Final Post

I really enjoyed studying Peter Bruegel and Hieronymus Bosch’s art. I like the visual detail both artists provided, but I really enjoyed studying these artists because of their historical context. I was fascinated by the change in artistic context that was changing at the time. They both had their own individual unique focuses in much of their art.

Bosch’s pieces are very interesting, particularly his painting Garden of Earthly Delights. I found his medieval approach interesting, along with the imaginative creatures he displays. All through the painting you can see houses, or castles that look like they just came out of a Dr. Suess book or movie. You can see ducks and birds larger than humans. The people in the painting are all naked, and partaking in crazy activities such as riding animals that are typically smaller than a human, have body parts that are not all human, and delighting themselves to whatever they please. This painting is filled with a ton of metaphors for sin. I think it is really important that daily human desires and sin were really put into paintings, and artwork because that’s what life really is. I think he was very down to earth with the idea of painting a sinful picture of human life… although his painting is a bit more imaginative than realistic and down to earth.

I also enjoyed studying Peter Bruegel. I really liked visually how his paintings came out. And I also love the fact that he was one of the founding people for inserting, or having landscapes as a main focus of a painting. His painting Return of the Hunters is absolutely beautiful. And although the title is named after the hunters in the picture, your eye immediately looks at the landscape. For me, I hardly even look at the hunters. I am so focused on the amount of detail and exactness that is in the landscape, the houses, mountains tree, small bridges fields and lakes. There is so much detail, I feel like I am almost dragging my eyes away from the landscape to look at the hunters and the houses in the foreground. His painting The Harvesters has a similar affect. The landscape is the main thing that my eyes see. But I also noticed the extreme detain Bruegel put into this painting. They hay has so many individual lines for the grass, and his trees looks so realistic. His eye for detail was what really made him such a great painter.

Overall, Peter Bruegel and Hieronymus Bosch are my favorite artists from this quarter. I could look at their work all day studying the amount of details the both put into their paintings. And the subject matter in Bosch is fascinating as interesting, something I would love to study more. But I am excited to see what we study next quarter!

David and David

 The Baroque period was a time in art that was supposed to bring emotion to the viewer, everything was very dramatic. You can see this clearly in Michelangelo’s David, and Bernini’s David. You can also tell what values of the Renaissance continued to be valued in the 17^th century Baroque period.

Both of these statues possess qualities of humanism. But I think Michelangeo’s David has more humanism to it than Bernini’s David. Michelangeo’s has an interest in anatomy as well as the ideal human body and, while Bernini’s just has the humanist trait of an ideal human body. Michelangeo’s David is completely naked, showing the interesting they had at the time of anatomy, while Bernini’s David is actually wearing clothes that are covering up his genitalia. It was thought as slightly shameful to be completely naked, unlike the time when people were interested in anatomy.

Both of the Davids in the Renaissance and 17^th century capture the idea of humanism and naturalism in the statues. These statues show man is still the main focus. Although it is based off a biblical man and story, each statue shows different physical ideals of the time. Michelangeo’s David shows the body of an ideal athlete of the time. Muscular and lean. You can see very clearly where the muscles is giving him the look of a well-trained athlete. His softer round face, gives him the look of you young man, as well as his finely toned muscles,  Bernini’s David shows a matured man, in a twisted position, looking like he is just about to lash out at an invisible opponent. He has an ideal body of a warrior, in this position too. You see he is training his body, making his muscle very obvious. His face has a ridged jaw, with a tense scowl on his face, to me, making him look a bit older than Micheloanges’s David. Both still, both of these sculptures draw attention to humanistic features- man being very powerful. 

Both of these statues have the idea of naturalism from the renaissance. Micheloageo’s David is standing in the classic contrapposto stance, while Bernini’s David is in a very twisted dramatic position. This is a huge difference between the Renaissance and the 17^th century. But naturalism still is in both of the statues. Micheloageo’s David, although standing in the classic ¾ contrapposto stance, looks very real. You see the detail Micheloangeo put into this statue to make it so naturalistic. His proportions look natural. His hair and face really have small details, and the small details such as the neck, showing the natural dips make a huge difference, you can see the small bones in his hands and the slight muscles in his forearm. Although his does have slightly large hands, it is just a sign of power. Bernini’s David also embraces naturalism. The way he sculpted David’s motion makes it look as if he was frozen in the moment. All the right muscles are flexed and his angles for his body are correct for the motion of this nature. But he also made sure the small details were there. The slight creases in his face, texture in the pouch he is carrying, his feet, well look like natural dirty worn out feet, which have not been idealized to perfection. But this intense detail was a value of the renaissance and was still valued in the 17^th century.

Albrect Dürer

Albrect Dürer’s pieces The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (pg. 684), and Adam and Eve (pg. 684) are both pieces that have a great deal of Italianate features, and northern European traditional features. There is northern influence seen in both pieces is the large amount of texture and lines used to create the two pieces, they also both have a fair amount of naturalism. The Italianate features of these pieces include the properties that these pieces were made of- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is a woodcut and Adam and Eve is an engraving, and the Adam and Eve engraving also alludes to the educational favor that there was in the Italianate time period.

Northern influence is seen on both of these pieces with the detailed texture that each has. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse being a woodcut has many lines within the wood. Dürer most likely hired a skilled carpenter to do the cutting. But you can see the shadows and highlights are very obvious with the lines used. There are many condensed line in the shadows, and less condensed, if any line at all, for the highlighted areas of the piece. The naturalism in this woodcut is seen through the detail that was implemented onto the wood. Details on the faces, clothes, and horses make them look realistic; as realistic as you can with only cutting out wood. Italian influence on this peace is most obvious with just the material used, wood. But there is also a feel of a chaotic scene. Similar to many of the paintings we saw in chapter 20 on 16^th art in Italy, specifically Pontormo’s Entombment (pg. 661), mannerism seems to be in this woodcut.  Horses are placed where typically horses would not be in a stampede of some sort. Some look as if they are running in the air. I just felt this seemed to portray a bit of mannerism. 

