Non-Western Blog

Polynesian Art

Easter Island – Rapa Nui Culture

Rapa Nui, more popularly known as Easter Island, is one of the most isolated islands in the world. The island lies 2,200 miles off the coast of Chile and its nearest neighbor, the Pitcairn Islands, are still 1,700 miles away. Papa Nui is a small island, only encompassing 67 square miles of land mass and according to oral traditions was once covered in trees. However, the island is has been completely deforested due to land cultivation, it is speculated that the main use for the trees were to transport the giant Maoi statues. Just under 3,000 people live on the island today, the main portion of the population lives in Hanga Roa where NASA has built an airstrip capable of handling a space shuttle landing.

Maoi Statues – Easter Island Heads

The Rapa Nui people carved the multi-ton Maoi Statues from around 1100-1680, according to carbon dating, and nearly 900 of them have been catalogued around the island. The trees that used to grow on the island were used to make rollers to move the megaliths from their original location in the Rano Raraku quarry, where most of them still reside, but the hundreds of others that survived relocation line the coast of the island on large stone platforms called Ahu, a place where important people were buried. Most of the statues were carved from the solidified volcanic ash found in Reno Raraku and each one took about a year to carve with a team of six men. Each of the Maori statues in unique, some have distinctive hairstyles or crouching legs. These characteristics led historians to believe that the statues were of ancestors rather than deities as no two were carved the same. During ceremonies eyes made of coral were placed on the statues to allow the ancestors to watch over the proceedings.

Petroglyphs

Rapa Nui has one of the oldest and richest collection of petroglyphs across all of Polynesia. Roughly 4,000 petroglyphs have been identified across over 1,000 different sites. These glyphs were used as territory markers, important event markers, and even for story telling. The above example portrays Makemake, the chief god of the Tangata manu or Birdman cult, along with a couple Birdmen. Other popular motifs across the carvings were sea turtles and various fish. The above petroglyph is carved into red scoria, the same stone that was used to create some of the hair on the Maori statues. It is unknown when most were created, but it is likely they were made around the same time the Maori statues were carved.

Pictographic Glyphs

The Rapa Nui people eventually developed their own written language, a pictographic writing called Rongorongo that was found on tablets as well as in the petroglyphs. The language has yet to be completely deciphered, and literacy was preserved for those in a higher social standing, but some of the glyphs are very easy to recognize as birds, fish, and palm trees. It was actually the discovery of these tablets that helped experts gauge around what time the island started losing tree coverage due to the inclusion of tree glyphs and how some glyph tablets were made of tree bark.

Wooden Ancestor Carvings

Although today the island has no trees, there were still enough trace amounts of wood for the Rapa Nui people to carve small totems in the 19th century. The wooden statues were vastly different than the stone ones as their bodies were displayed emaciated with ribs and spines visible as well as being extremely rare. The above carving has glyphs on his scalp, likely ornamental , as well as stretched ear lobes that suggest the culture was involved in body modifications like most other Polynesian cultures. Some of these figures were fairly large even though their primary use was being worn as an ornamental piece around a tribesmen’s neck. The male figurines were called Moai Kavakava. Women figurines were made as well, likely as a fertility talisman, and were called Moai Paepae. The active use of the figures kept the wood shiny through contact with human skin.

Overall Opinion

Since this is a positive blog, I have nothing negative to say aesthetically about the cultural artifacts I gathered here. My only negative thought is to the invading explorers who toppled nearly all the Maori statues in the early 19th century and infected the island with foreign illness that killed most of the native population. I chose the Rapa Nui culture to focus on as they were so different from the other Polynesian cultures. Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji were close enough to each other to develop similar traditions, but Rapa Nui was completely isolated. Rapa Nui was populated the same way most of the islands were, by small populations migrating across the ocean. However, they developed unique cultural practices that are not seen on the other islands, not seen in the Western world, and some not even seen in the Native peoples from the mainland. The only thing comparable to the Maori statues in terms of size and method is Stonehenge since the stones used to make it came from a different location. Otherwise I believe their customs and portrayal of the human figure is completely unique.

