Transcript
Page 1: Understanding paintings

Understanding paintings

Krishnan, GTC Talk

Page 2: Understanding paintings

Seeing vs Looking

• Easy access to great paintings today– Greeting cards– Internet

• Seeing involves opening your eyes• Looking involves opening your mind and

taxing your intellect• Look, don’t just see !

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Six guidelines for looking at paintings

• Subject – Sometimes historical or mythological figures• Techniques – Use of oil paints, frescos• Symbolism – Many paintings use language of symbolism

and allegory that was understood by the artists and audiences of the time

• Space and light – Artists mastery in creating space and light• Historical Style – Each historical period had a style –

Renaissance to Modern times• Personal Interpretation – What you see with your

knowledge of history, symbolism and techniques

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Bacchus and AriadneSubject

Each painting has specific subject with meaningful messageSubjects could be mythological figures

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The Arnolfini marriageBy Jan Van EyckKnown for mastery in oil paint

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The supper at EmmausRecognizable objects stand for abstract ideas and concepts

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Las MeninasAll artists have to create an illusion of space and light in different ways

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What creates a masterpiece

• Virtuosity – Skills + knowledge and imagination

• Innovation – Rewriting the existing rules – Giotto and Picasso

• Patronage – Catholic church and Royal coursts• Artistic vision – Michelangelo’s ceiling

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Frescoes

• Fresco is a technique of mural painting

• Executed upon freshly laid lime plaster

• Water is used as vehicle for the pigment

• With setting of the plaster, painting becomes part of the wall

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Page 11: Understanding paintings

The annunciation

• By Guido de Pietro at the Fra Angelico Altarpiece• Things to look for– A closed garden – symbolizing Mary’s purity– Classical architecture – slender corinthian columns– Archangel Gabriel – Youthful, energetic– Halo around Mary– Handmaiden of God – verses upside down (so God could

read them)– Gothic style of Mary’s chair– Holy spirit – dove as the symbol

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Giotto: The adoration of the magi

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The adoration of the Magi

• Painted at the Arena chapel c. 1304-1306 by Giotto de Bondone (1267-1337)

• Things to look for– People’s position and character – The country lad

in ill-fitting clothes– Kneeling king Caspar – sign of humility– Mountainous scenery– Shooting star – Giotto had seen a comet

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Adoration - Hieronymous Bosch

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The Deposition

• By Roger van der Weyden• Look for– The similarities in posture of Mary (with blue robe) and

Christ– The plain clothes on the left and royal clothes on the

right offset one less person on the right– Bracketing by people on the side focuses attention on

Christ and Mary– The skull symbolises Adam (Christ was crucified at spot

where Adam was buried, one signifying fall and the other the rise)

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Page 18: Understanding paintings

A dance to the music of time

• Painting by Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)• Four allegorical figures: Pleasure, wealth,

industry and poverty• Look for– Circular motion of dance in a triangle– Permanence and transcience – Statue of two

faced Janus with flowers– Poverty and wealth holding hands

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Page 20: Understanding paintings

The oath of the Horatii

• By Jacques Louis David (1748-1825)• War between Roman Horatii and Alba Coratii• Theme of heroism and civic virtue, painted

before the French revolution• Look for– Strong profiles of soldiers, gentle curves of the sisters– Child pushing grandmothers hand to look at the

swords– Austere columns signifying masculinity and military

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Page 22: Understanding paintings

The experiment with the air pump

• By Joseph Wright• Things to look for

– The experiment: Will the bird survive if oxygen is pumped out – in a home setting – typical of 18th century

– The lovers: not attentive to the experiment– The scientist: looks of a magician– The person with the clock: Timing the experiment– The girls reassured by their father– The boy – not sure if the cage should be lowered/needed– The philosopher – pondering the consequences– The moon: Sign of enlightenment

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Page 24: Understanding paintings

The Hay Wain

• By John Constable• Quintessential English painting, painted in

Suffolk, green countryside• Things to look for– Washerwoman in front of cottage– Dog drawing attention– Cooling the horses– Clouds and the pattern of light

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The awakening conscience

• By William Holman Hunt• Look for– Depiction of luxurious items in the girls house– Nostalgic song – Oft in the silly night – about a

woman reflecting on her childhood innocence– Cat and bird – Reflecting that salvation is possible

for the woman– Discarded glove – The woman’s fate if she does

not mend her ways

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The vanities of life

• By Harmen SteenWyck• Shell represents wealth• Chronometer represents finite time, the sword

(a symbol of power) reminds power is powerless before death

• Reminded of vanities of love (shawm) and knowledge (book)

• Extinguished lamp depicts life may end anytime

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Impressionist paintings

• No story to tell or moral to communicate– Common ordinary

subject matter• Had pre-mixed colors in

metal tubes, earlier artist had to mix the colors himself

• Renoir – Girl with a hoop

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Autumn effect at Argentuil

• By Claude Monet• Look for– Rainbow palette– Bold brushstrokes at the bottom, finer with

distance– Reflected images– Rippling of the wind on the right

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The bedroom at Arles

• By Vincent Van Gogh, 1888• Color is everything, can suggest emotion

regardless of the subject• Unsophisticated and authentic• Look for– Thick brushstrokes– Violet walls in harmony with green windows and

contrast with yellow beds/chairs– Portraits of Van Gogh and his sister on the wall

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Le Grande Jatte

• By Georges Seurat• Technique of divisionism – instead of mixing

colors, put them separately and let the eye mix it

• Look for– Boating on the Seine and Woman fishing– Mixing of the classes– Perspective scheme – Woman with umbrella

larger – supposed to be seen at 45 degrees

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A bar at the Folies-Bergere

• By Eduardo Manet• Set in a Paris night club• Look for– Mirror– Inaccurate reflections depicting difference in time

between subject and reflection– Difference in drinks (champagne and beer)

depicting different classes of society

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Guernica - Picasso

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Guernica

• Painted during Spanish civil war• Look out for– Bull depicting brutality– Woman with dead child– Severed head– Horse– Woman with hands up raised to protect from

bombs

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WikiPaintings site

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Smart History project

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Thank You


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