Art History: Contextual Approaches and Gender Dynamics
Upcoming Quiz Details and Structure
Date and Resources: The quiz will take place next Tuesday. Students are encouraged to refer to the provided handout for answers to specific questions; if the handout does not suffice, they should contact the instructor.
Part One: Fundamentals: This section consists of vocabulary terms and true/false questions.
Part Two: Subject Matter Identification and Definition: * Task: Students will be provided an image and must identify the subject matter, define what that subject matter represents, and provide an explanation. * Example (Genre): In the handout example of "genre," a successful answer would state: "The subject matter of this image is genre. Genre is the subject matter that depicts a scene from everyday life. This is a scene from everyday life because it shows young boys playing a game outside."
Part Three: Explicit Meaning: Students must describe the obvious, observable elements of a provided image. The instructor will provide a list of prompts, such as subject matter details, to assist in the response.
Part Four: Panofsky’s Iconographic Approach: * Format: Students will have a choice of approximately three questions and must answer at least one. * Task: Analyze the iconography of an image based on the three levels developed by Erwin Panofsky. The image will be one previously analyzed in class since iconography is not always immediately evident. * Level One (Explicit Meaning): Identifying the primary or natural subject matter. * Level Two (Iconography): Analyzing the conventional meanings, symbols, and stories. * Level Three (Iconology): Addressing the intrinsic meaning or content—how we understand the overall meaning of the work within its total world of cultural history.
The Contextual Approach in Art History
Definition: Often described as "Art in Context," this approach posits that works of art are fundamentally connected to the specific culture and time period in which they were created.
Core Principle: Understanding the background situations and circumstances of a period helps explain why a work was created and why it possesses its specific visual characteristics.
Marxism and Art History: * Focal Points: Marxism specifically examines contexts related to politics, social class, and economics. * Economic Examples: The rise of the merchant class (e.g., in the Arnolfini Wedding) illustrates how economic shifts impact imagery. * The Dutch Art Market: In the 17th-century Netherlands, the country's immense wealth led to a substantial middle class. This created a new, non-elite clientele for art beyond the church and the aristocracy, establishing a robust art market.
The Industrial Revolution: Contextualized through the landscapes of artists like Turner, Constable, and Renoir.
Political Context in 19th Century France: * Gustave Courbet: His work was directly influenced by the political instability of France. * Historical Timeline: King Louis Philippe's unpopular rule and disregard for the poor led to the Revolution of February 1848, establishing the Second French Republic. A subsequent revolution in June 1848 attempted to overthrow that republic. * Artistic Impact: These events led Courbet to depict the harsh realities of the lower class. In his work, figures are often denied individual identity and are presented merely as a source of labor, intended to raise social awareness and potentially change public opinion.
Gender as a Contextual Framework
Scope: Gender context is tied to culture and time. it encompasses feminism, masculinity, and LGBTQ+ issues and ideas.
Feminist Approach: * Definition: Feminism is the advocacy for women’s rights across political, social, and economic spheres. * Historical Context: While the 1970s is the primary decade associated with the rise of the feminist art historical approach, examples of feminist concerns exist much earlier. * Complexity of Analysis: A feminist approach involves more than just identifying an artist as female. It examines how being a woman impacted the artist's career, her choice of imagery, and her mode of depiction. * Multifaceted Study: Feminism looks at women as artists, patrons (supporters of the arts), viewers (how women perceive images compared to men), and subject matter (how women have been depicted throughout history).
Linda Nochlin and the Foundation of Feminist Art History
Key Figure: Linda Nochlin (d. 2017) is credited with establishing the feminist approach in the field.
"Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" (1971): In this seminal article, Nochlin provides two main answers to her titular question: 1. Systemic Discrimination: Women faced significant obstacles and were denied the same training as men. They were specifically forbidden from life drawing classes involving nude male models, as it was considered "highly inappropriate." 2. The Definition of "Greatness": Historically, art historians defined "greatness" and "genius" in ways that inherently excluded women, attributing these traits only to men.
Aims of the Feminist Approach: To highlight how women were discriminated against, to acknowledge their ignored contributions as artists and patrons, and to critique the traditional ways women have been depicted.
Case Study: Artemisia Gentileschi and the Subject of Judith
Artemisia Gentileschi: An Italian Baroque artist who succeeded in a male-dominated field. Her father, also a successful artist, encouraged her training by teaching her techniques and taking her to see major works and collections in Rome.
