Teacher’s Manual

Art and the Body

New Orleans Museum of Art

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Introduction to the Teacher’s Manual

This learning resource is intended for teachers of students in Grades 1-12 and may be adapted for

specific grade levels. We hope that you will use the manual and accompanying images to help

your students gain an in-depth knowledge of the collection at the New Orleans Museum of Art as

part of the Art and The Body Teacher’s Workshop.

Cover:

Mother and Child in the Conservatory (1906) by Mary Stevenson Cassatt (1845-1927)

Oil on canvas, 36 1/8” x 28 3/4”

Collection of the New Orleans Museum of Art

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Art and the Body

Teacher’s Manual

Written by

Suzanne Modica, Audio Visual Coordinator

Edited by

Tracy Kennan, Curator of Public Programs

Kathy Alcaine, Curator of Education

Allison Reid, Assistant Director for Education

Written 2000; Revised 2004

This workshop and its accompanying materials were underwritten by

The RosaMary Foundation

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction: The Body in Art 1

The Age of Bronze, 1876 2

Madonna and Child with Saints, c. 1340 5

Mother and Child in the Conservatory, 1906 7

Pair of Female Ere Ibeji, Early 20th Century 9

Mother and Child, 1983 11

Bather, 1916-1917 12

Woman in an Armchair, 1960 14

Buddha, 19th Century 15

Image List 17

Vocabulary 29

Timeline 32

Curriculum Objectives 38

Bibliography 40

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Introduction: The Body in Art

Although humanity is very diverse--we may have different color skin, be of opposite genders,

speak various languages or follow unique customs--the one common denominator is the human

body itself. The human form is the one universal among all the things that make us individuals.

Perhaps one reason why artists from the prehistoric era to the present have been fascinated with

the human body is that in using it, the viewer and the artist share common ground, allowing the

viewer to relate to or to understand that which is depicted. Through the body, an artist is able to

communicate a number of things from simple actions and events to more complex concepts and

emotions. Furthermore, it may also provide insight into the mores and values that are

characteristic of the age in which the artist lived. Finally, the human body, depicted for its sheer

beauty, may convey the artist’s or that particular society’s sense of aesthetics. Through the

following artists, who all share an interest in the body, we can see just how individuals from

different times and various traditions treat bodily representations and how they may differ from

our own culture.

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The Age of Bronze, 1876

August Rodin, the master sculptor of the Post-Impressionist period, saw himself as heir to the

nude sculptural tradition that was transmitted from the ancient Greek world to the Renaissance.

In the last few decades of the nineteenth century, the art world was turned on its head as artists

began to reject the classical models of the French Academy, seeing the art as uninspiring and

tired. Leading rebellious groups such as the Impressionists and the Post-Impressionists

experimented with light, line and color as a means of expression. Rodin himself rejected the

traditional sculptural styles of the day claiming, “My liberation from academicism was via

Michelangelo.”1 Although the basic body type in Rodin’s artwork descends from Greek models,

he infused them with new life by incorporating the expressive power of Michelangelo’s

nonfinito sculptures.

The ancient Greek civilization, revered by Renaissance masters and French academic painters,

was one of reason. Philosophers such as Socrates (c. 470-399 BCE) and Plato (c. 429-347 BCE)

believed that one might discover truth and beauty through rational thought. This notion carried

over into art and architecture where artists sought a mathematical model that would reveal

physical perfection through the traits of symmetry, balance, harmony and order.

The most enduring model of the Greek ideal is

Polykleitos’s Doryphoros (Image 1), or Spear Bearer.

The statue, completed at the height of the classical

period in Greece, circa 450 BCE, is no longer extant,

but exists in copies made by the Romans. Doryphoros

was nicknamed “The Canon,” both as a reflection of

the rules set down by the renowned artist Polykleitos

in his treatise on the human body and because of the

sculpture’s reign as the measuring stick for ideal

beauty. Canon, which means both “rule” and

“measure” in Greek, is also an appropriate moniker as

Polykleitos developed a series of proportions based

upon a unit (some believe it to be the length of the

statue’s index finger) that was then used to generate

the measurements for the rest of the body. With

Doryphoros, Polykleitos effectively created a

mathematical equation for perfection.

Doryphoros depicts a nude male athlete who seems to

pause in mid-step. The naturalism of the work stems

from the figure’s balancing primarily on one leg,

called contrapposto. Here, most of Doryphoros’s

weight is placed over his right foot as his left heel is

raised giving the impression of mobility. His left hand,

originally holding a spear, swings up while his torso

1 Riopelle, p. 35.

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tilts slightly in the same direction, effectively balancing the figure’s weight. Polykleitos modeled

the figure, emphasizing and defining the arm muscles as well as his pectoral and abdominal

muscles. Although the figure is rendered naturalistically, Doryphoros is also highly idealized:

his facial features, as well as his body construction, are all very regular, symmetrical and

balanced and in this regard the statue was the epitome of Greek thought and beauty.

Over 2000 years later, August Rodin would find the proportions and beauty of Doryphoros still

dominant. Rodin, born in 1840, entered an art world that stressed formal or academic training

based upon classical theory and images. Although Rodin showed some skill, entering the

Imperial School of Drawing and Mathematics in 1854, he was denied entrance three times to the

École des Beaux-Arts, the major artistic training institution. Following his last failed attempt in

1857, Rodin entered the workshop of the famed artist Albert Carrier de Belleuse where he

mastered the decorative sculptural style for which Carrier-

Belleuse was renowned. The two were forced to leave for

Belgium in 1870 when France lost the Franco-Prussian War

and the resulting Commune closed the sculpture yards. While

in Belgium, Rodin parted ways with Carrier-Belleuse,

choosing to concentrate on his own work. In 1876, he began

work on an almost life-size sculpture of a man awakening to a

new consciousness called Age of Bronze (Image 2). Frustrated

after a few disappointing attempts, Rodin took leave of the

sculpture and went on a tour of Rome, Pisa and Florence to

study Renaissance masters. It was at the Accademia in

Florence that Rodin found the inspiration for his unfinished

sculpture: he based the enigmatic pose of Age of Bronze on

Michelangelo’s heroic The Dying Captive (1514-1516)

(Image 3) that was on loan from the Louvre.

