Over the centuries, political commentators have weaponised art to denounce government corruption and incompetence. Goya used his controversial artworks to criticise the Spanish Inquisition. Holbein’s unflattering portrait of Thomas Cromwell, Chief Minister to Henry VIII captured his shrewd intelligence and his malevolence. Napoleon always liked to control his own narrative as reflected in portraits by Jean Louis David. Picasso’s Guernica (1937) offered a bleak portrayal of the aerial bombing of the Spanish city by Germany and Italy during the Spanish Civil War. William Hogarth’s paintings including The Harlot’s Progress (1732) featured the very seedy underbelly of 18th C London drawing the attention of the ruling classes to poverty and destitution.
- Clark, Toby, Art and Propaganda, W and N 1998. ISBN 0297836145
- Dixon, Andrew, Artists who Changed History, Dorling Kindersley 2024. ISBN 0241632897
- Reding, Jacqueline, Hogarth, a Life in Progress, Profile Trade 2022. ISBN 1788163478
- Portraits of royalty as political propaganda including Napoleon, Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Victoria and King Charles I
- Paintings as social and political commentary including Norman Rockwell’s The Problem We All Live With (1964) and the haunting work, The Raft of Medusa (1818) by Theodore Gericault and the works of William Hogarth
- Paintings denouncing corruption, hypocrisy, government incompetence, including those by Diego Rivera and Pablo Picasso
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
- Gain an understanding of the power of artistic images and portraits and the intentions of the artists
- Appreciate the ways in which art works are often reinterpreted over time
