Lesson #1
THE ROLE OF RELIGION IN ART
BUDDHISM
The followers of Siddhartha Gautama (b. 563 BC) waited nearly 500 years after his birth to begin to portray his image in human form. Up to that time the teaching of the enlightened one was pictured in carvings and paintings but no image of the Buddha himself appeared. His footprints were depicted. The wheel of life was represented as can be seen on the flag of India. Artists were anxious to ensure that the image of the Buddha was not confused with an ordinary mortal.
The earliest images of the Buddha are believed to originate in what is present day Afghanistan and northern India. They were influenced by the art of the Classical world. Brought to the region by Alexander the Great. In the 4th Century BC. The tradition of naturalistic carving existed in the region long before the religion became popular.
To this day there are sects that do not represent the image in even a stylized form.
Greek Art of ancient times has had a profound influence on Western Civilization. We have only to look at the Legislation Building and similar architecture to see the Classical influence on modern lifestyles since the 19thCentury. Pre-Christian Art centered on the gods and goddesses of legion and the stories that surround them. Much more modern religious imagery in fact comes from naturalistic Greek imagery. We know that Christian and Buddhist sculpture is highly influenced by this source.
“The Greek quest to define the ideal proportions of the human body formed the basis of the classical tradition. And the course of Western Art.”
- David Wilkins
The Golden Age of the Greek art was said to be in the 5th Century BC. Democracy was born in this era and the arts flourished. The Parthenon at Athens (447 -438 BC) was the model for all the neo- classical buildings in Charlottetown in the 19th cent. (Neo-Classicism) It was the supreme example of the Doric Temple.
The Greeks of the Classical period were advanced in Mathematics, science and the arts. And some of the achievements of the ancient world were:
- The discovery of specific gravity and the water pump by Archimedes. (useful for brewing beer and wine)
- The calculation of the diameter of the earth by Erothemes.
- Aristotle (384-322) dominated Greek science and thought.
- The Hellenistic period began after the death of Alexander the Great and continued until the rise of the Roman Empire. The finest Greek sculpture comes from this period (i.e. Venus de Milo, Apollo Belvedere act. (2nd cent AD)
- The first art history books were written in this period.
- Plato believed that works of art should ideally conform to some absolute standard.
- Aristotle opposed this idea and one of the first major debates began at the time. He believed that the material and the individual artist should express himself.
- Lysippus boasted that where as his predecessors represented men “as they really were” he represented them as “they appear to be” He revised the Polyclitan canon of proportion.
- The Colossus of Rhodes was one of the seven Wonders of the World. And amongst the first lighthouses established.
CHRISTIAN ERA
Painting and sculpture remained outside the new faith in the early years of Christian teaching. Art expressed pagan ideas as it had for centuries but as the Church of Rome established itself, art became the media of its day. As with early Buddhist teaching there was a movement against “idolatry”. Symbols icons appeared when the movement was still underground. Religious imagery dominated medieval art. It served to communicate the teachings of the bible. This continued throughout the Renaissance and Baroque periods and into the 19th century. In fact the development of the written language, music and cultural activity centered on the Church. There were no other patrons until the 15th Century and then it was still the main support for the arts. To the glory of God was the artists and craftsmen employed.
The advancement of education was part of the task of the holy mother Church. Anan the copying of scripture developed the skills that were yet to be equaled. . Ireland being one of the sources of the most beautiful calligraphy and illustration. One example being the Book of Kells. (housed in Dublin)A repo can be seen here at UPEI at the Robertson Library.
The decoration of churches by carving and painting was to serve the illiterate. From this art we have some of the greatest examples of human expression.
Some terms and vocabulary:
Angels
divine messengers from the Greek word meaning “bringer of News”
LESSON #2 / Oct. 24, 2011
PRE-RAPHAELITE BROTHERHOOD
VICTORIAN PAINTING
Victorian England was in the midst of an Industrial Revolution when a group that was often nicknamed the “not-so-secret-seven” formed as reaction to the academic painting of the period. With the exception of Brown they were generally young men and women in the early years of their career. They were disillusioned with the academic painting of the time that generally harkened back to a “golden age” in a neo-classical manner. Two examples of the elite painters of the Royal Academy were Albert Moore and Lord Leighton.
Dreamers 1882 by Albert Moore
Moore had a fascination with colour harmonies. His work was about an imaginary Antique lifestyle. Like the people who continue to wear shorts downtown in October they are not exactly accepting the realty of the season. Victorian life had a dark side, things that were not all that pretty and artists often went towards escapism. Moore was a dreamer painting people dreaming. Themes of sleeping and dreaming recurred in Moore work.
Flaming June 1895 by Lord Leighton 1830-1896
He liked to paint a Neo-classical dream-world. Leighton made hundreds of sketches and studies before painting his canvases. This was finished just before his death.
The Fairy Feller’s Masterstroke 1841-1893
1858-1864 by Richard Dadd (1817-1886)
Dadd thought he was was processed by devils while still a student and killed his father. He spent the rest of his life in Bedlam. Today there is a museum there in his honor.
Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912)
He portrayed beautiful elegant people in classical settings. He was a Dutch expatriate who lived in England. He painted daily life in ancient Rome and Egypt. His ability to render architectural detail has never been matched. In his time he was a very popular and wealthy painter. Without the authenticity of these elaborate classical reconstructions, the sensual, often erotic figures that languished in Alma-Tadema's paintings may not have been widely accepted. After his death his popularity was soon forgotten and considered "Victorians in togas".
Sir Edwin Henry Landseer (1802-1873)
He was a favorite of the Queen and was most famous for his sculpture of the lions at Trafalgar Square at the foot of Nelson’s column. He also painted the wildlife of Scotland like “Monarch of the Glen” Landseer humanized domestic animals endowing them with sentimental images. An engraving of one of his paintings that I once owned showed a terrier male dog coming home after a night out with the boys. His mate who was home looking after the puppies greets him with a snarl. The artist also painted hunting scenes that graphically showed game animals torn apart by hunting dogs. Queen Victoria commissioned Royal Portraits including Prince Albert and their pets, from him and he was offered the presidency of the Royal Academy but declined. At the time he suffered from severe depression. Landseer was the drawing master for the Queen. He was commissioned to create a pair of lions for the foot of Nelsons' column at Trafalgar square, London. (These same lions can be seen in Halifax at the Dingle Tower.) The live animals he ordered to model for him died in transit from Africa and he was forced to work from a dead lion. This led to his eviction because his landlady had no understanding of him having smelly old dead lions hanging around. He took a mental break-down after that and was put in a mental hospital .