Rodin returned to Belgium and renewed work on Age of

Bronze. Wanting to avoid the conventional poses of

professional models, he hired a Belgian soldier to pose for the

figure. Rodin believed that only the spontaneous, and

therefore “true” movements of the model should be

represented. Any attempt at imposing characteristics upon the

sculpture would destroy the harmony of the piece, leading to

ugliness. Like the Greek artists, Rodin thought that truth in

expression equaled beauty: “That which is ugly in art is that

which is false and artificial--that which aims at being pretty or

beautiful instead of being expressive.”2

Like Doryphoros, Rodin’s finished sculpture originally carried

a spear, but Rodin removed the tool, opting for a more

ambiguous subject matter which was emphasized by the

vagueness of the title. Such simple changes, though, were quite revolutionary. Artistic standards

of the day dictated certain figural types for a given subject matter--but Age of Bronze had no

2 Rodin, unpaginated.

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apparent subject matter! And the title, which had been changed from The Vanquished, did not

clarify matters. The work caused an even greater scandal at the Salon where jurors thought the

figure to be so life-like that they refused to believe that Rodin actually sculpted the image. They

accused him of making a mold or cast of the model, a common practice of the day. The

controversy was only quelled after numerous friends and artists vouched for Rodin’s carving

skills.

Age of Bronze was based upon Michelangelo’s The Dying Captive, which in turn was derived

from classical sculpture such as Doryphoros. But more than simply its pose, Rodin was inspired

by Michelangelo’s skill at emphasizing musculature and the tension that existed within his

Captive series as the subjects seemingly struggled to break free of the marble. The unfinished

character of The Dying Captive also appealed to Rodin as something that was contrary to the

polished academic works that were being produced at the time. Unlike Doryphoros which is

smooth and idealized suggesting that which is timeless, Age of Bronze still has a bit of

Michelangelo’s nonfinito quality reflecting the momentary and the tension as the boundaries of

body meet the surface of the sculpture. Although the pose, the weight shift, the proportions and

the serene expression of Age of Bronze are similar to those of Doryphoros, the attention to the

surfaces and musculature of the unidealized figure were not at all in accordance with academic

standards.

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Madonna and Child with Saints, c. 1340

The polyptych, Madonna and Child with Saints (c. 1340) (Image 4), was painted in Italy during

the Gothic period by a follower of Bernardo Daddi. The work shares the characteristics of two

very different artistic worlds and traditions--the Byzantine Empire and the Italian Renaissance.

The Medieval era (c. 800-1350), of which the Gothic period was just one phase, was called the

“dark ages” by Renaissance scholars to distinguish it from the rational and the naturalistic

tendencies of the classical world of the Greeks and Romans and of the Renaissance. Rather than

attempting to recreate the exact physical appearance of objects and of people, Byzantine artists

sought to promote Christian beliefs and express religious meaning through standardized images

that stood against flat, golden backgrounds representing the timeless and immortal realm of

Heaven.

The Byzantine Empire, whose capital was Constantinople (modern day Istanbul, Turkey) was the

center of the new Christian faith. In 313 Constantine the Great issued the Edict of Milan calling

for the toleration of all religions, including Christianity, which had been persecuted by the

Romans. In Constantinople, royal patronage from Constantine and subsequent emperors allowed

Christianity to flourish. And, as it prospered, a standardized style evolved that made the

Christian religious figures easily identifiable. The rulers of the Byzantine Empire were deemed

semi-divine, occupying a spiritual position under God yet above their own subjects, and

therefore were also represented in a standardized fashion.

The mosaic, Empress Theodora and Her Attendants (c. 547) (Image 5), from the Church of San

Vitale in Ravenna, Italy, is a good example of the Byzantine figurative tradition--one that

inspired the follower of Bernardo Daddi 800 years later. The central figure Empress Theodora,

whose husband Justinian I ruled the Byzantine Empire at the height of its power, is depicted

flanked by a number of priests and assistants. Her body, slightly overlapping the other figures,

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underscores her superior stature. The artist places the figures against a gold background--a

device that made the images appear to float and shimmer under candlelight--reinforcing the

spiritual or heightened status of the figures. The Empress and attendants seem flat or two

dimensional primarily because of the way in which the artist has depicted their drapery. The

figures’ clothing is rendered geometrically with abstract patterns: the folds are simplified into

lines and angles providing little sense of the shape of the body underneath it. We are only aware

that the figures are somewhat elongated and their features are rather delicate. At this time

women and lesser figures were not individualized in art. Rather the Empress and her attendants

share the same facial features: an oval head, a long straight nose, almond-shaped eyes and a small

mouth. These conventions--the gold background, the standardization of the figures’ countenance

and their flat appearance--is not meant to copy the human form exactly, but to express the

figures’ heightened spirituality and to separate them from the earthly and the mortal world.

For many years Constantinople was under the power of Moslem forces until the Crusaders

recaptured the city in 1204. For the first time in years the Byzantine mosaics could be seen,

leading to a flood of artistic inspiration for Italian artists, including the follower of Bernardo

Daddi. He, too, has positioned the Madonna and Christ Child against a golden screen to

emphasize their heavenly nature. The central figures are flanked on the left by St. John Gualbert

and St. Pancras and on the right by St. Michael and St. Benedict. The saints are depicted slightly

smaller than the Virgin Mary, signifying that they are of lesser importance. Like the mosaic of

Empress Theodora and Her Attendants, the figures in New Orleans Museum of Art’s polyptych

are set within a shallow space, but the artist, rather than flattening the figures with angular

drapery, has attempted a degree of naturalistic representation. The features of Madonna, the

Christ Child and saints, especially the eyes, share a similarity, but their bodies have a greater

mass which is accentuated by two elements. One, the folds of the drapery are less schematized--

they curve softly and reflect the shape of the bodies underneath. Two, the artist has used light

and shadow to define the forms--he has modeled the figures. The Renaissance artist’s attention

to the body and the way light defines the body’s musculature set them apart from the flattened

and angular forms of the Byzantine world which were mistakenly perceived as ignorant and

unskilled.

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Mother and Child in the Conservatory, 1906

Though Mother and Child in the Conservatory (1906) (Image 6) by Mary Cassatt is not meant to

be a religious work like Mother and Child with Saints, its subject matter celebrates the strong

bond between a mother and her offspring. While more naturalistically rendered than the previous

polyptych, Mary Cassatt diverged from the accepted standards of the day, as dictated by the

French Academy, which were based upon strict adherence to classical models of the human form.

Mary Stevenson Cassatt was born May

22, 1844 into an affluent Pennsylvania

family but spent much of her formative

years with her parents and siblings

abroad in Paris, Heidelberg and

Darmstadt. After the death of her

eldest brother, the Cassatt family

returned to Pennsylvania and settled in

Philadelphia. There Cassatt studied

painting at the Pennsylvania Academy

of Fine Arts and eventually chose to

further her artistic education in France.

Cassatt experienced some early success

as two of her paintings were accepted

by the Paris Salon. Even with this

encouragement, she vowed never again

to send another work to the Salon when

she realized that another of her pieces

with a lighter palette was not acceptable

to the standards of the jury because it

was seen as less than serious.

