World History
Studying Spanish America and the social hierarchy they developed? Spanish born Peninsulares were on top and just below them were Creoles, the sons and daughters of their European parents.
But a series of paintings in the mid 19th century cast doubts on the racial purity of the Creoles. Known as the Casta paintings, they portray the intermingling of European and native Americans.
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And, according to this interesting essay by Professor Susan Deans-Smith, some "feared the paintings would send back to Spain the damaging message that creoles, the Mexican-born children of Spanish parents, were of mixed blood. For Arce y Miranda, the paintings would only confirm European assumptions of creole inferiority."
These paintings could serve as a great lesson about the power of images and how POV changes the way different audiences see the images.
As Professor Deans-Smith notes "regardless of what patrons and artists may have intended casta paintings to convey, viewers responded to them according to their own points of reference and contexts.
Here's how the Yale University Press defines the Casta paintings:
- Spanish History At Spain Then And Now
While browsing online, I found a nice site for Spanish history. It is Overview of Spanish History at Spain Then and Now. It is easy to read and had a surprising amount of depth for a site clearly designed to generate revenue from Google Adsense...
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- Lascaux Cave
Here is another example of a virtual tour, this one to Lascaux, France where you can look at their infamous cave paintings - which are no longer open to the public (thankfully my parents dragged me there in high school). ...
- Cave Paintings, Maybe World'sfirst Cinema
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- High Resolution Images From The Renaissance
Another item I found on the Open Culture blog (mentioned below) is this set of Renaissance era paintings which have been placed online using high resolution and you can get very close for your students. They include paintings da Vinci, Botticelli...
World History
Understating Creoles Through Casta Paintings
But a series of paintings in the mid 19th century cast doubts on the racial purity of the Creoles. Known as the Casta paintings, they portray the intermingling of European and native Americans.
.
And, according to this interesting essay by Professor Susan Deans-Smith, some "feared the paintings would send back to Spain the damaging message that creoles, the Mexican-born children of Spanish parents, were of mixed blood. For Arce y Miranda, the paintings would only confirm European assumptions of creole inferiority."
These paintings could serve as a great lesson about the power of images and how POV changes the way different audiences see the images.
As Professor Deans-Smith notes "regardless of what patrons and artists may have intended casta paintings to convey, viewers responded to them according to their own points of reference and contexts.
Here's how the Yale University Press defines the Casta paintings:
The pictorial genre known as casta painting is one of the most compelling forms of artistic expression from colonial Mexico. Created as sets of consecutive images, the works portray racial mixing among the main groups that inhabited the colony: Indians, Spaniards, and Africans. In this beautifully illustrated book, Ilona Katzew places casta paintings in their social and historical context, showing for the first time the ways in which the meanings of the paintings changed along with shifting colonial politics.Thanks to Bram Hubbell for tweeting the link.
- Spanish History At Spain Then And Now
While browsing online, I found a nice site for Spanish history. It is Overview of Spanish History at Spain Then and Now. It is easy to read and had a surprising amount of depth for a site clearly designed to generate revenue from Google Adsense...
- Cave Paintings Mostly Made By Women
It has long been believed that the Paleolithic painters were men, but this is an interesting article describing new research by a Penn State professor who believes most of the paintings were actually made by women! ...
- Lascaux Cave
Here is another example of a virtual tour, this one to Lascaux, France where you can look at their infamous cave paintings - which are no longer open to the public (thankfully my parents dragged me there in high school). ...
- Cave Paintings, Maybe World'sfirst Cinema
This comes after the unit on pre-history but is still worth watching. French archaeologist and film maker, Mark Azema, put together this clip using paintings from the Caves of Lascaux. Below is a clip from the the radio news show, the World, about Azema's...
- High Resolution Images From The Renaissance
Another item I found on the Open Culture blog (mentioned below) is this set of Renaissance era paintings which have been placed online using high resolution and you can get very close for your students. They include paintings da Vinci, Botticelli...