Bibliography

“Easter Island.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Nov. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Island#Stone_work

“Moai.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 2 Dec. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moai

“Rapa Nui Easter Island Culture.” Polynesian Cultural Center, Polynesian Cultural Center, 14 Nov. 2019, www.polynesia.com/culture-of-rapa-nui/

“Rongorongo.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 1 Dec. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rongorongo

Mid-Modern Blog

Movement: Pop Art

Theme: Commercialism in the 1960’s

Roy Lichtenstein

Born in 1923 in New York City, Roy Lichtenstein was one of the most influential Pop Artists in the late 20th century. Lichtenstein served during WWII, earned an MFA in 1949 at OSU, and created over 5,000 works of art during his career which ended when he passed away in 1997.

*The Ring (Engagement) ,* 1962, New York

Roy Lichtenstein was hailed for his effectiveness with line, an example seen in Aloha where he was able to convey the existence of a nose with only three short lines. He is also known for his method of painting in large areas with small dots , mimicking the way images looked when printed in paper ads. While he did get into screen printing later in his career, most of his works were hand painted. He did utilize stencils for some circles, but the line work was perfected from years of training.

Lichtenstein’s claim to fame was how he took art from advertising, which was seen as the lowest form of art, and refined them to bring them up to high art. Most of his body of work is directly tied to commercialism, Aloha and The Ring (Engagement) were both painted in 1962 while he worked in New York, which was steeped in commercialism while also being one of the centers of the art world. Nearly all of his works done in the 1960’s were inspired by newspaper ads or comic books, but it is unclear if he painted these things as a commentary on the commercialist world around him, or if his only motivation was to elevate the mundane to the extraordinary.

Opinion

Pop Art is my all time favorite art movement and out of the three artists I chose, I am heavily biased towards Roy Lichtenstein. Last year in a Modern Art History course was the first time I had heard about him and I ended up writing a research paper and also did a presentation on his work. I know his art is not particularly revolutionary since he is drawing from works that already exist, and some may consider it kitsch, but I like it anyway. I had actually developed a similar painting style to his independently before knowing who he was, so I like to consider him my art father. Everything in these paintings is so clean and purposeful, not a brush stroke was wasted. In fact, some of his later work got a little more abstract and he painted a series of brushstrokes, he painted the things that create a painting. They do not fit in to the theme of this blog, but I like them so much I’ll save you the time of looking them up and insert one here:

James Rosenquist

An American artist born in North Dakota in 1933, James Rosenquist moved to New York City at age 21 to study in the Art Students League. He studied there with abstract artists before joining the International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades, whereafter he worked as a commercial sign painter for Times Square until 1960. Favoring mural work, he continued to create large installations and refined the imagery and bold colors of billboard paintings into his own style.

It is not hard to spot Rosenquist’s commercial inspiration in either of these pieces. Hey! Let’s Go For A Ride, was painted during his time in New York and is a macro-view of an image you would see on a passing billboard. The product placement in front of the person’s eye makes it so you pay more attention to whats on the bottle than to the person holding it. His mural, Worlds Fair, I believe resides in Minneapolis and is a painted collage of traditional American commercialist imagery. In both pieces he strategically excludes the actual product names, but these images are so ingrained in our society that we do not need to see the label to know that each bottle painted is likely a coke product. He purposefully packed his art with these images to draw attention to the overwhelming nature of advertising in our culture, something that is everywhere yet often overlooked.

Opinion

The only thing I knew about Rosenquist before doing research for this blog was that he was a pop artist frequently mentioned besides Lichtenstein and Warhol. After looking a large portion of his work I came to appreciate the bold colors and confusing juxtaposition of images. He is one of the few artists I know to have had a job outside the art world that was centered on art. Like Lichtenstein he brought the low level art of advertising into the spot light, but he made money making both low and high level art. It was interesting to think how the same artist could create similar art and have it be viewed on opposite sides of the scale. I really like the semi-surrealist nature of his art, and I am bummed I didn’t know about him sooner.

Andy Warhol

You can’t talk about Pop Art without mentioning the hands down most famous Pop Artist in the movement, Andy Warhol. Born in Pittsburg in 1928, Warhol worked as an illustrator before rising to fame as an artist, director, and producer. He was very accomplished during his lifetime and has art on the list of the most expensive paintings ever sold.

