Art Resource Guide

AN EXPLORAT ION OF EARLY
AMERICAN ART
ART
Resource Guide
2022–2023
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Earthworks, Installations, and

Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
SECTION 1: ART FUNDAMENTALS . . . . 6 Brief Overview of Nonwestern Art . . . 31
Introduction to Art History . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Asian Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Methods and Inquiries of Art History . . . . . . . . 6 Chinese Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
The Nature of Art Historical Inquiry . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Indian Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Sources, Documents, and the Work of Art Japanese Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Historians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
The Development of Art History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 African and Oceanic Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Islamic Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Brief Overview of the Art of the The Americas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Western World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Ancient Civilizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Elements of Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Art of the Old Stone Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Formal Qualities of Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Art of the Middle Stone Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Art of the New Stone Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Shape and Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Ancient Mesopotamian Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Persian Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Ancient Egyptian Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Nubian Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Greek and Roman Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Processes and Techniques . . . . . . . . . 40

Cycladic, Minoan, and Mycenaean Art . . . . . . . . . 13 Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Ancient Greek Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Printmaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Etruscan Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Painting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Roman Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Byzantine and Medieval Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Sculpture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
The Renaissance in Southern Europe . . . . . . . 17 Mixed Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
The Renaissance in Northern Europe . . . . . . 20 Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Baroque Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Craft and Folk Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Rococo, Neoclassicism, and Romanticism . . . 23 Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Realism and Impressionism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Section I Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Post-Impressionism and Other Late
Nineteenth-Century Developments . . . . . . . . 26
The Emergence of Modernism . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 SECTION II: COLONIAL
Abstraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 PORTRAITURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Pop Art, Minimalism, and Photorealism . . . . 29
2022–2023 Art Resource Guide

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History of Early American Section III Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Portraiture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
SECTION IV: NEOCLASSICAL ART AND
SELECTED WORK: John Singleton
ARCHITECTURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Copley, Paul Revere, 1768 . . . . . . . . . . .50
The Rise of Neoclassicism in the
SELECTED WORK: After (?) Scipio United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Moorhead, published by Archibald Bell,
SELECTED WORK: Thomas Jefferson,
Portrait of Phillis Wheatley, 1773 . . . . 53
Monticello, 1769–1809, Charlottesville,
SELECTED WORK: Prudence Punderson, Virginia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82
The First, Second and Last Scene of
SELECTED WORK: William Thornton,
Mortality, c. 1776–83 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Charles Bulfinch, and Benjamin Henry
SELECTED WORK: Robert Edge Pine, Latrobe, United States Capitol, begun in
Patience Lovell Wright, c. 1782 . . . . . . 58 1793, Washington, D.C. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
SELECTED WORK: Gilbert Stuart, SELECTED WORK: Horatio Greenough,
George Washington (Lansdowne George Washington, 1840 . . . . . . . . . . .87
Portrait), 1796 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
SELECTED WORK: Edmonia Lewis,
SKT Education - China, CH

Section II Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63 Forever Free, 1867 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .90
Section IV Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
SECTION III: EARLY HISTORY
PAINTING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
SECTION V: NATURE AND NATION . . . 94
The Academy and the Development of
Engaging with Nature in Early
History Painting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
SELECTED WORK: Unknown,
SELECTED WORK: Pueblo Bonito, Chaco
Segesser II, c. 1720 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Canyon, New Mexico, 850–1150 CE . . . . 95
SELECTED WORK: Benjamin West,
SELECTED WORK: Charles Willson
Penn’s Treaty with the Indians,
Peale, Exhumation of the Mastodon,
1771–72 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
c. 1807 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
SELECTED WORK: After Henry Pelham,
SELECTED WORK: Robert S. Duncanson,
Engraved, Printed and Sold by Paul
View of Cincinnati, Ohio from Covington,
Revere, The Boston Massacre, 1770 . . 72
Kentucky, c. 1850 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
SELECTED WORK: Emanuel Leutze,
SELECTED WORK: Gaanax.ádi/Raven
Washington Crossing the Delaware,
Crest Pole, Reproduction Carved in
1851 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
1983, based on a Late Nineteenth-
SELECTED WORK: Harriet Powers, Century Original, Sitka National
Pictorial Quilt, 1895–98 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Historic Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

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Section V Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 GLOSSARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
TIMELINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

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Introduction
In this Art Resource Guide, we will look closely at historic events, from Southwestern hide paintings to
eighteen works produced within the national borders a pictorial quilt made by a formerly enslaved woman
of the present-day United States of America that relate in Georgia. Washington Crossing the Delaware and
to the American Revolution and the transformation Penn’s Treaty with the Indians are discussed within
of the nation. The artworks represent a vast range the context of mythmaking, while Paul Revere’s print
in terms of the nation’s geography, spanning from depicting the Boston Massacre is analyzed as an early
Georgia to Alaska. Objects include domestic artworks, example of propaganda art.
such as a quilt and needlework, oil paintings, a hide
painting, a Revolutionary print, marble sculpture, a Section IV examines the significance of neoclassicism
totem pole, an ancestral Pueblo great house, and the in America by looking closely at the architecture
U.S. Capitol building. Where possible, we strove to of Monticello and the U.S. Capitol. The disastrous
present an inclusive range of creators and art forms to reception of Horatio Greenough’s monument to George

demonstrate the diversity of colonial America and the Washington is considered, as is Edmonia Lewis’
many ways in which nationhood was constructed. statute commemorating the end of slavery.
The first section of the guide describes the methods The final section investigates how artists and architects
of art history and provides a brief overview of the have traditionally drawn upon America’s natural
trajectory of Western art, along with a discussion of resources and the connections between nationalism
Asian, African, Islamic, and Indigenous American art and nature. Paintings by artists such as Charles
traditions. There is a discussion of the basic formal Willson Peale and Robert S. Duncanson drew attention
qualities of art and the techniques and media used to to the country’s unique natural features. Pueblo Bonito,
express these elements. an ancestral Puebloan great house, and the Raven Crest
Pole from Alaska’s Sitka National Historical Park both
Section II describes colonial portraiture by looking at demonstrate how generations of Indigenous Americans
needlework, an engraving, and oil paintings. For the have created architecture and art in dialogue with the
newly emerging nation, portraiture was an important existing environment.
means of fashioning its identity. Among the portraits
discussed are those of Revolutionary War figures such
as George Washington and Paul Revere, the African- NOTE TO STUDENTS: Throughout the resource guide
American poet Phillis Wheatley, and sculptor and you will notice that some terms have been boldfaced. These
possible spy Patience Wright. terms are included in the glossary at the end of the resource
guide. Also, students should be aware that dates in art history,
Like portraiture, history painting took on a new especially early dates, frequently vary depending on the
significance as the country tried to instill its citizens source and are often highly contested. The dates presented in
with patriotism and a shared historic narrative while this resource guide are not necessarily definitive, but are those
dates provided by the museums that house the artworks or the
also establishing itself on the world stage. Section
sources consulted by the author in writing this guide.
III looks at how artists visualized battles and other

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Sect ion 1
Art Fundamentals
INTRODUCTION TO ART HISTORY “craft”: textiles, pottery, and body art such as tattoos,
Art history is an academic discipline dedicated to the for example. Art historians also consider objects that
reconstruction of the social, cultural, and economic might not be considered art by their intended audience,
contexts in which an artwork was created. The basic including mass-produced posters and advertisements
goal of this work is to arrive at an understanding of art and even the design of ordinary household items like
and its meaning in its historical moment, taking into telephones, forks, and the living room sofa.
consideration the formal qualities of a work of art, the Art historians acknowledge that the meaning of a work
function of a work of art in its original context, the goals of art can shift over time, and that an artwork may
and intentions of the artist and the patron of the work of be perceived differently by viewers who approach it
art, the social position and perspectives of the audience from different perspectives. To give one hypothetical
in the work’s original time and place, and many other example, Michelangelo’s paintings on the ceiling of the
related questions. Art history is closely related to other

Sistine Chapel would have certainly been significant
disciplines such as anthropology, history, and sociology. in different ways in the eyes of 1) the Pope, who
In addition, art history sometimes overlaps with the commissioned the work and who had sophisticated
fields of aesthetics, or the philosophical inquiry into theological knowledge and nearly exclusive access to
the nature and expression of beauty; and art criticism, this private space within the Vatican and 2) a worker
or the explanation of current art events to the general who was charged with cleaning the floors of the chapel
public via the press. and whose level of literacy was probably quite low.
This brief introduction to the discipline of art history Differences such as social status, education, physical
will help you understand the kinds of questions that one access to a work of art, religious background, race,
may ask in order to arrive at a deeper understanding of and gender have an impact on the construction of the
a work of art. We will put these ideas into practice as we meaning of a work of art. Similarly, the paintings’
proceed through case studies related to the specific topic meaning to a twenty-first-century Protestant, Muslim,
of the resource guide. or atheist is certainly different from the meaning they
had for a practicing Catholic in the sixteenth century,
Methods and Inquiries of Art History even though the works may be equally admired for
Art historians today generally define “art” very their aesthetic value by all of these viewers. In other
broadly and include in their inquiries almost any words, the meaning of a work of art is not fixed; it is
kind of visual material that is created by people and sometimes open to multiple interpretations taking into
invested with special meaning and/or valued for consideration factors such as historical context.
its aesthetic appeal. In the past, art historians often The Nature of Art Historical Inquiry
limited their focus to what was called “fine art,” Art historians generally analyze works of art in two
which generally included paintings, prints, drawings, ways that are distinct from one another, but also
sculpture, and architecture, usually produced interrelated. These two modes of analysis are called
specifically for appreciation by an audience who formal analysis and contextual analysis. Formal
also understood these objects as works of art. Today analysis focuses on the visual qualities of the work of
we define art much more broadly, also taking into art itself. A basic assumption of formal analysis is that
consideration objects that in the past were dismissed as the artist makes decisions related to the visual aspects

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of the artwork that can reveal to us something about its in reproduction. Even photographs can appear flatter,
meaning. From this point of view, aspects of meaning lacking their subtle transitions from light to dark
are intrinsic to the work of art. Terms associated with when seen reproduced in books. It is quite common,
the formal qualities of works of art, or the “elements though, for art historians to settle for studying from
of art,” are discussed in detail a bit later in this section reproductions due to practical constraints. In some
of the guide. Formal analysis requires excellent skills cases, works of art might be damaged or even lost over
in observation and description. Beginning our study time, and so art historians rely on earlier descriptions
of an artwork with formal analysis keeps the focus on to aid in their formal and contextual analysis. In
the object itself, which to the art historian is always addition to examining the work of art in question, art
primary. historians will also seek to understand any associated
studies (sketches, preparatory models, etc.) and other
Contextual analysis involves looking outside of the works by the artist and his or her contemporaries.
work of art in order to determine its meaning. This
involves examining not only the context in which the Art historians also use many written sources in the
work was created, but also later contexts in which the quest for contextual information about a work of art.
work was and continues to be consumed. Contextual Often these texts are stored in archives or libraries.
analysis focuses on the cultural, social, religious, and Archival sources may include items such as letters
economic context in which the work was produced. Art between the artist and patron, or other documents
historians may examine issues of patronage, viewer pertaining to the commission, and art criticism
access to the work, the physical location of the work produced at the time the work of art was made. An art
in its original context, the cost of the work of art, the historian might also search for written documentation
subject matter in relation to other artworks of the time about the materials used to produce the work of art,

period, and so on. such as their cost and source, and about the function of
the artwork—how a particular sculpture was used in
Art history often emphasizes a chronological ritual practice, for example. Art historians also seek to
development with the assumption that within one situate the work in the context of the literature, music,
cultural setting the work of one generation of artists theater, and history of the time period.
will have an impact on following generations. Art
historians often use comparative study. For example, Art historians may also rely on interviews with artists
by contrasting a Gothic with a Renaissance artwork, and consumers of works of art. This is especially the
we can understand more clearly the unique features of case in cultures that rely more on oral history than on
each and the series of stylistic changes that led from written documents. Guided by the field of anthropology,
one to the other. Then, we can seek to relate these some art historians also use methods such as participant
changes to historical context. Art history provides observation to understand the context of a work of art.
information and insights that add background to An art historian studying masquerade traditions in West
the meaning and significance of the works of art we Africa, for example, may participate in a performance
study. As we place these works of art in their cultural while carefully documenting the event in order to better
and historical context, they are connected to the long understand art traditions.
history of events that has led up to our present culture.
The Development of Art History
Sources, Documents, and the Work of Art As an academic discipline, art history arose in the
Historians mid-eighteenth century. However, we can look at the
Art historians often begin their analysis with a close work of much earlier writers to see how commentary
examination of a work of art. Direct examination of on art has developed over time. The ancient Roman
the work of art is ideal because much is lost when we historian Pliny the Elder (23–79 ce) sought to analyze
look at a reproduction rather than an original object. In historical and contemporary art in his text Natural
the case of sculpture, it is often difficult to get a proper History. During the Renaissance, the author and artist
sense of the scale and the three-dimensional qualities Giorgio Vasari (1511–74) gathered the biographies
of a piece from a photograph. We lose the texture and of great Italian artists, past and present, in The Lives
some of the rich colors when we experience paintings of the Artists. Vasari’s text provides us with insights

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expanded its scope in recent years and has become
a field that is broader, more international, more
multicultural, and more inclusive than in the past.
Moreover, the concern with great artistic geniuses and
masterpieces has lessened as the full range of “visual
culture,” ranging from advertisement posters to film to
photography and television imagery, has come to view.
BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE ART OF

THE WESTERN WORLD
This brief overview of Western art is intended
to provide you with a basic understanding of
important art historical periods as they developed
chronologically. This abbreviated discussion also
covers some key artistic innovations that occurred over
time, providing you with examples of artists and works
in their historical contexts. This basic information will
set the stage for our more in-depth discussion of our
case study focusing on early American art. Of course,

a brief guide such as this only begins to touch upon
the richness and power of the stories that comprise
the history of art. You may also enjoy looking at other
works from each of the periods discussed, beginning
Giorgio Vasari, self-portrait c. 1567.
your own exploration of these works in their historical
into the changing roles of artists in society during this contexts.
period and the developing concept of artistic genius.
Much of what we know of the earliest life on earth
Modern art history was strongly influenced by has been revealed through a study of the objects or
eighteenth-century Enlightenment philosophy. Johann artifacts that remain from early cultures. In many
Joachim Winckelmann (1717–68) was a German cases, the objects that remain are those made of
scholar who shifted away from Vasari’s biographical enduring materials such as stone, metal, or fired clay,
emphasis to a rigorous study of stylistic development as opposed to those made of perishable materials
as related to historical context. Through the nineteenth like wood or fibers. Environmental conditions also
and twentieth centuries, art historians continued to have a major impact on preservation. The hot dry
develop approaches that placed increasing emphasis on climate of the desert in Egypt, for example, enabled
an understanding of the interrelationship between the the preservation of even delicate materials like
formal qualities of a work of art and its context. papyrus, and the sealed atmosphere of Egyptian caves
and tombs likewise helped to preserve the objects
When considering contemporary views of art history contained within them for our wonder and enjoyment
as well as perspectives on art history from the past, centuries later. In contrast, the humid climate of West
it is important to keep in mind that all histories are Africa means that objects made of perishable materials
individual stories and thus will inevitably reflect have had little chance of survival over the course of
certain biases. More recently, art history has been decades, not to mention centuries.
revised, particularly by feminist historians, who have
noted that the traditional version of art history has This is one reason that the history of art as a discipline
largely focused on white men, whether as artists or as has placed greater emphasis on Western cultures, often
patrons. As a result of such revisions, art history has neglecting to focus on developments in Nonwestern

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cultures. It is important to recognize that the
civilizations that are most often studied in art history
courses are not necessarily those where the most or the
best art was made. Rather, they are the civilizations
whose art has been preserved and whose art has been
discovered. There are, for example, many sites of
important civilizations in Central and South America
that though known, remain yet unexplored. Too often
the story at these sites has been one of exploitation and
destruction, as people carelessly take artifacts to sell
them on the international market in antiquities.
Ancient Civilizations
Art of the Old Stone Age Period of Time
Although older cave paintings have been discovered
elsewhere, the oldest works of art that we will consider
Name of the
are the cave paintings found in Chauvet Cave in
art work
southeastern France. These paintings, discovered in
The time it
1994, date from c. 30,000 bce and thus are placed
was created
in the Old Stone Age (Upper Paleolithic Period). It Painting found in Chauvet Cave.
should be noted that art historians use the best available
is about four and one-eighth inches high. In contrast
information to date works of art from the distant past.
to the exaggerated female features of the body, the

Estimated dates are frequently contested and sometimes
facial features of the statue are undefined, the arms
revised as new information becomes available.
are barely visible, and the feet are missing. Scholars
Except for a minimal use of yellow, the paintings and
contend that these statues were fertility figures
Details of engravings in Chauvet Cave were created using red
the art work although it is not known precisely how they were used.
(purpled and ochre and black charcoal and depict animals such as
underlined)
horses, rhinoceros, lions, buffalos, and mammoths. Art of the Middle Stone Age
Additional cave paintings have been discovered in other During the Middle Stone Age (Mesolithic Period)
parts of France and in Spain, with those in Lascaux and the climate warmed, and a culture developed that
Altamira being the most famous. The art in these caves produced art similar in some ways to the cave
takes the form of large colored drawings of animals such paintings of the Paleolithic Period.[With the warming
as horses, bears, lions, bison, and mammoths, and the of temperatures during this era, cave dwellers moved
paintings include several outlines of human hands. The out of their caves and began using rock shelters,]as
earliest scholarship on these drawings considered them evidenced by the various paintings that have been
to be the spontaneous scribbling of primitive cavemen. discovered at such locations in eastern Spain. There
The artist/
However, with further study, it became apparent that has been much scholarly debate regarding the dating
people who the various groups of drawings had been created by of these paintings, but it is generally estimated that
made the skilled artists working within an established tradition. they were created from around 7000 bce until 4000
art work The artists used pigments of red and yellow ochre to add bce. The rock shelter paintings, like the cave paintings
color to the elegant black outlines they had created using that preceded them, demonstrate the skill of their
charcoal. Though we cannot be sure of their original creators in the depiction of animal figures. What sets
function, it is possible that these works were created as a the rock shelter paintings apart from the cave paintings
part of hunting ceremonies or other ritual behaviors. is their depiction of the human figure. Except for one
human figure found in the paintings at Lascaux, cave
Another well-known group of artworks from the
paintings did not include any human beings. The rock
Old Stone Age are small stone female figures that
shelter paintings, however, portray human beings, both
have exaggerated bellies, breasts, and pubic areas.
alone and in groups, and there seems to be an emphasis
The best known of these figures is the Venus (or
on scenes in which human beings dominate animals.
Woman) of Willendorf (c. 28,000–25,000 bce), which

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Photograph of Stonehenge.
Photo by Frédéric Vincent
Art of the New Stone Age The works of art and the ideas we have considered thus

The art forms most often linked with the New Stone far have been isolated examples that have survived a
Age (Neolithic Period) are rings or rows of rough- very long time. The works and civilizations that we
hewn stones located in Western Europe. These will consider next point to further conditions that allow
formations have been dated as early as 4000 bce. The for the creation of artworks and enable their survival.
stones used were often exceedingly large—as much Usually, art thrives in highly organized cultures with
as seventeen feet in height and fifty tons in weight. stable population centers—usually great cities—that
Indeed, the sheer size of these works led historians house ruling classes who in turn support the work of
to call the stones megaliths, meaning “great stones,” artists.
and the culture that created these works is often
Also, if a civilization has a tradition of protecting its
termed “megalithic.” The most well known of these
art in locations that are largely inaccessible, it is more
rock arrangements is the one found at Stonehenge on
likely that the works from that culture will survive
Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England. Stonehenge is
to a point where they are included in a study of art
believed to have been built in many phases around
history. Many extant artifacts have come from burial
2100 bce. Stonehenge features concentric rings made
chambers, caves, and tombs, where they have been
with sarsen (a form of sandstone) stones and smaller
protected by being naturally concealed.
“bluestones”—rocks indigenous to the region. The
outermost ring is comprised of huge sarsen stones Ancient Mesopotamian Art
in post and lintel construction—two upright pieces The civilizations that arose in Mesopotamia in the
topped with a crosspiece, or lintel. The next ring is valley between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
composed of bluestones, which encircle a horseshoe- developed writing and arts in parallel with Egypt
shaped row of five lintel-topped sarsen stones—these (discussed later).[Unfortunately, the Mesopotamian
are the largest ones used at Stonehenge, with some civilizations formed in a valley that lacked the natural
weighing as much as fifty tons. Outside the formation, barriers of deserts and mountains that protected Egypt.]
to the northeast, is the vertically placed “heel-stone.” If This left them vulnerable to invasion, and hence, the
one stands in the center of the rings and looks outward, history of this ancient region is one of successive
this “heel-stone” marks the point at which the sun rises conquest and destruction. Moreover, the use of more
on the midsummer solstice. perishable materials by Mesopotamian civilizations

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The 4,100-year-old Great Ziggurat of Ur, near Nasiriyah, Iraq.
has left us with fewer examples of their arts. of the city-state of Babylonia, was able to centralize
power. Hammurabi left an enduring legacy in that he

From around 4000 bce, the Sumerians in Mesopotamia codified Babylonian law—the Code of Hammurabi is
created impressive sculptures and buildings. Religion the oldest legal code known in its entirety. The best-
was a central aspect of Sumerian life, and the Sumerians known artwork from this period, preserved in the
built massive temples at the centers of their cities. Louvre Museum, is related to this code of law; it is a
Less complex platform structures evolved over time stone stele onto which Hammurabi’s code is carved
into the stepped pyramids called ziggurats. Around with a sculpture in high relief at the top that depicts
2334 bce, the cities of Sumer came under the rule of Hammurabi receiving inspiration for his code of law
Sargon of Akkad. Although the Akkadians spoke a from the sun-god, Shamash.
different language from the Sumerians, they assimilated
Sumerian culture. With the Akkadian dynasty, loyalty While the Sumerian, Akkadian, and Babylonian
to the city-state was supplanted by loyalty to the king, cultures grew in southern Mesopotamia, the Assyrians
and consequently the art of this period tends to reflect dominated in the north. From about 900 bce to around
an emphasis on the monarchy, with Akkadian rulers 600 bce, the Assyrians were the most powerful
depicted in freestanding and relief sculptures. Around civilization in the Near East. Among the most notable
2150 bce, Akkadian rule came to an end as the Guti, of Assyrian artworks are relief carvings, which often
barbarous mountaineers, invaded and took control. depict battles, sieges, hunts, and other important
About fifty years later, however, the cities of Sumer events. Throughout the seventh century bce, the
were able to reassert control, and a Neo-Sumerian Assyrian hold on power weakened, and from c. 612–
ruler was established as the King of Ur. Perhaps the 538 bce, Babylonia once again became the dominant
greatest known works of this era were the ziggurats that force in the region. It was during this Neo-Babylonian
were built at the city centers. The ziggurats functioned period that the famous hanging gardens of Babylon
primarily as temples but also served as administrative were constructed. Another important construction
and economic centers. at this time was the gateway to the great ziggurat of
the temple of Bel, called the Ishtar Gate, which is
The next important civilization in Mesopotamia was considered one of the greatest works of architecture
that of the Babylonians. For centuries Mesopotamia in which figures—in this case animal figures—are
had witnessed the coexistence of several independent superimposed on a walled surface.
citystates, but around 1792 bce, Hammurabi, king

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Persian Art
The Persian Empire (c. 538 bce–330 bce) flourished in
what is present-day Iran. The Persians were notable for
their impressive architectural achievements, the most
important of which was the palace at Persepolis, which
was constructed of stone, brick, and wood and reflects
the influence of Egyptian architecture.
Ancient Egyptian Art

Ancient Egyptian civilization is generally dated from
c. 3000 bce, following the predynastic period, through
332 bce, when Egypt was conquered by Alexander
the Great. Recognizable works include the great
monuments of ancient Egypt: the Sphinx, the great
pyramids at Giza, the larger-than-life-sized statues of
the pharaohs, and the portrait head of Queen Nefertiti.
Much Egyptian art emphasizes a style called
hierarchical scale, which uses the status of figures
or objects to determine their relative sizes within an
artwork. Hierarchical scale is exemplified in the Palette
of King Narmer, a relic from the Old Kingdom. This
slab of stone, which may have been used as a ceremonial

palette for mixing cosmetics, presents King Narmer
centrally, and he is depicted as being considerably larger
than the other figures. In the main image on the palette,
Narmer is seen holding the hair of a fallen enemy, with
his arm raised in preparation for delivering a deathblow.
Burial mask of King Tutankhamun.
In the lowest section of the palette, below the king and
his enemy, are two smaller figures of defeated enemies.
Pharaohs had been broken into and robbed of the
The organization of the figures, their relative sizes, and
materials inside. However, Tutankhamun’s tomb,
their poses recurred in most of the ancient Egyptian art
because it was cleverly hidden, remained almost
that followed. Figures are presented so that each part of
completely intact until 1922. When it was opened,
the body is shown as clearly as possible, in a technique
the excavators found a treasure-trove of objects, all
known as “fractional representation.” The head is
superbly made of rich materials. Among the most
in profile with the eye in frontal view, the torso is in
famous of the objects is Tutankhamun’s burial mask.
full frontal view, and the lower body, legs, and feet are
This mask, found in the innermost layer of the
in profile. This formula became a standard style that
king’s sarcophagus, rested on the mummy’s face and
endured for centuries as the typical way of representing
shoulders. It is made of gold and is decorated with blue
people in Egyptian art.
glass and semiprecious stones. The mask presents an
We know a great deal about the art of Egypt because idealized portrait of the young king.
excellent conditions for preservation were present
in much of Egypt. In addition, the burial customs
Nubian Art
The kingdom of Nubia lay to the south of Egypt and
of the Egyptians, which decreed mummification
covered a large area of Africa. As contemporary
and entombment with lavish furnishings, symbolic
historians become increasingly interested in revising
servants, and jewelry, resulted in rich stores of objects
and expanding art history, more knowledge about
and images. The most famous of the Egyptian tombs
this great African civilization is being uncovered.
is that of the boy king, Tutankhamun. By the twentieth
Indeed, it is now known that there was a period in the
century, most of the ancient Egyptian tombs of the
history of Egypt when Nubia ruled the area, and the

12
Pharaohs of that era were Nubian. While there are few relief sculpture.
collections that feature Nubian works, this may well
soon change as revisions to the story of art continue. Ancient Greek Art
From around 660 to 475 bce, during the Archaic Period,
Greek and Roman Art the Greeks, influenced by the stone sculptures of Egypt
Cycladic, Minoan, and Mycenaean Art and Mesopotamia, created sculptures carved in marble
The Aegean island cultures were very important as and limestone. These freestanding figures borrowed
precursors of the Greeks in terms of art production. the frontal pose used in Egyptian art, but were more
Three major cultures flourished on the islands in dynamic and placed greater emphasis on depicting
the Aegean Sea, on Crete, and along the Aegean realistic human features. Temples were also built during
coast. The earliest of these cultures, the Cycladic this time period using columns in the early Doric and
culture, flourished from about 3200 to 2000 bce Ionic decorative styles. Vase painting was another
in the Cyclades, a group of islands in the Aegean. notable art form and was done in many different styles.
Archaeologists still have many unanswered questions Some vases portrayed black silhouetted figures, while
about Cycladic culture, but the simplified, geometric those in the Corinthian style set figures against a floral,
nude female figures from this area are highly appealing ornamented background. Athenian-style vases used
to modern sensibilities. In addition to these sculptures, black figures, but were more linear and larger in scale.
the Cycladic culture produced decorated pieces of Red-figure vases, with red figures standing out against a
pottery as well as marble bowls and jars. Eventually, black background, were also common.
the Cycladic culture was supplanted by the Minoan The best-known ancient Greek art is that from the
culture, which developed on the island of Crete and city-state of Athens from the Classical Period. During
reached its pinnacle in the second millennium bce. the Early Classical Period, temples were typically

The Minoan culture centered around the city of built with sturdy, Doric columns. Unfortunately, much
Knossos on Crete, where the legend of the Minotaur— of the sculpture from this period has not survived,
the creature believed to be half man and half bull who but luckily Roman copies have provided us with a
devoured those who entered his maze—is supposed good deal of information on these ancient works.
to have taken place. The maze was actually the royal The sculpture of the Early Classical Period was
palace, a sprawling complex that has since been characterized by its solemnity, strength, and simplicity
excavated. The art of these island people depicts sea of form and most often focused on a figure or scene
life and includes statues of a female snake goddess. either in the moment before or the moment after an
The Minoans created artworks that were characterized important action. Significant advances were made in
by a naturalistic pictorial style. Their paintings took sculptural techniques, as the stiff frontal postures of
two major forms: frescoes painted on palace walls and the Archaic Period were largely abandoned in favor of
pottery designs. The architectural achievements of the more complex and life-like figures and positions.
Minoans were also impressive, as they built four major Greek statuary evolved from a stiff, frontal presentation
palaces, all completely unfortified and designed in a like that of the Egyptians to an increasingly natural-
light, flexible, and organic style. looking figure. A pose called “contrapposto,” or
The collapse of the Minoan civilization coincided with counter positioning, was invented to show the body to
the pinnacle of Mycenaean culture, and as a result, its best advantage. In contrapposto, the standing figure
many historians believe the Minoans were destroyed is posed with its weight shifted onto one leg, for a more
by the Mycenaeans. The Mycenaean culture was relaxed, naturalistic appearance. Greek sculpture set
centered around the city of Mycenae on the Greek the model for thousands of years in Western art, and the
mainland. The Mycenaeans built elaborate tombs, Renaissance, Baroque, and Neoclassical artists of the
and their burial practices allowed for a large number fifteenth through early nineteenth centuries aspired to
of objects to be preserved. The objects that are equal the perfection displayed by the surviving Greek
best known are made of gold and show astonishing statues.
levels of mastery in goldsmithing. Additionally, the The Middle Classical Period witnessed important
Mycenaeans demonstrated much skill in their use of advances in architecture as is evident in the temples

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Diagram of Greek and Roman Orders. Classical Greek and Roman columns consist of a base, shaft, capital, and an entablature.

Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders are differentiated by their degree of ornamentation.
of this time period. The temple called the Parthenon, Nothing remains of Etruscan buildings as these were
restored in 447 bce after being destroyed by the constructed of brick and wood. However, ceramic
Persians in 480 bce, is one of the most admired works models depict temples with tiled, gabled roofs
of all ages, and the use of columns as exemplified in supported by columns in the fashion of the Greeks.
the Parthenon has been a principal feature of Western Extant Etruscan artifacts also include sarcophagus
architecture for more than two thousand years. lids and other art forms made of baked clay, as
well as objects that display the Etruscans’ talent in
Architecture declined during the Late Classical Period bronze work. The only paintings that remain from
as Athens was defeated in the Peloponnesian War. the Etruscan culture are those found on the walls
Temples in this era were still built using simple Doric and ceilings of tombs. These were done in bright,
columns, but the use of highly decorative Corinthian flat colors, and they show figures playing music and
columns became more and more popular. The dancing as part of funeral celebrations.
Hellenstic Period saw an increasing influence from
Eastern civilizations as Greek styles blended with Roman Art
those of Asia Minor. Notable works of this time period The story of Rome is one of conquest and empire
include freestanding sculptures such as the Venus de building. Early Roman art reflected the influence of
Milo and the Laocoön Group, which are masterworks Etruscan art. However, by the second century bce
designed to present ideals of beauty. many Roman sculptures and other Roman artworks
were variations of Greek works, and the standards
Etruscan Art for idealized presentations of Roman rulers were
The art of the Etruscan civilization is seen as a based on those of the Greeks. The Romans, however,
transition from the ideals of Greece to the pragmatic made pioneering advancements in architecture and
concerns of the Romans. Etruscan civilization arose engineering. The Roman discovery of the equivalent
in what is now Italy in the first millennium bce. of modern concrete was a major contribution to
Like other cultures we have examined, this one is architecture, as it enabled Roman builders to fill the
known largely from the arts of tomb decoration. spaces between their stone walls with rocks and rubble

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The Colosseum as depicted in a 1757 engraving by Giovanni Battista Piranesi.
bound together by the concrete mixture. With this noble figures were erected in public areas. Both the
strong material, the Romans were able to construct funerary sculptures and the public statues did not
huge domed buildings. They also pioneered the use present naturalistic depictions of their subjects. Rather,
of the curved arch, using this form to build bridges the Romans favored an idealistic style that highlighted
and aqueducts. These structures were part of a paved Roman ideals. The art of the Romans not only had
road system, making communication and control very a tremendous influence on the art of the Middle
effective in the Empire. Two buildings that can still Ages, but also had a notable impact on the art of the
be seen in Rome, the Colosseum (72–80 ce) and the Renaissance and much of the art that followed.
Pantheon (c. 126 ce), remain as monuments to the
engineering genius of the Romans. Byzantine and Medieval Art
With the fall of the Roman Empire, the connections
The Romans created numerous sculptures. Often, between its parts disintegrated, and what was once a
colossal triumphal arches would be topped with vast empire evolved into separate and often warring
relief sculptures portraying Roman emperors or kingdoms. But even as the Empire collapsed in
Roman military victories. The Romans also created Western Europe, it continued in Byzantium. The art
relief sculptures for funerary purposes. Tombs and that is best known from this Eastern culture is mosaic
sarcophagi were decorated with reliefs. Some of these work in which small ceramic tiles, pieces of stone,
reliefs were simply decorative, but many others had or glass were set into a ground material to create
narrative subject matter. The Romans also sculpted large murals. It is an art that is largely Christian in
portraits, which ranged in size from tiny busts to content and can best be studied in the glimmering,
huge statues. During the Roman Republic it became shining mosaic walls of the great churches of Ravenna.
common for members of a funeral procession to carry Although Ravenna is in present-day Italy, it was
small carved images of the deceased family member. then under Byzantine control. In terms of Byzantine
Later, statues in memory of great statesmen or other architecture, the Hagia Sophia (532–537 ce), built in

15
Components of an arch, a barrel vault, and a groin vault. The Romans pioneered the use of the curved arch.
Constantinople, is still considered one of the greatest medium to the Vikings, who carved artistic designs
architectural achievements in history. and sculptures on their wooden ships. As a result of
Viking invasions, the artistic styles of the Vikings

The medieval period witnessed a great deal of civil eventually merged with those found in Anglo-Saxon
strife, and consequently the art of this era was preserved England and Celtic Ireland. The resultant style is often
largely by the Church. During these times, the majority termed Hiberno-Saxon.
of the population was illiterate; formal education was
largely limited to the noble class and the clergy. The In later medieval art, the architecture of churches
international language was Latin, and books were became a dominant art form. Every city, town, and
hand copied on vellum or parchment. The preservation village had a church at its center, and the largest of
and production of books was largely confined to these are masterpieces of art that often took more than
monasteries, where the monks spent time copying a century to complete. The earliest churches of this
and illustrating the books in their collections, which period used a Roman arch as the basis of their design,
were so valuable that they were chained to the tables and so the style used is called Romanesque. One
where they were read. These illuminated manuscripts famous example is Saint-Sernin in Toulouse, France (c.
were remarkable works of art and helped facilitate 1070–1120). Romanesque churches were stone vaulted
the exchange of artistic ideas between northern and buildings that often replaced earlier churches that had
southern Europe. Among the many notable examples highly flammable wooden roofs. Romanesque churches
are the Book of Kells (late eighth or early ninth century) are usually formed of a tunnel of arches called a barrel
and the Coronation Gospels (c. 800–810). vault. A vault is an arch-shaped structure that is used
as a ceiling or as a support to a roof. Massive walls
Notable from the early medieval period (c. 375–1025) had to be built to support the heavy stone arches of the
is the art of nomadic Germanic peoples, particularly Romanesque style. Consequently, window and door
their metalwork. The metal arts of this time period openings were usually kept quite small and were often
were abstract, decorative, and geometric and often decorated with carvings and relief sculpture.
took the form of small-scale, portable jewelry or
ornaments made of bronze, silver, or gold and covered The Gothic style developed in the first half of the
with patterns of jewels. Artifacts from this era also twelfth century and remained popular into the sixteenth
exist from the seafaring culture of the Vikings in century. Though this style was used for some secular
Scandinavia. While metalwork was popular with the buildings, it was largely applied to the construction of
Germanic peoples, wood was the most important churches. One characteristic of the Gothic style was the

16
use of pointed arches, which gave an upward, soaring
sense to Gothic interiors. Another important element
of the Gothic style was the addition of ribbed vaults,
a framework of thin stone ribs or arches built under
the intersection of the vaulted sections of the ceiling. A
key innovation came in the early Gothic period when
architects learned that the downward and outward
pressure created by the arches of the barrel vault could
be counteracted by the use of flying buttresses—
additional bracing material and arches placed on the
exterior of the building. This advance allowed for larger
windows, many of which were filled with beautiful
stained glass, and higher ceilings. A classic example of a
Gothic cathedral is Chartres Cathedral in France (begun
c. 1145; rebuilt after 1194). Here the effect of the tall
arches and the brightly colored light from the stained-
glass windows directs attention heavenward.
The Renaissance in Southern Europe

Although we often tend to divide historical periods into
a series of discrete and separate styles and events, in
actuality, history is much more complicated and subtle.

