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Outline

Some of the examples are

<em>Two Earrings</em>, ca. 1539-1292 B.C.E. Gold, a: 13/16 x Diam. 15/16 in. (2 x 2.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 05.382a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 05.382a-b_PS2.jpg)Two Earrings, from Brooklyn museum 1539-1292 B.C.E.

<em>Single-Strand Necklace</em>, ca. 1332-1292 B.C.E. Faience, 9/16 x 1/4 x 6 3/4 in. (1.4 x 0.6 x 17.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mrs. Lawrence Coolidge and Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss, and the Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 48.66.43. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 48.66.43_PS2.jpg)Single-Strand Necklace, Brooklyn Museum 13 32-1292 B.C.E.,

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

Greek. Wreath, 3rd century-2nd century B.C.E. Gold, 3 15/16 x 10 1/4 x 11 13/16 in. (10 x 26 x 30 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of George D. Pratt, 26.763. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.26.763_wwg8_2014.jpg) Wreath, Brooklyn Museum 3rd century-2nd-century B.C.E.

Greek. <em>Ring in the Form of a Coiled Serpent</em>, 3rd century B.C.E. Gold, garnet, Diameter 3/4 x Length 1 3/4 in. (1.9 x 4.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.785E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.785E_view1_PS9.jpg)Ring in the Form of a Coiled Serpent from Brooklyn Museum 3rd century B.C.E. 

Gold necklace, Gold, Greek 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.

Met Trip

During my trip to the Met Museum, there were many tourists there which were surprising to me because it is the middle of winter yet there were still many people there. Upon going to the MET, it was so beautiful and somehow makes me feel like I’ve transported back to a different era. Although the met was beautiful, and with arches on the ceilings/structures reminding me of some of the paintings in the renaissances time, there were many people crowding around which annoyed me. I don’t generally like to go to places that are crowded with people, it feels like times squares which can be displeasing.

 

During my time there I noticed that Renaissance and Baroque art has many similarities. They both heavily emphasize on religions; both place an importance on Adam and Eve, Madonna, crucifixion..etc. Both arts portray realism, uses rich colors in the art and another thing I realize is that both arts have somewhat of a high importance in women, more specifically mothers. Take Virgin and Child (Renaissance Art) for example, the color displayed is extraordinary, and eye-popping, although there weren’t bright colors in it to make it stand out, the subtle hues of blues and reds can make this piece feel so live and eye-catching, yet it also displays the motherly and tender love she has for the child. Another comparable piece in the Baroque Art is the Madonna and Child with Saints, again it highlights the importance of Madonna and the motherly affection for the child. The Madonna and child with Saints piece also not overly exaggerated with color pigmentations yet display such realism and subtle colors that make it hard to look away.

 

Some of the differences that I have noticed is that Renaissance art pieces do tend to have more of a religious input and most paintings would have crucifixion, whereas baroque has a more important in musical instruments, and exaggerated expressions. I searched that both Renaissance and Baroque comes from European artwork, and the main difference is that if a painting or sculpture is made between 1300-1600s then it is most likely considered a Renaissance work, and if it was made between 1600-1750s then it was considered Baroque. Baroque artwork was also heavily influenced by the Roman Catholic Church around that time period hence the religious artwork with crucifixion and Madonna.  

Final Project Outline

Overall Topic: For my final project I will create a mock tour guide that acts as a satire to pick apart the limited roles in which women are placed within works of art during the Renaissance and Baroque period. I find that for the most part there seems to be only three archaical roles in which women are depicted and portrayed as within both eras. These roles are stereotypically the idealized virginal biblical figures (Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene), the superlunary depiction of mythological goddesses (Diana, Venus, etc) and the delineation of ordinarily simple and mundane women. These three roles bind women to either the very high standards of being the perfect virgin, the otherworldly headstrong and beautiful goddesses within Roman mythology, or push them to embrace the simplistic life of domesticity. I will judge and fully exemplify all three of these archetypes in my tour at the MET. This tour will be divvied in three different venturings and in each venture we will view two pieces of art that speaks to and verifies the limited archetypes we’re exploring and working to confirm. The 6 works of art that will be viewed in this tour are…

Thesis: The roles in which women were strategically placed within Renaissance and Baroque art worked to subject them to very limited and two-dimensional roles within society that offered no proper insight to the true complexity of their nature.