*Big Campbells Soup Can 19c (Beef Noodle),* 1962

I think there is an unspoken rule that you cannot talk about Andy Warhol without talking about either his soup cans or his Marilyn Monroe’s. However, the coca-cola bottles fit easier into my theme of commercialism, sorry Marilyn. Andy Warhol had a unique technique he used on his screen prints, which included the soup cans and the coca-cola bottles, both of which were painted in New York, where after he printed he would go back in and smudge some lines to make them more accurate to traditional paper advertisements. Like Rosenquist, Warhol was purposefully trying to draw our attention to the mass exposure to commercial products by multiplying one image into hundreds. In his larger collection of Campbells soup cans, he actually included every available flavor of soup that was in the stores. It is nice he included some variation in the coke bottles, or else I think my eyes would have gone crossed from the identical repetition.

Opinion

This blog is supposed to be positive, but Warhol’s work is my least favorite out of the artists I chose. I still enjoy looking at it, but I think because I have been so over exposed to his works due to them being the most famous, they don’t excite me the way the other artists do. Looking at the sheer amount of soup cans he created makes me laugh a bit because it is a ridiculous amount of soup. I don’t know much about screen printing, so it is interesting to see how it can be utilized in such a unique and popular manner. I do enjoy how each Pop Artist can approach the same concept of commercialism from different angles and emerge as successful artists at the same time and still stay individualistic. Each artist, Lichtenstein, Rosenquist, and Warhol, are unique individual artists within the same movement and I respect all of them.

Bibliography

Roy Lichtenstein:

Bell, Clare. “CHRONOLOGY.” Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, Mar. 2015, www.lichtensteinfoundation.org/chronology-2/

Berman, Avis. “BIOGRAPHY.” Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, www.lichtensteinfoundation.org/biography/

Roy Lichtenstein Foundation. “Image-Duplicator.” Image Duplicator, Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, 2019, www.imageduplicator.com/main.php. —–Highly Recommend

James Rosenquist

“James Rosenquist.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Nov. 2019, www.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Rosenquist.

“64.01 World’s Fair Mural.” James Rosenquist Studio, Artists Rights Society, 2019, www.jamesrosenquiststudio.com/artwork/6401-worldand39s-fair-mural.

Andy Warhol

“Andy Warhol – 222 Designs, Paintings, Prints, Photos and Sculptures.” WikiArt,www.wikiart.org/en/andy-warhol/all-works#!#filterName:all-paintings-chronologically,resultType:masonry.

“Andy Warhol.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Nov. 2019, www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Warhol.

Early Modern Blog

For this blog exhibit I chose to focus on the influence of African Americans on the Early Modernist Art movement. Cubists, like Picasso, used African tribal masks as inspiration for their own works of art, but the culture they came from was rarely recognized as a source of civilized art. The artists I chose operated after the height of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920’s, but are still credited as Harlem Renaissance era artists.

Augusta Savage was born in Green Cove Springs, Florida, but lived the rest of her adult life in New York, New York. Her sculpture Gamin was created while she lived in Paris while attending an art school in 1930, it is a painted plaster bust of who is speculated to be her nephew. When she returned to the United States she became the first African American to be accepted into the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors. As for her influence upon the art world, she opened Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts in 1931 to anyone who wanted to have a place to paint, draw, or sculpt. Among her students were Jacob Lawrence, Norman Lewis, and Gwendolyn Knight, all who became nationally famous artists.

Opinion

At first glance this sculpture looks to be cast in bronze however, due to financial reasons Augusta could not afford to cast her sculptures and opted for painting them to only look as if they had been cast. I thought it was really clever of her to make something out of a cheaper material look expensive. I chose this sculpture of hers because it depicted the demographic her studio was meant to influence, younger kids who did not have the same privileges or opportunities as their white counterparts. Another reason I chose this sculpture was the interesting differences in texture between the face and the clothing. The clothing holds the same traditional texture of early modern bronze casts, while the face maintains a smoothness usually found in marble.

