Art History II Final
Tenebrism
"In a dark manner"
Lithograph
A lithograph was a print made by doing a drawing on a copper plate with a greasy pencil. This copper was soaked in water, then an oil-based ink was applied. The oil-based ink stuck to the areas that had been drawn on with the grease pencil, but not the other areas. It was a process based on the concept that oil and water don't mix. The value of this process was that it allowed prints to be made much quicker than traditional printing processes, making possible the inexpensive reproduction and mass distribution of printed graphics in newspapers, books, magazines and posters.
Non-representational
A work that is nonrepresentational is one that has no identifiable subject from the world around us. No specific objects can be identified within these pieces.
Breakfast Scene, William Hogarth, ca.1745 Neo-Classical
Across the Channel, a truly English style of painting emerged with William Hogarth (1697-1764), who satirized the lifestyle of the newly prosperous middle class with comic zest. Traditionally, the British imported painters from the Continent—Holbein, Rubens, and Van Dyck among them. Hogarth waged a lively campaign throughout his career against the English feeling of dependence on, and inferiority to, these artists. Although Hogarth would have been the last to admit it, his own painting owed much to the work of his contemporaries in France, the Rococo artists. Yet his subject matter, frequently moral in tone, was distinctively English. This was the great age of English satirical writing, and Hogarth—who admired that literary genre and included Henry Fielding (1701-1754), the author of Tom Jones (1749), among his closest friends—clearly saw himself as translating satire into the visual arts. Hogarth's favorite device was to make a series of narrative paintings and prints, in a sequence similar to chapters in a book or scenes in a play, following a character or group of characters in their encounters with some social evil. Breakfast Scene from Marriage à la Mode, is one in a sequence of six paintings satirizing the marital immoralities of the moneyed classes in England. In it, the marriage of a young viscount is just beginning to founder. The husband and wife are tired after a long night spent in separate pursuits. While the wife stayed at home for an evening of cards and music-making, her young husband had been away from the house enjoying the company of another woman. He thrusts his hands deep into the empty money-pockets of his breeches, while his wife's small dog sniffs inquiringly at the other woman's lacy cap protruding from his coat pocket. A steward, his hands full of unpaid bills, raises his eyes in despair at the actions of his noble master and mistress. The couple's home is palatial, but Hogarth filled it with witty clues to the dubious taste of its occupants. For example, the row of pious religious paintings on the upper wall of the distant room concludes with a curtained canvas undoubtedly depicting an erotic subject. According to the custom of the day, ladies could not view this discretely hidden painting, but at the pull of a cord, the master and his male guests could enjoy a tableau of cavorting figures. In Breakfast Scene, as in all his work, Hogarth proceeded as a novelist might, elaborating on his subject with carefully chosen detail, the discovery of which heightens the comedy. Hogarth designed the marriage series to be published as a set of engravings. The prints of this and his other moral narratives were so popular that unscrupulous entrepreneurs produced unauthorized versions almost as fast as the artist created his originals. The popularity of these prints speaks not only to the appeal of their subjects but also to the democratization of knowledge and culture that the Enlightenment fostered and to the exploitation of new printing technologies that opened the way for a more affordable and widely disseminated visual culture.
Action painting
Action painters are those who put the action, the physical process of applying the paint, as the most important part of the artwork. These pieces are most often nonrepresentational and are purely about process, not subject.
analytical cubism
Analytic cubism can be described as a breaking down of space into flat planes. All color is removed, leaving only a neutral brown, with space suggested by light and dark variations of that neutral color. It is impossible to distinguish what is the figure and what is the background as they merge into each other. This breaking down into flat shifting planes of space was the basis of analytic cubism.
Red Room, HENRI MATTISE, 1908-1909 Fauvism
Another group inspired by the expressionist qualities of the Post Impressionists were the Fauves. Fauve is French for wild beast. Like many styles, this one was named by a critic, whose intention was to slander the group. This name was applied by a critic trained in the traditional arts of the Salon, who rejected the bright, unnatural colors used by the Fauvists. Led by Henri Matisse, the Fauves used bright colors to express their emotions. Matisse was dramatically influenced by the conflicts of pre-World War I Europe. He wrote that "what I dream of is an art of balance, of purity, of serenity, devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter, an art that might be for every mental worker, be he businessman or writer, like an appeasing influence, like a mental soother, something like a good armchair in which to rest for physical fatigue." Mattise wanted to show the simple joy of life. He wanted his work to look effortless. This work was characterized by bright colors and bold outlines. The Red Room used color and decorative shapes to create a soothing image. He suggested space with the linear perspective of the table, the chair and the windowsill, but dissolved it in decorative patterning. This work is about the simple joy of life.
Self-Portrait, Elizabeth-Louise Vigee-Lebrun, 1790 Neo-Classical
Another manifestation of the "naturalistic" impulse in 18th-century French art was the emergence of a new more personal and less pretentious mode of portraiture. Self-Portrait (fig. 26-16) by Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Lebrun (1755-1842) is a characteristic example of the genre. The painter looks directly at viewers and pauses in her work to return their gaze. Although her mood is lighthearted and her costume's details echo the serpentine curve that Rococo artists and wealthy patrons loved, nothing about Vigée-Lebrun's pose appears contrived. Hers is the self-confident, natural stance of a woman whose art has won her an independent role in society (see "Vigée-Lebrun, Labille-Guiard, and the French Royal Academy," page 776). She portrayed herself in a close-up, intimate view at work on one of the many portraits that she painted of her most important patron, Queen Marie Antoinette (1755-1793).
The Death of Marat, JACQUES-LOUIS DAVID, c. 1793 Neo-Classical
Another painting by David that was based on the politics of the French Revolution was the Death of Marat. Marat was a close friend of David's and a radical revolutionary. He had severe skin disease in which the only relief from his pain was found by soaking in medicated baths. Marat was stabbed by a political enemy, while in his bath. The painting depicts Marat in his bath, holding the letter used by his enemy to get into his room. The composition is bold and simple as was characteristic of the classical style. Marat is presented as a tragic hero, a martyr who died for his cause. His wounds make reference to those of Christ, increasing his martyr status.
Slaying Holofernes, Artemisa Gentileschi, ca. 1614 -1620 Baroque
Artemisia Gentileschi was strongly influenced by the work of Caravaggio. She was the first know successful woman artist. At this time, artists must be members of a guild to sell their work. To be a member, you were apprenticed at a young age to a master. You lived with that master and learned his skills. When you had mastered those skills, you traveled as journeyman, working for a number of masters until you became a master yourself. Because it was not appropriate to send a young girl to live with a male master, women were only trained in the arts by their fathers and husbands and rarely became successful. Artemisia was taught by her father, who was influenced by Caravaggio. She led a very colorful life and was a leader in her time. Judith Slaying Holofernes by Gentileschi represents a story from the book of Judith. The story takes place in the midst of a battle between Judah and the Assyrians. Judith pretended to be a deserter from Judah and went to Holofernes, general of the Assyrians, and seduced him. They went back to his tent, where she got him drunk, then cut off his head. She hung his head from the wall of the town of Judah. When the Assyrians saw this they ended their attack. In the painting this was portrayed in graphic reality. The blood, the facial expressions and the body positions all contribute to this reality. Tenebrism adds to the drama of the scene. This work was much more violent and realistic than any produced by a male artist of the day.
