8-Shannon:Renaissance

Leonardo da Vinci was more than just a painter; he drew and was an inventor, engineer, mathematician, sculptor, musician, etc. His Renaissance paintings are great, but I find his drawings to be just as intriguing. This Renaissance drawing makes me think of all the sketching we have been doing in class. da Vinci uses shading for volume instead of coloring in the lines. Also, her face is peaceful which is why I believe this to be appealing. The woman could be sad, or just content. Either way, she is not exerting a lot of energy; this brings a calm feeling to the viewer. By the aged look of the canvas, anyone can see this was created a long time ago, which also makes this picture fascinating.

8: 1500-1650- Matusewicz

The Burial of Count Orgaz was completed in 1588 by El Greco. Its dynamic use of two separate spheres right above one another is very interesting. Also, there is a clear focus on the dead count in the foreground. The viewer then sees the people grouped behind him looking at the dead body as well as the figure on the right whose gaze draws the eyes up to the assention scene above. I find the composition to be extremely intriguing.

8-Lillie Cohn-Resurrection of Lazarus

This is Juan de Flandes' painting called the Resurrection of Lazarus. This painting is of the time when Jesus brought Lazarus back to life after four days of having been dead. I chose this painting for this blog post because I felt like Flandes used space extraordinarily well here. There is a clear foreground with the focal point being Lazarus, but the arch in the middle ground leads your eye downwards, and the building in the background on the left, and the tree on the right, almost create an arrow pointing downwards towards the foreground and the focus of the painting. The warmer colors are in front, and the cooler ones receed from the eye towards the back.

8 - ylan: pieta

This image, The Virgin mourning Christ was painted by Annibale Carracci between 1599 and 1600. The painting, which was made to be used at a church altar, reminded me a lot of Michelangelo's famous sculpture, Pieta, which also depicts the Virgin holding the dead body of Christ. That sculpture is exceptionally complex and emotional, and I enjoyed comparing the media of the two works: sculpture and painting. Like the sculpture, this painting also uses very simple and harmonious arrangement and the figures are all beautiful and clean, without gore or dramatic intensity. I do, however, find that the mood lighting in this painting adds a unique quality to the emotional faces of the figures, which is not found in the scultpure.

8-Jessica Wang, Pieter Aertsen

This painting is called A Meat Stall with the Holy Family Giving Alms. It was painted by Pieter Aertsen in 1551. Although it appears to be a secular still life, this painting, like many of Aertsen's other paintings, had a religious theme. The slaughtered animals in the foreground represent death of a religious believer. The human figures in the background are the Holy Family. Aertsen's inverts what most people would expect to be the foreground and background of this picture. The meat is painted in vivid, sensual detail to which the Holy Family is merely a backdrop.

8- Tanya- Portrait of a Halberdier

This piece was created by Jacopo Carucci Pontormo between 1528 and 1530 in Florence. Pontormo was a mannerist painter whose best work was in portraiture. This portrait depicts a boy dressed as a Florentine foot soldier, with his torso twisted and a full view of a his face. While he stands with all the regalia of a military man, he stil has the aura of a young boy with rosy cheeks and disproportionally large hands. The identity of the sitter was never confirmed. In typical mannerist tradition, Pontormo elongs the body of the figure in an effort to express emotion of the sitter rather than accuracy.

8 - Charles Frohman - Art Between 1500-1650

The above image is of Rembrandt's "Night Watch," one of his most famous works, which he completed in 1642 (during the peak of the Netherland's Golden Age). This painting is absolutely huge (approximately 11' x 14'), and best known for its effective use of light and shadow and the created sense of motion in what would otherwise be a static military portrait. Rembrandt uses light to lead the eye to the three most important characters among the crowd, the two gentlemen in the center, and the small girl in the center left background. Behind them the company's colors are carried by the ensign, Jan Visscher Cornelissen.

8-Kia Mosenthal- 16th century art

This is a portrait of Pope Julius II, painted by Raphaelo Sanzio of Urbino, more commonly known as Raphael. This is a brief history taken from the Guardian: Pope Julius II was elected pope in 1503 after one of the shortest conclaves ever (he bribed everyone). He was both a lover of war and a lover of art, commissioning some of the greatest works in western history: Raphael's decorated rooms in the Vatican and Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling. What I find so interesting about this portrait is that Pope Julius II is not looking at the painter. His face is full of sorrow, and his body position suggests that he has taken on a defeatist attitude. In this painting, Pope Julius II does not embody any of the stereotypical leadership qualities associated with a pope. Raphael is able to capture the true persona of Pope Julius II in a way that is utterly different from other pope portraiture.

7 -- Jamilya Ramos-Chapman -- Danae

This is titled "Danae", painted by Antonio Allegri who is called Correggio. This painting depicts one of the four stories from Ovid's Metamorphoses about the loves of Jupiter. It has been said that Correggio was praised for his subtle glazing, which gave his paintings subtle shades and "imperceptible changes of tone."