Loïs Mailou Jones was born in Boston, Massachusetts where she later attended Harvard to study painting. After being rejected for a teaching job at Harvard due to racial prejudices, she moved to Washington D.C. and worked there as a professor until she retired in 1977. Les Fétiches was painted way before then in 1938, after a year she spent painting in Paris. While in Paris she was able to see the museum exhibits that had African masks on display, and using her inspiration from them and the cubist movement she painted Les Fétiches using oil paint on linen. Jones continued to travel, paint, and teach during her 70 year long art career and encourage countless students to pursue their artistic ambitions.

Opinion

This painting struck me because it utilized the African mask motif seen in many other cubist works, but instead of manipulating them into something else, Jones kept them recognizably as African masks. She appreciated them as works of art by themselves and did not see the need to force them through a sieve of artistic revision like other cubists. The natural color palette keeps the masks in their native cultural while the cubist interpretation only accentuated the original features of the mask. I like this painting because I feel like Jones appreciated the cultural value behind the masks, unlike other early modern painters who collected them without knowing or caring about the culture they originally came from.

William H. Johnson was born in Florence, South Carolina and studied at the National Academy of Design in New York City before he also spent a year in Paris to immerse himself in the art world. Johnson moved back to New York in 1938 and instead chose to immerse himself in African-American culture, which he celebrated in many if his artworks. Street Musicians is a screen printed piece made in 1940 while Johnson lived in Greenwich Village and depicts one of many urban scenes he created. Johnson was given a teaching job through the Federal Arts Project at the Harlem Community Center where he was able to inspire students just like him. Not long after this print his life path turned into a downward spiral, his wife died, a fire destroyed most of his art supplies and collection, and he spent the last 23 years of his life in a hospital. Over 1,000 of his works were given to the Smithsonian American Art Museum .

Opinion

I chose this piece of art due to how the bold blocks of color caught my eye, and when I learned it was a screen print I liked it even more because I learned how to make them in a printmaking class in an earlier semester. I also really like the simplicity of shape this print has, it reminds me a little of collage works. Although, each piece I picked for this exhibit was just a place holder to let me talk about the artist behind them. Each artist I picked used their talents to give back to their community through teaching, the most effective way to influence the next generation of artists, and I thought it was important to shine a light on their accomplishments outside of their art. I do enjoy all the pieces I picked for the exhibit, but I enjoyed learning about the artists and their contributions to their community even more.

Bibliography

“Augusta Savage.” Smithsonian American Art Museum,https://americanart.si.edu/artist/augusta-savage-4269.

“Augusta Savage.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 2 Oct. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusta_Savage.

Jones, Mailou. “Les Fétiches.” Smithsonian American Art Museum, https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/les-fetiches-31947

“Lois Mailou Jones.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Oct. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Mailou_Jones

“William Johnson (Artist).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 1 Sept. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Johnson_(artist)

Romantic Era Blog

Preferences and Perspective

Impressionism

~Not my favorite~

An American-born artist, Mary Cassatt lived and worked in Paris for most of her life where she exhibited with other Impressionist artists. Her self portrait, finished in 1878 while she lived in Paris, exhibits the signature loose, visible brush strokes of Impressionism while transitioning to a softer, more realistic approach to her facial expression. During her time, Impressionism was a new, exciting, and highly criticized art form as it strayed heavily from academic forms of art. Challenging the status quo even more was the emergence of female artists, Cassatt being one of the “Women Impressionists” alongside Berthe Morisot, Eva Gonzales, and Marie Bracquemond. Cassatt became arguably the most famous of the Women Impressionists, mainly due to her close friendship with Edgar Degas.

Opinion

Although not as exciting or eye catching as other Impressionist works, I think Cassatt’s self portrait contains a sort of refined discipline that other impressionist portraits lack. She is recognizable, yet softly abstracted. Most of the detail and attention focus on her face as opposed to her dress which is more characteristically Impressionistic. Granted, Impressionism is not my favorite style of art, but I can appreciate the skill these artists had in creating scenes out of dissociated strokes of color.

