'Artists in the 18th and 19th centuries found a way out by personifying a nation'`. Explain with examples.
Artists had started representing a country as if were a person. Nations were protrayed as female figures. The female forms that were chosen to personify the nation did not stand for any particular women in real life; rather it sought to give the abstract idea of the nation a concreate form. Infact, female figure became an allegory of the nation.
For example in France she was christened Marianne, which underlined the idea of a people's nation. Her characteristics were drawn from those of liberty and the Republic.
Similarly Germania became the allegory of German nation, a female figure wearing a crown of oak leaves, as the German oak stands for heroism.
