Group 2 Project- Weddings

Wedding and Artists.
The above photo shows Group 2's project which revolves around weddings; and how they are portrayed in an artistic view. 

     What's better way to demonstrate love, than by having a public event to celebrate the joy of two individuals in love? That's what most weddings aim to accomplish. Weddings, festive events celebrated throughout the world, can be four days or one. Weddings can also involve the church, government, and parents. But, the most beautiful part about weddings today, particularly in America, is how weddings can be dedicated to any gender.

     In the past, artists such as Paolo Veronese, Frida Kahlo, and Pieter Bruegel have incorporated the wedding theme to several of their paintings; which are still seen and loved today. Yet, each artist chose to interpret and relate weddings to their perspective. In Veronese's The Wedding at Cana the viewers are transported to the biblical story of the marriage in Cana. Jesus, along with Mary, was invited to the wedding with his disciples. In this painting, he converts water into wine. Although, Veronese's work shifts the attention of the marriage to Jesus, it can also reveal how active the church is in weddings. Many individuals marry in churches as a way to bless their marriage, so the partnership will last till death. Meanwhile in Kahlo's work, she paints her wedding portrait two years after her wedding. Kahlo's artwork has several hidden symbolism that apply to her life; for example, both of them, Kahlo and Rivera, are holding hands yet are facing the front and not at each other. Mysterious. Finally, in Bruegel's The Peasant Wedding we see how weddings are not limited to individuals with affluent wealth.The viewers see how the peasants celebrate their wedding, and they can relate the wedding to their life. If Brugel never decided to paint "The Peasant Wedding" or "The Wedding Dance" we may never have insight to a lower social class wedding in this color, and light.
   
     Weddings also play a role in mannerisms. Wearing proper clothing, and behaving in a respectful way is closely connected to manners. What are manners? According to Merriam Webster, manners are "a characteristic or customary mode of acting". To Joanne Finkelstein, however, manners can also signify “... our skills in acting, dissemblance, calculating, role-playing, sycophancy and conformity, as well as our capacity to invert ourselves into the strictures of precedents and be the obliging members of the ‘wedding party’, to use Erving Goffman’s metonym of social life.”

    Whether it's a form of unity, or a time to gather loved ones; weddings are part of our social identity.