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The Franz Mayer Wardrobes
Why does furniture
look the way it does? How many ways can we talk about furniture?
Discuss with the
students:
- Do people imitate
each other or try to have things that other people have?
- Do people try
to do their hair like a movie star, imitate the way they look or dress?
- What other kinds
of imitations do people do?
One of the longest-lasting
influences on the appearances of furniture has been the ancient Greek
culture, especially its architecture.
How along ago were
those temples built?
Discussion topics:
- Are there any
special objects that you have in your house that your ancestors owned?
Why are they special?
- Discuss why the
Greek culture was so admired, why it was so imitated (and still is).
- Play the interactive
furniture game (download the Web
Player for Authorware first).
Discuss
the appearances of the furniture introduced in the furniture game.
- Look at more
American furniture examples from Bayou Bend.
Use the "search" feature in "Search the Collection"
http://www.bayoubend.uh.edu/collect/collect.htm
(Choose "furniture" from the "categories" window.)
- Discuss what
is most common, what is not.
Look at more Mexican
furniture examples (These were made in Mexico)
- http://www.humanities-interactive.org/splendors/
Scroll the left index to #16, The Colonial Era - Art for the Household,
II
- Discuss:
- The appearances
of the armoire and the wardrobe.
- Why might one
be listed as an armoire, the other a wardrobe?
- How do they
compare to the pieces from the Franz Mayer exhibit?
- Return to Franz
Mayer exhibit to confirm similarities
Other discussion
opportunities:
- What did the colonists
store in their wardrobes?
- Why did they need
them?
- Why are they so
big?
- What is the biggest
piece of furniture in your house?
- Why is it so big?
(to establish past and present cultural conventions for storage and
importance of items in the house.)
Other cultural
influences:
- Locate Spain on
the map
- Discuss:
- Influence of
Spanish trade on Mexico - More things to imitate
- Play the Trade
Route Game (Interactive Game)
- Other cultures
influenced the Spanish Look
- Large Muslim
presence in Spain
- Look at Islamic
art - it has a long, long history of creating the same type of art
- View and discuss
with the students:
- These are very
helpful in describing infinite and rich possibilities of repeating
elements - not visually restrictive at all.
Especially:
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