Segment 2 Study Guide Gallery 6
What did Turner lament? How did this affect his artwork?
-An English Romantic painter, Joseph Turner (1775-1851), lamented the effects of industrialization with energy and motion in his compositions.
Describe the work of Jose de Ribera. Who influenced him?
"Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew" - Ribera portrays the saint being hoisted up, just moments before his terrible death (the Apostle was skinned alive). -Ribera's style was influenced by Caravaggio, seen in his use of dramatic, "dark" themes, naturalism and unidealized models. -Ribera's individuality is evident in his use of scratchy brushwork, color, soft modeling and sensitivity in portraying humanity.
Describe "The Swing".
-Painted by the French Rococo painter Jean-Honore Fragonard (1732-1806), who is characterized by delicate hedonism in the work "The Swing." -Fragonard style is based primarily on that of Rubens but is renowned for his use of color and rapid, vigorous, fluent, compositions which are never tight or fussy. -Was originally commissioned from a serious history painter by an unknown French nobleman who said: "I desire that you should paint Madame (pointing to his mistress) on a swing which is being set in motion by a Bishop. You must place me where I can have a good view of the legs of this pretty little thing...". -This portrays the frivolous nature of Rococo's subject matter, a contrast to the Baroque period.
What is Rococo?
-Rococo art and architecture emerged in France about 1700 and spread throughout Europe in the eighteenth century. -Characterized by lightness, grace, playfulness, and intimacy, Rococo's colorful and fragile decoration concentrated on trivial subjects and pastoral poetry in art. -The term "rococo" was coined by combining "rocaille" (pebble) and "barocco" (Baroque), to negatively refer to the taste fashionable under Louis XV. Rococo was a development a reaction against the Baroque style. -Rococo and Baroque had complexity of form but Rococo replaced the dark colors and heavy decoration with light pinks, blues, greens, and white. -A reaction to the "heavy" Baroque, Rococo was noted for lightness, playfullness, and intimacy. -Seperating from the religious subject matter of the Baroque, Rococo artists concentrated on the trivial and frivilous. -The softness and delicacy that characterize Rococo are evident in the architecture. -The liveliness, sensuality and intimacy of Rococo are also evident in the smallish and more delicate sculptures of the period.
What is Romanticism? What subjects did it depict?
-Romanticism is a term used to describe the art movement in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (roughly 1750-1850). -Primarily a reaction to the reason and strict forms and rules of Neoclassicism, the style emphasizes the emotional, the mystical and the spiritual over the reasonable and the rational. -Romanticism grew out of the Neoclassical period, fostered by three artists who were all pupils of David: Antoine-Jean Gros, Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson, and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. -Use of an exotic setting, a contemporary rather than a classical hero, and presentations of extreme emotion, suffering and death are breaks are standard in the Romantic period -Scenes replete with primitivism, passion and tragedy, are Romantic characteristics -Depicted exotic (and sometimes erotic) subjects in exotic places -Romanticism exhibited a fondness for the exotic, the primitive, the irrational and the intensely dramatic. An interest in the occult and morbidity, art reflected sensuality with horror and a complete departure from the rational
Describe the influences one sees of Neoclassicism on American architecture and sculpture.
-The Neoclassical emphasis on rationality, civic pride and love of country, which was so meaningful in revolutionary France, was just as popular in revolutionary America. Art -Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) pushed to have Neoclassicism adopted as the official architectural style of the United States. Jefferson's fondness for the Neoclassical style is evident in his design for Monticello, his home in Charlottesville, Virginia. -The influence of Palladio is combined with the use of wood (instead of marble) and brick, which are distinctly American elements. Architecture: -As fitting as Neoclassicism was for American architecture of the period, it was not popular in sculpture, seen in the portrait of George Washington by Horatio Greenough (1805-1852). -Arealistic rendition of Washington's head on an idealized body was inspired by a lost Phidian sculpture of Zeus. -The presentation was too much for American tastes and sensibilities of the period and the work was never displayed (in fact, one senator wanted to throw it into the Potomac River).
