In Postbellum Art, The Concern Was Primarily With Establishing The

In postbellum art, the concern was primarily with establishing the autonomous and individuated identity of a previously oppressed group of people, while maintaining the traditional structures of the depiction of the hero, with respective notions of beauty, leadership and nobility, that proved to be a problematic mix to endeavour to achieve. Thus, the South turned to the plantation owners for their heroes the chivalric and generous heroes, displaying their generosity towards the blacks, and treating their assumed inferiority with compassion and grace. Similarly, in the North, the contemporary hero of postbellum art was the white emancipator of the blacks, fighting for the freedom of this oppressed race of people. The result was that the hero didn't particularly change race, and that common perceptions of human aesthetic beauty, a notion that went back to Greek times, remained largely the same. However, despite taking on the traditional format of the equestrian hero statue, the Shaw Memorial assists in combining these two glaringly contrasting issues, by depicting both the individuality and the homogeneity of the black cause, as well as preserving the image of the white hero Saint-Gaudens does this using subtle techniques of composition, by combining rhythm, and by representing a great swathe of meticulously studied, and strikingly different black faces, that ultimately combine to produce interplay in racial profiling. Savage comments that: In this monument Saint-Gaudens was able to elevate the white hero without demoting the black troops. and it is testament to his genius that, despite his personal prejudices, he managed to fully articulate and display through the medium of monumental art, the autonomy, yet the solidarity of an entire race of people, within the context of the traditional white hero monument.
Bibliography
Berlin, I., Slaves Without Masters, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1974
Burchard, P., One Gallant Rush, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1965
Deburg, W. L. V., The Battleground of Historical Memory: Creating Alternative Culture Heroes in Postbellum America, from Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 20, pp. 49 - 62
Dryfhout, J. H., The Work Of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, University Press of New England, London, 1982
Fryd, V. G., Art and Empire: The Poltics of Ethnicity in the United States Capitol, 1815-1860, Yale University Press, London, 1992
Saint-Gaudens, A., Reminiscences, Vol 1., Century Co, New York: 1913
Savage, K.