The transition from the later medieval period to the
Renaissance provides a good example of this, as the
styles from this period cannot be neatly identified as
either Gothic or Renaissance, but rather involve a mix of
the two. The artist most often mentioned in connection
with this transitional time period is a Florentine named
Giotto di Bondone (1267–1336/37), who is best known View of the dome of Florence Cathedral.
for his frescoes. A key advance visible in Giotto’s works
is his use of a simple perspective, achieved in large part Another important factor was the fact that examples of
by overlapping and modeling his figures in the round. Greek and Roman art were readily available in Italy, and
This technique created the illusion of a stage for his these classical works of art had a tremendous impact on
figures, giving the viewer a sense of looking into the the art of the Renaissance.
event. Giotto’s works were different from many Gothic
works as he gave his figures powerful gestures and As we discuss the art of this period and later, you will
emotional expressions. To our eyes, his paintings may observe that the lives and works of individual artists
not look entirely naturalistic, but his artistic innovations are often highlighted, while this has not been the case
must have had quite an impact on viewers at the time, in our discussion of earlier periods. In part, this can
who were accustomed to the flat, unexpressive, and be attributed to a new emphasis on the individual and
stylized figures of the Gothic style. the concept of individual genius that emerged during
the Renaissance. Until the time of the Renaissance,
Like the art of ancient Greece, the art of the Renaissance painters and sculptors were, in accordance with Greek
continues to have an impact on art today. It is interesting traditions of art, considered artisans. That is, they
to note that a change in the economy played a key part were people who were viewed as being of lesser status
in triggering the Renaissance. It was in this time period because they worked with their hands. During the
that paper money was first developed, and its use led, in Renaissance, the role of artists in society changed,
part, to the vast fortunes accumulated by notables such as great artists came to be recognized as intellectual
as the Medici family. These wealthy families were the figures. Consequently, artists were accorded a special
major patrons of the arts during the Renaissance era. place in society.

17
years because architects had not been able to construct
the huge vault that was required to span the open
space. Brunelleschi achieved this major engineering
feat with the help of a double-shelled dome design
that has been imitated by many later architects.
Brunelleschi is also credited with developing linear
(single vanishing point) perspective. Masaccio
(1401–28), a Renaissance painter, is given credit for
putting Brunelleschi’s theory into practice, as he used
both linear and aerial perspective in his frescoes. The
development of linear perspective had a tremendous
and lasting influence on the world of art.
Among the most remarkable of Renaissance artists
was Donatello (1389?–1466), who is widely considered
the founder of modern sculpture. The influence of
classical antiquity on his sculpture was strong, as
evidenced by his best-known work, a bronze statue
of David (c. 1420s–60s). This work was the first
known freestanding nude statue to have been cast
since antiquity. Toward the end of his life, Donatello’s
sculptures reflected a greater emphasis on naturalism

and the expression of character and dramatic action.
A generation later, the work of Botticelli (1444?–1510),
particularly his best-known painting, The Birth of
Venus (c. 1482), established an image of female beauty
that has lasted through the centuries. His long-necked
Venus with her languid pose and flowing hair was one
Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. of the first paintings of a full-length nude female since
antiquity.
An important event in the beginning of the Renaissance
was a competition held in the city of Florence in 1401 The generation of artists that followed are often
for the design of the doors for the city’s new baptistery. referred to as High Renaissance artists. Two well-
The winner of that competition was Lorenzo Ghiberti known artists of this time period, Leonardo da Vinci
(1381?–1455), who designed a door panel that had figures (1452–1519) and Michelangelo (1475–1564), are the
harkening back to those of classical Greece. Ghiberti’s models for the term “Renaissance Man.” Leonardo
panel design depicts the sacrifice of Isaac, in which da Vinci is well known as an inventor, but also is
Isaac appears as a classical Greek figure. Soon after recognized as an architect, engineer, painter, sculptor,
the doors were installed, Ghiberti was asked to make scientist, and musician. His design for the locks
a second set for another entrance to the cathedral. This that control movements along canals from one level
second set took more than twenty-five years to complete. to another is still used today, and his drawings of
The doors were so magnificent that Michelangelo submarines and helicopters have been found to be
called them the “Gates of Paradise,” and they have been viable models. Two of his paintings, The Last Supper
referred to by that name ever since. (c. 1495–98) and the Mona Lisa (c.1503–05), have
become so well known that they are now icons of
The second-place winner in the competition was popular culture. Leonardo’s key innovation in painting,
Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446). After losing the which is readily apparent in the Mona Lisa, is the use
competition, he concentrated on architecture and won of sfumato. Sfumato, from the Italian word fumo,
a competition to complete the dome of the cathedral meaning smoke, is the use of mellowed colors and a
in Florence, which had remained unfinished for many blurred outline. Sfumato allows forms to blend subtly

18
into one another without perceptible transitions. One of the most influential painters of the High
Renaissance was Raphael Sanzio (1483–1520). When
At the same time that Leonardo was working in he was a young painter, Raphael was brought to Rome,
Florence, another artist, Michelangelo di Buonarotti, where Julius II gave him several commissions. During
was at work on the piece that would establish his this period, Raphael learned much from Michelangelo,
reputation as a sculptor. The city held a competition to his older rival. Unlike Michelangelo, Raphael was
have a statue created from a massive piece of marble not a loner, but employed numerous assistants to help
that it had acquired, only to discover that the marble him cover the Pope’s official chambers with large,
was flawed. Taking this difficult piece, which had a sumptuous frescoes, notably the School of Athens (c.
large crack in the middle, Michelangelo turned it into 1508–11), an homage to the great Greek philosophers
his vision of David (1504). The statue is larger than and scientists. Raphael is considered the most
life-sized, as it was originally meant to be placed influential painter of the Madonna. His masterworks,
high on the façade of the cathedral in Florence and such as the Sistine Madonna (c. 1513–14), created an
would have been viewed from far below. The beautiful image of the Virgin Mary that has endured in religious
carving, the smooth texture of the finished marble, and paintings throughout the centuries.
the striking pose were seen as the very embodiment of
the spirit of Florence as a republic. Rome and Florence were not the only locations to
Throughout his stormy career, Michelangelo created witness an incredible flowering in the arts. Venice,
a large number of other important sculptures, but it too, became a center of artistic creativity. Giorgione
is a painting that often comes to mind when people (1477/78–1510) is credited with making innovations in
hear his name. In 1505, Pope Julius II commissioned the subject matter of landscapes, as he painted scenes
Michelangelo to design his tomb. Michelangelo began not taken from the Bible or from classical or allegorical

sculpting great statues such as Moses (c. 1513–15), The stories. Prior to Giorgione’s painting The Tempest (c.
Dying Slave (1513–16), and The Bound Slave (1513–16) 1508), artists had generally begun with the figures
to be included in the Pope’s colossal tomb. However, that were to be the subject matter of the painting and
in the midst of this commission, the Pope canceled then added the background. However, in The Tempest
the project for uncertain reasons. The cancellation of the landscape became the subject of the painting—the
his work on the Pope’s tomb was one of the greatest figures depicted are of lesser importance than the
disappointments of Michelangelo’s career, and he was storm that threatens them.
bitter and hesitant when Pope Julius II gave him another
commission. This time, the artist was asked to decorate Titian Vecelli (c. 1488–1576) was one of the most
the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. It took Michelangelo prolific of the Venetian painters. Titian is well
four years, from 1508 to 1512, to cover the seven known for his portraits of his patrons, and he is also
hundred square yards of the ceiling, but the result was an recognized as having been the greatest colorist of
astonishing tour de force. The great masterpiece of the Renaissance artists. Titian was an innovative
the Sistine Ceiling has received renewed attention in portraitist. He used various elements of setting, such as
recent decades, as restorers set about cleaning the great a column or a curtain, as the backdrop for his portraits
frescoes. The cleaning removed the collection of oil, instead of an atmospheric neutral background, as had
wax, and grime that had accumulated over the been the custom. The influence of Titian’s use and
centuries, and the colors have returned to their original arrangement of background elements can be seen in
brightness. Not everyone was happy with the results of portraiture up through the twenty-first century.
the cleaning, however, and a controversy about this
restoration, as well as the restoration of artworks in Tintoretto (1518–94), another great Venetian painter, is
general, continues within the art world. often linked with an artistic style called Mannerism

19
that grew in popularity in the late sixteenth century. Italy, much of European art north of the Alps was still
Mannerist works are characterized by the distortion Gothic in style. The influence of classical antiquity
of certain elements such as perspective or scale and was also much less of a factor in the north, as the
are also recognizable by their use of acidic colors and northerners did not share Italy’s cultural connection
the twisted positioning of their subjects. Although with ancient Rome, nor did they have the advantage of
Tintoretto used some Mannerist pictorial techniques, being in close proximity to ancient Roman works as
his color schemes differed from those of the Mannerists. did their Italian counterparts.
Tintoretto presented his figures from dramatic angles—
it is said that he used small figures as models and The art of northern Europe in the sixteenth century
arranged them and rearranged them until he had the demonstrates a far greater awareness of the Italian
most dramatic effect. He also used dramatic contrasts Renaissance than that of the fifteenth century. Many
of light and dark, called chiaroscuro, to heighten the artists traveled to Italy to study the great works of the
emotional impact of his subjects. Tintoretto’s later works Renaissance, and some Italian artists brought these ideas
are marked by their spiritual subject matter, and his use with them when they traveled to the north. Engravers
of sharp perspectives and chiaroscuro anticipate the copied some of the more notable Italian works, and these
Baroque era. engravings became available throughout Europe, thus
spreading the ideas and styles of the Renaissance. Trade
One of the most important events impacting the connections between upper-class German merchants
history of sixteenth-century art was the Reformation. and merchants in Venice, a center of trade and art,
Protestants criticized the opulence and corruption of provided another avenue of influence.
the Catholic Church and called for its purification. For
art, this meant a move away from the richly decorated Though the influence of the Italian masters was
notable, not all northern artists embraced the ideals

churches and religious imagery of the Renaissance.
The Church reacted to the Protestant Reformation by and innovative techniques of the Renaissance, as many
launching a Counter-Reformation, which emphasized, maintained a more traditional approach. Moreover,
even more than before, lavish church decoration and though linear perspective and the colors used farther
art of a highly dramatic and emotional nature. One of south did travel northward, the manner in which they
the artists most closely associated with the Counter- were used in the northern countries was quite different.
Reformation is Dominikos Theotokopoulos, known
During the fifteenth century and into the early decades
as El Greco. El Greco was strongly influenced by
of the sixteenth century, areas of southern Germany
Tintoretto’s paintings, and he worked for a period of
witnessed a flowering of artistic production. Matthias
time in Titian’s workshop in Venice. In 1576, El Greco
Grünewald (1475?–1528) and Albrecht Dürer (1471–
left Italy for Toledo, Spain. El Greco is one of the most
1528) are often considered the greatest artists of the
well known of the Mannerist painters, and his dramatic
Renaissance in northern Europe. Although only ten of
use of elongated figures captured the religious fervor
Grünewald’s works have survived, his influence has
of the Counter-Reformation. The works of both El
nonetheless been notable. Grünewald is known for his
Greco and Tintoretto can be seen as transitional works
religious scenes and his depiction of Christ’s crucifixion.
bridging the end of the Renaissance and the beginning
The Isenheim Altarpiece (c. 1510–15), a work consisting
of the Baroque period.
of nine panels mounted on two sets of folding wings, is
considered to be his greatest masterpiece.
The Renaissance in Northern Europe
During the fifteenth century, the artworks being Albrecht Dürer is perhaps the most famous artist of
produced in northern Europe were smaller in scale Reformation Germany. Dürer’s early training was
than those of contemporaneous artists to the south. largely influenced by late Gothic works, but as the
However, the work of northern artists displayed a ideas of the Italian Renaissance spread northward in
degree of realistic detail beyond what can be seen in the sixteenth century, Dürer’s work began to reflect
works of the south, primarily due to their use of new some of these new influences. Dürer aimed to achieve
oil paints. While the Renaissance was occurring in a style that combined the naturalistic detail favored by

20
artists of the north with the theoretical ideas developed ordinary people were generally quite difficult, and
by Italian artists. He traveled to Italy, studied the eventually this disparity gave rise to protests like those
work of his Italian contemporaries, and brought his found in the writings of Enlightenment authors, Jean-
new knowledge back to Germany. Dürer wrote about Jacques Rousseau in particular. Ironically, however, it
theories of art and published many series of woodcuts was the patronage of the wealthy ruling class that gave
and copper engravings, such as The Four Horsemen of rise to the great works of art of the period.
the Apocalypse (c. 1498).
As we might expect, the art of the Baroque period
Hans Holbein the Younger (1497–1543) is another moved away from the classic simplicity and calm that
important artist of this era, and he is considered one
was so characteristic of Renaissance works. The word
of the greatest Renaissance portraitists. Though born
“baroque” has come to represent the richness of color
in Germany, Holbein is best known for his work in
and ornamentation that heightened the energy and
England. He became court painter to King Henry VIII
of England, and his portrait of Henry VIII shows not
emotion that were characteristic of the great works of art
only his talent for presenting details, but also his ability of this period. The emphasis was on dynamic works that
to capture the psychological character of his subjects. presented imagery in the most dramatic way possible.
Holbein’s works became the model and standard for
English painting up through the nineteenth century. Baroque painters made use of chiaroscuro, using
exaggerated contrasts between light and dark to create a
Baroque Art theatrical kind of lighting that made the subject appear
The term “Baroque” is generally used to refer to to be in a spotlight. Caravaggio (1571–1610), an Italian
artworks produced from the late sixteenth century Baroque painter, was renowned for his dramatic use

through the mid-eighteenth century. Baroque styles of light and dark, and his technique influenced many
differed from those of the Renaissance in that Baroque artists who followed. Caravaggio’s work is so important
artworks tended to be less static than Renaissance that artworks using extremes of dark and light are often
examples; the Baroque is characterized by a greater termed “caravaggesque.” Caravaggio’s work is also
sense of movement and energy. The political structure notable for its provocative degree of naturalism. For
of Europe during the Baroque era also differed from example, Caravaggio portrayed the Virgin Mary and the
that of the Renaissance. Whereas the Renaissance apostles not as noble figures in classical garb as they had
witnessed wars between cities, the Baroque era saw
traditionally been represented, but instead depicted them
conflicts between empires. During this time, the
as poor and simple folks in threadbare garments. His
Church was determined to preserve its dominance
in Spain and Italy, and orders like the Jesuits were use of actual lower-class individuals as models for his
founded to convert the peoples of other areas. Baroque work helped him achieve this effect. It is no wonder that
art appealed largely to the emotions, and thus, these several patrons of Caravaggio’s canvases rejected them
artists, influenced by the Counter-Reformation, aimed for this reason.
at dramatic and moving appeals to faith.
The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Europe
were a time when society was governed by a ruling
class that viewed its power as a divine right. Some of
the most powerful sovereigns ever to rule are from
this period. Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, Peter
the Great and Catherine the Great of Russia, and King
Louis XIV of France dominated the lives of the people
of their countries. It was a time that saw the ongoing
concentration of power and wealth into the hands of a
few, until the results eventually became intolerable for
the majority of the people. While a small minority of
the population lived in great luxury, the lives of

21
Rembrandt’s The Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch, known as The Night Watch.

22
With recent revisions of art history, a woman named greatest studies of the inner life of the sitter ever
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593?–1652?) has also joined to be painted.
the ranks of important Baroque artists. Gentileschi,
It might be argued that the Baroque period reached
the daughter of a painter, had the unusual opportunity
its peak in France. There, Louis XIV had come to
to study in her father’s studio. She is particularly
power, and his long reign was marked by a blossoming
known for her remarkable adaptation of Carravaggio’s
of French culture. Louis XIV united all of France
techniques. Her works include self-portraits and
and built a lavish palace at Versailles beginning in
paintings of Old Testament women.
1669. The palace and its grounds covered about two
The most important Baroque artist, Gianlorenzo thousand acres and included various grand chateaux
Bernini (1598–1680), the son of a sculptor, was a child and gardens. There was a stable, capable of housing
prodigy who received recognition from the Pope at hundreds of horses, and a grand orangerie, or
age seventeen. Bernini did his most significant work greenhouse, for the king’s orange trees. Eventually
in sculpture, but he was also a talented architect, there was also a zoo and a system of fountains and
painter, and draftsman. He worked as a designer in the waterfalls that included a grand canal large enough
theater, and many of his works reflect the influence for the staging of mock sea battles. The opulence
of his theatrical background. His most important and power of this “sun king,” around whom the
masterpiece, the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa (1647–52), world of the court revolved, became a model that
is set into the altar of the Cornaro Chapel. The space contemporaneous monarchs tried to emulate.
includes a concealed stained-glass window that bathes
An important feature of Louis XIV’s court that was to
the figure of the saint in dramatic gold lighting, as if
influence art well into the nineteenth century was the
she were on a stage. Bernini treated his medium in
system of choosing and supporting artists called the

a new way as well. He did not adhere to the classical
Salon. This annual exhibition established a set of rules
calm and natural flow of drapery around the figure that
for judging art that is still influential in the art world
had been used in the past. Instead, Bernini pushed the
today. It was also under the rule of Louis XIV that the
use of marble to new limits and tried to make stone
Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, often
look like real fabric and even clouds.
referred to simply as the “Academy,” was established,
The importance of the Baroque style extended beyond and it soon came to be a means for imposing aesthetic
Italy. In Flanders, Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) standards and principles of taste.
established a huge workshop and produced works of
To the south, the Spanish court of King Philip IV of
great energy and color that became models for many
Spain tried to emulate the court of France, and his
artists. In the mid-seventeenth century, Rembrandt
court painter, Diego Velázquez (1599–1660), was
van Rijn (1606–69), a Dutch artist, created some
a contemporary of Bernini. Velázquez’s method of
of the best-known works from the Baroque period.
building his figures from patches of color, rather than
Rembrandt is recognized not only as a painter and
starting from a drawing, became a model for many
printmaker, but also as one of the greatest draftsmen
later artists. In fact, Velázquez’s work had an influence
ever. Perhaps his best-known work is The Night Watch
on the movement we call Impressionism.
(1642), more properly known as Sortie of Captain
Banning Cocq’s Company of the Civic Guard. Like
many other group portraits of the time, each member Rococo, Neoclassicism, and
of the company depicted paid a certain sum to be Romanticism
included in the painting. Rembrandt chose to break
with tradition and grouped the members of the While the Rococo style might be seen as an extension
company in a way that gave more attention to of the Baroque period, it is quite different in form and
some members than to others. This break with tra- content. Whereas the Baroque aimed to arouse grand
dition, as well as other problems in his life, ulti- emotions, Rococo works were celebrations of gaiety,
mately caused the decline of his career. Though romance, and the frivolity of the grand life at court,
Rembrandt died in poverty, the self-portraits of his particularly the court at Versailles. The emphasis was
later years are considered to be some of the on light-hearted decoration with the use of gold and

23
Jacques Louis David’s Oath of the Horatii (1784).
pastel colors. and his works strongly reflect Boucher’s influence.

Three artists who excelled at capturing the elegance The Revolution of 1789 in France ushered in an era
and wit so valued by their aristocratic patrons are of great change throughout Europe, and the idea of a
considered the greatest masters of the Rococo style. democratic republic ruled by and for the people was
Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684–1721) was the leader of reflected in the artwork of the time. In an attempt to
a new generation and the innovator of a new genre hearken back to the democratic ideals of the ancient
of painting called the fête galante. Paintings of this world, art of this period demonstrated a revival of
genre generally depicted members of the nobility in interest in the art of classical Greece and Rome. This
elegant contemporary dress enjoying leisure time style, called Neoclassicism, emerged in the decades
in the countryside. François Boucher (1703–70) was leading up to the Revolution and was also influenced
influenced by Watteau’s delicate style. He became by Enlightenment philosophy. The Neoclassical style,
the favorite painter of Madame Pompadour, mistress a direct challenge to the Rococo and its associations
to Louis XV, and his works often transformed the with the aristocracy, is epitomized in the work of
characters of classical myth into scenes of courtly Jacques Louis David (1748–1825), whose paintings,
gallantry, with an emphasis on nubile nudes. Jean- such as the Oath of the Horatii (1784), illustrated
Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806) was also promoted by republican virtues. Following the Revolution, David
Madame Pompadour. Fragonard studied with Boucher, joined members of the new government as the master

24
Gustave Courbet’s The Stonebreakers.
of ceremonies for the grand revolutionary mass rallies. Delacroix’s works are characteristic of the Romantic
Later he became a dedicated painter to Napoleon movement in that they centered on exotic themes and
Bonaparte, and in this capacity he painted large included foreign settings, violence involving animals,
propagandistic canvases that would seem to undermine and historical subject matter. Théodore Gericault
his earlier revolutionary ideals. A closer investigation (1791–1824) and William Blake (1757–1827) were also
of his work and his career reveals the complicated important Romantic artists.
world of an artist and his patrons. The work of David’s
pupil, Jean Dominique Ingres (1780–1867), shows the Realism and Impressionism
sharp outlines, unemotional figures, careful geometric In many ways, Realism was a reaction to
composition, and rational order that are hallmarks of Neoclassicism and Romanticism. The Realist style
the Neoclassical style. was inspired by the idea that painting must illustrate
all the features of its subjects, including the negative
Ingres’s rival, Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863), was a ones. It was also obligated to show the lives of
proponent of Romanticism. This style hearkened back ordinary people as subjects that were as important as
to the emotional emphasis of the Baroque and had the historical and religious themes that dominated the
similar characteristics, though the subject matter was art exhibitions of the day. The artist who represented
different. Whereas Neoclassical works emphasized this movement most forcefully was Gustave Courbet
line, order, and a cool detachment, Romantic painting (1819–77), a flamboyant and outgoing personality
tended to be highly imaginative and was characterized who outraged conventional audiences by showing
by an emotional and dreamlike quality—the a painting of ordinary workmen repairing a road at
Romantics favored feeling over reason. Romantic the official government-sponsored Salon. This work,
works are also characterized by their incorporation called The Stonebreakers (1849–50), also had political
of exotic or melodramatic elements and often took implications in the context of a wave of revolutions that
awe-inspiring natural wonders as their subject matter. spread across Europe beginning in 1848. Realism can

25
standards espoused by the Académie des Beaux-Arts
in Paris and favored by the Salon set about establishing
Impressionism as a new style. A work by Claude Monet
(1840–1926) was the source of the movement’s name.
Monet showed a work that he called Impression, Sunrise
(1872), and the critics seized on this mere “impression”
as a means by which to ridicule the movement. It was
Monet who urged his fellow artists to work outdoors,
and these endeavors were aided by technical advances in
paint and brush production that made the medium more
portable. Impressionist artists put their colors directly
on the canvas with rapid strokes to capture the rapidly
changing light. Scientific studies of vision and color led
to the discovery that shadows were not merely gray but
that they reflected the complementary color of the object
casting them. Camille Pissarro (1830–1903) and Alfred
Sisley (1839–99) were two other Impressionists of note.
Post-Impressionism and Other Late

Nineteenth-Century Developments
The artists who followed Impressionism, though
influenced by the earlier artists, took various features

Georges Seurat, photographed in 1888. of Impressionism in quite different directions. The
most influential of these artists was Paul Cézanne
also be seen in the works of Honoré Daumier (1808– (1839–1906). Dissatisfied with the lack of solid form in
79) and Jean François Millet (1814–75). Impressionist works, Cézanne set about redefining art
in terms of form. He suggested that a painting could be
Impressionism largely grew out of dissatisfaction
structured as a series of planes with a clear foreground,
with the rigid rules that had come to dominate the
middle ground, and background and argued that the
Salons held to recognize selected artists each year.
objects in the painting could all be reduced to their
Édouard Manet (1832–83) is sometimes referred to as
simplest underlying forms—a cube, a sphere, or a
the first Impressionist. Although he refused to consider
cone. Here we should note the obvious influence that
himself as one of the Impressionists, Manet’s work,
these ideas, presented first by Cézanne, later had on the
which showed light by juxtaposing bright, contrasting
development of Cubism in the early twentieth century.
colors, nonetheless greatly inspired and influenced the
generation of artists following him. Manet’s painting The ongoing search for more and more brilliant
Le Dejéuner sur L’herbe (Luncheon on the Grass) color was a unifying feature for many of the Post-
(1863)—included in the Salon des Refusés in 1863, an Impressionists. The work of Georges Seurat
exhibit of works rejected by the “official” Salon—was (1859–91) placed an emphasis on the scientific rules
singled out for ridicule. The scandal surrounding this of color. Seurat applied his colors in small dots of
work resulted from its violation of the unwritten rule complementary colors that blended in the eye of the
that the only appropriate nudes in contemporary art viewer in what is called optical mixing. The results
were classical figures or women in suitably exotic were vibrant, though the emphasis on technique also
settings. In Luncheon on the Grass, Manet based his resulted in static compositions.
work on an engraving with a classical subject matter,
but he showed contemporary clothed men with a nude As Seurat was attracting attention and Cézanne was
woman as part of the group. This caused an uproar. formulating his rules for painting, a young Dutch
painter named Vincent van Gogh (1853–90) was
While Manet continued to submit his work to the studying art. Van Gogh, using theories of contrasting
Salon, other artists who disagreed with the rigid artistic color and very direct application of paint, set about

26
capturing the bright light of southern France. His way for Art Nouveau. Art Nouveau, which became
vigorous brushwork and twisting forms were designed popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
to capture an intense response, and though his career centuries, was a style of decoration, architecture,
was short, many of his works have become very well and design that was characterized by the depiction of
known. Van Gogh developed the idea that the artist’s leaves and flowers in flowing, sinuous lines.
colors should not slavishly imitate the colors of the
natural world, but should be intensified to portray The Emergence of Modernism
inner human emotions. The intense and jarring As we move into the twentieth century, we see artists
yellows, greens, and reds in the poolroom of Van who were continually striving to discover new ways
Gogh’s Night Café (1888), which van Gogh considered of presenting their ideas. Furthering the attempts the
a place of vice, illustrate this very influential idea. Post-Impressionists had made to extend the boundaries
of color, a group of artists led by Henri Matisse (1869–
The search for intense light and clear color also marks 1954) used colors so intense that they violated the
the work of Paul Gauguin (1848–1903), who is perhaps sensibilities of critics and the public alike. Taking their
known as much for the story of his life as he is for his cue from van Gogh, these artists no longer thought
art. Though he was a successful stockbroker, Gauguin their use of color needed to replicate color as seen
left his wife and family while in his forties to pursue in the real world. Their wild use of arbitrary color
his art career. He worked for a short time with van earned them the name of fauves, or “wild beasts.”
Gogh in southern France but was still dissatisfied with
his art. Searching for more intense color and a more Natural form was to be attacked with equal fervor,
“unschooled” style, he went to Tahiti, where he painted as can be seen in developments in Paris around 1908.
works that depict the island’s lush, tropical setting and Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), in close collaboration with

native people, as seen through the lens of colonialism. Georges Braque (1882–1963), was at work developing
a whole new system of art. Picasso and Braque broke
At this juncture, it is important to note the outside down and analyzed form in new ways in the style
influences that were affecting the changing art world. that came to be known as Cubism. Psychologists had
The invention of the camera called into question the explained that human experience is much richer than
very need to capture ordinary reality in art. Some of the can be gathered from a traditional painting that shows
most important inventions may seem quite mundane. a single view from a fixed vantage point. When we
The invention of chemically based paints and the paint look at any given scene, we remember the scene as
tube allowed the Impressionists to paint outdoors an overlay of visual impressions seen from different
easily for the first time. This was also a time of global angles and moments in time. Picasso and Braque were
exploration and colonialism, and the objects brought familiar with these theories, as indicated by their
back from around the world had a profound effect on the habit of breaking figures up into multiple overlapping
Impressionists and the artists who followed. Artists were perspectives. The Cubists were also influenced by
intrigued by masks from Africa, and many collected the African art, which they imagined to be more intuitive
Japanese prints that were used as packing for shipments and closer to nature than intellectualized European
of goods from Japan. Edgar Degas (1834–1917) was art. Cubist works reacted against the naturalistic, often
an Impressionist whose work exemplified these new sentimental, artworks that were popular in the late
influences. Degas often combined the snapshot style nineteenth and early twentieth century. The Cubists
of photography with a Japanese-like perspective from favored abstract forms over lifelike figures.
slightly above his subject.
In Germany, an art developed that emphasized
In England, a group of artists dissatisfied with the emotional responses. A group of artists calling
effects of the Industrial Revolution banded together and themselves Die Brücke, which included Ernst Ludwig
became known as the Pre-Raphaelites. These artists Kirchner (1880–1938) and Emil Nolde (1867–1956),
created a style that attempted to return to the simpler took the brilliant arbitrary colors of the Fauvists
forms of pre-Renaissance art. The Pre-Raphaelites and combined them with the intense feelings found
created many quasi-religious works that often blended in the work of the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch
Romantic, archaic, and moralistic elements. Their (1863–1944). This highly charged attempt to make
emphasis on nature and sweeping curves paved the

27
d’ Avignon (1907) both shocked viewers with their
challenging approaches to the figure and space.
Brancusi’s (1876–1957) The Kiss, with its abstracted,
block-like figures, and Kandinsky’s non-objective
paintings added to the outrage.
While the effects of the European works in the Armory
Show rippled through the American art world, there was
also a quintessentially American movement underway.
During the 1920s, Harlem became a center for African-
American creativity. Fueled by the popularity of jazz,
writers and artists joined musicians in a flowering of the
arts that is called the Harlem Renaissance. Though the
movement lasted only a decade, it was an inspiration
to many artists, including Jacob Lawrence, Romare
Bearden, and other well-known artists of the next
generation.
During World War I and its aftermath, another
movement arose that challenged established ideas about
Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’ Avignon.
art. This movement, called Dada, originated among a
group of disaffected intellectuals living in Zurich and
grew out of the angst of artists who were disillusioned

the inner workings of the mind visible in art is known
with the war. Dada was an art that aimed to protest
as Expressionism. Another Expressionist group in
against everything in society and to lampoon and
Germany, Der Blaue Reiter, was led by the Russian
ridicule accepted values and norms. Marcel Duchamp
artist Vasily Kandinsky (1866–1944), who around 1913
created two works that have come to represent this
began to paint totally abstract pictures without any
amusing and irreverent view of the world. He added a
pictorial subject. Other pioneers of total abstraction
mustache to a reproduction of the Mona Lisa and gave it
were the Russian painter Kazimir Malevich (1878–
an insulting title (LHOOQ, 1919), and he also exhibited
1935) and the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian (1872–1944),
a common porcelain urinal (Fountain, 1917).
whose De Stijl canvases, consisting of flat fields of
primary color, have become a hallmark of modern art. Duchamp, in fact, invented a new category of artworks
that he referred to as ready-mades. By taking an
The next events in our story of the history of art
ordinary object and giving it a new context, Duchamp
are important because they mark the beginnings
would create a work of art. In this way, Duchamp
of modern art in the United States. It was these
challenged traditional ideas about the way the artist
beginnings, coupled with the effects of the First World
functions—rather than physically making a work of
War, that were partly responsible for the eventual shift
art, an object became a work of art merely through
of the center of the art world from Paris to New York.
the artist’s choice. Picasso created several works that
While the movements of modern art were sweeping
may also be considered ready-mades. For example, in a
Paris, the American scene remained largely unaffected
famous work Picasso took an ordinary object—bicycle
until 1913. The Armory Show, arranged by the Barnes
handlebars—and made them appear as bull horns
Foundation and held from February 17 through March
when coupled with a bicycle seat (Bull’s Head, 1943).
15, 1913, was the first major showing of modern art
in the U.S., and it caused a sensation. Artworks that Some artists, influenced by the theories of Sigmund
were to become landmarks of various European art Freud, attempted to portray the inner workings of the
movements were a part of the Armory Show, and they mind in their artworks. This group of artists became
had a profound and lasting effect on American art. known as the Surrealists and included artists such as
Marcel Duchamp’s (1887–1968) Nude Descending Salvador Dalí (1904–89), René Magritte (1898–1967),
a Staircase (1912) and Picasso’s Les Demoiselles and Joan Miró (1893–1983).

28
One of the most influential events in the history of art
took place in Germany between the first and second
world wars. A school of design called the Bauhaus—a
name that would become a byword of modern design—
established standards for architecture and design that
would have a profound influence on the world of art.
The Bauhaus made a bold attempt to reconcile industrial
mass-manufacture with aesthetic form. Taking the
view that form should follow function and should be
true to the materials used, the faculty at the Bauhaus
designed a curriculum that continues to influence many
contemporary schools of art. After the school was closed
by the Nazis in 1933, many of the Bauhaus’ faculty,
including Josef Albers (1888–1976), a well-known
painter, graphic artist, and designer, came to the United
States and continued to teach. We can still recognize the Robert Rauschenberg’s Monogram.
Bauhaus influence in our contemporary society with its
streamlined furnishings and buildings. directly onto the canvas.
Abstract Expressionist works tended to fall into two
Abstraction types: Action Painting, which employed dramatic
During World War II, organized movements in art brushstrokes or Pollock’s innovative dripping technique,
came to a virtual standstill. Art was produced, but or Color Field paintings, which featured broad areas of

attention was really on the war. Many artists did in color and simple, often geometric forms. Mark Rothko
fact serve in the military, and often art was designed and Josef Albers are two well-known color field artists.
to serve as propaganda in support of the war effort.
When the war was over and Europe was recovering, In response to the non-objective style of Abstract
a new center for the international art world emerged. Expressionism, other artists began to return to
The action had shifted to New York, and it would be naturalism, producing works that, though they
decades before the artistic centers in England, France, may appear in some ways similar to those of the
Italy, and Germany would regain something that abstractionists, focused on ordinary consumer objects.
approximated the prominence of New York. Jasper Johns (b. 1930) created a series of works that
featured common things such as flags, numbers, maps,
During the 1950s, the art scene in New York was and letters. Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008) created
dominated by the ideas and writings of critics such sculptures from the cast-off objects he found around
as Harold Rosenberg and Clement Greenberg. These him to create what he called “combines.” He hung his
critics had a tremendous influence on the development own bedclothes on the wall like a canvas and painted
of art styles. Greenberg chose to promote a particular them [Bed (1955)], and one of his most famous works,
view of art and was an advocate for artists who Monogram (1959), consists of numerous “found” items,
were further developing abstraction. Beginning in including a stuffed goat, a tire, a police barrier, the heel
the 1940s, Abstract Expressionist artists followed of a shoe, a tennis ball, and paint. This use of everyday
Kandinsky’s dictum that art, like music, could be objects in artistic works had a decided influence on the
free from the limitations of pictorial subject matter. next big movement in art—Pop Art.
These artists aimed at the direct presentation of feeling
with an emphasis on dramatic colors and sweeping Pop Art, Minimalism, and
brushstrokes. The Abstract Expressionist movement,
which included the artists Willem de Kooning (1904– Photorealism
97), Lee Krasner (1908–84), and Franz Kline (1910– 1960s Pop Art, with its incorporation of images of
62), reached its pinnacle with the work of Jackson mass culture, violated the traditional unspoken rules
Pollock (1912–56). Pollock eventually abandoned even regarding what was appropriate subject matter for art.
the use of his paintbrush and instead dripped his paint Andy Warhol (1928–87), the icon of pop art, achieved
the kind of popularity usually reserved for rock stars.

