Arts and Culture in Colonial America Essay Example For Students

Arts and Culture in Colonial America Essay Although historical records show that Dutch painters in New Netherlands were quite productive urine the seventeenth century, only three works survived: portraits of New Netherlands governor Peter Stuyvesant, Nicholas William Stuyvesant, and Jacobs Stacker, which were probably painted sometime between 1661 and 1666 by Houghton (French Protestant) artist Henry Couturier. Most Dutch painters were limbers (that is, delineation, or artists vivo depicted their subjects by drawing). They usually earned their living at other trades such as houseparents or glaziers (people who place glass in vendors), and they were sometimes self-taught. Many traveled from place to place in search of commissions (contracts). One of he earliest limbers was Overt Ducking (1621-c. 1 703), Who headed a family Of artists. None of his paintings has survived, but coats of arms (family emblems or crests) enameled on the Windows Of the Dutch Reformed Church (a Protestant religious group based in Holland) at Albany, New York, in 1656 are known to be his work. At least ten portraits are attributed to his youngest son, Gerri Ducking. Grists son, Greasers Ducking, painted The Birth of the Virgin (1713), the earliest dated and signed New York painting. He also specialized in portraits and biblical works, Overt Ducking Ill painted portraits in a style similar o that of his cousin Greasers. Colonial America Almanac 1 Dutch painters continued to arrive in New York and the neighboring New Jersey colony during the early 1 7005, Among them was Pitter Panderers, who painted portraits to leading New York timeliest. Another artist was John Heathen, who married a Dutch woman and was active as a portraitist in the upper Hudson Valley during that period. He is also known for landscapes and genre paintings (those depicting scenes from everyday life). After the English took control of New Netherlands, however, wealthy Dutch colonists began to favor English styles of painting- Painting in New England New England Puritans rejected religious paintings and other forms of decoration as being too closely associated With Roman Catholicism. (Puritans were a Protestant Christian group that observed strict moral and religious codes. Protestantism was formed partly in opposition to the elaborate decorations and rituals used in the Catholic Church. ) Yet they approved of portrait painting, not as an art form but as a practical way for people to have a picture of an important leader or a beloved family member. As in New Netherlands, the first New England portrait painters often made a living as houseparents or glaziers, while others ere sign painters. Like limbers, they traveled from town to town looking for work. One tooth most talented was Augustine Clement, a classmates from Reading, England, who arrived in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1635. Unsigned portraits to Puritan leaders Richard Matter, John Clark, and John Endicott were probably painted by Clement. The portrait of Clark and an unsigned portrait of Elizabeth Kensington were both inscribed (dated) in 1664 making them the earliest New England portraits that can be dated with certainty, Portrait style Seven unsigned paintings of parents and their children, dat ed between 1670 ND 1674, are examples of early New England portrait style Scholars believe they were done by Boston artist Samuel Clement. All of the portraits-Mr John Freak, Mrs Elizabeth Freak and Baby Mary, The Mason Children, Alice Mason, and three individual pictures of children in the Gibbs family-feature rich colors and close attention to facial details. The portraits were painted in a style that had gone out of fashion in London but was still practiced in rural England. For example, the trend in London at the time was to create the illusion Of three dimensions with perspective and shading. This artist, however, used bright lord, flattened patterns, and symbolism such as a bird to represent the soul. Colonies attract portrait painters In the early eighteenth century, rising prosperity in the colonies began to draw trained artists to growing port cities. Henrietta Johnston, a painter of miniatures (tiny pictures), arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1705 and remained active there until her death in about 1728 or 1729. She was followed by Swiss artist Jeremiah Teeth, who operated a studio that lasted until 1774. German painter Just Engendered K;hen was active in Annapolis, Maryland, trot 1708 until his death in 1 717. Scots painter John Watson settled in Perth Mambo, New Jersey, in 1 714. English painter Charles Bridges arrived in Virginia in 1735 and spent the next few years traveling from plantation to plantation, painting portraits of the Virginia aristocracy (nobility class). He did not stay in the colonies long enough, however, to have much of an influence on other artists. Houseflies and Simmers have great influence Two artists who were largely responsible for the development of American painting for the rest of the eighteenth century were Gustavo Houseflies (1682- 1 755) and John Simmers (1688-1751). Houseflies was born Arts and Culture 2 in Sweden and received part of his artistic training in England. In the early sass he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Except for spending a few years in Annapolis in the sass, he lived and worked in Philadelphia until his death. In 1735 Houseflies painted portraits Of Delaware chiefs Disenchant and Lapwings, thus becoming the first European artist to depict Native Americans in a sensitive manner. The Last Supper, which he did for Saint Barbarians Church in Queen Ann.s Parish, Maryland, was the first painting commissioned for a public building in America. The work has since been lost. When Simmers arrived in Boston from England in 1729, he was already an established portrait painter. Two years later he completed his best-known work, The Bermuda Group. The large portrait features Anglican (Church of England) bishop George Berkeley, members to Berkeley family, and others-including Simmers-who participated in Berkeley failed plan to start a college in Bermuda (an island in the Caribbean Sea). The painting became a model for later American group portraits. Although Simmers had