Portrait of a Married Couple
Wall painting from Pompeii, IT
Mid 1st C. CE
Height: 25/5"
Collection: Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, IT
Your final paper puts all that you have learned in our class together, into practice!
Create a 1,000 word research paper that presents the above portrait relative to the cultural context it was made. In addition, you need to create a thoughtful formal analysis paper of the primary source above found in our text in Chapter 6, p. 151.
Organize your paper to reveal the following research points:
1. Where is it from?
2. Why was such a thing made?
3. Who made it?
4. What are the cultural attributes of this time period?
5. How was it made?
6. How is space (spatial depth) referenced in the portrait? Is the relationship between the figures symbolic?
7. How is line operating?
8. How is color operating?
9. How is balance operating? Is the relationship between the figures symbolic?
10. And, finally, find a picture from our contemporary world that shares the same theme. Give it some context, where is it from? How are they similar? Why did you select this portrait?
Remember to:
* Site your sources!
* Complete a thorough Bibliography
* Add an image of the Portrait of a Married Couple & your 'found' portrait
* Double spaced, 1,000 words -> Add word count at the bottom of your paper!
DUE: TH DEC 5 Research Paper #2 of 2
STUDENT PAPERS
Portrait of a Married Couple
Wall painting from Pompeii, IT
Mid 1st C. CE
Height: 25/5"
Collection: Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, IT
Behind every piece of artwork is a story, and a particular context that it was made in, with the Portrait of a Married Couplebeing no exception. Believed to have been painted during the Middle of the 1stcentury, the Portrait of a Married Couplegives viewers a potential glimpse of what life in Rome looked like. Even being created nearly two-thousand years ago, stylistic elements and principles applied to today’s artwork can be seen in the Portrait of a Married Coupleas well.
The Portrait of a Married Couplewas excavated from the home of the baker Terentius in Pompeii(Patel, para 2). It was painted in the middle of the first century on a wall using pigments mixed with a beeswax to make it shiny (Pepper, para. 113). The Portrait of a Married Couple is 2 feet and 1 inch tall, and 5 inches wide and is currently held in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples, Italy (Stokstad and Cothren p. 151).The portrait is an example of genre art which is art that depicts everyday life (Pepper, para 110).
Since the woman in the Portrait of a Married Coupleis holding a stylus along with a two-paneled writing tablet, in the form of a codex book invented by the Romans, and the man a scroll of writing, it tells the viewer that both the man and the woman are educated and thus, literate. According to Jen Pepper, an assistant professor at Cazenovia College, a codex book is a book with a spine holding its pages together similar to today’s notebook. The book was generally made of calf skin pages called vellum, enclosed between some sort of a hard case for durability. The scroll that the man carries is an earlier writing surface for the Ancient Romans and can be dated back to Ancient Greek and Egyptian times.
It was unusual in Ancient Rome, especially as a woman, to be literate. Education was not as widespread, easy, or cheap at that time as it is now, and usually only wealthy men had the opportunity to become formally educated. It is very possible that the artist or the couple that commissioned the piece, wanted the viewers of the piece to know that and painted it that way. Knowing that both the man and the woman are educated, as well as the fact that there is an artwork in existence that was most likely commissioned by them, one can assume that this couple was rather wealthy (Stokstad and Cothren p. 151). It is not known who had been commissioned to make the piece, as the piece is not signed. Furthermore, since the city of Pompeii was buried in 20 feet of ash because of an eruption of nearby Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, any potential evidence of its maker was destroyed or has not yet been recovered (Pepper, para 91).
The Ancient Romans syncretized many things from the Ancient Greeks, one of them being the creation of Hellenistic works. Hellenistic works were generally based on observation and were made as natural as they were observed by whoever was creating the work. The Portrait of a Married Couplepossesses these characteristics. According to Stokstad and Cothren the attention to physiognomic detail and the differences between the spacing of the couples’ eyes and the shapes of their noses, ears, and lips makes them appear as actual human likenesses (p. 151-152). Furthermore, the use of shadowing and highlighting in different parts of the piece adds even more detail to an already exquisite work of art (Pepper, para. 112).