The representation of women within the art of the Renaissance and Baroque era

  1. Venus and Adonis by Peter Paul Rubens
  2. Diana the Huntress by Giampietrino
  3. Madonna and Child with Angels by Cosimo Rosselli
  4. Portrait of a Woman, Possibly a Nun of San Secondo by Jacometto
  5. The Love Letter by Jacob Ochtervelt
  6. The Lacemaker by Nicolaes Maes                                                                                         The first two paintings hone in on the vital and ever present depiction of Roman goddesses throughout the Baroque and Renaissance period. The third and fourth paintings are specifically from the Renaissance period serving as the paintings that hone in on holy, biblical, or simply virginal women. The last two paintings focus on the stereotypical roles women resorted to, a desire for love and a duty to domesticity. All of these paintings work to give us a closer look into not just these artists interpretation of women and the purpose these women serve during these periods of time, but what purpose women were thought to serve according to societal standards as well.

Bibliography

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. Langara College, 2016.

In this novel, Whitney Chadwick’s survey reexamines works of arts and the ways in which the women within them have been perceived as “marginal, often in direct reference to gender”. To build on this further, she also addresses the “closely related issues of ethnicity, class, and sexuality”.  All of these work to support my thesis of the less than ideal way in which women are perceived in works of art.

Cruz, Katryna Santa. “Guided History.” Artistic Representation of the Female Gender from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, blogs.bu.edu/guidedhistory/historians-craft/katryna-santacruz/.

This article touches base on a plethora of published works that discuss the representation of women in art throughout the Renaissance era to the Enlightenment era. Through Cruz’s discussion of the contents of these works, she too highlights women in religious art and imagery, sexuality and eroticism, as well as the overall gender differences that are easily found within the art of these times.

Faulkner, Katherine, et al. “Representing Women.” Courtauld , The Courtauld Gallery, courtauld.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Goyateachersresourcesfinal.pdf.

Containing many different articles and authors, this pdf remarks skillfully so how exactly “art has played an important role in perpetuating stereotypical images of women and femininity; both negative and positive”. I think it’s important to include this work in my research paper so that I don’t find myself focusing entirely on the negative nature of my theme, but rather try to see some of the good that I might not have been so intuitive of before.

Gilboa, Anat. “Gender in Art.” New Dictionary of the History of Ideas, edited by Maryanne Cline Horowitz, vol. 3, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2005, pp. 876-882. Gale Virtual Reference Library, http://link.galegroup.com.ez-proxy.brooklyn.cuny.edu:2048/apps/doc/CX3424300308/GVRL?u=cuny_broo39667&sid=GVRL&xid=373e27a0. Accessed 11 Dec. 2018.

In using this scholarly article, I am able to gain a better insight historically of the roles that society placed on women and the meaning behind such a placement. The perception of women of the Renaissance and Baroque era becomes clearer with more of a historical context to back it up. While the other works I’m citing add the wood to the fire for my guided tours theme, this source acts to answer “But why?” It focuses on eroticism and women as allegorical references, two archetypes I myself mention and am eager to further explore.

Hungus, Karl. YouTube, YouTube, 31 Oct. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta-s_vzxWn8.

Here we have John Berger’s second episode of his series “Ways of Seeing” in which he discusses the concept of the female nude. He differentiates nudity from nakedness, and remarks that in order for a naked body to become a nude, “it must be completely objectified and exist only for the sexual pleasure of the owner or viewer”. Berger discusses a contradiction in European paintings of female nudes between “the painter’s, owner’s and viewer’s individualism and… the object, the woman, which is treated as abstraction.” Much like what I’m trying to prove in this tour, Berger strongly believes that these stark differences deeply affect our culture and how our society perceives women (how women perceive themselves even).

Met Visit

I took my visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Sunday December 2nd.  Due to the fact it was the weekend and during the beginning of the holiday season, it was crowded with locals and tourists alike.  Despite that, it was easy to notice that the Met is a work of art in itself both inside and outside.  I visited with someone who had an art assignment to complete from a different class.  Within the museum some of my favorite exhibits were the ones that focus on East Asian cultures such as “Children to Immortals” and “Japanese Arms and Armor from the Collection of Etsuko and John Morris”.  I also liked the Ancient Egyptian exhibit focusing on the afterlife.