done his best work by 1 730, he brought a new sophistication to minting in New England. He did portraits of the leading Boston citizens, and he is credited with organizing the first art show in the colonies. Simmers also influenced a number of younger American artists. Among them was Robert Peek (c. SASS-c 1 750), who was born in Oyster Bay, Long Island. Gamely of Isaac Royal, which Fake painted in Boston in 1741, has been compared to Shimmers The Bermuda Group. Considered by some art historians to be a more imaginative painter than Simmers, Fake influenced other young painters in the sass and 1 sass. Though the two men may never have met, Fake also influenced John Singleton Copley, whose earliest works were modeled on portraits by Fake and Simmers. By 1754 American portrait painting was on the verge Of a great leap forward with the emergence of Benjamin West, as well as Copley and Charles Wilson Pale. Printmaking The most popular art form in the British colonies was the print, A print is made by carving or etching an image into wood, stone, or metal. The printmaker then applies ink to the surface of the image and presses it onto paper to produce a picture. The prints that colonists used to decorate their homes were usually small engravings, most often portraits of prominent people. The first known portrait print made in the colonies was a woodcut portrait to Puritan minister Richard Matter made by Boston prearrangement John Foster in 1670, By 1710 colonial artists were making mezzanines, which are engraved images on copper or steel that appear to be more three-dimensional than simpler engravings, The earliest mezzanine may have been a portrait of four Iroquois chieftains, made by engraver John Simon in 1710. Another prominent engraver Vass William Burgess, who worked in Boston from 1716 to 1731 and made mezzanines of scenes and madmans around the city, Influential Mezzanine Artist The best-known colonial mezzanine artist was Peter Pelham, who had been a printmaker in London before he set up shop in Boston in 1727 _ His most famous mezzanine is a portrait of Puritan minister Cotton Matter, from which he also made an Oil painting. After portrait painter John Simmers arrived in Boston in 1 729, Pelham based many of his mezzanines on Shimmers portraits of notable New Englanders. Pelham passed on his knowledge Of printmaking to his stepson John Singleton Copley, one of the best artists of the Revolutionary period. The first historical print published in the colonies was a line engraving of a battle plan by Thomas Johnson. Colonists also began producing portrait prints for use in books and almanacs. A copperplate engraving of Puritan minister Increase Matter, made by Thomas Mess in 1 728, became a model for prints in books Houseflies and Simmers have great influence 3 published by clergymen. Boston printer James Franklin studied printmaking A colonial tombstone with elaborate carving found in a New England cemetery. Reproduced by permission of Corgis-Bateman. In London, England, and is lived to have made most or all of the illustrations for the books and almanacs he published. Early sculpture The majority of seventeenth-century colonists were struggling to survive in North America, So they paid little attention to artistic trends in England or elsewhere in Europe. They did not have their portraits painted or decorate their homes With landscape paintings and prints by well-known artists. When most colonists created designs, they decorated objects that served a practical purpose. Growth of NYS Business EssayMusic 6 Many of the same people were also alarmed when young singing-school graduates asked permission to sit together and perform some of the religious songs they had learned. The first New England congregation to agree to such a request was the West Church in Boston, which designated singers seats in 1754. By the end of the sass twenty-three churches in New England had made similar arrangements. First American Tune Until the second half of the eighteenth century little original music was imposed in the colonies. The tires piece to new music written in America may have been Southwest New Tune, a brief hymn published in the Reverend Thomas Walters The Grounds and Rules of Music Explained, a popular songbook, The 1723 edition of John Tufts A Very Plain and Easy Introduction to the Art of Singing Psalm Tunes (first published in 1 721) includes another song, 100 Psalm Tune New, that was probably written in America. Organ music Elsewhere in the colonies, churches were increasingly incorporating organ music into their services. The Anglican Kings Chapel in Boston installed an organ in 71 4, and the other two Anglican churches in the city had them by 1744. The first known organ in New York City was installed at the Dutch Reformed Church in 1724. During the first half of the eighteenth century Anglican churches in South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and New York City installed organs. Between 1737 and 1767 five Virginia churches obtained organs. Secular music emerges As new settlers continued to bring their own musical traditions to North America, a distinctly American form of secular (nonreligious) music began to take shape. In the Spanish Southwest ancient songs about European wars were turned onto ballads (narrative songs) that reflected the everyday experiences of the settlers. British colonists fitted new lyrics on contemporary topics to old ballad or hymn tunes. In the eighteenth century English colonists adapted new music from England, such as marches or stage and opera music. While poorer people continued to enjoy folk music and dancing, prosperous colonists wanted to copy the latest trends in music and dancing among aristocratic circles in England. They bought instruments and music books and hired professional music tutors and dancing masters. They also enjoyed listening to performances by British and European musicians, Music flourishes in cities Boston led the way in supporting musical culture in the colonies. Thomas Brattle, a wealthy merchant, installed an organ in his home in 1711 and four years later donated another to the Anglican Kings Chapel. Edward Nektons, who arrived from England in 1715 to work as an organist, started a music and dancing school and began holding public balls. By 1717 he had also