Hannah PP- Laocoon by El Greco, 1610-1614

I have mixed feelings about this painting-mostly because I don't know what is going on. I know that the three men in the center are a father and two sons who are being punished by the gods with serpents for something having to do with Troy. I am unsure about the 2 (and a half?) people off to the side and from what I've read there has been a lot puzzlement over the role that they play in the painting. Still, despite the fact that it is unclear who they are or even how many of them there are, I feel their presence--coupled with Toledo in the background and a churning dark sky adds a very mysterious and unsettling atmosphere to the whole painting. I like the way that the bodies of the men kind of mirror the shapes of the clouds behind them and the effect kind of joins the heavens and men in dark, unfixed movement.

Ryan Kaplan - 7 - Harmen_Steenwijck, An Allegory of the Vanities of Human Life

This painting by Dutch painter Harmen Steenwijck depicts an allegory of 'vanities'. That is, the book represents human knowledge, the musical instruments represent the pleasure of human senses and the sword and antiquities represent wealth. The idea of a 'vanitas' painting was a popular one in the netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries. Other artists to have used this theme include Pieter Claesz, Jan Jansz Treck and Frans Hals.

8 - Emily Lau - Diego Velazquez: Las Meninas

"Las Meninas" (1656) is one of the most recognizable pieces by Sapnish artist Diego Velazquez. Velazquez is considered to be one of the leading artists of the Spanish Golden Age. "Las Meninas," which is roughly translated into "The Maids of Honor," depicts a scene in the Madrid palace of King Philip IV of Spain. The figures in the painting are largely recognized from the Spanish court and this painting is considered to be a snapshot in time. The Infanta Margarita is at the center, surrounded by her maids of honor, chaperone, bodyguard, two dwarfs, and a dog. Most unique to this painting is that Velazquez himself is portrayed in the painting behind a large canvas. Lastly, in the mirror, you can see the image of the King and Queen themselves as if they are looking onto the scene just as we, the viewers, are doing - however, some scholars argue that the reflection is merely a reflection of a painting of the King and Queen, and not the reflection of the actual individuals. We know that the princess at the center of the painting is actually the King and Queen's sole suriving child at the time. She is later married to the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. "Las Meninas" is considered one of the most important pieces of work in Western art and has recently been described as "Velazquez's supreme achievement."

4-Kathleen Yan - Renaissance art Photoshopping contest

Phoenix's Rise

by ezkapealterno

This image is one a series that depict superheroes based off of Renaissance or traditional works of art. It was actually a contest that involved photoshop. A lot of the pieces are quite interesting, and remind me of last week's project where we copied a work of art but made them our own. Here's the link: http://www.worth1000.com/contest.asp?contest_id=10424&display=photoshop

3-Kathleen Yan - Eva Prima Pandora

Eva Prima Pandora (1550)

By Jean Cousin the Elder (1490-1560)

 

Cousin employs traditional Italian techniques in his painting of this sensual female figure. He skillfully organizes the space in the painting, creating two different backgrounds: on the left, man-made civilization, and on the right, a natural landscape. The woman, whether Eve or Pandora,  reclines nonchalantly against a human skull; and thus, Cousin reminds us of the ills that both historical/mythological female figures released upon humanity, leading his viewer to make a comparison between the two women. 

8 - Sara Coomes - A View of Toledo

This is painted by El Greco, from 1597-1599.  It's a very unreligious painting for him.  I think that's why it appeals to me.  I like the dark colors, the foreboding feeling and the spacious sky that are characteristic of El Greco.  It's refreshing to find these qualities without all the religious subject matter.  The sky is my favorite part, the way he captures the sunlight behind the dark clouds is beautiful.  The clouds are also very dynamic, not just dead in the sky.

8 Nicole Noronha-Banquet Piece with Mince Pie,1635

This piece by Flemish painter, Willem Claesz Heda, is an exquisitely precise and dramatic still-life of an ordinary scene of the remnants of a banquet and unfinished food. The impressive rendering of light on the white silk, metal goblets, and glass really provides the viewer with a keen sense of what materials are portrayed.
The eye is drawn to the area of the open silver lid of the jar, with the brightest light shining on it, slightly to the left where three goblets are amassed together.

--Kiana Alzate--

This painting is called "Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam" (1523) by Hans Holbein the Younger. I found this painting to be interesting because of the expression on Desiderius' face. The angle of the column on the left and the curtain revealing the books tilted on the right point to his face, where there is so much going on; especially as a supplement to his ridiculous coat. 

Hans Holbein the Younger was known for his portraits and his detail in realist perspective, which in other words I found a term that explains this: verisimilitude, or believability. 