Edgar Degas, *Portrait of Mary Cassat,* 1880-1884

As mentioned before, Edgar Degas and Mary Cassatt had a close friendship, mainly because Cassatt was the only one who could handle Degas’ sense of humor, which was on the crueler side. Degas was born in Paris, France, but traveled extensively during his lifetime. Degas and Cassatt met in Paris where he painted his own portrait of her around 1880. Differing widely from Cassatt’s self portrait, Degas included no detail to soften her face and utilized wider brushstrokes to further discorporate any detail in her clothing. Even her posture, slouched forwards while playing cards, is less refined than how she preferred to present herself. Degas was often criticized for his ‘harsh’ portrayal of women, but he painted them no different than how he painted male subjects. The jury is still out on whether or not to call Degas a misogynist based on his portrayal of women, but he surely did not give his favorites preferential treatment.

Opinion

I have a little bit of bias towards Degas as I recently did a presentation on how his work could be interpreted as misogynistic or not, but that does not mean in the grand scheme of things I prefer his work. Impressionism as a whole does not impress me as much as other artistic movements, mainly because of many of the male artists’ personal lives. A lot of them were not cool. Character aside, Impressionists do not give me what I love in art: bold lines, patterns, and solid colors. Do you know who does that? Art Nouveau.

Art Nouveau

~My favorite~

Do you see this? Bold line, conflicting patterns, and solid swaths of color. Amazing. Paul Berthon was a French artist mainly known for his posters and prints. L’ermitage was created in France in 1897. While Art Nouveau is an artistic movement mainly known for its architecture, it was also utilized in advertisement where its strong lines created a strong enough impact to draw the eye towards what the advertisers were promoting. Bethon also made posters that were not for advertisements and included imagery from the natural world. The delicate shading on the flowers and on the woman’s skin add a touch of realism into the rather graphic design, her hair is made up of individual lines alternating between highlights and lowlights, and the contrasting patterns in the back and foreground create a dynamic composition that catches and holds your attention.

Opinion

If you haven’t guessed, I love Art Nouveau and this poster is no exception. I can only described this poster as Romanticism meets Pop Art, even though the latter came much later. The lines used vary in thickness, keeping the delicate flowers delicate and the outline of the woman bold enough to separate her from the background. I wish I knew more about Paul Berthon and his artistic career, but sometimes ignorance is bliss and I would hate if learning about his personal life ruined his art for me.

This is about as graphic and eye-catching as you can get, bold color on a black background. This add for the Folies-Bergére by Jules Chéret features a popular dancer named Loïe Fuller. Fuller would perform under color changing lights while swathed in yards upon yards of fabric that she would manipulate the create mesmerizing dances. There are multiple posters of her, all of which try to capture the essence of her performance by using bright color a large organic forms to represent the fabric. The Folies-Bergére was a place where upper and middle classes could mingle and watch entertainment, something that had not happened in previous years. With the evolving social setting and rejection of academic art happening at the same time, it is no surprise that advertising became bolder and more experimental with the Art Nouveau movement.

Opinion

This poster focuses less on bold line and more on bold color, which fits this performer since she would often disappear into a tornado of bright colored fabric. While the first poster I picked is my ultimate favorite out of all four pieces I chose, this poster deserves no less recognition for its revolutionary design. The impressionists strayed away from harsh lines, and while some paintings had bright colors they were used as accents, not the main coloration for the composition. Jules Chéret used enough bright color to make your eyes hurt if you stared for too long. This poster screams ‘look at me!’ with confidence, and does not dissolve into a mish-mash of brush strokes when you look at it closely. Art Nouveau is wonderful and dramatic without the drama of academia.

Bibliography

“Art Nouveau Posters and Graphic Arts.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 3 Oct. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau_posters_and_graphic_arts.

“Art Nouveau.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Oct. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau.

Broude, Norma. “Degas’s ‘Misogyny.’” The Art Bulletin, no. 59, Mar. 1977, pp. 97–107.

“Jules Chéret.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Sept. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_Chéret.

“Loie Fuller.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Oct. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loie_Fuller.

“Paul Berthon.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Sept. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Berthon.