Describe Caravaggio's style. Who were the Carravaggists?
-The artist's style is typical of the Baroque's portrayal of a highly dramatic and theatrical composition, but his technique was revolutionary-tenebrism (from the Italian, "tenebroso," or"shadowy"). -Caravaggio's use of unidealized common people as models departed from figural representations of the Renaissance and was a main complaint of his critics. -The followers of Caravaggio were collectively called the "Caravaggisti" by scholars.
Describe the work of Poussin.
-The color of Titian and figural forms reminiscent of Raphael were evident in Nicolas Poussin's (1594-1665) work. "The Shepard of Arcadie" -Portrayed are three shepherds in an idealized landscape deciphering the phrase, "Et in Arcadia ego," ("Even in Arcadia I (i.e. Death) am to be found") inscribed on a tomb as a mysterious female figure watches.
Describe Versailles.
-The most famous project of King Louis XIV was the conversion of the royal hunting lodge at Versailles into one of the grandest palaces in the world. -Under the direction of architect Charles Le Brun (1619-1690), a virtual army of artists descended on Versailles in 1669. -The plan included making Versailles a small city that included a massive palace and a vast park and numerous satellite buildings including government offices, military barracks, servants' quarters and a chapel. -The Galerie des Glaces, or Hall of Mirrors overlooks the great park and extends nearly the length of the central portion of the palace. -Yards of ceiling paintings, marble, stucco decoration andmirrors characterize the theatrical Baroque ornamention. -The royal chapel by Jules Hardouin-Mansart (1646-1708), great-nephew of Francois Mansart is a rectangular building that includes an apse that is as high as the nave. This creates a flowing curved central space in typical Baroque fashion.
What was the Baroque style?
-The term "Baroque" comes from the Portuguese word "barocco" meaning "rough" or "irregular" -The word was first employed as an art term by eighteenth-century Neoclassicists who found the art of the preceding period (the Baroque) distasteful. Today, the word has lost all its negative connotations and is used to describe Western art roughly corresponding to the seventeenth century (ca. 1590-1725). -The Baroque style is characterized by an emphasis on unity among the arts. -The baroque artist achieved harmony in painting, sculpture, and architecture which were brought together in new spatial relationships, both real and illusionary. All trends in baroque art engage the viewer, both physically and emotionally. -Naturalistic illusionism and dramatic light characterized painting and sculpture. -Baroque sculpture is dramatic, theatrical, energetic and full of movement -Baroque architecture absorbed the fluid, plastic aspects of sculpture.
Describe William Hogarth's artworks.
-William Hogarth's (1697-1764) series of paintings read like chapters in a book-each displaying a particular social ill. "Marriage a la Mode," -The viewer follows the unhappy marriage between the daughter of a rich and miserable merchant (who wishes to advance socially) and the son of an impoverished but still arrogant earl (who desperately needs the merchant's money). "Breakfast Scene" -The second in a series of six. - Hogarth portrayed a biting satirical comment on the immorality of wealthy classes who engage in marriage for social or monetary gain rather than love and companionship -Many clues to the wretched state of the young couple's marriage are visually depicted: -The Couple: though it is past noon, the couple is still wearing their clothes from the night before, from which they are clearly exhausted. -The Party: the wife apparently had a rowdy music and card party. This is evident from the instrument and music tossed on the overturned chair (foreground), the loose deck of cards, which are also on the floor (middle distance) and the exasperated servant cleaning up the mess (in the distance). -The Husband: The husband obviously spent his night elsewhere. Note how he is still wearing his hat and overcoat, while his sword and belt have clearly just been removed (lower right). Like his wife, the character of the young husband is also questionable. The black spot on his neck indicates that the young man is taking mercurial pills which were the only known treatment for venereal disease at the time. The family dog sniffs a lady's cap in his pocket, which is certainly not his wife's, based on the dog's interest. -The Steward: To the left, their steward, carrying a stack of unpaid bills, leaves the room with his hand raised in despair at the disorder -The Far Room: In the far room, the combination of religious paintings (portrayals of saints) with a work so erotic that it must be covered with a curtain, illustrates the hypocrisy of the union -Over The Mantel: The painting over the mantelpiece shows Cupid (i.e., Love) among ruins while the bust in front of it has a broken nose, symbolizing impotence.
