17th Century Painting/Sculpture

17th Century Painting/Sculpture 17th Century Painting/Sculpture

Like colonial architecture, 17th-century colonial painting reflects
English styles of at least a century earlier, which had been perpetuated
in the rural areas from which the colonists came. The earliest paintings,
all portraits, date from the 1660s in New England, a long generation after
the founding of the colony. The most notable are the pair JohnFreake and
Mrs. Elizabeth Freake and Baby Mary ( circ1674,Worcester,Massachusetts, Art Museum).

The relatively flat figures are arranged decoratively, with attention
to firm line and areas of patterning, the subjects stiffly posed in their
finery. Documentary evidence indicates that portraiture began in the
Hudson Valley area about the same time. Religious paintings and church decoration were carried out in the Southwest during the century.

Sculpture in the 17th century on the East Coast was limited to applica
tions of the decorative arts, in the carving of furniture and the shaping
of metalwork in silver and iron. The religious figures carved in the
Southwest remain at the level of inspired folk sculpture.

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