The Adam and Eve engraving have northern influence because it shows a lot of texture all throughout the piece. The skin of the people, trees, ground, hair, and animals all have textures. The technique from northern Europe is used. Lines, and cross hatching are very apparent. You see as with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the lines in Adam and Eve also show highlights and shadows. This piece also has a lot of naturalism to it and detail, which would also be a lot of northern influence. The detail in their bodies, the tree and the animals are very realistic, having correct proportions and shadowing. The Italian influence that is in this piece is very apparent with the material being used. Dürer carved this piece from metal plates. You can also see Dürer is embracing the gift and importance of education. You can see the sign which is written some language… I unfortunately am not sure what one, but I feel it still embraces how important education was to Dürer, and how he flaunted his own education.

The Entombment and The Madonna with the Long Neck- Week 5

The Entombment (pg. 661) and Madonna with the Long Neck (pg. 662) are two paintings that hold characteristics of mannerism. The both have some unnatural elements within the painting, and there are dreamy expressions on the faces of the people within the painting. But appearance of each one is very different.

Both of these paintings have some unnatural elements. The Entombment, all the people look very, one might say dreamy. I personally think it comes across of sad, worried, and miserable. About half of the people’s mouths are all slightly open, as if they were moaning. Their eyes are painting very drastically in whichever pose they are taking on. This painting is also very unnatural because there is no horizon line, like many of the humanistic paintings in the past. The people look as if they are piled on one another. To me, making it look like they climbing on one another as if they were trying to get always from something. Overall, I feel it is a depression painting. The Madonna with the Long Neck also shows many unnatural elements. First off, from the title of the piece, your eye is drawn to the main woman in the painting, and her neck is very long compared to the average human neck. It makes her look much taller then she would be, with a normal neck. At the lower right hand corner of the painting is a man. He is very unnatural looking, considering his height reaches only part way up the woman’s calf. He seems to be rolling out cloth of some sort, a very random man in an odd placement in the painting. The Madonna with the Long Neck also has unnatural dreamy expressions. I find these faces to be less… creepy than The Entombment painting, but they are unnatural nonetheless. The most obvious dreamy expression in the Madonna with the Long Neck is the child standing next to the woman; her expression is upward, staring dreamily up at the women, a very unnatural body language and facial expression, to me at least.

The Entombment painting is painted as if it is watercolor almost. The bodies and clothing of the people in the painting makes the paint look like watercolors. The shapes are not nearly as detailed and realistic as the humanistic time period, but very much stylized in the mannerism elegance. Madonna with the Long Neck is slightly more realistic in the technique that was used, or the people in the painting look a bit more realistic then The Entombment, but still not as humanistic as they did in the humanist time period. There are not blemishes on the people, and the detail is not as prominent as the humanistic period, which I guess is what makes it part of the mannerism time period.

Overall these The Entombment and Madonna with the Long neck both come across as very unnatural, and stylized. The Entombment is not pleasing to look at all for me personally. But the Madonna with the Long Neck seems to be much more attractive and interesting.

Baptism of Christ and The Virgin on the Rocks- week four

The pieces I chose are the paintings ‘Baptism of Christ’ (pg. 618) and ‘The Virgin of the Rocks’ (pg. 634).  Both of these paintings have people as the main focus, but the Virgin on the Rocks is has more dynamic unity then the Baptism of Christ. The color and techniques used in the paintings are vastly different, and I think this is the biggest noticeable difference between the two paintings.

In the Baptism of Christ, Christ is the main focus of the painting and he is directly in the middle, the virgin on the rocks also places the main character in the center of the piece. The surrounding characters are all facing the direction of the main character in both paintings. In this sense I would consider the compositions very similar. But the Virgin on the Rocks has more dynamic unity then the painting of Baptism of Christ. The people are at different levels on the canvas- spread out better than the people on the Baptism of Christ. In the Baptism of Christ they are all standing and reach about the same level, making it much less interesting. 

The colors and techniques used is what I find makes them most different. The Virgin on the Rocks has deep rich colors with a lot of contrast. The people also have somewhat of a spot light on them, giving them a very pleasant glow that brings your eye toward them. But the Baptism of Christ has lighter coloring, and less saturated. Your attention is drawn to Christ who is basically an all-white coloring, which helps bring him out. But Baptism of Christ has many more light colors then the Virgin on the Rocks. I find the darker more contrasted painting more appealing than the lighter colored painting. 

Both of these painting have a background that is a landscape. Baptism of Christ is, again, very light colors. But it also has a very low horizon line you see clouds, blues skies, even a white bird flying. The Virgin on the Rocks on the other hand has a very high horizon line; you can hardly see the sky. The small portion of the sky is still dark colors like much of the painting, and it leave the people with the light to be the main focus of the painting.

The Virgin on the Rocks has a much more realistic look then the Baptism of Christ. The Virgin on the Rocks really shows the natural curves on the human body, and the shadows on the body really make it look realistic. With the painting of the Baptism of Christ the human body is much less pronounces, and the natural curves are harder to see. This painting also doesn’t have the dramatic showing and shading that the Virgin on the Rocks does, which to me makes the figures have a flatter appearance.

The Virgin on the Rocks and The Baptism of Christ are both done well, and it is obvious the difference in the time periods paintings.