The lighter palette was inspired by an

exhibition of independent artists in

1874 and 1876 where Cassatt saw

works by Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Edouard Manet among others. This group of artists,

noted for their interest in the changing qualities of light, the natural landscape and studies of

Parisian life, was pejoratively coined the Impressionists by Louis Leroy. Cassatt and Degas were

later introduced by a mutual friend. When Degas saw her work he exclaimed: “That is genuine.

There is someone who feels as I do.” 3

He later invited Cassatt to exhibit with the Impressionists.

Cassatt remarked, “I accepted with joy. Now I could work with absolute independence without

considering the opinion of a jury. I had already recognized who were my true masters. I admired

Manet, Courbet and Degas. I took leave of conventional art. I began to live.”4 This statement is

indicative of Cassatt’s desire to move beyond pure replication of the human form and to paint

subject matter that was familiar to her in a manner that diverged from the academic and accepted

style.

3 Bullard, p. 13.

4 Bullard, p. 13.

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Unlike the rest of the Impressionists, Degas was more interested in the way the human body was

shaped and how it moved rather than in the effects of light, and Cassatt followed him in this

regard. While Degas painted subjects from the cafés, bars and laundromats, these places were

not considered appropriate venues for an upper-middle-class woman to visit. Rather, Cassatt was

limited by her stature and her gender to paint scenes at the opera or scenes of domestic life. It is

no wonder then, that images of the home and specifically, of mothers and children, dominate her

oeuvre.

This later work, Mother and Child in the Conservatory, is representative of Cassatt’s interest in

the domestic sphere and the human body. It also highlights her talent at capturing a fleeting

moment and making it represent the universal bond between a mother and her child. Although

the figures’ proportions are derived from the classical canon, they do not share the idealization

and the precise line that is characteristic of either the academic art of this period or of the

Renaissance. Rather, the bodies seem soft or undefined as the musculature is not apparent.

Cassatt achieves this effect, not by totally abandoning modeling, but by employing a longer

brushstroke and a thicker application of paint. She also uses white highlights to suggest sunlight

as it plays across the rounded forms of the sitters, especially the mother’s gown, in order to

reinforce the sense of a captured tender moment. Although the child gazes out at the viewer, the

mother tilts her head towards her child and their interlocking hands. The mother’s absorption in

her child attests to their intimacy and projects some sort of real psychology. The “genuine”

quality that Degas commented upon is even more amazing when one considers that most of

Cassatt’s mother and child pairs were merely models and not at all related to each other.

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Pair of Female Ere Ibeji, early 20th century

The Yoruba-speaking people come from regions in Nigeria and the Popular Republic of Benin.

Their society, over a millennium old, first rose to power in 800 in the sacred city of Ife. An

artistic tradition can be traced back to about the year 1100 when they perfected the technique of

sculpture in both terracotta and stone and later in bronze. The Yoruba cultures prospered until the

arrival of European ships in the fifteenth century after which time the kingdoms began to decline

due to warfare and the slave trade. However, colonization and the diffusion of Yoruba peoples to

the Americas may have aided in the dissemination of the African artistic tradition, ultimately

causing a transformation in Western art in the twentieth century.

The Yoruba believe in the

existence of two realms: the

world of the living, or the aye,

and the spirit world, called the

orun which is the domain of

ancestors, gods and spirits. The

belief in the transience of the

mortal realm is highlighted in the

Yoruba saying: “Aye l’ajo, orun

n’ile” or “The world is a journey,

the otherworld is home.”5 In an

area in which life can be so short

(in some places up to half of all

infants die before they reach the

age of five), the afterworld is a

promise of eternal life.

The Yoruba have the highest

incidence of twin births in the

world--for every thousand births,

close to forty-five are twins. In a

society in which children

represent the lineage of the family

and are providors of food and

labor for aging parents, twins are

especially revered as emi

alagbara, or powerful spirits,

who have the ability to bring

abundance to their family. In the

event that one or both twins die,

no matter the age, the parents

consult a diviner, who in turn

5 Wardwell, p. 15-16.

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directs them to a carver who carves an ere ibeji (Image 7), or an image of the deceased. In order

to invoke the deceased’s emi, or spirit, the artist places a sacrifice for it at the base of an ere ona

tree, used to carve the image, then submerges the finished figure in a mixture of water and leaves.

On the day the parents are to receive the figure, they prepare a feast celebrating the carver. After

making a sacrifice to the god Ogun and after offering a prayer to the ibeji or twin figure, the

mother wraps the carving as she would a living child then returns home singing to and dancing

with it. Once the ibeji is home, the mother lavishes care upon the figure as if it were a real child--

she may decorate it with waist or neck beads, cowrie shells or gold rings. Food is also prepared

for the ibeji on special occasions or during rituals. The Yoruba believe that a child’s spirit,

represented by the ibeji, lives on in the orun and again, care lavished upon the memorial figure

will result in prosperity for the still-living family members. Thus, the singing to, dancing with,

feeding and decorating of the ibeji figures transform the carving from merely a memorial object

into something that actually houses the spirit of the deceased.

Because the mothers treat the ibeji as a real child, one might assume that the carvings are

naturalistic. Rather they are the embodiment of the spirit of the twin and symbolically represent

the fullness of life. The figures stand erect, although their stout legs are slightly bent. The breasts

of the ibeji are emphasized, perhaps as an act of supplication or as a symbol of the fertility and

abundance their family desires. Although ibeji may differ depending upon the carver, they tend to

be sturdy and strong. Rather than the western world’s emphasis on the definition of musculature,

the limbs of these carvings are often tubular stressing the figures’ balance. It is their strength and

solidity that reminds us that they live on in the orun. The heads of the ibeji are oversized for their

bodies corresponding to the belief that it is within this area that one’s own fate resides. The

serene faces bear large, almond eyes and like a window to the soul, they are indicators of the

ibeji’s inner strength and inner life force. These figures were carved by the master Olowe of Ise

(died 1938) who only accepted royal commissions. This clue in addition to the lineage markings

on their faces may indicate that these twins were members of the king’s family.

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Mother and Child, 1983

Elizabeth Catlett’s Mother and Child (Image 8) combines the figurative tradition and the mother

and child motif of western artists with the simplicity and solidity found in the Yoruba ere ibeji

carvings. Catlett’s forms are a reflection of the strength and nurturance that she inherited both

from her family and from her commitment to friends and the working-class people she met in

Harlem and in Mexico.

