Upon first glance of the figure shown to the class, I immediately began to think of Rodin's, "The Thinker". Of course, Rodin crafted his masterpiece from bronze and marble and the one before me seemed to be formed out of wood, though the emotions I felt the figure was attempting to portray were similar. The figure was simple and lacked color, allowing the audience to focus on the form-which seemed to be representative of a human figure sitting with their arms rested below the chin. The face, or what I presume to be the face, is distinguished by an exaggerated nose, again with lifeless detail. With such little detail, how are we able to decipher what this figure represents?
As mentioned in Section 1, Part II of Aristotle's Poetics, we have a natural instinct for imitation. Growing up you learn from what you imitating what others do and learning from it. We are able to recognize forms that represent an emotion based on our experience with that form-for example: crossing our arms when we are bored or angry, resting our knees on the ground when praying, etc. The examples I have given may have been personal interpretations of forms, however, I believe many people could at least show similar connections. For example, in acting, the actors use a series of recognizable imitations are used to create a story. In painting, there are no spoken words used to describe the actions shown within a painting, the artist must construct the character in a way that will establish an emotional relation with the audience to help understand the context and meaning of the piece. I did not need to see the wooden figure's facial expression to interpret his body language as contemplative, possibly dealing with an internal struggle. Aristotle's Poetics mention that the Dorians claim the invention of tragedy and comedy, and I believe that this figure falls within the category of tragedy. Section 1 Part VI elaborates further on the definition of tragedy, including that it is serious and effects the emotions.
In my opinion, the wooden figure from class is imitation because it produced an emotion-one that was internalized as either sadness or anger, maybe even reflection. It is presumably a man based on the four ridges in the wood (two arms, two legs) and abstract representation of a head. The simplicity allowed me to interpret it as my imagination allowed, however, as mentioned in Aristotle's Poetics, we are able to understand imitation based on our past exposure to it.
