Art Essay Sample: Interpreting a Painting of The Revolution of 1848

Generations keep on changing from decades to decades but still maintain some element of their true original culture over the years. Culture is passed from one generation to the other through various ways that helps in the continuity of the culture. Culture and history define a particular society or community thus preservation of such might be important in terms of identity and originality. Apart from historic books, history and culture of a people can be preserved and maintained through images, paintings and other various works of art like singing. Paintings and art are as detailed as books since they are able to preserve history in a form that can be visionalized by looking at the paintings and interpreting what was going on in that particular event. The main aim of this study is to analytically present all the information presented in the lithograph about The Barricades at the Corner of Kronenstresse by F.G Nordmann. The study peers to analyze the image in order to obtain information like; identifying the purpose of the image, the arguments of the artist, what is the content of the images and their roles, what information does it present and how it is relevant to the history.

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The main aim of Nordmann was to present a summary of what happen during this during the barricading of the Corner of Kronenstresse and present a visual picture of how the turn of events were. This image was crafted to present and preserve the rich history of the British during their earliest days of liberation and struggles from oppression. The information on this image presents the men and womlen protesting against the troops who were sent by their king from Prussia, King Friedrich Wilhelm the IV to send them away from the corner of the palace when they came to witness the passing of the constitution. The lithograph therefore plays a big role in preserving this kind of history and culture about how the citizen fought for their rights of attend the public and important events like the passing of the constitution making them a civil right and obligation to date. Apart from preserving and presenting this history and culture of the citizens, this lithograph plays a role of appreciating the struggles of the previous fore furthers in the liberation quests and fights for just and freedom. Through that simple picture, it is evident that very significant information that preserves the history or culture of a people can be stored and presented to the next generation through various ways like art.

There are various facts and arguments brought forward by Nordmann in this image for example, by reviling the role of both men and women in such events, the unity of the citizens during that period of time, how the stones were used during their warfare, the use of various colors to represent the various groups capacitating to the entire society and the role of troops in the warfare. All these, among those are some of the key arguments that Nordmann tries to bring out by developing such kind of art. To begin with, in the image, women are seen to be lighting fire and making sure that it does not go off by adding woods. Women thus played their roles during such war fairs by supporting their husbands with any form of basic need like water, food and even making sure that they are healthy and warm during their fight. The role of women as presented by them lighting the fire beside where the fight was going on is a sign of care for their husbands during such wars. When the image is viewed, the first thing to see is the group of men involved in various activities for instance putting up the flag and fighting the troops back. The artist tries to show his audience how unified the citizens were and every form of activity was done collectively no matter how many risks are involved.it is evident that the role of men in the society was to protect the entire society by fighting what is right or wrong. They face the soldiers sent by King Friedrich Wilhelm the IV who did not want them around during the passage of new constitution.

Through this image, the artist tries to argue about the significance of color and how it was used to represent various individuals in the society. A flag with three colors; red, golden and black is seen to have been raised at the center of the created barricade. These colors were meant to represent the entire voices of the community and how all are significant as citizens contributing to the growth of the nation. A combination of students, women, children, workers and even burgeois are all represented by the three colors in the flag even though the biggest percentage of the entire population were craftsmen who all came to represent the interest of the entire community thus all were present either directly or indirectly.

The painting also reveals to any person who vividly views the picture how the stones and woods were used during the war fair. Unlike the current days where nearly everyone is armed with various weapons, Nordmann in this picture reveals the simplicity of the fighters during the war as they used stones to retaliate and fight back the troops and woods to light fire and dig up stones from the ground. It is clear in the picture that some med are throwing the stones while others seems to be using the plucks of wood to dig up more stones. From the image, there are huge buildings in between where the protesters were. These buildings might be significance that indeed the protest and the barricading of the road took place in Berlin since it was among the most grown city by then. All the above are some of the visible arguments that Nordmann, through the image tries to argue out and present to his esteemed viewers for the purpose of culture and history preservation.

The medium with which this information is presented is significant to the entire occasion following its originality. During the ancient periods, for instance during this war fair, the use of art and paintings was more common as compared to the books that are currently used. A holograph therefore is significant and historic in a way that it brings out the true revelation of the ancient times and tries to communicate that even though there were no many ways of communicating and preserving information and History, the few available means were properly used to present information that could last for generations thus pass the culture over.

In order to fully understand the context of this image, one should have some knowledge about the early revolutions in the years 1848 and 1849. This is a historic revolution in the west where the citizens were still fighting for their deliration from the oppressive states. The main ideologies therefore require background knowledge about the various revolutions and the early western civilization (Goldstone &Andrew, 102). Without any knowledge of the past history of the western civilization and independence, one cannot view the image in the same perspective that another person with a full historical background of the West might have. Historical background and knowledge about the struggles and strives of the citizens to deliberate themselves from oppressions and state dictatorship through revolutions, socialism and nationalism is crucial for one to understand such lithographs (Paret, 243).

The above image is a revelation of a historic revolution and liberalism where the citizens are protesting against their oppression to freedom to their civil rights. The struggle and the war fair was as a result of the states through King Friedrich Wilhelm the IV not allowing the citizens to attend the passing of the new constitution in the front of the king's palace. This was o form of citizen oppression against their rights and freedom. In order to fight for this right which was promised to them earlier but not delivered, the protest elapsed and the citizen barricaded the road as they fought with the troops making a historic revolution thus in the books of history to date. Alamy, through his various art and works of history in a way supports the above arguments by describing the turn of event in the image and vividly looking into how some of the images are significant and their meanings thus supports the arguments of this study in one way or the other.

References

Azaryahu, Maoz. "German reunification and the politics of street names: the case of East Berlin." Political Geography16.6 (1997): 479-493.

Goldstone, Jack Andrew. Why Europe? The Rise of the West in World History 1500-1850. 2008.

http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-events-revolutions-of-18481849-street-battle-at-a-barricade-in-berlin-36908190.html

Paret, P. (1986). The German Revolution of 1848 and Rethel's Dance of Death. The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 17(1), 233-255., P. (1986).

The German Revolution of 1848 and Rethel's Dance of Death. The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 17(1), 233-255.