A man, a woman, a house, and a pitchfork. All of you, I feel sure, have seen the oil painting titled American Gothic by artist Grant Wood. It's a Depression Era scene in rural Iowa portraying a stern-looking farmer holding a pitchfork and standing beside his morose, unmarried daughter. The painting has become a part of American popular culture, and the couple has been the subject of endless satirical depictions. They are not happy campers by any stretch of the imagination.1

Those of us who have photographs of our ancestors have surely noticed that not a one of them ever cracks a smile for the camera. Saying "cheese" must be a contemporary innovation. Martin Luther's parents might well have posed for an early rendition of "German Gothic." Sixteenth-century artist, Lucas Cranach, portrays L…