Salon
At this time in history to be accepted as an artist in France, your works must be exhibited in the Salon. The Salon was the official annual exhibit of French paintings.
Le Moulin de la Galette, AUGUSTE RENOIR, c. 1876 Impressionism
August Renoir was also interested in the qualities of light on his subjects. Renoir specialized in the human figure. He was fascinated by simple, everyday moments and often showed leisurely activities, such as eating and dancing. Le Moulin de la Galette was created at a popular outdoor dance hall. The figures are seen in casual, unposed positions. This work captures the moment. It shows how the sunlight was falling through the trees. It stops the action and in some cases shows the blurs of motion (taken from photography). It is an impression of a moment of afternoon dancing. What makes works like this different from classical art is that classical art showed universal, timeless qualities and explored the solidity of three dimensional objects, while Impressionism captures a fleeting moment with no solidity. These works are a "snapshot" of life rather than a description of how it should be.
Counter Reformation
Baroque art was the seventeen century's reaction to mannerism and to the events of the Protestant Reformation. The Catholic church responded to the Protestant Reformation with an attempt to revitalize itself called the Counter Reformation
Ophelia, Study No. 2, JULIA MARGARET CAMERON, 1867 Early Photography
Cameron was a prominent 19th-century photographer who often depicted her female subjects as characters in literary or biblical narratives. The slightly blurred focus also became a distinctive feature of her work—the by-product of photographing with a lens with a short focal length, which allowed only a small area of sharp focus. The blurriness adds an ethereal, dreamlike tone to the photographs, appropriate for Cameron's fictional "characters." Her photograph of Ophelia has a mysterious, fragile quality reminiscent of PreRaphaelite paintings of literary heroines.
The Bath, MARY CASSATT, c. 1892 Impressionism
Cassatt's paintings were similar in their essence to the males' paintings. They captured a moment in time and were spatially very flat. However, her subjects illustrated her feminine point of view. Her works captured the domestic side of female life, especially the relationship between mother and child. The Bath captures a shared moment of intimacy between a mother and a child. Cassatt used gestures and eye contact to enhance this moment. She used color and patterns to direct the viewer's eye around the composition and to unify it. Your eye goes first to the circular bowl of water and is drawn there by the lines created using the dress pattern, the arms and legs and line of sight.
The Stone Breakers, Gustave Courbet, 1945 Realism
Courbet was the leading figure in the Realist movement. Using a palette of dirty browns and grays, he conveyed the dreary and dismal nature of menial labor in mid-19th-century France. An early work that exemplifies Courbet's championing of everyday life as the only valid subject for the modern artist is The Stone Breakers (fig. 27-26), in which the Realist painter presented a glimpse into the life of rural menial laborers. Courbet represented in a straightforward manner, and nearly at life size, two men—one about 70, the other quite young—in the decidedly nonheroic act of breaking stones to provide paving for provincial roads. Traditionally, this backbreaking, poorly paid work fell to the lowest members of French society, as the stone breakers' tattered garments and utensils for a modest meal of soup confirm. By juxtaposing youth and age, Courbet suggested that those born to poverty will remain poor their entire lives. The artist neither romanticized nor idealized the men's work but depicted their thankless toil with directness and accuracy. Courbet's palette of dirty browns and grays further conveys the dreary and dismal nature of the task, and the angular positioning of the older stone breaker's limbs suggests a mechanical monotony. Courbet's interest in the working poor as subject matter had a special resonance for his mid-19th-century French audience. In 1848, laborers rebelled against the bourgeois leaders of the newly formed Second Republic and against the rest of the nation, demanding better working conditions and a redistribution of property. The army quelled the uprising in three days, but not without long-lasting trauma and significant loss of life. The 1848 revolution raised the issue of labor as a national concern. Courbet's depiction of stone breakers in 1849 was thus timely, populist, and, in the view of the conservative Salon jurors, "socialistic."
What was Dadaism about?
Dada comes from the French word for a child's hobby horse. It is also a nonsense word that is similar to a child's first sounds. They chose as nonsense word to represent nonsense art. The art of the Dadaist was intentionally absurd and nonsensical.
Daguerreotype
Daguerre's process involved coating a piece of copper and exposing that. His process created a direct positive image that was very sharp and clear. The only disadvantage was that multiple copies could not be made from this process. Images produced using Daguerre's process were know as daguerreotypes
What one word best describes Baroque art?
Dramatic
A Bar at the Folies-Bergér, EDOUARD MANET, c. 1882 Impressionism
Edouard Manet, who work as a realist painter, changed his style after meeting the Impressionists. The Bar at the Folies-Bergere is an example of one of his impressionist paintings. It contains many of the qualities common to Impressionism. The subject is simply a glimpse of a bar maid serving her customer. It tells no story, has no moral, was not drawn from history or literature and basically was not about anything. It was simply capturing a moment in time and studying how the light fell on objects in that moment. Manet had a fascination with how the light reflected off the many glass surfaces in the painting, including the mirror at the back. In this mirror you see a reflection of the back of the bar maid, her customer and the other customers in the bar. The reflection in the mirror shows the influence of photography on the paintings of this era. Depth of field is the photographic concept dealing with how much space is in focus. In addition, the compositions created in photographs tend to cut objects and people off at the edges of the pictures. These photographic qualities began to appear in the Impressionist's paintings. Manet's mirror gave us blurred images and figures cut off at the edges of the frame.
The Academy
Entry into this show was decided by a panel of judges called the Academy. The Academy tended to prefer paintings that were tradition in style and content. They looked to the art of the past as a guideline. They tended to reject anything that was different or innovative.
The Swing, JEAN-HONORE FRAGONARD, c. 1766 Rococo
Fragonard employed the sappy qualities of Boucher's work, but did add some sustanence in the content. He did comment on errotic, secret love affairs and the stages and intrigue of love. However, the curled brushwork, pastel colors, pastoral setting, frilly clothes, and cupids still persist. The Swingtext annotation indicator by Fragonard gives us a flirtatious young women dressed in her frillly clothes being pulled on a swing by a bishop (seen in the shadow at the lower right of the painting). Her secret lover hides in the bushes below, strategically looking up her skirt. She teases him by kicking off her shoe in his direction. All this surrounded by a lush pastoral setting and statues of cupids. This flirtation was designed to appeal to wealthy classes in France, who had the time and resources to both indulge in these activities and be patrons of the arts.
La Grande Jatte, GEORGES SEURAT, c. 1884 Post-Impressionism
George Seurat was a formalist, who was interested in how the eye mixes color. He developed a process called pointillism. Seurat's most famous work was Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. This enormous painting was made completely with tiny dots. The subject was much like that of the Impressionists, an afternoon of leisure activities. However, Seurat was not trying to capture a moment, but rather to create solidity through the use of color. His composition was very formal with strong horizontals and verticals, punctuated by a few diagonals. This was a very intellectually based painting created primarily as a study of the formal, academic qualities of art, not about the subject. In creating such a formal work, he lost the human element. The figures look like robots, devoid of human emotion.
