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ARTS 1A: Group Analysis 3

Addressing continuity and change

Each week we participate in a group analysis. This week, let’s consider artistic continuity and change. As you take notes on Chapter 3 and read this week’s document, written by Joshua Reynolds, consider this quote from Reynolds:

. . . examining the art itself by the standard of nature, he corrects what is erroneous, supplies what is scanty, and adds by his own observation what the industry of his predecessors may have yet left wanting to perfection. Having well established his judgment, and stored his memory, he may now without fear try the power of his imagination.

Address the following prompt in your group analysis post: It would seem from this quote that Reynolds believed that a finished work of art produced by an accomplished art student should be influenced by two things: nature (that is, the visible environment, including human bodies as part of nature), and imagination. What evidence is there in The Archers that Reynolds followed—or did not follow—his own advice? In other words, what references (or lack of references) are there to nature in this work? And what aspects of this work may have been informed by Reynolds’s imagination? Build your response from what you read in Reynolds’s quote as well as what you see in this work of art. You may post a comment independent of other students’ ideas, or you may add to the posts of other students as you work to acquire up to two points of discussion credit for participation in this group analysis. If you have an opinion that is different from the opinions of your classmates—and you probably will—use respectful language when stating your ideas.

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