Las Demoiselles d’Avignon

Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, Paris June 1907. This painting is of five females who are nude in a still life. In order to make this painting Picasso adapted traditional poses from earlier periods of Western art. The women on the far left is meant to replicate the pose of early Egyptian kings with the strict pose and left foot forward, hand clenched in a fist, and left arm straight. The two central figures are based on the traditional pose of Venus with arms stretched behind their heads. The two nudes on the right are meant to take after African prototypes. One of these women on the right wears a mask that is made of most likely wood and is elongated reflecting art from Congo. Picasso takes on the bold strokes of Fauve over that of chiaroscuro. All the nudes have the odd facial structure that is against the Classical ideal and are influenced by the contemporary vogue for “primitivism.” Not all the women face directly at the viewer and have side profiles, but all the ones facing forward have odd shaped eyes that are not aligned. The seated nude, or otherwise referred to as the squatter, takes on the oddest body form. It looks like her head is facing the viewer while her body is posed in the opposite direction. It breaks away from the single vantage point that is so often seen in tradition. The light is another thing that alters the viewers point while looking onto the painting. The constant shift in light makes the painting very chaotic and with no central point and increases the paintings overall revolutionary stance against what has previously been presented in terms of space and tradition.

Degas’s Absinthe

Degas is known as one go the few great 19th century impressionist painters that developed and built in Paris, France despite not addressing the current political issues of that time, like the French Revolution and its repercussions. He was a also a very devoted amateur painter. Degas was the son of a wealthy Parisian banker who joined the Impressionists circle around 1865. The painting above, Absinthe, was done in 1876 and is categorized as artwork that resents the common notion of a “slice of life.” “The zigzag construction of the composition creates a slanted viewpoint, rather like that of a candid photograph” (436).The image is not very detailed, but almost a blurred image that reflects the characters in the painting well. The rustic background and even blurrer images around the women allow her to be the focal point despite her unappealing demeanor. The glass placed in front of the women is a glass of absinthe that gives cause to the women’s stoned and uninterested impression that she has while next to the man. This absent gaze is similar to that of Manet’s barmaid, which was a common occurrence to those who drank absinthe during the 19th century. The poses present images of psychological isolation and physical inertia. Degas was better known for his Galloping Horse in 1878.

Marie Antoinette and Her Children

This painting was completed in 1788 and was meant to show a more appealing side of Marie Antoinette. The Austrian born Queen of France was under heavy ridicule from her people and would eventually erupt the following year into the French Revolution. The artist, Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun, was highly regarded and elected to the French Academy in 1783. Elisabeth Vigee Librun was commissioned to paint many pieces of art for the royal court in the 18th century. The painting above currently resides in the Musee National du Chateau. Her painting depicts Marie Antoinette as a wealthy motherly figure. The painting is very rich in color with the focal point of light shining adoringly onto Marie Antoinette as she sits in her red attire. The large feather hat depicts her high position and riches. Yet, the unusual depiction is Marie Antoinette at was with motherhood sitting beside her her three adoring children as her sun lifts open the blanket dropped over an empty crib. This symbolizes or rather pays patron to Marie Antoinette’s lost child. The painting was to show Marie Antoinette’s attempt to relate to her subjects or at least a motherly figure by which the people can look adoringly. However, this back fired and the people resented her attempt and couldn’t relate to her wealthy presentation while they were in such an economic ruin and becoming increasingly poor while the elite continue to exceed in wealth.

19-Vanitas Still Life

Maria van Oosterwyck was one of a very few female artists during the 17th century in Dutch art. The painting, Vanitas Still Life, above immortalizes the baroque art of this century, the deep texture and rich colors is so filling. The painting lies in a Vienna art museum currently. Oosterwyck only has a very few amount of paintings and with such an immense amount of details and meaning in each of her paintings it is obvious how much time she spent on each one. This particular painting warns against foolishness, and the flowers refer to the Dutch’s failing economic system during the tulip craze that ended in 1637. Flowers are transient and die. If that wasn’t enough the placement of the skull, hourglass, and ear of corn all reflect this image of decay. The globe represents the vastness and “the notion that humanity is ruled by the stars with minute creatures such as flies and butterflies” (361). The mouse and fly represent pestilence. Written texts support this claim as well with words translated to mean “reckless” and “self-struggle.” Apparently, not that I can see, in the carafe of the left side of the painting is a window and the artist reflected in the image. This reflects the Northern perspective of reflective surfaces and asserting the artist’s presence in the work, which can also be seen in Velasquez’s art.

