Role of Visual Arts in Society
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'By using examples of visual art works, demonstrate how visual artists transmitted the values and beliefs of their society.'
In the late 18th century the British and the French took to the seas with the anticipation of discovering new land. Engrossed in war, the two countries chartered the oceans and territory of the east and west coasts of Australia, in a frantic pursuit of land, knowledge and ultimately power at a time of Enlightenment values and scientific beliefs in classifying, through the Linnaean system. This belief saw all flora, fauna and races globally raced. The ethnographic importance of Indigenous records was scientifically crucial.
France's Emperor Napoleon craved new territory, and sent Nicholas Baudin as captain of the French ship 'Le Geographe', with accompanying artists Nicholas-Martin Petit and Charles-Alexandre Lesueur who specifically captured the Indigenous people of Van Diemen's land and Port Jackson. Captain Matthew Flinders lead the British ship 'The Investigator' to victory as the artist William Westall recorded likewise but with very different values and beliefs than the French. The neo-classical values of the day permeated both nations artworks often conveying a 'Noble Savage' appearance of the primitive Indigenous people.
The Enlightenment Age concurrently being explored was an era of change in Europe; the beliefs beckoned a different attitude and method of contemplation, science flourished and a respect for humanity prevailed. This affected the beliefs and values of the artists that recorded the indigenous sightings in the new land especially with the anthropological beginnings in France affecting the treatment of the Indigenous people...