Category: Uncategorized (Page 18 of 48)

The architectural creations of Claude-Nicolas Ledoux have pronounced geometric forms such as The House of the River Authority, where a rectangular base encompasses a cylinder. This type of building conveys the idea of a utopian society.

Moving to Romanticism, Grande Odalisque, depicts a harem woman which is not distinctly of an individual, but to express the idea of this exotic persona to the French population. It has a connection to 16th century painting, specifically Venus of Urbino, and Madonna with the Long Neck, referencing the subject matter and gracefulness respectfully. The girls features are perfect, having porcelain skin unblemished and small feet. The body is positioned gracefully.

The Raft of the Medusa was a work that achieved much fame as the embodiment of Romanticism. This work shows a boat passing through the equator where there is a party on the boat. This distraction coupled with an incompetent captain led to hitting a coral reef. The officers and captain left the shift on life rafts while the rest attempted to make a raft to survive. This group of 150 people diminished to only 15 12 days later when they were found. This ordeal was traumatic and even forced cannibalism to survive. This moment is where they see a ship off in the distance. It isn’t a hopeful sight but creates more tension. There were many sketches made as well as painting made off of bodies from the morgue to portray death accurately. This work was inspired by Rubens Elevation of the Cross seen in the diagonals and contrast in color. It is a commentary against slavery. This work was used in the intro drawing class to practice shading which makes sense as a powerful part of the work comes from the extensive contrasts between light and dark

Today’s lecture was online, but still super informative. We began by wrapping up our discussion of neoclassicism and beginning our discussion of romanticism. This transition clearly marked a switch in the ideals of artists. This was reflected through differences in the artwork we looked at over the past two classes. Romanticism is classified by an embrace of emotion and feeling in painting. This felt super engaging to me as a viewer and brought up a more emotional reaction than some of the artwork we have looked at in the past.

In today’s virtual lecture, we began by wrapping up neoclassicism and then transitioning to romanticism. This transition marked a clear switch in artists’ ideals, which is clearly reflected in the differences in the art we looked at in the two lectures. I found the embrace of emotion in romanticism to lead to more engaging paintings that felt more captivating to a viewer.

The greater expression of human feelings and emotions In romanticism feels more like contemporary art to me. I think that when greater emotion is expressed in a piece of art, it also leads to a greater emotion being evoked by the viewer. The celebration of the natural world is also an aspect of art from this period that I enjoy. I am a fan of landscape paintings like those of Thomas Cole or Frederic Church, and I think I am starting to observe some connection to this period.

Today’s class was the recorded lecture, which included a bit of Neoclassicism before transitioning to Romanticism. The Romantic period began a shift in subject matter, displaying more exotic like works that were aimed at appealing to the senses of the viewer thus causing a reaction to your emotions. We looked at Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’s, Grande Odalisque. In this work, the odalisque woman, which is a woman from a Turkish harem, appears a bit distorted and unproportional. Her limbs appear elongated and an extended torso gives her a bit of an unnaturally appearance. She also appears to gaze over her shoulder in a mysterious fashion further contributing to the exotic feel of the work. The background is dull causing all the attention to be place on her. Furthermore, she is holding a feathered fan in her right hand, which contrasts with the luxurious fabrics that surround her. This work is certainly a great representation of the Romantic period.

In today’s lecture, we look at a range of works from the period of Romanticism. Romanticism as a movement is defined by a rejection of Neoclassical rationality and authority and an embrace of emotion and Rubanist principles. We looked particularly at the French Romantics, whose works were heavily influenced by the politics so of the time, mainly the rule of Napoleon. Napoleon’s empire shook French culture, not only because they had gone from monarchy to anarchy to empire, but because Napoleon’s conquests into the East created a fascination with these new and “exotic” cultures. This concept, known as orientalism, is seen greatly in Ingres’ Grande Odalisque. The work references and almost imitates Titian Venus of Urbino, a famous work from the Venetian Renaissance. Ingres elongation of the woman’s back and the impossible pose she takes on is similar to Pargmagino’s Madonna with the Long Neck. Further, the face and hair wrap is similar to those seen in Raphel’s work. Ingres is clearly pulling influence from these Renaissance masters to show his knowledge of the arts, but he puts a twist on this. Unlike Neoclassistics who used references to the Renaissance and antiquity to imbue their works with meaning and morality, that is not Ingres’s aim. This work is meant to be dreamy and make the viewer fantasize about these exotic figures and places. It’s sensuality and light-heartedness is almost Rocco. This piece is definitely a transitional work of the Romantic period, as its lack of emotion and linearity is clinging to Neoclassical tradition.

In this class, we discussed the change of ideologies during the enlightenment period, which brought to the art scene the world through the lens of logic and reason, reflecting the shifting landscape towards rationalistic approach to all aspects of life and arts during the 18th century. The two central themes discussed in this period were that of logic and morality. With this rise, the emergence of “The Grand Tour”, wherein privileged young men set off to travel around Europe as the final part of their education – here, we could see the focus on real experience and a set of unique and specific actions, both in terms of places to visit (and appreciate) and what knowledge to bring back from said experience. 