29
His soup cans, Brillo boxes, and images of movie stars the idea that landscape or architecture is something
were created with a factory-like silkscreen approach that can be packaged. He wrapped several well-known
that he used to mock the art world. Roy Lichtenstein monuments in fabric, built a twenty-four-mile-long cloth
(1923–97), another pop artist, adopted the imagery of fence in California, surrounded eleven Florida islands
comic books and recreated them on such a large scale with pink plastic, and set up orange fabric gates on
that the pattern of dots used to print them was made pathways throughout Central Park. These works, which
massive. Robert Indiana (1928–2018) used stencils that require years and even decades of preparation, are as
had been originally used to produce commercial signs much about the process as they are about the finished
to create his own artistic messages. product, and it is for this reason that Christo’s partner,
Jeanne-Claude, played such an important role. While
Minimalism sought to reduce art to its barest essentials, Christo designs the projects, Jeanne-Claude handled
emphasizing simplification of form and often featuring many of the logistical details that must be addressed to
monochromatic palettes. The invention of acrylic paint carry out the work. Their partnership raises important
and the airbrush enabled Minimalist painters to achieve questions about the concept of the individual genius
very precise outlines, which resulted in the term “hard- of the artist and how he or she works. Other artists
edge painting.” The artist who is best known for these associated with Earthworks are Michael Heizer (b.
large, entirely non-objective paintings is Frank Stella (b. 1944) and Robert Smithson (1938–73).
1936). The sculptors David Smith (1906–65), who used
stainless steel, and Dan Flavin (1933–96), who used The growth of Performance Art is another
neon tubing, also created large pieces that reflected this development that allows artistic expression to
abstract minimalist sensibility. transcend traditional boundaries. Some artists work in
conventional media such as photography and painting,
A Pop-inspired group of artists began to produce

as well as in performance art. Performance art is a
works that aimed to create a kind of super-realism or combination of theater and art in which the artists
what came to be called Photorealism. In these works, themselves become the work. Such works exist in time,
a hyper-real quality results from the depiction of the like music or theater, and are fleeting and transitory in
subject matter in sharp focus, as in a photograph. This nature. The point is to create a real event in which the
technique offered a clear contrast to the use of sfumato, audience can participate, but that does not result in a
developed in the Renaissance, which had added a fixed, marketable artwork for a museum or living room
haziness to the contour of painted objects. Photorealist wall. Sometimes performance art is socially conscious
artists Chuck Close (b. 1940), with his portraits, and in its intent. An example is the Guerrilla Girls, a group
Duane Hanson (1925–1996), with his witty sculptures of New York-based artists who began to work together
of ordinary people, hearkened back to the Realism in 1985. The individual identities of the artists in this
promoted by Gustave Courbet. all-female group are kept anonymous at all times.
The artists even wear gorilla masks when they appear
Earthworks, Installations, and in public to conceal their identities. The artists use
Performance guerrilla-warfare tactics, such as pasting up posters and
One intriguing development in the contemporary art flyers, as well as giving public speeches, to challenge
world since the 1970s is that art is no longer limited to what they see as an art world dominated by white men.
gallery or museum spaces, and many important works
of art are departures from traditional formats. Some Postmodernist art arose in reaction to the modernist
artists have taken their work to a new scale and have styles, and not surprisingly, it takes many forms
developed their artworks in new venues, often out of across a variety of media. Postmodern works tend
doors. In this way, artists also challenge conventional to reintroduce traditional elements or to exaggerate
ideas about art and its function. An artist known by the modernist techniques by using them to the extreme.
single name Christo (b. 1935), working together with Postmodern works often return to earlier styles,
his partner Jeanne-Claude (1935–2009), is responsible periods, and references and often question the mores
for creating much interest in these kinds of Earthworks and beliefs of contemporary society. A leading
(also known as Land art or Environmental art). proponent of Postmodernism in architecture is
Beginning in Europe, Christo startled the world with Philip Johnson (1906–2005), who at one time was

30
known as one of the leading modern architects of considered here might be categorized as “traditional”;
the International Style. For decades, architecture had contemporary art from Asia and Africa, thoroughly
largely been dominated by the Bauhaus idea of form immersed in the global art scene, is beyond the scope of
following function, and sleek towers of steel sheathed this discussion, for example. Illustrations of the works of
in glass were the standard for large buildings. But, art discussed here can be found through basic Internet
in 1970, Johnson suggested the radical idea that one searches and in standard art historical textbooks.
of the functions of art was decoration, and with the
AT&T Building (1984; now 550 Madison Avenue), he Asian Art
added a finial to the top of the standard office tower. Chinese Art
Civilization and art have been present in China for
Today, artists around the world work in an endless thousands of years, and some archaeological finds in
variety of media and styles. One can no longer say China rival those in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Remains
that any particular city, country, or even continent of painted wares have been found that date back to
is the “center” of the art world. The next section of the fourth millennium bce. Perhaps the most famous
this guide provides a brief overview of “nonwestern” work of ancient Chinese art is the Great Wall, which
art, but we should note that the categories of Western was constructed over the course of centuries and
and nonwestern in the world of contemporary art are covers thousands of miles. Of course this wall, now
becoming obsolete with the emergence of transnational considered an enduring work of art and admired both
artists in an increasingly mobile and interconnected for its engineering and aesthetic appeal, originally
world. had a utilitarian function. This is an example of how
meaning and function can change over time. In fact,
BRIEF OVERVIEW OF many of the works we will examine here were created

NONWESTERN ART for a specific purpose but are now seen as works of art
The story of art that we have been studying thus far in a different context.
has been a traditional one and has been told over and
The dynasties or kingdoms that ruled for long periods
over again by countless writers since Giorgio Vasari’s
of time had an impact on the history of art in China.
time. It chronicles a history of Western European
In many cases, these rulers left elaborate tombs
ideas that grew out of the concepts put forth by early
that contained many objects that have become great
Greek philosophers. These ideas experienced a revival
treasures of art. One of the most amazing works
during the Renaissance and were further refined in the
from the early period of Chinese art history is the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Atomic power,
monument to the first emperor to unite the kingdom—
the increasing pace of technological inventions, and the
the Emperor of Qin (c. 210 bce). He had a full army of
electronic age further expanded and changed the realm
soldiers and their equipment, including their horses,
of art in the twentieth century.
created life-size in clay and buried as part of his tomb.
We should keep in mind that the history we have The technical ability demonstrated in these sculptures
chronicled thus far, though valuable, has clear and the life-like detail of the soldiers and their horses
limitations. In recent decades, art history, like many are quite astonishing. The dynasties succeeding Qin
other academic disciplines, has been challenged built grand walled cities with huge palaces and tombs.
to include artists and works that were previously These dynasties are noted for bronze statues and
marginalized. The influence of feminist critics in ceremonial vessels. These vessels are covered with
particular has led to major revisions, and there has also intricate designs, and the methods of casting are still
been an increasing inclusion of the histories of art of not completely understood.
other cultures. At this point, we will look at the arts
The introduction of Buddhism from India had a
of Asia, Africa, Oceania, the Americas, and the art of
profound effect on Chinese arts and culture. During the
Islam throughout the world. The art histories of these
reign of the Tang Dynasty (618–907 ce), often referred
cultures are increasingly central to the development
to as China’s Golden Age, artists produced some of
of the discipline of art history. Of course, this brief
the greatest works of ceramic sculpture ever made.
survey covers only a tiny fraction of the rich world of art
Traditional Chinese art also placed great value on ink
beyond the boundaries of the Western world. The works

31
The terracotta army was buried with the First Emperor of Qin.
drawings. Many scrolls are meant for contemplation, centuries. Much Indian art reflects the tremendous influ-
and this contemplative aspect is a feature often ence of Hinduism. This religion, with its many gods and
associated with Asian art. Chinese traditions in goddesses, gave rise to a lovely, lively, and sinuous style.
writing, painting, and sculpture were maintained over Images of Shiva, who dances gracefully with his multi-
the centuries. ple arms, are particularly striking.
Indian Art Japanese Art

India is an extremely diverse nation in which more than The island kingdom of Japan, though tiny in size,
1,600 different languages and dialects are currently has had a great influence on the international art
spoken, and India is home to a variety of religious world. Japan was closed to the West for the majority
and cultural traditions. India’s artistic traditions are of its history, and this allowed Japanese art to remain
among the oldest in the world, and here we will only relatively consistent and traditional. As with China, the
be able to touch on one or two aspects of India’s rich history of Japan is one of succeeding dynasties, with
artistic heritage. The influence of Buddhist traditions each one leaving its mark in a series of succeeding
is strong, of course, but what often astonishes people styles. Also, as with China, Buddhism was imported to
unfamiliar with the art of India is the influence of Greek Japan and became an important focus in the traditional
art on the classical images of Buddha. India has ruins arts. The strength of Japan’s artistic traditions remained
of great early civilizations that rival those of Egypt and even when the country became more open to Western
Mesoamerica, and the sensuous style of Indian cultures. During the rise of the Impressionist movement
sculptures has had an enduring impact on art over the in Europe, Japan sent a group of artists to study in

32
France. These artists returned to Japan and introduced
the ideas they had encountered in the West, and so, for a
short time at the end of the nineteenth century, there was
a group of artists in Japan who used linear perspective
and the colors and subjects of Impressionism. However,
what is noteworthy is that the Japanese soon rejected
these ideas and returned to the isometric perspective
and flat areas of color favored by Japanese traditions.
Although Japanese artists created excellent works in
painting, architecture, crafts, and sculpture, it is for their
printmaking that Japanese artists are best known in the
Western world. Japanese prints had a profound influence
on Western art, as French artists began to imitate the
prints that they began to collect in the late nineteenth
century. The flat colors and overhead viewpoint of these
prints were adopted by many French artists during this
period.
African and Oceanic Art

Some of the historic traditions of African art have
already been discussed in our survey of Western art.
As a result of the relationships between Egypt and

the Mediterranean world, the ancient arts of northern
Africa are often incorporated into the history of
Western art. Usually the art of sub-Saharan Africa is
treated separately from that of northern Africa because
of the regions’ very different histories. A close look
at all areas of the continent reveals that impressive art
traditions emerged in west, central, east, and southern
Africa quite early. Some of the oldest examples are
cave paintings in what is now Namibia. In West
Africa, the Nok civilization flourished from c. 900 bce
to 200 ce. Located in what is present-day Nigeria, this
impressive civilization produced fantastically life-like
terracotta sculptures, many of which were probably
portraits of political and religious leaders. It is possible
that the early Nok civilization had an influence on later A Fang mask used for the ngil ceremony, an inquisitorial
cultural groups such as the Yoruba. search for sorcerers. Wood, Gabon, nineteenth century.
Another important historical tradition from Nigeria destroyed or confiscated by the British in the 1897 raid
relates to the Benin Kingdom, which first emerged on the royal palace. As a result, many more of these
around 900 ce when the Edo people settled in the area. objects from historic Benin can be found in museums
The kingdom became further consolidated with shifts in Europe and the United States than in Nigeria.
in leadership in the eleventh century. Much of the
remaining art from the Benin Kingdom was produced While art objects in a variety of media have been
in association with a rich life at the royal court. Cast created by many different African cultural groups, our
bronze portrait heads were intended for ancestral study of them has been limited in many cases by the
altars, and a variety of objects were made to reinforce lack of necessary conditions for preservation. While
the tremendous power of the oba, or Benin king. there are some objects in metal and clay, the use of fiber
Countless treasures from the Benin Kingdom were and wood, which are quite perishable, has resulted in

33
relatively few artifacts being preserved. Unfortunately, for protection in raids among groups throughout the
much African art was also destroyed by early European area; today these shields are seen as cultural symbols,
traders and colonial settlers on the continent. Westerners but they no longer serve the same function in war.
often viewed much of what they found in Africa as
dangerous and threatening to the colonial pursuit, Carved masks were a central part of Melanesian
perceiving artworks as pagan symbols that should cultures. In many cases, these masks were used in
be destroyed rather than preserved. Hence, a wealth ceremonies that involved summoning the spirits
of cultural artifacts has been lost. The objects that of ancestors to honor the dead. As is the case with
were preserved were often collected as archaeological African art traditions, much is lost when these objects
artifacts and, in most cases, important contextual are viewed in museum collections.
information was lost. It is only relatively recently that Rich traditions continue to develop throughout Oceania
art historians have begun to explore the rich variety today, especially as groups such as the Maori of New
of artworks and aesthetic systems of African cultures. Zealand seek cultural renewal by reviving old traditions
In many cases, traditional African arts challenge the in a new context. Many people from traditional cultural
Western concept of art for art’s sake—functional groups that have been threatened by colonization
baskets, ceramics, and textiles, for example, are some recognize that art offers vibrant possibilities for
of the most prized material objects for many African expressing and reinforcing cultural identity.
cultural groups.
When we look at African art in a museum, a great Islamic Art
deal of contextual information that is crucial to our Today, Islam is a major religion that is not limited to
understanding of the object is lost. Many African any one region of the world. However, historically
Islam emerged in the Arabian Peninsula following

cultural groups, such as the Dan and the Bwa, are well-
known for their impressive masks. Masks, though, are the teachings of the prophet Muhammad (c. 570–632).
not meant to be seen in isolation as they are typically The revelations of Muhammad are recorded in Islam’s
displayed when in art museums. Instead, masks are holy book, the Koran. This text plays a central role in
usually integrated into performance, coupled with a the practice of Islam, and some of the most valued art
full-body costume and accompanied by music, dance, objects are beautifully produced copies of the Koran
jokes, festivities, and a great meal shared with friends or containers that hold the sacred text. Following the
and family. It is difficult, of course, to recreate all of Koran’s scriptures, Islamic art is largely non-figurative.
this in a museum context! Abstract or calligraphic decoration can be found on
most Islamic art objects, including sacred architecture,
Similar issues occur in relation to the arts of Oceania. which has a long history in the Islamic tradition. The
Oceania is the collective name for the thousands Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem (687–692) is one of the
of islands that constitute Polynesia, Melanesia, oldest examples of Islamic architecture. Its position in
and Micronesia. As is the case with Africa, many Jerusalem marks the presence of Islam in a city that is
perishable objects dating back for centuries have also sacred to Jews and Christians. The act of prayer
been lost to us due to the use of fragile materials in a is central to the practice of Islam, and the mosque,
sometimes hostile climate. In Polynesia, tattooing and with its qibla wall facing toward Mecca, emerged as a
other body arts were important ways of expressing site for communal prayer. Mosque architecture can be
social stature. Clearly these art forms are lost with the found in a variety of forms throughout the world today.
death of the tattooed person and were preserved only
through engravings made by visitors to the islands The Americas
prior to the invention of photography. For many years art historians classified much of
the art of North and South America as products of
Some of the most important art traditions of the simple craftsmanship. These artifacts were not truly
Asmat cultural group of Melanesia relate to warfare. considered works of art and therefore were kept
Traditionally the Asmat engaged in head-hunting solely in archeological and anthropological museums.
practices, but these traditions have died out. Enormous However, renewed interest and new studies of these
carved wooden shields decorated with beautiful black, works have added considerably to our understanding
red, and white abstract patterns were traditionally used and appreciation of the art of the first Americans, and

34
An image of the Dome of the Rock from Phillip Baldensperger’s “The Immovable East: Studies of the People and Customs of
Palestine,” published in 1913.
objects from these cultures are becoming more and period, the Native Americans of the Southwest
more common in the collections of art museums. Great demonstrated remarkable architectural skills in the
civilizations grew and flourished in the Americas, building of pueblo complexes. These dwellings often
including the Olmec, Toltec, Maya, Inca, and Aztec. consisted of well over a hundred rooms laid out in
Great pyramids, rivaling those of Egypt, rose as the multiple stories.
central features of large cities, of which the Pyramid
of the Sun in Mexico is one of the best known. The ELEMENTS OF ART
decorative carvings on the Mayan ruins continue to Formal Qualities of Art
amaze us, and in addition to architectural marvels, While it is crucial to examine any given work of
statues in clay and stone, as well as fine textiles and art in its historical context in order to arrive at an
jewelry, remain as reminders of the glories of these understanding of its meaning, it is also important
civilizations. to focus intently on the formal qualities or the basic
While there is evidence of early people in many areas of visual components of a work of art. These include line,
present-day Canada and the United States dating back shape, form, space, color, and texture, among other
nearly 12,000 years, several of the conditions that we things. Formal analysis requires careful observation and
identified earlier as being necessary for preservation description, often using the special vocabulary of art.
were not present. As a result, the majority of artifacts Line
from these cultures are only from the last two thousand Line is the most basic of art elements. Any kind of
years. During the later centuries of the prehistoric mark-making tool—a finger, pencil, paint, etc.—can be

35
used to create a line on a surface. The strict definition Space is an element of art related to the organization
of a line is the path of a point moving through space. of objects and the areas around them. The objects,
But beyond this technical definition, lines have a shapes, or forms in an artwork occupy what is termed
variety of characteristics such as length, width, and positive space. Sometimes these objects, shapes, or
direction. Lines may appear hard or soft, bold or forms may be called the figure. The area around these
indistinct, uniform or varying in width. Sometimes objects, shapes, or forms represents negative space. In
lines are not solid but consist of a series of interrupted three-dimensional forms, negative space may surround
dots or lines that the eye connects to create an implied the forms or may be created as a result of open spaces
line. Think of prints in the sand or snow that imply within the forms. Three-dimensional artworks include,
the path of a person or animal. Sometimes we see the among other forms, architecture, ceramic objects, and
edges of objects as lines. The corners of rooms, the sculpture. The two primary types of sculpture are
edges of doors, and the line where two colors meet all freestanding, or fully in the round, and relief, meaning
provide examples of how edges may be seen as lines. that the sculpture projects from a surface or background
of which it is a part. Such sculptures may be in high
Artists use lines to express ideas or feelings visually. relief—projecting boldly from the surface—or bas (low)
Horizontal and vertical lines create a stable and static relief—projecting only slightly from the surface of the
feeling. Vertical lines cause the eye to move upward. sculpture.
Medieval churches were created with very high arched
ceilings, designed to raise the eyes of the people Perspective
upward toward heaven to promote a feeling of spiritual The creation of perspective or the illusion of depth is
awe. Horizontal lines, such as the line of the horizon, another important use of space in two-dimensional
suggest a feeling of peace and tranquility while artworks. There are many effective techniques

curving and jagged lines create a sense of activity. that artists can use to create an illusion of three-
Though the use of lines is perhaps most essential and dimensionality. They may use shading and highlighting
noticeable in drawing and some kinds of printmaking, on the contours—the visible borders—of objects to
all artists use line in their artwork in some way. replicate the manner in which light shining on objects
lends those objects a sense of volume and space. An
Shape and Form artist can also create a sense of depth in an artwork by
Shape and form are two elements of art that are closely placing objects or figures lower on the picture plane
related to one another. Shape is what defines the two- to make them appear closer to the viewer. Or, one can
dimensional area of an object, whereas forms are objects do the reverse and place objects and figures higher on
that are three-dimensional, having length, width, and the plane to make them appear farther away from the
depth. For example, a square is a shape, but a cube is viewer. Artists can also manipulate the size of objects to
a form. A triangle is a shape; a pyramid or a cone is create a sense of perspective—larger objects will appear
a form. When one draws an apple that in nature is a closer to the viewer than smaller objects. An artist can
form, one draws a shape that represents the apple. If also have closer objects overlap objects that are farther
one creates an apple out of clay, that clay apple is a away to indicate depth and distance. Moreover, the artist
form. In a two-dimensional artwork, an artist may try can make objects appear closer to the viewer by giving
to create the illusion of form through the use of shading, them greater detail than objects that are farther away—
foreshortening, perspective, and other techniques. replicating the manner in which our eyes are able to
Shapes and forms may be geometric, such as circles/ perceive more detail in objects that are nearer to us.
spheres and squares/cubes. These geometric shapes Aerial perspective, also called atmospheric
and forms can be defined mathematically and are perspective, is a technique that takes into account the
precise and regular. Some shapes and forms are ways that fog, smoke, and airborne particles change
described as being “organic” since living things tend the appearance of things when they are viewed from
to be freeform and irregular in shape or form. A a distance. When an artist uses this technique, objects
geometric shape or form can convey a sense of order that are farther away will appear lighter and more
and stability, while organic shapes and forms tend to neutral in color and will lack contrast of color or value.
express movement and rhythm.

36
Pietro Perugino’s use of perspective in this fresco at the Sistine Chapel (1481–82) helped bring the Renaissance to Rome.
Frequently, when we think of perspective, we think the color. There are three primary colors—red, blue,
of the mathematical techniques that were developed and yellow—from which all other colors are produced.
during the Renaissance which can be used to create the Secondary colors are formed from the mixture of two
illusion of space. Such techniques create what is called primary colors: red and yellow make orange; yellow
linear perspective because this perspective is founded and blue make green; blue and red make violet. There
on the visual phenomenon that as lines recede into are six tertiary colors, made by combining a primary
the distance, they appear to converge and eventually and an adjacent secondary color: red and violet make
vanish at a point on the horizon. We may, for example, red-violet; violet and blue make violet-blue; blue
notice this effect when viewing highways, railroads, and green make blue-green; green and yellow make
or fence posts as they stretch into the distance. In yellow-green; yellow and orange make yellow-orange;
employing linear perspective, the artist establishes orange and red make red-orange. The organization of
one or more vanishing points on the real or imagined these hues into a visual scheme, known as the color
horizon of the artwork. Then, lines are carefully drawn wheel, dates from the eighteenth century, though
to ensure a precise and extremely realistic depiction of the underlying concepts were developed by Sir Isaac
interior and exterior scenes. Thus, in drawing a black Newton in the seventeenth century. The color wheel is
and white checkerboard floor (a frequent feature in a useful tool for predicting the results of mixing hues.
Renaissance interior paintings), the horizontal lines of
the tiles are drawn as parallel, but the vertical lines— Two important variables affecting color are the amount
which we know are also parallel in reality—appear to of light that is reflected and the purity of the color. The
converge or come together in a systematic way as they term “value” is often used when discussing the lightness
recede toward the back wall of the interior. or darkness of a color or of gray. Values in an artwork
may be primarily dark or primarily light or may be
Color contrasting from dark to light. The artist’s use of value
Color surrounds us wherever we go and is a contributes to the expressive quality of the artwork.
compelling element in art. Hue is simply the name of In mixing colors, artists create a lighter hue by adding

37
white to the color. Adding white to red, for example, how colors change in moonlight, at daybreak, in
makes a lighter red or pink. Artists create darker hues candlelight, or in artificial lighting. Artists who use
by adding black to the color. Adding black to red, for arbitrary color choose colors for their emotional or
example, makes a dark red. A few words about black aesthetic impact. In the twentieth and twenty-first
and white are necessary at this point. Black and white centuries, artists have come to use arbitrary color
are not hues; they are called neutrals. When mixing schemes more and more often.
black and white, artists can create a continuum of grays.
Texture
Intensity refers to the brightness or purity of a color. Texture refers to how things feel or how we think they
The unmixed primary colors, being pure in color, are would feel if touched. From a young age we explore
generally considered to be the most intense colors. the surfaces of things and store away these tactile
If pure colors are mixed, they become less intense. experiences in our memory. When we see new objects
Adding black or gray to a color will reduce its or artworks, we call upon our previous experiences
intensity. Adding a color to its complement lowers the to determine the quality of the surface texture. In
intensity of the color, making it more dull or neutral in the context of art, we make reference to two kinds
tone. Equal parts of two complements, such as red and of texture: actual and visual. Some artists use actual
green, will produce a dull, muddy brown tone. textures in their art. For example, a ceramic artist may
create an actual texture on the surface of a pot or plate.
Artists often use specific color schemes to produce In collages, assemblages, or masks, artists may use
particular visual or emotional effects. In the nineteenth yarn, rope, shiny paper, shells, and other natural or
century, scientists discovered the relativity of color; manufactured materials to create actual textural effects.
they determined that a given shade of red will look Artists who work in three-dimensional media exploit the
brighter or darker, more or less intense, depending

textural qualities of their chosen material whether it is
on what other (similar or contrasting) colors are stone, wood, metal, or some other substance.
placed next to it. Thus, colors do not have a fixed or
immutable character or value. Artists who work in two-dimensional media create
visual texture—an illusion of a textured surface—
In discussing art and color, we often speak of warm in their artwork. For example, an artist may wish
colors and cool colors. These color associations are to simulate the actual texture of a straw hat, a glass
culturally constructed and are not absolute. In the vase, or an orange. Textures may be created by using
context of Western art, warm colors include red, patterns of lines or shapes that suggest texture. An
orange, and yellow and are referred to as such because artist can use the contrast of light and dark on a surface
we associate them with the warmth of the sun, the heat to create a texture that appears rough. Conversely,
of a roaring fire, or the dry grass of a late summer day. the absence of such a contrast will evoke a smooth
Cool colors—green, blue, and violet—remind us of texture. Shiny surfaces appear to reflect light while
cool forests, mountain lakes, and snow. Artists often matte surfaces appear soft and dull. In addition to
use warm and cool colors to create space in artworks. using the aforementioned techniques to create visual
Warm colors seem to advance toward the viewer while texture, painters can create actual texture with their
cool colors appear to recede. By employing contrasts brushstrokes.
of warm and cool colors, artists can create a sense of
movement as the viewer’s eyes move over the surface Composition
of the artwork. Composition refers to the artist’s organization of the
elements of art, whether in two- or three-dimensional
Color may be local, arbitrary, or optical. Local color
works. When speaking of a painting, the composition
refers to the “true” color of an object or area as seen in
refers to the arrangement of these elements on the
normal daylight, irrespective of the effects of distance
picture plane. In the case of architecture, composition
or reflections from other objects. For instance, in a
is a word used to describe the organization of these
work using local color, a grassy field would be green
elements in space.
despite the fact that it may, in reality, appear bluish
from a distance. Optical color refers to the effect that Rhythm is the principle that we associate with
special lighting has on the color of objects. Consider movement or pattern. Artists create a sense of

38
movement or rhythm in their artwork through the to the fulcrum. Similarly, an artist may create balance
repetition of elements such as line, shape, color, and by placing the heavier, more solid object close to the
texture. The rhythm of a composition can cause the center of the artwork while placing smaller objects
viewer’s eye to move rhythmically across and around farther away from the center.
the composition. Some rhythms flow smoothly, while
others are more jarring. The artist directs the movement Contrast of color, value, shape, size, line, or texture
of our eye through the use of repeated elements. creates interest to the eye. An element that contrasts
with the rest of a composition will create a focal point
Motif and pattern are two aspects of repetition. A where the eye tends to rest. This focal point appears
motif is a single element of a pattern. For example, in a more dominant, more important than other parts of
quilt design, one or more motifs are repeated to create the composition. In this way, the artist may guide the
an overall pattern. A pattern involves the repetition of viewer to an understanding of meaning.
certain elements—color or line—or motifs within a
work of art. Many patterns feature regular repetition. Proportion refers to the size relationships among
Shapes or motifs may be repeated in a number of ways the parts of a composition. Our sense of proportion
to create regular patterns. Some kind of grid system is based upon our human scale. Scale refers to the
will underlie a regular pattern. Checkerboards offer an dimensional relation of the parts of a work to the work
example of a regular pattern. in its entirety, and can refer to the overall size of an
artwork. Size attracts our interest. The vast scale of
Balance refers to the equal distribution of visual the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel creates a sense of
weight in a work of art. There are a number of awe. The detail of a tiny painting or of illuminations in
techniques that artists use to create balance. The medieval manuscripts intrigues us. Artists consider the
easiest to comprehend is symmetrical balance—a purpose and place of their art when determining the

balance achieved when elements of the composition appropriate scale for the work.
are repeated exactly on both sides of the central axis.
If you fold a paper in half vertically and one side of Scale also refers to the relative size of elements within
the centerfold is a mirror image of the other side of the the artwork. In a naturalistic work, we expect that the
centerfold, then you have an example of symmetrical relative sizes of the objects depicted will appear as they
balance. Many formal styles of architecture make actually are in life. In some cases, artists intentionally
use of symmetry with columns, wings, and windows make one person or object in their composition larger
arrayed equally on either side of the central entrance. to draw our attention to that person or object.
Artworks in which the central axis is horizontal and When representing the human face and figure
equal visual weight is placed above and below that axis realistically, artists strive to use accurate proportions.
also exhibit symmetrical balance. To avoid the rigidity The standards for the relationship of the various parts
and monotony that may accompany a symmetrical of the human face and body were established nearly
composition, many artists employ approximate 2,500 years ago during the Classical Period of Greek
symmetry. In this kind of balance, shapes or objects sculpture. The Greeks believed that the human figure
are slightly varied on either side of the central axis. was the measure of all things. As a consequence,
The artist may also include variations in the color, all structures were designed in proportions relative
detail, or position of the shapes to achieve this effect. to human proportions, and specific rules were
Asymmetrical balance is a visual balance that is established. For example, the ideal human figure was
achieved through the organization of unlike objects. determined to be seven and one-half heads high. The
Even though asymmetrical balance may appear to be features of the human face could be correctly placed
more informal than symmetrical balance, it is actually according to these rules: the corners of the eyes fall
a more complex compositional task. There are several on a line halfway between the chin and the top of the
ways that asymmetrical balance can be achieved. head, the bottom of the nose falls halfway between the
The first is by the position of objects. Think of two chin and the corners of the eyes, and the bottom of the
people of unequal weight on a seesaw. To maintain a lips falls halfway between the chin and the bottom of
balance, the lighter person must sit far out on the end the nose. However, many artists at different times have
of the seesaw while the heavier person must sit close altered these proportions to reflect changing ideals

39
of beauty. At other times, artists have exaggerated or of their similarities and differences.
distorted proportions for an expressive effect.
With drawing pencils or charcoals, a change in
To truly understand how artists manipulate the pressure will cause a change in value. More pressure
elements of art and the principles of composition, it is creates darker values; lighter pressure creates
necessary to examine a great many artworks and to lighter values. Shading can also be used to change
analyze how artists create meaning in their artwork values. Artists use the techniques of hatching and
through skillful choices and the application of these crosshatching to shade objects and create an illusion
artistic concepts. Students should keep in mind that of three-dimensionality. Hatching consists of placing
many of the elements discussed in the principles of lines closely side by side. Crosshatching is a process in
composition section of this guide are more often found which lines are crisscrossed to create shading. Many
in traditional works than in modern artworks. The drawing media can be blended to change their value
rejection of notions such as unity and balance is often and enhance shading. Another technique for shading
the very essence of much modern art. is stippling. With this technique, the artist creates
different values by making a pattern of dots. The
PROCESSES AND TECHNIQUES distance between the dots determines how dark the
Two-dimensional art processes and techniques are shading will be—the more densely clustered the dots,
those that are created on a flat plane. They have height the darker the shading.
and width, but not significant depth. These include
drawing, printmaking, painting, photography, and When an artist uses ink as a drawing medium, the
some mixed media. Artworks that have depth as well ink can be thinned to create a wash of lighter value in
as height and width and that exist in space are three which the paper shows through to lighten the effect.
Undiluted ink is opaque; it is not transparent, and it

dimensional. This category includes sculpture, other
works in mixed media, and environmental art. completely covers the underlying paper. But water can
be added to make the ink translucent.
Drawing Color may be introduced into a drawing with the use
Drawing is arguably the most basic of art processes. of pastels or colored pencils. The same techniques
Most of us have been drawing since we could hold used with black media are used with colored media.
some tool and make marks on a surface. The most The artist using color must consider the effects of
common drawing media are pencil, pen and ink, color and line in an artwork. Colored pastels became
charcoal, crayon, and felt-tip pens. Artists can choose popular in the 1700s. These soft sticks of color can
from a variety of surfaces upon which to draw. Early be readily blended to create delicate tints and shades,
artists used walls of rock, and though some artists and they are particularly popular for portraiture. The
today continue to draw on walls, most use some major drawback of pastels is that they are very fragile,
kind of paper—from the white paper of common and pastel drawings must be cared for quite gently.
sketchbooks to a wide variety of manufactured and Often, the surface of a pastel drawing is sprayed with a
handmade papers. Papers may be smooth or rough, fixative to reduce the risk of smearing. Colored pencils
white or in a wide range of colors. Drawing tools may are more durable than pastels, but like pastels, they
be black, colored, or white. may be layered to create blended colors.
Drawing is primarily based on the use of line. Lines
created by drawing media can vary dramatically Printmaking
in quality. Hard pencils will make thin, light lines Printmaking refers to a group of mechanically aided
while soft pencils will make thicker lines that may two-dimensional processes that permit the production of
vary considerably in value from lighter to very dark. multiple original artworks. The principal printmaking
Charcoal is so soft that the color of the paper used will processes include relief prints, intaglio prints,
show through in places where the strokes are applied lithographs, and screen prints. All of these processes
lightly. Each drawing tool or medium has its own use some sort of printing plate (a “matrix”) on which
unique qualities, and experimenting with a variety of an image is created. Ink is applied to the plate, and the
drawing media is a good way to gain an understanding image is transferred to paper or another material.

40
This engraving, titled Veronica, by Albrecht Dürer features hatching (e.g., background) and
cross-hatching in many darker areas.
In relief printmaking, the artist cuts away parts from are used to cut lines into the surface of the plate in a
the surface of the plate. The matrix may be made of process called engraving. Another intaglio process is
wood, linoleum, or a synthetic material, and a number etching. In this process, the design is incised through a
of tools, including woodcarving or linoleum knives and layer of wax or varnish applied to the surface of a metal
gouges, can be used for cutting its surface. Once the plate. After the incising, the plate is immersed in acid,
plate has been cut, the remaining parts will stand out in which etches, or eats away, the exposed metal. Leaving
relief. The relief sections may range from thin lines to the plate in the acid for a shorter time will make faint
broad fields, and it is these areas, when they are inked, lines in the plate, while leaving the plate in for a longer
that will produce the image. Wherever part of the plate time will make deeper grooves. After the plate is
is removed, the original color of the paper being printed etched, the remaining wax or varnish is removed, and
upon remains. Ink is rolled over the surface of the plate ink is forced into the etched areas of the warmed plate.
with a brayer, and paper is placed over the inked plate. Then, the ink on the surface of the plate is wiped off,
The plate and paper are then put into a press or rubbed and finally, paper is placed on the plate, and it is passed
with a burnisher to force the ink onto the paper. through a heavy press. The paper is forced into the
etched, inked areas, and the ink transfers to the paper. In
Intaglio printmaking works in the opposite manner an etching, the printing process causes the printed areas
from relief printmaking. In the intaglio process, lines to actually rise above the surface of the paper, giving a
are incised on the wood or soft metal plate. Line is an degree of dimension to the print.
essential element in the intaglio process. Carving tools

41
Lithography is a process in which the image is drawn One specialized technique of painting that has a long
with a waxy pencil or crayon directly on a plate, which history is the fresco. The fresco technique is usually
can be made of stone, zinc, or aluminum. The greasy used to paint on walls or ceilings. In creating a fresco,
image is hardened, and the plate is saturated with the artist mixes pure powdered pigments with water
water. Then, ink is applied. The ink adheres only to and applies them to a wet plaster ground. The paint is
the greasy image since oil resists water. The image permanently bound in the plaster, so the artist must
is picked up on the paper when the plate is moved plan carefully because he or she will not be able to
through a press. Lithography can be a complex and make changes after the fact. This kind of fresco is
demanding process, but in contrast to woodcut and termed buon fresco (“true” fresco). If an artist uses
engraving, it does not require special professional the technique called fresco secco, he or she will
training; anyone who can draw can make a lithograph. apply paints to dry rather than wet plaster. Frescoes
have been found in the ruins of Pompeii and in many
Screen prints are familiar to most of us since this is medieval and Renaissance churches. Diego Rivera,
the process used to print most T-shirts. In the silk- the famous Mexican muralist of the early twentieth
screening process, a photograph or other image is century, used this technique for his murals in Mexico
transferred or adhered to a silk or synthetic fabric that and the United States.
has been stretched onto a frame. The image serves as
a sort of stencil, blocking out areas of the permeable When we think of painting, oil painting usually comes
fabric. When ink is forced through the fabric using a to mind first. Oil paints were not widely used until
squeegee, at those areas not blocked by the stenciling, the 1500s, and prior to that time, tempera was the
the image is transferred to the paper or fabric beneath. most commonly used paint. Tempera is a water-based
paint. Many of us remember using tempera paint in
Because multiple originals can be made through

elementary school. Traditional tempera paint, which
printmaking processes, the cost of an individual uses egg as a binder, has been used by fine artists
print is considerably less than that of a painting. throughout history. Tempera painting requires great
Printmaking techniques have been used in the print skill, and there are limitations to this medium. Tempera
industry for illustrating newspapers and books since colors dry quickly, and so they cannot be blended once
the development of the printing press in the fifteenth they are applied to a surface. Tempera also has a narrow
century. tonal range—colors are either light or dark—and it
cannot achieve the close imitation of natural effects
Painting that oil paints can. Nonetheless, the positive qualities
Painting encompasses a wide variety of media and of tempera are evidenced by the many ancient tempera
techniques. Paint is usually composed of three different paintings that still retain their clear and brilliant colors.
materials: pigments, binders, and solvents. Pigments
are finely ground materials that may be natural or Oil paints are much more versatile than tempera paints.
synthetic. Natural pigments include clays, gemstones, Oil paints can be easily mixed, and they may be thinned
and minerals, as well as plant and insect materials that to build up layers of delicate glazes—thin transparent
make color when powdered. These powdered pigments or semi-transparent layers that are applied over another
are mixed with a binder that holds the grains of pigment color to alter it slightly. The translucency of glazes
together and allows the paint to adhere to a surface. Egg permits, for instance, a crimson layer underneath
yolks, linseed oil, and wax can all be used as binders. to shine through a yellow layer on top and can thus
create brilliant, luminous effects that are impossible
A solvent such as water or oil can be added to change to achieve with tempera. Oils can be applied thickly
the consistency of the paint or alter its drying time. As or in heavy lumps to make an impasto surface. Since
with drawing, painters can apply the media to a variety oils dry slowly, it is possible for an artist to work on an
of surfaces such as boards, paper, canvas, and plaster oil painting over a long period of time—days or even
walls. Paint can be applied to a surface with many weeks.
different tools. We usually think of paintbrushes as the
tools used to apply paint, but fingers, sticks, palette In ancient Egypt, grave markers were painted with
knives, and anything else that an artist imagines will wax-based paints called encaustic. With encaustic,
make the desired kind of applicator may be used. colored molten wax is fused with the surface via the

42
application of hot irons. The fact that Egyptian markers flux as new technology becomes available. In addition to
have survived through the ages indicates the durability still photography, film and video art are also used as art
of the encaustic medium. Some painters today have forms.
returned to this ancient, traditional process.
Sculpture
Gouache is a water-based opaque paint that is similar Sculpture is created in four basic ways: carving,
to school-quality tempera, but of higher quality. modeling, casting, and construction. We usually think
Gouache has more body and dries more slowly than of sculpture as being freestanding, like the Venus de
watercolor. It is a good medium for creating bright Milo or Michelangelo’s Pieta, but some sculptures are
colors and meticulous details and is often used for attached to surfaces such as doors, sarcophagi, altars, or
design and fine artwork. church walls. Such reliefs may be carved into the stone
The most common water-based paint is watercolor. or wood of the structure itself, or they may be cast of
Watercolors are transparent, a quality that dictates metal and fixed to the surface of the structure. High-
the manner in which they are used. The white of the relief sculpture projects significantly from the carrier
paper upon which the artist paints is a major factor in surface, while low-relief sculpture projects only slightly.
watercolor. White paint is rarely used in watercolors. Reliefs can only be seen from a limited range, whereas a
Instead, to make tints, the artist adds more water to freestanding sculpture can be seen from every angle.
the paint. The lightest colors are applied first, and Carving is a subtractive process in which some of the
then the darker colors, working from background original material is removed. For example, a stone or
to foreground, from broad areas to areas of detail. wood sculpture can be made by chiseling and gouging
Watercolor is not forgiving of mistakes, so watercolor away with chisels, hammers, and files to bring the
artists must plan carefully and practice diligently.

artist’s imagined form into physical existence. The
A recent development in paint is acrylic paint. Made scale of carved sculptures can range considerably,
from synthetic materials, plastics, and polymers, from miniature figures that rest on the tip of a finger to
acrylics were developed after World War II. Acrylics monumental forms carved of living rock.
are very versatile. They do not require the slow, careful Modeling is an additive process. A soft, workable
building up of successive layers with long drying material like clay, wax, plaster, or papier-mâché is
periods in between as do oils. Acrylics are, however, formed by hand. Amounts of these materials can be
unable to achieve some of the subtleties of which oil added to the surface, and the surface can be shaped
paints are capable. For artists who have developed and decorated by hand or with simple tools.
allergies to oil paint and turpentine, acrylics offer a
valuable alternative. Sometimes an unfired clay or wax sculpture can become
the basis for a cast form. In this process, the original
Photography form is encased in plaster. When the plaster hardens,
Photography was developed during the mid-nineteenth it is removed from the original form and retained for
century, and it soon became a very popular way use as a mold. The mold can then be filled and thus
to document likenesses of people and scenes. The used to create one or more casts of the original object.
development of photography had a decided impact Sculptures may be cast in plaster, metal, and more
on other genres of art. As the use of photography recently, synthetic materials like plastic or polyester
grew, painters at first felt pressured to compete with resins.
the camera by achieving a higher degree of realism.
Ultimately, however, artists felt less of a need to confine Some sculpture is constructed using a variety of
themselves to naturalistic styles of painting and were methods. Metal sculpture can be welded from sheet
encouraged to explore various forms of art that were metal or bent from wire. Some artists use paper, board,
entirely beyond the reach of photography. Although or wood that is cut and glued, nailed, or joined together
not originally considered an art form, photography has by some other means and then possibly painted.
gradually assumed a legitimacy within the art world Sometimes found objects are combined to create a new
that has only grown in the twentieth and twenty-first sculpture.
centuries. The medium of photography is in constant Some sculptures can move or can have moving parts.