Describe Watteau's work.
-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) is credited with creating a genre of Rococo painting known as fete galante in which the outdoor merriments of nobility are depicted. "L'Indifferent" -exhibits the Rococo light, delicate and frivolous characteristics. -The softness and playfulness in the piece with the gentle, shimmering colors and feathery brushwork typify the Rococo period.
Describe Bernini's The Ecstasy of St. Theresa
-Bernini's "The Ecstasy of St. Theresa" in the Cornaro Chapel in Santa Maria della Vittoria, in Rome is an example of his mature art. -The work is a depiction of a mystical experience of the great Spanish Carmelite reformer Theresa of Ávila. -Bernini represented Theresa's vision using her own description of when an angel pierced her heart with a fiery arrow of divine love. The transported saint swooning in the void, covered by cascading drapery, is revealed in celestial light within a niche over the altar. -The architectural and decorative elements are married to convey the experience to the viewer. -The figures of St. Theresa and the angel are sculptured in white marble and natural daylight falls on the figures from a hidden source above and behind them to integrate and mimic the gilt rays behind. -"The Ecstasy of St. Theresa" is a framed pictorial scene of sculpture, painting, and light that includes the worshipper in a religious drama, the element that defines Baroque art.
Describe Carracci's ceiling frescoes. What is quadro riportato?
-Carracci's ceiling frescoes of the gallery of the Palazzo Farnese in Rome, collectively known as "The Loves of the Gods," are reminiscent of illusionistic ceiling paintings of the Renaissance (Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel) which reached the height of their popularity in the Baroque. -Carracci arranged the scenes based on Ovid's Metamorphoses in illusionistic, ornate frames in a technique known as quadro riportato. -A fresco surrounded by multiple other frescoes with numerous people dancing and celebrating with cherubs flying above them. -The detail, "Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne," is entirely classical. -Many of the separate currents that had flowed through the Renaissance came together here but stunning and light-hearted decoration, filled with color and movement, is Baroque. -Bernini, the master of the Roman Baroque, summarized this in his assessment of Carracci's art that, "combined all that is good, fusing the grace and drawing of Raphael, the knowledge and anatomy of Michelangelo, the nobility and manner of Correggio, the color of Titian and the invention of Giulio Romano and Mantegna."
Describe Delacroix's work. How did it change?
-Delacroix's paintings are dramatic, emotional and visually complex. -Delacroix was also a supreme colorist and drew inspiration from the current events of his day. "Liberty Leading the People" -The subject is the three days of July 1830, known as the Trois Glorieuses, which saw out the autocracy of Charles X and brought in Louis-Philippe's parliamentary monarchy. -As a liberal and a Romanticist, the artist wanted to celebrate the July uprising when Parisians took up arms in hope of restoring the Republic. -At the center is the allegorical figure of Liberty dramatically waving the tricolor flag and storming the corpse-ridden barricades with a young combatant at her side. -Reviled by conservatives, the work was bought by Louis-Philippe in 1831 and was soon hidden to prevent provoking public unrest. -In "Lion Hunting in Morocco" Delacroix's further development as a colorist is seen. -After Morocco, the artist's sense of the expressive power of color was heightened tremendously and would impact the artists of the later half of the nineteenth century, such as the Impressionists.