James McNeil Abbot Whistler (1834-1903)
An American expatriate painter and etcher born in Lowell, Mass. After the U.S. civil war he fled to London, England. He studied map making at West Point Academy. His knowlege of engraving and etching would later highlight his artistic career. He was highly influenced by the Japanese masters.
William Etty (1787-1849) He was a member of the RA who studied under Lawrence and dedicated himself to a life-long study of the nude.
Lady Elizabeth Butler (1846-1933)
She was awarded with a purchase from the Queen Victoria of her painting of the Crimean War, “Calling the roll”. She also painted a large battle scene of a charge by the Scots Grays at the Battle of Waterloo titled, “Scotland Forever”.
“PLEASE RING BELL” The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (Oct. 24, 2011)
In 1848 the brotherhood formed and had seven members. Among them were Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), Edward Burne-Jones, Ford Madox Brown (b.1821), Millais, John Ruskin (b. 1819 an art critic and writer who promoted and supported the movement) They were young poets and painters at the time. At the time nobody knew what “PRB” meant and some critics thought it meant “Please ring bell”. They put it after their name as others might put “RA” or “RCA”.
Their objective was to improve the bad taste and cultural sterility of the times. The study of nature and the revival of sound craftsmanship. Many of the artists became involved with the British Arts & Crafts Movement founded by William Morris (1834-1896). Burne-Jones became one of the great designers of the movement. He designed stain glass windows, books, trays, fabrics and furniture. The Morris chair was a product of the movement. Morris founded a colony of craft studios where hand made products were designed. A similar movement came about in the United States.
The PRB later added it others to it's numbers but also had a split with some issues. There was a more realistic faction that included Hunt, Millais and Brown. On the other hand we had Edward Burne-Jones, Rossetti, Morris, Siddal, using medieval art subjects.
The Brotherhood was an organized revolt against the Royal Academy. Victorian art was involved with classical subjects (that gave an excuse to paint nudes) Fairy Painting (you didn't have to be one to paint one) and what was called History Painting. Many of the Brotherhood later became members of the Academy. In their youth they were against what they called dark pretentious history paintings. Robert Harris who spent his childhood in Charlottetown, could be called a history painter. Other painters who were shown in RA shows could have subjects that could be called 'trivial anecdotes. Painters like Landseer were doing cute little animal paintings. The PRB members called these 'monkeyana' or over- sentimental- rubbish. They wanted to paint “true to nature' as expounded in “Modern Painters” by John Ruskin. The PRB wanted to return to the purity of art before the high Renaissance movement. They removed much of the dark browns (bitumen) and earth colours from their pallets and tried to use only brilliant colours.
Thomas Woolner (1825-1892)
Was encouraged to be part of the PRB in 1848. He also was a poet and sculptor in marble and bronze. He immigrated to Australia and inspired Brown to paint, “The Last of England”.
Ford Madox Brown (1821-1893)
Brown also painted some socially aware paintings such as “Take Your Son, Sir!” (1857) which was not likely to bring him any sales. This painting was about illegitimacy and the exploitation of the poor. There is nothing else more direct in the era he painted it. What Brown considered his masterwork was “Work” painted between 1852 and 1865.
Although Brown who was much older than the other PRB members never really joined the group he had been Rossetti's teacher and mentor and was closely involved with the movement. Brown's style of painting was derived from French Romanticism. His early work was dark and dramatic.
“Work” is a form of modern history painting. A natural-looking representation of a Victorian street. Brilliant colour and detail abound. The heroes of the painting are the guys digging up drain pipes while passers-by of both rich and poor are seen as supporting cast. Two blokes to the right are the Christian socialist and pioneer of working class education, Rev. F.D. Maurice and Thomas Carlyle. The painting is far more a socialist statement than anything produced after the 1917 USSR revolution. This was painted in Manchester a major working-class city.
Brown painted “An English Autumn Afternoon” in 1852. Ruskin asked Brown, “What made you take such an ugly subject?”, Brown just replied, “Because it lay out the back window.” It showed the outskirts of London from a hill-top view. Mr. Brown was not a painter of romantic legions and fairy stories, he painted the world as he saw it.
William Holman Hunt (1827-1910)
He had worked his way through the R.A. College and as a student he met Millais. The dedication of the artist to his work as an artist shows in the painting, “The Scapegoat” 1854. He travelled to the Holy Land to paint four times. A photo shows him in Palestine, on the shores of the Dead Sea painting on site in a war zone with a shotgun across his lap while painting. He armed himself against bandits and had travelled to the Holy Land to get “...things true and life-like”. Hunt painted on the Day of Atonement. Like others of the Brotherhood he had to paint from life. Religious art was his true calling. He tended to multiply naturalistic detail giving equal emphasis to all. Sometimes his painting followed a Victorian soap-opera format, such as in “Awaking Conscience”. He is a little less moralistic in “Hireling Shepherd” In 1905 he published a book on the brotherhood titled “Pre-Raphaelism and the PRB”. One of his most famous religious works was “the Light of the World” painted in 1854. It was inspired from the “Book of Revelation”. Hunt was often misunderstood in his own time. “The Light” toured the world and was reproduced in great numbers, even a 3D version exists. I have seen it copied as a stain glass window.
John Everette Millais (1829-1896)
Millais discovered Lizzie and hired her as a model. He continued to paint Shakespearean scenes. He painted “Ophelia” with her in the tub in costume. These guys were not good at paying the heating bills. A bad cold resulted but his model continued to work for him. He painted another work that could be classed as a “Fairy” painting titled “Ferdin Lured by Ariel” in 1849. There was a number of artists in Victorian times who painted Fairy s. Richard Dadd (1817-1886) who painted the famous “Fairy Fellers' Master Stroke” comes to mind. Millais has the same attention to detail. Unlike Dadd, Millais didn't chop his family up with an axe.
Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal (1829-1862) also known as Lizzie or 'Guggums'
She was considered the dream woman of the PRB and was discovered by them in a Millany Shop. She had been a hat-maker. She was eighteen at the time.
“...beautiful as the reflection of a golden mountain in a crystal lake.” was what Ruskin said of her. She was tall, slender with a stately neck and a mass of copper hair. She was the model for various Arthurian legends and often speared more than once in a single painting. She was encouraged in her own painting by Ruskin and worked in watercolour painting medieval scenes. She also wrote verse and illustrated her books.
She married Dante Gabriel Rossetti in 1860. She suffered what would be considered in today’s' terms an abusive relationship. Dante was unfaithful and the damp unheated studio had contributed to her deteriorating health. She died of an overdose of laudanum. Said by some historians to be a suicide. Her husband graved and went into a deep depression. He placed the manuscript of his unpublished poems under her cheek in the coffin.
Dante Charles Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)
He was the second of four children. All of them achieving some recondition in the arts. Dante dropped out of the Royal Academy school and he first became famous for his poetry. It was only later he began to develop as a painter.
Rossetti married Elizabeth Siddal and with her at Chatham Place, Black Friars. She died two years after the marriage. The bereavement over the death of Lizzie led to insomnia in 1867. He eventually went to stay in a castle in Ayrshire, Scotland where in long sleepless nights he returned to writing poetry to clear his mind. He began to think of publishing his early work buried with his wife. After exhuming the manuscript and publishing it, he received a wide range of criticism which led to pronounced melancholia which remained until his death.
Dante's sister, Christina posed for the Annunciation in 1850. She was the poet of the group..
Lucy Madox Rossetti (1843-1894)
She was the only daughter of Ford Madox Brown and married William Rossetti in 1874. She carried on the traditions of the PRB. Lucy's paintings centred on medieval style. She did not achieve the fame that the male PRB artist did but the titles of some of her works in major collection are:
“Romeo and Juliet In The Vault”
“The Fair Geraldine”
“Margaret Roper Receiving the Head of her Father”
“Saint Agnes Eve”
“Lady of Shalotte”
William Morris (1843-1896)
Morris wrote one of the first fantasy novels, “The Well at the End of the World” He was a designer, typographer, poet, painter and socialist.
Jane Morris (Jane Burden)
She posed for her husband, William Morris in the painting “Queen Guinevere” (1858). She was a popular model for the PRB and posed in Icelandic costume in an etching produced in 1873. After the death of Lizzie she fell in love with Rossetti and became his mistress.
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, RA (1833-1898)
He was closely linked with the Arts and Crafts movement and designed book plates, books of poetry, stained glass and other products for the firm owned by William Morris. He worked with Rossetti on a ceiling fresco in the Oxford University Library. In 1859 Ruskin paid his way to Italy where he came under the influence of Botticelli. Burne-Jones creates a strange blend of Medievalism and Classicism. He has a unique place in Victorian art. There is a large collection of his work in Burningham, his native city.
Lesson # 3
The Undressed Art (The Nude) Throughout art history the nude has been a universal study from the goddess figures carved in the stone-age to modern times. The human form has always been a timeless focus in art and the central point in ancient Greek painting and sculpture. Classical Greek ideas of beauty carried a popular notion that the male body was the ideal human form. Greek art was the not entirely indifferent to feminine beauty. The sculptured form of “Venus of Milo” (often seen these days reproduced with a clock in her belly) contains the classical beauty of the ideal nude. (5th century B.C.) Sculpture has endured in many ways beyond painting. Early Greek sculpture inspired artists in the Renaissance even though much was lost to Christian attitudes towards pagan art forms and the representation of deities were often in ruin. The looting of Greek art had started with the Romans and much that was looted was destroyed in Christian times until the Renaissance.
15th Century It was Greek sculpture that influenced Michelangelo when he painted nudes on the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. He was also influenced by the rebirth of science and the study of anatomy that was still an underground science at that time blocked by the laws of the Church of Rome. The most famous nudes ever painted the two male figures on the Sistine ceiling by Michelangelo. They were classical in inspiration from the late Hellenistic marble fragment of about 50 BC which the artist studied in the papal collection.
“Birth of Venus” (1478) by Sandre Botticelli (1444-1510) Florentine school. He was sponsored by Lorenzo the Magnificent of the Medici family. He showed a revival of Gothic tenancies. He created a type of grace and beauty of face and figure so personal to him that it is instantly recognizable to anyone having the least acquaintance with Renaissance art. He was trained by Fra Filippo Lippi.
16th Century Mannerism followed the rebirth with major debates about the role of the nude in art. Michelangelo didn’t live to see his masterpieces with fig leaves painted on them by order of another pope. Mannerism emerges after the Counter Reformation. Attitudes are in constant shift about the piety of the human form. One of the characteristics of this art is the unease and tension that seems to be present in the art.
Venus Anadyomene 1520 the Baroque style brought new attitudes to the representation of the naked body in the 6th Century. They did not see the nude as an emblem of pleasure purely; sometimes it was used to convey pain and vulnerability usually but not always in a religious context.
Mannerism provided an alternative to classical perfection. It presented an erotic element to the nude. Bronzino’s “Venus” has some extreme erotic ideas expressed. This made such works ideal for the courts of the mid-16th century.
17th Century
Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) He painted Queen Marie de Medicis the second Medici Queen of France. She was shown arriving and being welcome by the people of France. A detail shows the mermaids guiding her ship to the dock.
He also painted “The Hermit and the Sleeping Angelica”
Canto VIII (translation)
In pious strains, with hyporcritic air, He now began to soothe the weeping fair:
While as he spoke, his roving fingers press’d, Her alabaster neck and heaving breast:
Till, bolder grown, his clasp’d her in his arms:
But here, resentment kindling all her charms,
Back with her hand the feeble wretch she threw,
While every feature glowed with rosy hue.
