american art—group exercises

• As a group, discuss and outline your thoughts on two of the four following issues. [The two assigned to your group are indicated].
• Charge one group member with the responsibility for taking notes for the group.
• Another member should be selected to report the findings of the group to the rest of the class when we regroup. (You will have 5-6 minutes to communicate your major points).
• Have one member watch the time: you have 15 minutes for each of two questions. I want to see the outlines at the end of class.
• Each member of the group should sign in the upper right hand corner of the answer sheet.

I. Discuss the major factors which contributed to the artistic differences between artists painting in the early colonial, later colonial and romantic periods. Consider training and patronage as well as purpose, iconography and style. List and discuss particular representative works for each period.

II. Discuss the ability of portraiture to reveal: a. the sitter's personality b. the social and/or financial level of the sitter c. larger societal issues (history, culture, religion) d. the amount of training the artist received Give specific examples and comment on those features of each work that demonstrate each of these four attributes.

III. Choose one of the following sets of works and discuss the technical and iconographical changes that can be cited as a way of showing a development over the given time period. Consider purpose, iconography, style and historical position. ***Design a question that your discussion would answer***

a. Anonymous, Elizabeth Freake and Baby Mary c. 1671-74; Robert Feke, Isaac Royall and His Family, 1741; John Singleton Copley, Mary and Elizabeth Royall, c. 1758, Gilbert Stuart, Mrs. Richard Yates, 1793-4.

b. Benjamin West, Death on a Pale Horse, 1817; Washington Allston, Elijah in the Desert, 1818; Thomas Cole, Scene from the Last of the Mohicans "Cora Kneeling at the Feet of the Tamanund", 1827.

c. Thomas Jefferson, The Rotunda, University of Virginia, 1822-26; Benjamin Latrobe, Baltimore Cathedral, 1804-21; James Renwick, St. Patrick's Cathedral, 1853-8.