Classical Art Blog

Focused on: The French Revolution

*Marie Antoinette and her Children, 1787*

This portrait of Marie Antoinette was painted in 1787 by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun. Set inside the Palace of Versailles, the portrait has a more matronly portrayal of the Queen as she is seated with her three surviving children, the empty crib standing in for the child she lost shortly after birth. Le Brun painted over thirty portraits of Marie Antoinette and her family, becoming somewhat of the queens official portraitist. This portrait in particular was painted in the midst of rising tensions leading to the revolution as an effort to make the queen more appealing to the public. Mainly known for her frivolous nature, she was purposefully painted in this modest role to show how she served France by providing the king with heirs.

After the arrest of the royal family during the French Revolution, Le Brun fled France for fear of her own safety. She lived in self admitted exile for twelve years before returning to France after being proven not to be a counter-revolutionist.

Opinion

I really enjoy the warmth this painting carries, the color palette used does a good job of making this seem like a warm and almost cozy situation, although everyone is obviously posed. Marie’s oldest daughter is clinging to her arm and looking up at her lovingly, likely to prove that she was worthy of admiration. I do find it funny that this painting was only created as a last ditch effort to get the people to like her, which as we know did not end the way she had hoped.

Jean-Paul Marat was a radical journalist during the French Revolution. This portrait by Jacques-Louis David, completed in 1793, shows the aftermath of Marat’s assassination. David finished the portrait mere months after his death as a dedication to the late journalist. Marat was murdered by Charlotte Corday after she gained entrance to his private chambers claiming to have information about counter-revolutionists. Marat is seen here in a special bathtub as he had a skin condition which required him to soak in a medicated bath frequently, it also made him vulnerable, which Corday took advantage of.

Opinion

I remember being very confused by this painting the first time I saw it, being a pop culture reference for Revolutionary France, I had no clue what was going on. I felt bad for Marat, before knowing who he was, as David was able to portray the vulnerability of Marat situation. The facial expression is halfway to death, as glimpses of pain are still visible behind the slacking features. But this portrait is highly idealized as we can see nothing of his known skin condition and the smallest of gashes marks the fatal stab wound. Again, the warmth of this paintings palette makes it feel like a private moment, one that had been violated.

Napoleon on his Imperial Throne, painted byJean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres in 1806, presumably completed in France after the revolution. Napoleon rose to power during the French Revolution and is seen as the reason for its end, leading France as an Emperor rather than a King. During his rule, Napoleon utilized art as a way to display his prominence and power as it was his military prowess that won his campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars. Ingres has him painted here in his coronation costume as well as surrounded with other symbols that allude to his power and divine rule.

Opinion

This painting is a lot to take in at once. The amount of gaudy details do a great job at showing Napoleons superior rank, but they do start to strain on the eyes after a while. I am greatly impressed by the amount of detail painted into the costume and gold filigree, Ingres makes sure the viewer knows who they are looking at is someone important. The not so subtle nod to divinity in the gold arch of the chair back, the eagle at his feet, and the sword on his hip again all allude to someone of the highest power. It is stunning, and then I look at his face and laugh a bit because he looks a little like Bill Murray.

Bibliography

“Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Sept. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Élisabeth_Vigée_Le_Brun.

“The Death of Marat.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 6 Oct. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Marat.

Zygmont, Bryan. “Ingres, Napoleon on His Imperial Throne.” Khan Academy, Khan Academy,www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/romanticism/romanticism-in-france/a/ingres-napoleon-on-his-imperial-throne.

Baroque Art Blog

Artemisia Gentileschi, *Judith and Holofernes*, 1620

Introduction

Artemisia Gentileschi painted Judith and Holofernes in Florence around 1620. In this same period of her life Gentileschi became the first woman to be accepted into the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno (The Academy of the Arts of Drawing). The version of the painting I am focusing on is a recreation of an earlier version Gentileschi painted in 1612, originally title Judith Beheading Holofernes.

Left: *Judith Beheading Holofernes,* 1612
Right: *Judith and Holofernes,* 1620

Influences

The Baroque period focused on the dramatics and theatricality to easily convey to the audience what was happening in an artistic scene. The trends of this period are clearly seen in Judith and Holoferneswith each character having an active role in the scene as well as the dramatic lighting focusing solely on the expressive elements of the painting, such as the faces and arms.

