii seems to confound those writing about it for a general audience.</p>
<h2>Rethinking Roman sexuality</h2>
<p>As a gay man and a researcher on sexuality, I am all too familiar with the ways modern gay men look to ancient Rome in search of evidence that there have always been people like us.</p>
<p>It is now clear among the research community that such straightforward readings of homosexuality in classical history are flawed. That is because same-sex relations among Romans were lived and thought about in <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/10391">very different ways from our own</a>.</p>
<p>Roman sexuality was not framed in terms of the gender of partners but in terms of power. The gender of a free man’s sexual partner was less relevant than their social position.</p>
<p>Socially acceptable Roman sexuality was about power, power was about masculinity – and Roman patriarchal sex cultures were assertions of both. An adult free man could have sex as the penetrating partner with anyone of a lower social status – including women or slaves and sex workers of both genders.</p>
<p>Despite this, I understand how politically important and strategic it was for the early homosexual movement to invent its own myth of origin and to populate history with figures that had been – they thought – just like us.</p>
<p>The flip side of modern notions of homosexuality being read into Roman history, is the way in which the widespread presence of sex in ancient Roman (including in the graffiti and visual culture preserved in Pompeii) has been disavowed or – at least – purified by mainstream modern culture.</p>
<h2>Pornography in Pompeii</h2>
<p>This phenomenon started when sexually explicit artefacts were first discovered in Pompeii, propelling archaeologists to preserve them due to their historical value, but to keep them hidden from the general public in “<a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520207295/the-secret-museum">secret museums</a>” on account of their obscene content.</p>
<p>Indeed, the coinage of the word “pornography” was a result of the archival need to classify those Roman artefacts. The term “pornographers” was first used to designate the creators of such Roman images in Karl Otfried Müller’s Handbook of Archaeology of Art <a href="https://www.deutschestextarchiv.de/book/view/mueller_kunst_1830?p=624">(<em>Handbuch der Archäologie der Kunst</em>)</a>, from 1830.</p>
<p>The news coverage around the reopening of the House of the Vettii is one such example of mainstream modern culture sanitising Roman history. </p>
<p>When focusing on the fresco of Priapus, for instance, news outlets are quick to claim that the god’s oversized penis was merely a metaphor for the wealth accumulated by the men who owned the house. The pair had made their fortune selling wine after being freed from slavery.</p>
<p>This reading of the fresco, while not necessarily incorrect, overlooks the more complex – and for that reason, more interesting – role of phallic imagery in Roman culture.</p>
<p>As classicist <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/roman-homosexuality-9780195388749">Craig Williams</a> writes, the images of a hyper-endowed, hyper-masculine Priapus that were widespread in Roman culture functioned not only as a source of identification but also as an object of desire for Roman men – if not to be penetrated by the large phallus, then at least to wish it was their own.</p>
<p>Priapus, with his large manhood and unquenchable desire to dominate others through penetration was, Williams tells us: “Something like the patron saint or mascot of Roman machismo.” </p>
<h2>What’s missing from the story?</h2>
<p>News coverage of the erotic frescoes found in a smaller room of the house has been similarly too straight forward in claiming them as evidence that that room was used for sex work.</p>
<p>While some scholars have certainly <a href="https://www.academia.edu/31136857/Erotica_Pompeiana_Love_Inscriptions_on_the_Walls_of_Pompeii_2_edit_Rome_2002_pp_1_24">argued that perspective</a>, others believe it unlikely. Some academics suggest that the erotic frescoes in that room (which probably belonged to the house’s cook) had more likely been <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520229044/looking-at-lovemaking">commissioned as a gift to the Vettii’s favourite slave</a> and very much fit the wider aesthetic of quirky excess that marks the house as a whole.</p>
<p>In a culture where sex was not taboo but instead promoted as a sign of power, wealth and culture, it is fair to suggest that erotic images wouldn’t just belong in brothels. Sex was everywhere in Rome, including in literary and visual arts.</p>
<p>When reading the recent news stories, I could not help but think that their interpretations, while not wholly wrong, were too skewed into presenting the explicit frescoes as either metaphors for something more noble, or as something that was restricted to a specific site of Roman life – the brothel.</p>
<p>Perhaps these readings are privileged over others because we’re reluctant to accept that sex in ancient Roman culture – a culture we so often mythologise as our “origin” – was performed in ways that we are uncomfortable with.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197978/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>João Florêncio receives funding from Arts and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p>
Sexuality in Ancient Rome was more preoccupied with power dynamics than it was with gender – as an expert in visual cultures of sexuality explains.
João Florêncio, Senior Lecturer in History of Modern and Contemporary Art and Visual Culture, University of Exeter
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/197277
2023-01-09T19:58:31Z
2023-01-09T19:58:31Z
Islamic paintings of the Prophet Muhammad are an important piece of history – here’s why art historians teach them
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503431/original/file-20230106-12-3prvbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C0%2C1039%2C815&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A painting showing the Prophet Muhammad raising his hands in prayer while standing on the Mountain of Light in Mecca.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Siyer-i Nebi (Biography of the Prophet), Istanbul, Ottoman lands, 1595-96. Topkapı Palace Library, Istanbul, H. 1222, fol. 158v. Photograph by Hadiye Cangökçe.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, recently dismissed <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/08/us/hamline-university-islam-prophet-muhammad.html?fbclid=IwAR2hnx6-xm3WYbHDxODN-F_5U39bPNyzRcCGtZhNzPafYdnY7-FEHnyf-AY">Erika López Prater</a>, an adjunct faculty member, for showing two historical Islamic paintings of the Prophet Muhammad in her global survey of art history. Following complaints from some Muslim students, university administrators described such images as disrespectful and Islamophobic.</p>
<p>While many Muslims today believe it is inappropriate to depict Muhammad, it was not always so in the past. Moreover, <a href="https://banished.substack.com/p/most-of-all-i-am-offended-as-a-muslim">debates</a> about this subject within the Muslim community are ongoing. Within the academic world, this material is taught in a neutral and analytical way to help students – including those who embrace the Islamic faith – assess and understand historical evidence.</p>
<p>As an expert on <a href="https://iupress.org/9780253025265/the-praiseworthy-one/">Islamic representations of the Prophet Muhammad</a>, I consider the recent labeling of such paintings as “hate speech” and “<a href="https://localtoday.news/mn/hamline-university-fires-depictions-of-prophet-muhammad-professor-in-art-class-twin-cities-114820.html">blasphemy</a>” not only inaccurate but inflammatory. Such condemnations can pose a threat to individuals and works of art. </p>
<p>The Prophet Muhammad has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/muslims-have-visualized-prophet-muhammad-in-words-and-calligraphic-art-for-centuries-150053">represented</a> in Islamic paintings since the 13th century. Islamic art historians such as my colleagues and me, both Muslim and non-Muslim, study and teach these images regularly. They form part of the standard survey of Islamic art, which includes calligraphy, ornament and architecture.</p>
<h2>Comparing prophetic images</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://images.is.ed.ac.uk/luna/servlet/detail/UoEsha%7E4%7E4%7E64742%7E103064?page=220&qvq=&mi=220&trs=318">14th-</a> and <a href="https://tr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dosya:Siyer-i_Nebi_158b.jpg">16th-century</a> images López Prater selected depict Muhammad receiving the beginning of Quranic revelations from God through the angel Gabriel. In Islamic thought, it is at that moment that Muhammad became a divinely appointed prophet.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503654/original/file-20230109-7605-as69wb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A folio from a manuscript showing an image of a winged angel and a man seated in reverence before it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503654/original/file-20230109-7605-as69wb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503654/original/file-20230109-7605-as69wb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503654/original/file-20230109-7605-as69wb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503654/original/file-20230109-7605-as69wb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503654/original/file-20230109-7605-as69wb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1062&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503654/original/file-20230109-7605-as69wb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1062&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503654/original/file-20230109-7605-as69wb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1062&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A painting showing the Prophet Muhammad receiving the beginning of Quranic revelations from God through the angel Gabriel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.is.ed.ac.uk/luna/servlet/detail/UoEsha~4~4~64742~103064?page=220&amp;q%20vq=&amp;mi=220&amp;trs=318">Rashid al-Din, Jami‘ al-Tawarikh (Compendium of Chronicles), Tabriz, Iran, 1306-1315 CE. Edinburgh University Library, Edinburgh, Ms. Or. 20.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The 14th-century painting is part of a royal manuscript, the “Compendium of Chronicles,” written by Rashid al-Din. It is one of the earliest <a href="https://archives.collections.ed.ac.uk/repositories/2/archival_objects/145535">illustrated histories</a> of the world. The manuscript includes numerous paintings, including a cycle of images depicting several key moments in the Prophet Muhammad’s life.</p>
<p>The one that was discussed in López Prater’s class appears in a section on the beginnings of Quranic revelation and Muhammad’s apostleship. The painting depicts the prophet with his facial features visible as the angel Gabriel approaches him to convey God’s divine word. The event is shown taking place outdoors in a rocky setting that matches the accompanying text’s description.</p>
<p>The second image, made in Ottoman lands in 1595-96, is part of a six-volume <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4629330#metadata_info_tab_contents">biography</a> of the prophet. Over 800 paintings in this manuscript depict major moments in Muhammad’s life, from his birth to his death.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503343/original/file-20230105-2380-nzfm79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A painting set on gold-colored background showing a figure dressed in white with hands raised in prayer." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503343/original/file-20230105-2380-nzfm79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503343/original/file-20230105-2380-nzfm79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503343/original/file-20230105-2380-nzfm79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503343/original/file-20230105-2380-nzfm79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503343/original/file-20230105-2380-nzfm79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1198&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503343/original/file-20230105-2380-nzfm79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1198&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503343/original/file-20230105-2380-nzfm79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1198&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Ottoman-era painting depicting the prophet’s purity through the use of white fabrics, with a large flaming nimbus encircling his body.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Al-Darir, Siyer-i Nebi (Biography of the Prophet), Istanbul, Ottoman lands, 1595-96. Topkapı Palace Library, Istanbul, H. 1222, fol. 158v. Photograph by Hadiye Cangökçe.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In that painting, Muhammad is seen raising his hands in prayer while standing on the Mountain of Light, known as Jabal al-Nur, near Mecca. His facial features are no longer visible; instead, they are hidden behind a facial veil. </p>
<p>The Ottoman artist chose to depict the prophet’s purity through the use of white fabrics, and his entire being as touched by the light of God via the large flaming nimbus that encircles his body. Jabal al-Nur is shown, as its name suggests, as a radiant elevation. Above it and beyond the clouds, rows of angels hover in praise.</p>
<h2>Key study questions</h2>
<p>These two paintings show that Islamic representations of Muhammad are neither static nor uniform. Rather, they evolved over the centuries. During the 14th century, artists depicted the prophet’s facial features, while later artists covered his face with a veil.</p>
<p>Islamic art historians ask their students to compare these two paintings while encouraging them to slow down, look carefully, train their eyes to detect pictorial elements, and infer meaning. They also ask students to consider the textual content and historical context accompanying the paintings.</p>
<p>The key question students are prompted to think about through the juxtaposition of these two Islamic paintings is this: Why did the facial veil and flaming nimbus develop as two key prophetic motifs in Islamic depictions of Muhammad between A.D. 1400 and 1600?</p>
<p>The images help a teacher guide a collective conversation that explores how the prophet was conceptualized in more metaphorical ways – as a <a href="https://www.academia.edu/456885/_Between_Logos_Kalima_and_Light_Nur_Representations_of_the_Prophet_Muhammad_in_Islamic_Painting_">veiled beauty</a> and as <a href="https://www.academia.edu/6223682/_Pre_Existence_and_Light_Aspects_of_the_Concept_of_Nur_Muhammad_updated_">radiant light</a> – over the course of those two centuries in particular. </p>
<p>This prompts a larger exploration of the diversity of Islamic religious expressions, including those that are more <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807841280/and-muhammad-is-his-messenger/">Sufi</a>, or spiritualized, in nature. These paintings therefore capture the richly textured mosaic of Muslim worlds over time. </p>
<p>This historically sensitive, pictorial side-by-side is known as a comparative analysis or “<a href="https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/how-write-comparative-analysis">comparandum</a>.” It is a key analytical method in art history, and it was used by López Prater in her classroom. Now more than ever, a rigorous study of such Islamic paintings proves necessary – and indeed vital – at a time of sharp debates over what is, or is not, Islamic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197277/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christiane Gruber does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
An art historian describes the two historical representations of Prophet Muhammad that led to a controversy at Hamline University.