Although her African-American heritage was a factor in her being denied

entrance to the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Catlett (born 1919) was

firmly rooted in a scholarly and artistic tradition. Her father, who died when

Catlett was young, was a respected mathematics professor at Tuskegee

Institute, the same place where Booker T. Washington and George Carver

taught. She continued her education at Howard University and then in 1940

earned a Master of Fine Art at the University of Iowa where she studied

sculpture under Grant Wood, a regionalist painter best known for his work,

American Gothic. After graduation Catlett accepted a position at Dillard

University in New Orleans where she eventually became the head of the art

department.

In the 1940s Catlett moved to New York where she immersed herself in the

environment of the post Harlem Renaissance. She surrounded herself with

talented artists like writer Langston Hughes and the painter Jacob Lawrence.

While in New York, she received the Julius Rosenwald Fellowship allowing

her to create a series of works on black women, but her many obligations in

the city, including the sculpture classes she taught at the Carver School in

Harlem, did not enable her to concentrate on her own work. In order to

dedicate herself to her own art, Catlett made the decision to leave for Mexico where she worked

at the Taller de Gráfica Popular, a workshop that sought to make art more accessible to the

working-class population.

It was in Mexico during the late 1940s and 50s that Catlett began to experiment with the medium

of wood. Like Cassatt’s Mother and Child in the Conservatory, Catlett’s composition represents

maternal bonds. But while Cassatt’s work accomplishes this by evoking a quiet, though familiar

moment through a series of glances and touches, Catlett creates the same sensibility through

gently curving masses and the solidity of her wooden medium. Catlett is recorded as saying, “I

try to use form as expression. For example, people associate certain things with certain kinds of

lines and certain kinds of shapes. So I try to use form symbolically in order to express different

ideas.”6 The rounded forms of Cassatt’s work are further simplified in Catlett’s Mother and

Child. She has reduced the bodies to planar expanses: the limbs of the figures and the woman’s

face are defined only by the ridges that form where the planes merge. The bodies are not modeled

as they are in Mother and Child in the Conservatory and in Madonna and Child with Saints and

the drapery does not suggest the shape of the form underneath of it. Rather, contours are sug-

gested through the grain of the wood as it curves and the clothing of the woman cannot be

distinguished from her own skin. Catlett’s belief that art should be accessible and

6 Lewis, p. 85.

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comprehendable to all classes, regardless of education results in the reduction of detail in the

sculpture, making the pair a universal symbol of maternal nurturing and love.

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Bather, 1916-1917

Jacques Lipchitz, born in Lithuania in 1891, was the son of a successful Jewish contractor.

Neither his father nor the czarist regime allowed him to take lessons at the St. Petersburg

Academy, so with the help of his mother and his uncle, Lipchitz planned a secret trip to France.

Lipchitz had little artistic training in Russia--only a few classes in Bialystok and Vilna--but he

entered a Paris that was brimming with artistic talent, both native and foreign. Among others,

Lipchitz befriended Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani and the sculptor Constantin Brancusi.

In 1913 Lipchitz met Pablo Picasso, who along with Georges Braque was one of the founders of

Cubism, a movement beginning in 1908 that had great impact on the art world in both painting

and sculpture. Picasso and Braque attempted to revise the Renaissance model of precisely

imitating physical form and space. In this model, space mimics reality almost as if the picture is

a window through which the viewer looks. The Cubists however took perspective and the

human body and fractured them into facets. The image was then reassembled using the

technique of passage in which the facets fuse into one another making objects in the foreground

appear at the same depth of objects in the background--it is as if the viewer can observe an object

from multiple angles simultaneously.

In Picasso’s work David-Henry Kahnweilier (1910) (Image 9), Picasso dissolves the sitter’s body

to a point that it becomes one with the

background. The face and the hands, the

most recognizable features of Kahnweiler,

appear as if disassembled and then

reattached. The recombination of body

parts is apparent in Kahnweiler’s face

which has been reduced to a series of

intersecting facets. The merging of light

and shadow, which in Renaissance art had

produced modeling and a three-dimensional

quality, is still apparent in the Cubist work.

However, in this case the shadow is not

unified and light appears to be shining on

the figure from various spots--again lending to the impression that the figure is presented from

multiple angles simultaneously.

During the early 1900s before Cubism, Rodin’s work dominated the world of sculpture. Picasso

and Lipchitz were at the forefront in developing sculpture that was grounded in the rules of

Cubism in which a fractured space or subject is integrated into the work. Beginning in 1917

Lipchitz began to focus on easily recognizable archetypes--the bather or the musician--that

allowed the artist to experiment with Cubist theories while retaining the universal associations

and recognizability of the figurative tradition. Here, Bather (Image 10), is reduced to a series of

vertical and horizontal planes punctuated by countercurves. The only truly recognizable part of

the body is the belly button indicating that the figure is nude. Traditionally, a sculpture is three

dimensional, allowing the viewer to walk around it and see the object from different vantage

points. But because the surfaces of the bather’s body have been rearranged, this sculpture, like

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Cubist paintings, allows the viewer to see the object from multiple perspectives--from a single

point. Bather, although greatly simplified, shares the pose of Rodin’s Age of Bronze--one of the

arms seems to be raised behind the head and the figure seems to balance on one leg. However,

all traces of the Renaissance body type are gone and the figure appears planar and substantial.

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Woman in an Armchair, 1960

Pablo Picasso’s Woman in an Armchair (1960) (Image 11) was completed long after the artist’s

Cubist phase. During the fifty years that elapsed between the Cubist phase beginning in 1908

and the completion of NOMA’s work, the Spaniard’s work changed frequently. In Woman in an

Armchair Picasso revisits the Cubist’s style of fracturing the bodily form, but now the sharp

facets and the element of passage have been replaced by organic curves.

Although his Cubist phase sought to

reinvent the Renaissance model of

space, leading him towards almost

total abstraction, Picasso’s art has

always been rooted in a figurative

tradition, especially with the woman

as his subject matter. Here, Picasso

has painted his second wife,

Jacqueline Roque, seated in an

armchair--a motif he explored during

the 1930s. Jacqueline’s form is

defined by a thick black outline rather

than by traditional modeling.

Although Jacqueline’s body is fairly

flattened and she appears to dissolve

into the armchair, Picasso does give

her some weight by using patches of

gray paint to emphasize the rounded

shape of her breast. The long

brushstrokes give the impression of a

painting rapidly executed--for

instance, the sitter’s hands are

reduced to painterly slashes and only

suggest a real hand while her crossed

legs are represented by a single

slashing line. Woman in an Armchair returns to the Cubist manner of indicating simultaneous

multiple views of an object. Here, Jacqueline is depicted both frontally and in profile, views that

are differentiated simply through the neutral colors of black and white. Jacqueline’s face is the

most defining feature of the painting with attention paid to her large eyes and long mane of black

hair. Picasso’s work, although simple on the surface, is made more complex through the

contrasting forces of the two dimensional in opposition to the three dimensional. The painter

accomplishes this by painting black against white, merging profile views with frontal views and

contrasting a slashing application of paint with the rounded contours of the human body.