43
as fabric, rope, broken dishes, newspaper, or children’s
toys. Mixed media works can be either two- or three-
dimensional. Collage is a kind of mixed media in
which artists combine various materials such as
photographs, unusual papers, theater tickets, and
virtually any other materials that can be adhered to a
surface. Artists will select materials for their texture,
color, or other aesthetic properties or for their symbolic
meaning. Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque are
credited with introducing this medium to the high-art
sphere around 1912.
The artist Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008) is well
known for his mixed media pieces that combine
silkscreen images with paint. Some artists create
assemblages using all found objects, both two- and
three-dimensional, in their compositions. Joseph
Michelangelo’s Pieta is a freestanding sculpture. Cornell (1903–72) was a twentieth-century artist who
filled open boxes with a variety of objects that visually
For example, Alexander Calder (1898–1976) created created symbolic and metaphoric statements.
mobiles with forms suspended by wire which can
Among traditional and nonwestern cultural groups,
be moved by wind or air currents. Other artists have
masks, ceremonial costumes, and other objects often

used a wide variety of motors, pulleys, ropes, pumps,
employ mixed media. Masks may be carved of wood
or other mechanical means to introduce movement to
and embellished with grasses, beads, and paint.
their sculptures.
Environmental art, also called Earthworks or Land Performance
art, is a newer category of art form that first emerged in Performance art is art in which the artist engages in
the 1960s, and many works that fit in this category could some kind of performance, sometimes involving the
be classified as sculpture. Environmental art is usually viewers. Like environmental art, performance art
large in scale, is constructed on-site, and is usually lacks the permanence of more traditional genres of
not permanent. Environmental art occupies space that art. Videos or photographs of the performance may
may be outside in the natural world or inside a gallery be the only remaining documentation of the event. In
or museum. In either case, the artwork redefines the our world of canned, sterile, and constantly repeated
space in which it is installed. Sometimes, performance media spectacles, performance art offers a means for
may be coupled with the actual installation, and often recovering unique, unrepeatable human experiences.
the viewer is, to some degree, drawn into and involved Since performances cannot be sold as objects, this art
with the artwork. Often, an essential part of the work form has also been viewed by many as an escape from
of environmental artists is the process of collaborating the increasing commercialization of art. True to the
with the community and governmental agencies to gain inventiveness of the artistic spirit, artists continue to
approval for their proposed works. Environmental art explore new ideas, new materials, and new processes
is often designed to be impermanent or to change over to express their unique perspectives and ideas. Such
time. Photographs provide us with a more long-lasting creative works continually challenge us to reconsider
documentation of these projects that are often designed our own conceptions and definitions of the term “art.”
to be fleeting in nature.
Craft and Folk Art
Mixed Media Craft, folk art, and popular art are all debated terms
Mixed media is the name given to a category of applied to a variety of art forms across cultures. In
artworks in which the artist uses several art media, many cases, these terms are used to discuss art forms
sometimes in conjunction with found materials such that are largely utilitarian. Through time and across

44
cultures, people have often sought to make the objects on simple braiding, knitting, or crocheting. Quilting
they use more distinctive or beautiful. Consequently, is another important craft form that is practiced by
pottery, jewelry, fibers, and glass and wooden objects popular as well as fine artists.
have come to be recognized as art forms even though
they may have a utilitarian purpose. A discussion of Archaeological evidence indicates that glass was first
craft or folk art raises many questions about the nature made in the Middle East in the third millennium bce.
of art and the aesthetic pursuit. Glass is most often made of silica, which is derived
from sand, flint, or quartz, combined with other raw
Pottery is a medium based upon the use of natural materials. The introduction of additional minerals
materials. Clay, dug from the ground, is the essential adds color. The development of glassblowing enabled
material. Many types of pots can be built using hands the formation of glass vessels such as vases, drinking
and simple tools. A basic pot can be formed from a ball glasses, and perfume bottles. Stained glass became
of clay by punching the thumb into the center of the ball a dominant art form in the medieval period and was
and pinching the clay between the thumb and fingers. used to create the dramatic windows of cathedrals. By
Clay can also be rolled out into coils with the palm of the end of the nineteenth century, stained glass had
the hand, and these coils can then be stacked up to form also become popular for lampshades and windows in
a clay vessel. Depending on the diameter of the coils, residential homes.
pots built in this way can be of enormous size or made
on a tiny, dainty scale. Slab-built pots are made by Wood has been used to make functional objects such
rolling out clay and cutting carefully measured pieces, as furniture, boxes, boats, and homes. Northwest Coast
which are then assembled by applying liquid clay, called Indians carve boxes and house boards with traditional
slip, to the edges that are to be joined. designs. People all over the world have made wooden
boats in varying practical and aesthetic forms. Today,

The potter’s wheel was used in many ancient cultures artists make all kinds of objects from wood. Such
and continues to be used by artists today. Using the objects may be functional, but first and foremost, they
potter’s wheel, the potter forms the basic shapes of the aim to be aesthetically pleasing. Functional objects
pot by manipulating the ball of clay as it turns on the like tables and chairs assume the status of art when
wheel. When a potter uses a potter’s wheel to create the design is unique, the craftsmanship superb, and the
pots, these pots are described as being “thrown.” visual effect beautiful. Sometimes these objects may
Throwing allows for particularly thin-walled pots in a no longer be functional, but become art for art’s sake.
wide variety of shapes. Many potters combine hand-
built and thrown forms to create beautiful objects that Architecture
may or may not be functional. Architecture is the art and science of designing
and constructing buildings. People in every culture
Once the clay form has air-dried, the kiln, a and geographic area have designed shelters that
specialized oven, is loaded and fired. In the kiln, meet their needs for protection. As people have
all remaining moisture is driven out of the clay, and imagined structures for a variety of communal and
a chemical change takes place. The pots harden personal uses, they have developed various methods
permanently. Then, glazes made of clay and minerals of construction to realize their ideas. Specialists in
that provide color may be applied to the surface of designing structures have become known as architects.
the pots, and the pots are fired once again. The glazes
melt, forming a glassy, waterproof surface on the pots In early times, materials that could be found locally
that is both decorative and useful. The surface of a were used for building. Sticks, mud, grass, animal
ceramic piece can also be decorated with applied clay skins, ice, and wood were used in different climatic
designs or with decorations incised or carved into the areas. Later, brick and stone were also used. An
surface of the piece. important architectural development was the use of
the post-and-lintel construction technique in which
Fiber arts include both woven and nonwoven materials. a long stone or wooden beam is placed horizontally
Weaving has a long history in the production of across upright posts. The famous Greek Parthenon
materials for clothing and other household needs. is an example of post-and-lintel construction. This
Some weaving techniques use a loom while others rely method is still commonly used today, with steel and

45
Flying buttresses at Bath Abbey, Bath, England.
wood being the favored materials. During the Industrial Revolution, many new materials
and processes for building were developed. In 1851 the
Other key developments in architecture include the arch, Crystal Palace, so named because it consisted mainly
the vault, and the dome. Each of these is a variation of glass walls that were held in place by a framework of
of the same concept that allowed for greater height slim, iron rods, was built for the world’s fair in London.
and more interior open space inside a building. The The Eiffel Tower in Paris, an amazing and beautiful
Romans were great engineers, and the Colosseum in monument, is primarily a framework of wrought iron.
Rome provides a fine example of vaulted construction.
The Romans developed concrete as a building material, Antoni Gaudi (1852–1926) created ingenious buildings
which they used in building aqueducts, great baths, and of cut stone in Spain in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
other public works projects. Without any flat surfaces or straight lines, Gaudi’s
buildings are very organic in appearance. While we
In the medieval period, a skeletal building style usually think of buildings as being more modular,
developed that alternated between strong buttresses having a regular and geometric shape, many architects
and thin walls with stained-glass windows, which have challenged this notion and have searched for
admitted more light and color into the building. Many aesthetically interesting designs and new materials to
medieval cathedrals provide classic examples of this move beyond the idea of a building as merely being a
method. The addition of flying buttresses—external box-shaped construction.
arches that counterbalanced the outward thrust of the
high, vaulted ceilings—allowed for even more height Steel and concrete have become the favored materials
and window openings. for large public, commercial, and multi-family housing
while wood and brick continue to be commonly used

46
for residential homes. While many buildings are and social revolution. Romanticism, in turn,
designed by builders using more standardized plans, was a reaction to the classicizing tendencies of
leading architects continue to explore new and exciting Neoclassical art. Romanticism sought to appeal
designs and materials. to the emotions and the senses.
ealism and Impressionism both emerged in
R
SECTION I SUMMARY the second half of the nineteenth century. Both
rt history is an academic discipline that
A movements were focused on everyday life as a

seeks to reconstruct the social, cultural, and subject matter, although Impressionism became
economic contexts in which an artwork was increasingly concerned with ideas of visual
created. The basic goal of this work is to arrive perception.
at an understanding of art and its meaning in its ther late nineteenth-century developments
O
original historical context. Art historians rely on included Post-Impressionism and the Pre-
a variety of documents and sources in order to Raphaelites.
conduct formal and contextual analyses. odernism emerged in the early twentieth
M

he history of Western art is often studied
T century. Important modernist movements
chronologically. This study begins with early include Cubism, Expressionism, Dada,
cave paintings in southeastern France and takes Surrealism, and Abstract Expressionism.
us to contemporary art all over the world. he Armory Show in New York (1913) marked
T

arly civilizations arose in Mesopotamia.
E a shift in the art world, as the United States
Other ancient Western cultures important became a new center of progressive artistic
for their art traditions include Egypt and activity.

Nubia, and the civilizations of the Aegean op Art, Minimalism, and Photorealism
P

Islands, Greece, and Rome. The artworks that responded to a post-WWII industrial culture.
have survived from ancient civilizations are Installations, performance, and Environmental
those made of durable materials. Often these art (also known as Land art or Earthworks) all
artworks were preserved in places that were sought to challenge conventional ideas of art
relatively inaccessible. and its limitations.
remendous shifts occurred in the art of
T I n the past, areas of nonwestern art were not

the medieval period with the emergence of incorporated in the chronological study of
Christianity as a major religion and the Church Western art; distinct regions of the world have
as a powerful patron of the arts. often been studied separately. Today, though,
he Church remained an important patron of art
T many art historians are challenging this based
during the Renaissance and Baroque periods; at on the realization that art throughout the
the same time, there was also a rise in secular world is interconnected, especially in terms of
artworks during these periods, in light of the contemporary art. Art historians sometimes
Protestant Reformation and general societal and rely on different methods to understand
economic shifts throughout Europe. nonwestern art.
ajor innovations of the Renaissance include
M hina, India, and Japan are among the major
C
the use of linear perspective and a move toward cultures of Asia. All three countries have
greater naturalism. Baroque art is generally ancient traditions and have produced art that
distinct from Renaissance art because of its relates to political power and religious practice.
greater sense of movement and drama. ncient traditions can also be found in Africa.
A

he Rococo style of art was closely tied to
T Often the arts of Africa and Oceania were
the power of the French aristocracy prior created for very different functions from art in
to the Revolution of 1789. The Neoclassical the Western traditions; consequently, there are
movement may in part be seen as a reaction tremendous formal differences as well.
to the Rococo and a response to the political Islam is a major world religion that has produced


47
much art. Most Islamic art is non-figurative. shape and form, perspective, color, texture, and
ncient civilizations existed in the Americas
A composition.

as well. Archaeology is often used to learn rtists throughout time have worked in
A
about these civilizations and their art. a variety of media, including drawing,
I n addition to understanding context, art printmaking, painting, photography, sculpture,

historians seek to describe the formal qualities mixed media, performance, craft and folk art,
of artworks. Important terms used to discuss and architecture.
the formal qualities of an artwork include: line,

48
Sect ion 2
Colonial Portraiture
HISTORY OF EARLY AMERICAN
PORTRAITURE
In the British colonial period, when Puritans began to
settle in New England in the early to mid-seventeenth
century, portraiture became a way for new settlers
to establish identity and record family lineages in
a place that was far removed from the established
social structures of England. The Puritans explicitly
rejected religious painting in their places of worship,
as they associated it with excess and idolatry. However,
portraiture could be used as a means of demonstrating

piety. Puritans believed in the Calvinist doctrine of
prosperity, which was the belief that God rewarded
the hardworking and religious faithful with material
The interior of a Puritan church built in Hingham,
wealth.1 While the Puritans disavowed ostentatious Massachusetts, in 1681. Puritan churches were unadorned
displays of prosperity, painted portraits allowed them and plain, and the Puritans rejected religious painting in their
to communicate the presence of God’s blessing in places of worship, as they associated it with excess and idolatry.
subtle ways. Photo by Michael Carter
Puritan painters favored the Elizabethan style of

portraiture, as opposed to the Grand Manner style dark, neutral background further focuses attention on
that later came to dominate British portraiture in the the details of dress and accessories. His wife Elizabeth
eighteenth century, inspired by the court paintings of wears a pearl necklace, a garnet bracelet, and gold ring,
Anthony van Dyck. Elizabethan portraiture was linear and her clothing is adorned with ribbons and delicate
and heavily focused on costume details. The pendant lace. The lace would have been imported from Europe,
portraits of John Freake and Elizabeth Freake and the pearls from China, and the garnets from India.3 The
Baby Mary, painted around 1671 and 1674, exemplify paired paintings suggest not only the sitters’ wealth,
this tradition. They were intended to demonstrate the but also their involvement in the global trade and rising
religious devotion and wealth of the sitters. The artist consumerism of the seventeenth century.
is unknown, but he was likely an itinerant limner—a Another painting of this period similarly shows an
self-taught painter who moved from place to place, interest in the world beyond the colonies; Thomas
who would paint signage as well as formal portraits. Smith’s Self-Portrait from c. 1680 pictures the artist
The male sitter, John Freake, was a wealthy Boston in the foreground with a window view of a seascape
merchant and lawyer. He is shown in a dark brown showing Dutch and English ships. Smith was not a
velvet coat decorated with twenty-two shiny, silver trained artist. He was likely a mariner involved in
buttons.2 While the colors are sober, Freake’s wealth is international trade; his wealth is apparent from the
signaled by the rich materials on display, including his fine ruffled lace adorning his neck. However, his hand
intricate lace collar, elaborate cuffs, and gloves. The rests upon a skull, a traditional memento mori symbol
in art. Memento mori is a Latin phrase meaning,

49
“remember that you will die”; its inclusion here the colonial era and the early republic. Colonial folk
suggests that earthly wealth and accomplishments are portraiture is characterized by its flatness and linearity.
meaningless in the face of the afterlife. The painting In contrast, artists like John Smibert introduced
thus indicates Smith’s wealth and social stature linked modeling and naturalism to the colonies. Smibert, who
to his past as a sea captain, while also acknowledging was born in Scotland and studied art in London, was
the futility of material wealth in the face of mortality. the first academically trained artist to live and work in
By the eighteenth century, the spiritual questions that the colonies. His groundbreaking 1728 painting The
preoccupied the Puritans had subsided somewhat, but Bermuda Group (Dean Berkeley and his Entourage)
portraiture remained an important tool for asserting showed a complex arrangement of figures in different
identity and social status. poses. Smibert was an important influence on the
next generation of American painters, including John
Limners continued to provide portraits throughout Singleton Copley.
SELECTED WORK: John Singleton Copley, Paul Revere, 1768

John Singleton Copley: Biography
Like Paul Revere, John Singleton Copley was
born in Boston. Born in 1738, Copley was the
only son of an Anglo-Irish couple, Richard and
Mary Singleton Copley. His father died when he
was young, and his mother married an English

engraver and portraitist named Peter Pelham
in 1748.4 Pelham provided his stepson with a
crucial introduction to painting, drawing, and
printmaking. Unfortunately, Pelham died just
over three years after marrying Copley’s mother.
Copley took over Pelham’s studio when he was
only thirteen. He taught himself to paint using his
stepfather’s anatomy books and art prints as study
guides. Three years later he also purchased the
contents of John Smibert’s studio.5 Smibert was a
portraitist who had trained in Europe and owned a
broad array of Old Master prints and engravings.
While it became increasingly common for
eighteenth-century American artists to travel to
England for training, Copley was largely self-
taught and did not go abroad until late in his
career. Nevertheless, he became highly sought
Self-portrait of John Singleton Copley, from c. 1769.
after in Boston for his lifelike, richly detailed
portraits. He did, however, seek the approval of the
British art establishment. In 1765, he painted a portrait of his younger half-brother Henry Pelham, and sent
the painting to the annual exhibition of the Society of Artists of Great Britain.6 Titled Boy with a Squirrel,
the painting attracted the attention of Benjamin West, an American-born artist who had moved to London.
The painting’s realism highlighted Copley’s ability to convincingly paint a range of textures and surfaces.
West wrote to Copley and implored him to come to London to learn the European painting tradition.7 Copley
would eventually take West up on his offer, but not for nine years. Until then, he continued to earn a good
living by painting portraits of members of Boston and New York society.

50
In 1769, Copley married Susanna Farmham
Clarke, the daughter of a wealthy merchant.
The couple would eventually have six children
together, and due to Copley’s success as a
portraitist and his wife’s family money, they
were able to purchase property on Beacon Hill
next door to John Hancock, one of the wealthiest
men in Boston.8 The 1770s were a turbulent
time in the city, as tension with the British was
increasing. Copley maintained friendships with
both revolutionary and loyalist factions. His
portrait of Paul Revere, who was a vocal member
of the Sons of Liberty, was among his best-known
A broadside from 1765, advertising a planned gathering of the
works. But Copley’s father-in-law, Richard Clarke,
Sons of Liberty.
was a loyalist whose cargo was tossed into Boston
Harbor during the Boston Tea Party. As tensions in the city reached a fever pitch, Copley left the country for
London in 1774. His entire family followed, and they never returned to America.
Paul Revere: Patriot, Printer, Silversmith

Paul Revere was born in Boston in 1734. His father was a French Huguenot named Apollos Rivoire who had
anglicized his name to Revere in 1729. His mother, Deborah Hitchborn, was part of an established Boston

family that owned a shipping wharf. Paul was the third of twelve children. His father was a silversmith, and
Paul left school at thirteen to become his apprentice. Working as a silversmith allowed Revere to interact
with a broad range of Boston society, which proved useful when he later became politically active.9 Revere’s
father died in 1754, and after a brief stint in the army during the French and Indian War, Paul returned to
Boston and took over the family silver shop.
Discontent with British rule fomented in Boston as the local economy felt the effects of the Stamp Act of
1765. England had been financially devastated by the Seven Years’ War, and taxing the colonies was an
attempt to bring in more revenue. That same year, Revere joined a group of militants who called themselves
the Sons of Liberty and formed an organized opposition to the taxation policies enacted upon its colonies
by the British government. Revere not only engraved silverware with monograms and family crests, but he
also began engraving metal plates for printing and operated a small printing press in his workshop. After the
Boston Massacre of 1770, Revere engraved a drawing by Henry Pelham (who was John Singleton Copley’s
half-brother), which was widely circulated.
Three years later, Revere was among the ringleaders of the Boston Tea Party, when colonists dumped
tea from British merchant ships into Boston Harbor. Between 1773 and 1775, Revere served as a courier,
delivering news of political unrest in Boston to New York and Philadelphia. Despite his activities, Revere
was still better known in his lifetime as a silversmith than as an activist. Records of Revere’s silver
commissions reveal that he sold practical items, including flatware, shoe buckles, and buttons.10 However,
in the years that followed the Revolutionary War, he saw an increased demand for more intricately designed
silver goods, such as elaborately decorated teapots and sugar bowls. Tea drinking, which had been curtailed
during the Revolution in part due to the resistance to British taxes, returned in full force after the war ended.
Prior to the war it was common for colonists to acquire individual silver pieces, but after the war it became
popular to purchase large tea services. Beyond their Revolutionary War significance, Revere’s teapots are
a form of material culture that embodies the interconnected economy of the eighteenth century; they were
formed with silver from Mexico, fashioned into pots in Boston to brew tea from Asia, which was sweetened

51
with sugar processed from sugarcane harvested
in the Caribbean by enslaved Africans.11 Today
examples of Revere’s silverwork can be found
at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Revere was not widely known outside of Boston
in his lifetime. His fame took hold more than forty
years after his death, when Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow’s poem “Paul Revere’s Ride,” was
published to wide acclaim in the January 1861
issue of The Atlantic Monthly. The poem refers
to an incident on April 18, 1775, when Revere
was sent to warn John Hancock, Samuel Adams,
and others that British soldiers were on their way
to Lexington. However, the poem takes several
liberties with the truth. Revere was accompanied
by two other men not mentioned in the poem. It
was one of them, Samuel Prescott, who completed
the mission and alerted the residents of Concord of
the approaching soldiers while Revere was himself
briefly detained by British forces.

Subject Matter and Visual Analysis
Copley knew Paul Revere for several years
before Revere had become a devoted patriot and
member of the Sons of Liberty. Revere’s reputation
as a silversmith was well-established, and he
A 1916 depiction of Paul Revere’s ride.
occasionally made the silver frames Copley used
for his portrait miniatures. This portrait of Revere,
wherein Copley paints Revere in his studio, wearing work clothes, helps to distinguish an American painting
tradition that was distinct from that of Europe. Revere is shown holding a silver teapot that he crafted himself,
and his fingernails are visibly dirty. His fingers are reflected on the surface of the teapot, which furthers the
connection between his hand and his creation.
The tools that he used to engrave the silver lie in front of him, and he appears to be acknowledging the
viewer with a direct glance, while his chin rests upon his hand as if he is engaged in a thoughtful exchange.
He is wigless and wears an unbuttoned vest with a simple cotton or linen shirt that is open at the neck,
with no cravat or necktie. Showing one of his hands holding a teapot and the other posed in a gesture of
contemplation, the image of Revere suggests that he is capable of both physical labor and lofty thought. The
informality of Revere’s dress and the inclusion of his work tools give an immediacy to the painting; it feels as
though we, the viewers, have interrupted him at his work.12
One of Copley’s strengths as a painter was his ability to convey a range of different textures and surfaces.
This skill is on full display here, from the gleaming sheen of the silver teapot to the reflective gloss of the
wood tabletop, as well as the wrinkled cotton of Revere’s work shirt. The reflection of Revere’s shirt and
tools can be seen in the polished tabletop; this belies the naturalism of the scene since it seems more likely
that it is a rough workshop bench.13 The decision to have Revere holding a teapot was likely a deliberate one.
In 1767, a year prior to the painting’s commission, Britain enacted the Townshend Acts to raise money by

52
taxing glass, paint, oil, lead, paper, and tea. As a silversmith, Paul Revere produced everything from spoons
and buttons to tankards and coffee pots. The deliberate inclusion of the teapot is a subtle nod toward the
antipathy against the Townshend Acts and Revere’s political affinities, as well as his involvement with the
Sons of Liberty. Tensions over the Townshend Acts would escalate in the years that followed, culminating in
the Boston Tea Party in 1773, which Revere would help plan. Coincidentally, one of the ships involved was
owned by Copley’s father-in-law, the loyalist Richard Clarke.
Copley established his reputation by painting more traditional, formal aristocratic portraits. However,
this painting is an anomaly in that it focuses on the nobility of work. It is a representation of an emerging
nation that aspired to be nonhierarchical. Rather than valuing wealth and status, the portrait speaks instead
to the nobility of work, thoughtfulness, and egalitarianism. It is necessary to note, however, that equality
was very narrowly defined in this moment and limited to white, landowning men. The painting reveals an
early awareness that art could play a powerful role in creating heroic models for the new nation and for
shaping democratic ideals. Portraits of Samuel Adams and John Hancock, two other noted patriots and
Sons of Liberty, were publicly displayed in Faneuil Hall in Boston. But the Revere portrait was unknown
to the public until 1928, when it was first lent to the Museum of Fine Arts.14 Prior to that it had been in the
possession of Revere’s descendants and relegated to an attic. The popularity of Longfellow’s poem led to
greater interest in the portrait.

SELECTED WORK: After (?) Scipio Moorhead, published by Archibald
Bell, Portrait of Phillis Wheatley, 1773
Phillis Wheatley, the subject of this portrait, was
born in Gambia in West Africa around 1753. There
she was kidnapped by slave traders and brought to
Boston when she was a young child. She arrived in
the city on July 11, 1761, aboard a slave ship called
Phillis, which was the origin of Wheatley’s first
name.15 Her last name was assigned by the family
who enslaved her. At the time, roughly 1,000 of
Boston’s 15,000 residents were enslaved people.16
Phillis was sold by a slave dealer named John Avery
to a merchant named John Wheatley and his wife
Susanna. The intention was for her to work in the A statue of Phillis Wheatley in Boston, Massachusetts.
Image: © Jixue Yang/Dreamstime.com
house for Susanna, but she was in fragile health
from the trans-Atlantic crossing when she arrived.
Susanna Wheatley and her daughter Mary began teaching Phillis to read Greek, Latin, and English. This was
far from typical, as the majority of enslaved people were deprived education as part of their subjugation.
The Wheatleys quickly realized that the young, enslaved girl was a precocious student, rapidly absorbing
lessons in history, geography, and literature. Wheatley’s later writing reveals that she was familiar
with the work of Alexander Pope, John Milton, Virgil, Ovid, and Homer.17 She was a gifted writer and
published her first poem as a young teen in the Rhode Island Newport Mercury newspaper in 1767.18 She
attracted considerable attention in 1770 when she published an elegiac poem following the death of the
Reverend George Whitefield. Whitefield was a prominent Anglican preacher who was one of the founders

53
of Methodism. Based in Britain, he traveled
throughout the colonies where his evangelizing
sermons attracted large audiences. Wheatley’s
poem drew interest in both London and New
England, especially among the growing
evangelical community, and her poems started
appearing regularly in newspapers.
Susanna Wheatley sought help in publishing a book
of Phillis’s work and located a sympathetic patron
in Selena Hastings, who was a philanthropist and
the Countess of Huntingdon. Hastings was involved
in the Methodist movement, and the Reverend
Whitefield had been the Countess’ chaplain. She
was deeply moved by the elegy. The countess
secured a publisher and printer in London to
publish a book of Wheatley’s poetry titled Poems
on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral when the
poet was only twenty.19 Phillis Wheatley traveled
to London in hopes of meeting her patron and
promoting the publication, but the countess was ill,
and the two were never able to meet. Nevertheless,

Wheatley dedicated her book to Hastings.
Abolitionists were vocal in England in the
eighteenth century, and a 1772 legal judgment
Portrait of Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon. The
ruled that enslaved people could not be moved out countess secured a printer and publisher for Wheatley’s book
of England against their will. Some sharp British of poetry.
critics noted the irony that American colonists
were agitating for freedom while simultaneously keeping African-Americans enslaved. One anonymous
critic wrote of Wheatley, “[w]e are much concerned to find that this ingenious young woman is yet a slave.
The people of Boston boast themselves chiefly on their principles of liberty. One such act as the purchase of
her freedom, would, in our opinion, have done them more honour than hanging a thousand trees with ribbons
and emblems.”20 The author, writing in December 1773, was not aware that Phillis Wheatley had just been
freed several months earlier. By the time she returned to London in the fall of 1773, Susanna Wheatley, who
was ill and nearing the end of her life, arranged for Phillis’ emancipation. She was a free woman when her
book of poetry, published in London, arrived in New England in January 1774.
During the war, Wheatley sent General Washington a poem written in his honor, and he wrote back asking
that she visit him in Cambridge.21 She had previously met with Benjamin Franklin and Sir Brook Watson
(the subject of Copley’s painting of Watson and the Shark) while in London. She commemorated the end
of the Revolutionary War with a poem titled Liberty and Peace, A Poem. The war years that followed were
personally difficult for Wheatley. Susanna Wheatley died in 1774, followed by John and Mary in 1778. The
country had undergone an economic crisis in the aftermath of the Revolutionary War, as countless businesses
failed, while bankruptcies and foreclosures were rampant. Phillis struggled to make a living, and despite
her fame she was not able to secure funding to publish a second volume of poetry. She married John Peters,
a free black man in 1778, but the marriage was strained and marked by financial troubles. The couple had
three children, but none survived. Phillis Wheatley died at the age of thirty-one after giving birth to her third
child, who died the same day.22 They were buried together in an unmarked grave. Peters sold his wife’s books
and manuscripts to cover debts.

54
This portrait appeared as the frontispiece of
Wheatley’s book of poetry. It was printed by
Archibald Bell. However, the engraving was based
upon a portrait, likely by the African-American
artist Scipio Moorhead. This was a radical
representation of an enslaved woman of the period
in that she is depicted as an intellectual, rather than
as a servant. The poet is depicted in the moment of
creative inspiration. She is shown in profile wearing
a day dress with an apron, kerchief, and mobcap
and is seated at an oval writing desk with a book, an
inkwell, and a blank piece of paper. Wheatley holds
a quill pen in her right hand, hovering just above a
blank sheet, on the verge of bringing pen to paper.
Her left hand extends upward to her chin in the
classical “thinker” pose as she gazes upward into
the distance, seemingly lost in thought. Her lips are
pursed, suggesting a resolute concentration.
“Am I Not a Man and a Brother?”, 1787 medallion designed
There are similarities between her pose and that by Josiah Wedgwood for the British anti-slavery campaign.
of Copley’s portrait of Dorothy Quincy (Mrs. John Abolitionists were vocal in eighteenth-century England.

Hancock) from 1772. Both women rest their chin
in their hands while they gaze off into the distance. Copley’s portraits of prominent Bostonians were frequently
exhibited throughout the city and would have been well-known among Boston artists. Copley, however,
does not show Dorothy Quincy, or any woman, in the act of writing. Portraiture of this period typically used
attributes to define the wealth and social identity of the sitter, and women were typically presented in passive
postures. Copley’s painting emphasizes Dorothy Quincy’s costume, lavishing attention on her pink silk gown
adorned with bows, lace cuffs, and the frilly cap atop her head. She is surrounded by fashionable furniture.
Three years after the portrait was painted, Quincy married John Hancock, the first signer of the Declaration of
Independence and the first governor of Massachusetts. The pose of Wheatley’s portrait references one of the
most prominent citizens in Boston. However, Wheatley is presented in an active rather than passive position.
This image is groundbreaking in that Wheatley is defined as a writer and thinker.
The text that is inscribed in the border that frames the printed portrait reads: “Phillis Wheatley, Negro
servant to John Wheatley, of Boston.” Here servant is being used as a euphemism for an enslaved person
tasked with domestic chores. While the blank page implies unlimited potential, the oval frame detailing her
position circumscribes the subject within a limited sphere. Thus, while she dreams and writes of a world
beyond her station, Phillis Wheatley remains defined and confined by her circumstances.
Scipio Moorhead and the Question of the Image’s Authorship

While the definitive attribution of the Wheatley portrait is unknown because it is unsigned, most scholars
believe that Scipio Moorhead produced the artwork. Born around 1750, Moorhead was among the earliest
known African-American artists operating in the colonial era.23 It is believed that Moorhead was an enslaved
person in the household of Reverend John Moorhead of Boston. He might have learned to draw and paint
from Moorhead’s wife Sarah, who was an art teacher. Moorhead’s artistic services were advertised in the
Boston Newsletter, where he was described as possessing an “extraordinary genius.”24
Wheatley and Moorhead were neighbors and knew each other in Boston, and Moorhead was commissioned

55
to create a portrait of the poet. The original portrait that was the basis for the engraving was an ink drawing.
It had likely been drawn in Boston and sent to London to be engraved. The portrait was described in the
British press as a “fine likeness.” Wheatley had dedicated a poem to Moorhead, titled “To S.M., a young
African painter, on seeing his works,” wherein she describes the creative process as follows:
To show the lab’ring bosom’s deep intent,
And thought in living characters to paint,
When first thy pencil did those beauties give,
And breathing figures learnt from thee to live,
How did those prospects give my soul delight,
A new creation rushing on my sight?
Still, wond’rous youth! Each noble path pursue
On deathless glories fix thine ardent view:
Still may the painter’s and the poet’s fire
To aid thy pencil, and thy verse conspire!25
Wheatley’s poem links painters and poets together, thus suggesting that artists and writers like Moorhead
and herself could work together to enlighten the public. Unfortunately, none of Moorhead’s original paintings
are extant. But the portrait of Phillis Wheatley that emphasizes her creative drive and intelligence is a
testament to Moorhead’s abilities.