Then from his scrip he takes, of sovereign use,
A little vial filled with magic juice:
In those bright eyes, where love was won’t to frame
His sharpest darts and raise his purest flame,
A drop he sprinkles that had power to steep
Her heavy eye-lids in the dew of sleep…
~John Hoole 1799~
Art of this time is gradually shifting from classical and purely religious painting to art that is patronized by a rising merchant class.
18th Century
Rubens introduces the fleshy nudes of classical proportions and pagan times are once again in fashion. Fragonard and Boucher work towards a more decadent subject matter that reflects the erotic and the decadence of court life that was to end in revolution.
Louise O”Murphy 1752 by Francois Boucher (1703-1770) the model was the daughter of an Irish shoemaker. She had traveled with King James II to France and settled in Ruen. Her three sisters became courtesans; with them she first met Casanova. He arranged for Boucher to paint this oil of her nude. She came to the notice of Louis XV. Louise became the Bing’s mistress and bore him two sons. She is 15 years old in the painting. The artist stressed bright warm colours and erotic subject matter. His style and that of Fragonard was called Rococo.
19th Century
Naked Maja by Francisco Goya (1746-1828) over 348,907 people lost their lives to the Inquisition from its institution until the coronation of Charles IV. “Condesa de Chinchon” was painted in a dressed version as well. She has a delicate and slightly disturbing humanity. She is in this way timeless. It was thought by some that she was painted in the “dressed” version to satisfy the inquisition.
William Etty (1787-1849) an academic painter that dedicated himself to painting the nude which he was quoted as saying was…Gods most glorious work” Etty was very much opposed by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood who thought his paintings were “rather obvious carnality.”
Thomas Eakins (1844-1915)
He studied art in Philadelphia and anatomy at Jefferson Medical College before going to Paris for 3 years. One of his most famous paintings is “Max Schmitt in his Single Skull”. He taught life drawing at PAFA. Models in those schools wore cloth sacks over their heads.
Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825)
He was highly inspired by the art in Italy and was the inventor of Neo-classical art…His work, “Socrates and Coligny” hung in the Salon with Vigee-Lebrun’s “Queen Marie-Antoinette and her Children” Some years later David would be one of the signers of that same Queen’s death warrant.
“Odalisque” by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) He was a student of David and the neo-classical movement. He claimed to be opposed to Romanticism and Realism. Yet there are a number of his subjects and topics that touch on the Romantic. Artists banded together in groups advocating a particular idea. Paris was the centre of new artistic ideas like the neo-classical movement that was for a short while the official art of France. It was also adapted as the official art of the United States of America. Romanticism also had a movement in music and literature. Many of Ingres’ subjects were very exotic and Romantic. Art criticism appeared in journals and newspapers. There was a growing literacy and a wide readership. Ingres shows the classicism in his painting. He looks at reality with discipline, strictness and detachment. Ingres lived in Italy for long periods of time. He was influenced by Raphael rather than by Michelangelo. He did not follow the political implications of the Neo-classicists, which aligned itself with Napoleon. He was opposed to the Romantic painters like Gericault and Delacroix. He did not become a court painter for the Republic as did David. David was exiled after the fall of the Emperor. Ingres remained out of the politics and opposed the Romantic Movement. He does paint very romantic subjects, much of it Turkish harems and mythological subjects. Ingres was also a talented violinist and his music helped pay his way in the worlds. Though skillful in every detail some distortions come through in his anatomy. There is few who can paint flesh in such a sensual way.
“Olympia” (1863) by Edovard Manet who painted a reclining nude, her cat and servant. This painting used Victorine Marret as a model and caused a sensation and scandized outcry. Napolian III placed armed guards to protect the painting from being vandalized in 1865. Cezanne admired the painting and Gauguin made a copy of it. Manet was inspired to make a copy of it. Manet’s influences surly came from Goya’s “Maja” The artist greatly admired Goya and went through a period which has been called his “Spainish period” His ‘Olympia’ carefully filtered out the sensual appeal of the relaxed Maja. He set the scene in contrast of light and dark. The painting of the same model, Victorine, was rejected by the salon in 1863. It was titled “Le Dejeuner sur L’herbe” or “Lunchian on the Grass” Olympia was shown in the Salon des Refuses. In both paintings the artist, though basing his composition on a classical pastoral subject, managed to shock the art public to the point of riot.
20th century
Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920)
He devoted almost all his attention to the human figure. Painting female nudes and portraits. Under the influence of primitive sculpture he elongated his forms.
Lesson # 4
DA VINCI’S CODE AND THE TIME OF REBIRTH
Topic: The Art of the Renaissance
The time of re-birth is in great contrast to the centuries before. War and disaster reduced Europe to ages of strife and little cultural progress. Italy must in many ways take the credit for producing great men and women of discovery. It was an Italian that followed the silk route and opened trade with the Far East. It was an Italian that sailed to the New World and changed the course of history. The age of the Renaissance brought forth great genius and some of the greatest artists of all time. It is rare when all conditions in one place and one time come together to bring about a giant leap for civilization. It was called the Renaissance, marking the rebirth of the Classical Age of ancient Greece and after the “Black Death” that preceded it, a new age in the advancement of civilization. The influence of the Medici brought about the correct economic climate.
“Heaven sometimes sends us beings that represent not humanity alone but divinity itself, so taking them as our models and imitating them, our minds and the best of our intelligence may approach the highest celestial spheres. Experience shows that those who are led to study and follow the traces of these marvelous geniuses, even if nature gives them little or no help, may at least approach the supernatural works that participate in divinity.” –Giorgio Vasari
Major artistic achievements of the age:
1. Linear perspective
2. Anatomy
3. Sfumato
4. Printing
5. Painting on canvas
Science and other:
1. Magnetic compass
2. Inexpensive paper
3. Handwriting and lower case script
4. Larger sailing ships
5. Long-range guns
6. Birth of the nation state
7. Magellan proved the world wasn’t flat by circumnavigating the world
8. The invention of the astrolabe
9. The invention of pencils
10. The invention of the clock
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)
-He was born in Vinci and his mother, Caterina, was a peasant girl. He was the illegitimate son of a notary, Piero da Vinci.