This portrait definitely makes me believe who Desiderius Erasmus was, personality as well as career. He appears scholarly, or educated, a "humanist and Catholic Christian theorist," was the description online. Holbein's ability to capture his almost smug, but listening and all-knowing demeanor is quite beautiful. Holbein was very interested in capturing not only outward appearance but also use of symbolism, allusion and paradox in his paintings. 

This is kind of irrelevant but does the woman figure on the column to his left slightly reminiscent of the Starbucks design?

Some Relevant News

Hey guys, I don't know if you heard about this, but Shepard Fairey is suing the APto counter their claims that his famous Obama image is a copyright infringement (they own the original photo, left). Most people I talk to have more sympathy for Shepard Fairey in this case, but if his campaign image had been based on a painting or a drawing, rather than a photo, I think public opinion about this issue might change.

Read about it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/arts/design/10fair.html?scp=2&sq=shepard%20fairey&st=cse

-Jess

7 - ylan: andrea del sarto

This grisailles series in the Chiostro dello Scalzo is the artist's most ambitious work. It employs essentially all of the techniques used to create space. The overlapping of figures is evident both in the foreground and the background where there are large crowds of people, offering a clear illusion of which figures are meant to appear in front and "closer" to the viewer. The artist creates space with relative size, as those figures far in the background are drawn much smaller in in less detail. Finally, it appears that linear perspective was employed and there exists an implied horizon line and vanishing point at the top of the hill.

6 -- Jamilya Ramos-Chapman -- Luca Cambiasi

This painting is "Vanity of Earthly Love" by Luca Cambiasi. Within this painting Cambiasi used shadows and layers in order to create space. He has managed to give the illusion that the two characters are farther away, in the back, through various shadow techniques. The lighting, I feel, definitely gives the painting depth. Not only do the shadows set the mood, but create space.

Hannah, Luca Signorelli

In this painting, entitled "The Flagellation of Christ" by Luca Signorelli, the pale white (angelic) body of Christ is in sharp contrast with the surrounding reds and blacks of his attackers--drawing your eye first to his body and then to the violent men on the periphery. The man up high in the background and the figures that adorn the foundations of the building add the perspective of the picture-conveying the illusion of space. In a way, linear perspective is created that draws the eye to the small black statue behind Christ and highlighting the focus of your attention while simultaneously separating it from the background. Additionally, the eye is also drawn to the visual intensity of the man on the high chair, who appears distanced because of his relatively small size in comparison to those in the foreground. His visual contrast and appearance differentiate him from the background but also remove him from the scene going on in the front of the painting.
Also, a side note: I was surprised how many paintings depict the flagellation of Christ. I guess I shouldn't be given the history of Christian symbolism in art. But...theres a lot of flagellation going on.

7 - Sri - Verrocchio's "Madonna With Child"

Andrea del Verrocchio painted "Madonna With Child" in c. 1460-1470. Apparently, this might be one of Verrocchio's last paintings as his interests turned towards sculpting during the latter half of the 1470s. I love the contrast of colors in the painting. The mountaintops on either side of mother and child (the mountaintop to the left shoulder of the mother and the mountain top to the right shoulder of the babe) create a two-point perspective that brings the mother and child to the front of the space by creating a horizon line. Painting the mother's robe in dark colors and the babe's body and the background in light colours creates three layers of space: nature in the background, then mother, then child. Verrocchio's use of shadows around the babe's face, the babe's body and around the mother's face highlights the folds of the babe's skin and the mother's glance towards her child. There's another horizon line created by the surface on which the babe is standing. Verrocchio also uses the shades of white with much expertise to create the translucent veil of Madonna and the towel that the mother holds around the babe. I thought it would be interesting to contrast this with a terracotta structure (below) of the portrait. What do you guys think?

6 - Sri - Thoughts on Benjamin's Originality

I like Savage Chickens. I'll admit it. The sticky note aphorisms make my day. This particular one regarding originality reminds me of the statement from Benjamin's work: "The presence of the original is the prerequisite to the concept of authenticity." There are several thoughts I have regarding this issue and they don't necessarily flow with each other so I'll address them as points:

a) For most avid readers, there's always a certain sense of dissatisfaction when watching movies adapted from books. Why? Are adaptations that bad? Would adhering strictly to the plot be any better? Can the screen ever equal the imagination? This reminds me of Baudrillard: are we expecting the simulacrum of something tangible to equal an an intagible original?

b) Original Broadway productions: is there something about seeing Broadway in New York City that makes it different from seeing it in Providence? Or Wichita, Kansas? Or Paris, France? I still retain a sentimental attachment towards Phantom of the Opera performed by Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman--if there is "aura" [as Benjamin might call it], than is an original "more original"?

c) From a semantics perspective, I'm interested in these words: reproduction, (re)interpretation, adaptation, recreation, duplication, copy. Do these indicate different degrees of ownership/originality? Is it okay to adapt but not duplicate? How much do we consider the intent of said adapter/reproducer/copier/etc., i.e. what if the reason for doing this is to subvert or twist the original message? Is the reproduction then validated?