The Portuguese, GEORGES BRAQUE, c. 1911
Georges Braque's painting The Portuguese exemplifies Analytic Cubism. The subject is a Portuguese musician whom the artist recalled seeing years earlier in a bar in Marseilles. Braque dissected the man and his instrument and placed the resulting forms in dynamic interaction with the space around them. Unlike the Fauves and German Expressionists, who used vibrant colors, the Cubists chose subdued hues—here solely brown tones—in order to focus attention on form. In The Portuguese, Braque carried his analysis so far that viewers must work diligently to discover clues to the subject. The construction of large intersecting planes suggests the forms of a man and a guitar. Smaller shapes interpenetrate and hover in the large planes. The way Braque treated light and shadow reveals his departure from conventional artistic practice. Light and dark passages suggest both chiaroscuro modeling and transparent planes that enable viewers to see through one level to another. Solid forms emerge only to be canceled almost immediately by a different reading of the subject.
What was the basic premise of impressionism?
Impressionism evolved in Paris in the 1860's. It was a visual style not influenced by politics. Rather, it was influenced by the realist painters, the development of photography and the introduction of Japanese prints in Europe. While the styles and subjects of the Impressionists varied among the artists involved, the quality that unified them was the desire to capture a moment in time. They studied the fleeting qualities of light and how it changed with the time of the day, the weather and the seasons. It is this attempt to show the light at a specific moment in time that is what Impressionism is really about. The subject matter was secondary to this moment, however the subjects were different in that they were of the leisure activities and entertainment of the middle class and landscapes. This fleeting quality of light that formed the basis of Impressionism was purely a study of how light affected the surface of objects. They were not concerned with depicting three dimensional structure. This went against the traditional ideas of art. These innovative painters, who met regularly in the cafes of Paris to share their ideas, were not accepted by the French Salon or the general public. It was not until the mid 1920's when an American photographer name Alfred Steiglitz decided to exhibit their work in this country, that Impressionism became accepted. Today it is one of the most popular movements in art worldwide.
Hudson River School
In America, landscape painting was the specialty of a group of artists known as the Hudson River School, so named because its members drew their subjects primarily from the uncultivated regions of New York's Hudson River Valley, although many of these painters depicted scenes from across the country. As did the early-19th-century landscape painters in Germany and England, the artists of the Hudson River School not only presented Romantic panoramic landscape views but also participated in the ongoing exploration of the individual's and the country's relationship to the land. American landscape painters frequently focused on identifying qualities that made America unique.
Third of May, Francisco Goya, 1808-1815 Romanticism
In Spain, Francisco Goya appealed to the emotions of his audience in his painting, The Third of May, 1808. This was a history painting based on an actual event, showing the horrors of war. On May 3, 1808 a French firing squad executed a token number of men from the city of Madrid as payback for the murder of several French soldiers at the hands of Spanish troops the day before. This work was factually accurate. Goya lived in Madrid and visited the site of the execution shortly after the event. The Third of May, 1808 concentrated on the psychological agony of the Spanish. He used body position, gestures and facial expressions to show the individual horror of each man. Each faced death in his own way. The figures were distorted, while color was used to draw your attention to the next victim. By contrast the French firing squad appeared not as individuals, but as an anonymous blank wall of guns. This was one of many works by Goya that illustrated the horrors of war and the cruelty of man, reaffirming Rousseau's philosophy that man was corrupted by society.
The Gleaners, JEAN-FRANÇOIS MILLET, 1857 Realism
In The Gleaners (fig. 27-28), he depicted three impoverished women—members of the lowest level of peasant society—performing the backbreaking task of gleaning. Millet characteristically placed his large figures in the foreground, against a broad sky. Although the field stretches back to a rim of haystacks, cottages, trees, and distant workers and a flat horizon, the gleaners quietly doing their tedious and time-consuming work dominate the canvas. Although Millet's paintings evoke a sentimentality absent from Courbet's, the French public still reacted to his work with disdain and suspicion. In the aftermath of the 1848 revolution, Millet's investiture of the poor with solemn grandeur did not meet with approval from the prosperous classes. In particular, middle-class landowners resisted granting gleaning rights, and thus Millet's relatively dignified depiction of gleaning antagonized them. The middle class also linked the poor with the dangerous, newly defined working class, which was finding outspoken champions in men such as Karl Marx (1818-1883), Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), and the novelists Émile Zola (1840-1902) and Charles Dickens (1812-1870). Socialism was a growing movement, and both its views on property and its call for social justice, even economic equality, threatened and frightened the bourgeoisie. Millet's sympathetic portrayal of of the poor seemed to much of the public to be a political manifesto.
Surrounded Islands, CRISTO, Biscayne Bay, Florida, c. 1983 Site-Specific Art
In a desire to make art a not salable, noncommercial product, artists have taken it out of the studio and made it a part of the landscape. Under the premise that art was not commodity to be bought and sold and only to be enjoyed by a select few, Christo wanted to create works that got the non-art public involved in their creation. Surrounded Islands are eleven small islands off the coast of Florida that are surrounded by pink polypropylene fabric. This project took two years of preparation and $3.2 million to complete. Christo's intention was to take art out of the gallery and get the public involved. He considered the involvement of all those required to raise money, get legal permission, and build this project part of the art making process. The final project lasted only two weeks, but made and enormous impact on the many people involved. Other similar projects by Christo include Running Fence (an eighteen foot tall curtain that ran twenty four miles across California), Pont Neuf (the wrapping of a bridge in Paris with cloth so that everyone who used it had to walk on the cloth) and Valley Curtain (a large orange curtain that was hung across the highway in a Colorado valley).These projects were limited in time, but survive in the minds of the many people involved and in documentary photographs and films.
Rue Transonain, HONORE DAUMIER, c. 1834 Realism
In a lithograph called Rue Transonain, Daumier used a subject that was very Romantic in nature, but presented it from a Realistic standpoint. It depicts an act of human atrocity and social injustice. The title comes from the name of the street where the event occurred, the Rue Transonain. On the Rue Transonain, the police had been trying to put down a worker demonstration when one of the officers was killed by sniper fire. The shot came from an apartment building used by the workers. The police then stormed the building and massacred all the inhabitants, including innocent women and children. What Daumier showed us was the aftermath of the violence. He gave us a portrait of a man lying dead on top of his dead child. This scene was calm and quiet, yet horrible at the same time. Unlike the Romantics, who would have depicted this at the height of the action, Daumier created a scene after the violence. The details of the event were accurate both visually and factually.
What are the three styles found in Baroque painting? What characteristics of each make them Baroque? Use examples of each to support your discussion.
In painting, three very distinct styles existed. These were: 1) a style based on the classical traditions of the Renaissance (Fra Andrea Pozzo's the Glorification of St. Ignatius: It is very similar to the ceiling paintings of the early and high renaissance with the exception of the added sense of motion and drama. The figures of renaissance ceilings were still and inactive, while baroque figures are full of life and movement.) 2) a new type of realism (Realism can be seen in the Italian works of Caravaggio and Gentileschi and in the Spanish paintings of Velazquez. Caravaggio refused to emulate the classical style. It rejected the traditional concepts of idealized classical beauty in art. It gave us an unglorified, down to earth view of humanity and religion.) 3) style that was distinctly baroque (Flanders and Holland)
To whom did this style appeal?
It was meant to appeal to the social elite of Paris.