SELECTED WORK: Prudence Punderson, The First, Second and Last
Scene of Mortality, c. 1776–83
Embroidery and Needlework as

Creative Expression
While the majority of eighteenth-century American
women were denied access to traditional fine arts
training, most were taught handicrafts like sewing,
weaving, and embroidery from a young age. As
a result, samplers and needlework provided a
creative outlet for this generation of women. While
girls and boys were taught to read, in most of the
colonies only boys were instructed to write. Girls
were left to learn to form letters with an embroidery
needle and by creating a sampler, which was a piece
of needlework displaying various stitches, often
containing the alphabet or an embroidered verse.26
Young women from middle-class backgrounds
in urban centers such as Boston, Newport, and While most eighteenth-century American women were denied
Philadelphia were sometimes sent to private access to traditional fine arts training, most were taught
academies, where they would be taught needlework handicrafts like sewing, weaving, and embroidery from a
alongside music and watercolor painting.27 young age.
These schools would put on view their students’

56
embroidery in annual exhibitions, where awards
were given for excellence. Before women were
allowed to join fine art academies like the National
Academy of Design, these annual needlework
exhibitions were the only opportunity afforded
to women to publicly display their creativity. The
highly individualized samplers were an outlet for
women to express themselves, as one Maryland girl
did when she embroidered hers with the sentiment
“Patty Polk did this and she hated every stitch she
did in it. She loves to read much more.”28

This embroidered picture uses green, brown,
black, gold, and cream thread on a silk ground,
and measures just under thirteen inches tall and
An embroidered sampler created by Mary Hearn in 1793.
under seventeen inches wide.29 The composition
depicts a well-appointed colonial room in
Connecticut and includes a title, signed in black ink on the bottom of the picture: The First, Second and Last
Scene of Mortality. The title reveals that this is not simply an embroidered scene of a woman in a domestic
interior. The artist, Prudence Punderson, has created a continuous narrative showing three stages of an

upper-middle-class white woman’s life, moving from birth to middle age, and ending with death, combined
into a single self-portrait. On the right, we see her as a baby in a cradle, being tended by a black female
servant or enslaved person. This inclusion reveals the importance of African-American labor during the early
colonial period. Above the woman is a picture within a picture, Punderson embroidered a framed painting
showing a woman leaning against a wall with a male guard or soldier in medieval garb standing behind her.
The center of the needlework shows Punderson as a fully grown woman working on an art project. She chose
to depict herself as an artist at work, which fosters a visual connection to the Phillis Wheatley portrait. Both
works focus attention upon women seated at tea tables, wearing caps, and surrounded by tools as they prepare
to create. The baby in a wooden cradle to the right, which represents the first stage of life, also can indicate that
the woman in the center is a mother. On the left is a coffin marked with the initials P. P., alluding to the artist’s
name. There is a mirror on the wall above the coffin; it is covered, which was a common mourning practice.
Using thread rather than a paintbrush, Punderson succeeded in creating a continuous, complex narrative
operating on multiple levels of meaning, all contained within a small needlework picture. This work also
gives the viewer a window into what domestic interiors of the period looked like. The Pundersons were well-
to-do, as evidenced by the window treatments, gilt mirror, Chippendale-style tea table, and geometric floor
covering. The frank acknowledgement of the artist’s own eventual death as part of the cycle of life is also
reminiscent of the Puritan portrait of Thomas Smith with a skull. The subject matter, contemplating one’s
own mortality, is seemingly morose, but death was a frequent occurrence in colonial America. The average
life expectancy for a New Englander at birth was forty-two years for women, and outbreaks of diseases such
as smallpox, typhus, and yellow fever were common in the colonies.30 Punderson herself would later die at
the early age of twenty-six, shortly after giving birth to her first child. The work might be the earliest self-
portrait by an American woman artist.
Contextual Analysis
Prudence Punderson was born in Preston, Connecticut, in 1758. She was the oldest of the eight children of
Ebenezer and Prudence Geer Punderson. She married Dr. Timothy Wells Rossiter following the American

57
Revolution; this needlework picture would have been sewn prior to her marriage in 1783.31 The couple had
been courting since Prudence was twenty, but they were driven apart during the war. Punderson’s father
was a loyalist, and the family’s goods were confiscated in 1778. The family fled to Long Island to escape the
rising tension and lived there under reduced circumstances for several years. During this time, Prudence
took up domestic work to earn money. Rossiter, who was a patriot, stayed in Connecticut. After being apart
for five years during the war, the young couple reunited and married. Unfortunately, Prudence would die
less than a year later, after giving birth to their daughter Sophia. In 2010, the contemporary artist Kiki
Smith used this artwork as inspiration for an installation called Sojourn at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.32
The installation was a multi-layer site-specific exploration of the cycles of a woman’s life. Punderson’s
embroidery was lent to the exhibition, allowing visitors to make connections between the two artists.
SELECTED WORK: Robert Edge Pine, Patience Lovell Wright, c. 1782

Patience Wright: Biography
This portrait depicts Patience Wright, who was
a waxwork sculptor during the colonial period.
Born Patience Lovell in 1725 in Bordentown, New
Jersey, she grew up on a farm with Quaker parents.

At twenty she moved to Philadelphia, where she
married a cooper named Joseph Wright. The couple
moved back to Bordentown, where she raised a
family for twenty years. After her husband died,
Wright began sculpting to support her family. She
and her sister, Rachel Wells, went into business
creating wax portraits.33 Although Wright and her
sister were entirely self-taught, she had sculpted
with modeling clay as a hobby since childhood.
As her reputation grew, Wright moved to New
York in order to reach a wider clientele. Wright
began by modeling small portrait busts and
cameos and progressed to creating life-sized
figures. Soon she became highly sought after
for her portrait sculptures, and her waxworks
of notable figures like the famed evangelist
Reverend Whitefield toured the East Coast. The
wax statues she created were fully dressed, and
featured details such as eyelashes, glass eyes, and
realistically tinted skin tones. Wax sculpture was
a popular medium but was not considered fine art, Portrait of Patience Lovell Wright as a young woman.
and such works were exhibited at fairs rather than
salons or galleries. Wright’s clients included the lieutenant governor of New York.
Sadly, a fire ravaged Wright’s New York studio in 1771, destroying many of her artworks. After this setback,
Wright decided to seek her fortune in London and moved there with her children in 1772. In London she
set up waxwork displays to advertise her skill and started receiving commissions from prominent figures in

58
London society. She modeled a portrait bust of
Benjamin Franklin, as well as one of the famed
expatriate artist Benjamin West. She sculpted
King George, Queen Charlotte, and the Countess
of Huntingdon (Phillis Wheatley’s patron).
Unfortunately, few of Wright’s wax sculptures
remain. Wax is a delicate medium subject to
breakage and damage from temperature changes.
However, one of the artist’s few surviving
sculptures can be found in the collection of
Westminster Abbey. It is a portrait statue of Sir
William Pitt, Earl of Chatham. Pitt was known for
his defense of colonial rights against the Stamp
Act during the late 1760s, when he served as
Prime Minister from 1766 until 1768. Sculpted
in 1769, Pitt is shown wearing a wig and his
parliamentary robes. His right arm is extended,
and he has a scroll in his hand. A twentieth-
century cleaning of the sculpture revealed great
attention to detail; his hands are veined and even
include tiny hairs. Pitt’s facial expression conveys

intelligence as well as compassion. Wright referred
to Pitt as a “guardian angel” of America because
he was a vocal proponent of the colonies.34 A wax bust of Benjamin Franklin, created by Patience Wright
in c.1775.
Even though Patience Wright relocated to London,
she remained an outspoken advocate for both American independence and the rights of women throughout
her life. She criticized the policies of King George the third, who nevertheless invited her to the palace for a
portrait sitting. Her political allegiances were well known, and once the Revolution broke out in America, she
was excluded from royal circles. Despite this, she remained in London throughout the war. She would ship
busts to her sisters for display in New York and Philadelphia, and it was said that she passed notes with political
information gleaned from her contacts with high-level British officials inside the wax heads of her sculptures.
She may have also passed information on to Benjamin Franklin in Paris. Wright was inspired by George
Washington’s leadership and wrote to him asking if he would sit for her. She had plans to embark upon a series
of monuments honoring the heroes of the Revolutionary War. Washington replied that he would be honored to
do so, but in 1786 Wright died before she was able to return to America to carry out the commission.35

Robert Edge Pine painted Patience Wright’s portrait in 1782. Pine was a British portrait painter, born in
London in 1730. Pine was excluded from the group that founded the British Royal Academy of Art on
account of his radical politics. Like Wright, he was sympathetic to the American quest for independence,
and he painted Benjamin Franklin’s portrait while Franklin was in London. Pine’s career took the opposite
trajectory of Wright’s insofar as Wright had been born in the Philadelphia area and relocated to London,
living there until her death, while Pine moved to Philadelphia in 1784 and lived there for the remainder of his
life. Once in America, Pine went on to paint several notable citizens, including George Washington and his
mother, Mary Ball Washington.
Pine’s painting seems to allude to Wright’s identity as an artist and her creative process. Wright is shown

59
with an intense, upward gaze as though she is
studying a sitter. Attention is given to her right
hand, and her nimble fingers look active and ready
to sculpt. In her lap, under some gauzy fabric is a
large lump of wax.36 This is an allusion to Wright’s
unusual working technique; she used the heat of
her thighs to warm the wax and make it malleable.
Contemporary accounts described the technique,
“To keep the wax malleable she modeled the bust
under her apron, warming it with the heat of her
body. At a certain point she would pull the head
out from under the apron and put finishing touches
on it under the astonished gaze of the sitter.”37 As
described, the process almost gives the impression
that Wright would give birth to her sculptures. An
engraved print published in London magazines
with the caption, “Mrs. Wright Finishing a Busto,”
depicts Wright with a sculpted bust that she
appears to be lifting directly out of her skirts, as if
it emerged directly from her body. It was unusual
for a woman of this era to have a career with

such a public profile, and Wright received a lot of
attention for both her artwork and her outspoken
political beliefs.
Portrait of George Washington by Robert Edge Pine, 1785.
The Process of Sculpting in Wax
Waxwork sculpting is an additive sculptural process. Sculpture can be subtractive, which means that material
is carved out or removed, as in marble or wood carving, or it can be additive, meaning material is added
and modeled to create forms, as in clay or wax modeling. Beeswax works well for shaping figures because
it is somewhat pliable at room temperature and becomes increasingly malleable as the warmth of the artists’
hands softens the material. Beeswax melts at low temperatures and can be easily tinted when mixed with
pigments. Since wax is an organic material, it has been traditionally used to create effigies that bear an
uncanny resemblance to human flesh. Some wax figures are made from direct impressions of faces or bodies,
which further enhances their realistic appearance. Wax figures have been modelled throughout history,
from ancient Egypt through to the present, but they have not received significant art historical study.38 This
is partly because the medium is extremely fragile, and many wax sculptures have been destroyed. It is also
because waxwork displays of human figures, such as Madame Tussaud’s worldwide chain of wax museums,
are commonly associated with popular entertainment rather than fine art.

60
SELECTED WORK: Gilbert Stuart, George Washington (Lansdowne
Portrait), 1796
Gilbert Stuart: Biography
Gilbert Stuart was born in Newport, Rhode Island,
in 1755. His father was a Scottish immigrant who
found work in the manufacture of snuff. Stuart
showed an early interest in painting and apprenticed
with a local limner. He subsequently left America
to study art in England in 1777. In the colonial
period, it was common for American artists to
travel to Europe for formal art training. While in
Europe, Stuart met and studied with Benjamin
West. It is hard to overstate the importance of West
as a mentor, advisor, and instructor to an entire
generation of American artists at a time when the
colonies were still struggling to assert themselves
upon the international stage. West even provided
financial assistance to some artists, including
Stuart, who struggled with financial problems
throughout his career.

Stuart established his critical reputation when he
exhibited The Skater at the Royal Academy in
1782. Its feathery, loose, impressionistic brushwork
showed the influence of British portraitists,
including Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough,
Gilbert Stuart, self-portrait painted in 1778.
and George Romney. Grays and blacks dominate
the composition and accentuate the pink of the
man’s skin. It was Stuart who suggested that the sitter pose in ice skates because he thought it allowed the
subject to appear active yet poised.39 The success of this work led to numerous commissions. Unfortunately,
the commissions could not keep pace with Stuart’s extravagant lifestyle, and five years later he fled England
for Ireland in order to escape his debtors. Stuart remained in Ireland for five more years before he once again
racked up exorbitant debts. Facing the prospect of debtor’s prison, Stuart left Ireland and returned to America
in 1793. He arrived in Philadelphia, which was then both the largest city and the nation’s temporary capital.
Stuart came home with a plan to secure a commission to paint the president’s portrait, in the hopes that it
would help him rebuild his career.
Presidential Portraiture
In the period following the Revolutionary War, George Washington was elected and sworn in as president of
the newly formed United States of America in 1789. Artists and craftsman were then tasked with building a
new image for the nation, which would help unify the regional factions and colonies under a singular national
identity. A skeptical populace had to be persuaded to embrace the new categories of nation and president.
Between 1795 and 1825, Gilbert Stuart painted more than a hundred portraits of Washington, helping to
develop a unified iconography for the new republic.40
Stuart painted so many portraits of Washington that they have come to be distinguished by their alternate
titles. His most recognizable painting is known as the Athenaeum portrait because it was acquired by

61
the Boston Athenaeum shortly after the artist’s
death; today it is jointly owned by the Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston and the National Portrait
Gallery in Washington, D.C. This image of
George Washington has been reproduced more
than any other because it was the source of the
engraving of Washington that appears on the dollar
bill. Thus, more than any other image, it shapes
our collective idea of what the first president
looked like. Originally commissioned by Martha
Washington, the painting was left unfinished
when Stuart realized he had created a successful
likeness that he could use as a model for subsequent
paintings. Martha Washington pleaded for the
portrait, but Stuart refused to give it over. Leaving
it unfinished allowed the artist to keep it in his
studio indefinitely. Ultimately, Stuart copied the
portrait more than sixty times, and referred to these
works as his $100 bills, since that was the price
he charged for them.41 He had no way of knowing
that the portrait would one day circulate on the one

dollar bill. Although the background of the portrait
is neutral, with nothing to distract the viewer’s
attention, it also gives the painting a timeless
quality.
Portrait of Gilbert Stuart, painted by Sarah Goodridge,
Washington was said to have a pale complexion, c. 1825.
but Stuart portrays him here as pink skinned and
slightly ruddy. The painting emphasizes his aquiline nose and his sober, direct expression. His eyes look
lively and active, while his pursed lips suggest discipline and self-control.42 Stuart’s depiction of Washington
emphasized qualities the new, chaotic country needed, including moderation, restraint, and resolve. It
became so deeply etched in the population’s minds that by 1823 a writer and critic remarked, “Though a
better likeness of him were shown to us, we should reject it; for, the only idea that we now have of George
Washington is associated with Stuart’s Washington.”43

Stuart’s 1796 full-length painting of Washington, which pictured in your Art Reproductions Booklet
and is known as the Lansdowne portrait, was originally commissioned by Senator William Bingham of
Pennsylvania as a gift to the Marquis of Lansdowne.44 The original is now owned by the National Portrait
Gallery in Washington, D.C. Three copies of the Lansdowne Portrait were made, one of which has hung
in the East Room of the White House since 1800. The painting was famously rescued during the burning
of Washington in the War of 1812 by Dolley Madison and Paul Jennings, an enslaved man who was James
Madison’s personal servant.
This portrait is a clear depiction of Washington as a leader. Stuart used the Athenaeum portrait as a model
for painting the head but drew upon other sources for the body and pose. Here Washington stands with an
upraised arm, signaling that he intends to make a public address. It might be a reference to an address he
delivered to Congress in December 1795. He could also be bidding the nation goodbye; this was painted not
long before Washington’s Farewell Address to the Nation was published. Or, he could be gesturing toward

62
the nation’s future.
Stuart likely based the pose on a 1723 engraving by Pierre Drevet of Bishop Jacques Benigne Bossuet, after
a work by Rigaud; even the background is the same. The upright posture with an extended arm was also
common in Ancient Roman statues of Republican senators. This is clearly a picture of Washington the ruler,
not Washington the general. He is situated in an office as opposed to a battlefield. The books atop his table
and on the floor include a copy of the Constitution, volumes of The Federalist, and the Journals of Congress,
underscoring the president’s studious commitment to leading the country. The quill pen and inkwell might
refer to Washington’s signing bills into law.45
Symbols of the new nation are scattered about the room. We see an emblem of thirteen stars and stripes in
a medallion on the back of the chair, and there are bald eagles carved into the legs of the desk.
The table leg is carved to resemble fasces, the bound bundle of rods meant to symbolize power in ancient
Rome. The classical column in the background further ties the emerging nation to Greek democratic
ideals. The combination of a column and drapery as a backdrop was common in European Grand Manner
portraits of nobility. This can be seen in Hyacinthe Rigaud’s 1701 Portrait of Louis XIV and Anthony van
Dyck’s 1636 Portrait of Charles I. At the same time, Stuart makes clear that Washington is a democratically
elected leader and not a royal figure, with his sober, understated demeanor and simple, dark clothing. Rather
than the robes of a monarch, he wears the black suit of a citizen-leader. The sheathed sword at his side is a
ceremonial reminder that as president, Washington was also the head of the nation’s military. In the sky in

the background, you can see dark clouds dissipating and a rainbow emerging. While the new republic had
weathered turbulent times, the rainbow suggests the presence of continuing hope for the future.
SECTION II SUMMARY Selected Work: John Singleton Copley, Paul

History of Early American Portraiture Revere, 1768
When Puritans settled in New England in the Paul Revere was born in Boston in 1734. His
seventeenth century, portraiture became a father was a silversmith, and Paul left school at
way for new settlers to establish identity and thirteen to become his apprentice. Working as
record family lineages in a place that was far a silversmith allowed Revere to interact with
removed from the established social structures a broad range of Boston society, which proved
of England. useful when he later became politically active.
While the Puritans disavowed ostentatious In 1765, Revere joined the Sons of Liberty,
displays of prosperity, painted portraits allowed which formed as an organized opposition to
them to communicate the presence of God’s the taxation policies enacted by the British
blessing in subtle ways. government upon its colonies. Three years
later, he was among the ringleaders of the
By the eighteenth century, the spiritual
Boston Tea Party. Despite such activities,
questions that preoccupied the Puritans had
Revere was better known as a silversmith than
subsided somewhat, but portraiture remained
an activist in his lifetime.
an important tool for asserting identity and
social status. Like Paul Revere, John Singleton Copley was
born in Boston. The two men knew each other

63
for several years before Revere became a Born around 1750, Moorhead was among
member of the Sons of Liberty. the earliest known African American artists
Copley painted Revere in his studio, wearing operating in the colonial era.

work clothes. This informality distinguishes This was a radical representation of an
the American painting tradition from that of enslaved woman of the period in that she is
Europe. Showing one of his hands holding depicted as an intellectual, rather than as a
a teapot and the other posed in a gesture of servant.
contemplation, the image of Revere suggests Selected Work: Prudence Punderson, The First,
that he is capable of both physical labor and Second and Last Scene of Mortality, c. 1778−83
lofty thought.
Eighteenth-century American women were
The painting focuses attention on the nobility denied access to traditional fine arts training,
of work. It is a representation of an emerging but most were taught handicrafts like sewing,
nation that aspired to be nonhierarchical. weaving, and embroidery.
Rather than valuing wealth and status, the This composition depicts a well-appointed

portrait speaks instead to the importance of colonial room in Connecticut. The title reveals
hard work. that the artist, Prudence Punderson, has
Selected Work: After (?) Scipio Moorhead, created a continuous narrative showing three
published by Archibald Bell, Portrait of Phillis stages of a woman’s life, moving from birth to
Wheatley, 1773 middle age, and ending with death, combined
Phillis Wheatley was born in Gambia in West into a single self-portrait.
Africa around 1753. She was kidnapped by Using thread rather than a paintbrush,


slave traders and brought to Boston when she Punderson succeeded in creating a continuous,
was a young child. She was sold by a slave complex narrative operating on multiple levels
dealer to a merchant named John Wheatley and of meaning, all contained within a small
his wife Susanna. Susanna Wheatley and her needlework picture.
daughter Mary began teaching Phillis to read
Greek, Latin, and English and quickly realized The subject matter, contemplating one’s own
that she was a precocious student and gifted mortality, is seemingly morose but death was a
writer. frequent occurrence in colonial America.
As a teen, her poems started appearing The work might be the earliest self-portrait by

regularly in newspapers. When Wheatley an American woman artist.
was only twenty, the Countess of Huntingdon Selected Work: Robert Edge Pine, Patience
secured a publisher and printer in London to Lovell Wright, c. 1782
publish a book of her poetry titled Poems on This portrait depicts Patience Wright, who was
Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. a waxwork sculptor during the colonial period.
In 1773, Susanna Wheatley, who was ill and Robert Edge Pine painted Patience Wright’s
nearing the end of her life, arranged for Phillis’ portrait in 1782. Born in London in 1730,
emancipation. Pine was a British portrait painter. Pine was
This portrait appeared as the frontispiece of excluded from the group that founded the

Wheatley’s book of poetry. It was engraved British Royal Academy of Art on account
by the book’s publisher, Archibald Bell, based of his radical politics. Like Wright, he was
upon a drawing that was likely by the African- sympathetic to the American quest for
American artist Scipio Moorhead. None of independence.
Moorhead’s original paintings are extant. It was unusual for a woman of this era to have
But the portrait of Phillis Wheatley, which a career with such a public profile, and Wright
emphasizes her creative drive and intelligence, received a lot of attention for both her artwork
is a testament to Moorhead’s abilities. and her outspoken political beliefs.

64
Even though Wright relocated to London, she regional factions and colonies under a singular
remained an outspoken advocate for American national identity.
independence throughout her life. She would Between 1795 and 1825, Stuart painted more

ship busts to her sisters for display in New than a hundred portraits of Washington,
York and Philadelphia, and it was said that she helping to develop a unified iconography for
passed notes with political information gleaned the new republic.
from her contacts with high-level British
officials inside the wax heads of her sculptures. Stuart’s most recognizable painting is known
She may have also passed information on to as the Athenaeum portrait. This image of
Benjamin Franklin in Paris. George Washington has been reproduced more
than any other because it was the source of the
Selected Work: Gilbert Stuart, George engraving of Washington that appears on the
Washington (the Lansdowne Portrait), 1796 dollar bill.
Gilbert Stuart was born in Newport, Rhode
Stuart’s 1796 full-length painting of
Island in 1755. He subsequently left America
Washington is known as the Lansdowne
to study art in England in 1777. There he met
portrait. In this work, Washington is shown
and studied with Benjamin West, who provided
next to a table with books, and additional
financial assistance to Stuart, who struggled
reading material is shown on the floor.
with financial problems throughout his career.
The works shown include a copy of the
Stuart established his critical reputation when Constitution, volumes of The Federalist, and
he exhibited The Skater at the Royal Academy the Journals of Congress, underscoring the
in 1782. president’s studious commitment to leading the

Stuart returned to America in 1793, arriving in country.
Philadelphia, which was then both the largest Symbols of the new nation—including an
city and the nation’s temporary capital. Stuart emblem of thirteen stars and stripes in a
set out to secure a commission to paint the medallion on the back of the chair and bald
president’s portrait in the hopes that it would eagles clutching arrows carved into the legs of
help Stuart rebuild his career. the desk—are scattered about the room.
Presidential portraiture served a critical Stuart makes it clear that Washington is a
function in the early years of the republic. democratically elected leader and not a royal
Artists were tasked with building a new image figure, with his sober, understated demeanor
for the nation, which would help unify the and simple, dark clothing.

65
Sect ion 3
Early History Painting
THE ACADEMY AND THE
DEVELOPMENT OF HISTORY
PAINTING
Whereas in eighteenth-century America the key to
artistic success lay in portraiture, expectations for artists
in Europe were radically different. During the colonial
period, artists in America lacked access to formal art
training, and as a result they were either self-taught, or
apprenticed with other artists. Without the possibility
of patronage from the church or royal families, artists
had to seek out patrons on their own, often by traveling

around the country and offering to paint family
The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker’s Hill,
portraits. European countries, on other hand, had the
painted by John Trumbull. Trumbull’s history paintings of the
institutional structures in place to both train artists and Revolutionary War came to define the conflict for generations.
exhibit their artworks to the public, thereby cultivating
an audience for art and fostering patronage.
and lastly, still life. History paintings were prized
The first fine art academies were formed in sixteenth- by the Academy because they were large in scale
century Italy to replace the guild system as the and featured multiple figures in different poses, and
principal means of training artists. The French Royal thus demonstrated a complex command of figure
Academy, formed in 1648, went further in codifying drawing. Artists typically took their subjects from
the curriculum and function of the academy, which the bible or classical mythology and incorporated an
also served a nationalistic agenda of developing underlying moral message. History painting required
French artists to fulfill royal commissions. (Previous both creativity and intellect in that artists used their
monarchs had imported most of their artworks from imagination to develop a scene that they had not
Italy and Flanders.)47 Instruction centered on drawing, witnessed. They often included visual quotations from
which was taught first by copying etchings and earlier paintings or classical sculpture—another way for
engravings. Students would then move on to copying artists to demonstrate their advanced training and art
three-dimensional objects, first plaster casts, then full historical knowledge. Women were typically precluded
size sculptures, and finally drawing from live models. from producing history painting because they were not
The academy was inherently hierarchical in nature; allowed to study from nude models. Women were rarely
one had to apply for membership and advance through allowed to train in the academies; the few that were
its levels over time. Painting was given priority over admitted often had a familial connection to an existing
sculpture. Subject matter was regulated as well. member. Female academicians were guided toward
floral painting and portraiture.
The academies propagated the “hierarchy of genres,”
which established history painting as the most elevated The European art world was dominated by academies
subject of art. History painting was rated highest, developed on the French model, including the Royal
followed by portraiture, genre painting, landscape, Academy in London. Founded by Sir Joshua Reynolds

66
in 1769, the Royal Academy sought to establish artistic talent domestically. Having lost talented painters like
standards and promote the cause of British Art. The West and Copley to England, academies realized that
American-born artist Benjamin West, who was a keeping artists in America required developing an
founding member of the academy, became its second institutional support system.
president after the death of Joshua Reynolds in 1792.
West played a pivotal role in introducing the idea of The American Academy of the Fine Arts (originally
history painting based on contemporary events with known as the New York Academy of the Fine Arts)
his 1770 painting of The Death of General Wolfe. was founded in 1802 with this in mind. John Trumbull,
whose history paintings of the Revolutionary War
The French Royal Academy was dissolved in came to define the conflict for generations, was the
the aftermath of the French Revolution, but the president of the organization for twenty years. Under
academic model continued, and as royal patronage his leadership, history painting and the study of
receded in importance, art academies focused on the classical models were promoted. However, Trumbull
professionalization of artists and developing patrons. and the American Academy’s conservatism led to
While art training was their primary function, the dissatisfaction among younger painters. In 1825,
academies’ annual art exhibitions and lectures Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, and
played a crucial role in providing exposure for artists others founded the National Academy of Design in
and educating the public about art. Meanwhile, in New York City “to promote the fine arts in America
the United States, artists recognized the need to through instruction and exhibition.”48
establish their own academies to develop artistic
SELECTED WORK: Unknown, Segesser II, c. 1720

History of the Segesser Hides
The Segesser Hides, painted by Indigenous
Americans under Spanish influence, are among the
earliest historical narratives painted in America.
The hides were acquired by Philipp von Segesser
von Brunegg, a Jesuit priest who oversaw San
Xavier del Bac in Pimería Alta, a mission in what is
now Arizona, from 1732 until 1735.49 Segesser was
then transferred farther south in what was known as
New Spain, to a mission in Pimería Baja. There he
acquired three large painted hides, probably from
the Anzas, who were a prominent military family.
Segesser sent the hides to his brother in Switzerland The San Xavier del Bac Mission was founded in 1700, but
in 1758. Two survived and remained in Switzerland Apaches later destroyed it. In 1797, Franciscans erected the
with the Segesser family for more than two hundred present structure.
years. In 1983, they were acquired by the New
Mexico History Museum, allowing the hides to return to the location where they were likely created.

Today the hides are known as Segesser I and II. A portion of the Segesser II hide is shown in your Art
Reproductions Booklet. Each is made of three large, rectangular sections of what is most likely bison hide,
sewn together with sinew and painted with naturally occurring pigments.50 Both hides depict armed conflicts
between native people and Europeans. Segesser I might show a skirmish in the vicinity of El Paso/Ciudad
Juárez, but the exact date and location are uncertain. It is believed that the artworks were commissioned by
Spaniards from a Pueblo workshop. The large scale of Segesser II, which measures seventeen feet in length,

67
creates a panoramic image that fills an entire wall,
much like the woven tapestries depicting battles that
were used to decorate palaces in Europe.51
Segesser II depicts a known historical event, a
battle wherein Spanish troops and their allies were
defeated in what is now Nebraska by the Skidi
Pawnees and Otoes. In 1720, Governor Antonio
Valverde y Cosio of the Province of New Mexico,
which was part of New Spain, sent Spanish forces
into the Great Plains because the governor was
concerned that French traders were infiltrating
the area and establishing settlements in Spanish
territory. He hoped to establish a new outpost for
the Spanish Empire in the plains. Pedro de Villasur
set out from Santa Fe with forty Spanish troops,
sixty Pueblo soldiers, a dozen Apache guides, and a
Spanish priest. They traveled northeast, eventually
moving through Kansas into eastern Nebraska.
The group set up camp near the confluence of the
Loup and Platte Rivers. There they were attacked

in their sleep by Pawnee and Otoe warriors who
lived in the area and were also allies of the French. Ancestral Pueblo pitcher, 900–1300 ce.
Ten Pueblo soldiers and three dozen Spaniards,
including Villasur himself, were among the dead.52 The survivors lost all their trade goods and supplies and
were forced to return to New Mexico in defeat.
Segesser II depicts a group of Spaniards, who can be identified by their brown, wide-brimmed hats, grouped
together and encircled by the enemy. The Pueblo men and the Spaniards both wear sleeveless jackets made
of several layers; this was intended to protect the wearer from arrows.53 The Pueblos are hatless, with long
hair tied in buns. Frenchmen are depicted in tricorne hats, with blue or reddish-brown coats and leggings.
The Pawnee and Otoe warriors are nude or in leggings and moccasins; they are also decorated with vivid,
individualized body paint. One figure is painted half blue and half white while another has red and white
horizontal stripes, and there are several men painted white with red dots. They are armed with bows and
arrows, spears, swords, and hatchets. The Europeans also have rifles. A hooded man holding a cross can be
identified as the priest who accompanied the expedition, Father Juan Mingez. The Franciscan missionary is
shown blessing the injured and dying men; he eventually died in the attack as well.
Scholars have found no evidence indicating that French soldiers participated in the battle, but rumors
circulated that they were there. One theory posits that the French soldiers are included here to help Governor
Valverde explain the defeat of his troops to the viceroy of New Spain.54 It suggests the importance of the
visual arts in helping establish historical narratives. The amount of detail in the painting implies that it was
based upon first-hand accounts of the battle, perhaps recounted directly to the painter by one of the nearly
fifty Pueblo fighters who returned. The painting effectively captures the chaos and confusion of battle and
the precarious alliances formed between the various Native and European factions.
Contextual Analysis
In eighteenth-century Santa Fe, archival evidence documents how the Spanish employed Pueblo people to
manufacture goods for export to southern markets in New Spain.55 These goods included clothing, wagons,

68
and decorated hides, known as reposteros, that were painted by Pueblo artists in workshops. It is assumed
that one or more Indigenous persons, likely Pueblo but possibly Tlaxcalan or Tarascan, painted both the
Segesser hides.56 The Indigenous artists likely drew upon European drawing conventions introduced to
them by the Spaniards. In central Mexico, it was common in this era for European-trained Spanish artists to
oversee workshops of native artists.
The person or people who painted the hides used European art techniques like foreshortening, overlapping
figures in space, and naturalistic depictions of human forms in profile.57 There is limited use of spatial
perspective. The Segesser II figures show more sophistication in terms of bodily proportions, three-
dimensionality, and the suggestion of movement.58 If both hides were painted by one artist, it is likely
Segesser I was painted first, followed by Segesser II, since the latter implies the hand of a more experienced
artist. The fact that they are similar in size, with similar decorative borders that frame each scene, indicates
that they were intended to be displayed together, possibly with the third, now destroyed, painting.59
SELECTED WORK: Benjamin West, Penn’s Treaty with the Indians,

1771–72
Benjamin West: Biography

Benjamin West was born in Pennsylvania in 1738, in
a Quaker community outside of Philadelphia. West’s
grandparents were among the original Quaker
settlers of Pennsylvania. He was the tenth child of
a couple that owned an inn. West claimed that he
learned color-mixing from Native Americans in the
area, who taught him how they would mix red and
yellow earth to create pigments.60 He learned to draw
by copying engravings and the portraits that hung
in the homes of his friends and family. He entered
Benjamin Franklin’s College of Philadelphia when
he was seventeen. At twenty-one, with the financial
backing of two wealthy Philadelphia families, he left
the colonies to study art in Europe.61
West spent several years traveling in Italy before he
settled in London in 1763. He quickly established
himself as a promising painter, earning the respect
of the British painting establishment. He was
involved in the founding of the Royal Academy,
went on to succeed Joshua Reynolds as president
of the Academy, and was painter to King George
III throughout the American Revolution.62 Though Self-portrait of Benjamin West, c. 1763.
West never returned to the United States, his
impact on American art was tremendous since so many American artists sought him out and studied with
him in London. Among the artists who spent time in West’s studio were John Singleton Copley, Gilbert
Stuart, John Trumbull, Thomas Sully, and Samuel F. B. Morse.63

69
The wampum belt given to William Penn by the Indians at the Treaty of Shackamaxon.
West’s best-known painting was The Death of General Wolfe, commemorating the British general’s death
during the French and Indian War. This work was exhibited at the Royal Academy to great success in 1771.
The painting represents an event called the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, also known as the Battle of
Quebec, in which both the French and British generals (Montcalm and Wolfe) were killed. The battle allowed
the British to lay siege to Quebec City, an important step in their eventual victory over France. The painting
was purchased by Lord Grosvenor, and the king ordered a second copy made. The image was subsequently
made into an engraving, which allowed it to be seen by a much wider audience—it even appeared on British
ceramic mugs that were marketed at home and abroad.
Part of this painting’s popularity was due to West’s radical approach to the conventions of the genre. A

history painting was considered the pinnacle of artistic ability because it contained elements of other
types of paintings. In order to be a successful history painter, an artist had to be able to paint landscape,
portraiture, and genre scenes. History paintings are distinguished by their grand scale; dynamic, multi-figure
compositions; and subject matter drawn from the bible or from classical or modern history. Tradition had
dictated that heroic subjects should be dressed in the timeless clothing of ancient Greece. West refused and
insisted that his subjects wear modern dress, and in so doing he revolutionized history painting by combining
modernity with tradition.
General Wolfe was wounded three times in battle, with the third injury proving fatal. Yet his actual death
certainly did not take place in such an artfully composed, dramatic scene.
On the left side of the painting there is a messenger arriving with news of the British victory in battle,
which the general learns of at the moment of his death. A tattooed Iroquois man is seated on the left in a
thoughtful position. He is only partially clothed, which connects him to classical sculpture and allows West
to show his knowledge of classical references. It also allows the artist to demonstrate his ability to paint the
human form. All the other people in the scene are reacting to the general’s death; they are either surrounding
Wolfe and attempting to help him or already mourning his passage. The Iroquois man is calmly observing
the situation. His presence also situates the painting in the North American colonies, during the Battle of
Quebec. At a time when tensions between the colonies and the British were brewing, the painting served to
remind viewers of a period when the British and the colonists, as well as their Indian allies, were united in
their struggle against the French. West was adept at using the past to comment on the present. Following the
success of this work, West painted another North American subject featuring Native Americans later that
same year titled Penn’s Treaty with the Indians.