As I mentioned in the t-shirt post, I'm very fascinated with the idea of identity. What Benjamin describes as aura could easily translate into the term identity for me. Does reproduction enhance, deface, or leave unchanged the identity of the original? And do we value the identity of the reproduction based on what it does relative to the original? Apparently, points both chickens and humans need to consider.

5 - Sri - T-shirt Designs

As much as Benjamin may be obsessed with the issue of originality, I am equally obsessed with the issue of identity. I ended up making two different designs that explored the issue of identity. The first one involves the preposterous situations of tagging leaves. Having spent good chunks of my life in India and the United States, many of the ID numbers include significant dates in both their histories [as their contribution towards my identity. The second design includes the construction of the word "IDENTITY" by superimposing/aligning fingerprints, and then the word itself is superimposed on larger fingerprints. Since much of our formal identities involve the use of either alpha-numeric combinations or fingerprints, what happens when we choose to wear a t-shirt that addresses this idea? Are we reinforcing or challenging this formal identity?

7-Timothy Nolan- Pisanello

This is Pisanello's "Vision of St. Eustace". Immediately ones eye is drawn to the animals in the painting, which are brightly colored and contrast with the dark background. The bright colors pop out at you, created the effect that they are in front of the back ground. Size of the animals of course also creates a sense of depth. We have many animals repeated in the back ground, getting smaller each time, which creates the illusion that they are further away than the large animals. There is no explicit vanishing point perspective here; yet, this seems to add to the gaudy nature of the painting. The man on the horse is dressed in ornate robes, and certainly the world around him seems to mirror his choice of attire by filling itself with bright animals.

7-Kia Mosenthal-Gerard David

This painting by Gerard David depicts the Virgin Mary and Child. David uses perspective and balance to make the Virgin Mary the focal point of the painting. The Virgin Mary is also highlighted through the color contrast of the black backdrop and her ivory skin. The foreground is separated from the background by the horizontal line of the wall and the darker colors used to paint the houses. I think this painting is a good example of the dual forces (the secular and spiritual) at play during the Renaissance. The Virgin Mary remains the primary focus of the painting, but there are still subtleties of wealth and education intertwined with the religious overtones.

7-Jessica Wang, Masaccio

Masaccio (1401-1428) painted in a more natural manner than the elaborate, detailed Gothic style preferred by his predecessors. He used linear perspective in a very precise, scientific way. In this painting, The Holy Trinity, one can actually calculate the dimensions of the small chapel in the back of the painting. He uses one-point perspective, so that the viewer's eye is drawn to the vanishing point and to the figure of Christ (this is reinforced by the triangle formed by the patrons on the sides and the body of Christ).  The vault is painted such that the ceiling and figures are foreshortened, rendering a 3-D space realistically. The figure of God, however, is the exception. He looms behind the other figures, as a being who cannot be confined by finite dimensions.

7: Matusewicz-Donatello's Feast of Herod

In his Feast of Herod Donatello uses perspective to direct the viewer through a story and toward the central figure while keeping the placement his work as a small piece of a larger story in mind. Donatello’s gilded bronze relief tells the story of King Herod. By manipulating the small space, Donatello is able to create three receding levels in which the story can be followed. In the background the viewer sees the head of John the Baptist being brought to Salome. In the middle-ground, a female playing a musical instrument is seen towards the right side of the piece while two men appear on the left turning to look at her. Between the second level and the foreground Donatello uses the architecture to show his perspective lines. On the closest group of arches, Donatello places a few jutting beams to emphasize the central vanishing point, bringing the viewer from the top two layers down to the main scene.

In the foreground King Herod is seen receiving the head of John the Baptist. Further down the table sits a man displaying a great amount of emotion. Leaning to the side, he separates himself from the king almost in an attempt to join the others in the group at the end of the table. The way his hand is set on his face serves not only to evoke emotion from the viewer, but the way it is set on the orthagonal draws the attention both back to the head of John the Baptist on the platter and out to the edges. And though it is difficult to determine the meaning behind the lines to the left of his shoulder, Donatello is clearly playing with perspective in the cut out brick. The man sitting to his right also has a slanted arm which, from the elbow to the shoulder, follows the perspective lines of the upper half of the entire relief from the top left and right to the center at a 90 degree angle. This playing with position allows the viewers to look back and forth across the table in comparison and draw out of it what they find most important. The overall perspective lines, which move from the outward edges to the center, if looked at in the opposite direction, show how this relief is but one image in a series surrounding the base of an altarpiece. Placed in the center of the ambulatory, this piece would be viewed by many. Because the viewer would likely want to see all of the images surrounding the base and easily recognize the scene being depicted, it is important that Donatello uses perspective to draw the eye to the center and well as key elements to depict the most important characters in the scene as well as the reactions of others.

renaissance

Kiana Alzate

This painting is called "The Last Supper" by Domenico Ghirlandaio (fresco 400 x 880cm; 1480; Ognissanti, Florence). I really liked his version in contrast to Leonardo Da Vinci's version, which is hanging on the wall in my grandparents house, and arguably the more popular version or presentation of the moment Christ was arrested for his betrayal. 

