Unit 4 - Among Friends
Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, A Bold Bluff, Lithograph,
Sized to order, optional canvas overlay.
In honor of the celebration of American football's yearly climax-Super Bowl XXXVIII-I have decided to focus this week's lesson on the representation of gatherings of male subjects, as represented in the two works pictured on this page.
What I would like to do this time, rather than dictate the course of discussion, is to raise some issues and/or questions which are relevant to this particular juxtaposition. Please spend a moment considering these issues/questions and be prepared to speak on at least one of them during the class discussion:
- The use of architectural backgrounds to establish perspective and a central
focus.
- The actions of the various figures in the pieces as they relate to the
central figure.
- The use of symbols (cigars, collars, challises, bread, etc.) to establish
a specific meaning.
- The presence or lack of symmetry.
- High vs. Low art - (Religious vs. Common themes, Old vs. New, Virtue
vs. Vice).
- Representations of groups of males and the individual identities of each member.
Leonardo da Vinci The Last Supper (after cleaning), 1498,
Tempera on plaster, 460 x 880 cm (15 x 29 ft.),
Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie (Refectory), Milan.
Related
Links:
A
page that briefly enumerates the biography of the artist Cassius Marcellus
Coolidge.
A page that goes on at length about Leonardo da Vinci.
An organization that promotes
"traditional masculine initiation."
The official Super Bowl website.
A
page describing how to prepare many variations on the theme, Supper in
a Bowl.