Exploring the Text

1. The men in Charles Le Brun’s painting are dressed in the height of fashion for their day. How would you characterize it? Note differences between the eminence on horseback and the others. What specific elements of dress seem to define the male image? Note the hair, hats, and shoes.

   Chapter 8 - Chancellor Séguier at the Entry of Louis XIV into Paris in 1660 - Exploring the Text: The men in Charles Le Brun’s painting are dressed in the height of fashion for their day. How would you characterize it? Note differences between the eminence on horseback and the others. What specific elements of dress seem to define the male image? Note the hair, hats, and shoes.
2. The entourage pictured in Le Brun’s painting was intended as a sign to the cheering Parisians that a new epoch of peace and glory had dawned. What elements of this painting attest to affluence and power?

   Chapter 8 - Chancellor Séguier at the Entry of Louis XIV into Paris in 1660 - Exploring the Text: The entourage pictured in Le Brun’s painting was intended as a sign to the cheering Parisians that a new epoch of peace and glory had dawned. What elements of this painting attest to affluence and power?
3. What symbols of African American culture or hip-hop culture does Kehinde Wiley include in his painting?

   Chapter 8 - Chancellor Séguier at the Entry of Louis XIV into Paris in 1660 - Exploring the Text: What symbols of African American culture or hip-hop culture does Kehinde Wiley include in his painting?
4. Wiley applies the visual vocabulary and conventions of glorification, wealth, and prestige to his subject matter. In this painting, what is the fashion code? How does the appearance of these men define the image of today’s young, urban African American male?

   Chapter 8 - Chancellor Séguier at the Entry of Louis XIV into Paris in 1660 - Exploring the Text: Wiley applies the visual vocabulary and conventions of glorification, wealth, and prestige to his subject matter. In this painting, what is the fashion code? How does the appearance of these men define the image of today’s young, urban African American male?
5. What is the effect of Wiley’s melding of late Renaissance prototypes and hip-hop street style? Is Wiley being critical of one or the other—or both? Is he celebrating or criticizing (or both) what one reviewer called “the hyper-masculine posturing of hip-hop culture”?

   Chapter 8 - Chancellor Séguier at the Entry of Louis XIV into Paris in 1660 - Exploring the Text: What is the effect of Wiley’s melding of late Renaissance prototypes and hip-hop street style? Is Wiley being critical of one or the other—or both? Is he celebrating or criticizing (or both) what one reviewer called “the hyper-masculine posturing of hip-hop culture”?
6. In a review of one of Wiley’s shows, an art critic asks, “Do his big, flashy pictures of young African-American men recast as the kings, dandies, prophets, and saints of European portraiture subvert the timeworn ruses of Western art and its hierarchies of race, class and sex?” Based on these two paintings, how would you answer that question? To expand your response, you might look at other paintings by Wiley on his Web site, www.kehindewiley.com.

   Chapter 8 - Chancellor Séguier at the Entry of Louis XIV into Paris in 1660 - Exploring the Text: In a review of one of Wiley’s shows, an art critic asks, “Do his big, flashy pictures of young African-American men recast as the kings, dandies, prophets, and saints of European portraiture subvert the timeworn ruses of Western art and its hierarchies of race, class and sex?” Based on these two paintings, how would you answer that question? To expand your response, you might look at other paintings by Wiley on his Web site, www.kehindewiley.com.