There are many things to point out about this painting, especially the depth, which is seems to be the focus of not just technique of the painting, but also the moment he was capturing. I read that this was the moment before his arrest, and the body language, the emotion and the perspective of the last supper is put in a larger context, thus consequently a larger space. Judas is the only one in front of the table, and John is the one on Jesus' chest. Jesus is also not central to the painting, but rather slightly to the left. The room and table is central to the painting, where the white arches lead the eye to the center of the room and table where Jesus sits, he is still off-center. 

What I find myself doing is paying attention to the two significant ways Ghirlandaio utilized depth and this space: 1) extended the room past the table, and above the table; and 2) pushed us back far enough with the extension that we see up towards the ceiling, then outward. 

His use of dimension through to the ceiling defines a unique vantage point. It makes me wonder whether or not the painter/viewer's ears could hear what they were saying at the table. Therefore, this version seems to be more accurate on historical count, where we don't really know what was said, or who looked what way because the moment was more private and smaller than what happened later that night when he was arrested for his betrayal. 

This painting, “The Sassetti Altarpiece” by Ghirlandaio utilizes many techniques to create dimension. Ghirlandaio creates layers of interest in the painting with the people near the alter in the foreground, the travelers on the path in the mid-ground, and the distant hills in the background. Additionally, the use of colors fleshes out the piece. Warm vivid hues instantly catch the viewer’s eye and bring the attention to the main focal point of the painting. Similarly, Ghirlandaio employed the use of cooler tones to gradually give the illusion of distance. The use of linear perspective to create three dimensional space can also be seen in the orthogonal lines of the alter and columns. Finally, the size of the objects in the background relative to those in the foreground of the painting serves to further create the illusion of a three dimensional space.

7 - Charles Frohman - Andrea Mantegna

The image posted above is Andrea Mantegna's Christus am Ölberg im Garten Gethsemane (The Agony in the Garden, 1455). Examining the painting, we see that the artist employed several techniques to create a sense of three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface. As an example, the foreground contains several warm shades of pink and salmon, while the background (particularly the sky) is a deep shade of grayish-blue. Andrea Mantegna also uses shading to create perspective - this is specifically seen in the folds of the draped clothing. As an additional example, objects and people present in the foreground are much larger than those present in the background. This visual effect creates a sense of space - the viewer's brain interprets the larger people as being closer and the smaller people as being farther away. Finally, all orthogonals tend to converge at the center of the mountain in the background, once again creating a sense of three-dimensional space.

7 - Pete White - Leonardo Da Vinci

In "The Last Supper", da Vinci uses linear perspective to add depth to the room in which the meal takes place. The grid on the ceiling helps the viewer see the depth of the room. In addition, da Vinci uses the "parallel" lines to draw the viewer's eyes to Jesus, who happens to be at the focal point. I think it is very clever that Da Vinci was able to both create space and attention to Jesus with the same technique.

7 - Sara Coomes - Fra Angelico

This is Fra Angelico's "The Annunciation."  It originally decorated a monastery but it is often reproduced.  I also believe that he revisited the subject of the Annunciation himself a few times.  The story is that the Angel Gabriel visited Mary and told her that she was going to give birth to the son of God.  In this painting, Fra Angelico uses one point perspective, which gives the viewer a sense of the architecture of the building/patio.  It allows us a deep view into the simple back room.  The vaulted ceiling and patio also create a big space for the focal point of the painting.  The artist also uses relative size to make the figures on the left appear farther away, and creates deep forested space behind them by overlapping plants and scaling them down as they recede into the background.

2-Kathleen Yan - Filippo Lippi

In this painting, "The Virgin appears to Saint Bernard", Filippo Lippi employs several techniques to create space. First, he creates a foreground (the Virgin and Saint Bernard), the midground (the rocks), and the background (the scenery and people behind the rocks). The relative size of the people and objects also differ moving from front to back. Note that the characters in the foreground are larger than those in the background, such as people and objects. Lippi also uses linear perspective, with a vanishing point behind the rocks, which is manifest in the lines of the building to the right. Also, the angle of the rocks helps draw the eye to the front, where the main characters of the painting reside. Finally, Lippi reserves bright red color for the people in the front, to draw attention to them as they are the foreground and focal point.

