The feeling of being inferior to a force that is more powerful -either economic wise or just physically- is a feeling that will never end. The hold that the Catholic Church had on people was immense. If we consider the fact that during the Romanesque Era, Europe was going through it’s Middle Ages, it makes sense why people relied heavily on faith. The entire region was in financial turmoil and the farming lifestyle is the only thing that kept people alive. Thus, making artworks for the church itself could be seen as bowing down to God and feeling less than him, because he is the only power right now that they see, could keep them alive. Meanwhile, the proletarians in the Realism Era – the mid 19th century – felt less than the bourgeoise, since their social and economic leverage was no match for theirs. Not to mention the squalor that many lived in only helped reinforce the narrative that they were less than the rich. As we know humans did have revolutions, whether it in in philosophy or technology, we were able to move forward from these testing times. This exhibition served as a way for us to reflect on the situations we were in and see how us humans felt in our lowest points, I want people to identify with that emotion of inferiority. I also want people to recognize that we did make it out of these situations though, and if one were to look at this exhibition in retrospect, recognize that one could learn the context behind the paintings and strive to not repeat those mistakes so that we wouldn’t have to live in a society where our faith/economic class makes us feel less than what we are.

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.