Piero Della Francesca wrote a book title “On Perspective in Painting.”
-The ‘Mona Lisa’ (1503-1507) provides a good example of aerial perspective in the background. However the left and the right side of the figure have different horizon lines in the landscape
-During a restoration in the 16th century the eyebrows were accidentally wiped out.
-Leonardo wrote several books on art, “Notebooks” and “Treatise on Painting.”
In recent days (October 2006) x-rays and chemical tests of the Mona Lisa have revealed that she is wearing the lace skull cap of a middle class woman and that she is also wearing a garment known as a (ph) guarnarro (sp?) – a fine over garment, generally made of handmade tulle like lace that was worn by women who were about to or had just given birth. This fact determines definitively that the Mona Lisa was indeed female and a mother.
Despite the fact that da Vinci was responsible for modern day coining of the phrase “Renaissance man” to describe the most gifted and multifarious of talents, and despite the thousands of pages of journal entries, thousands of drawings and countless intellectual contributions in virtually every genre of the arts and sciences, only 17 paintings are attributed to him, and most are incomplete.
Giorgione (1475-1510)
He translated da Vinci’s “Sfumato” into a fully coloured technique. His “Sleeping Venus” established the reclining nude that was to be followed by artists such as Titian, Velazquez, Goya, Ingres, Manet etc, for centuries after.
Titian (1488-1576) He worked in Florence and Rome. His work mostly relates to high Renaissance. His most famous painting being “Venus of Urbino” He painted many bible scenes as well.
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)
He was known to be one of the greatest geniuses of his time and the longest lived artist of the Renaissance. He was an architect, painter, poet and sculptor. He worked for Lorenzo the Magnificent one of the Medici. Here he made contact with the Neo-Platonic movement.
The finest work of Michelangelo was in fact his marble carving. He was said to “free the figure from the stone prison. His “David” was carved in 1501 and is 18’ high. Another beautiful marble carved between 1555-1564 incomplete at his death was “Pieta Rondanini”
His paintings were monumental as well. The fresco, “The Last Judgment” and the “Expulsion from the Garden of Eden” as well as the Sistine Chapel ceiling are amongst his greatest contributions.
(Anecdote)
One day a group of gents were discussing Dante in the city square. Among them was Leonardo (Da Vinci- 1452-1519) Just then, Michelangelo walked by. Leonardo said, “Michelangelo will explain it to you!” (At that time, Michelangelo had just completed the mural on the theme of Dante, which is why Leonardo had brought up the subject with the gentlemen with whom he was conversing.) Michelangelo, believing he was being mocked, is reported to have replied, “You made a design for a horse cast in bronze and, unable to cast it, have in your shame abandoned it.” And then Michelangelo called after Leonardo as he walked away, “and those Milanese idiots did believe in you!”
Rafael (1483-1530)
Rafael’s real name was “Raphaello Santi” He was born on April 6, 1483, in Urbano, Italy. He was the son of a Court painter who died when Rafael was 11. His mother had passed on considerably earlier and he was therefore an orphan.
By 1504, Rafael was painting in Florence and was exposed to many of the greatest artists of the time. The Madonna and the Christ Child was a theme that Rafael often returned to. By 1508 Rafael was working in Rome and, later, in the Vatican for Pope Julius II, who ousted all other artists in his employ (including Rafael’s primary teacher/instructor). His holiness hired the young painter at the tender age of 25.
Rafael remained in the apartments of the Vatican for the rest of his life and went on to also consult and design some of the architecture within the Vatican and was responsible for the painting of Frescos within the private apartments of his holiness, something he never entirely completed, having lost interest in same. In his quest for artistic challenge, he ventured into the areas of textile art (tapestry) and even designed a bathing room.
He died on his 37th Birthday, in the Vatican. The year was 1520 and he was buried in the Pantheon with great pomp and ceremony.
Piero Della Francesca
Famous Renaissance painter Piero Della Francesca wrote one of the most important books of the age: he wrote the book “On Perspective in Painting.” (This may be available in reprints and in translation through Dover publishing.)
S’Fumato (Translation: the smokey edge)
Georgione (1475-1510) translated Da Vinci’s “S’Fumato” into a fully-coloured technique. Georgione’s “Sleeping Venus” established the reclining nude as phenomenon that was to be forever repeated by countless artists including Titian, Velasquez, Goya, Ingres, Manet, etc.
Titian
Titian lived (1488-1576) and had no other name save this sole name. He worked in Florence and Rome. His work most relates to the High Renaissance – his most famous painting being “Venus of Urbano” He also painted many scenes from the Holy Bible.
Michelangelo’s paintings, “The Last Judgment” and “The Expulsion from the Garden” as well as the Sistine Chapel ceiling, are doubtless chief among his artistic legacy. Included within the Sistine Chapel ceiling is “The Creation of Man” It is among his most recognizable and beloved paintings. He visualized the physical manifestation of touch in this painting, between God and man, and in so doing visually joined Heaven and Earth for centuries to come.
Botticelli ( 1444-1510)
Botticelli painted scenes from Dante’s “Inferno” and the classical images (ref Greek mythology), including, most notably, “The Three Graces” and “The Birth of Venus” (See Lesson 3, “The Nude: The Underdressed Art” for more on the work of this great Renaissance artist.)
Ghirlandaio (1449-1494)
One of the most prolific artists of his day is Florence; Ghirlandaio painted the very beautiful “The Old Man and His Grandson” now hanging in the Louvre in Paris, France.
Mannerism
The time of the rebirth was inspired by the Classical era. The Greek Hellenistic period, especially was of interest to painter and sculptors. The naturalism of later Greek art inspired artists as it was often unearthed and restored. Michelangelo restored parts and made copies of Classical sculpture. The Vatican actually began to form a large collection of pagan art. As the 15th century came to an end other cultural and religious movements came into change the idealism of the Renaissance. A backlash was forming against the ideals of humanism. The rise of Savonarola brought about destruction and almost fascist book and art burnings.