Christiane Gruber, Professor of Islamic Art, University of Michigan
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/189451
2022-12-22T01:48:24Z
2022-12-22T01:48:24Z
Why I love Else Blankenhorn’s Allegory with Imperial Couple, and the love story it reveals
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482989/original/file-20220906-26-3vvmie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C0%2C1866%2C1741&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Else Blankenhorn, ALLEGORY WITH IMPERIAL COUPLE, before 1920, oil on canvas, Inv. 4305 </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Prinzhorn Collection, Heidelberg University Hospital</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/my-favourite-painting-126194">this series</a>, our writers introduce us to a favourite painting.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>I often wonder if this mystical painting depicts a “happy ending” for the artist.</p>
<p><a href="https://womeningermanexpressionism.com/else-blankenhorn-2/">Else Blankenhorn</a> (1873–1920) painted Allegory with Imperial Couple during her stay at a mental hospital. The daughter from a wealthy family in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Baden-Wurttemberg">Karlsruhe</a> in Southern Germany, Blankenhorn suffered from nervous breakdowns at the age of 26. This led to her first admission for treatment at the private Bellevue Sanatorium in Switzerland in 1899, where she was diagnosed with schizophrenia.</p>
<p>Blankenhorn had received a musical education in her childhood, but it was only in the sanatorium in 1908 that she started to paint and draw. </p>
<p>In only 12 years, Blankenhorn created around 450 artworks. Among them are numerous watercolour and gouache works, expressive drawings, vibrant paintings as well as photographs, embroideries and musical compositions.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501464/original/file-20221216-16-xpmij8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501464/original/file-20221216-16-xpmij8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501464/original/file-20221216-16-xpmij8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501464/original/file-20221216-16-xpmij8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501464/original/file-20221216-16-xpmij8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501464/original/file-20221216-16-xpmij8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=680&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501464/original/file-20221216-16-xpmij8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=680&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501464/original/file-20221216-16-xpmij8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=680&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Insert: Else Blankenhorn, UNTITLED (RED RIDER), before 1917, oil on canvas, Inv. 4219.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Prinzhorn Collection, Heidelberg University Hospital</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-werent-there-any-great-women-artists-in-gratitude-to-linda-nochlin-153099">Why weren't there any great women artists? In gratitude to Linda Nochlin</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Stories of love</h2>
<p>Despite her extensive and versatile oeuvre, Blankenhorn has received limited attention from the art world. She created her artworks in mental hospitals at a time when artworks made by inpatients were generally regarded as clinical case studies, valued for their use in psychiatry and not for their artistic qualities. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501453/original/file-20221215-22-17yis3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501453/original/file-20221215-22-17yis3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501453/original/file-20221215-22-17yis3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501453/original/file-20221215-22-17yis3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501453/original/file-20221215-22-17yis3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501453/original/file-20221215-22-17yis3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=945&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501453/original/file-20221215-22-17yis3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=945&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501453/original/file-20221215-22-17yis3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=945&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Else Blankenhorn, 100000 BILLION NOBLE FRIENDSHIP – THE WHOLE EARTH – IN FAITHFUL MARRIAGE LOVE – DUTIFUL AND FAITHFUL LOVE – WILHELMELSEBERTA ELSE, 1908–1919, ink on paper, Inv. 1910 recto.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Prinzhorn Collection, Heidelberg University Hospital</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Institutionalised female artists were even more at a disadvantage compared with men. Creations by women beyond traditional “female handicrafts” were largely ignored and often thrown away by institutional staff. Some female artists and their works were only recently discovered. </p>
<p>Most of Blankenhorn’s artworks tell a similar story of love, in which the artist plays a significant role. Allegory with Imperial Couple is perhaps one of her most important artworks, and maybe even the point of culmination for the artist herself.</p>
<p>What strikes me first when looking at the Allegory with Imperial Couple is the expressive colours. </p>
<p>Surrounded by bright reds, oranges and blues, the silhouette of a winged female body appears in the centre of the oil painting. With her dress tinted in a strong vermillion, the woman almost seamlessly merges with the jagged shapes in the left middle ground, resembling a fire.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500864/original/file-20221213-21589-56cj26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500864/original/file-20221213-21589-56cj26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500864/original/file-20221213-21589-56cj26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=782&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500864/original/file-20221213-21589-56cj26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=782&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500864/original/file-20221213-21589-56cj26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=782&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500864/original/file-20221213-21589-56cj26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=983&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500864/original/file-20221213-21589-56cj26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=983&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500864/original/file-20221213-21589-56cj26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=983&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Who is this couple?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Prinzhorn Collection, Heidelberg University Hospital</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Her face is not defined, yet emphasised by rings in different blues that surround her head, reinforcing the mysterious atmosphere of this artwork.</p>
<p>The woman’s appearance strongly contrasts with the figure on her right. Painted in white and different tones of blue, a man seems to float into the image space. This time, the face is accentuated. Both figures appear to hold hands. Who is this contrasting couple? </p>
<p>I am intrigued by this painting’s enigmatic aura. In her artworks, Blankenhorn painted and drew scenes from her imagined life. By the strong, almost dramatic contrasts in colour and figures, one can sense the importance of this depicted scene for Blankenhorn. </p>
<h2>Self-portraits</h2>
<p>Blankenhorn believed herself to be married to the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-II-emperor-of-Germany">German Emperor Wilhelm II</a>. He assigned to his “wife in spirit” the responsibility to resurrect and nourish all the married couples that are buried, but not deceased. </p>
<p>Blankenhorn produced a multitude of original <a href="https://prinzhorn.ukl-hd.de/exhibitions/aktuell/precious-item-of-the-week/banknotes/?L=1">banknotes</a>, with the value of many billion thalers (a unit of currency in Germany until 1908) and sometimes of ever larger sums such as “centuplons”, “quadruplons” and “seidublons of Marks”. These were all invented currencies by Blankenhorn with which she aimed to finance her imagined mission. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501461/original/file-20221216-20-tt2p4m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501461/original/file-20221216-20-tt2p4m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501461/original/file-20221216-20-tt2p4m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501461/original/file-20221216-20-tt2p4m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501461/original/file-20221216-20-tt2p4m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501461/original/file-20221216-20-tt2p4m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501461/original/file-20221216-20-tt2p4m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501461/original/file-20221216-20-tt2p4m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Else Blankenhorn, ONE BILLION THALERS (BANKNOTE), before 1920, ink on paper, Inv. 1891q.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Prinzhorn Collection, Heidelberg University Hospital</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most of these imaginative banknotes feature angelic, hybrid creatures that resemble the artist. The shadowy female figure at the centre of the Imperial Couple shows similarities to other self-representations of Blankenhorn in the woman’s body posture, prolonged neck and shape of the head, as in her self-portrait as a singer.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501462/original/file-20221216-21-e6kzdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501462/original/file-20221216-21-e6kzdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501462/original/file-20221216-21-e6kzdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501462/original/file-20221216-21-e6kzdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501462/original/file-20221216-21-e6kzdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501462/original/file-20221216-21-e6kzdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501462/original/file-20221216-21-e6kzdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501462/original/file-20221216-21-e6kzdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Else Blankenhorn, UNTITLED (SELF-PORTRAIT AS SINGER), 1908–1919, oil on canvas, Inv. 4277.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Prinzhorn Collection, Heidelberg University Hospital</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Given what we know about Blankenhorn’s inner world, we can identify the male figure next to her in the painting as the Emperor, with his characteristic moustache and the white robe adorned with stellar and round ornaments. </p>