70
Penn’s Treaty with the Indians was intended to
commemorate Penn’s arrival in the area that
would become Pennsylvania in 1682. The moment
recorded the first legal agreement between
Europeans and Native Americans. While the
agreement existed, the meeting as depicted by West
probably never occurred.
William Penn was a Quaker; the Quakers were also
known as the Religious Society of Friends, which
had been founded in England in the late 1640s.
Penn sought the freedom to practice Quakerism,
a religion that was nonhierarchical and nonviolent,
in the new world. One of the religion’s tenets was Portrait of William Penn, an English Quaker who oversaw the
egalitarianism. Quakers believed that all members founding of Pennsylvania.
were equal and disavowed the power structures of
both Catholicism and Protestantism. In England, this attracted the negative attention of both Puritans and
Anglicans, and the Quakers arrived in North America in search of religious freedom.
West’s painting Penn’s Treaty with the Indians shows William Penn meeting with chiefs of the Lenni Lenape
or Delaware tribes under an ancient elm tree. The site is known as Shackamaxon, and the agreement is

often known as the Treaty of Shackamaxon. Penn’s treaty with the Delaware tribes was significant in that
it was the first legal agreement between Europeans and Indigenous peoples as well as the first time the
British colonists paid the Native Americans for land that had already been granted to them by the British
government.64 It is unknown if this meeting actually took place. But the painting promoted the idea that Penn
maintained peaceful relations with the local Indigenous people. While there wasn’t any physical violence
between Penn and the Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, their displacement from their lands, agreements
or not, was its own form of violence. By 1737, any reputed harmony between the tribes and the settlers had
eroded, as Penn’s son Thomas began stealing their land to satisfy the demands of an increasing number of
new settlers.65 It is likely that Thomas Penn commissioned this painting in part to reassert his family’s claims
to power in the region.
Unlike The Death of General Wolfe, which features a diagonal upon which the composition is organized,
the focus of this painting is horizontality and balance, to emphasize equal exchange. Penn holds the treaty,
but the emphasis of the painting is on the bolt of cloth being offered. The equanimity and fairness of the
exchange was a point of pride for William Penn and becomes the central theme of the painting. However,
the artist embeds the composition with racist tropes. The composition is divided in half, with the Native
Americans on the darker, more wooded side and Penn and his fellow Quakers on the other side, which is
lighter and more orderly, with buildings being raised in the background.66 The artist chose to associate the
Native Americans with darkness, nature, and primitivism, while presenting the newly arrived Europeans
in light and surrounded by buildings under construction and ships arriving in the distance, as though they
were bringing civilization and enlightenment to the Indigenous people. Such narratives were used by settler
colonists to justify their treatment of the Native Americans they sought to displace.
Structurally, the painting can also be divided into thirds. The observers are in the foreground, the main
action takes place in the middle ground, and the background establishes the setting. There are also three
vertical sections: the central portion, which features a meeting between settlers and Native Americans; the
left side, which shows seated colonial workers; and the right side, which shows an Indigenous family. The
background is further separated into three parts: there is the harbor on the left behind the workers, houses

71
in the center behind the meeting, and the wilderness on the right behind the Indigenous observers. The
three sections call to mind triptychs found in Renaissance altarpieces, where the center panel is reinforced
by its two side panels.67 The division also emphasizes the three factions: merchants, Quakers, and Native
Americans, whose competing interests shaped Pennsylvania for most of the eighteenth century.68
West’s Representations of Native Americans

Benjamin West was aware that audiences in England were especially curious about North America, and
Native Americans in particular. He embraced the novelty afforded him by his birth in the colonies—as noted
earlier, West even claimed that American Indians had taught him to mix pigments when he was growing up
in Pennsylvania. The inclusion of Native Americans in his artworks allowed West to remind viewers of his
connection to America. West included Indigenous people in both of his best-known artworks, The Death
of General Wolfe and Penn’s Treaty with the Indians. West’s portrayal of Native Americans embodies the
“noble savage” trope, which was a generalization popularized in the eighteenth century by the Swiss-born
philosopher and writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau, that upheld Indigenous people as being in harmony with the
natural world and untouched by Western civilization.69 The stereotype has the effect of rendering Native
Americans as foreign and “other” in paintings and literature, despite them being the original inhabitants of
the land that is being represented.

SELECTED WORK: After Henry Pelham, Engraved, Printed and Sold by
Paul Revere, The Boston Massacre, 1770
Prints and the American Revolution

Benjamin West had a pivotal influence on the entire
generation of artists that followed him, including
artists like John Singleton Copley. And yet, in the
lead up to the American Revolution, it was not large-
scale history paintings that inflamed the masses and
sparked insurrection. Instead, it was the cheap prints
in mass circulation that helped shape public opinion
about the revolutionary cause. During the eighteenth
century, as talk of rebellion and revolution began to
roil the colonies, prints, cartoons, and broadsides
were the most popular method for quickly circulating
ideas in urban areas. Engravings were produced by
using a tool called a burin to cut into the surface of
a metal plate. Once a plate was produced, the printer
could produce many copies from a single plate,
allowing them to be sold to large numbers of people.
Artists often used humor to make their points and
combined words and images. The prints helped make
the general populace more aware of political debates
and controversies. In colonial America, prints were
sold on the street or from bookstores or print shops; Henry Pelham as painted in 1765 by his half-brother John
they could also be purchased through subscriptions.70 Singleton Copley in A Boy with a Flying Squirrel.

72
Although long associated with Paul Revere, the
printer who was the original source of The Boston
Massacre print was actually Henry Pelham. Pelham
depicts the Boston Massacre—when British troops,
who had been a heavy presence in Boston since
protests over the Stamp Act began, fired on an
unruly group of citizens. Four thousand British
soldiers were stationed in the city, at a time when
Boston had 15,000 inhabitants. On the evening of
March 5, 1770, a crowd of laborers, apprentices,
and merchant sailors began to throw snowballs and
rocks at the soldiers. A shot was heard, which caused
several soldiers to begin firing upon the crowd.
Five men were killed, including Crispus Attucks,
a dockworker of African and Native American
descent. Historians believe that Attucks was either
a free man, or an escaped slave from Framingham,
Massachusetts.71 Attucks is considered to be the
first casualty of the American Revolution.72 At the

time some Bostonians were sympathetic to the
soldiers and predisposed against the unruly mob
of laborers, many of whom were Irish Catholic or
Black. This print was issued three weeks after the
incident and helped foment anger toward the British
with its depiction of a line of stone-faced soldiers Henry Pelham’s broadside The Fruits of Arbitrary Power, or
the Bloody Massacre, which was copied, without Pelham’s
firing on unarmed civilians.
permission, by Paul Revere.
The British redcoats stand in front of the Customs
House. Above them a sign reads “Butcher’s Hall,” though no such sign existed at the scene. The implication
is that the redcoats were butchers in their treatment of the colonists. The British soldiers all stand in a
unified diagonal row with their left leg extended forward, and their muskets aggressively pointed at the
unarmed crowd. The soldiers’ faces are angular, with severe expressions. The Americans have softer, more
individualized facial expressions.
Three bleeding bodies are sprawled on the ground. Two other figures are bleeding and being carried by
bystanders. A woman in blue clasps her hands and looks concerned. The only woman in the crowd of men in
tricorne hats, she calls to mind the mourning figure of the Virgin Mary in Renaissance crucifixion scenes. The
crowd appears as innocent victims, though they had in fact initiated the confrontation. Smoke fills the square
behind them. Though the event took place at night, here we see a blue sky. Several prominent Boston landmarks
can be seen in the background, the most prominent of which was the Old State House, known as the Towne
House during this time. The steeple of the First Church can also be seen. The print helped sway public opinion
in favor of the crowd who are depicted as unassuming victims of the soldiers’ aggressive tactics.
The Controversy over Attribution

In 1770, Paul Revere published a print that he copied from a design by Henry Pelham, John Singleton
Copley’s stepbrother and the subject of his 1765 painting Henry Pelham (Boy with a Squirrel). Copley had
also painted Revere’s portrait in 1768 and had purchased jewelry and miniature frames from Revere on

73
several occasions. Pelham was twenty-two when the massacre took place just blocks from his home on what
is now Congress Street.73 Pelham likely lent Revere his engraving for his use as a reference, not expecting
Revere to copy it directly. Revere started selling his version of the print on March 26, 1770, but he did not
credit Pelham or compensate him for his contribution. Revere made a few additions, adding the words
“Butcher’s Hall,” to the Customs House and captioning the print with eighteen lines of verse, which begin:
“Unhappy Boston! see thy Sons deplore, Thy hallowed Walks besmeared with guiltless Gore.” Also listed
are the “unhappy Sufferers” Saml Gray, Saml Maverick, James Caldwell, Crispus Attucks, and Patrick Carr
(killed) and it is noted that there were “Six wounded; two of them (Christr Monk & John Clark) Mortally.”74
Pelham tried to sell his version of the print a week after, but Revere’s version had already dominated the market.
Pelham responded by writing Revere an angry letter, accusing him of “the most dishonorable action you could
well be guilty of,” and claiming that it was “as if you had plundered me on the highway.”75 Unfortunately,
Pelham had no legal recourse. While England did establish copyright laws to protect publishers as early as 1735,
the law wasn’t strongly enforced in the eighteenth century, especially in the faraway American colonies.76
SELECTED WORK: Emanuel Leutze, Washington Crossing the

Delaware, 1851

Emanuel Leutze: Biography
The artist who painted one of the best-known
paintings in American history was born in Germany,
near Württemberg, in 1816. Leutze’s parents were
political refugees who fled their home country
and immigrated to the United States in 1825 when
Emanuel was nine.77 He later studied art with John
Rubens Smith, and—like many American artists—
he initially found work as an itinerant portraitist.
Leutze spent time in Washington, D.C., before
moving to Düsseldorf, Germany, in 1840 for formal
art training. There he studied history painting with
Wilhelm Schadow and Karl Lessing at Düsseldorf’s
Royal Art Academy.
Throughout the colonial period and the early
republic, it was common for American artists
like Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley
to seek training and international recognition by
studying art in London. By the early 1840s, Rome
and Florence had replaced London as the major Copyprint of a photograph of Emanuel Leutze originally taken
draw for American artists, but in the 1850s, artists by John D. Shiff.
from America began to travel to Germany. The
Düsseldorf Academy, which was then led by William Morris Hunt, began to attract painters from all over
the world. Among the American painters who passed through the German academy were Caleb Bingham,
Eastman Johnson, Worthington Whittredge, Richard Caton Woodville, and William S. Haseltine. An artistic
approach that came to be known as the “Düsseldorf style” was characterized by attention to drafting,

74
dynamic compositions, and dramatic lighting.78
The heavy flow of Germans into America may
have played a part in promoting a greater interest
in and appreciation of German culture in America
during this time. In the 1840s and 1850s, Leutze
became one of the leading artists of the Düsseldorf
Academy. Artists who trained at the Düsseldorf
Academy became known for their distinctive
style, characterized by dynamic compositions and
dramatic lighting. Leutze believed passionately in
America’s democratic government and supported
the German uprising of 1848 against the king. After
more than a decade in Germany, Leutze returned to Düsseldorf’s Royal Art Academy, founded in 1762. Emanuel
the U.S. in 1851. While he was in the United States, Leutze studied there in the 1840s, and in the 1850s, the
Leutze painted his most famous work, Washington academy began to attract painters from around the world.
Crossing the Delaware. Leutze would spend the
rest of his life moving between Düsseldorf, New
York, and Washington. In 1862, he completed his mural Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way for
the west stairwell of the House wing in the Capitol. Leutze died on July 18, 1868, in Washington, D.C.

Painted to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Washington’s death, Washington Crossing the Delaware
is a monumental and lionizing image. It is over twelve feet wide and twenty-one feet long, filling an entire
wall. The painting famously commemorates an episode in the Revolutionary War when George Washington
and his army crossed the Delaware River on Christmas night in 1776. It was a cold winter, and the crossing
was difficult, as can be seen from the boatman struggling to navigate the icy waters. Nevertheless,
Washington prevailed and was able to lead his troops to victory against a battalion of Hessian soldiers
stationed near Trenton, New Jersey. It was a critical victory, coming at a moment when the Continental Army
was struggling, and it helped to restore faith in the colonial cause.79
In Leutze’s painting, the soldiers look cold and weary; those holding oars strain and look awkward as they
navigate the ice-strewn river. In contrast, Washington is solid and upright. Standing in the small boat, he is
clearly the focal point. We see him in profile, with his cloak blowing back behind, much the way the flag on
the boat blows backward, creating a visual equivalency between Washington and the flag. Historians have
noted that the painting is rife with historical inaccuracies; the event took place at night, and the river was
not nearly as wide as it appears in the painting. Accuracy was not Leutze’s primary intention. Designed to
instill patriotism, this work was painted in the 1850s, at a time when the country was becoming increasingly
divided over the issue of slavery.
An American Icon and Its influence

Jacob Lawrence, one of the most prominent African-American artists of the early twentieth century, painted
his own version of the subject in 1954. Unlike Leutze with his massive oil painting, Lawrence painted with
egg tempera on a piece of hardboard measuring just under twelve by sixteen inches. It is one of a series of
thirty pictures dealing with aspects of United States history that are collectively titled Struggle…From the
History of the American People. This painting was intended to be the tenth work in the series. It shows three
rowboats containing members of Washington’s army huddled under blankets. The diagonal lines of the boat
oars digging downward into the water are counterbalanced by the lines of the soldiers’ bayonets, which point
toward the sky. The boat in the center foreground appears to have blood dripping off the side, and blood

75
can also be seen on the boat in the back-right side. Rather than focusing on Washington, Lawrence gives
attention to the anonymous, huddled soldiers wrapped in blankets and rowing determinedly and in unison.
The emphasis is on collective rather than individual effort. The red paint dripping down the sides of the boats
like blood suggests that American freedom was not achieved without bloody violence.
Twenty years later, another African-American artist would revisit the same subject. In 1975, Robert Colescott
painted George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware: Page from an American History Textbook,
in which he replaced the military leader with Carver, the famed African-American scientist and inventor.
Colescott filled the boat with caricatured depictions of black stereotypes, as if to comment on the inadequate
way African Americans had been represented in traditional histories of America. While Colescott employed
more biting satire than Lawrence, both painters deployed Leutze’s immediately recognizable image to focus
attention on narratives that had been suppressed by the dominant culture.
In 2010, a Japanese-American artist reinterpreted the scene through the lens of the Asian-American
experience. Roger Shimomura used the iconic work as inspiration for a self-portrait that he called Shimomura
Crossing the Delaware. The large-scale acrylic painting (standing over six feet tall and twelve feet wide)
consists of three canvas panels. Shimomura painted himself as George Washington in uniform, and the
colonial soldiers are replaced with samurai warriors. The stylized water and flattened pictorial composition
recall the Edo period prints of Hokusai. Here the boat is situated within San Francisco Harbor rather than the
Delaware River. Angel Island, the immigration station where thousands of immigrants arriving from Asia
were processed, can be seen in the background. By transposing the location, Shimomura makes the point
that the Asian immigrant experience in America is just as challenging as the difficulties faced by colonists

who fought the British. Shimomura understands this all too well, as he himself was detained, along with his
family, at an internment camp for Japanese Americans in Idaho during World War II.
SELECTED WORK: Harriet Powers, Pictorial Quilt, 1895–98

The History of American Quilting
Traditions
Most of the history paintings that we have studied
thus far were produced by men. Women were
largely excluded from formal artistic training and
were forced to find other ways to express complex
narratives, including sewing and needlepoint.
As eighteenth- and nineteenth-century samplers
indicate, many American women developed
advanced sewing skills by the time they were
teenagers, having learned basic hand-sewing
techniques by the age of four or five.80 Quilts were
Boott Cotton Mill, in Lowell, Massachusetts, 1850. By 1835,
treasured family objects, and some were even
cotton mills in Massachusetts were producing 750,000 yards
signed with the quilter incorporating her name into of cotton fabric per week.
the design. Records show that quilts were often Image Credit: Lowell National Historical Park; Kirk Doggett, Illustrator
mentioned in wills and passed down from one
generation to the next, further suggesting that they were valued as artworks and not as mere household goods.81
Nineteenth-century quilts typically contained a quilt top featuring piecework or appliqué, an inner layer, and a

76
backing. Piecework, or patchwork, refers to smaller
pieces of cloth that are sewn together, often in an
arrangement of geometric patterns.82 Appliqué is
when pieces of fabric are stitched onto a larger piece
to create a picture or pattern.
The rise of quilting in America can be tied to
growing industrialization. In the eighteenth
century, cloth was either handspun or imported
from Europe or Asia at great cost. By the early
nineteenth century, roller-printed cloth was being
manufactured in New England and the Mid-
Atlantic. This was an industry built upon the work
A depiction of patterns being printed on calico cotton, c. 1835.
of enslaved laborers who harvested cotton in the Calico became widely used in quilt making.
South. By 1835, cotton mills in Massachusetts were CC-BY-4.0, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.
producing 750,000 yards of cotton fabric per week; php?curid=35953849.
these numbers would rise even more dramatically
after the Civil War.83 This cotton, printed with small repeating patterns, became known as calico and became
widely used in quilt making.
Quilts were a popular art form in part due to their mobility and practicality. As the U.S. population moved
westward, quilts could be easily packed and transported across the country. For women who were marrying

and leaving their families behind, quilts could provide a welcome connection to their past. Not all quilts
were intended as bedcovers, some were designed to commemorate special events and were preserved by
their owners. A quilt by a single maker, made in honor of a special event like a wedding, is known as a
“presentation” quilt. Quilts made by a group of women, where each contributes a square, are called “album”
quilts.84
For nineteenth-century American women with limited access to fine arts training, appliqué quilts could
function as a blank canvas upon which they could stitch everything from still life botanical compositions to
scenes of everyday life, historic moments, and family portraits.85 All the major genres of painting can be found
in quilted form. For example, Hannah Stockton Stiles’ Trade and Commerce Quilt, c. 1835, combines several
genres of visual art in its appliqué design. It features a “tree of life” at its center, a popular quilting motif from
the patterns found on palampores, a form of bed covering produced in India and imported to the colonies in
the eighteenth century.86 Surrounding the tree is a border displaying a riverscape with eleven boats, including
large steamers, sloops, and little dories.87 The artist lived near the water in Philadelphia, and her quilt shows the
bustling Delaware riverfront and the active international trade that took place there. The border further shows
vignettes of everyday life with great detail, even providing a window into the fashionable attire of the 1830s.
Stiles succeeded in providing a complex picture of life in one of the nation’s biggest cities during the early
republic while also combining elements of still life, landscape, and genre scenes into the quilt.
In the 1980s, artist Faith Ringgold created a genre she called “story quilts,” which brought together her
intersecting interests in civil rights, feminism, and Black folk tale traditions. Ringgold is adamant about
expanding and complicating notions of fine art, and as part of that effort she refers to her quilts as “paintings”
made “in the medium of quilting.”88 African-American quilting traditions received renewed attention in 2002,
when the distinctive, bright abstract quilts made by women in the Gee’s Bend community of Alabama were
exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas. The exhibition received tremendous critical acclaim
and toured the country, traveling to New York, Boston, Washington, Atlanta, Cleveland, and San Francisco.
A New York Times art critic described Gee’s Bend quilts as, “some of the most miraculous works of modern
art America has produced. Imagine Matisse and Klee (if you think I’m wildly exaggerating, see the show),

77
arising not from rarefied Europe, but from the caramel soil
of the rural South.”89 In response to the huge success of the
exhibition, the local quilters formed the Gee’s Bend Quilting
Collective to market their quilts and offer quilting retreats.
Their efforts at outreach and education enable them to teach
their techniques to future generations.
Harriet Powers: Biography

Born enslaved in Georgia in 1837, Harriet later married
Armstead Powers, and the couple had at least nine children.
They became landowners sometime after they were
emancipated. Her gravestone, which was found in Athens’
Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery, gives her death date as the first of
January 1910. Harriet Powers created two story quilts: the
Pictorial Quilt, which is now in the collection of the Museum
of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Bible Quilt, which is in the
Smithsonian Institution. They are among the best-known
examples of nineteenth-century quilts. Powers was a devout
Christian who infused her work with biblical references and
cosmological symbolism. Her quilts, which have both hand
and sewing machine stitching, received public notice when

they were exhibited at international fairs.
The Smithsonian’s Bible Quilt was displayed at the 1886
Cotton Fair in Athens, Georgia, where it attracted the
attention of a local artist named Jennie Smith. Smith
described seeing the quilt, writing that:
Photograph of Harriet Powers taken c. 1901.
I have spent my whole life in the South, and am
perfectly familiar with thirty patterns of quilts, but I
had never seen an original design, and never a living creature portrayed in patchwork, until the
year 1886, when there was held in Athens, Georgia, a ‘Cotton-Fair,’ which was on a much larger
scale than an ordinary county fair, as there was a ‘Wild West’ show, and Cotton Weddings; and a
circus, all at the same time…The scenes on the quilt were biblical and I was fascinated. I offered to
buy it, but it was not for sale at any price.90
Several years later Powers needed the income and went back to Smith, offering the quilt for ten dollars.
Smith responded that she only had five to give, and Powers reluctantly agreed to the sale. Before turning the
quilt over she explained the meaning behind each the quilt’s eleven panels. Evidence suggests that Smith
arranged for the Bible Quilt to be shown at the 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta.91

The Pictorial Quilt is the second known quilt by Harriet Powers. It was given to Dr. Charles Cuthbert Hall,
President of the Union Theological Seminary in New York, by the faculty ladies of Atlanta University upon
his retirement as chairman of the University’s board of trustees. As with the Bible Quilt, Powers was careful
to describe each individual block.
Powers fused appliqué techniques and storytelling in a way that recalls the textiles of Dahomey in Western
Africa. The Fon kingdom of Dahomey, in present-day Benin, was known for appliqued textile wall hangings
that featured mythological subjects and historical events.92 The fifteen panels in this quilt were sewn on a

78
machine, with typical fabrics of the period.
SECTION III SUMMARY when Spanish troops and their allies were
The Academy and the Development of History defeated in what is now Nebraska by the Skidi
Painting Pawnees and Otoes.
Eighteenth-century artists in America lacked The amount of detail in the painting implies
access to formal art training, and as a result that it was based upon first-hand accounts.
they were either self-taught, or apprenticed It is assumed that one or more Indigenous

with other artists. European countries, on other persons, likely Pueblo but possibly Tlaxcalan
hand, had the institutional structures in place or Tarascan, painted both the hides. They likely
to both train artists and exhibit their art works drew upon European drawing conventions
to the public, thereby cultivating an audience

introduced to them by the Spaniards.
for art and fostering patronage.
Selected Work: Benjamin West, Penn’s Treaty
European art academies propagated the
with the Indians, 1771—72
“hierarchy of genres,” which established
At the age of twenty-one, Benjamin West left
history painting as the most elevated subject
the colonies to study art in Europe, with the
of art. History paintings were prized by the
financial backing of two wealthy Philadelphia
Academy because they were large in scale and
families. He spent several years traveling
featured multiple figures in different poses,
in Italy before he settled in London in 1763,
and thus demonstrated a complex command of
where he quickly established himself as a
figure drawing.
promising painter.
In the United States, artists recognized the
West’s painting Penn’s Treaty with the Indians
need to establish their own academies, to
shows William Penn meeting with chiefs of
develop artistic talent domestically.
the Lenni Lenape or Delaware tribes under
Selected Work: Unknown, Segesser II, c. 1720 an ancient elm tree. The agreement is often
The Segesser Hides, painted by Indigenous known as the Treaty of Shackamaxon. Penn’s
Americans under Spanish influence, are among treaty with the Delaware tribes was significant
the earliest historical narratives painted in in that it was the first legal agreement between
America. The hides known as Segesser I and Europeans and Indigenous peoples as well
II are each made of three large, rectangular as the first time the British colonists paid
sections of what is most likely bison hide sewn the native Americans for land which had
together with sinew and painted with naturally been already granted to them by the British
occurring pigments. Both depict armed government. However, it is unknown if this
conflicts with native people and Europeans. meeting actually took place.
Segesser II depicts a known historical event, Structurally, the painting can also be divided

79
into thirds. The division also emphasizes that Painted to commemorate the fiftieth
there were three factions: Quakers, Native anniversary of Washington’s death,
Americans, and merchants, whose competing Washington Crossing the Delaware is a
interests shaped Pennsylvania for most of the lionizing image that fills an entire wall. The
eighteenth century. painting famously commemorates an episode
in the Revolutionary War when George
Selected Work: After Henry Pelham, engraved, Washington and his army crossed the Delaware
printed and sold by Paul Revere, The Boston River on Christmas night in 1776.
Massacre, 1770 The painting has several historical
In the lead up to the American Revolution, inaccuracies; the event took place at night
it was not large-scale history paintings that and the river was not nearly as wide as it
inflamed the masses and sparked insurrection. appears in the painting. Accuracy was not
Instead, it was the cheap prints that were in Leutze’s primary intention. Designed to
mass circulation that helped shape public instill patriotism, it was painted in the 1850s,
opinion about the revolutionary cause. at a time when the country was becoming
The Boston Massacre occurred on March 5, increasingly divided over the issue of slavery.

1770, when a crowd of laborers, apprentices,
and merchant sailors began to throw snowballs Selected Work: Harriet Powers, Pictorial Quilt,
and rocks at the soldiers. A shot was heard, 1895—98
which caused several soldiers to begin firing Since they were often excluded from formal art
upon the crowd, killing five men. academies, women had to find other ways to

This print was issued three weeks after the express complex narratives, including through
violent incident and helped foment anger toward sewing and needlepoint.
the British with its depiction of a line of stone- The rise of quilting in America can be tied to
faced soldiers firing on unarmed civilians. growing industrialization. In the eighteenth
Paul Revere copied a design by Henry Pelham, century, cloth was either handspun or imported
John Singleton Copley’s stepbrother. Revere from Europe or Asia at great cost. By the early
sold his version of the print without crediting nineteenth-century, roller-printed cloth was
or compensating Pelham. being manufactured in New England and the
Mid-Atlantic using cotton that was harvested
by slave labor.
Selected Work: Emanuel Leutze, Washington
For nineteenth-century American women with
Crossing the Delaware, 1851
limited access to fine arts training, appliqué
Leutze’s parents were political refugees who quilts could function as a blank canvas upon
fled Germany and immigrated to the United
which they could stitch everything from still life
States in 1825 when Leutze was nine. Like
botanical compositions to scenes of everyday
many American artists he initially found work
life, historic moments, and family portraits.
as an itinerant portraitist.
Harriet Powers created two story quilts: the
In the 1840s and 1850s, Leutze and other
Pictorial Quilt, which is now in the collection
American artists began to travel to Germany to
of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and
train at the Düsseldorf Academy.
the Bible Quilt, which is in the Smithsonian
After more than a decade in Germany, Leutze Institution.
returned to the U.S. in 1851. While he was in
the U.S., Leutze painted his most famous work,
Washington Crossing the Delaware.

80
Powers was a devout Christian who infused her Powers fused appliqué techniques and
work with biblical references and cosmological storytelling in a way that recalls the textiles of
symbolism. Dahomey in Western Africa. The Fon kingdom
of Dahomey, in present-day Benin, was known
for appliqued textile wall hangings that featured
mythological subjects and historical events.

81
Sect ion 4
Neoclassical Art and Architecture
THE RISE OF NEOCLASSICISM IN philosophies.
THE UNITED STATES In America, however, Neoclassicism was not simply a

During the late eighteenth century, a renewed interest in visual style. It carried important political associations
antiquity began to overtake Europe, before eventually for the fledgling democracy. The newly formed United
spreading to America. Known as Neoclassicism, this States did not have an extensive cultural history
movement was driven in part by the archaeological upon which to draw. However, Greek democracy
excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii and the rising and the Roman Republic were available models
popularity of the Grand Tour as a form of cultural for what enlightened self-governance might look
education for upper-class Europeans and Americans. like. By emulating antique architectural forms and
Artists and architects began to revive the ideals of sculpture, Americans hoped to create visual, symbolic
balance, symmetry, and harmony expressed in Greco- associations with those earlier cultures and the values

Roman sculpture and architecture.95 The Enlightenment they espoused, such as liberty, civic virtue, idealism,
placed a new emphasis on rationality, and the geometric and making sacrifices for the greater good.
order of Neoclassicism gave visual expression to these
SELECTED WORK: Thomas Jefferson, Monticello, 1769–1809,

Charlottesville, Virginia
Jefferson as Architect
Born in Virginia in 1743, Thomas Jefferson was a man of many talents. In addition to being an author,
politician, scientist, lawyer, and farmer, Jefferson was an amateur architect. Throughout his political career,
while he served as a delegate to the Continental Congress, governor of Virginia, minister of France, secretary
of state under Washington, vice president, and even during his presidency, Thomas Jefferson spent his free time
working on various architectural projects. These included his residence, Monticello (1769−84; 1796−1809), the
Virginia State Capitol in Richmond (1785−96), and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville (1817−26).96
Jefferson was aware of architecture’s symbolic potential and was eager to disentangle the United States from
its relationship with England by turning away from the Georgian architecture favored in Britain and instead
embracing the Roman Republic as both a model for government and an architectural ideal. With his concept
for the Virginia State Capitol, which was designed while he was a minister to the French court in Paris,
Jefferson copied a Roman temple from the first century bce that was located in southern France.97 Jefferson was
influenced by the French architect Charles-Louis Clérisseau, an ardent advocate for Neoclassicism in France.

Jefferson’s home, which he called Monticello (Italian for “little mountain,” referring to the hill upon which
it was built), is an example of neoclassical architecture, though its design changed considerably over time.
Jefferson began the first stage (1768−82) when Virginia was still a British colony. He was only twenty-five years

82
old at the time, and his land, consisting of 5,000
acres, was an inheritance from his father. Jefferson
would eventually acquire 11,000 more acres, and in
addition to farming, the plantation operated several
mills, a nailery, and a textile operation, all of which
were reliant on enslaved labor.98
The initial design for Jefferson’s home demonstrated
the influence of the English Palladian style.
Palladian style refers to architecture defined by the
Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, who
published several landmark treatises on architecture.
Informed by ancient Greek and Roman temple
architecture, the Palladian style relies heavily on
symmetry. Eighteenth-century British architects
were responsible for the revival of Palladio’s ideas.
Jefferson deviated from the colonial convention
of situating the house near the edge of a river, as
George Washington had done with his home at
Mount Vernon, instead placing it on top of a hill in
order to gain a view of the surrounding Blue Ridge
Mountains.99

By 1796, when he began the second stage of
construction, the Revolutionary War was over, and
Portrait of Thomas Jefferson by Mather Brown, 1786.
Jefferson was serving as vice president to John
Adams. Jefferson would assume the presidency
in 1800, serving two terms. Jefferson did not want his estate to resemble a British country home, rather he
wished for it to reflect classical ideals. He changed the proportions of the main pavilion so that the two stories
would appear as if they were one with the addition of a heavy Doric entablature across the house.100 He also
added a third story with the low dome in the front of the building.
These changes made the home appear as though it was one long story and also allowed the surrounding view
to be unencumbered by the architecture. Large one-story buildings were fashionable in France at the time,
and by embracing this style, Jefferson was able to
demonstrate his cosmopolitanism.101 Scholar Dell
Upton makes the point that by compressing the three
stories into the mountainside, so that it appears to be
a one-story building upon first approach, Jefferson
was able to project a particular narrative about
himself as a self-sufficient, unassuming man of the
Republic.102
One characteristic that typifies Jefferson’s
architecture is the use of the octagon and octagonal
forms in his designs. Palladio never used octagons,
but Jefferson employed them as a design motif
throughout the building; halving them, elongating
Vegetable gardens at Monticello. them, and using the shape to form the dome.
Monticello was built with the Virginia landscape

83
at the forefront, using local brick and wood, and
yet it managed to display a wealth of different style
reference points from ancient Greece and Rome to
British Palladianism and French Neoclassicism.
MONTICELLO AND HIDDEN

LABOR
The labor that allowed Monticello to operate was
not at all visible from the approach to the home
or its façade.103 More than eighty enslaved people
worked at Monticello, and Jefferson was thought
to have owned more than six hundred enslaved
people over the course of his lifetime.104 The slave
quarters were located behind and below the manor
house, recessed into the hillside. The kitchen and Isaac Granger was born a slave on Monticello and worked
storerooms were located under the house. Within there as a nail maker, tinsmith, and black smith until he
the home itself, Jefferson’s invention of a series of became free in the 1820s.
dumb waiters allowed food and drink to be served
from boxes on pulleys and from revolving serving devices, hidden within cabinets and behind doors. This
unobtrusive method of delivery gave Jefferson privacy during political discussions, while also significantly
masking the slave labor upon which Jefferson relied.105

As a political leader, Jefferson wished to distinguish himself from both the British monarchy and the
federalism of the previous Adams administration. He avoided top-down displays of authority, forbidding
the use of his image on coins and opening the White House to visitors. He presented himself as a scientist,
farmer, and architect, working in solitude at his home on the hill. Yet the author of the statement “we hold
these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal” was perpetuating a system of inequality and
exploitation within his home, all the while disguising the extent of his reliance on enslaved labor.
SELECTED WORK: William Thornton, Charles Bulfinch, and Benjamin

Henry Latrobe, United States Capitol, begun in 1793, Washington, D.C.
Architects of the Capitol

The District of Columbia, a tract of land ceded from Maryland, was selected to be the site of the United
States Capitol in 1790 with the passage of the “Residence Act” by Congress.106 A French engineer, Pierre
L’Enfant, was hired to plan the new city. L’Enfant determined the location for the U.S. Capitol building, on
the edge of what was then called Jenkins’ Hill, at the east end of the National Mall. L’Enfant was, however,
dismissed before any plans for the Capitol building were produced.
Then Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson proposed a competition to locate a design for the building, with a
$500 award for the winning entry. In 1793, Dr. William Thornton’s design was selected as the winning entry.
Thornton was a physician and amateur architect living in the British West Indies.107 Thornton’s plan included a
low dome over a temple, flanked by rectangular wings on the north and south to accommodate both the House
of Representatives and the Senate. President Washington praised the winning submission for its, “grandeur,
simplicity and convenience.”108 Washington laid the cornerstone of the building himself that year.