Michelangelo lived long enough to see the Medici rise and fall and popes come and go. His later paintings express the turbulence of the later Renaissance. Even Florence, a free state was invaded by the inquisition and a restrictive regime. Witch hunts became commonplace.
Mannerism is an extremely complex phenomenon in art and it followed the High Renaissance. It marks the transition to the Baroque. It is subjective and even irrational in spirit.
Mannerism arises in Florence about 1520 in the works of Pontormo and II Rosso. We see it also in the paintings of Michelangelo of the Last Judgment. Mannerism contains a latent Gothicism. In 1524 Rosso carried the style to Rome. The paintings of this period are often sad and brooding. Tortured and contorted figures often are abruptly fore-shortened. Colours are acid and unnatural.
Rosso Fiorentino (1494-1540) called ll Rosso was one of the founding artists in this movement with Pontarmo, they were the earliest Mannerist artists. Though Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) is considered Northern Renaissance some of his engravings and paintings can be considered mannerist.
Caravaggio (1571-1610) used chiaroscuro in extreme contrast in a mannerist style. He was on the run most of his life because in 1606 he was said to have killed someone. He became one of the most skillful painters of his time. Though he did serve time in Malta he escaped and some think was hunted own and murdered.
Although his work carried into the 17th century, Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) was said to carry much of the Mannerist influence. His David is very different than the High Renaissance manner of Donatello or Michelangelo. His “David” has all the concentration symbol for the fight the church has entered to re-extablish itself after the reformation in what was to be called the counter- reformation. It has great tension and movement, a powerful image.
Saint Teresa is depicted in marble in the “Ecstasy of St. Teresa” in Santa Maria Della Vittoria…Bernini shows her in almost a sexual climax and it is considered one of his greatest master pieces with great sexual tension and energy transmitting through the marble on a gold gilt halo. It’s a long way from the Calvinist thinking emerging in Northern Europe.
Pietro Da Cartona (1596-1669) was a Roman Baroque artist who works in a style that has some spirit of the mannerist artists. He was born near Tuscany and exploits the availability of paper, once a rare and precious possession. The production of engravings comes into use to spread the ideas of artists over a wider world. He published 27 plates of anatomical drawings. They are figures in natural settings in Tuscan landscapes. People are walking about trying to be cool even though their skin is gone and they have the insides showing.
Mannerism is hard to define but becomes eventually absorbed by the Baroque.
Artemisia Gentileschi followed the Caravaggio style of painting in high-contrast curuoscuria. Her father Orazio was a well known painter of her time. His paintings soon surpassed her fathers’ and the high drama and emotional content of her work brought her fame throughout Europe. She painted for a time at Buckingham Palace and several fine works are in the Royal collection along with the drawings by Da Vinci.
The 16th Century saw the emergence of a new type of patron, not the grand aristocrat but the bourgeois, eager to purchase pictures in the newly developed medium of woodcut printing, copper etching and engraving. The new century also brought an interest in Humanism and science and a market for books, many of which were illustrated with woodcuts.
Lesson # 5
Topic: A Very Short History of Landscape Painting
Note: Although Landscape painting in China Greece
In China Taoist influence pushed poetry and painting towards landscape and nature studies. Landscape brought the elements of life, being encompassed in art and writing, prayer was expressed by painting, poetry and other art forms in Taoist practice. This idea was passed on in Chan Buddhism and Zen so that art became an expression of belief in the power a higher being. This definition of belief was expressed in all crafts and sports but one of its highest forms was painting.
European artists did not develop an interest in Landscape until the power of the church had diminished, giving way to a rich merchant class in the 18th Century. The leading painters in Landscape were Dutch and German painters and later Italian painters like Claude Lorraine.
Northern Renaissance
Albrecht Altdorfer (1480-1538) He was a Bavarian painter who is said to have painted the first European landscape painting when he painted “St. George”. He still painted history and religious topics but landscape dominated the figures. Like Durer, he was also an engraver. He was one the founding members of the Danube School.
Claude Lorrain (1600-1682) He was a French-born landscape painter that lived and painted in Rome
“At its best, art expresses peoples and lands. But there was no visual art deeply expressing England
-Sheldon Cheney
-Topographical landscapes sketched on site led to the development of watercolour painting. Both Cotman and Turner started out this way.
-Richard Wilson 1714 – 1782 was called the “father of British landscape”. He nearly starved painting landscape instead of portraits.
“…Seize hold of God’s hand, and look full in the face of his creation, and there is nothing He will not enable you to achieve.”
-John Ruskin (1819-1900) He was considered one of the profits of the Victorian Age. The author of “Modern Painters”, “Stones of Venice Scotland and Northern England .
-John Crome (1768-1821) He painted Windmill on Mousehole Heath He loved nature in her several and grander moods. He served his apprenticeship as a coach and sign painter at age 15. He was encouraged in his painting by Thomas Harvey who introduced him to several wealthy Quaker families who employed him as a drawing master. He formed a group of painters known as the Norwich School
-John Sell Cotman (1782- 1842) was famous for his thousands of watercolours. He was appointed a drawing master at Kings College by a recommendation of J.M.W. Turner. Though watercolour was in use for hundreds of years the Romantic Age brought about the idea of outdoor sketching. Watercolour was portable and could be packed up quickly in the event of changing weather. Oils were stored in pig’s bladders and were very messy to travel with. Cotman was also an engraver and a member of the Norwich School. Watercolour became very popular in England. People taking the “Grand Tour” packed a set of paints. Today small portable watercolour sets are called “Cotman Boxes”.
-John Constable (1776 – 1837)
He was considered part of the Romantic Movement. His outlook on nature was primarily naturalistic; his individuality of style and interest in “sentiment” made him a Romantic. He enjoyed clouds, sunshine, trees and fields for their own sake. He was the son of a mill owner. He entered the Royal Academy
-Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775 – 1851)
He was a great influence to the Impressionists. Turner is considered by many to be the greatest English painter that ever lived. He was the son of a barber that opened the doors to Modern Art. Like Claude he loved to paint weather, light and wind. For his major work “Snowstorm at Sea” (1842) He had himself tied to the mast of a ship to observe the conditions at sea first-hand. Though he painted history images his work was mainly about light and expression. Ruskin did much to foster an appreciation for his work.