The Portrait of the Married Couple is a fresco. According to Stokstad and Cothren, a fresco is a water based pigment applied to wet or dried plaster (p. 595). Sometimes in Ancient Roman art, a fresco would be buffed with beeswax to make it shiny as it is in this piece (Pepper para. 103). There are two types of frescos buon “true” frescos and secco frescos. Buon frescos use pure pigments and water to paint on wet plaster, this allows the painting to become part of the wall. The artist has to work quickly and carefully when painting one of these because once the painting dries, it cannot be changed. Secco frescos use pure pigments and water to paint on dry plaster, this allows the artist to take their time and correct their mistakes. A secco fresco can be chipped away and is therefore less durable than a buon fresco (“Making a Fresco” para. 4).
Ancient Romans were masterful in depicting three dimensional space on a two dimensional plane. One of the ways that they would do this is by using intuitive perspective. Intuitive perspective is when artists give the impression of real space without using points or other forms of measurements, the proportions in the image are due to the artists’ skills (“What is Intuitive Perspective?” para. 1). The creator of the Portrait of a Married Couple uses the same technique as the couple appears to look out from their world and into the viewers’ space. The man gives the viewer a direct stare, while the woman’s stare is less direct and more out to what exists past the viewer (Stokstad and Cothren p. 151). There are no points of perspective or shading to make the background less defined than the foreground like in other ways of depicting space within a piece.
The artistic element of line is used throughout the piece and is both actual and implied. It is used to outline and create figures within the piece such as the writing tablet and the stylus that the woman holds. Line is implied in both the man and the woman by the objects that each hold directly underneath their chins. Naturally a viewers’ eyes are drawn into the eyes of the man and the woman; the artist painted both figures holding some of the most important components of the piece right underneath their chins to help lead the viewers’ eyes to them after they have glanced into the eyes of the man and the woman. The artist further implies a line with the woman because they lead the viewers’ eyes down to the writing panel from the stylus by the position of her hands. Furthermore, line is implied in the gaze of both the man and the woman. The viewer can try to envision exactly where the man and the woman are staring into their world as a result of the artists use of intuitive perspective.
The Portrait of a Married Couple is a polychrome piece that uses a rathernatural and local color scheme with no particularly flashy colors. What does stick out however is the contrast of skin and hair colors between the man and woman. The woman’s red hair and lighter skin tone contrasts to the man’s darker skin color and dark brown hair. Furthermore, shading and highlighting are expertly used by the artist to bring out detail around the man and woman’s nose, eyes, mouth, and other facial features. Highlighting underneath the man’s eyes coupled with shading above them help to bring them out and draw the viewers’ eyes into them. Highlighting on both the man’s and the woman’s noses gives them a little glint and also brings a little light into the piece.
The Portrait of a Married Couple displays balance in a rather basic way. Although it does not appear to be perfect, the piece possesses bilateral symmetry along the vertical axis. The vertical balance of the piece tends to give it a more stable yet alert and active feel. This sense of alertness and activeness helps to bring out the realism of the piece as it adds to the emphasis of the man and the woman staring into the viewers’ world.
American Gothic
Grant Wood
Painting from Eldon, IA
1930
2’5” x 2’1”
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
The American Gothicis a picture of a typical couple living in the Midwestern United States in the 1930s. Like the Portrait of the Married Coupleboth pieces are not only exquisite in their creation, but also describe a lot about those pictured and the time period that they lived in. In the background of the American Gothic piece is a traditional Gothic style home which was a common country home in the Midwest (“Gothic Revival Style 1830-1860” para. 1). The viewer can see that this couple are farmers not only by the style of the home that is behind them, but also that the man holds a pitchfork in his right hand. Furthermore, both the man and the woman in the picture are in clothing that was common for farmers to wear in the 1930s. In addition, like in the Portrait of a Married Couplethe man and the woman stare out of their world and into the viewers’ world. The man stares into the eyes of the viewer and the woman stares off into the viewers’ world also like in the Portrait of a Married Couple. Furthermore, the American Gothic has a vertical balance that also gives it a stable yet alert and active feel like in the Portrait of a Married Couple. Iselected this portrait because looking at the Portrait of the Married Coupleand thinking about what could resemble it, a faint idea of this image popped into my head. After tracking down what the piece was actually called, I realized that pieces were a lot more similar than I was initially aware of.
There is a reason why every work of art is created, and they usually mean more than what appears to the viewer initially. The Portrait of a Married Couplegives its viewers a glimpse of what life in Ancient Rome looked like as they experienced it and also how they wanted their viewers to see them. Some of the same elements and principles that make the Portrait of the Married Couplethe masterful piece that it is, can be seen in similar more modern pieces like the American Gothic.