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Buddha, 19th century

Buddhism was founded by Siddhartha Gautama (born 563 BCE) in India where it remained until

Indian monks introduced the religion to the Chinese in the first century. From there it spread to

other Asian countries such as Japan where it became a principle factor in the arts. Gautama was

born a prince whose father shielded him from the poverty and the misery of the world beyond the

palace gates. On a rare occasion in which the prince had contact with the outside world, he was

confronted in succession by three figures: a person stricken with illness, an aging man and a

corpse. It was at this moment that Gautama realized that sickness and death are inevitable fates,

and in response he renounced all his worldly possessions and his royal position and left the

palace in an effort to discover the true meaning of human existence.

After years of meditation and

asceticism, Gautama reflected

under a bodhi tree and

achieved enlightenment, or an

understanding of human

reality, and became

Shakyamuni Buddha or

Shaka, the historical Buddha.

The Buddha taught that

everything in this world, every

moment is dependent on the

next and our actions force us

into a cycle of reincarnation.

Only by attaining

enlightenment can we

transcend this cycle and enter

nirvana. According to the

Buddha, the first step is to

recognize the Four Noble

Truths. One, life is suffering.

Two, desire and ignorance are

the reason for our suffering.

Three, we can only free

ourselves from suffering by

eliminating these evils.

Finally, to achieve liberation

we must follow a middle

course that lies between

indulgence and asceticism

called the Eightfold Path. The

Eightfold Path is a sort of code

to live by that calls for right

understanding, right speech,

right purpose, right conduct,

17

right livelihood, right effort, right awareness and right concentration. If one acknowledges the

Four Noble Truths and follows the Eightfold Path they may eventually reach nirvana and stop the

cycle of reincarnation.

The image of the Buddha from Japan (Image 12), like the gods of other religions, became

standardized over time, leading to greater recognizability amongst the religion’s followers. In the

case of the Buddha, there are 32 attributes or shogo that allow us to identify the figure as a

Buddha. One of these attributes is the ushnisha or nikkei, a cranial protuberance above the head.

Another shogo is the Buddha’s hair that is defined by small snail shell curls. It is believed that

when Siddhartha Gautama left home, he removed his turban and shaved his head whereupon the

stubble tightly curled. The Buddha also exhibits a round tuft of hair between his eyes, called an

urna or byakugo, which is a third eye representing his all-seeing nature. His true eyes are nearly

closed slits representing the peace and enlightenment he has attained. No decorations are worn

beside a modest tunic because the Buddha has given up material wealth, but his earlobes,

elongated from the heavy earrings he wore as a prince, indicate that he is a great source of

wisdom. The Buddha’s ample, rounded body, perhaps a reference to his earthly presence, sits in a

position of meditation upon a lotus flower, a symbol of purity. Finally, the Buddha exhibits a set

of mudra, or hand signals. His right hand indicates the mudra of vitarka or that of argument in

which his thumb and forefinger form a circle and the rest of the fingers remain extended. His left

hand performs the mudra of varada or grace and charity where the fingers are extended with the

palm facing skyward.7

7 Gupte, p. 9.

18

Image List

Image 1:

Doryphoros (Spear Bearer) (c. 450-440 BCE) by Polykleitos

Roman copy after the original bronze

Marble, 6’ 6”

19

Image 2:

Age of Bronze (1876) by August Rodin (1840-1917)

Bronze, 72”

Collection of the New Orleans Museum of Art

20

Image 3:

The Dying Captive (1514-1516) by Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475-1564)

Marble, no dimensions

Louvre, Paris

21

Image 4:

Madonna and Child with Saints (c. 1340) by a follower of Bernardo Daddi

Tempera and gold leaf on linden wood, 50 5/8” x 101 3/4”

Collection of the New Orleans Museum of Art

Image 5:

Empress Theodora and Her Attendants (c. 547)

Church of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy

Mosaic, 8’ 8” x 12”

22

Image 6:

Mother and Child in the Conservatory (1906) by Mary Stevenson Cassatt (1845-1927)

Oil on canvas, 36 1/8” x 28 3/4”

Collection of the New Orleans Museum of Art

23

Image 7:

Pair of Female Ere Ibeji (early 20th century) by Olowe of Ise (died 1938)

Wood, brass tacks and glass beads, 13 1/4”

Collection of the New Orleans Museum of Art

24

Image 8:

Mother and Child (1983) by Elizabeth Catlett

(born 1919)

Mahogany, 53” x 13” x 13”

Collection of the New Orleans Museum of Art

25

Image 9:

David-Henry Kahnweiler (1910) by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

Oil on canvas, 39 5/8” x 25 5/8”

The Art Institute of Chicago

26

Image 10:

Bather (1916-1917) by Jacques Lipchitz (1891-1973)

Bronze with gold patina, 27”

Collection of the New Orleans Museum of Art

27

Image 11:

Woman in an Armchair (1960) by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

Oil on canvas, 45 1/2” x 34 3/4”

Collection of the New Orleans Museum of Art

28

Image 12:

Buddha (19th century) from Japan

Gilt wood, 63”

Collection of New Orleans Museum of Art

29

30

Vocabulary

Archetype: A type or a perfectly typical example after which others are modeled.

Asceticism: The practice of renouncing the comforts of society and leading a life of austerity and self-

discipline.

Aye: The mortal realm or the world of the living for the Yoruba peoples.

Byakugo: The Japanese word for urna. In Buddhist art, it is the tuft of hair on the forehead that is a

characteristic mark of a Buddha and a symbol of divine wisdom.

Byzantine Empire: The eastern part of the late Roman Empire founded by Constantine the Great in

330. The Byzantine Empire, whose capital was Constantinople, was ruled by Constantine’s successors

until the 1450s.

Canon: Greek for “rule” or “measure.” It refers to a set of bodily proportions described by the Greek

artist Polykleitos that were meant as a mathematical equation for physical perfection. It is also the

nickname for Polykleitos’s sculpture, Doryphoros, who exhibits this particular set of measurements.

Contrapposto: Literally meaning “around the post,” it is a way of depicting the human body in which its

weight appears to be shifted onto one leg. Contrapposto first appeared in sculpture from ancient Greece.

Cubism: A movement founded in 1908 by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in which objects are not

presented in illusionistic depth but are depicted as parallel to the picture plane. The three-dimensional

subject is fractured, making it appear as if it were disassembled and then put back together.