Sistine Ceiling Frescoes

The Sistine Chapel, which is located in Vatican, Rome, Italy, is world renown and every part of it is so amazing and intricate that it seems like it would take a lifetime to even see the ceiling. The ceiling depicts scenes from the Old and New Testament with the first three narratives represent God’s creation the universe. The second three show Adam and Eve, while the last three show Noah and the Flood. Each scene is surrounded surrounded by nudes called ignudi. The Old Testament prophets and the sibyls of antiquity, which are located between the window and the spandrels, were viewed as having foretold the coming of Christ. The images also allude to the divine plan, where Christ and Mary redeem the sins of Adam and Eve. The three Adam and Eve scene depict the Creation, Temptation, and Expulsion from Eden that Adam and Eve suffered. Michelangelo was hesitant to paint the frescoes because the side wall of the chapel were painted by fifteenth century artists. He felt extreme discomfort while painting this ceiling do to the physical contortions he had to perform to paint. Once he finally agreed to do the painting he designed the scaffolding and worked on the ceiling and window lunettes from 1508 to 1512.

Michelangelo painted the scenes in reverse, ending with God’s organization of the universe, this allows for the viewers, when standing at the entrance opposite of the altar wall, can read the ceiling scenes right side up. The farthest scene is that of the creation scene. The ceiling was meant to demonstate the coming of Christ not actually scenes from the New Testament however. The Creation of Adam is a main attraction on the ceiling. The muscular figures created by Michelangelo are world renown and are the most monumental figures in Western Art.

Ghiberti’s East Baptistery Doors: Meeting of Solomon and Sheba

Located on the East Door of the Florence Baptistery is the illustration by Lorenzo Ghiberti. This door was built between 1424 and 1452 of bronze and is about eighteen feet tall. It depicts ten biblical scenes on ten panels, two sets of five Old Testament scenes, that are immensely detailed with styles carried over from previous centuries. The ten main panels are framed by many single figures of saints and Ghiberti eliminated the use of quatrefoil frame, which was not as best suited for the new perspective system. The vanish point located above the meeting of Solomon and Sheba allows for different level of view and separates the main attraction of the panel from that of the lower giving it depth. It is very good example of linear or one-point perspective. The other technique combines the diminishing of the size of the figures and objects The lower relief appears more distant than the what is in the higher relief.  The image shows the pairing of the Old and New Testament. The image shows the efforts of the East and West in biblical context to unite which represents the Byzantine and Western branch of Rome trying to combine in the fifteenth century. It is believed Ghiberti won the competition for the doors because of his  more graceful style as well as the fact that his doors were cheaper to make because they were made of bronze versus Bunelleschi’s. The time period in which the doors were made was a period when the popes were encouraging the humanist assimilation of ancient Greek and Roman philosophies into their own Christian faith, which is another characterization of the merging lands of East and West as well as Old and New Testament. This door frame was so beautiful that it was nicknamed paradiso because Michelangelo thought it could be the entrance to paradise.

Gothic Art: Royal Portal

The Chartres Cathedral happens to have a symmetrical look that is not at all a requirement of Gothic cathedrals, but they are structurally symmetrical but not formally for the most part. The town of Chartres is well known for its preservation of Early Gothic with High Gothic and the transitional periods in-between. On the western entrance of Chartres there are three doors known as the Royal Portal. It signifies the typological view of history, which represents the Second coming of Christ, with the four apocalyptic symbols of the Evangelists. The angel is Matthew, the lion is Mark, the eagle is John, and the bull is for Luke. Christ stands at the center and is considered to remind the visitors of the cathedral of their destiny. This arrangement of arches was derived from the Roman triumphal arch, the arches show a comparison to the interior of the church and the heavenly city of Jerusalem. In the Middle Ages it was thought that by entering a church it was an “earthly prefiguration” of one’s ultimate entry into heaven. The central portal reflects the Old Testament kings and queens on the door jambs with the apocalyptic vision of Saint John the Divine above the door. The door jamb statues date as far back as 1145 to 1170 and are the oldest symbolic examples of Early Gothic sculptural style. In Early Christian and Byzantine mosaics, the Old Testament kings and queens are frontal. This particular door is described by John the Divine in the Book of Revelation. Under the seated Christ is the twelve apostles that are arranged in four groups of three. The Royal Portal of Chartres shows the Christian view of history. The comparisons from the south transept of Chartres to that of the central portal shows the stylistic transition from Early Gothic to the beginning of High Gothic.