1847 words
Works Cited
“Gothic Revival Style 1830-1860.” Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission,n.d.,
http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/architecture/styles/gothic-revival.htmlAccessed 23 Nov. 2019
Accessed 23 Nov. 2019.
Patel, Mackenzie. “Portrait of Baker Terentius and His Wife.” Learn Travel Art,2014,
http://learntravelart.com/2014/01/portrait-of-baker-terentius-neo-and-his-wife.htmlAccessed 23 Nov. 2019.
Pepper, Jen. “Early Medieval Art and the Romanesque Period.” Cazenovia College, Cazenovia,
NY, 3 Dec. 2019. Lecture.
Pepper Jen. “NOTES: Chapter 6: The Ancient Roman World.”
FA2019.FA111.ARTHISTORY.CAZ, 2019, https://fa2019fa111caz.blogspot.com/2019/10/notes-ancient-roman-world-chapter-6.html
Accessed 23, Nov. 2019.
Stokstad, Marilyn and Cothren, Michael W. “Art: A Brief History.” 6thedition, Pearson,2016.
Unknown Artist. Portrait of a Married Couple Mid 1stCentury C.E. Museo Archeologico
Nazionale, Naples, Naples, IT. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Terentius_Neo
“What is Intuitive Perspective?” n.d., IGI Global
https://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/new-fruition-possibilities-for-the-historical-archive-of-architectural-drawings-in-rome/66221Accessed 23 Nov. 2019.
Wood, Grant. American Gothic1930. Art Institute of Chicago, Eldon, IA. Retrieved from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Gothic
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Figure #1
Portrait of a Married Couple
Mid 1stCentury CE
Unknown
Wall Painting
Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, IT
Figure #1, Portrait of a Married Couple, was made in Pompeii during the mid-first century C.E. (Cothren & Stokstad, 151). This wall painting was created during the height of the Roman Empire to show wealth and prosperity within the couple’s home. Wall paintings like these were very popular during this time, for those who could afford it. Many private patrons began aiding in the development rather than just public patrons in Rome as they began to expect recognizable likenesses in their portraits (Cothren & Stokstad, 150). This idea is connected to their interests in Hellenistic art, which includes realistic portraiture, contrapposto pose, and relief sculpture. The artist is unknown, but this wall painting came out of the Etruscan and Roman time period, as you can see by the cultural attributes of the time period. This piece is a wall painting, using mostly natural colored paints, including cinnabar for the woman’s clothing. Cinnabar is a pigment prepared from ground cinnabar crystals and was a very expensive pigment during this time period. Therefore, the couple in the portrait is a very wealthy couple with high status in Roman society as cinnabar was the only bright red pigment known to the ancient people (Cothren & Stokstad, 151).
The married couple from figure one was of higher ranking in society. This is proven through many images within their portrait. For example, the man is shown holding a scroll. This shows that he is wealthy because during the Roman Empire, only the wealthy were taught to read. Secondly, the woman is depicted with a pencil and tablet, or diptych. A diptych is a pair of panels attracted by hinges used to send messages back and forth between friends. One would scratch their message into the beeswax and a servant would take it to its intended audience. Because the woman had one of these and was taught to write, she was also extremely wealthy.
The artist uses space and spatial depth in this portrait to trick the viewer into thinking the couple was peering in through a window, which became a very popular trend during the Roman Empire in many Pompeii homes. This idea is supported by the illusionistic windowsill giving the impression that the couple is peering through the window. The couple is looking out from their implied spatial world within the wall into the viewer’s actual space in the room the painting was placed into (Cothren & Stokstad, 151). Another way the artist creates special depth is through overlapping. The wife depicted in the portrait is overlapping her husband, placing her in the foreground, which could be symbolic of their relationship dynamics. One could speculate that her being in front of him means that she is of more importance or priority within their relationship or the culture of Rome in the mid first century.
Another element of design, line, is also operating in this double portrait. Line is used to clearly define the silhouettes of the couple, whereas the background is just a hazy light color, which develops atmospheric perspective within the piece (Pepper). This effectively draws the viewer’s eyes to the couple while also placing them in the foreground. Another way the artist uses line is by overlapping the woman’s arm over the man’s figure. This helps create special depth within the painting (Cothren & Stokstad, 150). The artist also used line while creating the simulacra, or imitate, shelf at the bottom of the piece. This was done to make the couple appear as if they were outside of a window, peering into the room where the viewer is standing (Pepper).