<p>While His Majesty remains in a seemingly transcendental space, the “Empress Else of Germany”, as Blankenhorn named herself, appears to float down. Her red wings are hanging downwards, her left hand is reaching out to an enigmatic couple at the left bottom corner.</p>
<p>Cut by the lower image border, we see the upper body and the astonished facial expression of a figure painted in earthy tones. On top is another female. Both are holding hands. Her undefined, stretched-out body seems to levitate. She only appears to be held back by the heavy weight of a tombstone at the bottom. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500866/original/file-20221213-16302-p92h6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500866/original/file-20221213-16302-p92h6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500866/original/file-20221213-16302-p92h6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500866/original/file-20221213-16302-p92h6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500866/original/file-20221213-16302-p92h6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500866/original/file-20221213-16302-p92h6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=698&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500866/original/file-20221213-16302-p92h6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=698&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500866/original/file-20221213-16302-p92h6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=698&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Everything appears to be in motion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Prinzhorn Collection, Heidelberg University Hospital</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A powerful upward movement emanates from this couple, generated by the figures’ arrangement on a diagonal line that runs through the painting. I am fascinated how everything in this painting suddenly appears in motion, as if heading towards a climax. </p>
<h2>A reclusive artist</h2>
<p>The fact Blankenhorn depicted this moment makes the painting so special. While the production of her numerous banknotes was likely a means to an end for Blankenhorn to be able to fulfil her imagined life task, Allegory with Imperial Couple shows the final resurrection of the buried loving couples through Blankenhorn, her mission’s completion.</p>
<p>Of course, we will never know if Blankenhorn saw her life’s assignment as completed, nor if this painting is an expression of her final achievement. </p>
<p>Blankenhorn died from cancer in 1920. There is still much unknown about this reclusive artist.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/male-artists-dominate-galleries-our-research-explored-if-its-because-women-dont-paint-very-well-or-just-discrimination-189221">Male artists dominate galleries. Our research explored if it’s because ‘women don’t paint very well’ – or just discrimination</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Else Blankenhorn – a Retrospective Exhibition is at The Prinzhorn Collection museum in Heidelberg, Germany until January 22 2023.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189451/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniela Mueller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Despite her extensive and versatile oeuvre, Blankenhorn has received limited attention from the art world.
Daniela Mueller, PhD Candidate, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/191921
2022-11-21T13:16:48Z
2022-11-21T13:16:48Z
18th- and 19th-century Americans of all races, classes and genders looked to the ancient Mediterranean for inspiration
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492894/original/file-20221101-26-7dbbw8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1024%2C651&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In a new land, the ancient past held special meaning.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://bcma.bowdoin.edu/antiquity/objects/1904-15/">'Temple of Aphaea, Aegina' by John Rollin Tilton. Courtesy of Bowdoin College Museum of Art</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The ancient world of the Mediterranean has <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674314269">long permeated American society</a>, in everything from museum collections to <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=3a5PAAAAMAAJ">home furnishings</a>. The design of the nation’s public monuments, buildings and <a href="https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/2550/culture-classicism">universities</a>, as well as its <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/first-principles-thomas-e-ricks?variant=33097718530082">legal system and form of government</a>, show the enduring influence of Mediterranean antiquity on American culture. </p>
<p>Until the late 19th century, <a href="https://bcma.bowdoin.edu/antiquity/objects/portraits-of-greek-and-roman-figures/">Americans encountered the ancient world almost exclusively through reproductions</a> – in books, artwork and even <a href="https://allthingsliberty.com/2013/12/george-washingtons-favorite-play/">popular plays</a>. Very few <a href="https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/10869/being-american-europe-1750-1860">could afford to travel abroad</a> to encounter Mediterranean artifacts firsthand. </p>
<p>Yet despite barriers to access, many Americans forged personal connections with the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean – not only the Greeks and Romans, but also the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08905490902981879">Egyptians</a> and Israelites. Perhaps the newness of American culture inspired this deep interest in the ancient past. </p>
<p>One of the most fascinating aspects of Mediterranean antiquity’s influence on America, even before it officially became a country, is how it cut across cultural lines of race, class and gender. Far from being the preserve of a privileged few, the art and literature of the ancients was <a href="https://andscape.com/features/classics-is-a-part-of-black-intellectual-history-howard-needs-to-keep-it/">often embraced by Americans of all stripes</a> – including the enslaved <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/phillis-wheatley">Black poet Phillis Wheatley</a> (circa 1753-1784) and <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/sculptor-edmonia-lewis-shattered-gender-race-expectations-19th-century-america-180972934/">Black and Native American sculptor Edmonia Lewis</a> (1844-1907). But the circumstances of these encounters and the way individual Americans thought about antiquity varied greatly. </p>
<p>I’m an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Blli_yUAAAAJ&hl=en">art historian specializing in ancient Mediterranean art and culture</a>. I am particularly fascinated by the way Americans, from the earliest days, made creative connections between past and present, despite being separated by thousands of miles and millennia of history. </p>
<p>In researching and selecting works of art for the exhibit “<a href="https://www.bowdoin.edu/art-museum/exhibitions/2022/antiquity-and-america.html">Antiquity and America</a>,” on view at the <a href="https://www.bowdoin.edu/art-museum/">Bowdoin College Museum of Art</a>, I was excited to show an exceptionally diverse range of American encounters with the ancient world, especially in portrait painting.</p>
<h2>Marker of education</h2>
<p>Take, for example, <a href="https://www.library.dartmouth.edu/digital/digital-collections/occom-circle/occom">Samson Occom</a> (1723-1792), a member of the Mohegan nation, Presbyterian minister and one of the first Native Americans <a href="https://collections.dartmouth.edu/occom/html/normalized/768517-normalized.html">to pen an autobiography in English</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491951/original/file-20221026-19-95pfs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Painting of a Native American man in a drapey shirt and cape looking to the right. Trees and sky are in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491951/original/file-20221026-19-95pfs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491951/original/file-20221026-19-95pfs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491951/original/file-20221026-19-95pfs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491951/original/file-20221026-19-95pfs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491951/original/file-20221026-19-95pfs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491951/original/file-20221026-19-95pfs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491951/original/file-20221026-19-95pfs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The portrayal of Samson Occom includes symbols of both the Indigenous identity of the sitter and his connections to Mediterranean antiquity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://bcma.bowdoin.edu/antiquity/objects/1813-4/">Painted by Nathaniel Smibert. Courtesy of Bowdoin College Museum of Art</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>His unfinished portrait, painted <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Smibert">by Nathaniel Smibert</a> (1735-1756) in the mid-18th century, alluded to Occom’s Indigenous identity in the coloring of his skin and the styling of his hair. Simultaneously, it also referenced his training in classical literature and oratory, acquired <a href="https://www.dartmouth.edu/library/rauner/exhibits/matter-absolute-necessity-moors-charity.html">by studying with Eleazar Wheelock</a> (1711-1779), a Connecticut Congregational minister.</p>