Lavender Mist, JACKSON POLLOCK, c. 1950 Abstract Expressionism
Jackson Pollock was a good example of an action painter. His enormous canvases were created by dipping, pouring and flinging paint. These paintings are totally not representational, referring to no subject. They are purely about the process of painting. Pollock followed many of the same actions that any painter, traditional or postmodern, might use. He worked on an area, stood back, observed, decided what to do next, then went back to painting. These steps are part of the process of painting. His works also show the action and the energy of the painter as the drips of paint trace his body movements. Works like Lavender Mist are examples of his action paintings. The subject of this work is the process of painting not anything tangible. The title was meaningless, in fact, it was the idea of someone who visited his studio, not the artist's. It has nothing to do with what the painting is about.
Luncheon on the Grass, EDOUARD MANET, 1863 Realism
Le Déjeuner Sur L'Herber (Luncheon on the Grass) was rejected from the Salon. Manet responded by exhibiting it in a new show called the Salon des Refusés, which was an exhibit of rebel painters whose works had been rejected by the official Salon. This Salon des Refusés would later become the first place that many of the Impressionist's paintings were shown. Le Déjeuner Sur L'Herbe was rejected from the Salon both for visual as well as social reasons. It was controversial because it was considered too visually realistic. The subject was two clothed men and a nude female having a picnic lunch in a outdoor setting. The Venetian reference of the pastoral landscape and the symbolism of the nude Venus figure can certainly be seen. However, Manet gave no mythological, historical or allegorical reason for the female to be nude. To make matters worse, he clothed the men, not in outfits from the past but in modern, contemporary clothes. This placed them in a modern time frame with no reason for a nude female. Beyond her nudity, the female figure was criticized because she was not demure and unapproachable as historical Venus figures had been. Instead, she looks directly at the viewer, confronting the viewer with both her stare and her nudity. She appears shamelessly comfortable in her nudity. This sense of shame was heightened by the fact that this was a recognizable portrait of a woman that was known in society as a prostitute. Visually, Manet ignored many of the conventions of creating space that had existed since the Renaissance. He treated all objects with same importance, placing as much emphasis on the faces of the figures as he did the objects that they were eating. In doing this, he treated all of the objects with a quality of light that make them appear very flat. This contradicted all the principles of creating space through light and shadow that had been the basis of art for over four hundred years. In addition, he also used strange size relationships between the figures in the foreground and the figure in the background that flattened the space even further. Manet rejected the traditional subjects as well as the established visual qualities and began a break down in art that continues today and which would become the foundation of much of the art to follow him.
Rouen Cathedral, CLAUDE MONET, c. 1894 Impressionism
Like many movements in art, the term "impressionism" was originally meant as a derogatory slander. It came from a work by Claude Monet called Impressions: Sunrise.text annotation indicator This work contains many of the qualities embraced by the Impressionists, such as: light from a specific time of day. capturing a moment. vague edges to objects. created with small strokes of color. flat rather than three dimensional. Monet was know for painting series of the same subject over and over at different times of day and in different weather conditions. He painted the facade of Rouen Cathedral more than forty times. The composition changes little, but each painting is very different, depending on the time of day and the weather. He was criticized for the lack of structural solidity in these paintings, but they were not about three dimensional space, rather how light affected the surface of the structure.
Return of the Prodigal Son, REMBRANDT VAN RIJN, c. 1665 Baroque
Like others of his region, Rembrandt painted for the open market, so his works encompass many different subjects. His portraits are best known for their ability to show the internal psychology of the subject. He excelled at creating psychological realism through the use of gestures. The Return of the Prodigal Son was based on the Biblical story of a man with two sons. One left home an squandered his fathers money, while the other stayed and worked with his father. But it was when the one who had left returned that the father rejoiced and forgave his son. Rembrandt used gestures to show the psychological state of each. The father embraces his son in a merciful and forgiving way. The fathers hands carry this mood. The son hangs his head in shame and falls to his knees begging forgiveness of the father. The mood is humble and real rather than glorified. This was but one example of how he brought religion down into everyday, human terms. Like Caravaggio, not only did he bring religion within the grasp of ordinary people, but he used tenebrism to create a drama. Rembrandts figures also emerge out of and sin into that characteristic darkness.
No. 14, MARK ROTHKO, 1960 Abstract Expressionism
Mark Rothko also experimented with the relationships between colors and creating an opportunity for meditation through painting. His nonrepresentational paintings have fields of color whose edges blend softly into one another. He wanted to totally remove the visible signs of the artist's involvement and give the viewer a simple, yet personal experience of their own thoughts and ideas. His only guidance for the viewer was in his choice of colors, which he intended to be used to draw out basic human emotions. He wanted these works to reach deep into the soul of the viewer and bring out their emotional responses.
Horses Galloping, Muybridge, 1878 Early Photography
Muybridge specialized in photographic studies of the successive stages in human and animal motion—details too quick for the human eye to capture. Modern cinema owes a great deal to his work.
Classical vs. neoclassical
Neoclassical Art began as a reaction to the Rococo and to the political events occurring both in Europe and in the colonies. This was the time of the French Revolution and American Revolution. In this time of chaos, artists turned to what they believed was the highest achievements in art, looking for some sense of order. In this search, they rediscovered the art and architecture of ancient Greece and Rome. Classical art refers to the art of Greece and Rome, while Neoclassical refers to art inspired by Greece and Rome. Neoclassical art combined classical ideas with contemporary life and events.
Olympia, Edouard Manet, 1863 Realism
Olympia was considered scandalous. Again, Manet made a direct reference to Venetian art, but modified and modernized it to the point that it was no longer acceptable to the critics. Using the Venus of Urbino as a basis, he replaced the figure with the same model that he had used for Le Déjeuner Sur L'Herbe. Again, she appears confrontational with no sense of modesty. She represents not the goddess of love, but a modern prostitute. The dog at her feet (fidelity) replaced by a black cat. And the subtle light and shadow replaced by glaringly flat surfaces.
Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, ALBERT BIERSTADT, 1868 Romanticism
Other Hudson River artists used the landscape genre as an allegorical vehicle to address moral and spiritual concerns. Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) traveled west in 1858 and produced many paintings depicting the Rocky Mountains, Yosemite Valley, and other dramatic locales. These works, such as Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California (fig. 27-24), present breathtaking scenery and natural beauty. This panoramic view (the painting is 10 feet wide) is awe inspiring. Deer and waterfowl appear at the edge of a placid lake, and steep and rugged mountains soar skyward on the left and in the distance. A stand of trees, uncultivated and wild, frames the lake on the right. To underscore the transcendental nature of this scene, Bierstadt depicted the sun's rays breaking through the clouds overhead, suggesting a heavenly consecration of the land. That Bierstadt's focus was the American West is not insignificant. By calling national attention to the splendor and uniqueness of the regions beyond the Rocky Mountains, Bierstadt's paintings reinforced the idea of Manifest Destiny. This popular 19th-century doctrine held that westward expansion across the continent was the logical destiny of the United States. Paintings of the scenic splendor of the West helped to mute growing concerns over the realities of conquest, the displacement of Native Americans, and the exploitation of the environment. It should come as no surprise that among those most eager to purchase Bierstadt's work were mail-service magnates and railroad builders—entrepreneurs and financiers involved in westward expansion.