His masterwork “The Fighting Temeraire, Tugged to her Las Berth to be broken up” (1838) HMS Temeraire fought at Trafalgar under Captian Eliab Harvey. It was a sunset on a different age.
When it was exhibited “Rain, Steam and Speed- The GWR” (1844) was a painting that was thought to be outrageous by most people at the time. Turner loved to paint storms, mountains and the sea but it was surprising that he should include one of the most terrifying scientific marvels of his time. The rain is built up in glazes. The brilliance of many of his works was said to “..almost puts your eyes out.”
John Ruskin (1819-1900)
Though famous for his books on art, Ruskin was a well known painter. He sketched in Scotland and the Lake District where he lived in his later life. He made many trips to Italy where he sketched and gathered material for his books.
Edward Lear (1812-1888)
The author of “The Owl & the Pussy Cat” was a great traveler and water colourist. He started out painting birds but turned to topographic subjects in oils and watercolour. Many of his paintings were painted from life near the Mediterranean and the Middle East. He met and admired Turner at the Royal Academy. Some of his best paintings were done in Greece and Italy.
He was a leading landscape painter during the Romantic Era. The most important German landscape painter since Altdorfer died near Dresden
“Shipwreck or Sea and Ice” was painted about the loss of the Franklin
France
Jean Baptiste Corot (1796-1875)
Corot was a great influence to the Impressionist painters to come. Van Gogh copied his paintings in his early work.
Claude Monet (1840-1926)
The artist was highly influenced by Constable and the Barbizon School of painters. The idea of taking the easel outdoors and painting was much more possible when paints were now in tubes. He had a studio in a boat in his early years. Monet was a family man and liked being home with his wife and many children so did not travel far to paint but built a beautiful garden to paint in. It was in this garden that he painted his great masterpiece, “The Water Lilies”. He painted this while the German guns could be heard in his peaceful flower garden. One of Frances’ greatest landscape painters.
George Inness 1801 – 1848
American Romantic landscape painter who loved grandiose compositions handled with minute detail. (b. Newburgh, NY ) He worked as a grocery clerk in his early days and later became a mapmaker. He first began painting in 1841. He later traveled to Yosemite Park California
Thomas Cole (1801 – 1848)
He was the most famous of the Hudson River School Lancaster , England and was an engraver and textile designer before he immigrated to the USA New York
Cole and the Hudson River School Connecticut River ” (1836) now hanging at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He became one of the most popular American painters. Thomas Cole has a highly Romantic attitude to his subject matter as well and we see this in “Course of Empire”, Departure and Return”, “The Architects Dream”, and especially in the fantastic imaginary landscape, “The Titan’s Goblet” painted in 1833. In this painting we see the world within worlds. It resembles to some extent the fantasy works of John Martin (b.1870) an English painter of bible disaster scenes and Heaven.
Cole’s landscapes were often inspired by his long walks through the Adirondacks and the Catskill mountains . He sketched, hiked and fished through the region.
Towards the end of his life he continued to draw and paint.
Church studied two years with Cole and painted large romantic landscapes of the Hudson River and New England scenery. In 1853, inspired by the writing of Alexander Von Humboldt, he traveled to South America . He sketched and traveled with conscientious fervor. He followed much of the writings of John Ruskin and sketched daily. It took him two years to paint the “Heart of the Andres” in 1859. He exhibited it under dramatic lighting in his studio. People paid $ .25 to see the painting and qued up round the block just to see it. F.E. Church Hudson River . Church traveled north to study icebergs off the coast of Newfoundland and sketched in Nova Scotia Cotopaxi ” (1862) and “Twilight in the Wilderness”.
Church was forgotten by history though his fame in his life-time was great, until the 1960’s when one of his paintings, “Icebergs off the Labrador Coast
Other American Landscape Painters:
Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902)
He was a German-born painter (b. Dusseldorf ) who recorded the Western Expansion to the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada’s in California Hudson River School and sketched with a U.S. government expedidtion to the Rocky Mountains .
He was very successful in his lifetime receiving as much as $35,000 for each of his paintings. He built a castle on the Hudson River where he lived out his life.
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
He was influenced by Turner and a founder of Esthic Tourism. The conservation movement begins with paintings of Yellowstone Park England and died in California
Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966)
He was a late Neo-classical painter of mythological landscapes with light and colour that have a dream-like quality and artificiality of a magnificent movie set. Ordinary reality is transformed into a celluloid dream.
Lesson #6.
THE WATCHDOGS
Topic: Social Change and the Influence of Art
18th Century
This was a time of the Courts of Kings and Queens who ruled in absolute power, although the seeds of change were already planted. Portrait painting was the main art form after Religious and history painting. In fact recording the faces and figures of the ruling classes began to become more important as that ruling class began to change. The South Seas Bubble brought disaster to many of the ruling class. Merchants began to replace the old order and revolution will eventually be its death blow. Such painters as Sir Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), George Romney (1734-1802) and others made more than a good living. In the American Colonies John Copley (1738-1815) Benjamin West (1738-1820) and Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) painted portraits and historical paintings. At Versailles France
The artist and engraver William Hogarth (1697-1764) was there to put them all down a peg. He wanted to be a painter but found that he couldn’t do portraits because, “…by mortifying experience, that whoever would succeed in this branch (portraiture), must make divinities of all those who sit before him.” His realism was not appreciated by his patrons. He liked to draw the lower side of life. He hated hypocrisy. His series of engravings were followed like Coronation Street
19th Century
Revolution which altered the face of Europe in the 19th century changed the way artists expressed themselves. There existed a new society of business men, factory owners, lawyers etc. The learned to want the Neo-Classical style of art. What was called than “academic” art? Some painters daring to break free from the commercial taste diverged into new channels. Some steered close to political revolutionaries. William Blake (1757-1827), a poet and a printmaker, spoke of the “…godlessness of modern human kind.” He had a kind of divine madness and painted and etched his inner visions. Paintings such as “The Whirlwind of Lovers” in 1824 brought in the age of Romanticism. Blake also believed in social reform and the voices he heard from heaven told him that “…honest indignation is the voice of God.” Blake sympathized with the French Revolution until the time of the “terror”. He was one of the first to cry out against the Industrial Revolution. As with everything he felt passionately:
“And did the countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic Mills?”
Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863) painted “Liberty Leading the People” in 1830. Delacroix painted this image at the time of the commune barricades.
Francisco Goya painted “The Execution May 3rd 1808” He produced many works that upset the people in power. (The Royal family, the Church and the French Occupation) He painted work about the evils of Moon raking. His etchings, ‘Disasters of War’ were his protest to his nations’ invasion between1808 to 1814. After the uprising in Madrid at the time ordered the executions depicted in this painting. What was called “guerrilla” (little war) warfare had begun from that date on. Goya’s aquatints and etchings depicted the cruelty and evil of war and were in fact the first art to be anti-war in nature. He also struck out against anything he found offensive in Spanish society.
Romantics
The concept of struggle was an important theme of Romanticism. The human struggle against the overwhelming forces as expressed in “The Slave Ship” by JMW Turner (1775-1851) was titled by the artist, “Slaves Thrown Overboard, Dead and Dying-Typhoon Coming On” 1840. The slavers determine the fate of the slaves. The fate of the ship is in the grip of nature. The painting offers political commentary that will become more common in the history of art as we move away from the middle of the 19th Century.
Theodore Gericault (1791-1824) painted “The Raft of the Medusa” which was a departure from history painting. It is not heroic but a needless modern tragedy where the officers of the vessel took the only lifeboat of the ship and let 150 survivors save themselves on a raft for 13 days. It was a painting critical of a government that would allow something like this to happen.
Note: Laws of the seas were in fact the first efforts made towards international law. Shipping of any cargo be it cotton, ivory or slaves was governed only by capitalistic greed and the safety of ships was not a consideration, nor was the safety of those on board. This in fact was the beginning of international law.
I.e. Primsol Lines
Custom of the Sea (cannibalism)
Life boat laws
Priority to women and children (Birkenhead Law)
Slavery and the slave trade
Piracy
Salvage
Pressing and shanghaiing
Obligations to rescue
Light houses, Light ships and marked channels
Distress signals
Safe refuge
Moon-raking
Neo-Classical Art
As the 18th Century ended in revolution, some looked for a time of reason and an interest in the past sprung up as artists and craftsmen looked back to ancient Greece and Roman times. Science, which came forth in the “Age of Discovery”, took an interest in archeology and digging up Pompeii and Horculaneum, two ancient cities buried in AD 79 by erupting volcanoes. Fashion changed waistcoats on men changed, lace disappeared, as did knee breeches and wore instead sans-culottes (without knee breeches). Powder and wigs disappeared, men dressed in plainer fashion and women dressed in “Empire” style. David painted Napoleon in a toga crowning his Empress. His sister posed nude for a marble statue of herself as a Roman goddess on a Roman sofa. The United States of America was formed by revolution and also adapted the style of the ancient republics. Amongst the American artists that followed this style were Harriet Hosmer (1830-1908) and Edmonia Lewis (1845-1890) two women sculptors that left their mark on Art in a new nation. It was the end of extravagance, the party was over. “To take the ancients for models is the only way to become great, yes, unsurpassable, if we can.”
- Johann Winekelmann, art historian
Jacques Louis David (1748-1825) studied in Rome where he developed the Neo-classical style. He voted for the death of the King and later became the court artist for Bonaparte. He painted several masterpieces and the most memorable being “Death of Marat”.
Honore Daumier (1808-1879) was a lithographer and a cartoonist. His satire was laced with human interest in the lower side of life. He also liked to poke fun at those in authority. He was often jailed for his cartoons. With his pen he captured the timeless strength of the working people. Like the painter Millet he had a message. He said, “Men and women that labour are the true nobles, on whose backs society rests and depends.”
Jean Francois Millet (1814-1875) He painted peasant life and the heroes of his paintings were everyday working people doing their best to make a living.
Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) He had been part of the socialist commune, which seized power in Paris. He painted working men and women in everyday heroism. He has been considered the leader of the Realism movement.
20th Century
Diego Rivera (1886-1957) the Mexican-born muralist and graphic artist. In the USA 1930-34 he did frescos in San Francisco, Detroit and New York. Much of his work can be seen in the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico. In Mexico alone he painted 124 murals.
“Only the work of art itself can raise the standard of taste art has always been employed by different social classes who hold the balance of power as one instrument of domination – hence as a political role. What is it then that we really need? As art extremely pure, precise, profoundly human and clarified as to its purpose.”
-Diego Rivera 1929
Kathe Kollwitze was a German Expressionist who recorded the horrors of the holocaust death-camps. In her dramatic lithographs such as “Death Seizing Women” no other artist so deeply expressed with such feeling for the suffering of human kind.
Ben Shahn (b.1898) part of a group of Social Realists. He painted, “The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetri”.
Edward Hopper (1882-1967) was a painter and printmaker who lived in New York and painted the scenes of the city and later the New England region. Much of his work was about light. His themes were romantic-realist images of isolated houses and lonely individuals in “one night cheap hotels”. He painted “Nighthawks” and “Early Sunday Morning”.
“Nighthawks” painted in 1942 is an image of modern urban life. Hopper was a realist in the time that abstraction was coming to the forefront. The painting showed a lack of communication in a large 20th Century city. Other artists expressed similar ideas were Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton and Charles Sheeler, all of them WPA artists who celebrated various aspects of America in a style meant to be open and democratically assessable to all viewers. One of Bentons’ models in a famous WPA mural was a young student named Jackson Pollack.
Andy Warhol (1928-1987) is included because he changed how we look at our post-industrial age. In 1965 he painted in his factory in New York “Electric Chair” done with a photo-silk-screen image on canvas. He said, “I want to be a machine” suggesting that these aspects of the current scene to which familiarity breeds indifference. Warhol made the paintings of Campbell Soup cans famous to the extent that the company does not dare change its logo. He was a Pop Artist who used popular imagery in all his paintings.
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