7: Diane Cai - Perugino

This painting, Apollo and Marsyas, by Perugino depicts a scene that obviously takes place in an 3-dimensional space. The hills get bluer and bluer as they recede into the horizon (a la one point perspective). Also, the trees and the birds (which presumably are the same size in real life) appear smaller and smaller as they get further and further away, while the two figures are evidently in the foreground. The castle in the midground is interpreted not as a toy castle, but as a true to size castle simply very far away.

Ryan Kaplan - 6 - Antonio Pollaiuolo

This painting, by Antonia Pollaiuolo, depicts the story of Saint Sebastian who was sentenced to death for being a Christian. Apart from his use of one point perspective, Pollaiuolo uses both a tonal gradient and figure-stances to create a sense of volume in the work. The tonal variance is used such that warmer colours are used in the foreground and cooler colours in the background. This draws the eye to the lower centre of the painting. With regard to figure stances, the 6 archers have three different poses - each pose having been rotated around once. This emphasizes the 3 dimensional quality of each archer.

7 - Emily Lau - Paolo Uccello: Saint George and the Dragon

Paolo Uccello was an Italian painter who is most remembered for his work on visual perspective. Numerous anecdotes about Uccello suggest that he was obsessed with perspective and spent a great deal of time attempting to undertand vanishing points and depth. His work is often classified as "Late Gothic," which has an emphasis on color and pagentry. Little is actually known about Uccello historically as few records have remained. His work is often considered to be "idiosyncratic" as he had no school of followers.

The painting above, titled "Saint George and the Dragon" shows two episodes from the story of Saint George: (1) Saint George's defeat of the "plague-bearing" dragon that had been terrorizing the city and (2) the rescued princess brining the dragon to his knees with her belt as a leash. You can see that in the upper right corner of the painting, a storm is gathering. The storm lines line up with Saint George' lance, drawing attention to Saint George as he attacks the dragon. Many scholars interpret the connection between the lance and the storm to be symbolic of divine intervention helping Saint George to victory. The angle at which Saint George attacks the dragon (as indicated by his lance) also helps to establish a 3-D perspective. Additionally, the use of warm colors toward the front and cool colors in the back help to establish a depth in the painting, as warm colors come toward the viewer and cool colors tend to go away. The size of the images (larger in the front, smaller as you go farther back) also reinforces the 3-D quality of this painting. Finally, the strange patchwork of grass in the front of the image also helps to contribute a sense of perspective and depth in the picture.

7- Tanya- Botticelli

The theme of Botticelli's "Adoration of the Magi" in which the wise men come to pay homage to the baby Jesus was a common one in renaissance Florence . Botticelli uses many of the techniques we discussed in class to portray a 3 dimensional space. You can see the orthogonals of the sides of the columns receding to one vanishing point in the middle of the painting. Overlapping figures create the sense of the men being one behind another, and the size relationship between the figures in the front being larger than those far away creat a sense of depth. Botticelli also makes use of cooler colors in the mountainous regions of the background to depict atmospheric haze.

6- Tanya- Originality

Here is a painting by El Greco "The Marriage of the Virgin" painted 100 years after the Raphael painting we saw in class. El Greco adds a new and original dimension to the scene by focusing in on the characters and playing with the contrast of dark and light colors.

After reading the Benjamin piece, I began to think about how I value originality in art and what originality in art means to me.I was reminded of a quote by C.S. Lewis that I love that talks about truth as a form of originality:

"No man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth, without caring twopence how often it has been told before, you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it." C.S. Lewis

I believe original art aims at conveying some sort of truth, and so long as the artist is adding something of their own to the piece, be it different techniques of portraying light to better show their perception of how the art should truly look, or even the truth behind reproducing art in a different context. As long as there is that element of reinterpreting the art according to one's own truth, I value the originality of the piece.

Lillie Cohn-OBAMA

Just wanted to share this after we talked about the OBEY one during class...

7- Shannon: Giotto's Pentecost

Giotto di Bondone, known also as the ‘first genius’ of art in the Italian Renaissance, painted his figures according to how they appeared in real life. Giotto attempted to mimic reality as closely as possible. The postures of his people and the people themselves are drawn accurately to how they would appear in nature. He painted religious subjects but gave them an earthly feel. (he actually knew the Pope really well...)

We have looked at Giotto’s work in class and have discussed how he creates space. The layers and overlapping of people can be recognized in nearly all his work. Since his paintings depict real life, I found he often incorporates the sky which helps contrast the foreground and the background (warm colors in the foreground and his cool blue in the background).
The painting posted is Giotto’s Pentecost painting, located in Arena Chapel with a series of other Biblical scenes. The bright columns overlap the people sitting and the people sitting overlaps the people standing, which creates the illusion of space and draws the viewer into the room. Again, he uses a darker background and a light foreground to create distance in his painting.

