art history

TIME PERIOD: 1500-1820 MIXING OF INDIGENOUS ART FORMS WITH EUROPEAN; REJECTED BAROQUE INFLUENCE FROM ASIA/AFRICA  PROTRAITS, HISTORY PAINTINGS, GENRE SCENES  SPANISH CREATED WORLD WIDE TRADING EMPIRE; CONNECTED MEXICO TO ASIA; BROUGHT ASIAN SPICES, CERAMICS, SILKS, IVORY; ARTISTIC LIFE BECAME ENRICHED BY THESE CONTACTS  COLONIAL RULE WAS OVER BY 1822; LATIN AMERICA FILLED W/ INDEPENDENT STATES  WORKS FROM NEW SPAIN COMBINE ROMAN CATHOLICISM WITH NATIVE AMERICAN TRADITION USING MATERIALS FROM ASIA  MANY MEXICAN PORTRAITS SHOW MEN IN THE LATEST MADRID STYLES TO PROVE THEIR ARISTOCRACY  HISTORICAL BATTLE SCENES; ARCADIAN LANDSCAPES  OIL TECHNIQUE; NO INTEREST IN PERSPECTIVE; FAVORED FLATTENED SURACE, EARTHEN TONES WORKS CREATED ANONYMOUSLY; IN SERVICE OF RELIGION RATHER THAN FAME; STYLE OF ART SCHOOLS CLOSELY UNITED VOCABULARY:  BIOMBOS: FOLDING FREE-STANDING SCREENS  CASTA PAINTINGS: SHOWED MIXED RACE PEOPLE  ENCHONCHAD...

Spaniard and Indian Produce a Mestizo . Attributed to Juan Rodríguez Juárez. c. 1715 C.E. Oil on canvas. PART OF PINTURAS DE CASTAS, OR CASTE PAINTINGS; DISPLAY FATHER/MOTHER; COSTUME, ACTIVITIES, SETTING ALL AID IN RACIALLY LABELLING THE INDIVIDUALS OF THESE WORKS INTERRACIAL COUPLES, COMMON SUBJECT

The Virgin of Guadalupe   (Virgen de Guadalupe) . Miguel González. c. 1698 C.E. Based on original Virgin of Guadalupe. Basilica of Guadalupe, Mexico City. 16th century C.E. Oil on canvas on wood, inlaid with mother-of-pearl. MEXICO CITY; REPLICA; MOTHER OF PEARL INLAID INTO WOOD; IRIDESCENT SURFACE; SUGGESTS HEAVENLY AND DIVINE; EMPHASIZE SACREDNESS; SPANIARDS INTENSELY CONVERTING INDIGENOUS PEOPLE; ASHEN SKIN; MEANT TO RELATE TO NATIVES; SYMBOL OF MEXICAN IDENTITY; DECADE AFTER DOWNFALL OF TENOCHTITLAN; TILMA (THREE QUARTER VIEW); HANDS CLASPED; EYES CAST DOWNWARD; ANGELS FRAME PIECE; SYMBOLS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT (LADDER, PALM TREE, SHIP, LILY, FOUNTAIN) ENCONCHADO POPULAR IN 17TH CENTURY MEXICO TINY FRAGMENT OF MOTHER OF PEARL ON A WOODEN CANVAS; THIN GLAZES OF PAINT; MOSAIC

Angel with Arquebus , Asiel Timor Dei . Master of Calamarca (La Paz School). c. 17th century C.E. Oil on canvas. ANDROGYNOUS ANGELS PRODUCED IN PERU; WIDESPREAD THROUGHOUT ANDES; REPRESENTED CELESTIAL, ARISTOCRATIC AND MILITARY FIGURES SIMULTANEOUSLY; RELIGIOUS FIGURE WITH MODERN WEAPON; SPANISH CONQUISTADOR CLOTHING; HIGHLY DETAILED AND ORNAMENTED; WEAPON PRODUCES LEADING LINES TO FOCUS OF THE PAINTING: THE ANGEL'S FACE

DeStijl (1916-1925) Dutch Completely abstract Black lines shape rectangular spaces Only the primary colors are used Diagonal lines forbidden  Harlem Renaissance (1930s) African Americans migrated in great numbers to Harlem, New York City Movement began after World War I Themes include racial pride, civil rights, and the influence of slavery on modern culture Mexican Muralists (1917-1930s) Training in Fresco painting Large murals  Promoted political/social messages Promote to labor and struggle of working classes Socialist agenda 

Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Park . Diego Rivera. 1947–1948 C.E. Fresco. In Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Central Park, hundreds of characters from 400 years of Mexican history gather for a stroll through Mexico City’s largest park.  A confrontation between an indigenous family and a police officer; a man shooting into the face of someone being trampled by a horse in the midst of a skirmish; a sinister skeleton smiling at the viewer.  A scene composed of disparate historical personages, including Hernán Cortés (the Spanish conqueror who initiated the fall of the Aztec Empire), Sor Juana (a seventeenth-century nun and one of Mexico’s most notable writers), and Porfirio Díaz (whose dictatorship at the turn of the twentieth century inspired the Mexican Revolution).  Perhaps the most striking grouping is a central quartet featuring Rivera, the artist Frida Kahlo, the printmaker and draughtsman José Guadalupe Posada, and La Catrina.  Chin...

The Jungle. Wifredo Lam. 1943 C.E. Gouache on paper mounted on canvas. 1934 C.E. Wifredo Lam remains the most renowned painter from Cuba and The Jungle remains his best known work and an important painting in the history of Latin American art and the history twentieth-century modernism more broadly. Lam’s consciousness of Cuba’s socio-economic realities; his artistic formation in Europe under the influence of Surrealism; and his re-acquaintance with Afro-Caribbean culture. This remarkable collision resulted in the artist’s most notable work, The Jungle. The Jungle, currently on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, has an undeniable presence within the gallery: the cluster of enigmatic faces, limbs, and sugarcane crowd a canvas that is nearly an 8 foot square. Plays with perception. The artist haphazardly constructs the figures from a collection of distinct forms—crescent-shaped faces; prominent, rounded backsides; willowy arms and legs; and flat, cloddish hands...

The Two Fridas . Frida Kahlo. 1939 C.E. Oil on canvas. Facial hair indelibly marks the self portraits of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.  In an era when women still wore elaborate hairstyles, hosiery, and attire, Kahlo was a rebellious loner, often dressed in indigenous clothing. Kahlo flouted both conventions of beauty and social expectations in her self-portraits.  These powerful and unflinching self images explore complex and difficult topics including her culturally mixed heritage, the harsh reality of her medical conditions, and the repression of women. The double self portrait The Two Fridas, 1939 features two seated figures holding hands and sharing a bench in front of a stormy sky.  She painted this canvas she was divorced from Diego Rivera, the acclaimed Mexican muralist. Before she married Rivera in 1929, she wore the modern European dress of the era, evident in her first self portrait where she dons a red velvet dress with gold embroidery.  With Ri...

The Valley of Mexico from the Hillside of Santa Isabel (El Valle de México desde el Cerro de Santa Isabel) . Jose María Velasco. 1905 C.E. Oil on canvas. This important school fostered Romantic and Neoclassical aesthetics Students emerging from the new school at the Academy began to illustrate local vistas of the Valley of Mexico.  This imagery offered an opportunity to highlight symbols of patriotism valuable to a newly independent society.  After the 1821 war of independence (from Spain), Mexico sought to establish its identity through artistic endeavors. United ancient and contemporary Roman historical subjects.  The development of the practice of national landscape painting was part of the dictator López de Santa Anna’s efforts to re-establish the art academy after decades of neglect following the formation of Mexico as an independent nation.  Artist had an Italian Mentor: Eugenio Landesio. Trainer in landscape/nature painting.  Towards t...

PORTRAIT OF SOR JUANA INES DE LA CRUZ ; MIGUEL CABRERA, C.1750 C.E. OIL ON CANVAS, LOCATED IN MEXICO Famous depiction of the esteemed Mexican nun and writer.  Considered the first feminist of the Americas.  Rather than marry, she chose to become a nun so she could pursue her intellectual interests.  She corresponded with scientists, theologians, and other literary intellectuals in Mexico and abroad.  She wrote poetry and plays that became internationally famous, and even engaged in theological debates. knowledge of physics, philosophy, theology, and mathematics. Miguel Cabrera has never actually met sor Juana; Cabrera likely modeled this painting on images of male scholars seated at their desks. He possibly found inspiration in depictions of St. Jerome, the patron saint of sor Juana’s religious order.  Images often portray St. Jerome seated at a desk within a study, surrounded by books and instruments of learning.  Cabrera’s portrai...