There was a price to be paid, however. Frontiersmen had to be willing to face the risks inherent in migration — but had their parents not faced similar risks in coming to America?
They had to be willing to do the backbreaking work required to turn a wilderness into prosperous farms and towns — but had their ancestors not done that as well? They had to be willing to break with the familiar and comfortable, and face hardship — perhaps even death. The finished mural, located in the United States Capitol Building, served as propaganda for many Americans looking for a brighter future. This was something that was sorely sought after the time — for at the time this work was painted, the Civil War had just begun.
The theme of American destiny continues in another Capitol mural study, this one for the dome on the Capitol Building. Artist Constantino Brumidi has focused on the eminence of America. At the center is its founding father, George Washington, surrounded by allegories of American inventions and leaders which helped put this country on the path to greatness.
The completed Capitol dome mural was finished in one month, April , the same month in which the Confederacy surrendered and Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Capitol during of one of the most tumultuous times in American history — the onset of the Civil War. The painting celebrates the belief that the American West held both unspoiled beauty and infinite promise for a better future. What can we learn about the ideals surrounding westward expansion from this artwork? How do artists employ symbolism to augment a specific message in their work?
The surging crowd of figures records the births, deaths, and battles fought as European Americans settled the continent to the edge of the Pacific. Central among them is a three-person family group seated on a promontory and looking to the sunset — an allusion to the Biblical holy family.
At the bottom of the composition are small, round portraits of explorer William Clark, at left, and frontiersman Daniel Boone, at right. The portraits flank a landscape painting of San Francisco Bay — the western destination of the pioneers. Both men were entrusted to lead settlers into western territories, with Boone exploring and settling the lands of Kentucky, and Clark of Lewis and Clark fame a pioneer explorer of the land acquired in the Louisiana Purchase and later governor of the Missouri Territory.
In one section, Leutze depicts the Greek myth of Jason and the Argonauts. This fleece, having been won after a long quest, fulfills a prophecy and returns Jason to his rightful place as king. Leutze reinforces his theme of exploration through a profile portrait of Christopher Columbus left , seemingly taking measure of the world with a globe and calipers. At the bottom right, Leutze situates a dove bearing an olive branch. Here he alludes to the end of the Old Testament flood.
The dove carries proof of dry land to Noah, bearing with it assurances that his seven-month journey across a decimated, watery world is nearing its end. At the top of the margin, front and center, is an American eagle with wings spread. In it, Berkeley predicted that Western expansion would make America the site of the next golden age. What significance might this image have held for Americans at the start of the Civil War? Emmanuel Leutze was trained abroad as a history painter.
In , the Louisiana Purchase almost doubled the size of the United States. Over the next few decades the status of newly admitted western states and territories as free or slave would add fuel to the already contentious relationship between the North and the South. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of allowed the people living in those territories to decide whether slavery was allowed within their borders.
By the time Leutze executed this mural study in , the war was underway and the nation torn in two. With Westward the Course… Leutze encoded a message of national unity, from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
This study, and the final mural that would ultimately decorate the House of Representatives side of the U. To that end, Leutze wove together images of the past and present, suffering and success, juxtaposing the hardships of the pioneer voyagers with the triumphs of heroes and explorers. He chose the vignettes of heroes on the move for the margin to reinforce this point. What can we learn about the way our country saw itself and wished to present itself around ?
What clues does the artist, Constantino Brumidi, give us? Observing details and analyzing components of the painting, then putting them in historical context, enables the viewer to interpret the overall message of the work of art.
Look at this overall image. What do you notice about shape of this picture? How about your viewpoint? Where do you think you would find it hanging in a museum? This painting is round and, apart from the group of figures in the center, can be seen correctly from anywhere around its circular edge. Does it feel like you are looking up when you view the painting? This work hangs flat on a gallery wall in the museum, but it is a study — or a draft — created by the artist. The final work is much, much larger in size and is painted on a ceiling.
