Art As a Story

During our visit to the Snite, Angela and I were torn between two works of art that we would have liked to research more. With the help of Ms. Bridget Hoyt, the Snite's Director of Education, we not only learned more about the given pieces, but also about how we attribute our own feelings to pieces of art. I don't recall the first piece that we selected, but it was painted by a French woman in the 1800s and featured a rich, little boy who was fascinated with a fly while he controlled another fly in a glass jar. We thought the work might comment on how rich people want to experience common life, how the woman artist feels trapped, or on the tension of the rising French ideal of liberte. Bridget, Angela, and I gave consideration to the time in which it was painted, the artist, and the subject matter to come up with different interpretations. There was no specific record of the artist's agenda, so the viewer has some liberty in deciding the meaning of the work. Similarly, in comparing the museum's two statues of Joan of Arc, we see differences in the rendering due to the artist's situation. Artists also use syncretic images or symbols to appeal to one audience by giving the true meaning while on the other hand appeasing another audience who does not favor the true meaning. For example, Marie Princess d'Orleans, daughter of the new King Louis Philippe in the 1830s-40s, created the statue that Angela and I will discuss. The king opposed flaunting their catholicism since that would not fly with the people of France, but Marie was a devout Catholic. She showed this by having Joan hold the sword over her heart so that it would look like the cross, due to its shape, but she could contradict this intention by stating that she chose to depict Joan in this way to show how much she valued being a soldier and fighting for the people of France, a claim that her father and the French people would support. Through art, we can tell stories and make our own interpretations to culture and history.