Color, another element of design, was also used while the artist created this piece. The use of cinnabar on the woman’s gown represents wealth, as cinnabar was a very expensive pigment during the Roman era (Pepper). This double portrait was created with natural colors, such as black ,brown, yellow, and white. The use of a light-yellow background helps place the emphasis on the darker figures, the man and the woman. The colors are also true to life as this piece was created to mimic the presence of actual human likenesses (Cothren & Stokstad, 152).
Finally, balance, a principle of design is operating within this portrait. This piece is asymmetrical, meaning that they do not mirror each other from any midpoint. The woman, to the left of the portrait, makes up about two-thirds of the overall work whereas the man, to the right of the portrait, makes up only about a third. This may be symbolic because the woman was seen as more beautiful during the period or to show the importance of the woman in Roman culture.
Figure #2
Portrait of the Kennedys
January 3rd, 1961 C.E.
Richard Avedon
Smithsonian National Museum of American History
I selected figure two, the Portrait of the Kennedys, from our contemporary world because it shares the same theme as figure one, thePortrait of a Married Couple. This portrait is a photograph taken by photographer Richard Avedon in January of 1961. Similar to how the portrait in figure one was made for their home, this photo of the Kennedys was taken in their oceanfront villa in Palm Beach, Florida, where the Kennedys had spent the holidays that year (Jaffe). This photograph and many others were published in November of 2007 in a book titled,The Kennedys: Portrait of a Family, by Shannon Thomas Perich, the associate curator of photography at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. The Kennedys gives Americans a view of the family in photos, hidden from the public eye for almost 46 years (Jaffe).
I selected this portrait due to the visual similarities between them. Much like in the Portrait of a Married Couple, where the woman depicted holds her gaze out less direct towards the viewer, Jackie Kennedy is shown not looking into her husband. In both portraits the man is looking directly towards the viewer or camera lens. Also, one person is overlapping the other in both pieces. In figure one, the woman is shown overlapping her husband and in figure two, it is John F. Kennedy that is shown in front of his wife. This may be because President Kennedy is the more important person in the photograph, or to be symbolic of the first lady being behind the president every decision he makes. Finally, they are similar because both couples were people of status. The Kennedys were the first family of the White House, which is why this photograph was taken and is so important to American history. The married couple depicted in figure 1 were also extremely wealthy and valued in society, as previously described in the text.
Word Count: 1144 words
Works Cited
Jaffe, Eric. “Portrait of the Kennedys.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 25 Oct. 2007,
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/portrait-of-the-kennedys-174937874/.
Stokstad, Marilyn, and Michael Watt Cothren. Art, a Brief History. 6th ed., Pearson, 2020.
Pepper, Jen. “Research Paper #2/2 DUE -> DEC 5th.” Research Paper #2/2 DUE -> DEC 5th,
https://fa2019fa111caz.blogspot.com/2019/11/research-paper-22-due-at.html.
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Fig. 1 Portrait of a Married Couple. Mid-1stCentury. Unknown. Pigments with bees’ wax on walls. 25/5” tall. Pompeii, IT. Naples National Archaeological Museum.
Portrait of a Married Couple or Portrait of Terentius Neo and Wife, as it is also called was originally created by an unknown artist in the mid-1st century within Pompeii Italy. This portraiture was claimed to be found in the home of Terentius Neo at the “… atrium, a formal entrance hall where guests were received,” (Patel para 1). Roman art had heavy influence from near eastern and Greek art. At this time, Rome had a high interest in Hellenistic art forms. Wealthy Romans wished to be immortalized within a flattering portraiture that had a recognizable lifelikeness stylization; making patronage for this kind of artwork increasingly in demand. Many portraitures in Rome were used as a symbolization of “… communal goals of the Republic; hard work, wisdom, being a community leader and soldier… creating portraits of individuals with personality and essence,” (“Introduction”). In Portrait of a Married Couple, these individuals wanted to be shown in a scholarly manner.