This work is the study for the mural that the same artist painted in the Rotunda, the space inside the dome of the Capitol of the United States. The cap, called a Phrygian cap, was worn by freed slaves in ancient Rome and is a symbol of freedom.
The fasces, a bundle of sticks from which the blade of an axe protrudes, was an emblem of power for Roman magistrates. With one hand, she holds a horn to her lips, as though to announce victory, and with the other she carries a palm branch, a symbol of both peace and triumph.
How many figures hover over the central group of figures? Why is this significant? Thirteen women form an arc over the central group. These allegorical figures represent the thirteen original colonies of the United States. Directly below George Washington is a woman brandishing a sword and a shield emblazoned with stars and stripes. This is Freedom.
She is accompanied by an eagle, the symbolic bird of the United States, and stands above a group of vanquished enemies. Though for the most part the figures are allegorical, the artist has slyly inserted representations of real-life rebels, like that of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy during the Civil War. This nod to contemporary life was made more apparent in the final mural which graces the ceiling of the Capitol Building dome.
Can you locate Benjamin Franklin among the groups? Who is standing next to him? Included are Robert Fulton, developer of the first successful steamboat and Samuel F.
Morse, developer of the first successful electromagnetic telegraph and of Morse code. Minerva presides over these inventors, her arm outstretched appearing to impart her gift of knowledge. What symbolic significance to American history or culture do they hold? Moving in a clockwise motion, we see Neptune, Roman god of the sea, and behind him an ironclad warship — an innovation which revolutionized the American navy.
The goddess Venus emerges from the sea holding the first transatlantic cable, which was being laid at the time this work was painted. Stretching nearly 2, miles across the Atlantic Ocean, the cable enabled telegraph communication between the U. S and Britain. Continuing around the circular composition, in the next figure group Mercury, the Roman god of commerce, holding the caduceus — his traditional symbol of a winged staff intertwined with two snake.
In his other hand he extends a bag of money to Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolutionary War and the founder of the Bank of the United States. Polk won the election, and Tyler was able to push the bill through and sign it before he left office.
By the time Texas was admitted to the Union as a state in December , the idea that the United States must inevitably expand westward all the way to the Pacific Ocean had taken firm hold among people from different regions, classes and political persuasions. An treaty between Great Britain and the United States partially resolved the question of where to draw the Canadian border, but left open the question of the Oregon Territory, which stretched from the Pacific Coast to the Rocky Mountains over an area including what is now Oregon, Idaho , Washington State and most of British Columbia.
But as president, Polk wanted to get the issue resolved so the United States could move on to acquiring California from Mexico. In mid, his administration agreed to a compromise whereby Oregon would be split along the 49th parallel, narrowly avoiding a crisis with Britain. By the time the Oregon question was settled, the United States had entered into all-out war with Mexico, driven by the spirit of Manifest Destiny and territorial expansion.
Despite the lofty idealism of Manifest Destiny, the rapid territorial expansion over the first half of the 19th century resulted not only in war with Mexico, but in the dislocation and brutal mistreatment of Native American , Hispanic and other non-European occupants of the territories now being occupied by the United States.
Julius W. S House of Representatives. Start your free trial today. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!
Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. The cowboy played an important role during the era of U. Though they originated in Mexico, American cowboys created a style and reputation all their own.
Throughout history, their iconic lifestyle has been glamorized in countless books, movies and The Louisiana Purchase of brought into the United States about , square miles of territory from France, thereby doubling the size of the young republic. What was known at the time as the Louisiana Territory stretched from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky The California Gold Rush was sparked by the discovery of gold nuggets in the Sacramento Valley in early and was arguably one of the most significant events to shape American history during the first half of the 19th century.
The native cultures living to the west of the United States were never considered a part of this great future. In fact, they were seen as the only factor preventing immediate colonization of the western lands. Indian Removal was considered vital for the progress of the nation and its citizens.
This is a cause of lamentation with many. For my part, I cannot murmur at what seems to be the effect of divine law. I cannot repine that is this Capitol has replace the wigwam-this Christian people, replaced the savages-white matrons, the red squaws.
0コメント