My experience going to the MET was very interesting and tiring.  I decided to go on a Friday night after work since it was the only time I could go.  The MET is an hour and half from where I work and on a Friday night the MTA is horrible.  One of my best friends decided to go with me, but she was coming home from college.  We met up at the city and she had a small luggage, she was tired and cold.  I had a long day at work, but was really looking forward to spend time with my best friend at the museum, she was just as excited.  When we got off the train station we had to walk and got lost, finally some lady helped us and we got there.  We were excited to get there, but as soon as we tried entering they told my friend she could not come in with her small luggage.  We did not know what to do because her parents house was in Staten Island and she had no where to leave her luggage.  She told me to go in and she would wait outside, and even though that was so nice of her I felt extremely bad since it was freezing.

I went in and had to make my visit short because my friend was waiting for me outside.  As soon as I went in I saw many statues like the one we had talked about in class.  It was amazing having them so close and I actually enjoyed walking around by myself, even though I felt bad.  I tried to see as many things as I could in the hour I had before they closed.

The one painting that called my attention was Judith with the Hand of Holofernes.  In this painting the women is mostly painted with an orange oil color.  However she is described as “dress to killed”.  The colors in this painting are darkish and the black background makes the light skin color of this women stand out.

The same of this painting is, The rape of Tamar.  In this painting Tamar was raped by her half-brother.  It completely differs from the other painting because of the message being illustrated.  In this painting Tamar is the victim and is portrayed as weak.  However in the other painting the women is painted with confidence.  The color in this painting are much more brighter.

Overall going to the MET was great.   I just wish I would’ve been there longer.

Topic: Sculpture comparison Bernini and Baroque style

Gian Lorenzo Bernini was an Italian sculptor and architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was, also and even more prominently, the leading sculptor of his age, credited with creating the Baroque style of sculpture.

Images:

Thesis: Women’s beauty standards and ideal body types have changed and been showed throughout art.

Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird by Frida Kahlo

What was consider to be a beautiful women in Egypt and Romans time is no longer what today society considers beautiful.  As art develops and changes so does what is consider the beauty of a women.

For some of these images I need to look back into the artist and time period.  These pictures all connect because in todays art a lot of it is shown through photography but the women being capture are all similar.  They are shown as the  beauty of women however it is totally different than older art

                 This was my second trip to the MET museum, my first when I was 7 years old, and only in second grade.  This time, I was able to soak in a greater amount of the content that the museum had to offer, being that I now have background on pieces and historical eras.  In second grade analyzing art was a skill that I had yet to acquire.

                The first painting that I encountered was titled Christ Appearing to His Mother”.  It is an oil painting created by Juan de Flandes. It’s stability is an eye catching feature that gives away its era of creation, the Renaissance.  The painting has a lot of structure to it, and an emphasis on vertical lines, especially in the architecture of the building. Additionally, the background seems extremely distant from the viewer as well.  Depth is created, as we can see 3 distinct areas of a room, the front where they are standing, the hallway slightly more behind, and the tiny town in the far background. The lines are very sharp, and straight, depicting little to no motion in the piece.    

                The second piece of art that I looked at was another oil painting titled “The Annunciation of the Death of the Virgin, by Samuel van Hoogstraten.  Unlike in “Christ Appearing to His Mother”, this image was more dramatized, which is a common feature of Baroque art . Here, an Angel is drawn swooping down at a diagonal angle from Heaven.  The diagonal line is a distinct difference, as in Renaissance art, more structured is apparent through the use of horizontal and vertical lines. Moreover, the artist used the technique of “smoking,” in which he smoothed out and lessened the sharpness of lines, to give a sense of energy and movement to the piece.  These curvatures are generally seen more in Baroque art then in Renaissance art. The clouds were also shaded, adding contrast from the rest of the piece. This feature of shading gave the artwork a sense of realisticness, and less like a drawing. Finally, unlike in the “Christ Appearing to His Mother”, everything seems to be happening in the foreground.  Everything seems very close, due to its placement and largeness in scale.

                Overall, the features of diagonal lines, shading, smoking, placement and dramatism allow for Baroque art to capture a moving moment in time.  In Renaissance art, it seems that the artist is able to capture a still, motionless event, due to the techniques of more structure through having distinct backgrounds and sharp vertical and horizontal lines.  

                The other night, I was fishing through my cabinet to find the plastic gloves that I use for washing dishes.  When I grabbed them out of the cabinet, I accidentally knocked down the box of sponges my mom had left there the night before.  As I reached to grab the box off the kitchen floor, I noticed the advertisement placed on the front cover. It depicted a mother standing next to her child, cleaning a window.  It read “This mother’s day, get back to the job that really matters”. Ideas that women are supposed to be home, with their kids valuing their “job” that “really matters,” still exist in society. This made me fish through my other items in my house.  Astonishingly, the cover of a box of easy bake potatoes that I found in the pantry, read “so easy a husband can do it,” implying that the female is usually responsible for cooking for the family, and the husband is usually incapable of doing so, as it is not his job.  This was not coincidental. These simplistic roles of cooking and cleaning devalues a womens capability while placing men on a pedestal of power and knowledge. With powerlessness, society has placed women on a stage permitting extreme amounts of judgement ranging from every stroke of makeup, every outfit and every hairstyle, that is all looked upon with close attention.  In a time when the portrayal of a powerful woman was not desired in art, female artists have made groundbreaking attempts to point out these societal problems and bring rise to women’s equality.