In paintings of Anton Raphael Mengs, such as Parnassus, we observe a distinct change in composition (being incredibly centered and symmetrical) and approach to ideas, materialized by the usage of primary and secondary colors as the main tones of the piece, as opposed to the pale tones used in previous eras (Rococo or Baroque). In the logical and rational spirit of the Enlightenment, we see a shift from the painterly manner of painting to a more structured, simple, and linear manner of creating paintings. Contrastingly, however, in Thomas Gainsborough’s Portrait of Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, we sense a more relaxed approach to art, with the clear brushstrokes as well as the general integration of the human figure into nature. The fashion is interesting as well, a Grecian, toga-inspired garment that evoke a sense of serene freedom, while still maintaining a classic mood to the artpiece. 

More than anything, we could observe most apparent the change in style from the Baroque era to the Neoclassical period through architecture, with the focus being shifted from an outward, ostentatious display of luxury and abundance to a more simple facade, covering a luxurious interior design. Additionally, in buildings like the Chiswick House, we see architects reverting to the simple and perfect geometric shapes, similarly incorporated in Classic buildings. These elements of exterior/ interior differences can be seen in Robert Adam’s Kenwood House, with a twist being the color palette that very much reminds one of the Rococo era. Many of these classical elements are given a slight modification that reflects the influence of the previous eras on the time. In general, Neoclassicism reflects the time when artists, along with intellectuals, embrace the rational order which is very much expressed through the reference and appreciation of the antiquity.

The beginning of lecture focused on wrapping up some works from the Neoclassical period, as well as looking at some architectural works that paved the way from Neoclassicism towards Romanticism. Etienne-Louis Boullee’s Project for a Tomb of Isaac Newton, for me, serves as the epitome of this shifting of artistic ideals: from rational to abstract, awe-inspiring, and grandiose.

I found it interesting that the majority of the pieces covered in this Romanticism unit are of historical events that were contemporary at their time of conception– a contrast to Neoclassicism, where the majority of the works seemed to be historical paintings or paintings with classical subjects. A lot of these Romantic works are propaganda– pieces that are supposed to make you feel, not thought pieces.

A piece that particularly stood out to me was Delacroix’s Scenes from the Massacre of Chios. The themes of death and dying are accentuated by the stark contrasts of light and shadow. The baby attempting to feed on his mother’s corpse feels like a punch in the gut. Not to mention that the majority of the victims in the piece are women, being attacked (and violated) by men. I found Prof’s comment on the painting being a product of European saviorism fascinating. The Greeks were associated with ideas upheld by European society; they were descended from antiquity, the creators of democracy, whereas the Turks were foreign, anti-Christian, and “barbaric”.

Today we didn’t have an in-person class but we continued our lecture online. We finished the movement of neoclassicism.  After discussing the unclear transition from neoclassical art to romanticism we focused on jean-August-Domonique Ingres. The video elaborated on how romantic art was more colorful, less moral, and focused on emotions. This art theme imitates Rubens’s art style and what he was idolized for. We then moved to another significant artist Baron Antoine Jean Gros. He is another artist who still uses neoclassical style but also focuses the piece of art on emotions using bright and intense colors. The style of romantic art is more contemporary and irrational. This signified the change of art from rational and intelligent to colorful and less real. The art from this period signifies how old art styles are still significant but modernized to the period. After shifting to romanticism we then focused on other artists who focused on romanticism but also found their compositional influences from other centuries. We then elaborated on the difference between picturesque and sublime artworks like John Constable and Joseph Mallord William Turner.

Unfortunately, I had to miss today’s class on Neoclassicism, but after review of the notes and the powerpoint, I noticed a few things that piqued my interest. I found the discussion of architecture and the Chiswick House to be very interesting. The aesthetic of Chiswick House is unlike that of many other mansions that come to mind. To me this house feels more like a public building or even a religious building. This makes sense considering the Pantheon was an inspiration of the architecture.

Another piece of the class that stuck out to me was the discussion of architecture at the University of Virginia. I have a good friend who studies at UVA, and they always talk about how much they love the buildings and the campus. We have not discussed much outside of Europe so far, so this was interesting to me, especially the UVA’s Rotunda, which is again inspired by the Pantheon in Rome.

In today’s class, we focused on neoclassical artworks. This was a period defined by the revival of Ancient Greek classical art and ancient antiquities. It was also a time period when “The Grand Tour” was taking place. It was started by British young men traveling the world. Studying abroad heirs from The Grand Tour. The Duke of Northumberland traveled to Rome with his tutor, which was a part of this tour. It gives to the word “tourism.” We focused on Anton Raphael Mengs’ “Parnassus,” which was produced in 1761. He was a German who worked in Rome. The noble simplicity of his painting represents neoclassicism. Mt. Parnassus is a mountain where all the Gods reside in Greece and the scene portrays Raphael’s “Parnassus” scene which was created in 1510. They are both very symmetrical, with a clear focal point, which is very different than Rococo art. The characters are very organized in their placement and are made up of similar compositions. They both have primary colors in their scenes as well, with simple colors being portrayed in a wholesome way. The lines are very plain and are not “painterly” like French baroque and rococo artists. The scene is very light-hearted and charming.