Art History: Internet Activity  
American Art & Artists vs. European Art & Artists

Goals: 

1) To have students work in two groups, to compare and contrast American Artists & their work, to their European counter parts & their work, during simultaneous/successive time periods.(C.C.C.S. 1.5)

2) To use the computers/Internet/Power Point to put together the comparisons for each group presentation. (Cr.C.S. 2.9)

3) To focus on Early American Artists (from 1600- early 1800’s)

                Activities:

                1) Divide class into 2 groups of varying abilities

1. The Americans
2. The Europeans

2) Hand out for class reading: "Creating a Virtuous Republic" print out hard copy so this can be read together as a class or individually if the computer lab in down. Discussion of the differences of American vs. European life & views on art can be substituted if the reading is above the student’s abilities.

3) Assign specific artists to each group to research and find images. The teacher can use "artists lists" to find the appropriate names for either the American or European artists.

4) Once each group has the appropriate Artist list to research, allow the groups to work on the computer using the Internet to research their time period specific artists. Accompanying the computer exploration, a "Research Questionnaire" should be handed out as a hard copy to each student. This will help students stay focused on the specific points that should be discussed during their group/artist presentation. Teacher will need to sign up for the lab that way each student can research at the same time.

5. Students will find images and make a Power Point presentation slide show. A few sites for students have already been previewed and have been found to be helpful. You can find these sites listed in my "School Notes" account @ Cathleen Cosgrove W.M.H.S. 07480.

6) Teacher may need to have each student’s "P" drive memory increased prior to the lesson. That way the students can down load the images for the Power Point slide show without problems.

7) Allow ample time to discuss the key points about each work of art and artist before moving on to the next artist. Alternating the American Artist with the European Artist will help the students see the differences or similarities clearly. Teacher will need to get for the classroom presentation a Scan-It and television/projection device. Use Rubric to grade presentations. 

Assessment:

1. Grade the hard copy of the "Research Questionnaire" for each student.
2. Actual presentations for each group with an accompanying "Rubric"
3. Class participation/Behavior in computer lab
4. Images chosen

Project Time Line:

1. 3 days computer/library time
2. 2 days class/power point presentations

***Please be advised that this will change due to class level and computer lab availability.

Computer Rules/Needs:

1. Computer lab stations for every student in class
2. Internet access
3. Power Point program
4. Television/Projection screen
5. Scan – It

ULR’s:

Please see: www.schoolnotes.com

Cathleen Cosgrove @ W.M.H.S. 07480

Artists Lists

1) Robert Feke
2) Gilbert Stuart 
3) John Greenwood 
4) John Smibert 
5) John Singleton Copley
6) Benjamin West 
7) John Trumbull 

European Artists
  1600 – 1800

1) Caravaggio
2) De La Tour
3) Jean Honore Fragonard
4) Gainsborough
5) Jaques Louis David
6) Ingres
7) Delacroix

Your name:___________________________________

Famous Artists Name:________________________________

American or European (circle one)

1. Where did your artist live?

 

2. What did your artist specialize in? (portraiture, still life, landscape?)

 

3. What medium is your artist best known for?

 

4. Does the artist have a theme/content to their work? If so, why do you think that was the artist’s major concentration?

 

 

5. Was the artist influenced by the time period in which they lived ? (religion, politics, economics, morality?)

 

 

6. Describe the composition:

Foreground:

Middle ground:

Back ground:

Balance:

Light source:

Textures within:

Values:

Perspective:

Space:

Form:

Colors/Values:

 

7. How does the artwork impact you?

 

 

 

8. Do you believe the work of art is successful?

 

 

 

9. Do you believe the work of art is technically accurate?

Art History Comparison Rubric

Students Names: ______________________________________________________

Famous Artist’s Name: ________________________________________________

European                                 American

Date: ___________________

(check off underneath appropriate word)

Below Average             Average             Above Average

Participation:

*Computer research

*Questionnaire/info

*Actual images found

*Oral Presentation

*Presentation involvement

*On Time

Name of Artist Y N

Type of Artwork mentioned     Y     N

Technique mentioned     Y     N

Name of Artwork stated     Y     N

Composition Described     Y     N

Composition Analyzed     Y     N

Successful work     Y     N

    Many years after the Revolution, John Dickinson recalled that in 1776, when the colonies declared their independence from Great Britain, "there was no question concerning forms of Government, no enquiry whether a Republic or a limited Monarchy was best. . . .We knew that the people of this country must unite themselves under some form of Government and that this could be no other than the republican form." But how could that goal be implemented?

    Three different definitions of republicanism emerged in the new United States. The first, held chiefly by members of the educated elite, for example, the Adamses of Massachusetts), was based directly on ancient history and political theory. The histories of popular governments in Greece and Rome seemed to prove that republics could succeed only if they were small in size and homogeneous in population. Furthermore, unless the citizens of a republic were willing to sacrifice their own private interests for the good of the whole, the government would inevitably collapse. In return for sacrifices, though, a republic offered its citizens equality of opportunity. Under such a government, rank would be based on merit rather than inherited wealth and status. Society would be ruled by members of a "natural aristocracy," men of talent who had risen from what might have been humble beginnings to positions of power and privilege. Rank would not be abolished but instead would be placed on a different footing.