84
Ten years later, President Jefferson hired architect
Benjamin Henry Latrobe to oversee the ongoing
construction of the building. Latrobe was born in
Leeds, England, in 1764 and studied architecture
and engineering with Samuel Pepys Cockerell and
John Smeaton.109 Latrobe immigrated to the United
States in 1796. His projects included St. John’s
Church in Washington, D.C.’s Lafayette Square,
and the neoclassical Bank of Pennsylvania. Latrobe
added a grand staircase to the Capitol plan, along
with a Corinthian colonnade along the east front of
the building.
Construction on the Capitol paused in 1811,
when funding ran out. Latrobe left the project
at that time, but returned in 1814 to help restore
the building in the aftermath of the War of 1812.
Latrobe was responsible for some of the building’s
best-known interior spaces, including National
Statuary Hall, the Old Senate Chamber, and the
Old Supreme Court Chamber. The domed, top-lit
halls resemble similar features in temples such as

the Pantheon in Rome. Such expansive spaces were
associated with the heavens and enlightenment. Portrait of William Thornton, by Gilbert Stuart, 1804.
Charles Bulfinch replaced Latrobe in 1818. Born

in Boston in 1763, Bulfinch was the first official
architect of the Capitol to be born in the United
States. A Harvard graduate, Bulfinch worked in New
England for much of his career and was best known
for his design for the Massachusetts Statehouse
(1795−98).110 Bullfinch contributed the design of the
iconic domed center building, as well as the Capitol
grounds and its west terraces. In addition to the
architects who designed the building, hundreds of
skilled and unskilled laborers worked on the project
for decades, including enslaved African Americans
who quarried the stone used for the floors, walls,
and columns of the Capitol; made and laid bricks;
sawed wood; and framed the building. In 2012,
a historic marker made from sandstone quarried
by slaves during the building’s construction in the
nineteenth century was installed to acknowledge the
contributions of enslaved workers.
The Destruction of the Capitol

Portrait of Benjamin Henry Latrobe by
In August 1814, during the War of 1812, British
Charles Willson Peale, 1804. troops attacked the city of Washington and set much

85
of the city on fire. The troops, under the command
of Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cockburn and Major
General Robert Ross, were acting in retaliation.
American troops had burned the Canadian capital
at York the year prior. Alerted to the imminent
attack, many residents of Washington had fled the
city. The British set fire to the Capitol, the White
House, the navy yard, and several American
warships. The Capitol was still under construction
at the time. Damage to the building’s north and
south wings was considerable. The British set
fires in several rooms using piled up furniture,
documents, and books from the Library of Congress
(which was housed in the Capitol at the time, as
was the Supreme Court) to propagate the blaze.
The interior damage was extensive. Luckily, many
of the materials (iron, marble, sandstone, zinc, and
copper) used by Benjamin Latrobe were fireproof,
and the exterior structure survived.111 Immediately
following the blaze, some Congressmen who
surveyed the destruction advocated moving the

federal government to Philadelphia or another
more established city. But in the aftermath of the Portrait of Charles Bulfinch by Mather Brown, 1786.
war, a resurgence of national pride spurred on the
rebuilding efforts in Washington.
Iconographic Analysis
Embedded within the Capitol’s architecture are details that ground the neoclassical building within its North
American setting. For example, close examination of the interior Corinthian columns designed by Latrobe
reveals that the traditional acanthus leaves were replaced with corncobs and tobacco leaves, in a nod to
local agriculture.112 Between 1825 and 1827, four sandstone relief panels were created and installed above
the doorways of the rotunda, each of which mythologizes the relationship between the settler colonialists
and the native North Americans. They are Antonio Capellano’s relief The Preservation of Captain Smith
by Pocahontas, Nicholas Gevelot’s William Penn’s Treaty with the Indians, and Enrico Causici’s two works,
The Landing of the Pilgrims and The Conflict of Daniel Boone and the Indians. The sculptural reliefs depict
Native Americans rescuing John Smith, providing food for newly arriving pilgrims, agreeing to a land deal
with William Penn, and battling and being subdued by Daniel Boone. In 1842, a representative of Virginia
described the implicit, inequitable subtext of panels as, “we give you corn, you cheat us of our lands: we save
your life, you take ours.”113
The geometric, symmetrical, and harmonious architecture of the Capitol was also intended to symbolize the
unity and consensus of the nation, though this was tested on multiple occasions.114 During the 1850s, when
debates over slavery roiled Congress, a controversy arose over a sculpture designed to sit atop the Capitol’s
dome. Thomas Crawford had designed a statue called the Statue of Freedom, in which an idealized female
figure wore a liberty cap. Senator Jefferson Davis, who would become the president of the Confederacy,
objected to the sculpture on the grounds that liberty caps were traditionally associated with freed Roman
slaves. He therefore took the symbolism to be an abolitionist message. As a result of the controversy,
Crawford replaced the liberty cap with a feathered Native American headdress. Such conflicts demonstrate

86
awareness and attention to the symbolic meaning
embedded in architecture and architectural
decorations.
Thomas Crawford created the model for the
sculpture in his studio in Rome and sent it to
Washington in 1857 to be cast in bronze. He died
soon after and never saw the statue installed. The
statue was cast by Clark Mills with the assistance of
an enslaved laborer named Phillip Reid at a bronze
foundry outside of Washington.115 Reid worked on
the casting project for more than a year, beginning
in 1861. When the sculpture model arrived from
Italy, it was in five pieces, and an Italian sculptor
was hired to assemble the pieces. However, when it
came time to cast the individual parts, the foundry
could not determine how to separate the pieces.
Reid devised a pulley system to successfully
disassemble the sculpture. On April 16, 1862,
Reid was freed when President Lincoln signed the
Compensated Emancipation Act, banning slavery in
the District of Columbia. Thus, Reid was a free man

when the Statue of Freedom was installed atop the The interior Corinthian columns designed by Latrobe for the
Capitol dome in 1863. U.S. Capitol feature corncobs and tobacco leaves in a nod to
local agriculture.
SELECTED WORK: Horatio Greenough, George Washington, 1840

Horatio Greenough: Biography
Born in Boston in 1805 to Elizabeth and David Greenough, Horatio Greenough grew up attending a
Unitarian church in the village of Jamaica Plain.116 He demonstrated an early interest in sculpture and made
a chalk statue of William Penn, the Quaker founder of Pennsylvania, when he was twelve. Greenough began
his art training by copying plaster casts of classical Greek sculpture at the Boston Athenaeum. He learned to
model with clay from Solomon Willard, and Alpheus Cary taught Greenough to carve marble. Greenough
studied at the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, prior to enrolling at Harvard University in 1821.
While attending Harvard, he met the painter Washington Allston. Allston was a friend and mentor who
encouraged Greenough’s interest in classical sculpture.
Upon graduating, Greenough traveled to Italy, where he met and became close friends with other Americans
traveling abroad, including the writer James Fennimore Cooper and the painter Robert W. Weir. In 1828,
Greenough established a studio in Florence and became the first American sculptor to live and train there;
he maintained the Florence studio until 1851.117 Earlier generations of painters, such as Benjamin West and
John Singleton Copley, had traveled to England for training, but it wasn’t until the nineteenth century that
American artists went to Italy. Greenough was mentored by the Danish sculptor Albert Bertel Thorvaldsen
in Rome and studied with the Italian sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini while in Florence.118 Greenough published
a book based on his experiences there titled The Travels, Observations and Experiences of a Yankee
Stonecutter.119 Greenough’s writings on architecture in this volume were influential and are said to have

87
anticipated tenets of modern architecture like
functionalism, which was the principle that
buildings should be designed based entirely on the
function of the building.120 In 1852, at the age of
forty-seven, Greenough died of a fever.

In 1832, Congress commissioned Greenough
to create a monumental sculpture of George
Washington for the United States Capitol in honor
of the centennial anniversary of the president’s
birth in 1732. It was the first major federal
government art commission, and Greenough
was awarded $20,000 for the task. The sculpture
Greenough eventually produced fully embraced the
neoclassical style. He based Washington’s pose on
an ancient Greek statue of Zeus at Olympia by the
sculptor Phidias.121 Both Washington and Zeus were
depicted enthroned, in a frontal position with one
arm bent and raised, and the other arm extended
toward the viewer. While the men are seated, the

left foot extends forward as if to indicate the figure
might rise from his throne and step forward at any Portrait of Horatio Greenough by Rembrandt Peale, 1829.
moment.
The original classical sculpture was a gigantic monument to the Greek god, erected inside the Temple of
Zeus around 435 bce. Considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, it was nearly forty-one feet
tall and covered in ivory and gold with a wooden substructure. The sculpture and the temple that housed it
had both been destroyed by 425 ce. However, the statue was represented on coins and in written descriptions
and continued to influence artists for generations. Indeed, several decades before Greenough completed
his sculpture, the French painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres employed the same frontal pose for his
1806 portrait of Napoleon on his Imperial Throne, a painting that commemorated Napoleon’s coronation as
emperor. While both Napoleon and Washington were military leaders who became heads of state, Napoleon
embraced the title and godlike status of emperor, whereas Washington steadfastly rejected any suggestion of
monarchical power and left the presidency after two terms.
While Greenough drew upon the pose and idealized form of ancient statuary, the sculpture’s head was realistic,
having been derived from the French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon’s portrait of Washington. Houdon’s
life-size sculpture was commissioned for the rotunda of the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond that was
designed by Thomas Jefferson. Houdon used elements of Neoclassicism, including the contrapposto pose and
the symbolism of the fasces, which are shown as thirteen rods bundled together, representing the thirteen
colonies. Fasces were bundles of rods intended to symbolize power and authority in Ancient Rome. Houdon
adeptly blended Neoclassicism with realism by personalizing Washington’s facial features and putting him in
contemporary civilian dress. Houdon visited Washington at Mount Vernon to study Washington from life, and
he and his assistants took measurements of Washington’s body and sculpted a life mask of his face to ensure
accuracy. The sculpture was completed after the war and prior to Washington’s presidential inauguration.
Greenough drew upon Houdon’s successful portrait for his monumental sculpture, but whereas Houdon
represented Washington as a gentleman farmer, with his sword hanging unused by his side and his gaze
lifted toward the future, Greenough depicted Washington as an enthroned god. He is shown shirtless and

88
wearing sandals, with a toga covering his lower
torso. His right hand points to the heavens while
his left hand holds a sword in its sheath, with the
hilt extended toward the viewer. It appears to ask
the viewers to pick up the mantle of defending
the country’s liberty, while reminding them to be
ever mindful of their duty to a higher authority.
His expression appears stern and foreboding.
Relief sculptures on the sides of the throne depict
Hercules as an infant and Apollo, the Greek Sun
god. At the base of the chair back are statuettes
on either side representing a Native American
and Christopher Columbus, alluding to the New
and the Old World.122 There is a Latin inscription
School children view Greenough’s statue of George
on the back: “Simulacrum Istud Ad Magnum Washington, photograph by Alfred Chaney Johnston, c.1899.
Libertatis Exemplum Nec Sine Ipsa Duraturum The sculpture had been moved to the east lawn of the Capitol
Horatius Greenough Faciebat,” which translates in 1843 and remained there until 1908, when it was moved to
as, “Horatio Greenough made this image as a great the Smithsonian.
example of freedom, which will not survive without
freedom itself.”123 Greenough’s aims for this monument were ambitious, but he combined the idealism of
Neoclassicism with realistic portraiture in a manner that some viewers ultimately found unsettling.124

Audience Reception
In the early part of the nineteenth century, following Washington’s death in 1799, the former president’s
reputation as the founding father of the country grew larger and larger, finally achieving mythic status.
Greenough’s pose seems to deliberately reference the ways that Washington loomed large in the nation’s
consciousness. Even so, it still outraged the public’s sensibilities to see Washington depicted as a god-like
figure. The monumental statue, which is over eleven feet tall, was initially placed in the rotunda of the
Capitol in 1841.
The work was roundly criticized from the beginning. The idea of displaying the first president in a state
of semi-nudity, wearing a toga, was deemed offensive and laughable. One politician decried that the statue
showed Washington, “undressed, with a napkin lying in his lap.”125 Another congressman suggested the
sculpture be thrown into the Potomac River.126 The presidential monument, with its Carrara marble statue
and granite base, weighed twelve tons. The weight ended up cracking the rotunda floor, so the sculpture
was moved to the east lawn of the Capitol in 1843. In 1908, it was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution
and displayed in the Smithsonian Castle. Since 1964, it has been installed at the National American History
Museum in Washington, D.C.
The furor over this sculpture reveals the importance of subtlety when quoting other artworks. Alluding to
the pose or composition of a piece of ancient or Renaissance art was a pervasive trope in American art. It
allowed artists to connect themselves to a greater artistic tradition, while also aligning the United States
with great nations of the past like ancient Greece and Rome. However, this technique backfired in the case
of Greenough, in part because the allusion is too direct. Americans were still interested in becoming their
own nation and developing their own iconography; they didn’t want to simply be a direct copy of Greece.
Despite the public outcry, Greenough was never convinced that his concept for Washington was to blame
for its poor reception. Instead, he blamed poor lighting and an unsuitable pedestal.127 As one of the artist’s
friends asserted, “This magnificent production of genius does not seem to be appreciated at its full value in
this metropolis.”128

89
SELECTED WORK: Edmonia Lewis, Forever Free, 1867
Edmonia Lewis: Biography
Mary Edmonia Lewis was born on the fourth of
July in 1844. Her father was from the West Indies
and worked as a gentleman’s servant. Her mother,
Catherine Lewis, was of Ojibwa (Chippewa) and
African-American descent. Edmonia had an older
brother named Samuel, and according to Lewis,
both children were also given Chippewa names.
Samuel was called Sunshine and Edmonia was
known as Wildfire.129 Unfortunately, both of her
parents died by the time Lewis was nine. For the
next four years, she was raised by her mother’s two
sisters. The women supported the family by making
and selling Native American crafts to tourists in
the Niagara Falls region. In 1852, Edmonia’s older
brother left for California following the Gold Rush,
but he continued to send money back to support his
sister and her education.

In 1856, Lewis enrolled in a Baptist Abolitionist
school, entering into a pre-college program at
New York Central College in McGrawville, New
York. It was while she was at college that Lewis
discovered her love of drawing. Three years later
she moved to Ohio to enroll at the Oberlin College.
Oberlin was the first college in the United States
to admit African Americans, Native Americans,
and women.130 Despite the college’s progressive
reputation, Lewis had a difficult time at the school
and experienced several negative encounters
with classmates. In 1862 Lewis was accused of
poisoning the wine of two classmates with “Spanish Edmonia Lewis, albumen print, c. 1870.
fly.” The strange scandal was widely reported in
the local newspapers, and Lewis was attacked and beaten by vigilantes before the case went to trial.131 There
was no physical evidence of the crime, so Lewis was cleared of wrongdoing in court and allowed to return to
school. However, a year later and one semester before her expected graduation, Lewis was accused of theft
by a fellow classmate. She was again acquitted for lack of evidence but was not allowed to enroll in further
classes or graduate.
Without a way to graduate, Lewis left Oberlin and went to Boston in early 1864 with letters of introduction
in hand.132 A number of prominent abolitionists there, including William Lloyd Garrison and Lydia Maria
Child, facilitated her efforts to become a sculptor. Lewis was able to study with the sculptor Edward
Brackett, who helped her set up her own studio.133 She achieved financial success through the sale of portrait
medallions of abolitionists John Brown and Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the white officer who commanded
the 54th Massachusetts Infantry that consisted of Black soldiers. The sales of these medallions allowed Lewis
to travel to Europe in 1865. She visited London, Paris, and Florence before settling in Rome.

90
American Women Sculptors in Rome
The sculptor Harriet Hosmer, another expatriate,
welcomed Lewis into a community of American
women sculptors who had found a hospitable
creative environment in nineteenth-century Rome.
Hosmer had been in Italy since 1852 and was the
unofficial leader of the group that also included
Emma Stebbins, Louisa Lander, and Vinnie Ream.
The writer Henry James referred to the community
as “that strange sisterhood of American lady
sculptors who at one time settled upon the seven
hills [of Rome.]”134 In America, the physicality of
sculpting was perceived as too “masculine” for
women, as Patience Wright had learned when she
created wax sculptures a century earlier. Gender
roles in the United States were heavily proscribed Harriet Hosmer with her assistants and carvers in the
in the nineteenth century, as a result of the cult courtyard of her studio, Rome, 1867, albumen print. Hosmer
of true womanhood—the prevailing societal welcomed Edmonia Lewis into a community of American
standards emphasized domesticity, piety, purity, and women sculptors in nineteenth-century Rome.
submissiveness above all other qualities. Women
were expected to find creative fulfillment in private, domestic pursuits like needlework and quilting, not the

physical labor of carving marble, or traveling abroad for art training.
In Rome, American women found fewer social constrictions. Lewis in particular had greater artistic
freedom as a Black woman than she had experienced in the United States. She would later proclaim, “I was
practically driven to Rome in order to obtain the opportunities for art culture, and to find a social atmosphere
where I was not constantly reminded of my color. The land of liberty had no room for a colored sculptor.”135
Furthermore, Rome offered plenty of antique sculpture for study, ready access to statuary marble and other
materials, skilled stoneworkers who could be employed as studio assistants, and wealthy clientele in the form
of rich tourists passing through the city on their Grand Tours of Europe. Many of the American sculptors in
Rome paid Roman artisans to carve their sculpted models out of marble. Lewis, however, lacked the funds to
hire help and thus chiseled most of her marble sculptures herself.136
Visual and Contextual Analysis

Forever Free was Lewis’ first major work; she finished it the year after she arrived in Rome.137 The original
title of the sculpture was The Morning of Liberty; the words “forever free” are inscribed on the base and
allude to the Emancipation Proclamation. The life-sized sculpture was an attempt to capture the emotional
impact of the morning of January 1, 1863, when Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was issued, declaring
that “all persons held as slaves within any State…shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”138 The
woman is shown kneeling with a manacle around her ankle; she clasps her hands in a gesture of gratitude.
Standing next to her, with one arm on her shoulder and the other upraised is a bare-chested man. He is
positioned in the classical contrapposto pose, which dates back to ancient Greece, wherein the figure is
shown putting weight on the standing straight leg, while the other leg is bent. Here, however, his bent leg
is resting on a ball and chain, alluding to his confinement. In his raised hand he holds a broken manacle
and chains, though an intact manacle remains on one of his arms, implying that freedom has not been fully
attained. Both figures are shown looking upward, as if thanking God for their newfound liberation.
Some critics have argued that the postures of the man and woman reinforce stereotypes about male
aggression and female passivity, contending that the work upholds the patriarchal system that granted men

91
more rights than women, as the man is shown rising while the woman remains on her knees. Others have
suggested that the pair signals the rebirth of the African-American family after slavery. The female figure’s
lack of distinctively African features or hair may have been a way to distance the subject from the artist
herself; deracializing the figures also helped broaden sculpture’s appeal for Lewis’s largely white audience.
The female figure could also be an allusion to the mixed ancestry that resulted from intermarriage and the
forcible rape of enslaved women, as Lewis was herself the offspring of such an intermarriage.
With her embrace of Neoclassicism, Lewis employed a sculptural style associated with white Europeans
and updated it by using it to represent and comment upon issues facing African Americans and Native
Americans. In 1872, for example, she created a smaller work in marble called Old Arrow Maker. It was based
on the Longfellow poem “The Song of Hiawatha” (1855). Hiawatha was from the Ojibwa tribe, as was Lewis’
mother. Both father and daughter are shown working; the father is making arrowheads while his daughter
weaves a mat. Together, they counter the myth of the “vanishing Indian,” projecting instead the continuity
of cultural traditions and craft across generations. At the same time, the image espouses values of hard work
and family, which appealed to the middle-class audiences that Lewis cultivated as patrons.
SECTION IV SUMMARY demonstrated the influence of the English

The Rise of Neoclassicism in the United States Palladian style that relies heavily on symmetry.
Neoclassicism refers to the renewed interest in By 1796, he did not want his estate to resemble
Greek and Roman sculpture and architecture a British country home; rather he wished for

that developed in eighteenth-century Europe, his home to reflect classical ideals. He changed
before eventually spreading to America. the proportions of the main pavilion so that the
Artists and architects revived Greco-Roman two stories would appear as if they were one.
ideals of balance, symmetry, and harmony. He also added a third story with a low dome in
In America, Neoclassicism carried important the front of the building. These changes made

political associations for the fledgling the home appear as though it was one long
democracy. The newly formed United States story; it also allowed the surrounding view to
did not have an extensive cultural history be unencumbered by the architecture.
upon which to draw. By emulating antique Monticello was built with the Virginia landscape
architectural forms and sculpture, Americans at the forefront, using local brick and wood, but
hoped to create symbolic associations with yet it managed to display a wealth of different
Greek democracy and the Roman Republic and style reference points from ancient Greece
the values they espoused, such as liberty, civic and Rome to British Palladianism and French
virtue, idealism, and making sacrifices for the Neoclassicism.
greater good. More than eighty enslaved people worked at
Selected Work: Thomas Jefferson, Monticello, Monticello, and Jefferson was thought to have
1769—1809, Charlottesville, Virginia owned more than six hundred enslaved people
Thomas Jefferson was an architect in addition over the course of his lifetime. The slave
to being an author, politician, scientist, lawyer, quarters were located behind and below the
and farmer. manor house, recessed into the hillside.
Jefferson’s home, which he called Monticello, is Selected Work: William Thornton, Charles
an example of neoclassical architecture, though Bulfinch, and Benjamin Henry Latrobe, United
its design changed considerably over time. He States Capitol, begun in 1793, Washington, D.C.
began the first stage of construction in 1768 In 1793, Thomas Jefferson proposed a
when he was twenty-five and Virginia was still competition to locate a design for the U.S.
a British colony. The initial design for his home Capitol Building, and amateur architect Dr.

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William Thornton’s design was selected as the Greenough based Washington’s pose on an
winning entry. His plan included a low dome ancient Greek statue of Zeus at Olympia by the
over a temple flanked by rectangular wings on sculptor Phidias. Both Washington and Zeus
the north and south to accommodate the House were depicted enthroned, in a frontal position
of Representatives and the Senate. with one arm bent and raised, and the other
Ten years later, President Jefferson hired arm extended toward the viewer.

architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe to oversee While Greenough drew upon the pose
the ongoing construction of the building. and idealized form of ancient statuary, the
Latrobe added a grand staircase to the Capitol sculpture’s head was realistic, having been
plan, along with a Corinthian colonnade derived from the French sculptor Jean-
along the east front of the building. He was Antoine Houdon’s portrait of Washington. But
responsible for some of the building’s best whereas Houdon represented Washington as
known interior spaces, including National a gentleman farmer, with his sword hanging
Statuary Hall, the Old Senate Chamber, and unused by his side and his gaze lifted toward
the Old Supreme Court Chamber. the future, Greenough depicted Washington as
Charles Bulfinch replaced Latrobe in 1818. an enthroned God. He is shown shirtless and

Bullfinch contributed the design of the iconic wearing sandals, with a toga covering his lower
domed center building, as well as the Capitol torso.
grounds and its west terraces. Greenough’s pose seems to deliberately
In addition to the architects who designed the reference the ways that Washington loomed

building, hundreds of skilled and unskilled large in the nation’s consciousness. Even so,

laborers worked on the project for decades, it still outraged the public’s sensibilities to see
including enslaved African Americans. Washington depicted as a god-like figure.
In August 1814, during the War of 1812, Selected Work: Edmonia Lewis, Forever Free,
British troops set fire to the Capitol, damaging 1867
the building’s north and south wings. In the A number of prominent abolitionists facilitated
aftermath of the war, a resurgence of national Mary Edmonia Lewis’s efforts to become
pride spurred on rebuilding efforts. a sculptor. She achieved financial success
through the sale of portrait medallions of
Embedded within the Capitol’s architecture
abolitionists John Brown and Colonel Robert
and decorative sculpture are details that
Gould Shaw. The sales of these medallions
ground the neoclassical building within its
allowed Lewis to travel to Europe in 1865, and
North American setting. For example, on
she settled in Rome among a community of
the interior Corinthian columns, traditional
American women sculptors working there.
acanthus leaves were replaced with corncobs
and tobacco leaves, in a nod to the local Forever Free was Lewis’ first major work;
agriculture. she finished it the year after she arrived in
Rome. The words “forever free” are inscribed
Selected Work: Horatio Greenough, George on the base and allude to the Emancipation
Washington, c. 1840 Proclamation.
In 1832, Congress commissioned Horatio
Greenough to sculpt a monumental figure With her embrace of Neoclassicism, Lewis
of George Washington for the United States employed a sculptural style associated with
Capitol, in honor of the centennial anniversary white Europeans and updated it by using it
of his birth in 1732. to represent and comment upon issues facing
Black and Native Americans.

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Sect ion 5
Nature and Nation
ENGAGING WITH NATURE IN
EARLY AMERICA
For centuries, Indigenous cultures in North America
have understood the critical importance of studying
and adapting to the local environment, and so it
follows that the natural landscape is a prominent
feature of architectural sites such as the ancestral
Pueblo structures in the Southwest built between 700
and 1150 ce. The use of nature as both material and
subject matter has long been a prominent aspect of
Pacific Northwest sculptural arts as well, as seen in the

totem poles carved by the Haida and Tlingit people in
Alaska in the nineteenth century. The Oxbow (The Connecticut River near Northampton), 1836,
by Thomas Cole. Cole is credited with popularizing the genre of
When European settlers began traveling to North landscape painting.
America, they were quick to deploy art to document
the new world’s natural resources for the curious
credited with popularizing the genre of landscape
public back in Europe. John White was a British artist
painting, and his followers became known as the
and mapmaker who accompanied the expeditions to
Hudson River School. An iconography of nationalism
Roanoke Island, North Carolina, where the first British
began to emerge in which certain prominent national
colonial settlement was attempted in the sixteenth
landmarks, such as Niagara Falls, began to stand in for
century. White’s watercolors focused on the abundance
the whole of the United States.139 Sublime depictions
of natural resources that he encountered in terms
of the western United States by Albert Bierstadt and
of marine life and agriculture. Later, John James
Alfred Jacob Miller further served to encourage
Audubon spent his career attempting to document the
settlement and westward expansion. Painters like
country’s bird species.
Thomas Moran, and photographers such as Timothy
As Romanticism flourished in Europe and North O’Sullivan, accompanied United States geological
America in the nineteenth century, American artists surveys and documented natural wonders for curious
focused on wilderness and the nation’s dramatic eastern audiences, inspiring the modern conservation
landscapes to celebrate the country’s unique identity movement. Moran’s landscapes from one such survey
and its freedom from tradition. Thomas Cole is expedition in 1871 were used to persuade members of
Congress to establish Yellowstone as a national park.

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SELECTED WORK: Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico,
850–1150 CE
Ancestral Pueblo Art and

Architecture
The ancestral Pueblo people inhabited the Four
Corners region of the American Southwest
between the ninth and twelfth centuries. The Four
Corners refers to the region where four states meet,
comprising southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona,
northwestern New Mexico, and southwestern
Colorado. The name “Pueblo” comes from Spanish.
It means “village” and was used to refer to both the
region’s Indigenous people and their stone or adobe
dwellings. The ancient culture that lived at the Four
Corners is sometimes referred to as the Anasazi. A view of ruins at Pueblo Bonito, showing what remains of the
However, the word Anasazi comes from Navajo Great House, kivas, and outdoor areas.
and means “enemy ancestors,” which is considered Photo by Brenda Kochevar
objectionable by some modern Pueblos who are their
descendants.140

The ancestral Pueblo developed farming communities throughout the region sometime between 700 and 1000
ce.141 They first lived in underground pit houses, but as the community expanded, dwellings increased in size
and complexity. Some structures were built directly into the natural landscape through the construction of
multihousehold complexes within rock formations and backed against canyon walls.142 Known as great houses,
these were massive, multi-story stone buildings with hundreds of rooms.

Pueblo Bonito was one of nine great houses in Chaco Canyon, in present-day New Mexico. The name “Pueblo
Bonito” is Spanish for “pretty village.” The name was recorded during the Washington Expedition of 1849
and may have come from the expedition leader Lieutenant James Simpson’s Mexican guide, Carabajal.143 The
Navajo name for Pueblo Bonito was “tse biyaa anii’ahi,” meaning “leaning rock gap,” which referred to a large
overhanging slab of sandstone that later fell and crushed part of the building in 1941.
Pueblo Bonito was constructed by the ancestral Pueblo people between 850 and 1150 ce. Archaeological
evidence suggests that it was built in several stages. The great house began as a small arc built against the
north wall of a broad, shallow canyon. It was significantly enlarged in three stages between 1020 and 1130
ce. The quality of the craftsmanship noticeably evolved over time. The oldest sections are made of rough
stone staked to the ground, while the final stages show carefully fitted and smoothed, dry-laid stonework.144
The expansive structure formed a semi-circle, with somewhere between six hundred to eight hundred rooms.
Today, only the outlines of the first floor are visible, but originally some sections were four stories high.
There were three large kivas and thirty-two smaller kivas. Kivas were circular, below-ground rooms used
for ceremonial purposes or political gatherings. Hundreds of people could gather in the larger kivas for
rituals, flanking the walls, while dancers performed in the center. Other rooms were used for storage. Some
scholars theorize that the great houses were a form of “public architecture,” and were used for temporary clan
gatherings in the area for religious ceremonies, trading, and knowledge sharing.145 Rock carvings, also known
as petroglyphs, found on the canyon walls tracked astronomical data. This indicates that the ancestral Pueblo

95
were interested in lunar and solar cycles, and many
buildings were oriented to align with winter and
summer solstices as well as the cardinal directions.146
Some of Pueblo Bonito’s features include doorways
aligned so that one could see through multiple rooms
and across the length of the building, allowing for
greater communication across the space. Distinctive
design elements include T-shaped doors, which can
be found in other great houses in Chaco, as well as
other sites in the region.
A vast network of wide, straight roads connected
the great houses not only to each other, but also to
other settlements farther afield, linking more than
150 great houses in the larger region.147 Scientific
analysis reveals that the logs used for the roofs of
the buildings came from trees native to the San
Mateo and Chuska Mountains, both of which are
more than fifty miles away. About 240,000 trees
would have been used for the construction of a
great house, with the materials transported across
significant distances during construction.148 The

stone structures kept people cool during the heat of Map of key Ancestral Puebloan sites in the
the summer, while also insulating inhabitants from Four Corners region.
extreme cold during the winter.
Tableware and household goods found in the area provide further insights into the culture. More than
15,000 artifacts have been found at Pueblo Bonito, including stoneware decorated with distinctive black-
on-white geometric designs. These items help provide context regarding the Chacoan culture’s contact and
trade with other regions. For example, the remains of scarlet macaws, birds that are native to a region more
than a thousand miles to the south in Mexico, have been found on the site, as have shells from the Gulf of
California.149 Traces of cacao from Mexico, found on pottery sherds, further suggest trade networks between
the Mesoamerican and Southwestern communities. It’s possible that such items were exchanged for turquoise
from the region since turquoise has been found as far south as the Yucatan peninsula.150
Contextual Analysis
The Chacoan culture was highly developed in terms of its agriculture, engineering, and architecture. Water
is scarce in the high desert region of New Mexico, and water management was a priority for those living in
the area. Evidence of elaborate irrigation systems, including canals, dams, and basins, demonstrates how the
society engineered the natural environment to provide for the growing population. Around 1150 ce, people
began to move away from the valley floor to more defensible settlements built into the sides of cliffs. This
may have been because of an increase in warfare, as cliffside dwellings were easier to defend.
However, changing environmental conditions and drought might also have contributed to a population decrease
in the canyon. Summer rainfall was more plentiful and regular between the tenth and twelfth centuries,
which led people to gather and organize in greater numbers.151 As the climate grew dryer, Chacoans began
leaving, either moving south or consolidating into smaller, dispersed communities. As Chaco Canyon receded
from prominence, other areas—like Mesa Verde in Colorado—took on greater significance.152 The Chacoan
great houses were built during a period of agricultural abundance. They were likely abandoned when the

96
environment could no longer support the population that had gathered in the region.
Chaco Canyon’s historic and cultural significance has been long recognized. It is sacred land for contemporary
Puebloans, including the Zuni and the Hopi, among others, who venerate the ancestral Pueblo people as
forebearers. President Theodore Roosevelt passed the Antiquities Act of 1906 and established Chaco as a
national monument. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. That said, the greater Chaco region outside the
national park boundaries warrants further archeological exploration but is currently threatened by oil drilling
and fracking.153
SELECTED WORK: Charles Willson Peale, Exhumation of the Mastodon,

c. 1807
Charles Willson Peale: Biography
Charles Willson Peale was born in Queen Anne’s
County Maryland in 1741. He initially studied to
be a saddler in Annapolis, Maryland, but turned to
painting in the 1760s. Peale was influenced by the
work of John Singleton Copley, whom he met in

Boston in 1765. Peale persuaded several merchants
and lawyers to finance a trip for him to study
painting in London with Benjamin West in 1767. He
stayed abroad for two years, and upon his return he
established himself as a portrait painter in the Mid-
Atlantic region.
In 1776, Peale moved to Philadelphia. During the
Revolutionary War, he enlisted in the Pennsylvania
militia, bringing his painting supplies with him
to paint his fellow officers.154 In 1779, he was
commissioned to paint a full-length portrait of
George Washington on the battlefield, in honor of
the general’s victories at Princeton and Trenton. In
1795, Peale organized the first group exhibition of
art by American artists in the United States.
Peale was as committed to promoting science as
art. He opened the first natural history museum
in America in 1786. National museums were Charles Willson Peale self-portrait with his wife and daughter,
becoming popular in Europe in the eighteenth c. 1782–1785.
century; the British Museum opened in 1759, and
the Louvre opened in 1793. Peale’s project was tied to his national pride and his interest in demonstrating
the biodiversity of the country. His collection included more than ninety mammals, seven hundred birds,
and four thousand insects. The birds were displayed in cases with painted backdrops showing their natural
environments.155 Situated in Philadelphia, the museum began in a building next to Peale’s home before
expanding and moving to the American Philosophical Society’s Philosophical Hall, and ultimately to
Independence Hall, where it was incorporated as the Philadelphia Museum in 1822.

97
Art and nationalism were deeply connected for
Peale. His colleagues John Singleton Copley and
Benjamin West both moved to England permanently
after finding better career prospects abroad. While
Peale trained in England for two years, he was firmly
committed to developing artistic talent and building
institutions in the new United States of America.
He tried to establish the first fine art academy in
the country, which was named the Columbianum;
however, it closed just a few months after it opened.
Peale, who was a devoted Whig, wished to appoint
George Washington president of the academy in an
honorary role, just as the King of England was the
honorary head of the British Royal Academy. This Peale’s mastodon on display in a museum. The recovery of the
angered the Jeffersonian republicans, who did not nearly intact mastodon skeleton in 1801 was both a scientific
coup and a point of national pride.
wish the country to follow in Britain’s example in
any way. Peale’s art academy may have failed, but
he nevertheless mentored countless young artists, including several of his many children, some of whom were
named after artists: Raphaelle Peale, Angelica Kauffman Peale, Rembrandt Peale, and Titian Ramsay Peale.
Charles Willson Peale was both an artist in his own right and a scientist, and he saw his museum as a fitting
place to display both artworks and scientific specimens. He famously led an expedition in New York’s

Hudson Valley to exhume a mastodon skeleton that was eventually put on display in his museum. A famous
self-portrait of Peale, titled The Artist in His Museum (1822), shows Peale theatrically lifting a red velvet
curtain as he extends his hand toward the viewer in a welcoming gesture. Part of the mastodon skeleton can
be seen in the museum behind him, peeking out from under the curtain. In the foreground, the viewer can
see a palette on the right, a nod toward Peale’s artistic abilities. On the left is a stuffed wild turkey, perched
over a kit of taxidermy tools. The juxtaposition of the palette and the scientific specimens is indicative
of Peale’s shared passions for art and science. Painted near the end of his life, the artwork dramatically
encapsulates Peale’s cultural legacy and his contributions to the nation. Peale died in Philadelphia in 1827.

In 1798, a farmer in Newburgh, New York, discovered mastodon fossils on his property. As news of this
discovery began to circulate, Peale succeeded in purchasing the fossils and securing the rights to excavate
the remaining bones from the farmer’s property for three hundred dollars. In August 1801, Peale traveled to
New York with a team of thirty-five workers. Accompanied by his son Rembrandt, he supervised the dig and
insured that the pit containing the fossils was carefully excavated. He and his son documented the process,
sketching the bones as they were uncovered. Later Peale would use the sketches to create a detailed, dramatic
painting commemorating the removal of the mastodon skeleton from the pit. The four- by five-foot painting
is a monument to Peale’s achievement.
Peale’s painting includes seventy people at the scene, including some scientists and family members who were
not actually present at the excavation site. Only Peale’s son Rembrandt was on site, but the painting includes
Peale’s second wife (who was deceased), his third wife, and most of his children. The scene is threatened by
dark storm clouds. It gives the painting a visceral sense of impending menace since a drenching storm could
disrupt the project and wash away the workers’ efforts. Peale did describe a thunderstorm interrupting his work
in his diary of the exhumation.156 The threatening storm may have been a reference to fellow Philadelphian
Benjamin Franklin’s experiments with electricity taking place during thunderstorms.
Peale is positioned standing near the large water wheel of the contraption that he invented to assist with the

98
dig. The wheel powered a pulley system that helped lower the water level, making it easier to retrieve the
bones. Peale, helped by his family, holds a detailed, oversized drawing of a mastodon bone. Their assistance
symbolizes the way Peale drew upon support from his family in his many creative endeavors. With this
painting Peale is demonstrating his skills in both art and science and bringing together his two passions.
Though the multi-figure composition is quite busy, the wooden scaffold at the center of the painting forms a
pyramid that draws the eye to the water pit at its base. Meanwhile the verticality of the pulley leads the eye
upward from the murky primeval depths to the bright blue sky in the distance. This situates the excavation as
a journey from darkness to enlightenment.
Contextual Analysis
Peale was intent on reassembling the mastodon’s skeleton and putting it on exhibition in his museum where
he could share his discovery with the nation. At the time, this was only the second skeleton ever reassembled
for display, second only to an enormous ground sloth that had been reassembled in Madrid in the 1790s.157
Not every bone was recovered, and so Peale tasked Rembrandt Peale with creating substitutes for the missing
bones. Rembrandt Peale worked on the project with Philadelphia sculptor William Rush and Moses Williams,
a formerly enslaved servant who worked for the Peale Museum.158 Together they created bones from carved
wood and papier-mâché.
The recovery of the nearly intact mastodon skeleton was both a scientific coup and a point of national pride.
A prominent French scientist named Georges-Louis Leclerc had claimed in his volume of natural history
that North American animals were inferior and degenerate versions of European animals. Thomas Jefferson
published a refutation of his claims in 1785, citing recently found mastodon bones as examples of an animal

bigger than any found in Europe. Mastodons were unique to North America, and Peale’s full skeleton
solidified Jefferson’s claims and became an emblem of nationalism.
SELECTED WORK: Robert S. Duncanson, View of Cincinnati, Ohio from

Covington, Kentucky, c.1850
Robert S. Duncanson: Biography
Robert Seldon Duncanson was born around 1821 in Fayette, New York, near Seneca Falls. He was one of
five sons of John Dean Duncanson and Lucy Nickles. Both his father and grandfather were free tradesman
who worked as house painters and carpenters. From these humble beginnings, Duncanson would grow
up to become the first African American to receive international acclaim as an artist. When he was a boy,
his family moved to Monroe, Michigan. As a teenager he began his career by advertising his services as a
housepainter and glazier in a local newspaper.159 Not content only painting houses, Duncanson taught himself
to draw by copying prints and painting portraits.
By 1841, Duncanson had moved to Cincinnati, intent on pursuing a career as a fine artist. By this time,
Cincinnati was a regional art center with a growing community of artists and collectors. The city was also
known for its pro-abolitionist leanings. Although Duncanson’s early work was somewhat crude, it improved
in the 1840s during which time he traveled as an itinerant artist between Cincinnati, Detroit, and his
hometown of Monroe. After 1850, Duncanson was one of a group of painters that included T. Worthington
Whittredge and William Sonntag; together they defined the Ohio River Valley style.
Duncanson was also supported by a strong abolitionist community in Cincinnati that included Rev. Francis
Conover, James Birney, Nicholas Longworth, Rev. Charles Avery, and Freeman Cary. He painted portraits

99
of several well-known abolitionist patrons in the
1850s, including Freeman Cary. One abolitionist
leader, Nicholas Longworth, commissioned
Duncanson to paint a series of murals in his home,
the Belmont Mansion. Duncanson began taking
part in abolitionist societies and donating paintings
to help fundraise for the cause. With financial
backing from the abolitionists, Duncanson toured
Europe in 1853. He returned to the U.S. with a new
interest in the painterly landscapes and atmospheric
effects of Claude Lorrain and J.M.W. Turner.
Not long after he returned from Europe, Duncanson
began working with James Presley Ball, a
prominent African-American photographer based
in Cincinnati. Duncanson retouched portraits and
colored photographic prints in Ball’s studio. In
1855, the two men worked together to produce a
panoramic abolitionist painting called Mammoth
Pictorial Tour of the United States Comprising
Views of the African Slave Trade, which toured
across the country.