Mont Sainte-Victoire, PAUL CEZANNE, c. 1902 Post-Impressionism
Paul Cézanne was also a formalist. Cézanne was interested in how the human eye saw three dimensional objects. The Renaissance had given us the principle of linear perspective, which was a plausible way to create space. However, linear perspective assumes that the viewer is standing in one fixed position, a single viewpoint. Cézanne pointed out that humans don't see from a single view point, that the human eye is constantly moving. We don't see snap shots, but moving pictures of life. From this idea about sight, Cézanne developed his theories about creating space in art. He felt that all objects could be simplified into basic shapes (cones, cylinders and spheres) that are broken down into flat planes. Color was used to differentiate these planes. Basic color theory states that warm colors come forward, while cool colors recede. So Cézanne used color and planes to create space based on the principle of a moving point of view. Mont Saint Victoire was a landscape by Cézanne that applied these principles. The landscape was divided into flat planes of solid color. Areas that come toward the viewer are painted in warm colors, while areas that go back into space were painted in cool colors. By placing intense colors next to one another they create stronger forms. Cézanne was replacing traditional ideas about color and space with revolutionary new ones. He was challenging the foundation of art and asking us to think about art in a new way. His paintings like Mont Saint Victoire were not about the subject, but about the formal qualities of art.
Vision after the Sermon, PAUL GAUGUIN c. 1888 Post-Impressionism
Paul Gauguin used his art to express his ideas about the corruption of European society. Gauguin's art was not meant to be visually realistic. It was an abstraction to symbolize his ideas, not copy what he saw. His work is characterized by flat shapes and heavy outlines. He believed in Rousseau's theory that man was born good and corrupted by society. He went looking for simple, unspoiled people. He found them in Brittany. This area was populated by an isolated group of peasants who practiced an almost medieval Catholicism and lived an agrarian lifestyle. His paintings of these people emphasize their innocent, unquestioning faith. The Vision After the Sermon has many of the same qualities. It was a vision of Jacob meeting the Holy Spirit, the subject of that morning's sermon. The visual style is not realistic, but simplified into flat planes with heavy outlines. The color red, which dominates the work was symbolic of the passion of these women for their religion and the passion of the struggle. Both the Yellow Christ and the Vision After the Sermon used visual qualities to emphasize the innocent piety of the Breton people.
Les Desmoiselles d'Avignon, PABLO PICASSO, c. 1907 Cubism
Picasso's painting, Les Desmoisselles d'Avingnon, led the way to the development of analytic cubism. The subject was a traditional one, five nude venus figures and a still life of fruit. However, the presentation was anything but traditional. Influenced by African masks and Cezanne's ideas of a moving point of view, Picasso created this piece with fragmented bodies and simplified planes. The distortion was created by a constantly shifting viewpoint, shattering the traditional ideas of space created from one viewpoint. By this he was trying to illustrate that the visual world and the art world were two different realities.
Pointillism
Pointillism involves creating a work from small dots of very intense color. When the viewer stands back, away from the painting, these dots visually mix to form many colors. This process of visual color mixing would later become the basis of both television and printing. The colors that you see on the television are all created from the visual color mixing of tiny red, blue and green lines. The naked can't see the individual line, but they can be seen through a magnifying glass. Anytime you see a photograph printed in a book or magazine, all the colors are formed from visually mixing cyan (blue-green color), magenta (pink) and yellow dots. Using a magnifying glass, you can see these dots.
Raft of the Medusa, Gericault, 1818-1819 Romanticism
Politics was another often used subject. Theodore Gericault was an extremely controversial artist in his day, who chose to fight for social in justice in his art. The Raft of the Medusa was a political commentary on an event of the time. It was the story of a disaster at sea that had political injustice at its root. This was a call to the emotions and imagination of his viewers. The Medusa was a French frigate that hit a reef off the coast of Africa. The captain and officers boarded the life boats and went to safety. The crew, mostly Algerian, were left on the sinking ship to die. A raft was made from pieces of the ship. Of the one hundred and fifty or so crew members, only fifteen survived the ordeal. They floated on this raft for thirteen days suffering starvation, disease, the elements, and cannibalism. They were eventually rescued and told their story. The scandal was created by the fact that the captain had not been appointed on his merits, but as a political favor. This became a national scandal. Visually, the painting is very baroque in style. It used strong contrasts of light and dark, diagonal lines, movement, and emotion. The way the raft was angled in the painting puts the viewer among the struggling passengers and corpses. What is Romantic about this work was the emphasis on real events, social injustice, adventure, and the tragic conflict between man and nature. All are characteristics of this style.
Supermarket Shopper, DUANE HANSON, c. 1970 Superrealism
Pop art brought representational and symbolic images back to art. These representational images were embraced by a new group of artists who wanted to take the accuracy of photographic detail to a new level. Duane Hanson's Supermarket Shopper is a life sized resin and fiberglass sculpture that looks so real it is unsettling. He chose ordinary looking subjects that are stereotypes of American society. These are figures that all of us can relate to as common place and ordinary. These are, however, a comment on our society. Supermarket Shopper was an allegory of the excess and gluttony of our culture. In spite of the message, one cannot deny the physical accuracy of his sculptures.
Readymade
Ready-mades were pieces of art that took preexisting, mass produced objects and reassembled them to assume some new function or meaning.
Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor), Diego Velazquez, 1656 Baroque
Realism can also be seen in the art of Spain, also a Catholic country. Diego Velazquez was a court painter to the Spanish king, Philip IV. Velazquez was famed for his portraits of Philip, which gave a realistic and truthful yet dignified image of the king. Philip was known for his large jaw, a product of inbreeding. Velazquez is best know for his work, Las Meninas. Las Meninas is Spanish for maids in waiting. In this work, you see, the artist behind a large canvas, surrounded by Margarita, the daughter of Philip IV, and her maids in waiting along with two dwarfs and a dog. All of the people are identifiable as real people that served in the court of Philip IV. The subject of this work is a mystery. There are multiple explanations for what that subject might be. Some suggest that it is a self portrait of the artist or a portrait of the artist in his studio. Others suggest that it is a portrait of Margarita, to be used to arrange a marriage. The painting on the back wall may be a mirror reflecting the images of Philip and the Queen. If that is so, then are they the subject of the canvas in the painting or are they simply watching the events of the day? One last suggestion is that this was a tribute to a dead prince, whose room the artist's studio occupied. While multiple suggestions persist, the painting remains a realistic view of life in the Spanish court. Present was the subtle influence of Caravaggio's tenebrism in the lighting, which comes from a window to the right of figures.
Conversion of St. Paul, Caravaggio, ca. 1601 Baroque
Realism can be seen in the Italian works of Caravaggio and Gentileschi and in the Spanish paintings of Velazquez. Caravaggio refused to emulate the classical style. He was himself a dramatic character who led an unconventional life. He was a wanderer who was arrested on numerous occasions for a host of crimes ranging from robbery and assault to murder. Just as he rejected the traditional values of society, he also rejected the traditional concepts of idealized classical beauty in art. His art was much like his life. It gave us an unglorified, down to earth view of humanity and religion. The experience of a miraculous religious conversion can be seen in the Conversion of St. Paul by Caravaggio. Here, the miracle is very different from that of Bernini's St. Theresa. It is ordinary and unglorified. Paul can be seen having fallen from his horse, laying on his back with a light from heaven shining on him in the darkness. This light is the divine revelation of his conversion. Otherwise, the scene is ordinary. Paul is dressed as a typical Roman citizen would have dressed. This in itself was revolutionary. Prior to this religious figure would never have been seen in ordinary clothing, but were glorified. This painting was directed toward the masses, in an attempt to make miracles more accessible. This work also used a visual quality that was Caravaggio's trademark. The distinct contrast between light and dark can be seen in many of his works. Tenebrism means "in a dark manner" and refers to the light figures which emerge out of the darkness in these paintings. It is this contrast between light and dark that gives Caravaggio's work the dramatic quality of the Baroque era.