Sutton Hoo Purse

This seventh century Anglo-Saxon purse cover was one of many treasures found at a Pagan ship burial from Sutton Hoo in East Anglia on the Southeast coast of England. The cover is made of gold, cloisonné enamel, and dark red garnets. The cloisonné technique is one where different colored liquid enamel is poured on top of cloisonné which are formed with thin metal strips on top of ivory or bone. The decorations are symmetrical with two fighting animals at the center.

Pagan ship burials were used because there was a belief that the ships carried the souls of the dead to the afterlife. With the immense of amount of treasures the deceased was most likely of royalty. The purse itself carries with it traditions traced to Early Christian interlace designs and that of Germanic crafts of the Scythian animal style, as well as other ancient Near Eastern motifs. Crowded interlace design techniques that were flat were an undercurrent in Western Europe that continued through he Middle Ages, which replaced the use of organic form artwork. The two fighting animals in the middle of the purse that merge together to create the symmetry are characteristics of the Scythian style. As well as the duck and eagle that face one another hint at the possibility of invaders from the fifth century onward brought their artistic styles with them.

Northern European Art was largely influenced by Germanic tribes, but large waves of invasions by the Germanic tribes as well as the Franks into the British Isles and the Gauls led to no monumental architecture, painting, or sculpture. The metalwork brought by the invaders was the only form of expression really used by the native people in order to express themselves as a culture in burials and other such practices. The Sutton Hoo purse is an example of such a practice that can be seen emulated in tales such as Beowulf and other Germanic folklore.

A Young Flavian Woman

A common symbol of Roman art is the bodiless head called a bust. The marble sculpture called A Young Flavian Woman, is a sculpture of a woman’s head. It is a very detailed sculpture, the marble makes the skin look extremely smooth. The head is tilted slightly and gazing off. The hair, including the eyebrows, is very detailed and delicate looking. The hair is what drew me into the sculpture with Medusa-like curls and scaled bun in the back. Rigglets of hair make an arc above the head enthusiastically and the rest of the hair in the back of the head is smooth into a twisted braid. The curls are carved in very deeply making strong shadows in the hair giving it volume and opposition to the rest of the sculpture. The braid resembles a snake with a superficial cut pattern twisted into a bun. The natural curl of the woman contrasts the smooth skin of the her face and neck.  The neck is turned slightly which shows the neck ligament ever so slightly and rolls down with a hint of the clavicle. The very realistic features of the sculpture are beautiful but it is ghost like with the eyes only being blank white space. The very edge of the sculpture has a ruffled bit of what is most likely a Roman dress. It helps give those admiring the sculpture the ability to imagine what the rest of the idealized woman would possibly look like. Yet by having only the image of the head the artist was able to show the vast contrast between the smooth skin and the detail rich and deep carvings of the hair. Even contrasting it from the view of the back with the upper hair almost out of control in curls upwards but the bottom half neatly tucked and braided.

Statue of a Kouros

With influences from Egyptian sculptures like Manicure and Queen Khamerernebty the Greeks first started sculpting human figures during the Archaic period of 600-480 B.C. This particular statue is the earliest recorded of a life-size sculpture of a standing male. The sculpture has a very strict pose with no bending of the limbs. The left foot is stepped forward and the fists are clenched. However, unlike the Egyptian sculptures there’s a lot more detail in the anatomy of the human figure. An emphasis on the different muscles can be seen making it more lifelike. Since the figure is naked the muscular definition of the joints as well as the backside of the sculpture can really be seen with an admiration for the sculptors ability to capture humanistic male features. The Kouros is also cut away from the original marble showing different spacing between the body parts, which makes the figure not only more life like but give it a more powerful stance, in my opinion, along with a complete image from all sides. For a type of hair or head dress the sculptor made round bead shaped carvings. The hair is much subtler than that of the Egyptian head dresses which are rectangular in nature adding to the very rigid art while the Greek sculpture is much more rounded with the hair and other elements like the knee caps. The figure is also wearing a headband that can be seen tied in on the back of the head. The smooth marble statue also has something like a necklace that separates the body of the figure from the head with a brief glance. It also makes the neck look more elongated with a professional pose.