Wk 9: Rembrandt

The Night Watch 1642 by Rembrandt 12'2" x 17'7" Rijksmuseum

The painting is of a captain and his crew.  The man in the center is the captain and the center of attention.  This man is meant to catch the viewer's eye.  Next to him you see a man dressed in cream colors.  He is a rank lower than the captain and is always by his side like you see in the movies.  In his hand he has a weapon and he is talking to the captain.  The man to the left of them is also holding a weapon.  He is holding a gun and appears to be preparing for a battle.  In the background you see a little girl dressed in bright colors.  She has a fearful look on her face.  Rembrandt dressed her in cream also to show the viewer the fear.  Behind the captain you can see men getting read for battle and holding their flags high for pride.  There is a man holding a drum which could mean that he is about to play the drums to battle. 

Rembrandt learned to paint this style through Pieter Lastman.  This is where he learned the powerful contrasts of light and dark.  Rembrandt refused to do what was popular.  He would paint the only way he could, the way he wanted it done.  He uses a lot of red, black, brown, and cream.  Not a lot of bright colors are used in this artwork, but there is just enough so that it still catches the eye.  Rembrandt used his skills very well.  He knew exactly how much color he should and should not use.  That is what makes this painting so famous.

The tonal balance now works even better, in particular the way in which Banning Cocq in his dark suit is flanked by the two lightly coloured figures of the little girl with the chicken at her waist and Lt. Willem van Ruytenburch.

Title: "The Night Watch" Restored
Author: Unknown
Source: The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 118, No. 884 (Nov., 1976), pp. 731+781

Wk 8: Giovanni Bellini

Madonna Adoring the Sleeping Child 1460's by Giovanni Bellini 28 1/2 x 18 1/4 in. Met Museum

This portrait is of a woman watching over a sleeping child.  The child is naked but the woman is fully clothed.  She has long, flowing sheet-like material drapped over her head and shoulders.  Her hands are in front of her chest and are loosly touching.  Her face seems to have a look of worry and fear for the child.  It appears that while the baby sleeps, she watches over him and prays for him.  In the background you see houses, roads and trees through an arched window.  The sky is a soft, calming color that is almost the same shade as the woman's cloak.  The baby is resting it's head on a dark brown pillow that catches the eye.  "Madonna" has a peach color dress underneath and it is seems like it should represent how reserved she is.  The lines have a verticle manner to them that have your attention mainly on the woman but with the contrasting color of the pillow it also draws your attention to the baby. 

Bellini was considered to be the one who revolutionized Venetian paintings.  He was the first to use oil paintings to create such color and detail that no one else could.  Giovanni had a strong sense of christianity in most of his paintings.  He was a very religious man.  His color scheme changed over time.  First it was sunrise colors with lots of gold and yellow in them, and then the colors tamed down to more calm and relaxing colors.  The themes of them also changed.  It started out as romantic paintings and then it shifted to the "Dead Christ" type of paintings.  Many artists stick to the same topics but Giovanni was different.  You don't change the world by being like everyone else.

Giovanni Bellini, who appeared continually to deny is own nature, whose talent was constantly increasing in scope and who worked on an infinite number of levels, has provided us with one of the most profound lessons of history and, at the same time, ethics: we see him as a sort of Proustian Elstir of Quattrocento painting.

Title:  The Giovanni Bellini Exhibition
Author:  Roberto Longhi
Source:  The Burlington Magazine

Wk 7: British Museum

Basalt Door-Jamb 880 B.C. 100 cm x 55 cm x 40 cm British Museum

This door jamb came from Neo-Hittite city of Carchemish. It has different shapes all over the top half of it while the bottom half is plain.  The interesting thing about it is that there is no noticeable repetition.  There are five different levels of decoration on it.  There are tools, birds, crops, and many other symbals that appear on this door.  The decorators of this piece must have thought these items were special and had a certain importance.  In the past, the sculptors would paint of things they either saw or were very meaningful to them.  The texture is very rough and the stone appears to be chiselled.  The lines and shapes within this structure are very parallel.  There is a lot of space between the different objects that makes the object appear very open and almost larger.  This door-jamb seems to have a lot of balance and is relatively proportionate.  The different levels could almost be seen as line breaks and the objects could be relevant to a visual/objective language.

The Hittite's carved different things in to structures.  I believe that the things they would sculpt were the things the felt were important to their culture.  Some of the objects on this door-jamb are just every day things like tools and animals.  The simple things that the Hittite show great appreciation for are the things that most people don't truly look at today.  We have grown so used to seeing these things that we forget the importance of them and how to appreciate them. 

Wk 6:

Rock Paintings 5000 B.C.E. in Tassili n'Ajjer, Algeria

This rock painting is of a group of women and cattle.  The women appear to be talking amongst themselves and just relaxing.  The cattle seem to be grazing food on the ground.  The faces of the women and cattle do not have the features of a normal face.  The women seem to have large calves and thighs with a skinny torso and arms.  The cattle, on the other hand, are large and look like they have strong muscles.  The cattle are a red/orange color while the women are black.  The arms of the women are all straight and have no curves like their legs and butt.  The bodies are all about the same length and size.  The cattle are two completely different styles though.  One cow is small with straight legs and a bowing head.  The other cow is jumping and kicking in the air.

The artists didn't know that what they were creating was art and that it would be famous thousands of years later.  They had a certain way of painting different objects.  Men and women have basically the same shape to them.  Long, skinny torsos, long, build legs, and tiny arms.  The cattle all took the same shape but sometimes were different sizes to emphasize the strength and necessity of the animal.  I think that they the way they painted their pictures are very neat and precise. 

Wk 5: Auguste Rodin

The Fallen Caryatid 1891 by Auguste Rodin 17 1/2" ARTIC

In this sculpture you feel the pain and sorrow that is being depicted.  The woman is a representation of the women of Karyai who were sculpted holding up buildings in the place of pillars.  This Karyai has fallen and she is weak.  The rock is supported only by her shoulder which is being held up with all the strength she has left.  She is sitting on the ground with her body as tightly compact as possible to help ease the weight of the stone.  Her neck is tilted to the side to emphasize that she can no longer hold the boulder on her head.  The only free hand she has is gripped around her opposite arm, fingers clenched, trying to help support the strength thats left in her arm.  Between her hand and the rock is a cloth that helps protect her hand.  The color is a very dark broze that makes you feel sympathy for the woman.  The texture is smooth around the womans body but rough around the stone.  You can almost feel the sense of unity with this piece of artwork.

I think the purpose of this piece was to show how women keep prevailing no matter how much weight is on their shoulders.  The woman may appear to be tired but she will never give up until the end.  Women have been criticized for not being able to hold the work load that men can and I think this sculpture represents how men keep holding it over our heads until we have nothing left.  No one can do everything on their own no matter how hard they try.  Eventually we will all fall down without a little help.  I think this piece did a very good job of representing a woman's determination.  It shows the hardships women still go through in today's society.

Rodin seems to have relished the unpredictability of this process and the manner in which it dissolves three-dimensional forms into vaporous near-abstractions that recall the work of his friend Carriere

Title:  In Rodin's Studio: A photographic record of sculpture in the making
Author:  John Tancock
Source:  The Burlington Magazine, pp. 45-46