In the Portrait of Terentius Neo, there are cultural attributions for the time that convey multitudes of meanings for what these individuals represented during this time. This couple has multiple ways to convey their educational status within society. According to Professor Pepper, during this time only wealthy males were educated and literate; which you see as the husband is holding what appears to be a scroll. Scrolls are seen within ancient Egyptian and Greek times, yet they were not in codex form and were used to record events, or life of the gods. The wife appears to be holding what looks to be a diptych or wax tablet within her hand that has a codex form and a stylus in the other. Individuals often used these waxed tablets to write messages by sketching the words with a stylus onto the wax held within the tablet. From this, we can interpret that the wife is literate like her husband as she can write. The wife appears to have a higher status from her cinnabar gown, porcelain skin, and headband.
In the Greco-Roman period, many art forms were being composed through compositional methods. The Portrait of a Married Coupleis a form of fresco. “Buon (“true”) fresco (“fresh”), in which color is applied with water-based paints on wet plaster…,” (Stokstad and Cothren 290). Often the pigments that the artist was able to use within a fresco were those found from the earth minerals and stone. They would take these minerals and mix them with a binder which was the wet plaster. After applying the pigment, they would buff bees’ wax into the painting to provide it with a shiny appearance. Frescos were a common method of artistic representation within Roman portraiture.
Within frescos, Roman artists would often use spatial systems to depict a sense of depth or an illusion of space. Space is something containing form and “it may be actual and three-dimensional, as it is with sculpture and architecture, or it may be fictional, represented illusionistic in two dimensions,” (Stokstad and Cothren XV). In Portrait of a Married Couple, there is a presentation of overlap with the wife portrayed in the foreground and the husband somewhere within the middle to the background. This can be symbolic of the power dynamic in the couple where the wife has a higher role or is considered the head of the household. There is an illusion of space using an atmospheric perspective. This is seen within the shading of the clothing and the fading of objects in the background that is not fully present. Spatial depth in this portrait plays a central role in power expression as well as it can be an illusion as can be seen within the use of atmospheric perspective.
Line is an element of design that when it is visible it is considered an actual line whereas when it is invisible, the movement of the viewers’ eyes over the work that tends to follow a path that its creator intended, it is considered implied (Stokstad and Cothren XIV). Within the Portrait of Terentius Neo and Wife, there is an actual line composition that implies realistic nature in the work. This realistic nature is seen within the clothing of the couple along with curves within the face. People in ancient Rome desired a recognizable likeness because they desired to be viewed closely with the Gods. Individuals wanted to be memorable to those around them, and to do so, they had portraitures made that resembled them for future generational reference. Realistic nature in portraiture often was depicted using line composition to allow recognizable realness for future generations of viewers. We can see through the line composition an illusionary sense of depth which shows the couple as though they are peering through a windowsill. Therefore, the line composition within Portrait of a Married Couple allows the viewer to see not only a realistic nature, but an illusion of space.
Color can be broken down into component pieces, including hue, value, and saturation. Hue is what we think of when we hear the word color, (Stokstad and Cothren XIV). Value is the relative degree of lightness or darkness of a given color and is created by the amount of light reflected from an object’s surface, (Stokstad and Cothren XIV). Saturation is a color’s quality of brightness or darkness, (Stokstad and Cothren XV). There is a variety of color saturation within the piece, such as the shading on the clothing which shows an intensive study of the couple. Seeing as this technique was innovated during the Hellenistic period of ancient Greek art, it comes as no surprise they would like the portrait to be portrayed with intense naturalistic detail as the Romans would have viewed it. Therefore, the differentiation of color saturation in the piece portrays a Hellenistic composition.
Balance refers to the sense of the distribution of perceived visual weights that offset one another, (Lamp para 1). Portraits of a Married Couple shows what artists call the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds is a technique where artists divide their canvas into thirds horizontally or vertically, placing objects or individuals along these lines to achieve a more pleasing arrangement. In the Portrait of a Married Couple, you see the couple's heads skewed off to each side of the painting, with the diptych being portrayed in the center. There was nothing of pertinent value within the middle. The proportional scale of the couple’s heads is visually the same despite the alteration in the angle of the body placement. While spatial depth can convey the power dynamic within a Portrait of a Married Couple, the balance has a similar symbolization in the work as well. Therefore, there is a sense of balance of the compositional features with this portrait.
Fig. 2.American Gothic. 1930. Grant Wood. Oil paint on Beaver Board. 30 ¾ in. x 25 ¾ in. Eldon, Iowa. Art Institute of Chicago.
