Art Appreciation
After reading Chapter 3/Themes handout on D2L, reading the Shepard Fairey article and going through the associated presentation you will complete this assessment. Assessments are different than homework assignments because these are meant for you to practice using the information you have learned without fear of failure. They are graded based on completion as long as you have followed directions and show that you have completed the D2L lesson the assessment is attached to in the content section. (By using the correct terminology)
Prompt:Consider the themes found in Chapter 3/Themes handout on D2L in relation to the site-specific installation, Ghostwriter, made in 1994 by Ralph Hemlick and Stuart Schecther. What is the artworks primary theme from the chapter? Provide visual evidence to explain your answer.
Even though you might think this artwork could fit more than one theme, be sure to select the one you think is the best fit. What is it’s number one purpose? Why was it made? On the midterm, if you discuss more than one theme you will not receive credit for themes even if one of them is correct as the task asks you to identify the primary theme (meaning one) of the artwork.
Make sure that you provide clear visual evidence that explains the theme you have selected rather than just describing the subject matter. You want to “defend” your answer. Even if it is a theme I might not normally associate with the artwork sometimes your evidence can convince me to believe it could work because art is subjective. Vagueness is not your friend and without proper evidence you won’t be able to convince me of much so be sure to be clear.
Note: All assessments MUST be written in complete sentences and in paragraph format. Failure to do this will automatically result in a ZERO. Write 1-2 paragraphs for this prompt.
Link for Shepard Fairey article: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-shepard-fairey-inauguration-20170119-story.html
In extending our modern concept of art outward to other cultures and backward in time, we observe that peoples throughouthistory have created visually meaningful forms. Whether those forms be paintings or textiles, buildings or ceramics, they have incommon that they are about something. This aboutness is what allows us to experience them as art. But what sorts of thingsare they about?
One way to begin exploring the elusive concept of aboutness is to consider some broad areas of meaning that have been reflected
in the arts of many cultures throughout human history. We can call these areas of meaning themes. No doubt, every person setting
out to name the most important themes in art would produce a different list. This chapter proposes eight themes, from the sacred
realm to art about art. Each one allows us to range widely over the world’s artistic heritage, setting works drawn from different times
and places in dialogue by showing how their meanings begin in a shared theme.
Just as a work of art can hold many meanings and inspire multiple interpretations, so it may reflect more than one theme. As you
read this chapter, you may find yourself considering works discussed earlier in the light of the new theme at hand, or thinking about
how a newly encountered work also reflects themes discussed earlier. This is as it should be. Themes are not intended to reduce art
to a set of neat categories. Rather, they provide a framework for exploring how complex a form of expression it can be.
The Sacred Realm
Who made the universe? How did life begin, and what is its purpose? What happens to us after we die? For answers to those and
other fundamental questions, people throughout history have turned to a world we cannot see except through faith, the sacred realm
of the spirit. Gods and goddesses, spirits of ancestors, spirits of nature, one God and one aloneeach society has formed its own
view of the sacred realm and how it interacts with our own. Some forms of faith have disappeared into history, others have remained
small and local, while still others such as Christianity and Islam have become major religions that draw believers from all over the
world. From earliest times, art has played an important role in our relationship to the sacred, helping us to envision it, to honor it, and
to communicate with it.
Many works of architecture have been created to provide settings for rituals of worship and prayer, rituals that formalize contact
between the earthly and the divine realms. One such work is the small marvel known as the Sainte-Chapelle, or holy chapel (3.1).
Located in Paris, the chapel was commissioned in 1239 by the French king Louis IX to house an important collection of relics that he
had just acquired, relics he believed to include pieces of the True Cross, the Crown of Thorns, and other instruments of Christ’s
Passion. The king’s architects created a soaring vertical space whose walls seem to be made of stained glass. Light passing through
the glass creates a dazzling effect, transforming the interior into a radiant, otherworldly space in which the glory of heaven seems
close at hand.
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3.1 Interior, upper chapel, Sainte-Chapelle, Paris. 124348.