Within the Renaissance exhibit were many paintings of religious imagery and iconography.  Many images were filled with the depiction of Mary and Jesus, representative of the influence of the Catholic Church on Europe.  This religious imagery was less realistic than that of the Baroque Era.  It was filled with brighter tones, colors and designs representing royalty.  Its symbolic imagery such as halos and thrones represented the deeper meaning behind certain religious stories.  Renaissance paintings for the most part favored more of a symbolic approach instead of a realistic one when it came to religious paintings, ignoring the move toward realism.

By the Baroque Era, the move toward realism had taken over even the religious paintings of Europe.  As contrasted below, the Baroque Era favored a darker, more realistic color scheme as well as more realistic depictions of people.  It placed its symbolism on the lines of symmetry between the subjects of the artwork. The Baroque Era’s realism also led to less of an emphasis on religious artwork. The difference between these two eras are shown in “Merry Company on a Terrace” by Jan Steen (1670) above and “Saints and Scenes from the Life of the Virgin” by Master of Monte Oliveto (1320) below.

Final Outline

Topic: Jewelry in Ancient World

Thesis: Jewelry had a big impact on the ancient world and its art.

Intro: Jewelry was often passed from generation to generation as family heirlooms. Occasionally it was dedicated at sanctuaries as an offering to the gods. The form/ size of jewelry or what part of your body the jewelry was worn could identify what class you are a part of. Sometimes jewelry was made to honor not only the gods but the kings of the ancient world. Every detail of jewelry from the material used to the carvings have hidden meanings.

 

Gold and cabochon garnet ring

3rd–2nd century B.C.

Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City

The size of the hexagonal bezel, set with a plain but impressively large oval garnet, combined with the fact that another smaller garnet is set in a circular bezel at the center of the hoop at the rear, suggests that one was meant to wear this ring on the thumb. The piece is a striking example of the extravagant and ostentatious lifestyle of the rich in the Hellenistic world.

2. 

Gold Ring 

3rd–2nd century B.C.

Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City

Intaglio gold ring: head of Alexander the Great in the guise of Herakles, wearing the lion’s skin, with paws, fastened around the neck.

3. 

Gold armband with Herakles knot 

3rd–2nd century B.C.

Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City

The Herakles knot on this sumptuous armband is enriched with floral decoration and inlaid with garnets, emeralds, and enamel. According to the Roman writer Pliny, the decorative device of the Herakles knot could cure wounds, and its popularity in Hellenistic jewelry suggests that it was thought to have the power to avert evil.

4. 

Gold openwork hairnet with medallion

3rd–2nd century B.C.

Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City

The medallion represents the head of a maenad, one of the female followers of the god Dionysos, wearing spiral earrings, a wreath of vine leaves and grapes, and a panther skin.

5. 

Pair of Gold Armbands

3rd–2nd century B.C.

Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City

These imposing serpentine armbands represent two tritons, male and female, each holding a small winged Eros.

Met Museum

From its architecture to its massive art collection, The Met has a little bit of everything and one is sure to find something that captures his or her interest. Considering that The Met is the United States’ largest art museum, it is easy to get lost within its many corridors and wings. As a famous tourist site, there are a lot of visitors to the museum. However, the museum is commodious enough to hold a large number of visitors exploring artworks there. It was astounding how by switching between different parts of the museum could lead to completely different auras and cultures. The experience felt like a journey to the world and a travel in time. It broadened my horizon and taught me not to limit myself to only one possibility as in one single museum exist civilizations from around the world and even from decades ago. Overall, my experience in the Metropolitan Museum of Art is enriching and memorable.

Master of Monte Oliveto (Italian, active Siena ca. 1305–35)
Saints and Scenes from the Life of the Virgin

These well-preserved panels are the wings of a portable triptych, the center panel of which is still unidentified. The anonymous master worked outside Siena itself, but his scenes are based on those of Duccio’s famous altarpiece in the cathedral of the city. The left wing depicts three principal scenes from the life of the Virgin (her so-called “joys”) while on the right wing is her coronation in heaven. The six saints—three males and three females—would have been chosen by the person for whom the triptych was painted.

Merry Company on a Terrace

Another of Steen’s self-deprecating depictions of his own unruly household, this painting centers on the inviting figure of his wife, who looks out at the viewer with an empty wine glass in her hand. Steen, his face flushed with drink and a comic hat on his head, sits at the far left; next to him, with a sausage in his cap, is Hans Worst, the same theatrical figure depicted by Hals in a nearby work. To this day in the Netherlands, “a household by Jan Steen” remains proverbial for disorder and domestic chaos.