Diviner: A person who foretells future events or discovers hidden knowledge of a supernatural nature.

Eightfold Path: A Buddhist code to live by calling for right understanding, right purpose, right speech,

right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right awareness and right concentration.

Emi: A spirit in the Yoruba culture.

Emi alagbara: A powerful spirit in the Yoruba culture.

Enlightenment: The achievement of truth and spiritual understanding. In Buddhism, enlightenment

refers to the understanding of human existence and human suffering.

Ere ibeji: For the Yoruba peoples it is an image or a memorial figure of a deceased twin.

Facets: The shards or fragments that result from a Cubist subject being taken apart and reassembled.

Four Noble Truths: To achieve enlightenment, one must understand four things. One, life is suffering.

Two, desire and ignorance are the reasons for our torment. Three, when one removes desire and

ignorance from existence, one will stop suffering. Four, the Middle Way, a happy medium between

asceticism and indulgence is the path to liberation.

French Academy: Also known as the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, it was founded in 1648

under Louis XIV and his chief minister, Cardinal Richelieu. The French Academy promoted the learning

31

of classical art through the copying of Greek and Roman sculpture and maintained strict control over its

members’ art.

Gothic period: Giorgio Vasari, an Italian Renaissance art historian, coined the term in the sixteenth

century to refer to an architectural and artistic style prevalent in western Europe from 1150 to 1400.

Although there were regional variations, in architecture the Gothic style is characterized by elegant,

soaring interiors. In sculpture and painting, the Gothic style is reflected in elegant, elongated forms that

were meant to evoke an emotional response from the viewer.

Italian Renaissance: A period of learning and creativity in Italy, beginning in 1400 and ending in about

1575, which looked to the ancient Greek and Roman artistic and philosophical traditions for inspiration.

Renaissance artists sought to perfect the illusion of physical reality through the depiction of idealized

figures placed within a rationally defined space.

Louvre: Known as the Musée de Louvre, it opened in Paris, France in 1793 allowing public access to

the royal art collection.

Modeling: In painting, the process of creating the illusion of three-dimensionality on a two-dimensional

surface by the use of light and shade. In sculpture, modeling is the process of molding a three-

dimensional form out of a malleable substance.

Mosaic: Images formed by small colored stones or glass pieces (called tesserae), affixed to a hard, stable

surface.

Mudra: A symbolic hand gesture in Buddhist art. The many hand gestures denote certain behaviors,

actions, feelings or ideas.

Nikkei: The Japanese term for ushnisha. In Buddhist art, a round turban or bun that symbolizes

enlightenment.

Nirvana: In the Buddhist religion, nirvana refers to the state of absolute freedom from the pain and care

of the external world one reaches when they are freed from the cycle of reincarnation.

Nonfinito: In Renaissance sculpture it is the rough or unfinished state.

Oeuvre: An artist’s body of work or portfolio.

Orun: For the Yoruba peoples it is the spirit world which is the realm of ancestors, gods and spirits.

Painterly: A style of painting that emphasizes the surface effects and techniques of brushwork.

Passage: Refers to the Cubist technique of blending adjacent shapes so there is little differentiation

between fore, middle and background.

Perspective: A method of representing three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface. Using

mathematical models and modulations in color or in the size of objects, artists can create the sense of

depth, making the painting appear to be an extension of the viewer’s own real space.

Polyptych: An altarpiece constructed from multiple panels.

32

Post-Impressionism: A period following the Impressionist painters, from 1880 to 1910. It does not

refer to a collective style but a time period in which principal artists Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul

Cézanne, Georges Seurat, Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh worked and developed distinctly different

styles.

Salon: The annual display of art by artists in Paris during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It was

originally established to show the artworks by members of the French Academy.

Shaka: The Japanese name for Shakyamuni Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama), the first historical Buddha.

Shakyamuni Buddha: The name given to Siddhartha Gautama after he achieved enlightenment,

identifying him as the first historical Buddha.

Shogo: Japanese for “attributes” or “characteristics.” Traditionally, the Buddha is represented by 32

characteristics that allow him to be identified.

Ushnisha: In Buddhist art, a round turban or bun symbolizing enlightenment.

Urna: In Buddhist art, the tuft of hair on the forehead that is a characteristic mark of a Buddha

symbolizing divine wisdom.

Varada: This mudra, or hand gesture, represents grace. The palm of the hand with fingers extended

downward, is held below the waist.

Vitarka: This mudra, or hand gesture, represents argument. The thumb and the index finger are joined

to make a ring. All other fingers are extended upwards.

33

Timeline

776 BCE: The first Olympic Games in Greece are

held.

563 BCE: Siddhartha Gautama, or Shakyamuni

Buddha is born in central India.

483 BCE: Shakyamuni Buddha dies.

c. 470 BCE: Socrates is born.

c. 450 BCE: The High Classical period in Greece.

The artist Polykleitos sculpts Doryphoros, or Spear

Bearer.

438 BCE: The Parthenon in Greece is built by

Kallikrates and Iktinos.

c. 429 BCE: Plato is born.

347 BCE: Plato dies.

313: Constantine the Great issues the Edict of Milan

calling for religious tolerance. For the first time

Christianity is an accepted religion.

330: Constantinople is made the new capital of the

Roman Empire.

527: Justinian I and his wife Theodora become

rulers of the Byzantine Empire.

c. 547: The mosiac, Empress Theodora and Her

Attendants, is installed at the Church of San Vitale

in Ravenna, Italy.

c. 1100 BCE: The Zhou dynasty begins after the

Shang rulers are defeated in China.

770 BCE: The beginning of the Spring and Autumn

period in China in which ten states emerge as

powers.

551 BCE: Confucius is born in China in the state of

Lu.

509 BCE: Lucius Junius Brutus becomes the

founder and first consul of the Roman Republic.

479 BCE: Confucius dies.

464 BCE: Artaxerxes I begins his rule of Persia.

c. 400: The Olmec civilization in Mesoamerica

ends.

46 BCE: Julius Caesar ascends power in the Roman

Republic.

72: The Colosseum in Rome is begun.

125: The Pantheon is built in Rome.

220: The Han Dynasty in China collapses.

386: The Northern Wei dynasty begins in China.

c. 570: Muhammad is born in Mecca.

632: Muhammad dies in Medina.

34

800: The Yoruba civilization is established in the

sacred city of Ife in Benin.

1100: The Yoruba peoples perfect the technique of

sculpture.

c. 1150: The Gothic period begins.

1204: Christian forces reclaim Constantinople from

the Moslems.

c. 1340: A follower of Bernardo Daddi paints the

polyptych, Madonna and Child with Saints.

c. 1400: The Gothic period comes to an end just as

the Renaissance begins.