The Sainte-Chapelle is a relatively intimate space, for it was intended as a private chapel for the king and his court. In contrast, the
Great Mosque at Crdoba, Spain, was built to serve the needs of an entire community (3.2). A mosque is an Islamic house of
worship. Begun during the 8th century, the Great Mosque at Crdoba grew to be the largest place of prayer in western Islam. The
interior of the prayer hall is a vast horizontal space measured out by a virtual forest of columns. Daylight enters through doorways
placed around the perimeter of the hall. Filtered through the myriad columns and arches, it creates a complex play of shadows that
makes the extent and shape of the interior hard to grasp. Alternating red and white sections break up the visual continuity of the arch
forms. Oil lamps hanging in front of the focal point of worship would have created still more shadows.
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3.2 Prayer hall of Abd al-Rahman I, Great Mosque, Crdoba, Spain. Begun 786 C.E.
In both the Sainte-Chapelle and the Great Mosque at Crdoba, architects strove to create a place where worshipers might approach
the sacred realm. The builders of the Sainte-Chapelle envisioned a radiant vertical space transformed by colored light, whereas the
architects of the Great Mosque at Crdoba envisioned a disorienting horizontal space fractured by columns and shadows. In both
buildings, the everyday world is shut out, and light and space are used to create a heightened sense of mystery and wonder.
The sacred realm cannot be seen with human eyes, yet artists throughout the ages have been asked to create images of gods,
goddesses, angels, demons, and all manner of spirit beings. Religious images may serve to focus the thoughts of the faithful by
giving concrete form to abstract ideas. Often, however, their role has been more complex and mysterious. For example, in some
cultures, images have been understood as a sort of conduit through which sacred power flows; in others, they serve as a dwelling
place for a deity, who is called upon through ritual to take up residence within.
Our next two images, one Buddhist and one Christian, were made at approximately the same time but some four thousand miles
apart, the Buddhist image in Tibet, the Christian one in Italy. The Buddhist painting portrays Rathnasambhava, one of the Five
Transcendent Buddhas, seated in a pose of meditation on a stylized lotus throne (3.3). His right hand makes the gesture of bestowing
vows; his left, the gesture of meditation. Unlike other buddhas, the Five Transcendent Buddhas are typically portrayed in the
bejeweled garb of Indian princes. Arranged around Rathnasambhava are bodhisattvas, also in princely attire. Bodhisattvas are
enlightened beings who have deferred their ultimate goal of nirvanafreedom from the cycle of birth, death, and rebirthin order to
help others attain that goal. All wear halos signifying their holiness. The buddha, being the most important of the personages
depicted, dominates the painting as the largest figure. He faces straight front, in a pose of tranquility, while the others around him
stand or sit in relaxed postures.
3.3 Rathnasambhava, the Transcendent Buddha of the South. Tibet, 13th century C.E. Opaque watercolor on cloth, height 3612.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The second example, painted by the 13th-century Italian master Cimabue, depicts Mary, mother of Christ, with her son (3.4). Mary
sits tranquilly on her throne, her right hand indicating the Christ child, who raises his right hand in a gesture of benediction. On both
sides of her are figures of angels, heavenly spirit-messengers. Again, all wear halos signifying their holiness. As in the Buddhist
painting, the most important personage dominates the composition, is the largest, and holds a serenely frontal pose.
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3.4 Cimabue. Madonna Enthroned. c. 128090. Tempera on wood, 12712 74.
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
O
THINKING ABOUT ART Iconoclasm
In arguments for iconoclasm, why is worshiping artworks themselves not the same as worshiping what they represent? On the
other hand, how can art communicate religious beliefs, practices, and values?
n February 26, 2001, the Islamic fundamentalist rulers of Afghanistan, the Taliban, issued an edict that stunned the world:
all statues in the country must be destroyed, for they were being worshiped and venerated by unbelievers. The order
targeted statues large and small, those housed in museums and those on view in public places. But the statues that
caught the public’s attention were a pair of monumental buddhas. Carved into the living rock of a cliff face sometime between the
3rd and 7th centuries, they were originally cared for by Buddhist monks and visited by pilgrims during religious festivals. The monks
and pilgrims left centuries ago, but the statues had survived. It seemed scarcely credible that they were about to be blown up, but
that is exactly what happened. In early March, despite international diplomatic efforts, the statues were destroyed.