American Gothic was originally created by Grant Wood in 1930 with the piece originating from Eldon, Iowa inspiration. The painting was intended by Wood as a “positive statement about rural American values, an image of reassurance at a time of great dislocation and disillusionment,” (Kelly para 1). The Portrait of a Married Couple similarly displayed values of the Roman community. The couple is presented with a pitchfork and dungarees which leads viewers to think this is “…characterize Midwestern culture…,” by many critics, (“The Art” para 2). Domestic husbandry and small-holding cultivation can be seen in the flowers and plants on the porch of the painting. The painting was composed of oil paint on the beaverboard with a regional stylization of the individuals. The couple in American Gothic was intended by Woods to be conveyed as survivors.
Space within American Gothic is similarly utilized as it is within the Portrait of a Married Couple. In American Gothic, there is a presentation of overlap with the husband portrayed in the foreground and the wife in the middle to the background. This is symbolic of the head of the household which is portrayed through spatial depth as the husband. During the time that the painting was composed, women were not given equal rights as men. The only place where they had any form of power was within the household. A contrast to the Portrait of a Married Coupleis that American Gothichas a more parallel perspective which gives an illusion of space with the wife and husband in the foreground and the house displayed background. Spatial depth within this piece shows expressionism of the power of the household along with an illusion of depth in the placement of things within the layers of dimension.
Line within the American Gothic shows not only the optical illusion of depth but realism as well. Like within the Portrait of a Married Couple, American Gothic has an actual line that can apply the sense of realism within the painting. This was portrayed within the details of the individual’s faces, clothing and light detail in the household. There is a distance portrayed using line in the piece which can be seen in the placement of objects throughout the piece. Through various methods, Line within American Gothic was used as a construct to present a realistic nature of the portrait. In American Gothic, this couple was modeling for the portraiture. They would want a sense of realism within the design of the portraiture because they desire it to look like them for future generations of viewers.
The element of color is something that these pieces both utilize. In American Gothic, Wood was able to have more availability to a wider polychrome palette than the artist of Portrait of a Married Couple. With Wood having a more readily available wide polychrome palette, American Gothic shows a more intensive study within the depiction of shading in the clothing and buildings of the piece. This is from the differentiation of color saturation in its composition. Color in American Gothic was utilized to depict the amount of light reflecting off the couple and house.
Balance is another element that is utilized by both artists in the compositions. In American Gothic, the viewer can see the rule of thirds as is seen within the Portrait of a Married Couple. The couple’s heads are skewed off to the sides of the painting with the pitchfork placed within the middle. The proportion of heads is equally the same between the husband and wife. There is an asymmetrical balance because you cannot see any objects which could overlay and be the same. In American Gothic, the balance is representative of the survivors' portrayal of the couple through a hard-disillusioned time. Thus, balance is shown through the rule of thirds along with the asymmetrical balance of the overall composition.
Portrait of a Married Coupleand American Gothicare prime examples of how two pieces of art from different eras can display cultural attributes towards a bigger meaning. Through there common use of space for depth, line portraying realism, color showing intensive study and balance being shown by the rule of thirds, these two pieces convey heavy cultural meaning for the time they represent. Not only do they display away the couple was intended to represent, they display a power dynamic between the couple which was representative of the time and culture the couple was seen within. Art, in general, shows it’s cultural through subtle methods that often take a combination of an artistic and intellectual lens to witness; leading to a more central meaning within the painting.
Word Count: 1,892 Words
Works Cited
“Introduction to Ancient Roman Art.” Khan Academy, Khan Academy,
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ancient-art-civilizations/roman/beginners-guide-rome/a/introduction-to-ancient-roman-art.
Lamp, Lucy. “Design in Art: Balance and Contrast.”Sophia, 2019, https://www.sophia.org/tutorials/design-in-art-balance-and-contrast.
Patel, Mackenzie. “Portrait of Baker Terentius Neo and his Wife.” Learntravelart.com. Learn Travel Art, 07 Jan. 2014, http://learntravelart.com/2014/01/portrait-of-baker-terentius-neo-and-his-wife.html. Accessed 16 Nov. 2019.
Pepper, Jen. “The Ancient Roman World.” Cazenovia College, 5 Nov. 2019. Lecture.
Portrait of Terentius Neo. Mid-1stcentury, Naples National Archaeological Museum, Naples, IT, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Terentius_Neo.
Stokstad, Marilyn, and Michael Watt Cothren. Art: A Brief History. Sixth ed. Boston: Pearson,
2016. Print.
“The Art Institute of Chicago.” American Gothic | The Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago Art Access, 2013, https://archive.artic.edu/modern/american-gothic/.
