Art Appreciation, Midterm Images

Agesander, Athenodorus, and Polydorus. Laocoön

A Trojan priest and his two sons are strangled to death by Poseidon's sea serpents during the Trojan war.

Jackson Pollock. No. 32

A sort of kinetic art. We think about how Pollock felt as he was moving around dripping paint onto the canvas. His art says something like "it's not about the destination, it's about the journey."

Augustus of Primaporta

Bears a resemblance to the Spear Bearer is posture. He represents the empire's political aspirations of military victory, even though Augustus solve problems more diplomatically.

Do-Go Suh. Public Figures

Brings attention to the fact that if one figure achieves something, there are hundreds or even thousands of people who helped that person and they never get any recognition.

Palette of King Narmer

Celebrates the victory of Upper Egypt over lower Egypt. King Narmer is depicted as almost god-like, as he holds onto an enemy, ready to finish him off.

The Dome of the Rock

Decorated with no pictures, but with mosaics and some calligraphy. Representational art is not allowed in the Muslim culture, so they aspire to honor thier religion in other ways. Built to honor a site that is sacred to both the Muslims and the Jews.

Leonardo da Vinci. Madonna of the Rocks

Demonstrates Aerial Perspective; the rocks in the background only appear distant because they are bluer in hue, not because of perspective.

Andrea Mantegna. The Dead Christ

Demonstrates foreshortening. If this piece had kept it's natural dimensions, Jesus would appear distorted, with large feet and a short body.

Rose window, south transept, Chartres cathedral

Demonstrates radial balance. Everything extends from Jesus, as if to say he should be the center of your life.

Utagawa Hiroshige (Ando). Moon Pine

Demonstrates the foreground, middleground, and background. The tree is in the foreground, the island is in the middle, and the city is in the background. This peice also tells the artists' journey, from the inspiration, to skill, to selling.

Jan van Eyck. the Arnolfini Double Portrait

Demonstrates the power of symbols and iconography in art. Nearly everything in this image is meant to represent something.

Leonardo da Vinci. The Last Supper

Demonstrates the use of one point perspective; all lines and points converge on Jesus' forehead as if to say he is not only the focal pointof the image, but our lives as well.

Gustave Caillebotte. Place de l'Europe on a Rainy Day

Demonstrates two-point perspective, this gives us a sense of how large the building in the distance is.

Apllodorus. Column of Trajan

Incredible architectural feat by the Romans, which describe nearly the entirety of Trajan's campaigns in Hungary and Romania.

Bridget Riley. Drift No. 2

Op art, it tricks your eye into thinking that is sees movement in the lines and contrast.

Claude Monet. Grainstack

Painted en plein air at different times of the day throughout the painting, resulting in different colors due to the perceptual color.

Pablo Picasso. Les Demoiselles d'Avignon

Picasso purposefully gives this piece an enticing title and makes it strange. He gives the whores odd bodies and faces inspired by masks from Africa.

Triumphal Entry

Shows no images because in thier religion it is a sin to show any image that is not the one true God. So they use patterns and calligraphy to make their entries pretty.

Female figure (nkisi)

The Kongo people believed these figures could be given a soul and that they would kill their enemies.

Vincent van Gogh. The Night Cafe

The color in this painting has symbolic meaning, but it can fool the viewer. at first glance we may think that this is a lively, fun cafe, but van Gogh's intentions were to make this place seem like hell itself.

Gianlorenzo Bernini. David

The pose implies movement: we feel as if David is about to fling his stone from his sling and defeat Goliath.

Hokusai. The Great Wave off Kanagawa

The scale of the mountain plays with the viewers' expectations. Even though this giant, menacing wave appears as if it's going to destroy mt. Fuji, we know that it won't. The mountain will continue to move on.

Emperor Justinian and Attendants and Theodora and Her Attendants

These mosaics show different religious symbols through stylized means. This is as if to say "don't worry about all this stuff on Eart, worry about your spirituality and God."

Pierre Bonnard. The Terrace at Vernonnet

This painting demonstrates arbitrary color, with orange apples against the blue trees, none of it seems to make sense representationally.

Henri Matisse. Harmony in Red

This piece completely eliminates any sense of three-dimensionality. The table appears to blend in with the wall, and even the window could be seen as a painting instead.

Titian. The Assumption and Consecration of the Virgin

This piece demonstrates the use of implied line. The composition of the piece guides our eyes from the people on Earth, to the virgin, to God, which tells us a story.

Max Ernst. The Horde

This piece demonstrates visual texture, there are parts that appear rough or smooth, but they all feel smooth because it's ultimately just a painting.

Marchel Duchamp. Fountain

This piece insults the idea of art and artists; it took no skill and it's signed using an alias.

Manuel Neri. Mujer Pegada Series No. 2

This piece shows a variety of actual textures, the smooth parts feel smooth and the rough parts feel rough.

Chris Ofili. The Holy Virgin Mary

This piece was highly controversial because it was made using elephant dung and pornographic images - not what people like to associate with the Virgin Mary.

Martin Puryear. Self

This piece's smooth texture and dark hue, along with it's size and presence make it appear very heavy and dense, like a huge stone. This piece is actually very light and made of wood. Perhaps it's meaning stems from it's title, a reflection of the artists, or even ourselves?

Diego Velazques. Las Meninas (the Maids of Honor)

This plays with our idea of a focal point. You think that you're supposed to be looking at the little girl, but then you see the artist, and then the girl's parents, and the man walking out the door.

J.M.W. Turner. Rain, Steam, and Speed - The Great Western Railway

Through color and atmosphere, shows how The rain steam and speed feels. It's Use of space overwhelms the train and the landscape around it.

Michelangelo. Pieta

Title translates to both pity and piety, which both work because the viewer can pity MAry for the loss of her son, or feel piety for Jesus' death on the cross. It also demonstrates a brilliant use of texture: the fabric looks real and the skin looks lifelike.

Shirin Neshat. Still from Fervor

Use of contrast shows the contrast between men and women in some parts of the Muslim culture. Her head turning away from the others shows her unrest with how things are.

Michelangelo. Head of a Satyr

demonstrates modeling through cross-hatching. The hollows of the face are tightly cross-hatched, whereas the highlights have almost no lines at all.

Artemisia Gentileschi. Judith and Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes

uses tenebrism (use of large dark areas contrasted with a small bright one) to create a sense of drama.