Why would statues be destroyed in the name of religion? Like many other religions, Islam has at its core a set of texts that invite
interpretation. One of these, the Traditions of the Prophet, contains two objections to representational images. The first objection is
that making images usurps the creative power of God; the second is that images can lead to idolatry, the worship of the images
themselves. Historically, the warnings have led Muslims generally to avoid representational images in religious contexts such as
mosques or manuscripts of the Qur’an, their holy book. Interpreted more radically, they have sometimes been used to forbid all
representational images, no matter what their context. Our word for the destruction of images does not come from Islam, however,
but from Christianity, which also has a history of destroying images in the name of spiritual purity. The word is iconoclasm.
Iconoclasm is derived from the Greek for image breaking. It was coined to describe one side of a debate that raged for over a
century in the Christian empire of Byzantium (see page 353). Byzantine churches, monasteries, books, and homes were decorated
with depictions of Christ, of the saints, and of biblical stories and personages. Yet during the 8th century, a movement arose against
such depictions, and a series of emperors ordered the destruction of images throughout the realm. Again, the objection was
idolatry. Christianity too has at its core a set of texts. The most important of these is the Bible, which contains a very clear warning
against making images. The warning comes directly from God as the second of the Ten Commandments.
Centuries after the Byzantine episode, iconoclasm arose in western Europe when newly forming Protestant movements of the 16th
century accused Catholics of idolatry. Protestant mobs ransacked churches, smashing stained glass, destroying paintings, breaking
statues, whitewashing over frescoes, and melting down metal shrines and vessels. To this day, Protestant churches are
comparatively bare.
Images have played an important role in almost every religion in the world. Many religions embrace them wholeheartedly. In
Buddhism, for example, making religious images is viewed as a form of prayer. In Hinduism they may provide a dwelling place for a
deity. The modern Western invention of art has seen many of these images moved to museums, and in the end this may have
been part of the Taliban’s point. We may not worship images for the deities they represent, but do we worship art?
(left) Large Buddha, Bamiyan, Afghanistan. 3rd7th century C.E. Stone, height 175.
(right) The empty niche after the statue was destroyed. March 2001.
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We should not conclude from the remarkable formal similarity of these works that any communication or influence took place
between Italy and Central Asia. A safer assumption is that two artists of different faiths independently found a format that satisfied
their pictorial needs. Both the Buddha and the Virgin are important, serene holy figures. Bodhisattvas and angels, who are always
more active, attend them. Therefore, the artists, from their separate points of view, devised similar compositions.
Politics and the Social Order
Of the many things we create as human beings, the most basic and important may be societies. How can a stable, just, and
productive society best be organized? Who will rule, and how? What freedoms will rulers have? What freedoms will citizens have?
How is wealth to be distributed? How is authority to be maintained? Many answers to those questions have been posed throughout
history, and throughout history the resulting order has been reflected in art.
In many early societies, earthly order and cosmic order were viewed as interrelated and mutually dependent. Such was the case in
ancient Egypt, where the pharaoh (king) was viewed as a link between the divine and the earthly realms. The pharaoh was
considered a junior god, a personification of the god Horus and the son of the sun god, Ra. As a ruler, his role was to maintain the
divinely established order of the universe, which included the social order of Egypt. He communed with the gods in temples only he
could enter, and he wielded theoretically unlimited power over a country that literally belonged to him.
When a pharaoh died, it was believed that he rejoined the gods and became fully divine. Preparations for this journey began even
during his lifetime, as vast tombs were constructed and outfitted with everything he would need to maintain his royal lifestyle in
eternity. The most famous of these monuments are the three pyramids at Giza (3.5), which served as the tombs of the pharaohs
Menkaure, Khafre, and Khufu. Thousands of years later, the scale of these structures is still awe-inspiring. The largest pyramid, that
of Khufu, originally reached a height of about 480 feet, roughly the height of a fifty-story skyscraper. Its base covers over 13 acres.
Over two million blocks of stone, each weighing over 2 tons, went into building it. Each block had to be quarried with hand tools,
transported to the site, and set in place without mortar. Tens of thousands of workers labored for years to build such a tomb and fill its
chambers with treasures.
3.5 The Great Pyramids, Giza, Egypt. Pyramid of Menkaure (left), c. 2500 B.C.E.; Pyramid of Khafre (center), c. 2530 B.C.E.; Pyramid of Khufu
(right), c. 2570 B.C.E.
