PROJECTS
BOX PORTRAIT PROJECT
Joseph Cornell. Medici Boy, 1945-52. Estate of Joseph Cornell.
Project Description
Content
You are to create a portrait in a box format. The portrait must be that of the character that you will be playing in the Reacting to the Past game, Rousseau, Burke, and Revolution in France, 1791 by Marc C. Carnes and Gary Kates. For those with named roles, this is straight-forward enough…but for others of you with ‘generic roles’ you are allowed a little more latitude. For example , if are to play as a Jacobin, your Box Portrait can be of Robespierre, Jean-Paul Marat, or any other actual historical figure. If you are to be a Feuillant, you may portray Antoine Barnave, Jean Sylvain Bailly, Adrien Duport, or any number of others. If you are an advisor to King Louis XVI, you may select any minister. If you are an advisor to La Fayette, you may select any member of the Garde National.
A list of possible historical figures is listed below.
Students with indeterminate roles, however, are allowed to create fictional characters based on their role. For example, an ‘indeterminate’ member who is a lawyer from Dijon, for example, should take on board the likely perspectives and concerns of the character in question.
You must also submit a brief explanation of the reasons you have selected the objects you did, and the reasons you placed them in the manner you did. You should cross-reference the research paper you are writing for Professor Davies. In both these projects REMAIN true to character!
Method
The box can be of any shape or format you wish. It can be a fishing tackle box, a milk crate, a jewelry box, a cigar box, a cardboard box, a glass case, a metal box, a mailbox, a safety deposit box, or whatever you feel represents the person you are portraying; it can even be a readymade item from the Container Store.
Place objects within the box that you feel embody the person you are depicting. Tell us their story or portray their ideas through objects in the way that Zacharek (below) describes the manner in which she discovered the history of other people through items at antique shows. Use any item you wish, except a traditional photograph. You are allowed to use one existing painted representation of the character you selected. Create a portrait of your chosen figure using objects rather images.
Historical figures of la Revolution Française
King Louis XVI
King should portray King
Advisor to Louis XVI
Philippe Henri, marquis de Ségur
Raymond Romain, Comte de Sèze
François Denis Tronchet
La Fayette
La Fayette should portray La Fayette
Advisor can portray any member of the Garde Nationale or other figures close to La Fayette
Other Named Roles
Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de Condorcet
Jacques-Louis David
Georges Danton
Jacobins
Pierre-Antoine Antonelle
Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne
Jacques Pierre Brissot
François Chabot
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas de Chamfort
Camille Desmoulins
Charles François Dumouriez
Maximilien de Robespierre
Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just
Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles
Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud
Feuillants
Jean Sylvain Bailly
Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac
Antoine Barnave
Jacques Claude, comte Beugnot
Louis Ramond de Carbonnières
Adrien Duport
Bernard Journu-Auber
Alexandre de Lameth
Bernard Germain de Lacépède
Paul-Henri Marron
Hugues-Bernard Maret, duc de Bassano
Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès
Vincent-Marie Viénot de Vaublanc
Clergy
Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne
Joseph-Marie Gros
Jean-Siffrien Maury
François de Montesquiou-Fezensac
Francois-Joseph de la Rouchefoucauld
Nobility
Stanislas-Marie-Adélaïde, comte de Clermont-Tonnerre
Mathieu Jean Félicité, duc de Montmorency-Laval
François Alexandre Frédéric, duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt
Louis Philippe II Joseph d’Orléans, duc d'Orléans
Anne-Pierre, marquis de Montesquiou-Fezensac
Crowd: Female
Etta Lubina Johanna Palm d'Aelders
Olympe de Gouges
Claire Lacombe
Pauline Léon
Anne-Josèphe Théroigne de Méricourt
Crowd: Male
Jacques Hébert
Jean-Marie Collot, dit Collot d'Herbois
Jean-Paul Marat
Jacques Roux
François-Nicolas Vincent
François Joseph Westermann
The website of l'Assemblee Nationale features a list of its members:
http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/histoire/trombino-1789/sommaire.asp
Artistic References
Artists have used found objects (objet trouvé) and appropriated images to make art since the beginning of the 20 th century. Art that uses found objects as a medium usually do so because of the cultural associations with the existing objects.
Artists you may wish to look at for inspiration: Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Marcel Duchamp, Hans Arp, Kurt Schwitters, Hannah Hoch, Max Ernst, Joseph Cornell, Robert Rauschenberg, Edward Kienholz, Joseph Beuys, George Segal, and Dan Eldon.