The Kneeling women by Camille Claudel

This sculpture places more emphasis on the women and less on the male. Males usually dominate the sculpture- muscular, larger ect (eg. Kouros greek art)…  Here the man is not powerful as he is being dragged by the woman to the ground.

The Chess Game (1555)

In this piece, woman are the shown playing chess, a game of logic and critical thinking, that they were seen to lack.  However, they are still uncomfortably clothed and dressed extremely consivertively, but artist’s message is a step in the right direction.  

Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird by Frida Kahlo

Shows the Imperfections of woman also known as “jolie laide.” Breakthrough in not all women being the same, there shouldn’t be an ideal look.  

-women is powerful– not afraid to show identity, though society may reject it

-dark shading of eyebrows, mustache

-she is drawn directly centered– center of attention, center of importance

The Father (1920) by Hannah Hoch

Here, Hoch is cutting through male-dominated society, with the medium of a collage.    A collage implies cutting through, and pasting onto a sheet of paper in a disorderly manner.  It mirrors the situation of anger felt by women who are seen as unequal. Additionally, the artist places male authority heads onto a woman’s body… there is reversal of gendered “roles” here.

DADA-Dance (1919-1921) by Hannah Hoch

Distortions of scale of female body, rejected the “ideal” feminine body.

Das ewig Weibliche by Hannah Hoch

The piece below demonstrates that women in society are thought to be “doll- like”.  Their bodies are mangled and cut out and pasted on a piece of paper, which adopts a very chaotic, yet angry tone, drawing a parallel to the feelings of women in society.  Several eyes are pasted on the paper, entailing that women are constantly judged in society, based on beauty standards (nails, shoes, hair, makeup) , but also gives the idea of the reversal of the “status quo.”  Here the women are looking at the audience, and quite possibly judge the audience for a change. The medium is important as the force of cutting pictures shows anger

  

Title: Statue of Tjeteti as a young man

Artist: Unknown

Period: Old Kingdom; ca. 2200–2152 B.C.

Museum: The MET

In the Old Kingdom, the artwork was much more abstracted, with larger eyes and hands. The body is not as emphasized; in other words lacking muscles. They used the eyes and hands as religious symbols (supplication).

Title: Bronze youth

Artist: Unknown

Period: Archaic; 6th century B.C.

Museum: The MET

This figurine shows the beginning of the importance to the body, but it is still very abstracted. This figure depicts much more motion and versatile perspectives, allowing the viewer to see the full body.

Title: Bronze youth

Artist: Unknown

Period: Classical; late 5th century B.C

Museum: The MET

Already from one century to the next the body becomes much more muscularized, and idealized. This shows the shift of a God-centered society into a humanism based civilization.

Title: Terracotta relief probably from a funnel vase

Artist: Unknown

Period: Early Hellenistic; late 3rd–early 2nd century B.C

Museum: The MET

This statue also shows the importance of the body using two nude males, one most likely a Gaul and the other Greek, fighting. This fight combats the idea of the essence of Greek humanism; the struggle and dominance of man, especially the civilized greek.

Title: Terracotta statuette of a veiled woman

Artist: Unknown

Period: Hellenistic; 2nd century B.C.

Museum: The MET

The importance of realistic body, with idealized anatomy, extends to much more than just the man. The woman is also used to show the beauty of the body and shows the parallel between humanism and the distorted (even if idealized) body.

Artist: Unknown

Period: ca. 1175–1200

Museum: The MET

The shift of humanism towards a God shift society results in the abstracted form of the human body. Rather than alluding to the earthly, the heavenly is referenced through the abstract.

Title: Christ Enthroned

Artist: Unknown

Period: ca. 1230

Museum: The MET

This statue is to reiterate the shift religious status, resulting in abstracted human forms to allude to the heavenly. In other words when God is the center of civilization the body image is no longer realistic or idealized, but almost despised and forgotten.  

Some of the examples are

Two Earrings, from Brooklyn museum 1539-1292 B.C.E.

Single-Strand Necklace, Brooklyn Museum 13 32-1292 B.C.E.,

Ring with Cat and Kittens, MET Museum, 1295-664 B.C.

Wreath, Brooklyn Museum 3rd century-2nd-century B.C.E.

Ring in the Form of a Coiled Serpent from Brooklyn Museum 3rd century B.C.E. 

 Gold Necklace from MET Museum 4th-3rd century B.C.

Each piece goes in depth of what values that people hold, and the significance of each piece. Some are to help ward off evil and protect people, whereas some are to glorify the status of people. Not only do they go in-depth with details and meanings, but they also show the status and value of the wearer.