    A second definition, also advanced by members of the elite but in addition by some skilled craftsmen, drew more on economic than political thought. Instead of perceiving the nation as an organic whole composed of people sacrificing to the common good, this version of republicanism followed the English theorist Adam Smith in emphasizing individual’s pursuit of rational self-interest. The relevance of such an approach was underlined by the huge profits some men reaped from their patriotic participation in the war effort by selling supplies to the army. The nation could only benefit from aggressive economic expansion, argued such men as Alexander Hamilton. When republican men sought to improve their own economic and social circumstances, the entire nation would benefit. Republican virtue would be achieved through the advancement of private interests, rather than through their subordination to some communal ideal.

    The third notion of republicanism was less influential because it was popular primarily with people who were illiterate or barely literate and who thus wrote little to promote their beliefs. But it involved a more egalitarian approach to governance than did either of the other two, both of which contained considerable potential for equality. Some late-eighteenth-century Americans (like Thomas Paine) emphasized the importance of widespread participation in political activities, wanted government to be responsive to their needs, and openly questioned the gentry’s ability to speak for them. They can, in fact, be termed democrats in more or less the modern sense.

    Despite the differences, it is important to recognize that the three strands of republicanism were part of a unified whole and shared many of the same assumptions. For example, all three contrasted a virtuous, industrious America to the corrupt luxury of England and Europe. In the first version, that virtue manifested itself in frugality and self-sacrifice; in the second, it would prevent self-interest from becoming vice; in the third, it was the justification for including even propertyless white men in the ranks of voter. "Virtue, Virtue alone. . . is the basis of a republic," asserted Dr. Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia, an ardent patriot, in 1778. His fellow Americans concurred, even if they defined virtue in divergent ways.

    As the citizens of the United States set out to construct their republic, they believed they were embarking on an unprecedented enterprise. With great pride in their new nation, they expected to exchange the vices of monarchical Europe for the virtues of republican America. They wanted to embody republican principles not only in their governments but also in their society and their culture. They looked to painting, literature, drama, and architecture to convey messages of nationalism and virtue to the public.

    But Americans faced a crucial contradiction at the very outset of their efforts. To some republicans, the fine arts themselves were manifestations of vice. Their appearance in a virtuous society, many contended, signaled the arrival of luxury and corruption. What need did a frugal yeoman have for a painting – or worse yet, a novel? Why should anyone spend hard-earned wages to see a play in a lavishly decorated theater? The first American artists, playwrights, and authors were thus trapped in a dilemma from which escape was nearly impossible. They wanted to produce works embodying virtue, but those very works, regardless of their content, were viewed by many as corrupting.

    Still, they tried. William Hill Brown’s The Power of Sympathy (1789), the first novel written in the United States, was a lurid tale of seduction intended as a warning to young women, who made up a large portion of America’s fiction readers. In Royal Tyler’s The Contrast (1787), the first successful American play, the virtuous conduct of Colonel Manly was contrasted (hence the title) with the reprehensible behavior of the fop Billy Dimple. The most popular book of the era, Mason Locke Weems’s Life of Washington, published in 1800 shortly after George Washington’s death, was, the author declared, designed to "hold up his great Virtues . . . to the imitation of Our Youth." Weems could hardly have been accused of being subtle. The famous tale he invented – six-year-old George’s bravely admitting cutting down his father’s favorite cherry tree – ended with George’s father exclaiming, "Run to my arms, you dearest boy . . . . .Such an act of heroism in my son, is worth more than a thousand trees, though blossomed with silver, and their fruit of purest gold."

    Painting, too, was expected to embody high moral standards. The major artists of the republican period – Gilbert Stuart and John Trumbull – studied in London under Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley, the first great American-born painters, both of whom had emigrated to England before the Revolution. Stuart and Charles Willson Peale painted innumerable portraits of upstanding republican citizens- the political, economic, and social leaders of the day. Trumbull’s vast canvases depicted such milestones of American history as the Battle of Bunker Hill, Burgoyne’s surrender at Saratoga, and Cornwallis’s capitulation at Yorktown. Both portraits and historical scenes were intended to instill patriotic virtues in their viewers.

    Architects likewise hoped to convey in their buildings a sense of the young republic’s ideals, and most of them consciously rejected British models. When the Virginia government asked Thomas Jefferson, then ambassador to France, for advice on the design of a state capitol in Richmond, Jefferson unhesitatingly recommended copying a Roman building, the Maison Carree at Nimes. "It is very simple," he explained, "but it is noble beyond expression." Jefferson set forth ideals that would guide American architecture for a generation to come: simplicity of line, harmonious proportions, a feeling of grandeur. Nowhere were these rational goals of republican art manifested more clearly than in Benjamin H. Latrobe’s plans for the majestic, domed United States Capitol in Washington, built shortly after the turn of the century.

    Despite the artists’ efforts, or perhaps, some would have said, because of them, some Americans were beginning to detect signs of luxury and corruption by the mid-1780s. The end of the war and resumption of European trade brought a return to fashionable clothing styles for both men and women and abandonment of the simpler homespun garments patriots had once worn with pride. Balls and concerts were attended by well dressed elite families. Parties no longer seemed complete without gambling and card playing. Social clubs for young people multiplied; Samuel Adams worried in print about the possibilities for corruption lurking behind innocent plans for tea drinking and genteel conversation among Boston youths. Especially alarming to fervent republicans was the establishment in 1783 of the Society of the Cincinnati, a hereditary organization of Revolutionary War officers and their descendants. Many feared that the group would become the nucleus of a native-born aristocracy. All these developments directly challenged the United States’s image as a virtuous republic.

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