This painting is by French baroque painter Claude Lorrain. It is entitled Pastoral Landscape and was painted in 1638. I think the realistic-ness, diverse subjects and colors, and composition of the painting is awe-inspiring!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Serin- Ludovico Carracci- "Bargellini Maddonna- 1588"
I adore this painting. The perspective is unique and it is really interesting how everyone has seemed to pause just to look at you.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Quinn: Raphael
Raphael's Saint Catherine. This painting is just so pretty. I love the pose and the folded silk and the blue-brown-red color scheme.
Q
Elena- 1500 to 1650, El Greco
El Greco (1608-1614) - The Opening of the Fifth Seal (unfinished and cut down)
Adam and Eve, Tintoretto 1550Saturday, September 27, 2008
Hilary- Andrea del Sarto
this is Madonna of the Harpies by Italian painter Andrea del Sarto. notice the different forms, shapes, and use of space that the people's bodies and expressions have in the painting and what that tells you about their feelings/attitudes.
Hieronymus Bosch by Sasha
The Garden of Earthly Delights- a triptych by Hieronymus Bosch made around 1503.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Thomas- Zacchia, 1540, Italy
I really liked this one because I found it on a site that was using art of the different time periods to trace the lineage of stringed instruments. I play the cello, so it caught my attention.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Brandon - Francesco Botticini
Francesco Botticini, The Assumption of the Virgin
Botticini uses perspective very well here giving the viewer a real feel of a dome like ceiling of which the characters are being absorbed. The use of the many circles is also very interesting.
Pieter Bruegel: Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
This painting is interesting because what is ostensibly its subject matter - what its named for - is practically hidden. The brightness of the background attracts the eye, then you move to the foreground, which leads off to the left. There's a lot going on all around with various layers of distance, and somewhere in the mid-ground off to the right Icarus is drowning. -Dave Hanyok
Matthias Grunewald- Reshma Ramachandran
The piece above is entitled the The Mocking of Christ (1503) and was made by a Germanic artist named Matthias Grunewald. This piece is a prime example of the deviation between the Northern and Italian/Southern European Renaissance in which the Northern Renaissance tend to concentrate more on religious aspects in their pieces while ignoring the classicism and staying true to the central medieval methods of painting/drawing. In this piece, we see Christ blindfolded and being dragged along while spectators look on as surrounding people harass him. The tone of the piece is quite dark as highlighted by the darker colors in the background as compared to the foreground. The lighting is this painting is quite vivid and differs as your eye moves across the painting. Additionally, the creation of perspective is made through color and size of the objects. In the foreground, we see the people have brighter hues whereas in the back the figures are smaller and blend easily with the dark background.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Quinn: Piero della Francesca
Here we've got Pierro della Francesca's The Dream of Constantine. According to wikipedia, we're looking at an angel who is visiting Emperor Constantine on the eve battle to show him the symbol of the cross. (Constantine goes on to win.)We seem to have some pretty good perspective here, with the guards in front a bit bigger than Constantine and his manservant. I am not sure why our angel is so small. The tents get a little shorter in the distance, too, though perhaps not short enough. But who knows, they might not all have been the same height in reality anyway.
Q
Hilary- Bartolomé Bermejo
This is the Retable of the Virgin of Montserrat (c. 1485) by Spanish painter Bartolomé Bermejo. Notice, especially in the center panel, the use of perspective and its techniques (overlapping, relative size, vanishing points, etc.) to achieve a more 3-D look.
Kristen - Pomponio Amalteo
This is "The Martyrdom of St Stephen" by Pomponio Amalteo. Amalteo creates perception of distance by making images in the foreground darker and clearer than images in the background. Also, the people who are perceived to be forward in the image are larger than those in the back. Amalteo successfully conveys space and distance in this image.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
15th Century Painting- Madonna of the Rocks
There are two versions, but I like this one better. The faces on the figures are less creepy.
By Leonardo Da Vinci.
-Serin
Perugino- Reshma Ramachandran
The picture above is entitled Delivery of the Keys (1481-2) by Pietro Perugino and is found in the Sistine Chapel. Here you can see a sharp distinction in terms of brightness and size between the foreground and background thereby creating a perspective and layering. The people in the foreground also seemed to be painted on top of one another with the people all the way up front being the most noticeable and the most outlined by the artist so as to show that they are nearest to the viewer. Additionally, the landscape in the background and its size helps to create a depth to the painting and gives it a 3D feel. The squares on the bottom of the painting extend towards the viewer growing larger in size to create the image of reality.Sorry for the late post- I just came back from a wedding in Indiana and had thought I would get internet access but unfortunately was unable to.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Andrea Mantegna - Dead Christ
This is a pretty powerful viewpoint and one in which the depiction of depth is absolutely essential for the success of the painting. A few techniques create depth here. First, the really impressive precision with which Mantegna depicts the body from the severe angle does a lot of the work - for example, the chest's prominence, sticking out and obscuring the upper chest, shoulders and neck. There's also a slight diminishing of detail as we move back in the painting, especially on either side of the body. Most importantly, the strong lines of the arms, legs and edges of the bed utilize perspective to lead to the vanishing point, which (almost) approximately corresponds with the head and face, which is the center of interest. (The wounds - which fall along those same perspective-lines - are another center of interest.)