1453: The Byzantine Empire ends when

Constantinople falls to the Turks.

1475: Michelangelo Buonarroti is born in Caprese,

Italy.

1501: Michelangelo sculpts David for the city of

Florence, Italy.

1508: Michelangelo begins work on the Sistine

Ceiling in Rome.

1514-16: Michelangelo sculpts The Dying Captive.

1519: At the request of Pope Leo X, Michelangelo

begins work on the Medici Chapel in the Church of

San Lorenzo in Florence, Italy.

800: Charlemagne is granted the title of emperor.

c. 870: The Vikings settle Iceland.

1066: William the Conqueror invades England.

1174: The Leaning Tower of Pisa is begun in Italy.

1215: King John signs the Magna Carta at

Runnymede, England.

1337: The Hundred Years’ War between France and

England begins.

1348: The Black Death or the Bubonic Plague

sweeps Europe.

1350: The Leaning Tower of Pisa is completed.

1368: The Ming Dynasty begins in China.

1429: Joan of Arc leads the French army in the

Battle of Orleans.

1452: Leonardo da Vinci is born in Vinci, Italy.

1453: The Hundred Years’ War ends.

1483: Martin Luther is born in Germany.

1503: Leonardo da Vinci begins the Mona Lisa in

Italy.

1509: Henry VIII comes to power in England and

marries his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.

1513: Ponce de Leon discovers Florida and claims it

for Spain.

1517: Martin Luther posts his 95 Theses on the door

of a Wittenberg church calling for the reformation of

the Christian church.

1519: Magellan begins his circumnavigation of the

globe.

1527: Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, sacks

Rome.

35

1536-41: Michelangelo paints the Last Judgment in

the Sistine Chapel.

1564: Michelangelo dies.

19th Century: During this century, the Buddha in

NOMA’s collection was created.

1840: August Rodin is born in France.

1844: Mary Stevenson Cassatt is born in Allegheny,

Pennsylvania.

1854: Rodin enters the Imperial School of Drawing

and Mathematics.

1857: Rodin fails for the third time to gain

admission to the École des Beaux-Arts.

1861-65: Mary Cassatt studies painting at the

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

1864: Rodin joins the workshop of Carrier-Belleuse.

1866: Mary Cassatt leaves Pennsylvania to study in

France.

1870: France loses the Franco Prussian War and the

seige of Paris begins. Mary Cassatt returns to

Pennsylvania while Rodin flees to Belgium.

1543: Nicolaus Copernicus publishes On the

Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres.

1547: Henry VIII dies.

1556: Philip II of Spain comes to power after his

father, Charles V, abdicates his throne.

1559: Elizabeth I is crowned Queen of England.

1588: Sir Francis Drake and the English fleet defeat

the Spanish Armada.

1609: Galileo first demonstrates the use of the

telescope.

1644: The Ming Dynasty in China ends.

1689: Peter the Great becomes czar of Russia.

1776: The American Revolution.

1789: The French Revolution begins and George

Washington is elected the first President of the

United States.

1804: Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned Emperor of

France.

1824: The first steam locomotive is developed.

1843: Charles Thurber patents the typewriter.

1848: Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto is

published.

1859: Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of

Species.

1860: Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th President

of the United States.

1863: Lincoln issues the Emancipation

Proclamation.

1865: Lincoln is assasinated by John Wilkes Booth.

1868: The Meiji Restoration in Japan. The capital

is moved from Kyoto to Tokyo.

1871: The Great Chicago fires destroys much of the

downtown area.

1876: The first telephone call from Alexander

36

1872: Cassatt takes a trip to Parma, Italy to study

the Italian masters.

1874: The first Impressionist exhibition takes place

in Paris, France.

1875: Rodin takes a trip to Italy to study the

Renaissance masters.

1876: Rodin renews work on Age of Bronze.

1877: Rodin exhibits Age of Bronze at the Paris

Salon. Degas invites Cassatt to join the

Impressionists.

1880: Rodin receives a commission for the Gates of

Hell. Cassatt begins her studies of women and

children.

1881: Pablo Picasso born in Málaga, Spain.

1884: The city of Calais, France commissions

Rodin to sculpt The Burghers of Calais.

1891: Jacques Lipchitz born in Lithuania. Cassatt

has her first solo show at Galerie Durand-Ruel.

1892: Cassatt begins a mural on the modern woman

for the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Picasso

enters the School of Fine Arts in La Coruña, Spain.

1897: Picasso enters the Royal Academy of San

Fernando in Spain.

Early 20th Century: The Pair of Female Ere Ibeji

are carved by Olowe of Ise of the Yoruba peoples.

1900: The pavillion at the International Exposition

in Paris is devoted to a Rodin retrospective. Picasso

moves to Paris.

1901: Picasso enters his Blue Period.

1904: Picasso begins his Rose period.

1906: Cassatt paints Mother and Child in the

Conservatory. Lipchitz takes attends school in

Vilna.

1907: Picasso begins work on Les Demoiselles

d’Avignon.

1908: Picasso begins his Cubist collaboration with

Georges Braque.

Graham Bell to Thomas Watson.

1884: The Statue of Liberty is presented by France

to the United States.

1889: The Eiffel Tower opens in France.

1892: The “Nutcracker Suite” ballet premieres.

1898: Pierre and Marie Curie discover radium

1903: The first baseball World Series between the

Pittsburgh Pirates and the Boston Pilgrims is played.

1914: Archduke Ferdinand of Austria is assasinated

in Sarajevo.

1917: The United States enters World War I by

declaring war against Germany.

1927: Charles Lindberg is the first to fly solo over

the Atlantic.

1929: The Stock Market crashes.

1938: Parker Brothers inttroduce Monopoly.

1941: Japan bombs Pearl Harbor.

1943: Chiang Kai-Shek becomes the president of

China.

1944: US and Allied forces land at Normandy.

1947: Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers

becomes the first black professional baseball player.

1948: Ghandi is assasinated.

1953: Dr. Salk develops the polio vaccine.

1955: Rosa Parks is arrested after refusing to move

to the back of a bus.

1959: Fidel Castro overthrows Batista.

1961: Construction of the Berlin Wall begins.

1963: John F. Kennedy is assasinated.

1968: Martin Luther King, Jr. is assasinated.

1969: Neil Armstrong takes man’s first walk on the

moon.

1974: President Nixon resigns.

37

1909: Lipchitz leaves for Paris with his mother’s

help.

1910: Picasso paints David-Henry Kahnweiler.

1913: Lipchitz meets and befriends Picasso. Begins

interest in Cubism.

1914: Cassatt stops painting due to blindness.

