Date of Award

5-1-1971

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Art & Design

Abstract

This thesis has a two-fold purpose: (1) to provide an historical outline of the incidence of patriotic thematic material in Western art by presenting examples of works from dominant Western cultures beginning with Greece and Rome and including Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the United States. Examples given are in sequence from the eleventh century to the present excluding the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries. Greek and Roman examples are from two major epochs—the Hellenistic period of Greece, 323 to 146 B.C. (Greek period of nationalism) and the period 27 to 117 A.D. in Roman history (the period in which Rome achieved great power and prosperity). The outline is limited in the sense that each culture or time period is not covered in depth; an attempt is not made to trace influences in style or techniques or to give an extensive critique on the works. Rather, by the presentations of the examples it is intended to demonstrate that patriotic imagery does exist in art throughout history, it does exist in cultures of Western man, and by the nature of the content in the works (and through our knowledge of history and the artists) it does present a culture's viewpoint toward national imagery (in some cases viewpoints of segments of the population and in other cases viewpoints of a large majority). Examples given were chosen on the basis of their status as major historical works and because of the extensive amount of national imagery employed in each. (2) To present a discussion of my personal artistic involvement with the patriotic theme and to present selected examples of my works in which national imagery has been employed. Discussion of my work is confined to art work produced in the period 1969-1971 and is intended to provide a comprehensive survey of work completed during this interval.

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