7-Nicole: Massacio "Holy Trinity"

Massacio's "Holy Trinity" really utilizes the concepts we discussed in class and creates depth in the arch by one point perspective. While the bright, warm color of Jesus stands out the most, the lines in the arch also guide the eye to God, the Father above Jesus. The colors are extremely cool in the background and the color red seems to create a triangle framing Jesus in its center. The layering of the arch against the vertical lines of the columns and the horizontal lines of the steps also adds to this perspective of approaching a three-dimensional altar. The people kneeling and standing not only literally point to the focal point, but also add a layering effect, also allowing us to perceive a greater amount of space between ourselves and the cross. The tomb on the bottom looks dimensional, partly because it also uses one-point perspective and recapitulates the horizontal and vertical lines in the upper portion of the painting.

7-Lillie Cohn-Raphael's use of space

This is Raphael's School of Athens. It is one of the first examples of perspective that my art teacher from freshman year in high school showed the class. I think it is an amazing example of "one point perspective." All the elements we discussed in class are here: cool colors in the background, warm in the foreground, the vertical lines are all parallel and the orthogonals converge at the vanishing point on the horizon. The people in front overlap with those further back in the painting. Lastly, there is a clear sequence of points to look- all things draw your eyes to the middle of the painting, where Plato and Aristotle are walking towards the viewer.

6-Kia Mosenthal- Originality of Art

After reading Walter Benjamin's article, I started to think about what constitutes "original" artwork. Copies have often been critcized as unoriginal, but I feel that copied artwork is original as long as the artist is trying to add a new dimension to the piece. For example, in class we analyzed Paul Rubens' copy of Titian's painting. Even though Rubens' painting had the same subject matter (Adam and Eve), his representation of the subject matter was drastically different. Rubens' intention was not to produce an identical replica of Titian's painting. In my opinion, this makes Rubens' painting an original piece of art.

In contrast, I found this article about a village in China called Dafen (http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,433134,00.html). In Dafen, millions of popular paintings are copied by Chinese artists as a way to earn money. A skilled "artist" can paint about 30 copies a day, many of which end up in the suburban homes of Americans. To me, this operation in Dafen is undermining the authenticity of famous artwork. The sole purpose of these Chinese imitations is to produce revenue. Chinese workers in Dafen are not reproducing famous art pieces with the intention of making these pieces original.

I think that a reproduced piece of art is original as long as the artist uses the piece solely as a foundation for their own work. As long as the artist produces an end product that conveys a different emotion, idea, etc. from the original piece, then that piece is also original.

6-Diane Cai: Originality

I know a bunch of people have made references to music already, but when I was considering the argument for authenticity, the idea of cover songs immediately came to mind. And I don't mean teenage rock bands that play "Freebird" at high school musicfests, because there is definitely a difference between COPYING something, and USING something as inspiration. I remember seeing The Fray in concert and hearing them do a cover of Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie." It was slower, sensuous, tragic, and at times comical -- definitely nothing of the original's spicy dance flavor. So while there were elements of the original, The Fray had infused something else that was entirely their own.

And then something else occurred to me. In terms of musical notes, there are a finite number of them. And therefore a finite combination, in a finite number of rhythms and beats. Eventually, someone postulated, we will have written all the music there is to write.

I really do feel like originality, at least in intention, is a prerequisite for art, but I say "in intention" because I half-feel like novelty might in fact just be a moot point. With 6 billion people in the world currently, X billion people in the past, and however many to come, can we really expect anything we produce to be completely original? And if we do come up with an idea that can be considered innovative, is it innovative because we were the first ones to make it public, and under our names? A poster below me had noted the painting she had seen as a child whose ingenuity her mother had opened her eyes to. But for all we know, it could have been successful because of the artist's persistence, connections, or talented agent. Perhaps, before him stood a multitude of gifted artists, aspiring novices, or fingerpainting children with the same, simple design.

Additionally, (I know this sounds terribly fatalistic, and I haven't even decided if I completely agree yet), I can't help but think sometimes that everything we create, feel, or think about, is simply a product of all the nature and nurture we have been dealt. Our outputs are the functional outcome of all our inputs.

Perhaps.

Or, perhaps, we can make new instruments. And new synthesizers. We can add lyrics in poetic verses. In new, more perfect languages of our creation. And if/when we exhaust all of those possibilities, we'll invent entirely new modes of art.