The Council of Trent is somewhat responsible for this trend, as during their counter reformation they changed the requirements for what made good art. They wanted to move art away from the high academia of the Renaissance and make it something everyone could understand, hence the dramatic lighting telling the audience what was important in the painting. Also, within the reformation of the Catholic Church, biblical scenes were encouraged to spread the churches influence. There was an increase in portrayals of Judith specifically in “late 16th through the 17th centuries, when the Catholic Church was engaged in conflicts with both the Protestants and the Ottoman Turks, whose eastern origins facilitated their identification with Holofernes” (Camara). Another influence on this later version was the expansion of scientific knowledge. In the side by side comparison of the two paintings you can see corrections in anatomy with the size difference of Holofernes’ head, and the change in clothing to keep up with Florence’s fashion trends. However, the biggest difference comes with the blood spray from Holofernes’ neck. In the later version there is an obvious spray coming from his throat and the “pattern described by the spurting blood suggests Artemisia may have been familiar with her friend Galileo Galilei’s research on parabolic trajectories” (Camara).

Opinion & Analysis

I really enjoy this painting, the dramatic lighting, the vibrant colors, and the strong characters all inspire my creative side. The subject matter of vigilante murder is a bit gruesome, but looking past that, this painting is a thing of beauty. The fabric of the women’s dresses and the bed spread are all so impeccably textured that I can tell exactly what they would feel like. Gentileschi’s use of lights and dark have the greatest impact on me as pushing shadows and highlights are something I struggle with, but hers make it feel like the two women emerged to enact justice and could easily disappear back into the shadows they came from. Speaking of these two women, Judith and her handmaid, it was not often for common women to be portrayed with such power. In other versions of this painting, done by other artists, Judith seems to be a passive participant in the event and does not show much emotion past indifference. Gentileschi painted her Judith and handmaid as physically strong women, with both actively holding down Holofernes. Their strength is even apparent in Judith’s grip on the sword, which is the center of the painting, and the steely resolve in their eyes as they carry out the bloody deed. These women meant business, and had no time to look demure.

Bibliography

Camara, Dr. Esperança. “Gentileschi, Judith Slaying Holofernes.” Khan Academy, Khan Academy, www.khanacademy.org/humanities/monarchy-enlightenment/baroque-art1/baroque-italy/a/gentileschi-judith-slaying-holofernes.

“Artemisia Gentileschi.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Sept. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemisia_Gentileschi.

Renaissance Blog

Donatello’s Bronze David (c. 1430), 158 cm tall, on display in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello since 1865

Introduction

Donatello’s, David, is a bronze free-standing statue that depicts the biblical figures of David and Goliath. The sculpture was completed around 1430 in Florence, Italy and currently resides in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello. The bronze David is the second sculpture of the same subject that Donatello created, the first was completed in 1408 and was carved from marble, additionally the bronze version is the first nude male sculpture since antiquity.

Medici Relation

Although there is no record of who commissioned the statue, it is widely believed to have been commissioned by the Medici family as they were the original owners. The bronze David was used as the Palazzo Medici’s courtyard centerpiece, echoing the usage of his previous marble David in the courtyard of a government building. The Medici family had a prominent role in the Florence government system, so it is speculated that the bronze David was a politically charged commission portraying the young Medici family as David slaying the antiquated government system.

In 1495, after the flight of Piero di Lorenzo de’ Medici from Florence, the republican Signoria confiscated the statue along with many other works the Medici family had commissioned. The bronze David was placed in the city hall courtyard, mimicking its original position as well as turning the allegory into the Florence government defeating the Medici’s.

Opinion

This is not my favorite sculpture of all time, but I do not detest it. In fact, learning more about the bronze Davidhas made it all the more interesting. However, despite its interesting backstory and the endless amounts of theories this sculpture has produced, I do not find it as visually interesting as other renaissance sculptures. There are a lot of details within this sculpture that I would not have noticed, or cared too much about, if they had not been previously pointed out to me. Most of the theories that surround this sculpture have to do with Donatello’s sexuality, as he was gay, and people see this David as portraying some homosocial tendencies. The feather on the back of David’s leg, David’s hat, his age, and his toes curling into Goliath’s beard all link back to the homosocial norms of the time.

Before knowing all the nuances of the sculpture, I merely thought of it as a nice work of art, but after learning more about it I struggle to look at the sculpture without seeing those details that scholars argue about. David has a nice hat, and the details on Goliath’s helmet are impressive, but even these things relate back to those homosocial theories. It is not that the context of the theories ruin the sculpture for me, but they are the only thing that give this sculpture any interest for me.

Bibligography

Randolph, Adrian W.B. “Homosocial Desire and Donatello’s Bronze David.” Engaging Symbols: Gender, Politics, and Public Art in Fifteenth Century Florence, Yale University Press, 2002, pp. 138–192.

Unknown. “David.” Artble, Artble, 19 July 2017, www.artble.com/artists/donatello/sculpture/david.

Unknown. “David (Donatello).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Sept. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_(Donatello)#Omaggio.

Winter, Solomonica de. “Solomonica De Winter – Daydreaming Donatello’s David to Life.” The Old Continent, The Old Continent, 13 Apr. 2018, theoldcontinent.eu/daydreaming-donatellos-david-to-life/.

Art Elements Blog

Overview

For this assignment I chose to focus on Michelangelo Buonarroti’s Pieta, a marble sculpture finished in 1498 depicting a popular religious motif. In religious art, specifically Judeo-Christian, Pieta is the name given to works portraying the moment Mary was holding Jesus after being removed from the cross. The sculpture was completed in Rome and it’s first home was in the Chapel of Santa Petronilla, but now resides in St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City. The Pieta was the only work Michelangelo ever signed.

Composition

The English translation of Pieta means “the pity”, and refers more to the viewer’s perspective as they look upon the grieving Mary. In this sculpture, Mary is the largest element as she has grown large enough to make herself a throne for her son. This sculpture is highly idealized as Jesus’s body shows no signs of emaciation and he has no blood coming from his wounds, he would sooner be perceived as sleeping than dead. Mary also does not seem to be overtly overcome with grief, but it is still apparent is her body language and expression, this could be from more idealization or the fact that she knew from the beginning what her son’s fate was going to be.

Opinion

I adore this work, I could stare at it for hours, and I have already written a previous essay on this piece. The craftsmanship is what made me fall in love with this sculpture. We all know Michelangelo was not an amateur, but the attention to detail, the wrinkles in the clothing, and the softness of Mary’s expression all being carved out of stone is endlessly impressive. I’ve tried stone carving, it’s insanely difficult, so the level of skill and decades of experience it took to create such a masterpiece only adds on to why I love it so much. The marble cloth flows out and around Jesus and Mary in a way that is entirely organic and is thin enough to be perceived as real cloth. I could rave about any marble sculpture this way, but I chose this one because of the emotion behind it. When most people think of Michelangelo they think of the Sistine Chapel’s painted interior, but Michelangelo prided himself in his sculpture and referred to his self as a sculptor, it was his passion. He was also a very religious man, which is part of the reason he agreed to paint the Sistine Chapel, so seeing a representation of his two great passions in a beautiful marble sculpture makes me endlessly happy.

“Pietà (Michelangelo).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Sept. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet%C3%A0_%28Michelangelo%29.

Hello There,

My name is Kayla Messina, I am currently attending the University of Alaska Fairbanks for a Bachelors in Art with a Minor in Art History. My official concentration for my degree program is in Metal Smithing and Jewelry, but I am also a self taught painter. I have a preference for acrylic paint, but I also dabble in watercolor and ink painting. My house is covered in an eclectic collection of my paintings, as I have a hard time letting go of my creations, as well as artwork from my artistic friends and family members.

I tend to gravitate towards art that is humorous or artwork I can find humor in, one of my best examples being a piece of art I made myself. For a previous Art History class we had to recreate a work of art and I chose Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, but instead of human disciples I made them into sheep.

Outside of the academic world, when I have free time, I really like watching art-based videos online. Whether it be Bob Ross on Netflix, time-lapse painting on Instagram, or art restoration videos on Youtube. In fact, just last night I watched this video on the conservation of The Assassination of Archimedes:

It would be more effective to explain my relationship to art in an autobiography. I don’t want to sound pretentious, but art has always been a part of my life and is such an integral part of who I am as a person that if I removed it from my history I would not know who I was.