-Dave Hanyok
Quinn: Pisanello (c. 1395 - c. 1455)
This image, Portrait of a Princess of the House of Este, intrigued me by demonstrating a lot of things that we don't want to do. Probably the first thing you'll notice is just how two-dimensional our Princess of Este looks. The problem is exacerbated by the unnaturally perfect profile view. Moreover, it is very difficult to discern spatial relationships between objects. The butterfly at the top-left: is it in front of our Princess or behind? The butterfly on the right must be behind the Princess, but this is only obvious because it is investigating a flower in the background. I think part of the problem is too much detail in the background: the flowers don't need to be that clearly formed if we're focusing on the Princess. Also, we get the same perfect profile view of the bush! Does it not fall back a few feet into the distance? (Maybe I am being too hard on Sig. Pisanello here, as his dark shades have gotten darker to the point of being nearly indistinguishable today.) Anyway, I find the painting rather charming in a medieval sort of way. It definitely got me thinking about lazy things I've been doing in my own sketchbook.
Q
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Elena Albright: Luca Signorelli
This is Signorelli's and Fra Angelico's Deeds of the Antichrist in Orvieto Cathedral. Signorelli was well noted for his use of foreshortening which can easily be seen in this piece in the structure in the background. Notice how the front face of the cube seems larger than the back face. In the rest of the piece, one can easily recognize his use of relative size, overlapping, and horizon.
Kaori: Donatello
"Feast of Herod" by Donatello
In this bronze piece, Donatello uses overlapping, relative size and one point perspective to create a two-dimensional space. The figures in the back are overlapped by others to make it seem like some people are closer to the front. Donatello also overlapped the walls and pillars to give depth to the building. The people in the "windows" (there not really windows...) also decrease in size to create the illusion that they are farther away from the main table. Donatello also uses one-point perspective since the lines converge. By looking at the silverware, the patterns on the floor and the blocks in the pillars, you can see that the lines angle towards the vanishing point towards the middle of the piece.
In this bronze piece, Donatello uses overlapping, relative size and one point perspective to create a two-dimensional space. The figures in the back are overlapped by others to make it seem like some people are closer to the front. Donatello also overlapped the walls and pillars to give depth to the building. The people in the "windows" (there not really windows...) also decrease in size to create the illusion that they are farther away from the main table. Donatello also uses one-point perspective since the lines converge. By looking at the silverware, the patterns on the floor and the blocks in the pillars, you can see that the lines angle towards the vanishing point towards the middle of the piece.
Max Grey - Pollaiuolo
The Martyrdom of Saint SebastianA sense of space is created by the various sizes and overlapping of the archers' figures.
The objects and figures in the background get smaller as they get closer to the central vanishing point.
As the river winds toward the vanishing point, its banks appear closer together. The mountains become hazier the further they are.
Madonna with St. John the Baptist and Donatus
By Andrea del Verrocchio.
In this piece Verrocchio uses one point perspective to create a seperation between the two figures in the forground and Madonna with her child. There is some semblance of overlaping with the child and Madonna and by placing the chair above then two men in the front Madonna becomes the focal point and seems to be further back from the two men whos heads and sholiders also seem to point towards the vanising point with some help from St. Johns hand.
ERIKA The Annunciation-Fra Angelico
Fra Angelico created space in this painting, The Annunciation through relative size and linear perspective. The three figures on the left appear to be behind the two figures inside the building. The building shows linear perspective, the columns and the bench appear to meet at a point in the distance.
mat becker - Andrea del Castagno
Castagno did an excellent job at creating space with the Last Supper portion of this painting. Notice how the awning and pillars are offset with the background so that the pop out from it, but also notice how the inside extends back again towards one point to appear as if it is going deep into the wall.The rest of the painting also effectively uses overlap and relative size to make this wall appear to have many layers within it. I feel that this painting was very well executed.
Brittaney--Filippo Lippi
According to Wikipedia, Lippi "approaches religious art from its human side, and is not pietistic though true to a phase of catholic devotion. He was perhaps the greatest colourist and technical adept of his time, with good draughtsmanship. As a naturalist, he had less vulgar realism than some of his contemporaries, and with much genuine episodic animation, including semi-humorous incidents and low characters. He made little effort after perspective and none for forshortening, and was fond of ornamenting pilasters and other architectural features. According to Vasari, Lippi aimed to hide the extremities in drapery to avoid difficulties. His career was one of continual development, without fundamental variation in style or in coloring. In his great works the proportions are larger than life." I chose this piece for its vibrant colors, its focus on religious life (Catholic) and because it demonstrates the drapery tactics.
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