"The Modern World: 1800-1945"

Title- "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon"

Artsit- Pablo Picasso

On oil Canvas

Size- 8' x 7'8"

Location- The museum of Modern Art, New York

     At the beginning of the 19^th century, was the start of art museums.  Museums made art available to the public, this was like channel suffering now a days.  The first museum was in Paris.  But what kind of art did the new century people want to see?  That became the biggest question, and led to the development of many different types of art. 

                One particular way of art that grew increasingly popular was Cubism.  Perhaps the most famous artist to represent this type of art was Pablo Picasso.  In the piece “Les Demoiselles d’ Avignon,” Picasso started to use various ideas on how to make art.  First he broke down each figure into plane, two dimensional figures.   He painted distorted the bodies to almost like ancient Egyptian art.  That gave the viewer no sense of being able to look through the painting, which was very different at that time.  He also made it seem like all the parts of the work were as one.  He did this by merging the ground and the figure.  Picasso’s creativity and new ideas brought forth a whole new world of art. 

"Buddhism and Its Art"

"Buddah Preaching"

From Sarnath 465-85 C.E.

Height- 5'3"
Lacation- Archaeological Museum, Sarnath

     Starting around 800 B.C. in northern India, in the 6^th century the Arayan ways of religion became very difficult.  So, because of the differences in the way the religion should be practiced grew a new path to form a spiritual realm which followed a great leader. This leader was named Siddhartha Gautama, which later became known as Buddha.  Buddha was born in Nepal, he lived from 563-483 B.C.  Buddha believed that all beings, even gods and demons are condemned for many lives, unless they can break free of that cycle.

                 He thought that all man was attached to desire, and his solution was to see through that illusion and be introduced to a new way of opening ones mind to the nature of the world, to be able to break free from ourselves and the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.  After he died, his cremated body was spread among eight memorial stupas.  Which is a solid earthen mound faced with stone.  Present day there are several followers of Buddhism.

"The 17th and 18th Centuries"

Artist-Caravagio
Title- "Entombment of Christ"
On oil canvas
Size- 9'91/2" x 6'71/2'" 
Location- Musei Vaticani, Pinocoteca Rome

     Within the seventeenth century, there were many great artists to made their name known around all of Europe.  One artist in particular who became very well known was named Caravaggio.  His work the “Entombment of Christ,” was a piece of work that inspired many artists.  The way that Caravaggio portrayed Christ was being lowered from the cross into an open grave.  Caravaggio, used light as a great sense of drama to make the viewer feel and see the pain. 

                In the painting, Caravaggio depicts a dead and lifeless Christ that all the light is focused on.  He is being carried by his disciples, also portrayed are the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Mary Cleophas.  Caravaggio didn’t was not the type of artist who painted to make everything seem better than it was, he painted reality.  That was a big reason to why he became well known, and highly criticized. 

               

"Assumption"

Artist- TITAN

Title- Assumption

Type- Oil and panel

Size- 270”x140”

The Renaissance was a time period where art sort of was “re-born.”  The word Renaissance literally means rebirth, and in art, this time period made way for artists to combine Greek art with Roman art.  Many artists sprung out in this time period, such as Michelangelo, Donatello, and Giorgione.  But Titan was also a very great artist who was able to make his claim in the world of art.

                The painting “Assumption,” uses many different types of perspectives in which he tries to capture the viewer’s attention.  The main thing that Titan focuses on was the light.  He used many dark colors to make the center of the painting where he wants the attention to go toward.  He also expresses this by, using the bright red is the Virgin Mary’s cloak and then attaches the perception of lines to aim toward the top as if looking into the heavens.  That is where he shadows what everyone is staring at, he makes it seem like it’s something everyone should want, he places Jesus above the people, but he places this “cloud” where God is overlooking Mary.  He sets the background of gold, which signifies the Holy aspect of the painting.  The painting is Located in the Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Friari, in Venice.  It’s high up making the viewer stand down below with the apostles waiting for the condemtion. 

"Christ entering Jerusalem"

 

“Christ entering Jerusalem”

Maesta Altar

Artist- Duccio

Tempera on wood, Size: 40x 21”

                Duccio was significant to his time as an artist, because he was one of the first to change the way art was created.  He moved the style of art from the High Middle ages toward the Renaissance.  What Duccio succeeded at is creating a great amount of space in such a small area.  He achieved this by using linear perspective, which was based on the view that parallel lines appeared to converge as they go further from the viewer, while meeting at a vanishing point. 

