We studied the Trump Times Magazine self-portrait. It was interesting to study everything from the chair to his shadow and whether or not the “devil horns” were accidental or on purpose. Then we studied the movement of women in renaissance art if they had a movement. The only way for women to have “power” as if they were a widow or a nun. In Lorenzo Lotto’s painting, Portrait of a Woman inspired by Lucretia, we saw how she modeled herself as Lucretia and it was probably painted to commemorate something in her life. In Titian’s Venus of Urbino, we saw how he captured his a) mistress or b) prostitute. The sleeping dog is interesting because it symbolizes putting fidelity in sleep mode. I wonder if women could be painters at that time?
Author: karla domingues (Page 1 of 2)
In this class, we talked about the perspective. I thought that this class was so cool because the painting Hans Holbein the Younger, Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve (The Ambassadors) blew my mind. The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vince is an interesting painting because of the smile and it shows a little more than 3/4 of the face. She blends in with the background. We see more of a “photoshop” in this picture because the sitter and artist are able to manipulate the painting and what they portray to the viewer. We see that in Elizabeth the First’s painting, where she stands on top of the world and in between the night and day, displaying her rule. There must be a mutual agreement between the artist and the sitter of the final product of the painting. For example, some of the sitters looked younger than they did or buffer or prettier. Some of the sitters wanted to portray themselves as something bigger than they look or narcissistic or puff their ego, like Durer’s self-portrait. I also have to say that if that is how he looked, or at least close to it, he was very handsome. The Hans Holbein, The Ambassador was a very cool painting because if you turn it sideways, you can see the skull. I wonder if this was something advanced for the time, or did someone do this before? There is so much symbolism and this painting told so much about the current times.
In this class, we talked about portraits. We get different backgrounds and mostly 3/4 of the face showing in these paintings. The aim of these paintings was individuality or uniqueness. In some of the paintings, we see that the artist separates the sitter from the background. In other, the painters paint the background all black. The Northerners looked for real work while the southerners looked for ideology.
In this class, we continued talking about perspective. We studied Petrus Christus, Exeter Madonna because of its aerial perspective. This type of perspective is unique to Italians because it allowed them to show more of the scenery and objects. In the painting, we can see the blues of the sky and the houses bunched up, the loss of details. We moved on to study the Merode Triptych, which I really enjoyed learning about because of all the symbolism in the painting and the addition of Joseph. Joseph is usually omitted when it comes to Mary and the Child, but here we get to see Joseph. The painting is in a rising perspective allowing us to see more of the things happening in the back of Mary and the Angel. I thought it was funny that the annunciation came in the form of Jesus carrying the cross because that is his purpose of being born. We see the book sitting on top of the scroll, showing the movement of the old to the new testament. We see the candle representing Jesus in Human nature (wax), his soul (the wick), and his divinity (flame). There is no halo which is interesting, but again the artist was trying to move on to a more naturalistic scene rather than “imaginary” scenes. Joseph is in the other room, as he is building traps, traps that catch a mouse, or the devil. It also shows his sexual frustration because he married Mary and shows his contribution to helping Mary and Jesus. This was an independent portrait and an independent genre.
In this class, we talked about perspective. Giotto painted the Virgin Mary enthroned and you can see the shading and depth that is present there that wasn’t present before. In Leonardo’s Last Supper, we studied the mathematics behind the painting and its geometry. It is fascinating how he was able to use the numbers 3 and 4 and each number reveals so much about the world. Something interesting about the number 3 that I don’t think we mention is its relations to triangles and triangles are the strongest shape. I thought it was an interesting connection. We learned about the rules of perspective and how that can help us understand and play around with the setting. The northerners were interesting in raising perspective because of what it allowed them to show. Italians on the other hand were interested in perfecting the mathematics rules to construct content perspective.
In this class, we started talking about self-portraits. We studied the portrait of the Master of Frankfurt and his wife. He tried to play with illusion, as you can see from the flies and the shading. Everything we see in the portrait is a choice of the artist, from the clothing to the items found on the desk in front of them. In this portrait, we start learning about how the artist was able to play with space, our space, and the fictive space of the portrait. The artist is trying to fool the viewer because of the flies found in the woman’s head on the table. We talked a little about Leondardo and Durer and how they differ. Durer was interested in the scenery while Leonardo was interested in understanding the system of the scenery/object. The north and south were competing to surpass the ancient classics and paying attention to the human and animal boy and make it as naturalistic as possible.
In this class, we continued talking about Giotto’s fresco. We talked about how well Giotto was at showing each of the characters’ emotions, the holiness of all the scenes, and the continuous story of Joachim and Anna. Then we moved on to talk about St. Francis and his impact on the church. He leaves his family to learn about the world and learn about people. He reminded me a little of Buddha, who left his family and money to understand people. We went on to talk about Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights which I loved so much because there is so much going on. I did the online experience and I really loved pressing on different scenes and hearing the music, so eerie. I thought that it was interesting that there was a relation between alchemy and this painting. There are so many hybrids that must have been seen as a bad thing in the renaissance era.
This class stuck with me because of the Giotto di Bondone fresco in the Scrovegni chapel. At the beginning of the class we saw The Original Sin by the Limbourg brothers. I thought that it was interesting because of the continuous narrative and how Adam and Eve were walking to the white page, our world. Michele da Carcano’s sermon I thought was a good explanation for art. Didactic, emotional, and mnemonic tactics is one of the ways how art get through people. I like to think that art leaves people with a greater impression than words or book, it depends on the author.
I really liked Giotto di Bondone fresco in the Scrovegni chapel because of the final judgment that was painted above the entrance. I really liked it, that I wanted to include in my exhibition. I thought that Giotto did a good job displaying Joachim’s sadness after being rejected at the temple. He looked so sad, that I felt sad. Giotto does a good job of showing enough in the fresco, playing with the colors and setting of where everything was going on. I really liked the fresco.
In this class, we talked about manuscripts, focusing on the Duke of Berry. He loved art so much that he collected it and kept an inventory of what he had. He didn’t want to be a king or ruler, he wanted to be a collector of arts. He had a court and he would recruit artist to work for him, making art for him, challenging them by showing them earlier arts he had in his inventory to inspire them to do better. He had many book of hours, even though he didn’t need that many to pray. In a feudal system, he gave a book to his nephew. He thought of himself highly and had art works done of him meeting saints. It is interesting that someone powerful and rich was able to do such things, I didn’t think that this was possible. He was obsessed with “collecting” the Limbourg Brothers. They were known for their blues and whites. The brothers relationship with the duke was interesting because they presented him a gift, which was a part of a plan, but he enjoyed it. They were good buddies. In the art works done for him, you can see how expansive his property and wealth was. He owned people to animals to land. One of his book of hours, January, from the Très Riches Heures of John, Duke of Berry, before 1416. Chantilly: Musée Condé, was never finished but I’m sure it would have been amazing, because the stars and zodiac were at the top of the book, like a sky.
In this class, we talked about the book of hours. They were used for praying throughout the day and on special days. These books were heavily decorated, showing the status symbol of the person owning these books. They can be gilded or have portraits. It was considered a luxury book telling about the life of the people at that time.