Kelly, Sarah. “American Gothic.” The Art Institute of Chicago, American Art, 1 Jan. 1970, https://www.artic.edu/artworks/6565/american-gothic.
Wood, Grant. American Gothic. 1930, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Gothic.
Comparing 2000 years of art
Jess Kane
Portrait of a Married Couple Mid 1st C. CE
Wall painting from Pompeii, IT
Height: 25/5"
Collection: Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, IT
The image above is seemingly about a Married couple during the mid 1ist Century CE from Pompeii Rome. Though it is unknown if they truly were married or just good friends or relatives that posed for a portrait together. The original artist of this piece is unknown, but it is currently on the Museum of Archeology in Nazionale, Naples. During the time of which this piece was created Portraits were very popular among the people of Rome.
Culturally Rome was going through a Golden Age during this time and focused most of it’s time to the arts, such though that Paintings like the one above. Using the pigments and canvases at the time the artist was able to create this portrait and convey the different personalities its subjects have in the piece. According to Stokstad “The swarthy, wispy-bearded man addresses us with a direct stare, holding a scroll in his left hand, a conventional attribute of educational achievement seen frequently in Roman portraits. Though his wife overlaps him to stake her claim to the foreground, her gaze out at us is less direct.” (Stokstad). Through that description the Piece gives the allusion of a three-dimensional space on a two-dimension plane.
The composition of the piece also allows to the allusion of space for neither of the subjects are dead in the center of the page, each leaning more towards the right than the left of the piece. The way each figure has one hand raised also add to the piece and gives them more life and feeling. One holds a scroll as though it is to give it to someone or as though it is important to them while the other holds a stylus as if they were getting ready to sign something, that thing could only be assumed to be the scroll. Those two objects could help explain why this portrait is considered a portrait of a married couple due to the tradition of marriages where the individual signs a contract before someone of high standing, though during this time it would have been a father signing his daughter away and sending gifts with her or receiving gifts for her hand depending on the culture.
Line also contributes to this piece though they are subtly used throughout it as the colors bock them out the lines help separate the two figures as well as emphasis some of the features on their faces. Lines also help give texture to the clothes of the outfits the couple is wearing and the wrinkles that go along with how it falls. The color of this piece has dulled down over the centuries it probably as once a vibrant painting with pure pigments mixed. Though this piece is hundreds of years old art today still reflects it in some ways.
I Refuse to be Invisible 2010
Ink, charcoal, acrylic and Xerox transfers on paper
10 ft.× 7 ft.
Njideka Akunyili Crosby
The image above is a contemporary are piece made by Njideka Akunyili in 2010, a piece created over 2,000 years after the Portrait of a Married Couple, but it still shares some similarities to that piece even though at first glance they appear to have nothing in common. Both pieces are images of couples and both images use color and lines along with other elements of design to catch the viewer’s eyes. They also both show the culture’s definition of love and togetherness with each figure in them. The one above shows a couple dancing together at a club of some sorts with other people mingling about while the first image shows a couple leaning on each other.
I Refuse to be Invisible and Portrait of a Married Couple; both have the woman in the relationship overlapping the man and not completely looking forward at the viewer. They utilize space in the drawing by helping the two-dimensions look three-dimensional using lines and color in the piece, though Akunyili uses more simple shapes than realism as the first image had. Akunyili’s work is also much less stagnant, shows more motion and liveliness in the image than the one from Pompeii.
The color in Akunyili’s picture is harsh and bold throughout the piece as shading and highlights aren’t used as much as a flat pigment is while the piece from Pompeii mainly uses shades and highlights of colors to help allude to the figure’s life and ideals. Both have their own message about couples in the culture but they use elements of design with in the piece and convey the message clearly on the Culture’s views. Rome viewed marriage as a contract while the culture today views it as a feeling.
Work Cited
Akunyili, Nijdeka. “I Refuse to Be Invisible.” Njideka Akunyili Crosby, 2010, www.njidekaakunyilicrosby.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Njideka_I-Refuse-to-Be-Invisible-1000x1431.jpg.
Pepper, Jen. “Portrait of a Married Couple.” Research Paper #2/2, 2019, 1.bp.blogspot.com/-
Stokstad, Marilyn, and Michael Watt Cothren. Art, a Brief History. Pearson, 2020.