Return from Cythera, ANTOINE WATTEAU, c. 1717 Rococo
Return from Cythera by Antoine Watteau was about youth and love. Here, you see a group of lavishly dressed couples visiting the island of Cythera, the island of eternal youth and love. Much like Venetian Renaissance art, there was a mood created by the pastoral setting. Cupids play fliratiously in the sky, while these young lovers make their pilgrimage. The mood was playful and frivoulous. Each dressed (or overdressed) in their finest clothes. While the subject appears to be an allegory of love on the surface, Watteau did have a dark side. The dead tree hidden in the dark shadows of the foreground was a clue to this. Underneath the surface, Watteau was commenting on how quickly youth and pleasure will pass.
Arrival of Marie de' Medici at Marseilles, RUBENS, c. 1622 Baroque
Reubens was also know for his portraits of royalty. The Arrival of Marie de Medici at Marseilles shows Marie de Medici, of the famous Florentine family, arriving in France. She was the wife of the French King Henry IV. As she arrives, the other figures in the work celebrate her coming. An allegorical figure of France, dressed in a cape bearing the Fleur de Lis (a symbol of France) greets her, while Neptune (god of the sea) and his daughters salute her from below. This work has all the drama and vigor of his other works, combined with the pageantry of royalty.
Hopeless, ROY LICHTENSTEIN, c. 1963 Pop Art
Roy Lichtenstein turned to comic books as the basis of his version of Pop art. He took a mass produced object that was intended to be read and thrown away and preserved it in a monumental form. His large paintings, such as Hopeless, took a melodramatic scene from a comic strip, enlarged it and painted it almost exactly like the original comic. He even included the dot pattern created in the inexpensive printing process of most comic books. These were intended as a comment on the tastes and interest of the general public.
Salon des Refusés
Salon des Refusés, which was an exhibit of rebel painters whose works had been rejected by the official Salon. This Salon des Refusés would later become the first place that many of the Impressionist's paintings were shown.
The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, John Singer Sargent, 1882 Realism
Sargent developed a looser, more dashing Realist painting style, in contrast to Eakins's carefully rendered details. Sargent studied art in Paris before settling in London, where he won renown both as a cultivated and cosmopolitan gentleman and as an accomplished portrait painter. He learned his adept application of paint in thin layers and his effortless achievement of quick and lively illusion from his study of Velázquez, whose masterpiece, Las Meninas (fig. 24-31), may have influenced Sargent's family portrait The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit (fig. 27-37). The four girls (the children of one of Sargent's close friends) appear in a hall and small drawing room in their Paris home. The informal, eccentric arrangement of their slight figures suggests how much at ease they are within this familiar space and with objects such as the enormous Japanese vases, the red screen, and the fringed rug, whose scale subtly emphasizes the children's diminutive stature. Sargent must have known the Boit daughters well. Relaxed and trustful, they gave the artist an opportunity to record a gradation of young innocence. He sensitively captured the naive, wondering openness of the little girl in the foreground, the grave artlessness of the 10-year-old child, and the slightly self-conscious poise of the adolescents.
Genre scene
Scenes not religious
Federal Style
Since the new American political structure was based on republican Rome, it made sense to use their architectural styles as well. This style based on the architecture of ancient Rome became known as the Federal Style. An example of the Federal style is Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. From the Romans, Jefferson borrowed the dome and the Doric porch on the front. The Federal style became the model for many capital and government buildings and was seen as a symbol of freedom.
Ballet Rehersal, EDGAR DEGAS, c. 1876 Impressionism
Some of Degas paintings are based on natural light, but many simply use available light, whether it is natural or man made. In addition to light, Degas played with compositions. There is a strange sense of space as his subjects are often clustered together in several groups separated from one another by open voids of space. These voids twist through the compositions often leaving open spaces in the center of the piece. These compositions came directly from the influence of photography. Figures are cut off at the edges of the painting and grouped together in arbitrary ways that created interesting spaces between their groups. The subject of Degas' paintings was often some form of dance. Rarely were these paintings of performances, more often they were the everyday rehearsals. They lack the glamour of the performance, but capture the moment. The Ballet Rehearsal embodies all of these characteristics. It creates an everyday moment, captures the fleeting qualities of light, cuts figures off at the edge of the painting, and groups them to create an interesting empty space in the center of the work.
The Scream, EDVARD MUNCH, c. 1893 Symbolism
Symbolism was a reaction to Post Impressionism. It was a movement in both art and literature that emphasized the expressive qualities of the Post Impressionists. These artists rejected the natural world for the symbolic expression of their inner feelings. Each artist responds individually and expresses his or her own experiences and inner feelings. The Scream is about anguish and anxiety. It shows the loneliness of humanity. As the figure in the foreground screams, he covers his ears to block his own sound. The shape of his head is that of a skull, representing the dread of death. The curves in the landscape echo the shape of the figure, unifying the composition. While the red color of the clouds, symbolizes blood and pain. All aspects of this work reinforce the expression of anxiety.
synthetic cubism
Synthetic cubism is a building up of space in flat planes. Synthetic cubism approached the problem of the rejection of three dimensional space in a different way. Rather than breaking objects down, synthetic cubism was based on building them up. Synthetic cubism developed out of the process of collage. The word, "collage" comes from the French word collé meaning to stick. It involved taking fragments of unrelated objects and assembling them together to form something totally different from the pieces that they were made from.
Council of Trent
The Council of Trent in 1565 sent down a decree dictating the churches position on art. They said that art should be put in service to the church to instruct in Christian doctrine and bring piety to men. They said that art should have a clear and convincing message and be understood by all. Essentially this dictated that art would be used as propaganda for the church in an attempt to renew the strength and vitality of the Catholic church.
Lord Heathfield, Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1787 Neo-Classical
The Enlightenment concept of "nobility," especially in the view of Rousseau (page 774), referred to character, not to aristocratic birth. In an era of revolutions, the virtues of courage and resolution, patriotism, and self-sacrifice assumed greater importance. Having risen from humble origins, the modern military hero joined the well-born aristocrat as a major patron of portrait painting. Sir Joshua Reynolds was one of those who often received commissions to paint likenesses of key participants in the great events of the latter part of the 18th century. Indeed, he soon specialized in what became known as Grand Manner portraiture, echoing the term that Nicolas Poussin used in the previous century to describe his paintings of "grand subjects" (see page 755). Although clearly depicting specific individuals, Grand Manner portraits elevated the sitters by conveying refinement and elegance. Reynolds and other painters communicated a person's grace and class through certain standardized conventions, such as the large scale of the figure relative to the canvas, the controlled pose, the landscape setting, and the low horizon line. Reynolds painted Lord Heathfield (fig. 26-20) in 1787. The sitter was a perfect subject for a Grand Manner portrait—a burly, ruddy English officer, the commandant of the fortress at Gibraltar. Heathfield had doggedly defended the British stronghold against the Spanish and French, and later received the honorary title Baron Heathfield of Gibraltar. Here, he holds the huge key to the fortress, the symbol of his victory. He stands in front of a curtain of dark smoke rising from the battleground, flanked by one cannon pointing ineffectively downward and another whose tilted barrel indicates that it lies uselessly on its back. Reynolds portrayed the features of the general's heavy, honest face and his uniform with unidealized realism. But Lord Heathfield's posture and the setting dramatically suggest the heroic themes of battle, courage, and patriotism.