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The pyramids reflect the immense power of the pharaohs who could command such forces, but they also reflect the beliefs
underlying the social order that granted its rulers such power in the first place. In the Egyptian view, the well-being of Egypt depended
on the goodwill of the gods, whose representative on earth was the pharaoh. His safe passage to the afterlife and his worship
thereafter as a god himself were essential for the prosperity of the country and the continuity of the universe. No amount of labor or
spending seemed too great to achieve those ends.
Visitors to the pyramids at Giza originally arrived by water, disembarking first at one of the temples that sat on the riverbank (each
pyramid had its own). From there, they would have walked along a long, raised causeway to a second temple at the base of the
pyramid, which itself could not be entered. The temples contained numerous shrines to the dead pharaoh, each with its own life-size
statue of him. Statues lined the causeways as well, and still more were inside the pyramid itself. Before our modern mass media, it
was art that served to project the presence and authority of rulers to the people throughout their lands. During the days of the Roman
Empire, in the first centuries of our era, an official likeness of a new emperor was circulated throughout the realm so that local
sculptors could get busy making statues for public places and civic buildings.
One of the finest of these ancient Roman works to come down to us is a bronze statue of the emperor Marcus Aurelius (3.6). Seated
on his mount, he extends his arm in an oratorical gesture, as if delivering a speech. His calm in victory contrasts with the spirited
motions of his horse, which was originally shown raising its hoof over a fallen enemy, now lost. The Roman fashion for beards came
and went, like all fashions. But the emperor’s beard in the statue is significant, and part of the way he wanted to be portrayed. Beards
were associated with Greek philosophers, and Marcus Aurelius’ beard signals his desire to be seen as a philosopher-king, an ideal
he genuinely tried to live up to.
3.6 Equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius. 16180 C.E. Gilded bronze, height 116.
Musei Capitolini, Rome
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During the often violent transition into our modern era, art remained deeply involved with politics and the social order. The
perspective of the artist changed profoundly, however. Instead of exclusively serving those in power, the artist was now a citizen
among other citizens and free to make art that took sides in the debates of the day. Eugne Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People
leaves no doubt about the artist’s support for the Revolution of 1830, a popular uprising in Paris that toppled one government and
installed another (3.7). Delacroix completed the painting in the very same year, and it retains the passion of his idealized view of the
insurrection and the hopes he had for the future it would bring. At the center is Liberty herself, personified as a Greek statue come to
life. Holding the French flag high, she rallies the citizens of Paris, who surge toward us brandishing pistols and sabers as though
about to burst out of the painting. Before them lie the bodies of slain government troops.
3.7 Eugne Delacroix. Liberty Leading the People, 1830. 1830. Oil on canvas, 86 1010.
Muse du Louvre, Paris
When the painting was displayed to the public in 1831, it was bought by none other than Louis-Philippe, the citizen-king that the
revolution had put in power. But perhaps the image was a little too revolutionary, for the new king returned the painting to Delacroix
after a few months. In fact, Liberty Leading the People did not go on permanent public display until 1863, after a vast urban renewal
program had minimized the possibility of angry citizens again taking control of the streets.
Where Delacroix glorifies violence in the service of democracy in Liberty Leading the People, Pablo Picasso condemns the violence
that fascism unleashed against ordinary citizens in Guernica, one of the most famous paintings of the 20th century (3.8). Guernica
depicts an event that took place during the Spanish Civil War, when a coalition of conservative, traditional, and fascist forces led by
General Francisco Franco were trying to topple the liberal government of the fledgling Spanish Republic. In Germany and Italy, the
fascist governments of Hitler and Mussolini were already in power. Franco willingly accepted their aid, and in exchange he allowed
the Nazis to test their developing air power. On April 28, 1937, the Germans bombed the town of Guernica, the old Basque capital in
northern Spain. There was no real military reason for the raid; it was simply an experiment to see whether aerial bombing could wipe
out a whole city. Being totally defenseless, Guernica was devastated and its civilian population massacred.
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3.8 Pablo Picasso. Guernica. 1937. Oil on canvas, 11512 25534.
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid
At the time, Picasso, himself a Spaniard, was working in Paris and had been commissioned by his government to paint a mural for
the Spanish Pavilion of the Paris World’s Fair of 1937. For some time, he had procrastinated about fulfilling the commission; then,
within days after news of the bombing reached Paris, he started Guernica and completed it in little over a month. The finished mural
shocked those who saw it; it remains today a chillingly dramatic protest against the brutality of war.
