Post #8

 

    Moonlight Landscape by Joseph Wright of Derby is one of the most enchanting pieces that I have stumbled across through my outside research.  After scrolling through a handful of his work, I was immediately drawn to this particular piece.  One thing that draws my attention to this artist is his unique use of candle-lit portraits and vast use of shades through these various dark centered pieces.  As it has been described through other historians, Wright was driven by the idea of creating lighting effects throughout his art and continued to follow through with his unique creative eye for making these images come to life.

                  One thing that made Wright a unique artist at the time was the fact that he was one of the only artists to base his work outside of London (where he originally was born and raised), due to his decision to relocate to Italy.  As he developed as an artist, he quickly became fascinated with the idea of using various lighting techniques in his works, making him an artist that quickly stood out amongst the crowd.  His other famous pieces of work also incorporate his idea of candle-lit or naturally light paintings, but nothing quite grabs you like the Moonlight Landscape.  It was mentioned in one of the sources I found, that his paintings had a more advanced element that incorporated more emotion into his paintings, which many found to be mysterious and dark.  Through this technique, he flourished, making his work very popular and demanding, as he had such patrons as Lord Melbourne, Lord Palmerston, and Catherine the Great of Russia.

                  In the Moonlight Landscape painting, the subject matter contains a man walking his donkey across a bridge, while you can notice another man fishing below.  Both of these figures seem rather insignificant in the grand scheme of things, as the painting has so much information that it is trying to convey.  Parts of this painting that make it so remarkable are the amount of hue/shade changes between the center point where the moon is radiating outwards, it just shows how carefully planned and close attention to detail was put into this specific piece.  An example of this detail would be to just simply take a look at the river below, notice how the reflection of the moonlight just shimmers off the water’s surface?  It almost strikes me as a painting too good to be true, almost as if it should be a photograph; this is truly an overall achievement towards the human race for being able to create such an accurate painting from only oils onto a canvas.

                  There is no doubt in my mind that Joseph Wright of Derby could have possibly been one of the most articulate romanticism artists of the eighteenth century.  His rich understanding of science helps illustrate how his knowledge truly captivated his expressive moods throughout his paintings, making them seemingly realistic, almost as if you could breathe in the air and experience the environment.  This research has helped me search for an appreciation in a piece of art that I was able to explore on my own, and this is honestly one of the most remarkable pieces of all time.

Sources:

http://www.ringlingdocents.org/moonlight.htm

http://www.oberlin.edu/amam/Wright.htm

http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/gg61/gg61-61397.html

 

Post #7

            I believe that the Baroque period was a very interesting and evolving time for modern day artists, which allowed for expansion with more dynamic ideas.  When looking at Gianlorenzo Bernini’s David versus the Renaissance made famous statue of Michelangelo’s David, it is evident on how the style has changed from the old ideal beliefs.  Just simple details that can easily be noticed are what separate the Renaissance from the Baroque timeframe.

            For example, Bernini’s David has the facial structure of a well-developed fighter and older man, while the other express the face of that of a younger boy.  One of the main attributes of considering something as a member of the humanist and naturalist way was the idea of creating artworks, as they would appear in the natural world.  They mainly consisted of figures that are in relaxed positions with elongated limbs and seem calmer, which is exactly what Michelangelo portrayed with his statue of David.  This is easily distinguishable by examining the neck of the statue and the laid back stature at which he stands.  With having stated this difference, it is evident that Bernini’s piece stood for a more heroic figure that is expressed through his vicious, ready to attack pose.  The Baroque version of David is also covered with blood within his presentation, which symbolizes a little bit more of a darker and violent era, where on the other hand, David from the Renaissance is clean, and well presented.  I think the Renaissance period was more focused on highlighting one figure and expressing it in the most clean manner possible, while the Baroque period was more about creating an overall large masterpiece with much more content.  And as noticed, there are a lot of distracting pieces in the Baroque version of the David statue, which would not be commonly seen in the earlier Renaissance period, especially in the stance.

            While both pieces have many differences, there are some similarities that are obvious to the viewer.  Both artists really understood the idea of human anatomy for the most part and illustrated how the muscles, tendons, and skin was portrayed, especially for a figure who stood as a hero.  Another trait they both share is that they are both shown as nude figures, where Bernini’s sculpture has David dropping his armor as he is about the lunge forth a rock towards Goliath.  Overall, I can’t say that Baroque styles completely abolish or accept the ideas of the Renaissance one hundred percent, but they incorporate some certain aspects that has further advanced their works of art.

