In the 18th century, there was a period that we called Neo classicism. In this period most of all paintings had the same characteristic which are dark and simple background colors, very masculine, stressed heroism, frieze, sharp edges, more geometric and flat. As we seen in Jean Ingres painting—“The Turkey’s Slave”, we could see from the simple background and the very sharp edges of her body. Comparing to the classical period, one of the murals that I found around the campus. I decided to use the mural designed by Grant Wood which title is “Breaking the Prairie Sod” to be one example which have the same characteristic with the classical period even though it had painted in the 19th century. This mural is locate at the main floor east lobby of Parks Library. Actually this mural depicts the breaking of Iowa's virgin soil in the early 1840s with a woman standing beside a man who is drinking out of a jug while his hand rests on the handle of a wooden plow. There are dramatic cloud formations behind them and a view across the field and prairie. And this mural symbolized a lot of things that I never thought before for example; the man in the picture, presented in youth, middle age and maturity, represents Abraham Lincoln, who signed the Morrill Act that founded land-grant educational institutions of which Iowa State is one. Lincoln's presence also sends a strong message to students who view the mural, that with hard work, dedication, honesty and education, that they too could grow up to become president of the United States. I choose this mural become my comparison because this mural has a lot of common with the classical period. The man here represent the masculine (manly) and sort of heroism things, even though the background color is clear and bright but it’s so simple background and has a lot of sharp edges and geometric line. Because of it was painted on the 19th century so it’s not real...