Final Project: Outline

I have decided that I will be doing a museum tour as my final project.

Thesis: Throughout the Renaissance it’s art culture emphasized it’s turn to Greek Humanism with some Roman influence.

  1. Ancient Rome by Giovanni Paolo Panini, 1757 at The Metropolitan Museum
  2. Curiosity by Gerard ter Borch the Younger, ca. 1660–62 at The Met
  3. Man with a Magnifying Glass by Rembrandt, early 1660s at The Met
  4. Lute Player by Valentin de Boulogne, ca. 1625–26 at The Met
  5. Federico Gonzaga by Francesco Francia, 1510 which can be seen at at The MetFederico Gonzaga (1500–1540), Francesco Francia (Italian, Bologna ca. 1447–1517 Bologna), Tempera on wood, transferred from wood to canvas and then again to wood

Final Project Outline Proposal

Topic: The role/purpose of the depiction of women in Ancient Egyptian Art

Thesis: Although women and feminism were often overlooked in Egyptian art, the very presence of a woman alone was necessary for the art to contain true meaning.

The ways I will go about proving my statement

  1. depicting how the pharaohs headress resembled feminine features. I will propose the reason for that would be that in the Egyptian subconscious people needed something more to respect than just pure male dominance. The famine headress, and the skirts was a symbol of the understanding human side that only feminism can bring to the table.
  2. Depicting women in everyday life. Women weren’t always written off of all the art work for ancient Egypt. some pieces would show women dancing joyously together. other works would show a queen beside her pharaoh husband holding their child. These depictions are necessary to show that ancient Egypt didn’t just consist of the conquering of other nations and how strong the pharaoh was. On the other hand it displayed the need for family life and how beautiful it is. Again something that could have only been displayed with the presence of a woman.
  3. we will focus on the Queen Nefertiti there were many queens in ancient Egyptian history, but Nefertiti is the the default queen that we think of. the reason being she as a queen arguably contributed more to ancient Egypt legacy than some other kings and pharaohs.

 

The Renaissance and Baroque Art.

This sculpture is a depiction of Orpheus, known for being a famous musician and poet in Greek mythology, playing the violin. At the immediate eye view, one notices that the Bronze statue is very big in size- especially when seen in relativity to the other statues around it. The large scale of the statue helps catch one’s eyes and stand out amongst the others. Although it’s one solid color throughout, there are many details that bring the statue to life and give it a unique character, From the way the hind leg is positioned to be bent and elevated in relation to the front leg, to the way he’s playing the violin on the other side of his body as he looks upward not only makes it seem human-like, but it gives it almost this grace in it’s expression. The loss in stiffness, helps remind the readers, aside from the violin, that he’s an artist. This is an example of Renaissance art because there’s a lot of more flow in expression that help attribute to this overall involvement of art and even “rebirth”, which is what the Renaissance was all about.

This painting is an image of Christ, carrying the cross. Christ being a very important and symbolic figure with significant Religious meanings, globally. In the painting, Christ is holding the cross very firmly with both hands (and as we know in Baroque Art there was the common presence of religion in the art) which can be interpreted as holding onto religion, as it wasn’t something fully accepted at the time. The colors, navy blue and a red that has rose highlights creating a silk looking material, are highly contrasted among the background of dark clouds, as is the Brown cross with white detailing creating a wooden appearing surface. Again, bringing attention to Christ and the cross, symbols of religion. Lastly, Christ himself is looking up to the sky and often this is a symbol or gesture done for hope, one done when in desperate needs, at that. With another symbol of hope this may reveal how hope and religion went hand in hand, and therefore baroque art was used not only to create dramatic, emotional art, but also to coincide with the more political side of things which involved religion.

 

While both Baroque and Renaissance art have had significant impacts in expression during their time periods, both were very different in how they manifested in art. Renaissance art included more Humanism, Realism, Greek/Roman art forms, linear perspectives, architecture, music, and much more. Baroque art, on the other hand involved more color, more dramatic scenes, details, to “create a sense of awe” for the audience, with intentions to “appeal to emotion”, and etc. They are both significant because they help show the difference in focuses and ideologies that Art helped carry throughout each of these specific time periods.