Post #6

            I feel like the Protestant Reformation had both a negative and positive side effects on Northern European arts.  It allowed artists to venture into new realms of creativity, but also hindered certain artists to create pieces of work that were in their comfort zone concerning religious pieces.  Aside from artists having to search for new lines of work, it opened a path for violent destruction of valuable pieces of European religion.  As the book explains, iconoclasm was the act of smashing religious images during this time, and was very popular for those involved in the constant rebellion for the Protestant cause.

            However, this new opening wasn’t entirely bad for expanding the horizon of certain artists and opened new doors for these painters to express secular ideas throughout their work.  Some of these new ideas included patron works, which highlighted and emphasized self-portraits of themselves and their spouses.  Another aspect of creativity that arose during the sixteenth century consequently was the idea of landscapes and surreal ideas incorporated into real life paintings.  Some artists used this as the perfect excuse to get into expressing their own ideas without being persecuted from religious patrons.  On the other hand, this had the negative effect on some artists who were only content with working on religious pieces for churches or other religious members of society.

            I believe a perfect example of artists illustrating new ideas is Albrecht Altdorfer’s Danube Landscape (page 688 in the text); it has the perfect combination of new elements that help express the artist’s individual creativity.  This was one of the first times that an artist developed a painting based specifically on a landscape that included no religious figures, not to mention had no figures involved at all.  Like mentioned in the book, this idea of creating landscapes became wildly popular in the later sixteenth century as it allowed artists to create new coloring and sceneries.  Although artists still focused on sacred places within these paintings, it still suggested that artists had the ability to venture out into new techniques and ideas for creating their own desired masterpieces.

            While most pieces during the Catholic artistic period involved stories or biblical passages, it has now swayed to incorporating parts that don’t exactly fit the narrative, but somehow relate to the overall theme of the painting.  They weren’t exactly concerned with actual proportions as well, rather just the pure aesthetic image that is composed as a whole.  Patrons once suggested Catholic based religious paintings are now shifting their ideas and beliefs, resulting in requests for self-portraits instead.  Like mentioned before, secular ideas were more valued during this period as it laid a cloud of confusion over religious leaders all across Europe.

Post #5

Pontormo - Entombment

Parmigianino - Madonna with the Long Neck

            Comparing Pontormo’s Entombment (from page 661) alongside with Parmigianino’s Madonna with the Long Neck (from page 662) are two pieces that have vastly different compositional elements that separate both in a wide spectrum.  Personally, I find it hard to believe that these pieces were only five years apart within their creation.  They both follow certain aspects of Mannerism that illustrates how these artists were evolving from the Early Renaissance style, but still paid attention to the criteria of naturalism.

            Some things that stand out as similarities are that both of the paintings seem to be conveying the same message as they highlight the importance as Christ within their arms or hold.  They both represent various uses of colors and shades within their pieces that help bring out detail and the importance of the attire they wore during this period.  Looking closer at the paintings, they both seem to portray women with slightly longer elongated necks, although it is more obvious in Parmigianino’s work.  They both focus on the Mannerism style by cropping others out of the painting, leaving more figures to the imagination as if they existed in real life outside of the piece.  With this being said, it leaves the idea that this exact image acts as if it completely natural and we shouldn’t be phased by the absence of the entire covered area.

            However, these paintings being so close to each other in date, also had a handful of differences that almost distinguish them as separate styles all together.  First off, within the Entombment, it seems to be a very busy painting with a lot of different clashing colors, which scatters the focal point, but eventually brings your eyes to the figure of Christ laying on a woman’s shoulders and another is carrying his upper body within her arms.  This varies greatly from Madonna with the Long Neck since this piece focuses exclusively on the importance of Mary and the son of Christ laying on her lap, which is also illustrated as a child and not a full grown man.  As far as color/hues go, I think that the Entombment piece uses a very wide variety of colors, but doesn’t use enough closely related colors that help really highlight detail within each figure like that of Parmigianino’s piece, which is overall a darker medium, but expresses vast detail throughout the entire painting.  In Madonna with the Long Neck, the artist focuses more on facial detail as well as capturing the basic elements of how his audience should grasp it.

            Although both of these paintings fit into the category of Mannerist style paintings, they seem to lack certain key parts that help create the “naturalistic” feel to them; such as the absence of the chair with Madonna, and the figures floating in the air in Entombment.  It leaves an unsatisfied feel to the painting, while still portraying the celebration and fascination of Christ.  If I were able to separate these two paintings into different categories, I would definitely say that Entombment falls into the category of Early Mannerist, while Madonna with the Long Neck would be deemed into the High Mannerist style.