The Fountain, MARCEL DUCHAMP, c. 1950 (after the 1917original) Dadaism
The Fountain was a ready-made created by turning an ordinary urinal upside down and signing it "R. Mutt 1917". The signature was a pun on the Mutt and Jeff comic strip and the Mott plumbing company. The title played with the comparison of men urinating and a fountain. This work was totally absurd, which was the purpose.
Oath of the Horatii, JACQUES-LOUIS DAVID, c. 1784 Neo-Classical
The Oath of the Horatii by David illustrated the conflict between love and patriotism. It was a Roman story with a contemporary message. This story was familiar to the French of the time, because it had made into a popular play. The story that it was based on was about three brothers, who had been chosen to fight to death against three warriors from another town in order to protect the freedom of their town. One of the sisters was engaged to a warrior from the other town. In this battle she will loose either her brother or her lover. The message was that one must sacrifice private desire for civic duty. The men represented civic duty, while the women symbolize private desire. Not only was the message based on Roman influences, but so were the visual characteristics. The figures are all dressed in Roman garb and standing in a Roman architectural setting. The simplicity of the composition was also very classical in its nature. Classical art used bold, simple compositions with no unnecessary details. This painting was created on the eve of the French Revolution and was a call to the French to place their civic responsibilities above their personal interests and take an oath of loyalty to the revolution, just as these brothers have done.
The Persistence of Memory, SALVIDORE DALI, c. 1931 Surrealism
The Persistence of Memory was based on a landscape from his childhood in Spain, but everything else was from his imagination. He gave concrete form to unreal imaginary objects. The subject is the end of time. You see limp watches hanging from a variety of objects, including a dead tree. The closed pocket watch has ants swarming on top of it as if it were decaying. The strange nose like creature was based on a figure borrowed from Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights. The entire scene gives us an eery and strange feeling.
Where did the word Rococo come from?
The Rococo began in France as an interior design movement. The word Rococo comes from the French word rocaille, which refers to ornamental pebbles and shells.
Wet -plate photography
The age of daguerreotype portraits ended when Talbot discovered the albumen process. This process was the same as his original callotype process except that rather than using paper for the negative he used a glass plate. The light sensitive material was mixed with egg white and coated on the glass. The egg is what made it stick. However, the exposure must be done before the plate dried. So, any photographers working outside a studio, must take a portable darkroom with them to coat the plates. These albumen prints had all the advantages of both callotypes and daguerreotypes. They were sharp and clear but also able to be reproduced in multiples.
The Nightmare, HENRY FUSELI, 1781 Romanticism
The art of this time was also designed to appeal to the viewers imagination. The people of this time considered the Middle Ages a dark age full of barbarism, superstition and mystery. The unknown and fear of the unknown appealed to them. There was a revival of the ideas of the Gothic era called Gothick. The artist of this revival used their imaginations to create subjects based on fantasy, nightmares, and the sublime. One such artist was Henry Fuseli. In his work the Nightmaret, Fuseli explored the dark side of the unconscious. He looked into both the dreams and the unconscious mind and used a vivid imagination to express them in art. The subject of this work is a woman tortured by her dreams. The demon sitting on top of her represents her dreams. Her body position, still asleep, but having fallen from her bed, illustrates her torture. All is watched by a horse with flaming eyes. Exploring dreams and the unconscious was only one way the Romantic artists appealed to the imaginations and emotions of their viewers.
Camera Obscura
The camera obscura, which is latin for "dark chamber", was a device that was used to help artists trace images. It was simply a box with a lens on the front and a mirror inside that reflected the image coming through the lens on to a piece of opaque glass at the top. The artist traced the image projected on the opaque glass.
What political event motivated the Dadaists?
The devastation of World War I created an overwhelming sense of anxiety in Europe. Dadaism began as a revolt against the horrors of this war. The Dadaist felt that new methods of war had led to absurd levels of human destruction and that society had demonstrated that it was without reason. They implied that it was pointless to look for order and reason in a world where there was so much chaos and destruction. They felt that society had gone insane, so they mimicked society by producing insane art.
Expressionist
The expressionists wanted to express their inner thoughts and emotions through their art. Gauguin and Van Gogh represented this group.
Formalist
The formalists wanted to re-establish form and structure in art. The formalists were interested in how the visual principles such as color, shape and space created structure in art. Seurat and Cézanne were formalists.
Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, Bernini, 1645-1652 Baroque
The interior of the Cornaro Chapel in Rome also exhibits this dramatic quality. The area behind the alter was set up as a stage with all the elements from the sculptures, to the architecture, to the painted ceiling contributing to the setting. The subject was the Ecstasy of St. Theresa. St. Theresa was a Carmelite nun who had a religious conversion at the death of her father. She claimed to have fallen into a series of trances, saw visions, heard voices, and felt an intense pain in her side. She attributed this pain to being struck by the arrow of divine love. Bernini's sculpture showed her falling back onto a cloud as an angel prepares to pierce her with the arrow of divine love. The drama was intensified by the use of diagonal lines, deep undercutting (removing the stone to create a high relief with deep shadows) in the stone, and the expressive quality of the faces. All of this was amplified by the use of diagonal bronze rays that appear to fall from heaven. Light from a hidden window falls on the bronze giving it a mystical quality.
Green Coca-Cola Bottles, ANDY WARHOL, 1962 Pop Art
The most prominent Pop artist was Andy Warhol. Using mass produced objects and celebrity appeal as his subjects, Warhol was commenting on the commercialism of society. He used repetition, simplification and color to get his message of across. His images of Campbell's Soup cans and Coke bottles are examples of his commercialized imagery. designed for a mass audience low cost aimed at youth witty sexy gimmicky glamorous short term a product of big business
Woman Holding a Balance, Jan Vermeer, ca. 1664 Baroque
The ordinary lives of Dutch men and women were also studied in the works of Jan Vermeer. Vermeer is noted for his paintings of quiet domestic tranquility. His settings are most often the interiors of middle class Dutch homes and contain mostly women, performing ordinary household tasks. In these he makes even the simplest tasks look important. Examples of his work include the Milkmaid, and women with such objects as a letter, a lute, a water jug and a balance. Not only are these works quiet and beautiful, but they seduce the viewer with a fantastic quality of light. Vermeer used this light to show an advanced understanding of color. He knew that color was in light and that shadows contain color, not just darkness. He also understood that objects affect the color of other nearby objects.
What is the basic premise of Cubism?
