What does art develop?

How did art of as a form of protest develop; are there any early examples?

• Art and social / political protest or satire almost seem synonymous today. I wonder if this is a modern development or if art has always had this connotation. Are there any good examples of art as a form of protest in antiquity? Maybe this concept of "art" as we think of it is just a post renaissance / enlightenment construction for a myriad of different occupations and crafts....but that is a different question.

• Answer:

  What makes art as political commentary possible in early modern times is the development of printmaking. That makes sense, because the goal of political protest or satire is to spread a message and prints allow their messages to be widely disseminated. As far as I know, this is the first printed political satire.  It mocks the Pope Paul I and Emperor King Friedrich III, showing them as barely clad wrestlers atop the "ship of state." Many copies of this print exist, suggesting its popularity. Satire  on Emperor Friedrich III and Pope Paul II hand-colored woodcut, c.  1470-80. Inscribed: On the oars, Duke of Bavaria; King of Poland; King  of  Hungary  On rungs of the pope's ladder: Sicily, Bosnia, Venice,  Ragusa On the  anchor: Imperial electors. Here's an explanation of this print from an art history course website: This political satire on the attempt of Pope Paul II to inveigle the  Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich III into going on crusade seems to have  been immensely popular,  to judge from the number of free copies that have survived.  The Pope  (wearing the papal tiara of three crowns) and the Emperor (wearing the  imperial crown) are both  clad only in wrestlers' trunks, and are prexariously balanced atop the   crow's nest of a ship of state whose oars, stays and rope ladder are  inscribed with the names  of their respective allies and their territories.  In the pope's right  hand are the French fleur-des-lis and the Roman scales of justice, while  Friedrich, burdened  by the bag of money dangling from his neck, holds only the broken  scepter of Bohemia, and balances one foot on the back of the Burgundian  lion. A denuded tree  labeled "Jerusalem" is on the lower right.  The comet (upper right) may  refer to the appearance in 1468 of Halley's comet, which caused great  consternation at  the time. Friedrich and Paul II had met in Rome in 1468 to discuss the  position of Bohemia (broken scepter= King George Podiebrad,  excommunicated by the pope.) Pope  Pius II, Paul's predecessor had been about to set out on a crusade  before his death, and it was Paul's hope (in vain) that Friedrich could  be persuaded to take up  the cross himself. http://arthistory.wisc.edu/ah330/notes09.html The Protestant Reformation emerged and spread from Germany, a center of printmaking. Here's an example of anti-papal propaganda from 1545 in woodcut. Catholics also produce anti-Protestant prints. This process continues to develop alongside politics. One of the landmarks of political protest prints are etchings by Jacques Callot (1592-1632) collected as The Great Miseries of War (1633). Callot was from Lorraine, a  state devastated during the Thirty Years War. This image shows soldier raping and pillaging. Callot's image of mass hanging. Here's a link to the entire series: http://www.fulltable.com/vts/c/callot/callot.htm The 18th century saw the emergence of sophisticated, biting satire in writing and images. In addition to complex moral series, William Hogarth (1697-1784) made political engravings like this, attacking the Whig leader John Wilkes in 1763. Working in conservative Spain, Francisco Goya grotesque prints were veiled in meaning, avoiding specific references to political figures and also making them universal in meaning. His most famous series is Los Caprichos (1797-1798), made by aquatint and etching.  Information on Los Caprichos: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caprichos Callot's prints also influenced Goya. This is his darkly satirical Disasters of War, (1810-20, but published posthumously) his response to the guerrilla war between France and Spain. Information on The Disasters of War: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Disasters_of_War The history of pictorial satire and caricature continues, with figures like James Gillray, Honore Daumier, and Thomas Nast in the 19th century. See: