Between World Wars

            A Dada artwork was a symbol of protest against the World War I. It was more of a rebellious attitude than a cohesive style. Dadaists thought that it was the destructive absurdity of war was caused by traditional, narrow-minded values, which they set out to change. This artwork changed the meaning of art. It was either making fun of art or criticizing society for what they were. They rejected all values such as social, moral, political and aesthetic values. They felt that there was no point in finding order in a world where rational behavior only causes destruction. I believe that Dadaism makes people feel uncomfortable and makes them ask questions about why things are where they are.

           Jacob Lawrence was a painter who explored exodus black labor. He was inspired by Goya, Domier, the Harlem Renaissance  and African American History.  His paintings was about education and woman doing womanly duties. He was influenced by Matisse with the usage of bright colors, flat spaces and patterns. For example in this series of Lawrence's painting The Library 1967, he uses bright colors such as yellow, blue and green and the patterns he uses also shows his influence by Matisse.

Impressionism And Post-Impressionism

Impressionism

According to the online lecture Impressionism was a movement of light and spontaneous manner of painting where the artist paints what the eye sees rather than what the mind knows.  This is a painting by Armand Guillaumin, although he is not as famous as painters like Monet and Renoir, he was an important person in the impressionist movement. He was the most colorist of all of the groups. This painting is called "Soleil couchant a Ivry" translation "Sunset at Ivry." The painting shows differences and perceptions of light across the day. 

 Post- Impressionism

Post-impressionism was influenced by impressionism but used it in a different way. It is way more emotional than impressionist art. They believed in a free interpretation of nature and they painted not to see but to see through them and also see the depth of what they see. Some of the characteristics of this style of painting are bold simplified shapes, flat colored areas, and line and color. This painting is by Henri Rousseau called "Jaguar attacking Horse". You can see the different shades of green used and the bright colors in between it.    

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Baroque Art

Jacopo Tintoretto

Italian Venice 1519-1594 Venice

Doge Alvise Mocenigo (1507-1577)

Presented to the Redeemer

Oil on Canvas

This painting by Tintoretto is Baroque art. Most baroque art always has a religious subject and is

always brought to life by the artist and the viewers point of view. This is an unfinished painting that

was sketched before everything came together. You can see the sketch of the people who weren't

finished being drawn. This painting represents Venice's great victory at sea over the Turks, the Battle

at Lepanto of 1571, it is represented by the ships in the background. This is a Baroque painting

because you can see the contrast of light and dark being shown. On the right side there are dark

colors like black and red with the light background. On the left is more angelic and soft with a light

of divinity shinning down. This is an asymmetrical painting. There is balance within the way the

painting is set and the way the artist uses the colors to bring the painting to life. The shapes on the 

floor balance out the background of the painting where it looks like people are floating.

Renaissance Art

 Michelangelo Buonarroti

Italian Renaissance 15108-1512

The Creation of Adam

Fresco of the Sistine Chapel

Rome, Italy

Renaissance art was characterized by a humanistic feeling in which the painter shows a connection between the subjects of the painting. They also use heavenly subjects in a different way than the baroque period. To show how things came about.  In the painting we see God reaching to Adam to give him life. As you can see behind God there is a large amount of non-mortal females and out of

them you notice Eve looking at Adam. If you look closely you will see that Adam is staring at God and vice versa this is called a Psychic line where it shows the connection. Michelangelo painted this very interesting image to show the relationship between the people and God from a Renaissance point of view. 

   

 

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Renaissance & Baroque Art

According to the lecture, humanism is a code of civil conduct and a theory of education, which teaches service to the states with no material reward a model for living not from religious dogma but for reason. I believe that humanism is the importance of being a human, their value and goodness. It also emphasizes human needs and finds ways of resolving situations. Humanism focuses on the individualism of humans. In the Crucifixion by Giotto he specifies their individuality by portraying the feellings and physical nature of the humans.To the left of the cross, is a group of soldiers debating on what shall happen to the clothes that was worn by Christ. On the right side is a righteous gathering. I noticed the emotional expressions on each of their faces which shows their personal inner thoughts and also Mary Magdelene crying at Jesus's feet. The skull beneath the cross depicts that they are in  Golgotha, "the place of the skull".