At first encounter with Guernica, the viewer is overwhelmed by its presence. The painting is hugemore than 25 feet long and nearly
12 feet highand its stark, powerful imagery seems to reach out and engulf the observer. Picasso used no colors; the whole painting
is done in white and black and shades of gray, possibly to echo the visual impact of news photography. (Newspapers at the time were
illustrated with black-and-white photographs; newsreels shown in cinemas were also in black-and-white. Television did not yet exist.)
Although the artist’s symbolism is very personal (and he declined to explain it in detail), we cannot misunderstand the scenes of
extreme pain and anguish throughout the canvas. At far left, a shrieking mother holds her dead child, and at far right, another woman,
in a burning house, screams in agony. The gaping mouths and clenched hands speak of disbelief at such mindless cruelty.
Like Liberty Leading the People, Guernica has had an interesting political afterlife. Franco’s forces were triumphant. Picasso refused
to allow Guernica to reside in Spain while Franco was in power, and so for years it was displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in
New York. When Franco died in 1975, the painting was returned to Spain, but there another debate ensued: Where in Spain should it
stay? The town of Guernica wanted it. So did the town where Picasso was born. Madrid, the Spanish capital, won out in the end. The
Basque Nationalist Movement, which would like to see the Basque territories secede from Spain, considers that Madrid kidnapped
their rightful cultural property. Guernica is now displayed under bulletproof glass.
Stories and Histories
Deeds of heroes, lives of saints, folktales passed down through generations, episodes of television shows that everyone knows by
heartshared stories are one of the ways we create a sense of community. Artists have often turned to stories for subject matter,
especially stories whose roots reach deep into their culture’s collective memory.
In Christian Europe of the early 15th century, stories of the lives of the saints were a common reference point. One of the best-loved
saints was Francis of Assisi, who had lived only about two centuries earlier. The son of a wealthy merchant in the Italian town of
Assisi, Francis as a young man renounced his inheritance for a life of extreme poverty in the service of God. He preached to all who
would listen (including birds and animals) and cared for the poor and the sick. With the disciples who gathered around him, he
founded a religious community that was eventually formalized as the Franciscan Order of monks.
The painting here by the 15th-century Italian artist Sassetta illustrates two episodes from Saint Francis’ life (3.9). To the left, Francis,
still a wealthy young man, gives his cloak to a poor man. To the right, Sassetta cleverly uses the houseits front wall made invisible
so we can see insideto create a separate space, a sort of painting within a painting, for the next part of the story. Here, an angel
appears while Francis is sleeping and grants him a dream vision of the Heavenly City of God. The angel’s upraised hand leads our
eyes to the vision, which is portrayed at the top of the panel.
3.9 Sassetta. St. Francis Giving His Mantle to a Poor Man and the Vision of the Heavenly City. c. 143744. Oil on panel, 3414 2034.
The National Gallery, London
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These painting within a painting areas are called space cells, and artists in many cultures have used them for narration. The Indian
painter Sahibdin made ingenious use of space cells to relate a complicated episode from the epic poem Ramayana, or Story of Rama
(3.10). One of the two great founding Indian epics, the Ramayana is attributed to the legendary poet Valmiki, and portions of it date
as far back as 500 B.C.E. Rama, the hero of the epic, is a prince and an incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. He is heir to the throne
of an important Indian kingdom, but because of jealous intrigue he is sent into exile before he can be crowned. Soon afterward, his
wife, Sita, is carried off by the demon Ravana. The epic chronicles Rama’s search for Sita and his long journey back to his rightful
position as a ruler.
3.10 Sahibdin and workshop. Rama and Lakshmana Bound by Arrow-Snakes, from the Ramayana. Mewar, c. 165052. Opaque watercolor on
paper, approx. 9 1538.
