The Annotated Mona Lisa: Pages 116 - 117

Question 1

Cezanne

Answer 1

• Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)
• exhibited with Impressionists and tutored in open-air painting, he was alien to them
• instead of imitating reality as it appeared in the eye, he penetrate to its underlying geometry

Question 2

Mont Sainte-Victoire

Answer 2

• Cezanne portrayed the scene like a geodesic pyramid, defining surface appearance through colored planes
• technique was to portray visual reality refracted into a mosaic of multiple facets

Question 3

Still Lifes

Answer 3

• he was nicknamed “Flowers and Fruit”

- set up fruit contrasting tones one against another, making complementaries vibrate

Question 4

Nudes

Answer 4

• did not work from live models
• worked in isolation till the day he died
• he liberated art from reproducing reality by reducing reality to its basic components