Some of the qualities of van Eyck's paintings are achieving an illusion of depth, directional light, mass, rich implied textures and the physical likeness of particular people. In most of his paintings he also uses symblism formality and vertical emphasis of the figures. In the painting the role of Mary is emphasiuzed by her royal crown being carried by the angel wearing blue. The color blue symbolizes the embodiment of heavenly grace. Mary is wearing red which symbolized the holy spirit among them keeping watch over them. On the right is Nicolas Rolin worshiping baby Jesus who is blessing him holding a globe which in this sense represents power over creation.

According to google, Baroque is relating to or denoting a style of European architecture , music, and art. it illustrated key elemenst of religious dogma in a biblical sense or in a mythilogical sense. Baroque art demonstrates great energy and feeling, and a dramatic use of light, scale, and balance.  In Rubens painting The Raising of The Cross, a light of divinity shines down on Christ's body showing that he depicted a religious subject. The way the body is set in this painting shows that it he was inspired by another artist like Michealangelo and in other ways Jan van Eyck. There is a high degree of realistic detail showing that the painiting is about ready to come to life. According to the reading, this visual dynamism, extending the action of the work into the viewer's space, marks the best Baroque painting. This means that the way he uses the styles and expresses the realism of this painting makes it great.

Design Principles

Asymmetrical balance is when the painting has various elements in it making it look like it is balanced. When the painting is split in the middle it is not equal on either side.  One side levels out the other through the visual and referential weight around a center of gravity. An artist creates asymmetrical balance with colors and forms that when looking at the picture makes it look balanced. In the painting the yellow and blue color balances out the pale colors of walls and the river. The cross ways of the wall and floor is risen by the heads of the two women. 

Art can be unified in many ways. Unity is having so much come together to make one whole thing. In art a repetition of similar shapes and colors unify the work which gives a sense of diversity. This painting by Pieter De Hooch from the 17th century shows unity through repetition and variety. He uses colors like yellow red and brown which balances out the room and bring the whole painting together. The paintings and the tiles on the floor also shows unity throughout the painting.

Scale is the size relation of one thing to another. According to the lecture, scale is the most important decision that an artist makes when planning a work of art. Scale changes the way people see and feel about the art. Ron Mueck has created this interesting piece of art called "In Bed." it portrays a sense of realism that emplifies the believability of  the work.

Greek, Roman, and Egyptian Art

In this Egyptian painting we see what seems to be three women with Egyptian clothing and head dresses. in the painting you see the women holding and smelling flowers in one hand and in the other hand they have an oval shaped object. They wear blue dresses which to me symbolizes the water like the Nile river. Behind them you see there are hieroglyphics. Those hieroglyphics contains their sphinx, anthropomorphic art and many more. They  had many different types of head gear, such as the royal vulture crown but they wear something similar to Diadems. Diadems consisted of a metal headband to which a Uraeus was attached.

This is an Archaic Greek sculpture of a Sphinx. As you can see it is an anthropomorphic statue of the body of a lion, the wings of an eagle, and the head of a human. This statue is from around 540-530 B.C. According to Greek mythology Sphinx were sent to the town of Thebes for punishment of a crime and those who were unable to solve the riddle of the Sphinx would perish. the Sphinx is a sign of protection in a way because anyone who didn't know the answer to the riddle was an outsider. It was also an emblem of the ancient city-state of Chios, and appeared on seals and the obverse side of coins. As you can see, on the wings of this creature there are carvings pointing out and her tail is that of a serpent.   

This is a sculpture of Augustus Caesar it is referred to as Augustus of Prima Porta. It was a high marble sculpture founded in April 1863.  Augustus was the commander of an army. This sculpture shows his leadership and identity. I believe he raised his right in order to signal his troops into battle. He is wearing warrior like clothing which symbolizes the warrior Achilles. This sculpture is close to a Hellenistic culture than it is to a Roman portrait. He looks bold and efficient. His armor contains different little high relief sculptures of what seems to be horses and people.

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