MD: MET trip

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.

Blog Post 10: Met Museum Visit

The Met Museum is always quite the experience when you go. I actually went to the Met earlier this year, a little bit after the Met Gala and it was so stunning. Visiting the Met again, I got the same feeling especially because of the holidays and their decorations. I will say that I went during a busy time, so it was more difficult to navigate and fully enjoy, but it was all in all another good experience

For my Renaissance piece I chose The Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist by Perino del Vaga. I chose to use this painting because I believe that it shows a lot of what Renaissance paintings embody. This picture shows the viewer a sense of serenity through the colors used and the light emotions on the faces. The painting also uses vertical and horizontal view points that are resembled throughout Renaissance artworks. In this painting, as a viewer, your eyes are drawn into the center of the painting, but then subtly brought in a vertical and horizontal point of view to see the clothes child and older man in the painting.

For the Baroque work of art I chose The Annunciation of the Death of the Virgin by Samuel van Hoogerstraten. This painting really caught my attention because of the light contrast that is very evident, and the lighting effects that can be seen are actually a characteristic of Baroque pieces. Another characteristic that this piece shows is the effects of directed focus which is demonstrated by the use of lighting. There is a deep contrast between the dark background and the center of the painting, which causes some of the center to be the focus of the painting. This painting also uses diagonals where your eyes are brought to the angel in the upper left corner and then down to the virgin in the right corner, making a diagonal perspective. Lastly, emotions can be clearly seen through the body language of the Virgin, in which seems in despair but also content; there is no harsh or dramatic emotion of sadness for death.

MD: Outline/ background

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

Met Visit

The first painting is called “Master of Saint Augustine”. It shows a congregation of people around a powerful Christian figure( I think the pope). This image has very strong colors. The painter uses lighting to show show and focus everyone eyes into the the center, which hosts the Saint Augustine. Not only does the human eye naturally focus to the middle, but also the painting tricks our mind to see space as well. We can draw a 3D image in our head about how the real scene took place. The gold in the painting around Augustine shows how much of a heavenly figure he is. It makes him look above the average human. A being of all righteousness. The second painting is a painting of Saint Jerome. It also has strong colors. Again lighting is used to direct the people at his face. With Saint Jerome reads a book it shows that he was intelligent because most people could never read. They highlight the differences between the Renaissance the the Baroque because they focus on 2 different topics. The baroque art depicts a religious focused painting, showing that in those times they were focused on religious righteousness. However, Saint Jerome is a good representation of the Renaissance because it showed how people were more focused on education.

Final Project: Outline

Final Outline

Topic: Greek Humanism used in today world.

Thesis Statement : In today’s society there’s form of Greek Humanism that display the beauty of humans and show how humans can be self center of all the attention.

Barkley Hendricks

What’s Going on, 1974

The artwork refers to the Marvin Gaye song iconic protest song. This image shows black pride and also defined a black liberation program.

Carolyn Lawrence, Malcolm X

Carolyn Lawrence, Uphold Your Men, 1971

Adger Cowans, Shadows, New York 1961

Carrie Mae Weems, Untitled (Man Smoking /Malcolm X)

These images highlight the people that are in the frame through different artistic form. Its similar to Greek Humanism highlighting people and making them the main focal point.

Banking Model

In the Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire pedagogy as the “banking model of education”. From Freire’s definition, the banking model of education aligns students of the educational system as containers for disposing knowledge into. This way of educating student he explains, enforces the process of oppression, with the students being the oppressed and the teachers the oppressors unknowingly. Despite being in a position of doing the oppression, the teachers also experience dehumanization. Both students and teachers lose their creativity and artistic expression. I don’t recall a specific experience, but I did notice something when I was younger. Something that I have recognized within myself was my need to follow directions at a young age. At some point, I was still able to freely express myself. However, I found my creativity not well-received by others because it was different from what was expected. Realizing this, I started to become stricter on my actions and eventually became comfortable with schoolwork how it was expected to be. As I grew up, I was encourage more frequently to show my creativity, even if others didn’t appreciated it. Thinking about my experience, I realized how banking model of education truly does enforce oppressive influence.

