By Isamar Gutierrez
The activity will consist of researching how animals have been represented in art throughout history. Students will have to decipher which values have prevailed in the representation of animals: whether as active subjects and free individuals, or as passive objects and resources for humans.
The results of the research will be divided into the successive stages of Art History:
- -Prehistory- Where animal representation is extremely important and acquires a great significance that it will later lose. Here, animals are admired with respect as equal, magical beings and companions of the habitat.
- -Mesopotamia y Egipto-En esta etapa se insistirá en la representación mágica de los anímales. Su simbolismo religioso y su relación con determinados dioses y fuerzas de la naturaleza. Se podrá ver que el respeto animal previo al desarrollo del antropocentrismo es uno de los pilares culturales de estas sociedades. Las imágenes principales serán de gatos, halcones, serpientes.
- -Greece and Rome. With the development of a new way of thinking in which the human being became the center of life, animal representation disappeared from art, which focused on emulating the human body. However, examples of animals used as motifs can be seen in various sculptures, such as chariot races.
- -Middle Ages. In Romanesque and Gothic art, animal representation regained importance, as it was during this period that Western society transitioned from anthropocentrism to theocentrism. Consequently, most animal depictions are scenes from the Bible materialized in painting or sculpture: the serpent of Paradise, the mystical Lamb, sacrifices, the ox, and the donkey. This era also serves to understand the representation of animals within the Christian mindset, which is one of the fundamental bases of contemporary Western thought.
- -Renaissance and Baroque. Return to anthropocentrism. Copying of classical models with Christian contributions. Animals at the service of human beings.
- -19th Century. With the development of movements such as Romanticism and Realism, animals continued to be represented as products and resources for human beings. Farm chickens, pigs, dogs, and pets. The connection of animals to something mystical lost its importance, and they came to be represented as they are and what they "serve" in everyday life.
- -20th Century. Artistic avant-gardes. Animal representation continues in the schemes of the previous century.
Goals:
- -To convey empathy towards animals
- -To transmit moral values
- -To explore how animals have been valued throughout history
- -To delve into a different and forgotten vision of the History of Art.
Contents:
- -Animals in the History of Art
- -Empathetic attitude towards animals
Activity Development and Evaluation Criteria:
The evaluation will be carried out through an exhibition in which a specific stage of art history will be explained, and arguments will be made as to why animal representation in that era is considered to be in that particular way, and not another.
It will be taken into account that it is a clear exhibition, in which a certain closeness with the represented animals is developed, from respect and empathizing with the situation of inferiority and exploitation to which most artistic representations are subject.
At the end of the presentations, a group discussion will be held on the exploitation, subjugation, and subjugation of animals throughout history. The discussion will cover how their treatment has changed across cultures and the various ways they have been used as resources.