The engraving depicts the fall of man and Albrecht shows the process of how the man fell into sin. The artwork comprise two people, a male and a female; a man and a woman, a bird, and a snake. There is also a cat, a rabbit and the ox that Durer tries to explain the issue of temperaments. The engraving is set in a garden where there are many trees and where some other animals are habituated. The art work is a symbol of various things, Adam and Eve in the picture are a symbol of the fall of man (Hutchison, 2003). The woman has already taken the twig of the tree and irresistibly falls in sin; symbolized by the parrot and the serpent symbolizing trickery.
The Founding of Tenochtlan
Tenochtitlan is known for being the capital city of Aztec Empire. This is an ethnological place of Mexican history and the artwork is a representation of the historical cultures around the city. The creation of the codex is a representation of the rulers’ history as the art work consist of images of all those elements which were key in the ancient Aztec region (Gillespie, 1989).
The Hip Pendant: An Iyoba
The artwork of the hip pendant representing the queen mother shows the legacy and dynasty that women holds in the society. The art work is made of iron, ivory and copper. It is basically an ivory sculpture in African style. It represents a royal woman who is possibly from a ruling class with authority. She is named the queen mother of the king (Oba). It also has suspended lugs and the sculpture is a motif of the faces of the kingship women during the history of Benin and Portuguese during the trade.
The Tar Beach
This is a contrast of tar in the beaches but it is a resort to Cassie. The tar beach becomes an artistic symbol of a better situation which has been made or chosen out of a difficult and worse situation. This leads to the history of segregation where the low class and black families in many parts of world could not afford or enjoy beaches.
Comparison
Comparing the mentioned symbols, there are some elements of similarities as well as of differences especially when it comes to the issue of the functions or roles of the symbols. For instance, the image of Adam and Eve is solely a historical and religious symbol. It is a historical record of the fall of man and religion, in the sense of the origin of evil and sin domination from the beginning of the world. However, The Hip Pendant has been used as a teaching resources for history. It carries deep historical phenomena of the queens and the king, as well as the royal modesty in the African history. Therefore, the artefact preserves the culture and acts as a visual aid in teaching. However, Tenochtlan is noted with the political influence in the Aztec empire as it denotes the figures of leadership, the crowns and empire logo. It is however used as a visual aid in learning. Just like the Hip pendant of the queen mother, the codex is a preservation of the social role in the ancient Aztec. Hitherto, the Tar Beach has a similarity with other arts because of its historical concept of segregation and social upheavals. However, the difference is more outstanding in that, it is a metaphor of a self-made comfort and contentment. Just the way the tar can hardly be found in the beaches, the art shows that individuals and families can live happily amidst challenges.
Contrastively, all these images are similar in that all of them are used as symbols of prevailing social, political and religious issues. Another basic and similar function of these visual objects is the aesthetics.
Conclusion
Conclusively, the use of symbols have been extended even to the 21st century whereby they communicate a certain message, or for the purpose of aesthetics, to act as teaching aids and also to preserve the cultural imageries. Additionally, the 21st century has digitalized the appearances of these artefacts and imageries where many of them are evident in electronic media. The symbols that were used by people for political, religious and historical functions and in the 21st century is quite different since there is no much advancement in these areas than it is for communication. For instance, the logos for companies are for economic and marketing purposes and branding, which is mostly attributed to economic gains. Emoji’s on the other hand are symbols of human expressions of actions, moods or feelings. They can also be a representation of an object to create imagery and share information (Yoo, 2017). However, most of them are electronically coded than sculptures and physical images in the past centuries. Therefore, symbolism and imagery in art is still present in the 21st century and the only thing that may have changed is the mode of presenting them.
References
Gillespie, S. D. (1989). The Aztec kings: the construction of rulership in Mexica history (p. xxvi). Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Hutchison, J. C. (2003). Albrecht Durer: A Guide to Research. Routledge.
Yoo, S. (2017). Ineffable: Latency in Symbolic Languages.
