Looking at works of Art (paintings)

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Looking at works of Art (paintings)

• 4 guidelines that may help us look at art in an
  analytical way

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4 guidelines

• Subject and Symbolism
• Technique and Technology
• Space, Light and Colour
• Historical Context
• Philosophical
• cultural
• social
• economic

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Masterpieces
The miracle of the loaves and fishes Basilica
San Apolinare Nuovo Ravenna A.D. 520
The Wilton Diptych National Gallery London c.
1400
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The Betrothal of the Arnolfini Jan Van Eyck
1434 National Gallery, London
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The birth of Venus Botticelli Sandro 1485
The Last Supper Leonardo Da Vinci Dining hall at
Santa Maria delle Grazie Milan 1498
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The Gare St. Lazare in Paris Monet 1877 Musee
D Orsay Paris
Sketch for Composition IV Kandinsky Tate
Gallery London
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Subject and Symbolism

• Most of the paintings or sculptures have a
  specific subject, each with a meaningful message
  and symbol.
• In symbolic representations, objects dont just
  represent themselves but concepts of much deeper
  and abstract meaning
• In the pre-modern period artists assumed that the
  viewers were familiar with the specific subject
  represented.
• In the modern period sometimes colour, forms and
  the composition became the subject.

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Subject and Symbolism

• Pope Gregory the Great (end A.D. 6th century) ,
  believed that pictures were useful because they
  helped remind the congregation of the teachings
  they had received (painting for the illiterate).
• In Botticellis painting the subject is Venus.
  The commissioner needed a painting symbolising
  love and fertility because he had just got
  married.
• Leonardos is a religious subject commissioned by
  a religious order. The monks wanted this mural
  (wall painting) to remind them about one of the
  most sacred moments of Christianity.

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Subject and Symbolism

• In Monets painting the train is not the main
  subject. In fact pictorially speaking its part of
  the scene.
• However, in the artists eyes and his
  contemporaries it still represented progress.
• In Kandinskys painting the colour and
  composition are the main subjects.

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Technique and Technology

• Understanding the differences between
  artistic mediums, skills involved in the
  production and being aware of technological
  innovations may help us understand the
  differences in aesthetic values.

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Technique and Technology

• Van Eyck substituted the egg-based liquid with an
  oil-based one which permitted him to blend
  colours subtly and apply layers upon layers of
  paint.
• Renaissance architects studied arch-making
  technology to depart from the elongated forms of
  the Gothic period.

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Space, Light and Colour

• Works of art has its own illusion of space and
  light in some works it remains 2- dimensional
  but in some others the artist creates a
  3-dimensional space on a flat one
• In the Renaissance, space and light became
  fundamental whereas in the Medieval and Modern
  period 3-dimentionality was not essential.

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Space, Light and Colour

• 5th century mosaics had a clear didactic
  function so the scene was made as simple as
  possible.
• The predominant brilliant blue and gold
  background in gothic paintings give a precious
  and heavenly quality.
• In Leonardos was as if another hall was added to
  the real monastery hall because the physical
  world became important.

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Historical Context

• Every historical period develops a
  recognizable style which was determined by
  philosophical, cultural, social and economic
  factors of that time.

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Philosophical

• Plato believed that artists should only represent
  the Ideal form, because those are the true forms.
• Aristotle attributed the origin of art to the
  human affinity for imitation. He concluded that
  it is natural for humans to "delight in works of
  imitation.
• Medieval artists (craftsmen) believed that art
  should represent the other world and should serve
  a didactic purpose.
• Renaissance artists combined humanism and
  secularism with Christian theology.
• Modern artists believed in the subjective reality
  of the artist.

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Social

• Greek and Medieval artists had the status of
  craftsmen.
• In North Italy, there was a new form of political
  and social organisation Italy had already exited
  from Feudalism and was anti-monarchical. E.g.
  Florence. The artists social status grew and
  their work was no longer considered as merely a
  manual activity.
• Modern artists acquired the prestigious status of
  free intellectuals who provided artefacts or
  performances that made the viewer grow

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Economy

• In the Medieval period the main
  political/economic system allover Europe was
  Feudalism.
• In the Renaissance the economy was based on
  merchants, commerce and capitalism.
• In the Modern period the economic systems
  alternated between capitalism, which favoured a
  liberal and private system, and socialism, which
  favoured socially conscious art and state support
  for the arts.