opened a store where he sold and repaired musical instruments, as well as offering sheet music and instruction books. In 1729 he sponsored the first documented public concert in the colonies. The following year the Mens Musical Society Of Boston sponsored a concert in honor Of Saint Cecilia, patron saint of music. An early documented private concert was held in 1710 in New York City, where in 1714 musicians were hired for a parade and ball celebrating the coronation (the celebration of the crowning) of King George l. The Philadelphia Assembly, a dancing club founded in 1748, also encouraged musical performances. African American Music During the colonial period African Americans preserved their musical traditions in the slave quarters of the great southern plantations. They sang songs and laded homemade African-style drums and reed instruments. Colonial religious music 7 They also introduced a string instrument called the banner or Banana, which they brought from West Africa in the seventeenth century. A gourd with an attached handle and four catgut strings, it was the basis for the banjo, which American instrument manufacturers began making in the nineteenth century. The first European instruments played by African Americans were violins, or fiddles, which were often homemade but other times were given to them by vitae masters. Some slave owners also taught their slaves to play European-style music for white audiences. Over time black musicians began incorporating their own musical ideas into European music. Musical diversity in rural areas Diverse ethnic groups introduced their own musical traditions throughout the colonies. English and Scots-Irish settlers in remote regions of the Appalachian Mountains brought ballads and tunes, many of which are still being played and sung today. Isolated French settlers in northern New England also maintained their musical traditions, as did German musicians in Pennsylvania. Eighteenth-century Moravian communities in Pennsylvania and North Carolina were well-known for heir ability to perform a wide range of European sacred and secular music. By the eighteenth century secular music was exceptionally popular in the South, where people from outlying plantations often came together during sessions of the courts or legislatures. During that time they attended concerts, plays, and balls and took home the music they heard at those events. By 1735 musicians in Charleston were giving public concerts honoring Saint Cecilia. The Tuesday Club of Annapolis met from May 1745 until February 1756 and fostered its members musical interests. By 1752 the club included five string players, two flute players, a keyboardist, and perhaps a bassoonist. Songs written by several members tort performance at club meetings may be the earliest secular music written in America. Literature When Europeans arrived in North America, they discovered that Native Americans had created rich oral traditions over thousands of years. Stories, poems, and myths were passed on by storytellers from generation to generation. The language of Native American oral performances, Which somewhat resembled European poetry, was highly musical. The narrator conveyed meaning through he way he delivered the words. Jesuit missionaries (Catholic priests Who belonged to the Society of Jesus and traveled to foreign lands to do religious work) in New France (presenters Canada) were among the first to make written records of Native American oral presentations. In yearly reports to their superiors in France, they described how the Huron, Iroquois, and other tribes gave speeches and told stories. The Jesuits also attempted to translate some of the speeches and stories, but they could not fully convey the meaning, which depended on the performance of the Native American speakers. Among the Jesuits who wrote these accounts were Paul El Jejune, Paul Regenerate, Jacques Marquette, and Louis Heinlein, In his report for 1645 and 1646, Regenerate described a storytelling session at a meeting of elders who had gathered to elect a Nerdy celebrated Captain. They used the occasion to pass on tribal history by telling stories about their ancestors. Heinlein mentioned Native American creation mythology (stories about how the world was made) in a report on his explorations of North America in 1637. He was one of many Europeans who attempted to prove that the lost tribes of Israel were the ancestors of Native Americans. (According to the Bible, the Christian holy book, ten Israelite tribes were taken to Assyria after the Assyrian conquered Israel in 722 B. C. No one knows what happened to the tribes. Early Christian leaders claimed Native North Americans were the descendants of these lost tribes) Literature written by Europeans during the colonial period consisted mainly of histories based on their experiences in North America. Many colonists also wrote poetry, which was the primary literary form in Europe at the time. Spanish The earliest literature written by Europeans in North America came from sixteenth-century Spanish explorers who published reports on their journeys after they returned to Spain. The first was Alva Ounce Caber De Vocal, whose account of an eight-year overland journey from Florida to the west coast of Mexico in the sass and sass was published in 1542 (see Chapter 2). In 1605 Spanish military leader Gorillas De la Vega published La Florida del YMCA (Florida tooth Inca), a colorful description of the expedition led by Spanish explorer Hernandez De Sotto in the Spanish territory of La Florida, which is now the southeastern united States (see Chapter 2). It was based on firsthand accounts from expedition members, In the SIS-So Pedro De Steadied wrote about his experiences as a member of Francisco V;squeeze De Coronals expedition in the American West (see Chapter 2). Spanish poetry Much of the early literature of Spanish colonies in the Southwest (present-day New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas) was passed on The title page from Alva Aniline Caber De Visas account Of his journey from Florida to Mexico. Reproduced by permission of Rate P;bloc Press. Orally. Hoping to convert Native Americans and to educate colonists, Franciscan missionaries often staged religious dramas that were either versions of Spanish plays or plays written in Mexico.