Describe the work of Velazquez. Describe "Las Meninas"
-Diego Velazquez (1599-1660) is considered the greatest painter of Spanish Baroque. -He served as the official painter for Philip IV and attained the position of chamberlain in the king's court -The influence of Caravaggio is seen in the artist's use of tenebrism and plebeian figures. -There is incredible clarity and detail combined with the inherent dignity of the figures themselves "Las Meninas" ("The Maids of Honor"). -The artist portrays himself before a large canvas in his studio, presumably painting a portrait of King Philip IV and Queen Mariana, who are reflected in the mirror in the distance. -In the foreground, the Princess Margarita with her maids, a dwarf and a large dog. -The other characters include a woman in widow's clothing with a male escort (middle distance) and a gentleman in the doorway of the room (far distance). -The "performance" is for the king's and queen's benefit, but the attention of the painter is also concentrated on them because to be working on their portrait. -Despite the king and queen being limited to the mirror reflection they are the actual focus of the painting towards which everything else is directed. -The viewer is actually excluded from the scene, peaking in on the scene but not a participant.
How did French Baroque differ from the Spanish Baroque?
-Different from Dutch light-hearted versions, French genre scenes lacked movement and were a somber reflection of the miserable condition the French peasantry endured during the period. -The most recognizable feature of the French Baroque was the use of classical elements.
What were Goya's influences? How did his art change over the years? Why did it change?
-Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) rejected Neoclassicism and claimed his only inspirations were "nature," Velazquez and Rembrandt. -Goya received a considerable amount of recognition early on in his life and was named painter to the king at the age of twenty. -Use of darker values, freer brushwork and a formal, more dramatic presentation. -Goya's later years were spoiled by declining health, increasing isolation and pessimism. His later works reflected this and were extremely "dark" and gruesome.
What types of scenes did Vermeer paint?
-Genre Scenes, which depict everyday life and were popular with the prosperous seventeenth-century Dutch middle-class.
What influenced Gericault and his art? Describe Gericault's "Raft of Medusa". What type of composition do we see here?
-Gericault was classically trained but rejected Neoclassical norms -She studies the subjects of her paintings before painting them "Raft of Medusa" -Gericault represented the few remaining survivors desperately trying to flag down a ship in the distance (which can barely be seen on the horizon line to the right). --The horrific drama of the incredible suffering, the despair and death are indeed intensified by the twisting mass of bodies and purposeful placement of the figures. -The X-shape of the composition (one diagonal runs from the storm clouds and sail in the upper left down to the corpse in the lower right, while the other begins in the lower left and rises dramatically to the pyramid of figures in the upper right) heightens the emotional impact by seeming to send the raft and even the corpses into the viewer's space.
What is Neoclassicism? What are some of its characteristics?
-Neoclassicism: the movement in European art and architecture in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. -Neoclassicism evolved through a desire to recreate the heroic spirit and art of Greece and Rome, scientific interest, and an opposition to the Rococo style that was driven by a desire to restore Ancient Roman values within society. -The Neoclassical emphasis on rationality, civic pride and love of country, which was so meaningful in revolutionary France, was just as popular in revolutionary America. -Neoclassicism is characterized by the return to order, clarity, and reason of Greek and Roman art. This was the foundation to change modern society to restore classic ideals and values. -Clear and forceful compostions
Describe Jacques- Louis David's artworks and style.
-Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) followed the spirit of the Enlightenment; he believed art should highlight what is moral, virtuous and heroic. "Oath of the Horatii" -depicts the Pre-Republican Roman legend of the Horatii triplets. According to tradition, Rome and her nearby rival city-state Alba decided to settle their differences by choosing three champions from each city. The Romans sent the Horatii triplets and Alba sent the Curiatii, also triplets. A Horatii sister was engaged to one of the Curiatii, and one of the Horatii brothers was married to a Curiatii sister. -David's painting depicts the moment at which the Horatii swear on their swords (held by their father) to win while to the right are the distressed women of the family. -The theme of heroic self-sacrifice and love of country (taken from Roman history), a clear and forceful composition, and statuesque figural forms all characterize the Neoclassical era. -The work was commissioned by royal patronage but it was used by French revolutionaries as inspiration to sacrifice self for the good of the nation. "The Death of Marat" -Inspired by the French Revolution -Presents the assassinated revolutionary radical and personal friend of the artist, Jean-Paul Marat. -Marat is seen by the viewer just after he was stabbed by Charlotte Corday, who was a member of a rival revolutionary group. -The revolutionary martyr is depicted in his medicinal bath he was often confined due to a chronic skin disease (which he contracted in the sewers of Paris when hiding from the Royal Police). -In his hand, he holds a note from Corday with which the murderess was able to gain access to Marat. -In the characteristic Neoclassical fashion, the composition is clear and forceful. David also creates an atmosphere that is at the same time sympathetic (Marat's confinement to the bath), saturnine (primarily through the massive void in the upper portion of the painting) and enraging (as man's trust and vulnerability were obviously betrayed.) "The Coronation of Napoleon" -Napoleon commissioned a commemoration of his coronation in 1804, which took place in the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. -The monumental work is over 30 feet long and 20 feet high and contains over a hundred figures. -The newly consecrated emperor is crowning his wife Josephine while Pope Pius VII (seated directly behind Napoleon) gives him his blessing. -The Neoclassical style of the artist is evident in the clarity (each of the figures are individualized) and structure (note how the religious figures are placed to the right and the governmental figures are organized to the left, with Napoleon strategically placed between).
Describe Ingres' influence on Romanticism.
-Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) was more committed to Neoclassical ideals than David but the "conservative" Ingres would have a significant influence on the "liberal" art of the Romantic period (especially with such works as "La Grande Odalisque")
Describe the work of Rubens. What artists influenced him?
-Rubens' work reflects influence of the tense, figural forms of Michelangelo, the color of Titian, the theatricality of Caravaggio and the energy and movement of Carracci with traditional Flemish realism. The artist's style is individual and characterized by its naturalism, color, dynamism and sensuality "Elevation of the Cross" -Evidence of Rubens' studies in Italy, where he had just returned. -Note the twisted figures after Michelangelo, the tenebrism of Caravaggio and the striking use of Venetian color. -The triptych also marked Rubens' sensational introduction of the Baroque style into Northern art, as the diagonal composition is full of dynamism and animated color. -In the center, nine executioners strain to raise the cross with Christ's body. -The dramatic action is witnessed from the left by St John, the Virgin Mary and a group of weeping women and children. -On the right, a Roman officer watches on horseback while soldiers in the background are crucifying the two thieves "Arrival of Marie de' Medici at Marseilles" -Marie de' Medici, widow of Henry IV (the first of the Bourbon kings of France), commissioned a series of large canvas paintings from Rubens to memorialize and glorify her and her late husband -Depicts the queen arriving in France by sea from Italy. Surrounded by her attendants, the proud Florentine receives a servile welcome from (a personification of) France (the fleur-de-lis cloak). -The sky (winged and trumpeting fame) and sea (Neptune and the Nereids) welcome the queen. -Note the naturalism, color, dynamism and sensuality that characterize the Rubens' style. "Allegory of the Outbreak of War." -Rubens' service as a diplomat was no simple task given that during most of his career, Europe was at war, which he vocalized his attitude towards war in the work -Mars, the Roman god of war, with his bloody sword and uplifted shield, leaving the Temple of Janus (left), whose doors remained closed during times of peace. -At the right side of the war god, Venus (the goddess of love) and her cupids try to restrain Mars, as the Fury, Alecto (the tormentor from Hades) pulls him forward. -In the distance Plague and Famine wait, while a musician with a broken lute (harmony), a mother and child (tenderness) and an architect with his tools (civilization) fall before Mars. -Beneath the war god's feet, a book is trampled (literature and learning) and a ravaged personification of Europe is left behind.
What is "The Age of Enlightenment"? Name some of the artist's from this period.
-The Enlightenment in the eighteenth century was an extraordinary expansion of knowledge rooted in the scientific and intellectual developments of the seventeenth century. -Natural law, universal order and human reason influenced all of eighteenth-century society and art. -Artists of the period include: Wright, Darby and Pritchard, Canaletto, Greuze, Chardin, Vigee-Lebrun, Hogarth, Gainsborough, and West