<p>Occom’s pose and draped cloak recall those found on ancient statues of Roman senators – a portrait convention familiar in early America <a href="https://bcma.bowdoin.edu/antiquity/objects/portraits-of-greek-and-roman-figures/">from prints circulating at the time</a> – and one that would later become quite popular in American society. </p>
<p>While his learning in Greek and Latin was undoubtedly a source of great pride for Occom – and a way for him to level the playing field with the European colonists – it was used by others to demonstrate the “civilizing” effect of European culture and education in the British Colonies. </p>
<p>In 1776, Eleazar Wheelock sent his former pupil Occom to Great Britain to raise money for a Native American school – funds that were ultimately repurposed for the founding of Dartmouth College. Occom would later charge Wheelock with <a href="https://collections.dartmouth.edu/occom/html/diplomatic/771424-diplomatic.html">using him as a “gazing stock</a>” in Europe while planning all the while to use the funds for the benefit of white settlers. </p>
<h2>Shaping public opinion</h2>
<p>A portrait of Sengbe Pieh, also known as Cinqué, who led the 1839 <a href="https://dh.scu.edu/exhibits/exhibits/show/slave-ships-12h/rebellion">Amistad slave ship revolt</a>, is an example of Black Americans’ <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/african-americans-and-the-classics-9781350107830/">use of the classical world for political purposes</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491953/original/file-20221026-8248-i3sr1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Painting of a black man holding a bamboo staff in a toga-like outfit looking to the left. The background shows a landscape with a cliff, distant mountain, tropical trees and a moody, cloudy sky." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491953/original/file-20221026-8248-i3sr1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491953/original/file-20221026-8248-i3sr1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491953/original/file-20221026-8248-i3sr1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491953/original/file-20221026-8248-i3sr1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491953/original/file-20221026-8248-i3sr1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491953/original/file-20221026-8248-i3sr1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491953/original/file-20221026-8248-i3sr1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Portraying Sengbe Pieh, who led the revolt on the slave ship Amistad, in the pose and garb of an ancient Roman senator was an intentional way to influence public opinion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://bcma.bowdoin.edu/antiquity/objects/2021-15/">Courtesy of Bowdoin College Museum of Art</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Commissioned by <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/purvis-robert-1810-1898/">Robert Purvis</a> (1810-1898), a Black Philadelphian and prominent abolitionist, this striking portrait by John Sartain (1808-1897) was intended to shape the popular image of Pieh and his fellow Africans during their <a href="https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/amistad#background">Supreme Court trial for mutiny and murder in 1840-1841</a>.</p>
<p>Pieh’s African identity is made evident not only in the tone of his skin, but in the bamboo staff he holds and the landscape in background depicting his homeland. The white cloak draped over his shoulder would have called to mind the white robes worn by Roman senators and, by extension, the Roman virtues of honor and dignity. </p>
<p>Pieh and his fellow Africans were <a href="https://www.nps.gov/people/sengbe-pieh.htm">ultimately acquitted and returned</a> to the Sierra Leone Colony in 1842. </p>
<h2>Feminist icon</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491958/original/file-20221026-21-e99mc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman posed outdoors in flowing robes holding a lute. In the background are hand written scrolls, the ocean and distant cliffs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491958/original/file-20221026-21-e99mc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491958/original/file-20221026-21-e99mc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491958/original/file-20221026-21-e99mc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491958/original/file-20221026-21-e99mc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491958/original/file-20221026-21-e99mc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491958/original/file-20221026-21-e99mc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491958/original/file-20221026-21-e99mc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">At the turn of the 20th century, a portrait of an American woman portrayed as the Greek poet Sappho connected the sitter to themes in the ancient work.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://bcma.bowdoin.edu/antiquity/objects/2000-10/">Painted by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1899. Courtesy of Bowdoin College Museum of Art</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1940/02/02/92862982.html">Caroline Sanders Truax</a> (1870–1940), one of the first women admitted to the New York state bar, was so enamored by the ancient past she was portrayed as the Greek lyric poet Sappho by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-L%C3%A9on_G%C3%A9r%C3%B4me">painter Jean-Léon Gérôme</a> (1824–1904). </p>
<p>This was a bold choice for a representation of an American woman in 1899. Sappho, whose writing is <a href="https://poets.org/poet/sappho">among the only surviving sources of female authorship from antiquity</a>, was already <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119122661.ch33">an icon of the first-wave feminist movement</a>, and the homoerotic themes of her poetry were well understood. Was the choice the artist’s – or the sitter’s? The most likely answer is it was by mutual agreement, perhaps inspired by Truax’s knowledge of classical language and literature – and her own <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119122661.ch33">interest in composing lyric poetry</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://library.winterthur.org:8001/search/query?term_1=Eva+Purdy+Thomson&theme=winterthur">portrait was a sensation in New York society</a> when it arrived from the artist’s studio in Paris. It was featured in several portrait exhibitions and newspaper articles – and was hung with pride by Truax and her husband in their home. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492895/original/file-20221101-26-omja7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Painting of a man and his daughter walking under an elaborately sculpted Roman arch." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492895/original/file-20221101-26-omja7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492895/original/file-20221101-26-omja7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492895/original/file-20221101-26-omja7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492895/original/file-20221101-26-omja7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492895/original/file-20221101-26-omja7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492895/original/file-20221101-26-omja7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492895/original/file-20221101-26-omja7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) walks with his daughter under the Arch of Titus in Rome, with the famed Colosseum in the background.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://bcma.bowdoin.edu/antiquity/objects/0000-2022-1/">Painted by George Healy. Courtesy of Bowdoin College Museum of Art</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For generations of Americans, the history and literature of Mediterranean antiquity was fertile ground for contemporary comparisons. It was universal enough to be brought into debates about the Constitution and founding principles of democracy, slavery and abolition, and women’s rights and suffrage. It was also of great individual significance for Americans of many different backgrounds – a past they were on intimate terms with, despite the millennia and miles separating the United States from the ancient Mediterranean.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191921/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Burrus previously worked for the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. He received funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. </span></em></p>
Americans of all stripes have long embraced the culture of the ancient Mediterranean, using ancient ideals to navigate a new world.
Sean P. Burrus, Post-Doctoral Curatorial Fellow, Bowdoin College
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/193009
2022-11-10T05:51:27Z
2022-11-10T05:51:27Z
Soup on Van Gogh and graffiti on Warhol: climate activists follow the long history of museums as a site of protest
<p>Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans at the National Gallery of Australia are just the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/nov/09/climate-activists-target-andy-warhols-campbells-soup-cans-at-australias-national-gallery">latest artistic target</a> of climate protesters, who have been throwing <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/14/just-stop-oil-activists-throw-soup-at-van-goghs-sunflowers">soup</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/climate-protesters-throw-mashed-potatoes-at-monet-painting/2022/10/23/cc39e636-52f0-11ed-ac8b-08bbfab1c5a5_story.html">mashed potatoes</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/climate-protesters-throw-mashed-potatoes-at-monet-painting/2022/10/23/cc39e636-52f0-11ed-ac8b-08bbfab1c5a5_story.html">cake</a> at art worth millions of dollars.</p>
<p>The actions have received a <a href="https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/in-doha-four-museum-directors-talk-the-climate-protests-1234644472/">muted response</a> from some museum directors, but the protesters know exactly what they are doing. </p>
<p>As the activists who threw soup on Van Gogh’s Sunflowers <a href="https://www.frieze.com/article/interview-just-stop-oil">said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We know that civil resistance works. History has shown us that.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Indeed, there is a long history of museums and art being used for political protest.</p>
<h2>For women’s suffrage and women artists</h2>
<p>In 1914, suffragette Mary Richardson <a href="https://womensarttours.com/slashing-venus-suffragettes-and-vandalism/">slashed</a> the canvas of Velázquez’s Rokeby Venus at London’s National Gallery. </p>
<p>Richardson wanted to attract publicity to Emmeline Pankhurst’s imprisonment for her suffragette actions. Richardson selected this painting in part because of its value, and because of “the way men visitors gaped at it all day long”. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494572/original/file-20221110-14-65ae1a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A slashed painting." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494572/original/file-20221110-14-65ae1a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494572/original/file-20221110-14-65ae1a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494572/original/file-20221110-14-65ae1a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494572/original/file-20221110-14-65ae1a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494572/original/file-20221110-14-65ae1a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494572/original/file-20221110-14-65ae1a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494572/original/file-20221110-14-65ae1a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Damage to the Rokeby Venus by Mary Richardson’s attack. The canvas was later restored.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Her tactics are credited as <a href="https://www.surfacemag.com/articles/just-stop-oil-protests-museums-environmental-activism/">motivating</a> Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil.</p>
<p>Since 1985, the <a href="https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/25207/1/Camillabrownpaper.pdf">Guerrilla Girls</a> have been exposing sexual and racial discrimination in the art world.</p>
<p>Their actions have usually occurred at the outskirts of museums: in museum foyers, on nearby billboards and on New York City buses. Perhaps their most famous work <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/guerrilla-girls-do-women-have-to-be-naked-to-get-into-the-met-museum-p78793">asked</a>: “do women have to be naked to get into the Met Museum?”</p>
<h2>Against corporate sponsorship and artwashing</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/decolonize-this-place-kanders-whitney-nine-weeks-of-art-and-action-12207/">Decolonize this Place</a> brings together campaigns against racial and economic inequality. </p>
<p>They organised a campaign beginning in 2018 targeting the then vice-chair of New York’s Whitney Museum, Warren B. Kander, whose company sold tear gas that had reportedly been used against asylum seekers along the US-Mexico border. </p>
<p>The campaign’s first event was held in the museum’s foyer. <a href="https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/no-space-profiteer-state-violence-decolonize-place-protests-whitney-vice-chair-warren-b-kanders-11507/">Protesters burned sage</a> to mimic tear gas, which wafted through the lobby until the fire department arrived. </p>
<p>The protesters argued Kander’s business interests meant he was not fit to lead a globally significant cultural heritage institution that sought relevance for a wide and diverse public constituency. Kander <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/25/arts/whitney-warren-kanders-resigns.html">resigned</a> from the museum’s board in 2019.</p>
<p>Since 2018, artist <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/sackler-nan-goldin-victoria-albert-1704450">Nan Goldin</a> and her “Opioid Activist Group” have been staging “die-ins” at the museum to protest against the galleries named for sponsorship from the Sackler family. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/q2A4Tb8cOxE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The Sackler family business is Purdue Pharma, infamous for OxyContin, a major drug in the US <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/03/03/1084163626/purdue-sacklers-oxycontin-settlement">opioid crisis</a>. </p>
<p>Activists have targeted galleries around the world, and so far the Sackler name has been removed from galleries including the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/18/arts/sackler-family-museums.html">Louvre</a>, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/mar/25/british-museum-removes-sackler-family-name-from-galleries">British Museum</a>, the <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/sackler-name-change-guggenheim-museum-2110993">Guggenheim</a> and, as of last month, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/oct/01/campaigners-celebrate-as-va-severs-sackler-links-over-opioids-cash">Victoria and Albert Museum</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/artwashing-gentrification-is-a-problem-but-vilifying-the-artists-involved-is-not-the-answer-83739">'Artwashing' gentrification is a problem – but vilifying the artists involved is not the answer</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>For the return of cultural artefacts</h2>
<p>The highest-profile actions against the British Museum have targeted its rejection of calls to return objects including the <a href="https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/parthenon-marbles-british-museum-protest-1234632365/">Parthenon Marbles</a> of Greece, the <a href="https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/british-museum-closes-gallery-in-response-to-protesters">Benin Bronzes</a> from modern-day Nigeria, and the <a href="https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/british-museum-closes-gallery-in-response-to-protesters">Gweagal shield</a> from Australia. </p>