The rejection of traditional art had one of its most significant moments in the art of Cubism. This style was a turning point in the history of western art. It was the complete rejection of the idea of creating the illusion of three dimensional space. This idea of creating the illusion of space had been the basis of traditional art since the Renaissance. The premise behind cubism was that space on a two dimensional surface was different from natural space and that these natural objects were only a starting point for abstract images. The primary influences on this style were the philosophies of Cezanne, who said that man sees the world from a moving point of view, therefore he reduced what he saw into flat planes of color. Cubism can be broken down into two types, analytic cubism and synthetic cubism. Analytic cubism can be described as a breaking down of space into flat planes, while synthetic cubism is a building up of space in flat planes. Both analytic and synthetic cubism were the brain children of Pablo Picasso and George Braque. These two men worked together and shared ideas. Their cubist work is very similar and almost indistinguishable from each other.
Color field painting
The second group of Abstract Expressionist painters were known as the Colorfield painters. These painters were also interested in the process of painting, but more from the perspective of how we respond to color than from the actions involved. These works are also nonrepresentational and are about the relationship between colors.
What were the ideas that formed the basis of surrealism?
The surrealists were dadaists with a purpose. Surrealism was a movement in both art and literature that was begun by the writings of Andre Breton. Breton called for writers and artist to find a higher reality than that of the conscious mind. His theories were based on Freudian psychology. Freud explored the subconscious through free association and dream interpretation. The surrealist used representational objects to explore the subconscious mind. Their art can be characterized by strange juxtapositions of objects and impossible situations.
Open Composition
There is a strange sense of space as his subjects are often clustered together in several groups separated from one another by open voids of space. These voids twist through the compositions often leaving open spaces in the center of the piece. These compositions came directly from the influence of photography.
Death of Sardanapalus, EUGÉNE DELACROIX, 1827 Romanticism
There was a division in art between the followers of Ingres and the followers of Delacroix. Those, who followed Ingres, looked to classicism for ideal form and chose to appeal more to their viewers sense of reason. Those, who followed Delacroix, favored more progressive styles and looked for strong uses of color in art. They appeal to their viewers emotions not their intellects. Here, he created a more tranquil scene, but with an exotic character. Even in this work, he used vibrant color. Inspired by Byron's poem, Sardanapalus, this painting depicts an Assyrian king who has just learned that his armies have been defeated and his kingdom conquered. Rather than be captured, he watches, while all of his favorite possessions, his women, slaves, horses, and treasures are destroyed. It is a scene of heightened drama and destruction. The main color repeated throughout is a vibrant red. The elements of intrigue, fantasy and a taste for the exotic make this work Romantic while it was the strategic use of color that made it purely Delacroix.
Allegory of the Art of Painting, JAN VERMEER, c. 1670 Baroque
These qualities of light and the quiet calmness of a Dutch interior can all be seen in his Allegory of the Art of Painting. Here, all of those qualities exist, yet he goes one step beyond to include his own portrait as an artist at work.
How did their work overturn the traditional ideas about three dimensional space in art?
They are about response and action/process, not the subject of the painting
What are the characteristics of this style?
This movement was a response to the Baroque in that it took Baroque ideas and literally lightened them up. As a style, the rococo can be characterized as ornate and feminine. It used pastel colors and round curly shapes. It was meant to appeal to the social elite of Paris. This elite were often the subject of this art. They were most often seen as subjects in love. The rococo differed from previous styles in that it was not about religion. It was the lives and loves of its subject that were important. The British moralized Rococo in their paintings.
Big Self-Portrait, CHUCK CLOSE, c. 1968 Superrealism
This photographic accuracy was taken to disgusting extremes by Chuck Close. His Big Self-Portrait is an 8'11'' tall portrayal of every nose hair, whisker and blemish on his skin. It is far from idealized, bordering on grotesque, illustrating that the human body enlarged and scrutinized is not a pretty sight. However disgusting, this is an amazingly accurate study of every detail of his portrait.
What motivated this style? To whom did they look for inspiration?
This was the time of the French Revolution and American Revolution. In this time of chaos, artists turned to what they believed was the highest achievements in art, looking for some sense of order. In this search, they rediscovered the art and architecture of ancient Greece and Rome.
Modernism
To be modern is to look forward rather than backward. It is to realize that the ideas of the past are just that, past, and to develop new ones. It is to believe that the great works of the past can't be done again without being imitations. In art, modernists began to feel that representational art was incomplete, that the world is more complicated than it appears on the surface. They advocated a break with traditional, representational art. They shifted from the importance of the subject to the importance of the artistic process. These styles tended to change quickly, to influence each other and to overlap chronologically. This is the age of the "isms".
Starry Night, VINCENT VAN GOGH, c. 1888 Post-Impressionism
Vincent Van Gogh used his art to express his troubled life. He only painted for the last ten years of his life. This life was filled with frustration and disappointment. He was troubled by his relationship with his father. He felt that his father had never accepted him. He was actually the second son named Vincent in his family. The first Vincent had died as an infant. Van Gogh felt like his father always longed for that Vincent not him. He felt that he was a failure in his chosen profession, the ministry. He was also never accepted as an artist during his lifetime. In fact, he only sold one painting. The only long term close relationship that he had was with his brother Theo. While rocky at times, Theo supported Van Gogh in his artistic endeavors. Starry Night was also not a realistic representation. In this, Van Gogh was trying to show how vast the universe was and how small man was in comparison. The town was presented as being tiny as compared to the swirling mass of stars above. Their art was about expressing internal ideas and emotions. The formal aspects are simply used to convey those emotions.
What qualities make Baroque sculpture different from Renaissance sculpture?
Visually, the Baroque period can be described as dramatic, theatrical, and emotional. This sculpture captures David at the height of the action as he cast the stone that would kill Goliath. He was in motion. This renewed sense of motion and drama was heightened by the expressive quality of his facial expression and by the use of strong diagonal lines. Diagonal lines tend to suggest energy and motion.
The Slave Ship, TURNER, c. 1840 Romanticism
While Goya showed us man against man, the British painter Joseph Mallord William Turner (hereafter know as Turner) gave us man against nature. The industrial revolution had brought a new meaning to the concept of nature. Man no longer worked surrounded by nature but felt alienated by it. There were two commonly held views of nature during Romanticism--first, that nature should be idealized and cherished, that it could restore what was missing in their industrial lives and secondly, that they must be careful of nature since it could turn violent and destroy the very men that idealized it. Turner made the fierce quality of nature and the battle of man vs. nature the subjects of his art. His works were often about actual events. His paintings were ahead of their time in terms of their abstract and impressionistic qualities. He based them not on visual reality, but sensual feeling. There is one story, where Turner wanted to paint a ship in a storm. In order to accurately portray the feeling of the storm, he had himself strapped to the mast of a ship as it battled a storm. He then went back and painting what it felt like. The Slave Ship by Turner was based on 1783 incident where a ship captain threw all sick slaves overboard to drown at sea. He did this because his insurance company would only pay him for slaves lost at sea, not those lost to illness. In the foreground, you can see the fish devouring the bodies of those slaves. The sky and water are blood red, indicating man battling and loosing to the sea.
Barbizon School
a group of French painters of country life who, to be close to their rural subjects, settled near the village of Barbizon in the forest of Fontainebleau. This Barbizon School specialized in detailed pictures of forest and countryside.