                The painting “Christ entering Jerusalem,” portrays various amount of color and puts the viewer at an angle where everything would be seen as if to be present.  He uses a great variety of red orange to make the painting stand out and feel vibrant.  All the lines are going toward the middle pointing to Christ, so that way the point of action is on him.  Duccio opened a door for many more great Renaissance artists to come, by introducing Christianity into art and using different perspectives.

               

"Pallet of Narmer"

Pallet of Narmer

3100 B.C. slate, height 25”

Egyptian Museum, Cairo

This is a piece of pottery made from the ancient Egyptians.  It displays great proportion of the human body, with the use of geometric shapes and two dimensional lines.  The Egyptians used the form of the human body the same way for 3,000 years.  They use grids to outline the head and body so it will be to scale and so it will be well proportioned. 

                Egyptians used the same scales, and grids no matter how big the piece of work.  They would decorate their pharos’ grave sites all around the wall, and also build great sculptures.  Nonetheless, they only things that would change would be the position of the arms and legs. 

               

 "The Embarkation for Cythera"-Jean-Antoine  

Wattuea (1728-19?) canvas-50.5 X 76.5

In this painting Watteau uses a variety of implied lines and atmospheric perspective.  For example, there are Angels from the bottom right of the picture up toward the top of the sail.  This is done to give the viewer a chance to navigate through the painting instead of just having to focus on one spot alone.  The viewer is placed right in front of the painting as if almost viewing everything in person on top of a hill or nearby. 

                The use of atmospheric perspective is shown by the color change of the sky and angels as they get further away.  Also the mood of the painting is calm and peaceful; this was done by the use of cool colors such as blue, green, white, yellow to present a place of serenity and love.

                “What is usually accepted as shown in both versions has been neatly expressed as ‘the embarkation of pilgrim lovers for a distant Elysium of ideal happiness.”-K.T. Parker-Drawings of Antoine Watteau. 

  

"The Tragedy"

"The Tragedy"- Artist-Pablo Picasso
"Given the presence of the rest of the template,chrnoic physical ailaments may give someone a sense of heightened sense of urgency to leave a mark on the world and achieve immortality through creative greatness."-Ludwig







     Pablo Picasso is a well know artist throughout the world.  He was mainly known for his abstract paintings, which were figures distorted but produced and image.  Unlike in his painting "The Tragedy," none of the images are distorted and the colors created a sad and cold picture. 
     The image has a man and his son on a beach barefooted talking to a woman who appears to be offering some help for these two men.  To a man the worst thing to loose in life is his pride, the closest thing to him is family, the man and son appear to have suffered a big loss throughout their journey.  Piccasso succeeded in speaking through his paintings as the details the the mans beard and his ripped pants, also with the boys hand hugging his dad's arm for reassurance.
    




    

"Inceindo del Borgo"

-"Inciendo del Borgo" (Fire of the Borgo)
     Artist- Rafael-1514

  "Rafael created the most exhausted genre picture that exists: an image of flight, rescue and helpless lamination." -Jakob Burckhardt, Der Cicerone, reprint of the Ist edition, p. 922.






     The artist expresses and portrays the power of a papal blessing can provide to the weak and nieve minded people of Rome.  The painting shows a man rescuing an elder man from the fire in light of being forgiven himself, also there is a woman handing down a baby free of sin and giving up herself.  Pope Leo IV is preaching the word and it is believed that he could stop the fire by simply preaching salvation.         
     Rafael succeeds in representing how the church had total control over population.  Pope Leo IV stands above the people who are bowing to him, all the while the rest of the city or "non believers" or perhaps the ones most filled of sin, go into the fire and help those suffering inside.  Women are holding their children teaching them to obey the blessing of the pope and all will be fine.  Men carry water to the sight of where pope Leo is, not toward the fire.  What shold be a mess of confusion and panic seems to be a scene of calmness and peace.
   This painting is known to have a lot of controversy.  What did Rafael really want to portray? Did he succeed? Is the fire meant to represent the city of Rome burning or is it meant to represent the fires of hell? All that is clear is the power of pope Leo's blessing over a desperate civilization.