Comments for Art History 2010

Comment on Contact by lin

lin — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 06:30:26 +0000

Facebookers can find me at: http://www.facebook.com/2mars

Anyone who sends me any piece of snail mail gets instant plus points.

Comment on Contact by micaela

micaela — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 19:52:46 +0000

Oh man. The Last Supper with mustaches would have been pretty great . . . Anyways, email is micaelaew@gmail.com. I added Alina on facebook so you should be able to find me through her!

Comment on Contact by Alina

Alina — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 08:17:49 +0000

Aw, you beat me to it. AND you already friended me on Facebook. How sly of you. :O

email: seventhmustang@hotmail.com
FB photo: The one with a circle of people. Subject to change once our class photograph is uploaded. FYI, the guys in the office says that our class photo was one of the two best :O (the teacher for the other class brought fake mustaches for the whole class)

Comment on Northern Renaissance and Baroque by Abhinav

Abhinav — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 22:54:21 +0000

One of the paintings I found most interesting is the Hummingbird Eating Spider by Sybilla Maria Merian. First of all, it is actually quite interesting that an artist would want to paint something like insects as a dominating theme in their painting. Even though this is out of the Renaissance period, it seems to be a topic not painted very often. Generally, in our society at least, they are considered disgusting and annoying, maybe even creepy. Another, very unique, thing about this painting is the name as opposed to the action taking place in the painting. The name suggests that a hummingbird would be eating a spider. However, this is really not the case in the painting. Actually, the painting is dominated by spiders. There are spider eggs throughout the painting and insects stuck to spider webs. Also, ironically, it seems to be the spiders who are feasting on all of the other insects. Although it is not very noticeable, it appears as if the spider is actually eating the hummingbird. The hummingbird is squashed under the spider. Thus, as a result, I really wonder why the artist named the painting Hummingbird Eating Spider?

Comment on Northern Renaissance and Baroque by Asa013

Asa013 — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 22:53:17 +0000

Vivian,
I disagree. In looking through these artworks, I see lots of depth and a great understanding of them.
For instance, Robert Merode, Altarpiece.

Comment on Northern Renaissance and Baroque by Alina

Alina — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 22:52:52 +0000

There is a century’s difference between Hans Holbein’s portraits and those of Franz Hals, and the styles of the two artists are profoundly different. Holbein portrays Sir Richard Southwell with an expressionless face; he stares off to the side, and there is no movement about his features. Other than one area off to the side where his black clothes melt into the shadowy background, each details is painted with sharp clarity, including each crease in his black clothing. His portrait of Henry VII is brightly colored and lifelike, albeit the equally expressionless face, with a sharp kind of clarity that adversely gives the portrait an unreal sort of pop from the background.

The change that has occurred between Holbein’s work and Hals’s is startlingly clear. In his portrait, Pieter van den Broecke seems to be caught and frozen mid-smile. The lace and facial features are painstakingly detailed, but other areas of the painting–his clothes, the background–are deliberately smudged or left blurry so as not to draw attention to away from Broecke. The colors palette used is not nearly so bright as the one that Holbein used for Henry VII’s portrait, but Broecke’s portrait nonetheless is many times more alive.

Comment on Northern Renaissance and Baroque by micaela

micaela — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 22:52:30 +0000

There are many similarities between the Giotto’s Lamentation that was produced in Italy and Van der Weyden’s Descent from the Cross that was produced in the North. While Giotto’s painting draws your attention to the christ because of the direction of the views of the spectators, Van der Weyden does the same by using the stark contrast in color between Christ’s lifeless body and the vibrant colors of the garments of those around him. In both the Italian and Northern scenes, Christ appears limp and feeble but maybe even more in the Northern because of his contorted and falling body that is barely held up. In Giotto’s scene the virgin cradles her deceased son in agony, but in Van der Weyden’s scene, pale-faced, she faints to the ground. I don’t want to assert the point that maybe Italian women were tougher; and so Giotto wouldn’t expect the virgin to faint at her son’s death, but I can’t come up with much of a better idea of why the virgin would have two so different reactions in the same scene!

Comment on Northern Renaissance and Baroque by Asa013

Asa013 — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 22:51:33 +0000

Lin,
What do you mean “too good to be true”?

Comment on Northern Renaissance and Baroque by feibi

feibi — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 22:51:21 +0000

Rogier Van der Weyden’s Descent from the Cross portrays Jesus death in an untraditional way. First of all, the people in this painting are not clothed from the time period. Some are correctly clad, like St. John in his red garments, but the mournful nun in the lefthand corner and the bathrobe man holding Jesus’s feet are ill-correctly swaddled. This demonstrates a more stylized approach by the artist. Van der Weyden choose to portray the people surrounding Jesus in a more modern way to the time period. His technique identifies the painting as more relatable. By using a well known biblical story, Van der Weyden adds a twist that displays originality on his part.

Furthermore, the shape of the canvas also seems to appear a bit unorthodox. It doesn’t give any room for a background or a scene. The frame selectively blocks out unwanted space, all the while highlighting the focal points. The viewer is only meant to see the people; not even the cross is in full exhibit. The additional skull under St. John’s feet is an added bonus. The skull, another stylized choice, brings about an atmosphere of death. Not only is Jesus dead, but his mother appears to be more ghost-like than him. Her pasty skin and passed out nature represents an extreme grievance of a mother’s lost. Usually as Jesus is brought down from the cross, his mother is there to cradle his head in her arms. In this painting, her devastation is so intense that she appears to be more dead than he is.

Comment on Northern Renaissance and Baroque by vivian_c

vivian_c — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 22:51:04 +0000

While the Italians were absorbed into works of antiquity and civic humanism, the Nothern Renaissance was attached to more religious themes. Christian humanists such as Erasmus stressed the importance of morals and good deeds. One example is Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, a triptych painting, which means it has three separate panels. The first panel shows Adam, Eve and God during the Creation. The animals and landscape are undisturbed and controlled. The Second panel shows life on Earth, were plenty of naked figures are engaging in scandalous activities. They are surrounded by fruits that are large in scale, and the whole image is suggests that these people are committing sins. The final panel can be interpreted as Hell; the people are being punished by torture for their sins. Monstrous beasts and images of violence create an atmosphere of chaos. Bosch’s painting demonstrates that one will be punished for their sins in the afterlife, which relates to the Christian humanist’s value of good deeds.

Some differences I noticed between Northern and Italian Renaissance art:
-Nothern art puts greater emphasis on minute details. This is because the use of oil painting was developed, and oil painting allows an artist to create fine finishes VS. Italian frescoes, which dried quickly, so the artist had to work quickly and had less time for surface detail.
-The subject matter of Northern art is scenes of everyday life, ordinary people, and even animals. Though morals and being a devout Christian were of great importance in their lives, they created less images of Gods or other religious figures VS. Italian subject matter was the ideal human body (often nude) and Greek and Roman references.
-Italians were concerned with perspective, symmetry and harmony in their works, whereas the Northern artists on intricate details, they did not have a fully developed sense of perspective yet.

What I found interesting was the Jan van Eyck painted his name over the mirror in The Arnolfini Marriage. He signed his painting, and the reflection in the mirror could be a self portrait. This shows that the artist was beginning to be seen as a heroic, respected figure.