Subject Matter: Judith Beheading Holofernes: * Biblical Narrative: Judith, a strong widow, saves her city from the Assyrian general Holofernes. She enters his camp, seduces him, gets him drunk, and decapitates him. * Personal Connection: Gentileschi painted this subject multiple times. It is often analyzed as a reflection of her own life; she was raped by another artist and forced to testify under torture (her hands were bound with wire and tightened).
Comparative Analysis: Gentileschi vs. Caravaggio: * Stylistic Similarity: Both use the Caravaggisti style—dark, dramatic lighting with strong contrasts. * Caravaggio’s Depiction: He depicts Judith as delicate, disgusted, and squeamish. She leans back to avoid the blood, her arms fully extended. He sexualizes her, painting her as a "femme fatale" with visible nipples through her clothing. * Gentileschi’s Depiction: She depicts Judith as powerful, determined, and physically engaged. Judith is up close, with a knee on the bed, using her full strength. The image is more violent and bloody; blood splatters on Judith’s dress and skin. She is a heroic figure rather than a sexualized one.
The Concepts of "The Gaze" and the "Male Gaze"
The Gaze: In the visual world, looking is not neutral; it is influenced by religion, politics, gender, and race. The gaze is defined as the "process of controlling vision." It is about power and refers to who gets to look and how they are looked at.
The Male Gaze: * Origin: Coined by feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey in her 1975 article Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. * Definition: The tendency of visual culture to depict the world and women from a masculine, heterosexual point of view. * Characteristics: Traditional art—like Titian’s Venus of Urbino or Gauguin’s Spirit of the Dead Watching—often depicts women as passive, weak, objectified, and sexually available. They are objects to be looked at, rather than active subjects.
Feminist Resistance to the Male Gaze
Barbara Kruger: A conceptual feminist artist known for black-and-white images overlaid with text. Her work challenges the male gaze. * Untitled (Your gaze hits the side of my face) (1980): The word "hits" emphasizes that the gaze is harmful and disrespectful. The use of a stone bust asserts female strength while acknowledging how the gaze attempts to render women passive and motionless. * Untitled (We have received orders not to move): Depicts a woman pinned down, illustrating the controlling nature of the gaze and the expectation for women to submit to and receive it without resistance.
Shirin Neshat: An Iranian-American artist whose Women of Allah series explores the female presence in a male-dominated, post-revolutionary Iranian society. * The Veil (Chador): Neshat explores the veil as a complex symbol. To the West, it may look like oppression; to many Iranian women, it is a symbol of religious identity, freedom, political resistance, and protection from the objectifying male gaze. * Gazing Back: Unlike traditional depictions where women look away, Neshat’s subjects often stare directly at the viewer. This "gazing back" counters the male gaze, asserting that the woman will not be objectified or subservient. * Calligraphy: She adds handwritten poetry by contemporary Iranian poets onto the skin of the figures in her photographs, often dealing with themes of resistance. * Turbulent: A two-screen video work. On one side, a man sings to an audience; on the other, a woman sings to an empty theater. This highlights the inequality in Iran, where women are forbidden from singing in public, forcing them to find their own, often non-traditional, voices.
Masculinity and Thomas Eakins
Context: The Gilded Age (1870s–1890s) in America, a time of rapid economic growth and political corruption.
Thomas Eakins: An artist who focused heavily on masculine subjects like athletics (rowing, boxing, wrestling, sailing).
Gender Segregation: Eakins notably excluded women from his athletic paintings, depicting them instead in domestic, indoor settings (reading, music). This reflects the era’s segregation of sexes: men in the outdoor world of action, women in the indoor world of passivity.
Identity and Manhood: During the Gilded Age, manhood was defined by bravery (often through the Civil War), financial independence, and success. Eakins felt he failed these milestones: 1. He did not fight in the Civil War (his wealthy family bought his way out). 2. He was unmarried and childless. 3. He lived with his parents and was financially dependent on them. 4. His profession—artist—was not considered masculine.
Alignment Through Art: Eakins used his paintings to align himself with Masculine ideals. In Max Schmidt in a Single Scull, he depicts Max Schmidt, a successful lawyer and rowing champion. Eakins paints himself in the distance in his own boat (marked with his name), mentally and visually connecting himself with a successful, "masculine" figure to counter his own perceived failings.