<p>In 2018, a group of activists performed a “<a href="https://camd.org.au/stolen-goods-tour-of-bm-protest/">Stolen Goods Tour</a>” of the museum. Participants from across the world gave a different story to what visitors read in the museum’s object labels and catalogues, as the activist tour guides explained their continuing connections with objects in the collection. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eWVVTTsW5No?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The tour did not convince the museum to return cultural items, but drew extensive global attention to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/11/nigeria-benin-repatriate-bronzes-smithsonian">ongoing campaigns</a> seeking restitution and repatriation.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-identified-39-000-indigenous-australian-objects-in-uk-museums-repatriation-is-one-option-but-takes-time-to-get-right-172302">We identified 39,000 Indigenous Australian objects in UK museums. Repatriation is one option, but takes time to get right</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>In the culture wars</h2>
<p>Protests using art and museums aren’t just the domain of the left.</p>
<p>In 1969, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Museums-and-Social-Activism-Engaged-Protest/Message/p/book/9780415658539">an arsonist destroyed</a> a display at the National Museum of American History that commemorated Martin Luther King Jr, who had been recently assassinated. The perpetrator was never identified.</p>
<p>In 2017, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/18/noose-found-hanging-washington-museum">nooses</a> were left at various museums of the Smithsonian, including The National Museum of African American History and Culture. No groups ever came forward to claim responsibility or express a motive, but the noose is a potent and divisive symbol of segregation and racially motivated violence.</p>
<p>In December 2021, doors to the Museum of Australian Democracy in Canberra were <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-30/act-protesters-set-old-parliament-house-on-fire/100731444">set alight</a> twice by protesters with a number of grievances, including opposition to COVID-19 vaccines. </p>
<p>The museum’s <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-20/multimillion-dollar-repair-bill-for-old-parliament-house-fire/100770268">director said</a> the “assault on the building” would force the museum to rethink its commitment to being “as open as possible, representing all that is good about Australian democracy”, and at the same time keeping it protected.</p>
<h2>‘Direct action works’</h2>
<p>The past two decades have seen a surge of art-focused demonstrations. </p>
<p>In 2019, Decolonize this Place and Goldin’s anti-Sackler coalition met with members of 30 other groups in front of Andy Warhol’s “The Last Supper” (1986) at the Whitney. </p>
<p>They were there to celebrate the Tate Museum in London and the Guggenheim Museum in New York, who had announced they would stop taking funding from the Sackler family. One participant cried “<a href="https://hyperallergic.com/491418/decolonize-this-place-nine-weeks-launch/">direct action works!</a>” </p>
<p>Even when protests at museums and art achieve less concrete outcomes than this, they remain central tools for building public awareness around political and social issues. </p>
<p>It is unlikely actions against museums and art will subside anytime soon. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/just-stop-oil-do-radical-protests-turn-the-public-away-from-a-cause-heres-the-evidence-192901">Just Stop Oil: do radical protests turn the public away from a cause? Here's the evidence</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193009/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kylie Message has received funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>
In 1914, suffragette Mary Richardson slashed a painting London’s National Gallery to attract publicity to Emmeline Pankhurst’s imprisonment.
Kylie Message, Professor of Public Humanities, Australian National University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/191676
2022-10-11T19:04:00Z
2022-10-11T19:04:00Z
The boab trees of the remote Tanami desert are carved with centuries of Indigenous history – and they’re under threat
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488662/original/file-20221006-19379-bttmk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=21%2C0%2C3516%2C2354&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sue O'Connor</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia’s Tanami desert is one of the most isolated and arid places on Earth. It’s a hard place to access and an even harder place to survive.</p>
<p>But sprinkled across this vast expanse of desert, sweeping for thousands of kilometres across the Northern Territory and Western Australia, are some of the oldest and most incredible stories of human life and settlement of our ancient continent.</p>
<p>It takes the shape of art in the bark of iconic and bountiful boab trees.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2022.129">newly published research</a> looks at 12 examples of these carved trees across the Tanami desert. This artwork tells the incredible story of the Indigenous Traditional Owners who have long called the Tanami home. </p>
<p>Sadly, after lasting centuries if not millennia, this incredible artwork is now in danger of being lost.</p>
<p>We are in a race against time to document and preserve this invaluable art.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/iconic-boab-trees-trace-journeys-of-ancient-aboriginal-people-39565">Iconic boab trees trace journeys of ancient Aboriginal people</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Art in the bark</h2>
<p>The Australian boab or bottle tree (<em>Adansonia gregorii</em>) is an iconic tree naturally found only in a restricted area of northwestern Australia. </p>
<p>Boabs are an <a href="https://revues.cirad.fr/index.php/BFT/article/view/20427/20186">important economic species</a> for First Nations Australians. The pith, seeds and young roots are all eaten, and the inner bark of the roots used to make string. First Nations Australians also used parts of the boab for medicine. </p>
<p>While the culinary and health attributes of boabs are well known, less well known is that many of these trees are culturally significant, carved with images and symbols hundreds, and perhaps even thousands, of years ago. Australian boabs have never been successfully dated. They are often said to live for more than a thousand years, but this is based on the ages obtained from baobab trees <a href="https://www.redbull.com/us-en/theredbulletin/south-africa-travel-baobab-trees">in South Africa</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487971/original/file-20221004-25-yfpinx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487971/original/file-20221004-25-yfpinx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487971/original/file-20221004-25-yfpinx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487971/original/file-20221004-25-yfpinx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487971/original/file-20221004-25-yfpinx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487971/original/file-20221004-25-yfpinx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487971/original/file-20221004-25-yfpinx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487971/original/file-20221004-25-yfpinx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">These carved images may be hundreds or thousands of years old.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lewis Field</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some hint of the great age of the boabs can be gleaned from the heritage-listed “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-05/mermaid-boab-careening-bay-story-of-mistakes-discoveries-mystery/100661880">Mermaid tree</a>” on the Kimberley coast at Careening Bay. “HMC Mermaid 1820” was carved into the tree during Phillip Parker King’s second voyage.</p>
<p>At the time of carving, the girth of the Mermaid tree was measured at 8.8 metres. Today, more than 200 years on, the inscription is still clear and the trunk circumference has increased to about 12 metres.</p>