5-Timothy Nolan

The existence of film is a very intriguing idea with regard to the originality of art work. It is first of all the final phase (excluding perhaps virtual reality? We will see) of the artistic representation of real life, for it directly recreates the sound and sight of an event (smell and touch perhaps not far off?). Thus, we can see a movie as a very close representation of reality. However, this is not exactly true. The movie transfixes and absorbs the audience, places fantasies of ideas in their heads, until it ends and the audience leaves feeling that they have had an experience of what the real life situation was like. The romantic-comedy goer longs for the relationship that s/he has just seen and searches for it, the horror movie goer is creeped out and dreams of their awful experience. The idea that is not explicitly explained is that the original experience never existed. We feel like we wish we could experience (or hope we never experience) the real version of the movie, when the real experience in all actuality is the experience we just had. Thus, in the realization that the original is a fantasy, the representation becomes the reality.

This extends to painting. When someone examines a reproduction of a work of art, they are led to wonder what the real experience of seeing the work would be. However, the comparison between seeing the duplicate and the original is like comparing two completely different paintings. They inspire different thoughts and ideas, exist in different conditions, and are perceived differently. The only original form of a duplicate is the duplicate itself. Thus, originality falls apart, as every individual representation is its own reality. It is much like the first essay we read, in that an artwork should not be seen as a representation of its subject, but a new creation altogether. The same could be said for copies.

The only possible way to save the concept of originality is to create an ill-defined word such as aura, and imply a mystical quality to an original. This seems to branch into the fairy-tale-esque world, however. Ok, maybe that was a little harsh on the essay we read this week, but this is the impression I get thus far.

5 - Nadia Leonard - Orginality and Authenticity

“Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be.” This statement struck me the most when reading the Benjamin piece. I think it is certainly true for the works of artists such as Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol, whose works are highly contextual to the time in which they were created. However, does this quote still hold true for digitized art?

Through the internet, digital art may be transmitted and viewed by millions of people any time of the day in countless different conditions. A piece’s presence in time and space becomes ambiguous and can no longer be considered a defining attribute.

Authenticity also loses its meaning. Digital media presents anyone with the capacity to view digital art the opportunity to also copy, edit, or change it in any way. Although an original may still exist, this ability to infinitely recreate or reinvent an art work gives the digital art a life of its own.

Originality in Art- Hannah PP

Some famous writer (who's name I forget) wrote once (in words I can't remember verbatim) that in writing its impossible to not copy the work of others and, on the contrary one should strive to incorporate the work of others into the creation of your own story. I think the same is true with art. I think many people place too much faith in an originality that they don't care to define in great detail. Art is created from the things that we learn...just like stories are. I feel that artists are inspired by one another to create pieces and that originality is necessarily having claim to the invention of the forms and techniques used in your art...but using your art to express an idea that is true to yourself. I think if an artist creates a work of art to reflect an intimate part of him/herself...than the art is original because the subjective experience of the artist is not something that can ever be replicated.
This is why I think that duplicates can sometimes be not as meaningful. Art is already several steps removed from the subjective experience of the artist (which is what I think viewers try to grapple with and grow from) and duplications are a further removal from that. So while being able to reach a larger audience is important, I think that it sacrifices some of the personality that is conveyed through a work that is the direct result of an artist trying to represent his/her soul. I think that a mechanical copy that, for all intents and purposes, is an exact replica of an original can often effect the viewer in very similar ways...and I think studies have shown that often people can't distinguish between copies and originals and that it doesn't effect how they feel about them. But, if you are looking at a copy, and knowing that it is a copy---you have to asses whether it tries to duplicate the feeling of the original or tries to create its own world from the original.
I think that mechanical copies that attempt to be indistinguishable from the original are somehow taking away from the art by putting an emphasis on the physical aspects of it and ignoring the subjective experience of the artist that was responsible for the creation of meaning in the original.
The painting above is one by Da Vinci. I chose it because he made a very similar painting with some slight adjustments a couple of years later. Yet, I think both works have very unique emotional portrayals of the same scene. Both are original works of art despite the fact they share many of the same features. To me, a true copy is something that tries to bring nothing to the table except a replica of something else...and that is not something I give much value to.

5 -- Jamilya Ramos-Chapman -- Sampling

The question of originality made me think of the artist, Girl Talk. Girl Talk, a DJ that samples many different songs and combines them together to make a new creation, has been called a music thief. There was a time when he could not really sell his music, because technically he was "stealing" from other musical artists and chopping up their music. While Girl Talk does not write music himself, I feel there is some new creation that sprouts up from his sampling, some originality. Although he does not feel there is such a thing as original music anymore, as he has stated,

"I don’t think there’s any original music anymore. It’s all about taking a previous idea and recontextualizing it. That’s the art of pop."

Even though he has stated this, I feel he has done something original. While the music samples, separately, were created by others, he has found a way to take these pieces and create something new, and something of his own. There are not many other songs like Girl Talk's songs, which says something about the originality of the music.

I feel that this is comparable to visual art.



A friend of mine drew this. And one may call this "unoriginal", simply because he has used the image of the aliens, from the Alien Trilogy. But I see it as him sampling from the films and recontextualizing, giving the drawing some originality.