By the early 1860s, racial strife and turmoil
surrounding the Civil War caused Duncanson to
flee to Montreal, where he remained for several
Robert S. Duncanson, photographed by William Notman in
years, becoming an important mentor-figure in the Montreal, 1864.
arts community there. A contemporary Cincinnati
reviewer noted that in Montreal, “his color did not prevent his association with other artists and his entrance
into good society.”160 It was not uncommon for nineteenth-century Black artists to leave America due to
racism. Both Edmonia Lewis and Henry Ossawa Tanner reported encountering less discrimination during their
sojourns in Europe, while photographer Augustus Washington emigrated to Liberia in search of equal rights.
Duncanson left Montreal for England and Scotland in 1865, where he exhibited several important paintings
to a receptive and enthusiastic audience. During his stay in England, he met Lord Alfred Tennyson. The
poet viewed a painting of Duncanson’s based upon his poem “The Lotos-Eaters” and told him that, “your
landscape is a land in which one loves to wander and linger.”161 On that same trip, the London Art Journal
said of his work that it, “may rank among the most delicious that Art has given us…it is wrought with the
skill of a master.”162
When he returned to Cincinnati during the winter of 1866−67, Duncanson was at the pinnacle of his
career in terms of critical success and international accolades. Unfortunately, he started to suffer from
bouts of dementia not long after his return to the United States. It is possible that the condition was caused
by a lifetime of lead poisoning, dating back to his exposure to house paint as a child. He died in 1872 in
Detroit after having a seizure at the age of fifty-one. In the years following his death, Duncanson’s work
fell into obscurity for years, despite his notoriety during his lifetime. It wasn’t until a century later, when
the Cincinnati Art Museum devoted an exhibition to the artist in 1972, that his work was brought back into
public view.

100
The foreground of Duncanson’s View of Cincinnati,
Ohio from Covington, Kentucky is a bucolic,
rural scene featuring African-American farmers
in Covington, Kentucky. In the background, on
the far bank of the river, the viewer can see the
industrialized skyline of Cincinnati, which is
dotted with factory buildings and smokestacks. The
verticality of the prominent trees on the left and
right sides of the composition serves to help frame
the scene and focus attention on the small figures
in the middle foreground. Duncanson based his
composition on an engraving of a daguerreotype of
the scene that had appeared in Graham’s Magazine
in June of 1848.163
The artist made the decision to change the race of
the figures in the engraving from white to Black.
Duncanson did not address racism explicitly, but
it is the subtext of several of his landscapes. At the
time, Covington’s population included a hundred

enslaved people, fifty free African Americans,
and about fifteen thousand whites. The Ohio
River separated the rural, slave-owning state of
Kentucky from the more industrialized, Northern
state of Ohio, where slavery had been banned since Photograph of James Presley Ball (1825–1904), a prominent
1802. The Underground Railroad was active in African-American photographer who was based in Cincinnati
Cincinnati, due to its proximity to a slave-owning and worked with Robert S. Duncanson.
state. In the winter, when the Ohio River froze,
African Americans would attempt to flee Kentucky by crossing the river on foot from Covington. Therefore,
rivers in Duncanson’s landscapes are often associated with freedom and escape.
The Ohio River would also feature prominently in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Stowe herself lived in Cincinnati in the 1840s, and she included a scene in the book where Eliza, an enslaved
woman from Kentucky, crosses the icy Ohio River with her infant daughter, moving from ice floe to ice floe
in search of freedom. Duncanson was certainly familiar with Stowe’s novel. Five years before he painted
View of Cincinnati, Duncanson had painted a scene featuring characters from Stowe’s book called Uncle
Tom and Little Eva. Like View of Cincinnati, the composition features a river in the background.
Situating Duncanson within the American Landscape Tradition

The Ohio River Valley style is considered a second-generation school of landscape painting, inspired by
the Hudson River School, which had been founded in the Catskills region of New York by the influential
landscape painter Thomas Cole and his followers, including Asher B. Durand and Frederick Church. The
Hudson River School was not a literal school; rather, the term refers to a movement of like-minded artists
who often painted in New York’s Hudson River Valley. In 1847, Benjamin McConkey, who was one of
Cole’s students, exhibited Cole’s Voyage of Life series in Cincinnati.164 This marked a turning point when
Duncanson and his colleagues Whittredge and Sonntag turned their attention from portraits to landscape
painting. The three artists embarked on a series of sketching tours, traveling together in search of inspiring
views. A European tour in 1853 provided further inspiration.

101
Duncanson’s paintings of the 1850s, with their large
expanses of sky, showed the influence of Claude
Lorrain. Yet he developed his own style grounded
in the regional landscape of the Ohio River Valley
and melded with literary allusions to works by
Longfellow, Tennyson, and Harriet Beecher Stowe.165
During the following decade, Duncanson would
become an influential figure in Canada and Britain
as well. Duncanson lived in Canada in the 1860s for
two years and helped develop a school of landscape
painting there. He worked with William Notman’s
gallery and influenced a generation of Canadian An illustration from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle
artists, including Otto Jacobi, C.J. Way, and Allan Tom’s Cabin, showing Eliza attempting to escape slavery with
Edson. her infant by crossing the semi-frozen Ohio River.
Image scanned by Phillip V. Allingham
Upon leaving Canada for Britain in 1865, Duncanson
stopped in Dublin, where he exhibited his work
at the Canadian pavilion of an international exhibition. By the time he arrived in London, his international
reputation was growing, and he was received by aristocrats and royals, including the Duchess of Sutherland, the
Marquis of Westminster, and the Duchess of Argyll. The King of Sweden purchased his painting The Land of
the Lotus Eaters. In 2019, the Detroit Institute of Arts installed a gravestone at Duncanson’s unmarked grave

site. It features his portrait and the following quotation from the artist: “I have no color on the brain. All I have
on the brain is paint.”166
SELECTED WORK: Gaanax.ádi/Raven Crest Pole, Reproduction Carved

in 1983, based on a Late Nineteenth-Century Original, Sitka National
Historic Park
Totem Poles of Alaska and the Pacific Northwest

Created by Indigenous people in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, totem poles are large-scale public
sculptures carved from red cedar trees. The pole are primarily used to document ancestry and commemorate
historical events, though some recall legends as well. Most range from nine to fifty-nine feet tall. Clans or
kinship groups are identified by specific animals, which become the group’s totem. The totem animals might
appear on freestanding poles in front of the clan’s house or on house posts or door poles.
The Tlinglit, Haida, and Tsimshian people all use similar graphic design elements in their wood carvings.
Common motifs include the use of formlines, which are connecting contour lines that outline either human
or animal anatomy and structure the design. Ovoid shapes, a slightly rectangular oval, U-forms, and S-shapes
are used frequently as well, and it is common for the forms to be interlocking. The formlines are black, and
the secondary forms are usually painted red, blue, or blue-green.167 The biomorphic, stylized designs can be
hard to decipher. Certain recognizable features might be used to identify animals, like the teeth of a beaver
or the beak of the raven. Among the people of the Northwest coast, it is common to see artworks expressing
a sense of the interconnectedness between human and animal worlds, with myths typically featuring animals
in human form or humans in animal form.168

102
Historical Context
Sitka National Historic Park was designated as a park in
1890 by President Benjamin Harrison, thereby becoming
Alaska’s first national park. Sitka is located in the
Southeastern panhandle of Alaska, in an area that is home
to the Tlingit people. The Tlingit are the farthest north
outpost of Northwest Coast Native culture and share
commonalities with other Northwest peoples such as the
Haida, Tsimshian, and other Indigenous coastal groups.169
For centuries the Tlingit lived on the islands of the Alaskan
panhandle, where they relied primarily on fishing for food,
supplemented by berries and local game.
Russians arrived in the region in 1799, drawn by the sea
otter fur trade. Tensions between the Russians and the
Tlingit led to the Battle of Sitka in 1804. The Tlingit
Sitka nearly defeated the Russians, but their gunpowder
reserves exploded, forcing them to withdraw.170 The
Russians established a fortified stronghold in the area.
However, within fifty years the fur trade was depleted from
overhunting. The colony was no longer profitable, which

led to the Alaska Purchase in 1867. The United States
acquired the land from Russia for 7.2 million dollars, or
approximately two cents per acre, in a deal negotiated by
Secretary of State William Seward.171
In the early twentieth century, the governor of Alaska,
Governor John G. Brady, was asked to send an exhibit to
the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, a World’s Fair held
in St. Louis in 1904.172 He decided to assemble an eye-
catching collection of totem poles to draw visitors to the
Alaska display, which promoted development and tourism
in the region. Between 1903 and 1904, Governor Brady A Tlingit totem pole in Ketchikan, Alaska, c. 1901.
personally visited Tlingit and Haida coastal villages in the
vicinity of Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska,
asking for donations for the exhibition. The original Gaanax.ádi/Raven Crest Pole was one of fifteen Tlingit
and Haida totem poles sent to St. Louis, along with a canoe and two dismantled Haida houses. A crew of
Native carvers accompanied the shipment to repair and assemble the display.
Such World’s Fairs were hugely popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and between 18
and 19 million people visited the exhibition. After the St. Louis Fair closed, the poles traveled to another
smaller exhibition, the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland in 1905. Thirteen of the fifteen
original poles finally returned to Alaska in 1906. Brady sold two of the original poles after the fair ended.
One was acquired by the Milwaukee Public Museum, and the other was bought by a businessman who
presented it to an industrialist based in Indianapolis; today it is part of the Eiteljorg Museum of American
Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis. Evidence suggests that the two poles were sold because they were
in poor condition, and in an effort to reduce shipping costs.173
The remaining thirteen poles were installed at Sitka National Historic Park. Brady thought that assembling

103
the poles in a central location would allow them
to be preserved while creating a tourist attraction
that could showcase the area’s cultural heritage.
Brady and Elbridge W. Merrill, a photographer who
accompanied the governor on his initial collection
trip, together selected the locations where the totem
poles would be installed in the park. Over the
years, the original poles have been repaired and,
in many cases, wholly re-carved. Traditionally, the
Tlingit and Haida people have not repaired their
totem poles, but instead allow them to naturally
decompose. The practice of restoring them remains
controversial within the community to this day.174

The Alaska Building with totem poles at the 1904 World’s Fair,
The original Gaanax.ádi/Raven Crest Pole was
held in St. Louis, Missouri.
donated to Governor Brady and the Alaskan
government in 1903 by Chief Gunyah of the Tlingit
village of Tuxekan, which was located on Prince of Wales Island. It was installed in Sitka under the direction
of E. W. Merill in 1906. In 1938, a Civilian Conservation Corps program was developed as part of the U.S.
Forest Service. In Alaska, this group was tasked with conserving and restoring Native American cultural

artifacts. The Civilian Conservation Corps or CCC was a work program that was part of President Franklin
Roosevelt’s New Deal, and it provided employment opportunities aimed at improving public lands and
national parks.
In southeastern Alaska, Tlingit and Haida men were employed by the CCC to perform repair work on
Sitka’s historic collection while also collecting one hundred poles from uninhabited villages, repairing
them, and installing them in six newly created totem parks. Wooden totem poles were subject to the natural
elements and deterioration and in some cases had to be re-carved when restoration was impossible. The
CCC employed a master carver, Lkeináa (George Benson), who in turn helped train younger CCC recruits in
traditional carving practices. The program, which employed nearly two hundred young Native people, had
the added benefit of preserving and passing on carving traditions as well as conserving artworks.175 However,
it also removed poles from their original context,
divorcing them from their clan associations and
intended function.
Nearly fifty years later, the totem park’s collection
was once again in need of repair. In 1983, a
reproduction of the Gaanax.ádi/Raven Crest Pole
was carved by Yéilch Ya’di (Nathan Jackson)
and Kaajísdu.áxch (Steve Brown), using early
photographs by E. W. Merrill from the park’s
archives to reproduce the details of the original
pole. Gaanax.ádi was the clan’s name, and Raven,
the totem animal that can be identified by its beak,
refers to the moiety or social group. Tlingit and
Haida carvers prepare totem poles for display at the 1904 Haida people belong to one of two moieties, either
World’s Fair. Raven or Eagle.176 It is unknown if this is a story
Photo Credit: Missouri Historical Society pole or a crest pole.

104
There is a whale present near the center of the pole, which may refer to the legend of the raven and the whale.
The raven was known as a trickster figure or a transformer. According to the legend, a raven found himself
in the stomach of a whale. The ever-hungry raven lit a fire inside the whale and tried to eat the animal. The
whale died as a result and soon floated ashore. The raven could hear voices of villagers approaching the
whale and began to screech. The villagers cut open the whale, releasing the raven. Still hungry, the raven
then tricked the villagers into giving him food.
SECTION V SUMMARY against canyon walls. Known as great houses,

Engaging with Nature in Early America these were massive, multi-story stone buildings
with hundreds of rooms.
For centuries, Indigenous cultures in North
America have understood the critical Pueblo Bonito was one of nine great houses in
importance of studying and adapting to the local Chaco Canyon, in what is now New Mexico.
environment, and as such the natural landscape Today only the outlines of the first floor are
is a prominent feature of architectural sites visible, but originally some sections were four
such as the ancestral Pueblo structures in the stories high, with somewhere between six
Southwest. hundred to eight hundred rooms. There were
The use of nature as both material and subject three large kivas and thirty-two smaller kivas.

matter has long been a prominent aspect of Kivas were circular, below-ground rooms used
Northwest sculptural arts, as seen in the totem for ceremonial purposes or political gatherings.

poles carved by the Haida and Tlingit people in More than 15,000 artifacts have been found at
Alaska. Pueblo Bonito, including stoneware decorated
When European settlers began traveling to with distinctive black-on-white geometric

North America, they were quick to deploy art designs. These items help provide context
to document the New World’s natural resources regarding Chacoan culture’s contact with
for the curious public back in Europe. other regions and suggest trade networks
between the Mesoamerican and Southwestern
As Romanticism flourished in Europe and communities.
North America in the nineteenth century,
American artists like Thomas Cole focused Evidence of irrigation systems show how the
on wilderness and the nation’s dramatic society engineered the natural environment.
landscapes to celebrate the country’s unique Around 1150 ce. people began to move away
identity and its freedom from tradition. from the valley floor to smaller settlements
built into the sides of cliffs. This may have
Sublime depictions of the western United been because of an increase in warfare, as
States by Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran cliffside dwellings were easier to defend.
further served to encourage settlement and However, changing environmental conditions
westward expansion. and drought might have also contributed to a
Selected Work: Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, population decrease in the canyon.
New Mexico, 850−1150 CE Selected Work: Charles Willson Peale,
The ancestral Puebloans developed extensive Exhumation of the Mastodon, c. 1806–08
farming communities in the Four Corners
Charles Willson Peale initially trained to be
region of the American Southwest between the a saddler before turning to painting in the
ninth and twelfth centuries. Some structures 1760s. He trained in London for two years
were built directly into the natural landscape with Benjamin West. Upon his return, he
through the construction of multihousehold established himself as a portrait painter in the
complexes within rock formations and backed Mid-Atlantic region.

105
In 1795 Peale organized the first group Tennyson, and Harriet Beecher Stowe.
exhibition of art by American artists in the The foreground of View of Cincinnati is

United States. Peale was as committed to a bucolic, rural scene featuring African-
promoting science as art. He opened the American farmers in Covington, Kentucky.
first natural history museum in America in In the background, on the far bank of the
1786. Peale’s project was tied to his national river you can see the industrial skyline of
pride and his interest in demonstrating the Cincinnati, which is dotted with buildings
biodiversity of the country. His collection and smokestacks. Duncanson did not address
included more than ninety mammals, seven racism explicitly in his work, but it is the
hundred birds, and four thousand insects. subtext of several of his landscapes. At the
Art and nationalism were deeply connected time, the Ohio River separated the rural,
for Peale, and he was firmly committed slave-owning state of Kentucky from the more
to developing artistic talent and building industrialized, Northern state of Ohio, where
institutions in the U.S. slavery had been banned since 1802.
Peale and his son documented the process of The Underground Railroad was active in
exhuming a mastodon skeleton that had been Cincinnati, due to its proximity to a slave-
discovered in 1798, sketching the bones as they owning state. In the winter, when the Ohio
were uncovered. Later, Peale would use these River froze, African Americans would attempt
sketches to create a painting documenting the to flee Kentucky by crossing the river on
exhumation. foot from Covington. Therefore, rivers in
With this painting Peale demonstrates his skills Duncanson’s landscapes are often associated


in both art and science, bringing together his with freedom and escape.
two passions. Selected Work: Gaanax.ádi/Raven Crest Pole,
Selected Work: Robert S. Duncanson, View Reproduction Carved in 1983, Sitka National
of Cincinnati, Ohio from Covington, Kentucky, Historic Park
c.1851 Created by Indigenous people in Alaska and
the Pacific Northwest, totem poles are large-
From humble beginnings, Robert Seldon
Duncanson would grow up to become the first scale public sculptures carved from red cedar
African American to receive international trees. The poles are primarily used to document
acclaim as an artist. Duncanson taught himself ancestry and commemorate historical events,
to draw by copying prints and painting though some recall legends as well.
portraits. The Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian people
By 1841, he had moved to Cincinnati intent on all use similar graphic design elements in

pursuing a career as a fine artist. Cincinnati their wood carvings. Common motifs include
was a regional art center by this time, with a the use of formlines, which are connecting
growing community of artists and collectors. contour lines that outline either human or
The city was also known for its pro-abolitionist animal anatomy and structure the design.
leanings, and many of Duncanson’s patrons Ovoid shapes, U-forms, and S-shapes are used
were part of the abolitionist community. frequently as well. The formlines are black,
and the secondary forms are usually painted
By 1850 Duncanson was an established artist red, blue, or blue-green. The organic designs
and part of a group of painters who together express a sense of the interconnectedness
defined the Ohio River Valley style. It was between human and animal worlds.
considered a second-generation school of
landscape painting, inspired by the Hudson The original Gaanax.ádi/Raven Crest Pole was
River School. Duncanson grounded his works in one of fifteen Tlingit and Haida totem poles
the regional landscape of the Ohio River Valley sent to St. Louis for the 1904 World’s Fair, along
and referenced literary works by Longfellow, with a canoe and two dismantled Haida houses.

106
The poles returned to Alaska in 1906, at which conserved artworks, it also removed poles from
point they were installed at Sitka National their original context, divorcing them from their
Historic Park. clan associations and intended function.
In the 1930s, in southeastern Alaska, Tlingit In 1983, a reproduction of the Gaanax.ádi/
and Haida men were employed by the Civilian Raven Crest Pole was carved by Yéilch Ya’di
Conservation Corps to perform repair work (Nathan Jackson) and Kaajísdu.áxch (Steve
on Sitka’s historic collection while also Brown), using early photographs by E. W.
collecting one hundred poles from uninhabited Merrill from the park’s archives to reproduce
villages, repairing them, and installing them the details of the original pole.
in newly created totem parks. Wooden totem Gaanax.ádi was the clan’s name, and raven,

poles were subject to the natural elements and the totem animal that can be identified by its
deterioration, and in some cases had to be re- beak, refers to the moiety, or social group. The
carved when restoration was impossible. combination of raven and whale on this pole
While this program provided employment, may also refer to the legend of the raven and
preserved and passed on carving traditions, and the whale.

107
Conclusion
This Art Resource Guide provides a partial selection period deepens and grows. And yet, our cultural
of the expansive range of artworks created within histories continue to inform current circumstances;
the boundaries of the present-day United States learning about the creation of the United States Capitol
of America in the earlier part of its history. Close and the attack upon it by British forces in 1814 adds
attention to the formal qualities of architecture and depth to our understanding of more recent violence at
art enables us to appreciate the distinctive features of the site in 2021. Studying the past gives us historical
these works and understand the historic circumstances insight as well as a new perspective on the present day.
of their production, while also situating them within American art is broad and wide-ranging, and the finite
a broader context. We intend for the resource guide nature of this resource guide only allows us to address
to employ an approach that combines a range of a limited selection of artists and works. The slate of
perspectives, thereby broadening your outlook on the works does not cover all geographic regions and time
world. The artworks presented here give evidence to periods but merely gives a representative sample. As a

the prolonged struggle to fashion a national identity result, many important works exploring topics relating
and a shared historic past. to the American Revolution and the formation of the
nation have had to be excluded. The bibliography can
The stories that are told about our nation’s foundation point you to further investigations into the subject.
evolve over time as our knowledge of the historic

108
Timeline
850 ce The Ancestral Pueblo population rapidly expands and begins developing farming
communities in Chaco Canyon, in present-day New Mexico.
850−1150 ce Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico
1020−1130 ce Pueblo Bonito is enlarged in three stages.
1150 ce The community in Chaco Canyon begins to disperse, moving to smaller settlements based
within cliffs.
1598 The Spaniards establish their first colonial settlement in New Mexico.
1681 King Charles II grants William Penn a tract of land to form the Pennsylvania Colony, where

Quakers could escape religious persecution.
1682 or 1683 Penn arrives in North America and signs the Treaty of Shackamaxon with chiefs of the Lenni
Lenape or Delaware tribes and agrees to provide payment for use of their lands.
1720 The Villasur Expedition, sent by the Spanish Governor of New Mexico, is attacked by
Pawnees and Otoes in Nebraska, halting Spanish colonial expansion into the Great Plains.
1720 Unknown artists, Segesser II
1737 Thomas Penn, son of William, orchestrates the Walking Purchase that defrauds the Delaware
people of vast tracts of land.
1750 Scipio Moorhead, the earliest known African-American artist operating in the colonial era, is
born.
1758 Philipp von Segesser von Brunegg, a Jesuit priest stationed in the Southwest, sends painted
hides to his brother in Switzerland for safekeeping. The hides, which become known as
Segesser I and Segesser II, remain there for more than two hundred years.
1761 After being kidnapped from West Africa, Phillis Wheatley arrives in Boston on a slave ship.
1767 Britain passes the Townshend Acts to raise money by taxing American colonists on the
import of glass, paint, oil, lead, paper, and tea.
1767 Charles Willson Peale travels to London to study painting with Benjamin West.
1768 John Singleton Copley, Paul Revere
1769 The British Royal Academy is formed by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Benjamin West is a founding
member and later becomes its second president.

109
1769−1809 Thomas Jefferson, Monticello
1770 The Boston Massacre takes place when an angry mob throws snowballs at British soldiers,
who then fire upon the crowd and kill five people.
1770 After Henry Pelham, The Boston Massacre
1771−72 Benjamin West, Penn’s Treaty with the Indians
1772 Waxwork Sculptor Patience Wright moves to England in search of more patrons.
1773 Frustrated colonists board British ships and dump tea into Boston Harbor.
1773 After (?) Scipio Moorhead, published by Archibald Bell, Portrait of Phillis Wheatley
1773 Phillis Wheatley publishes a collection of poems titled Poems on Various Subjects, Religious
and Moral.
1774 Boston-based portraitist John Singleton Copley leaves America for England in 1774 and never
returns.
1776 George Washington leads troops across the Delaware River on Christmas Eve, allowing
them to surprise Hessian forces and win the Battle of Trenton, a crucial victory in the
Revolutionary War.

1776−83 Prudence Punderson, The First, Second and Last Scene of Mortality
1782 Robert Edge Pine, Patience Lovell Wright
1783 The Treaty of Paris is signed, marking the end of the American Revolution.
1786 Charles Willson Peale opens the Peale Museum in Philadelphia.
1789 George Washington is installed as the first president of the United States.
1790 The District of Columbia is selected as the site of the United States capital with the passage of
the “Residence Act” by Congress.
1793 Thomas Jefferson proposes a design competition to find an architect for the U.S. Capitol
building.
1793 William Thornton, Charles Bulfinch, and Benjamin Henry Latrobe, United States
Capitol
1796 Gilbert Stuart, George Washington (the Lansdowne Portrait)
1799 Russians arrive in the Alaskan panhandle, and tensions emerge as they compete with the
native people over resources.
1800 Thomas Jefferson is elected as the third president of the United States.
1801 Charles Willson Peale leads an expedition to unearth a mastodon skeleton in Newburgh, New
York.
1804 The Tlingit and the Russians fight in the Battle of Sitka. The Russians are victorious and
establish a presence at Sitka.
1806−08 Charles Willson Peale, Exhumation of the Mastodon

110
1812 The War of 1812 begins between Britain and America over British violations of maritime law
and restrictions on American trade.
1814 British troops set fire to the U.S. Capitol, heavily damaging the building, which is still under
construction.
1814 Dolley Madison and Paul Jennings rescue a copy of Stuart’s Lansdowne Portrait of
Washington from the White House as British forces start setting fire to the city.
1815 The Treaty of Ghent is ratified, marking the end of the War of 1812.
1825 Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, and others found the National Academy of
Design in New York City to provide training and an exhibition space for young artists.
1832 Congress commissions Horatio Greenough to sculpt a monument to George Washington for
the Capitol in honor of the hundredth anniversary of his birth.
1840 Horatio Greenough, George Washington
1849 The name “Pueblo Bonito” is recorded for the first time when the Washington Expedition
visits Chaco Canyon.
1851 Robert S. Duncanson, View of Cincinnati, Ohio from Covington, Kentucky
1851 Emanuel Leutze, Washington Crossing the Delaware

1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
1861 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow publishes the poem “Paul Revere’s Ride” in The Atlantic
Monthly.
1861 Confederate troops fire on Fort Sumter, marking the beginning of the Civil War.
1863 Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation.
1863 Thomas Crawford’s Statue of Freedom is installed atop the Capitol dome.
1865 Robert S. Duncanson travels to England, where his paintings are well received by Lord
Alfred Tennyson, among others.
1865 The Civil War ends when Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox
Courthouse.
1867 Edmonia Lewis, Forever Free
1867 With the Alaska Purchase, the United States acquires the land from Russia in a deal
negotiated by Secretary of State William Seward for 7.2 million dollars.
1886 Harriet Powers displays her Bible Quilt at the Cotton Fair in Athens, Georgia, where it
attracts the attention of a local artist.
1890 President Benjamin Harrison designates Sitka National Historic Park as Alaska’s first
national park.
1895−98 Harriet Powers, Pictorial Quilt

111
1904 The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, a World’s Fair held in St. Louis, features an Alaska
display with totem poles collected from Tlingit and Haida communities.
1906 President Theodore Roosevelt establishes Chaco Canyon as a national monument.
1938 As part of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, the Civilian Conservation Corps in Alaska is
tasked with repairing and restoring totem poles and other Native American artifacts.
1983 Gaanax.ádi/Raven Crest Pole, Sitka National Historic Park
1983 The Segesser hide paintings are acquired by the New Mexico History Museum, allowing the
hides to return to the location where they were likely created.
2002 A museum exhibition brings attention and critical acclaim to a community of African-
American quilters from Gee’s Bend, Alabama.

112
Glossary
Abolitionists – activists who supported the movement to Fasces – b undles of rods intended to symbolize power and
end the slave trade and liberate enslaved people authority in Ancient Rome
Appliqué – w
hen pieces of fabric are stitched onto a larger Foreshortening – a technique for depicting an object
piece to create a picture or pattern or figure in an artwork that creates an illusion of
projection in space
Calico – m
anufactured cotton that was roller-printed with
small, repeating patterns Formlines – on a totem pole, the black connecting contour
lines that outline either human or animal anatomy and
Cameo – a hard gemstone carved in relief and projecting
structure the design
from a solid background; cameos often feature profile
portraits. Functionalism – the principle that buildings should be
designed based entirely on their function
Colonnade – a long row of columns that supports a roof

and/or creates an arcade Grand Tour – a custom for upper-class Europeans and
Americans in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
Contrapposto – an Italian term that means "opposite"
to travel to a standardized itinerary of European cities
or “set against”; it is used to describe human figures
in order to view antique and Renaissance treasures
standing with most of their weight on one foot, while
the other leg is relaxed and bent at the knee. Great house – a large, multistoried ancestral Puebloan
structure made of stone with a timber roof
Corinthian columns – the most ornate of the three Greek
orders; they are fluted and capped with acanthus leaves. Guild system – an association of craftsman that provides
training and helps regulate both quality and pricing
Cult of true womanhood – a nineteenth-century
for artisans
American societal standard that emphasized women’s
domesticity, piety, purity, and submissiveness above Hierarchy of genres – a ranking of the different types of
all other qualities painting, established by the Royal Academy, whereby
history painting is rated highest, followed by portraiture,
Düsseldorf style – Nineteenth-century American artists
genre painting, landscape, and finally still life
who trained in Germany at the Düsseldorf Academy
were known for their distinctive style, characterized Iconography – t he identification, description, classification,
by dynamic compositions and dramatic lighting. and interpretation of symbols, themes, and subject
matter in visual art
Emancipation – the formal process for becoming legally
free Itinerant – describes a person who travels from place to
place
Engraving – a printmaking technique that uses a tool
called a burin to cut into the surface of a metal plate; Kiva – circular,
below-ground rooms used for ceremonial
once a plate is produced, the printer can produce many purposes or political gatherings
copies from a single plate, allowing engraved prints to
Liberty cap – also
known as a Phrygian cap, a soft, peaked
be sold to large numbers of people.
cap that symbolized freedom and was associated with
Expatriate – a person who lives outside their native emancipated slaves in ancient Rome
country for a period of time
Façade – t he exterior or face of a building

113
Pendants – i n art, two paintings intended to be displayed
as a pair
Piecework –smaller pieces of cloth that are sewn together,
often in an arrangement of geometric patterns; also
known as patchwork
Pigment – c olored material, either naturally occurring or
synthetic, that is insoluble in water
Pueblo –means village in Spanish; used to refer to both
the region’s Indigenous people and their stone or
adobe dwellings
Quakerism – religious practice founded in England in
the late 1640s that advocated for nonviolence and
egalitarianism; also known as the Religious Society
of Friends
Relief sculpture – w ork in which the figures project from
a supporting background; characterized as being low
relief or high relief, depending on how far the figures
project from the surface plane
Reposteros – paintings on animal hides

Sons of Liberty – a political organization active in the
American colonies and founded to advance the rights
of the colonists and to fight taxation by the British
government
Sherds – broken pieces of ceramic material found on an
archaeological site
Totem – a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves
as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family,
clan, lineage, or tribe
Totem poles – large-scale public sculptures carved from
financial support provided to artists from a red cedar trees; primarily used to document ancestry
group or individual and commemorate historical events, though some
recall legends as well; include house poles, memorial
poles, welcome poles, and shame poles

114
Notes
1 Frances K. Pohl, Framing America: A Social History of American Art, Incorporated, 2014), 174.
third edition, (New York: Thames & Hudson, 2012,) 64. 31 Pohl, 96.
2 Unidentified artist, John Freake, about 1671 and 1674, https://www. 32 K iki Smith, Sojourn, Brooklyn Museum of Art, https://www.youtube.
worcesterart.org/collection/Early_American/Artists/unidentified_17th/ com/watch?v=bWUjl7kOBCE, accessed on July 22, 2021
john_f/painting-discussion.html, accessed on July 19, 2021
33 Pohl, 95.
3 Pohl, 65.
34 Pohl, 96.
4 “John Singleton Copley,” National Gallery of Art, https://www.nga.gov/
35 Pohl, 96.
collection/artist-info.1162.html, accessed on 8/17/20
36 Wendy Bellion, “Patience Wright’s Transatlantic Bodies,” Shaping
5 A ngela Miller, David M. Lubin, et al. “American Encounters: Art,
the Body Politic: Art and Political Formation in Early America.
History, and Cultural Identity” (2018). Books and Monographs. 39.
(Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2011), 30.
(https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/books/39), 121.
37 Pohl, 96.
6 “John Singleton Copley,” National Gallery of Art, https://www.nga.gov/
collection/artist-info.1162.html, accessed on July 17, 2021 38 Roberta Panzanelli, ed. Ephemeral Bodies: Wax Sculpture and the
Human Figure, (Los Angeles, CA: Getty Research Institute, 2008), 2.
7 Miller, 121.
39 Miller, 164.
8 Miller, 121.
40 Paul Staiti, “Gilbert Stuart’s Presidential Imaginary,” Shaping the Body

9 Jayne Triber, A True Republican: The Life of Paul Revere. (Amherst,
Politic: Art and Political Formation in Early America. (Charlottesville,
Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 1998) 14−16.
VA: University of Virginia Press, 2011),164.
10 Pohl, 91.
41 Miller, 145.
11 Pohl, 125.
42 Miller, 145.
12 Bryan Zygmont, “John Singleton Copley, Paul Revere,” in Smarthistory,
43 Staiti, 169.
January 21, 2016, accessed July 21, 2021, https://smarthistory.org/john-
singleton-copley-paul-revere/ 44 Pohl, 93.
13 John Singleton Copley, Paul Revere, 1768, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 45 George Washington: A National Treasure, Smithsonian Institution,
https://collections.mfa.org/objects/32401, accessed on July 17, 2021 https://www.georgewashington.si.edu/portrait/inkwell.html, accessed
on July 22, 2021
14 Ibid.
46 Pohl, 93.
15 Vincent Carretta, “Introduction,” Phillis Wheatley, Complete writings,
(London, U.K.: Penguin Books, 2001), xiii. 47 Daniella Berman, “The Formation of a French School: the Royal
Academy of Painting and Sculpture,” in Smarthistory, September 2,
16 Carretta, xiii.
2020, accessed August 5, 2021, https://smarthistory.org/royal-academy-
17 Carretta, xiv. france/
18 Mukhtar Ali Isani, “The Contemporaneous Reception of Phillis 48 Steven D. Lubar, Inside the Lost Museum: Curating, Past and Present.
Wheatley: Newspaper and Magazine Notices during the Years of Fame, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017) 287.
1765−1774.” The Journal of Negro History 85, no. 4 (2000): 260–73.
49 Pohl, 41.
https://doi.org/10.2307/2668545.
50 Pohl, 41.
19 Carretta, xv.
51 Miller, 53.
20 Carretta, xxii.
52 Miller, 53.
21 Carretta, xxxiv.
53 Miller, 53.
22 Carretta, xxxv.
54 Pohl, 42.
23 Lisa E. Farrington, African-American Art: A Visual and Cultural
History. (Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 2017), 25. 55 Miller, 54.
24 Farrington, 26. 56 Pohl, 42.
25 Phillis Wheatley in Amazing Grace: An Anthology of Poems about 57 Miller, 54−55.
Slavery, 1660-1810. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002), 179. 58 Pohl, 42.
26 Miller, 160. 59 Pohl, 43.
27 Miller, 161. 60 Pohl, 78.
28 Miller, 162. 61 Zygmont.
29 T he First, Second, and Last Scene of Mortality, Connecticut Historical 62 Pohl, 75.
Society, http://emuseum.chs.org/emuseum/objects/116/the-first-second- 63 Dr. Bryan Zygmont, “Benjamin West, The Death of General Wolfe,”
and-last-scene-of-mortality?ctx=091906f12f0213e405ddb0b4dc8bfc042 in Smarthistory, August 9, 2015, accessed August 5, 2021, https://
17c24d6&idx=26, accessed on July 21, 2021. smarthistory.org/benjamin-wests-the-death-of-general-wolfe/.
30 T homas L. Purvis, Colonial America To 1763, (New York: Facts On File, 64 Pohl, 78.

115
65 Pohl, 78. 98 D ell Upton. Architecture in the United States. (Oxford, UK: Oxford
66 Miller, 127. University Press, 1998), 21.
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AN EXPLORAT ION OF EARLY

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Earthworks, Installations, and

Greek and Roman Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Processes and Techniques . . . . . . . . . 40

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SKT Education - China, CH

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CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

TIMELINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

SKT Education - China, CH

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BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE ART OF

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Ancient Egyptian Art

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The Renaissance in Southern Europe

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pastel colors. and his works strongly reflect Boucher’s influence.

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Post-Impressionism and Other Late

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