The British Library, London
In the episode depicted here, Rama suffers a setback as he battles Ravana for Sita’s release. The story begins in the small, rose-
colored space cell to the right, where Ravana, portrayed with twenty heads and a whirlwind of arms, confers with his son Indrajit on a
plan to defeat Rama, who is about to attack the palace. Below, the plan finalized, Indrajit is shown leaving the palace with his
warriors. The action now shifts to the left side of the page, where Indrajit, aloft in an airborne chariot, shoots arrows down at Rama
and his companion, Lakshmana. The arrows turn into snakes, binding the two heroes. The story continues on the ground, where
Indrajit assures the monkey-king Sugriva that Rama and Lakshmana are not dead but successfully captured. In the yellow cell at the
center of the painting, Indrajit stages a triumphal procession back into the palace, where, in the upper right corner, he is joyfully
received by Ravana. Meanwhile, Sita, imprisoned in the garden depicted in the yellow space cell immediately below, receives a visit
from the demoness Trijata, who takes her in a flying chariot ride (upper left) to witness Rama’s defeat. Sahibdin’s illustration was
made for an audience who knew the epic tale almost by heart and would have delighted in puzzling out the painting’s ingenious
construction.
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History has furnished artists with many stories, for history itself is nothing more than a story we tell ourselves about the past, a story
we write and rewrite. In Altar to the Chases High School (3.11), Christian Boltanski draws on our memory of the historical episode
known as the Holocaust, the mass murder of European Jews and other populations by the Nazis during World War II. Chases was a
private Jewish high school in Vienna. Boltanski began with a photograph that he found of the graduating class of 1931. Eighteen
years old in the photograph, the students would have been twenty-five when Austria was annexed by Germany at the start of the war.
Most probably perished in the death camps. Boltanski rephotographed each face, then enlarged the results into a series of blurry
portraits. The effect is as though someone long gone were calling out to us; we try to recognize them, but cannot quite. Our task is
made even more difficult by the lights blocking their faces, lights that serve as halos on the one hand, but also remind us of
interrogation lamps. We wonder, too, what the stacked tin boxes might hold. Ashes? Possessions? Documents? They have no labels,
just as the blurred faces have almost no identities.
3.11 Christian Boltanski. Altar to the Chases High School. 1987. Photographs, tin biscuit boxes, and six metal lamps; 6912 7212.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
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Looking Outward: The Here and Now
The social order, the world of the sacred, history and the great stories of the pastall these are very grand and important themes.
But art does not always have to reach so high. Sometimes it is enough just to look around ourselves and notice what our life is like
here, now, in this place, at this time.
Among the earliest images of daily life to have come down to us are those that survived in the tombs of ancient Egypt. Egyptians
imagined the afterlife as resembling earthly life in every detail, except that it continued through eternity. To ensure the prosperity of
the deceased in the afterlife, scenes of the pleasures and bounty of life in Egypt were painted or carved on the tomb walls.
Sometimes models were substituted for paintings (3.12).
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3.12 Model depicting the counting of livestock, from the tomb of Meketre, Deir el-Bahri. Dynasty 11, 21341991 B.C.E. Painted wood, length
58.
Egyptian Museum, Cairo
This model was one of many found in the tomb of an Egyptian official named Meketre, who died around 1990 B.C.E. Meketre himself
is depicted at the center, seated on a chair in the shade of a pavilion. Seated on the floor to his left is his son; to his right are several
scribes (professional writers) with their writing materials ready. Overseers of Meketre’s estate stand by as herders drive his cattle
before the reviewing stand so that the scribes can count them. The herders’ gestures are animated as they coax the cattle along with
their sticks, and the cattle themselves are beautifully observed in their diverse markings.
Another model from Meketre’s tomb depicts women at work spinning and weaving cloth. They would probably have been producing
linen, which Egyptians excelled at. In China, the favored material since ancient times has been silk. Court Ladies Preparing Newly
Woven Silk (3.13) is a scene from a long handscroll depicting women weaving, ironing, and folding lengths of silk. The painting is a
copy made during the 12th century of a famous 8th-century work by Zhang Xuan, now lost. In this scene, four ladies in their elegant
robes stretch a length of silk. The woman facing us irons it with a flat-bottomed pan full of hot coals taken from the brazier visible at
the right. A little girl too small to share in the task clowns around for our benefit. If this is a scene from everyday life, it is a very
rarefied life indeed. These are ladies of the imperial court, and the painting is just as much an exercise in portraying beautiful women
as it is in showing their virtuous sense of domestic duty.
3.13 Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk, detail. Attributed to the emperor Huizong (10821135) but probably by a court painter.
Handscroll, ink, colors, and gold on silk; height 1412.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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Moving from the Chinese scroll to Edward Hopper’s Gas (3.14), we leave the exalted world of the imperial court for the ev