<p>Now, modern pastoral land clearance and bushfires are having a toll on the oldest of the boabs. There is some urgency to record this cultural and artistic archive before the ancient trees die. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/built-like-buildings-boab-trees-are-life-savers-with-a-chequered-past-118821">Built like buildings, boab trees are life-savers with a chequered past</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Too often overlooked</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/figures-painted-on-rocks-and-carved-on-a-gouty-stem-tree-87568">earliest recordings</a> of carvings on boab trees were made by the British artist and explorer, Thomas Baines, during the North Australian Expedition (1855–56) led by Augustus Gregory. </p>
<p>During the journey, Baines made several sketches of the Australian boab tree, including with Indigenous carved designs.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487967/original/file-20221004-14-98dgjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487967/original/file-20221004-14-98dgjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487967/original/file-20221004-14-98dgjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487967/original/file-20221004-14-98dgjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487967/original/file-20221004-14-98dgjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487967/original/file-20221004-14-98dgjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487967/original/file-20221004-14-98dgjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487967/original/file-20221004-14-98dgjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Figures Painted on Rocks and Carved on a Gouty Stem Tree, Thomas Baines (1820–1875)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Collection of the Herbarium, Library, Art & Archives, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite this early interest, little more was documented about carved boab trees until Ian Crawford wrote <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1023544">The Art of the Wandjina</a> in 1968. </p>
<p>Crawford, a historian at the Western Australian Museum, was primarily engaged in recording the rock art paintings in the Kimberley region. However, on his travels he noted seeing ancient carved boab trees. The Traditional Owners accompanying him made fresh carvings using their metal skinning knives on some of the trees near their campsite. </p>
<p>Almost 20 year later, historian Darrell Lewis <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03122417.2014.11682001">stumbled across</a> the Tanami Indigenous carved boabs while searching for a boab tree engraved with the letter “L” marked by the explorer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Leichhardt">Ludwig Leichhardt</a> on his final expedition, during which he and his team disappeared without a trace. </p>
<h2>Our race against the clock</h2>
<p>We and our colleagues are now recording and investigating the carved trees. </p>
<p>In July last year, academics and Traditional Owners began to record the boab trees with carvings in the remote northern Tanami Desert. </p>
<p>This area of the Tanami is extremely inaccessible. Finding and checking the trees was a task in itself.</p>
<p>We set up camp among the sand dunes and spent seven days looking for boabs. Although the Tanami is sandy, sharp stakes from burnt out acacia shrubs took their toll. We often spent the best part of the day changing and repairing tyres, or digging the four-wheel drives out of washaways and sand rills. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488668/original/file-20221006-14-vx6o5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Carved trees" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488668/original/file-20221006-14-vx6o5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488668/original/file-20221006-14-vx6o5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488668/original/file-20221006-14-vx6o5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488668/original/file-20221006-14-vx6o5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488668/original/file-20221006-14-vx6o5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=964&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488668/original/file-20221006-14-vx6o5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=964&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488668/original/file-20221006-14-vx6o5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=964&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The trees were found in very remote parts of the desert.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lewis Field</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Once we spotted a boab in the remote distance it was safer to leave the vehicle and set off on foot. We found and recorded 12 carved boabs, but there are hundreds more trees visible on Google Earth which remain to be checked.</p>
<p>Most of the carved boabs recorded on the Tanami trip feature snakes. Indigenous oral tradition describes a major Dreaming track, King Brown Snake Dreaming (Lingka), which begins near Broome and travels east across the Kimberley region of WA before passing into the Northern Territory. Our survey area was located along this track.</p>
<p>Scattered around the base of the larger boabs we found stone artefacts and broken grinding stones, remnant of past First Nations campsites. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487969/original/file-20221004-24-4h6yzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487969/original/file-20221004-24-4h6yzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487969/original/file-20221004-24-4h6yzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487969/original/file-20221004-24-4h6yzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487969/original/file-20221004-24-4h6yzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487969/original/file-20221004-24-4h6yzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487969/original/file-20221004-24-4h6yzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487969/original/file-20221004-24-4h6yzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stone artefacts were found near the carved boab trees.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sue O'Connor</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The next step in our work is to continue searching for these carved boabs in the coming dry season, and to get radiocarbon dates to establish the age of some of the largest boabs. </p>
<p>These remarkable Australian trees help tell the story of First Nations Australians and are the source of a rich cultural heritage. Through our work and partnership with the Traditional Owners we are rediscovering these Australian stories before they are gone forever. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-this-is-our-library-how-to-read-the-amazing-archive-of-first-nations-stories-written-on-rock-176886">Friday essay: 'this is our library' – how to read the amazing archive of First Nations stories written on rock</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191676/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sue O'Connor receives funding from The Australian Research Council (SR200200473) and Rock Art Australia</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane Balme receives funding from Australian Research Council SR200200473, Rock Art Australia.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brenda Garstone does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
This artwork tells the incredible story of the Indigenous Traditional Owners who have long called the Tanami home.
Sue O'Connor, Distinguished Professor, School of Culture, History & Language, Australian National University
Brenda Garstone, CEO, Yura Yungi Medical Service Aboriginal Corporation, Indigenous Knowledge
Jane Balme, Professor Emerita of Archaeology, The University of Western Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.