Formal Analysis

Formal analysis is the interpretation and explanation of an artwork. When referring to formal analysis, the analyst considers different components identified in the work, and then draws out a summary of their findings. There are many components to formal analysis. Some examples include: historical context, materials, color schemes, and composition. Historical context is one the most important part in conducting a formal analysis. Understanding circumstances surrounding the time period the art was created, can give an indication to the analysis what exactly the artist was trying to convey and why certain elements, such as colors, expressions, and/or techniques, were used in the final product. Colors in general play a huge part in influencing the emotions of the viewer. Depending on the intended emotion, the artist will use specific colors that correlate with said emotion. For example, when using dark, dreary colors in art, this often gives the viewer a sense of sadness or even tragic, depending the contexts of artwork. Composition is arrangement of elements in an artwork. It can be used to bring attention to a specific element, contrast the context, convey depth in 2-dimensional art, or to bring the whole painting together. These components and many others when interpreted together, give a formal analysis that provides a better understand of the artwork as well as the artist and their mindset.

Outline

a lion’s head gargoyle from the Late or Ptolemaic Period

The Goddess Isis as Magician, a bronze statue from the Roman Period – Brooklyn Museum

Figure of a Cat, Saqqara, Egypt, 350 B.C.E. – 1st century C.E – Brooklyn Museum

Roman statue of bearded Hercules- Met by Brandon Falls

Latona and Her Children: Apollo and Diana- Met by William Henry Rinehart

These images relate to my theme because as you can see Humanism has an effect on how artwork show humans. From the Egyptians all the way down to the Greeks and Romans there’s an obvious difference in how humans are seen.

Humanism has changed of how humans and other animals are depicted in Art.

Blog Post 10: Met Museum Trip

*The Rest on the Flight into Egypt by Gerard David*

*Samson Captured by the Philistines by Guercino*

During my trip to the museum, I was overwhelmed by how big it was. It was very beautiful, although I have never felt good in large areas, since I’m always afraid of getting lost. I enjoyed it a lot, and it will always be memorable to me.

While I was there, I noticed some stark difference between the Renaissance and Baroque art. While both of them have an emphasis on naturalism in the human figure and a value of humanism, they portray this in different ways. Gerald David’s work, “The Rest on the Flight into Egypt” is very serene. The blues and greens of the artwork contribute to this serenity. It feels very stable, as though nothing bad could happen. Nothing in this shot indicates that it will end anytime soon. Mary has a calm nobility to her, as does the Baby, Jesus, which is actually odd, if one takes into account that He should not know how to regulate His emotions yet. This scene even seems more distant than it perhaps should.

On the contrast, Guercino’s “Samson Captured by the Philistines” is not serene in any way. The emotions spike upon looking at this one, by contrast to the other one. You can almost picture how the moment would continue to play out, were it to be ‘unfrozen’ from this ‘snapshot.’ It looks very unstable, and there is so much motion frozen in this painting. If you stare at it long enough, it almost seems to come to life and it makes you want to back away, so that no one will fall on you during the commotion.

Furthermore, while David’s work has one clear light across the entire scene, Guercino’s work has highlights on certain parts that draw your eye towards that instead of what is in the shadows. Also, while in David’s work, the faces of the Virgin and Child are both idealized to look perfect and flawless, Guercino’s work has people with specified faces that are imperfect and very human. There is even a man in the background of “Samson Captured by the Philistines” whose beard is graying, a sign of reality, not an idealized utopia. These differences in the works of art are characteristic of difference among ALL works of art between the Renaissance and the Baroque time periods.

The Met Museum

First off, the Met museum is incredibly huge and I really liked the display of artwork inside. Usually, I get bored of museums but the way the Met is set up and constructed made it hard for me to get bored of it. Another thing I liked is that it makes you feel as if you’re apart of the time period that you’re looking at.

I’m going to be comparing the renaissance artwork, Virgin and Child with Four Angels, and the Baroque artwork, Virgin and Child.

I chose these two because they seemed the most similar in style but they both differ in small ways. First off, the timings of production of both paintings are different. If a painting was made in the 15th to 16th century then it was a renaissance artwork. If a painting is made during the late 16th to 17th century then it was a baroque artwork. Both Renaissance and baroque emphasize religion and can put a lot of importance on women. Both artworks I chose is based on a virgin woman. Another difference is that Renaissance artworks did not completely depict human emotion, while Baroque art focused more on showing them.
As you can see, the Virgin and Child with Four Angels painting give more emphasis to religion with the addition of angels while the Virgin and Child painting is more simple and gives importance to the main feature of the painting.