1916: Lipchitz begins work on Bather. Picasso

begins his collaboration with Diaghilev and the

Ballet Russes.

1917: Rodin dies in France.

1919: Mary Carson Catlett is born in Washington

D.C.

1920: Lipchitz has first large one-man show.

1926: Cassatt dies in France.

1933: Catlett graduates from Dunbar High School

and enters Howard University.

1937: Picasso installs Guernica in the Spanish

Pavilion at the Paris World’s Fair.

1938: Olowe of Ise, the sculptor of the Ere Ibeji,

dies. Catlett graduates from Howard University

with a B.S. in art. Lipchitz exhibits Prometheus

Strangling the Vulture at the Paris World’s Fair.

1940: Catlett is awarded an M.F.A. in sculpture

from the University of Iowa, where she studied

under Grant Wood. She later moves to New

Orleans and accepts a position at Dillard University.

Picasso has a major retrospective of his work at the

Museum of Modern Art in New York.

1941: Catlett spends the summer studying at the Art

Institute of Chicago and working with WPA artists.

1942-43: Catlett moves to the East Coast.

1944: Catlett joins the faculty of George

Washington Carver School in Harlem.

1945: Catlett is awarded the Julius Rosenwald

Foundation grant to produce a series on Black

women.

1946: Catlett moves to Mexico enabling her to

concentrate on her own work. She joins the Taller

de Gráfica Popular, an artistic workshop for the

1977: Apple II, the first personal computer goes on

sale.

1981: Prince Charles weds Lady Diana Spencer in

England.

1990: The Berlin Wall is demolished.

1997: Scientists in Scotland clone a sheep named

“Dolly.”

38

common man.

1947: Catlett marries Francisco Mora in Mexico.

1953: Picasso meets Jacqueline Roque, the model in

Woman in an Armchair.

1954: Lipchitz has a major retrospective at the

Museum of Modern Art in New York.

1958: Catlett is hired as a sculpture teacher for the

School of Fine Arts, Universidad Nacional

Autónoma de México.

1960: Picasso completes Woman in an Armchair.

1961: Picasso marries Jacqueline Roque.

1963: Catlett is awarded the Tlatilco Prize at the

First Sculpture Biennial in Mexico.

1973: Picasso dies. Lipchitz dies.

1975-78: Catlett creates and presents a ten foot

bronze of Louis Armstrong for the City of New

Orleans’s Bicentennial celebration.

1983: Catlett has a solo exhibition at the New

Orleans Museum of Art.

39

Curriculum Objectives

Geography:

*Draw a map of one of the countries that the artists come from. Fill it with a collage that

reflects elements of that culture.

*Ask students if they were to visit all the sites or artists mentioned, what would be the most

practical route?

*Discuss trade in Africa and the East. How has it influenced western artists?

Mathematics:

*Discuss different systems of measurements throughout history. How have they become

standardized? Where did our own system come from?

*Have students measure the length of their index finger. Is this measurement an accurate unit for

the rest of their body? Is there a simple ratio that can be applied?

Science:

*Investigate how bodies move. What are the specific muscles that are used?

*Look at and discuss other artists who were interested in the human body such as Leonardo da

Vinci or Thomas Eakins. What contributions in the scientific field have influenced them?

*Discuss properties of bronze, marble and clay. Why do they make good mediums? What do

they say about the cultures who used them?

Language Art:

*Have students create stories about the characters in the slides. What are they doing? What are

they feeling?

*Have the students write a poetic self-portrait or a portrait of someone that they know or admire.

*Read and discuss Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. What are the author’s perceptions of

African culture?

Social Studies:

*Discuss the influence of religions upon art.

*Discuss the presence of religious symbols in art. What are some particular symbols and what

do they mean?

*Discuss different cultural climates and rituals. How are they reflected in art and body types?

*Who are Socrates and Plato? Read short excerpts of their writings and discuss their

philosophies on beauty.

*Discuss images of beauty in today’s society. Are they healthy or harmful? Do other cultures

share the same ideals?

*Discuss body decoration in different cultures. How do we decorate our bodies today?

40

Visual Arts:

*Discuss abstraction versus realism.

*Create a realistic self-portrait. Use it to make an abstract version.

*Discuss symmetry, balance and order. How do these concepts relate to Greek sculpture? Do

these terms still have relevance in today’s art world?

*Observe the texture and detail in the paintings and sculptures. How do they effect the work of

art?

*Discuss the technique of mosaic. Have students make their own mosaic out of colored pieces of

paper or stones.

*Discuss folk and ritual dance. Have the students create their own dance and explain its

meaning.

*Create a collage self-portrait.

41

Bibliography

Arnason, H. H. History of Modern Art, Third Edition. New York: Harry N. Abrams and

Prentice-Hall, 1986.

Breeskin, Adelyn Dohme. Mary Cassatt: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oils, Pastels, Watercolors,

and Drawings. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press,

1970.

Bullard, E. John. Mary Cassatt: Oils and Pastels. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1972.

Elsen, Albert E. “Rodin as Spokesman of the Unspeakable,” in Rodin and His Contemporaries:

The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collection. New York: Cross River Press, 1991.

Fergonzi, Flavio. “The Discovery of Michelangelo: Some Thoughts on Rodin’s Week in

Florence and Its Consequences,” in Rodin and Michelangelo: A Study in Artistic

Inspiration, eds. Flavio Fergonzi, Maria Mimita Lamberti, Pina Ragionieri and

Christopher Riopelle. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1997.

Gupte, R. S. Iconography of the Hindus, Buddhists and Jains. Bombay: D. B.

Taraporevala Sons, 1972.

Hammacher, A. M. Jacques Lipchitz, trans. James Brockway. New York: Harry N. Abrams,

1975.

--------. Jacques Lipchitz: His Sculpture, intro. Jacques Lipchitz, New York: Harry N. Abrams,

no date.

Levkoff, Mary L. Rodin: In His Time. New York: Los Angeles County Museum of Art and

Thames Hudson, 1994.

Lewis, Samella. The Art of Elizabeth Catlett. Claremont, CA: Hancraft Studios, 1984.

Mason, Penelope. History of Japanese Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1995.

Riopelle, Christopher. “Rodin Confronts Michelangelo,” in Rodin and Michelangelo: A Study

of Artistic Inspiration, eds. Flavio Fergonzi, Maria Mimita Lamberti, Pina Ragionieri

and Christopher Riopelle. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1997.

Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History, revised edition. New York: Harry N. Abrams and Prentice

Hall, 1995.

Tancock, John L. The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin. Boston: David R. Godine, 1976.

Wardwell, Allen, ed. Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought. New York:

Harry N. Abrams, 1989.