Napoleon Visiting the Plague Victims at Jaffa
Antoine-Jean Gros, 1799
- Romantic subject, example of virtue
- One of many huge paintings, usually battle scenes
- Contrast in the lighting, light as standing/raising fro darkness/sickness/death. Napoleon bring the light? - Christ-like. Bringing healing/salvation
- Dramatising, Napoleon just off centre stage, being touched by divine light
- Propagandistic, able to heal the sick, stands out from others who cower and welch in disgust, opposite from the others, even in his stance.
- Used to legitimise the Napoleonic regime, like a God.
- ideas/inspiration from J.L David (teacher) ‘Napoleon Crossing the Alps’
- Interest in the Orient
The Stages of Life
Caspar David Friedrich, 1835
- Romantic
- Allegorical, 5 ships-poeple, 5 life stages. Each person corresponds to a ship.
- Landscape
- Ship in the middle, crucifix, Friendrich’s faith.
- 5 years before death
- naturalism and symbolism combined
- younger man modelled off nephew
- melancholic atmosphere, different from hopeful other paintings
- focus on the end of life, everything as one, everything has the sam end.
- heavy Christian themes, Ecclesiastes Ch9
Self-Portrait with a Model
E.L Kirchner c.1910
- German expressionism
- depicts himself in the studio, with a brush and mode, a typical subject for self portraits
- traditional composition to emphasise the contrast in the style
- emphasis on him as a painter
- position of brush possibly alluding to masculinity
- model much less important than the artist
- brushwork looks effortless but took a lot of work, years to complete
- model sexualised through her clothing too?
- colour, woman wears light blue and pink whereas Kirschner in bright oranges and blues
- one of the founders of Die Brucke group in Dresden (Bridge), essence of movement is youth, movement, liberation, authenticity, anti-conventional (Nietchze - Thus Spoke Zarathustra)
Arnolfini Portrait
Jan Van Eyck, 1434
- Giovanni Arnolfini was a prosperous Italian banker who settled in Bruges, him and hi wife Giovanna Cenami stand side by side in the bridal chamber
- deeply symbolic, many different interpretations of symbols
- oranges - original innocence/fruit before the fall in garden of eden, apples - temptation
- candle left burning - nupitial flame, maybe the eye of god, flame of gods love/presence
- reflection of light symbolic of the virgin concieving but remaining pure
- small dog - fidelity and love
- bed and red curtains - passion act of love, perfect christian union
- the mirror (important) can see van eyck (witnessing the act), encompasses the whole room, absorbing, stretching the limits of perspective for the time of painting
- oil painting becoming popular around this time, realism is on another level, a ‘living presence’
- artist suggesting that God may not be the only creator of beauty and perfection - realism
- read in relation to gender studiescontrast between right and left symbolic of gender differences?
- van eyck’s signature at the top stating I was here, like the all-seeing presence of God
- colour suggesting something? the purple (fire, sun, Jupiter) woman in blue/green (water, venus etc.) - marriag a harmonisation of the elements
- possibly a different Arnolfini, in this case the woman is now dead - remembrance
- commentary from Panofsky, Koster, Bedaux
Double Nude Portrait: The Artist and his Second Wife and Leg of Mutton.
Stanley Spencer, 1937
- very close perspective, interior, claustrophobic composition however still a sense of distance from the subject
- woman lies beside leg of mutton and pork chop, connotations of meat, consumption, perverse/personal sexual appetites
- not ‘romantically passionate’, or perhaps it is? seems very raw, dehumanising, just pieces of flesh
- second wife patricia, never consummated their marriage, spencer kept this painting under his bed but when discovered it was highly critically acclaimed
- known as a religious painter
- sexual alienation, fetishistic approach?
- spencer portrays patricia totally realistically, in her natural state. not romanticised
The Awakening Conscience
William Holman Hunt, 1853
- Lovers relaxing in Victorian boudoir, mistress/lover rising from males lap as she catches a glimpse of nature, which we can see reflected in the mirror behind her.
- moment of epiphany? suggestions of the tangle the woman’s life has gotten into since meeting this man, fallen glove, things on the floor untidily
- mirror symbolising the woman’s innocence, with the reflection in the foreground signifying there is still hope for her purity (Tate)
- cat devouring a bird symbolic of the woman’s plight?
- inspired by a verse from the proverbs
- model is hunt’s girlfriend Annie
- in a maison de convenance where lovers take their mistresses
- Hunt a founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood who wants to reform art by rejecting the mechanistic approach of Mannerists (artists after Raphael and Michelangelo acclaimed classical poses/attention to detail, history painting and mimesis as the rightful central focus of all art
- framed with small symbols such as the bells for warning; marigold for sorrow and star for spiritual revelation
- Ruskin praised for new direction in British art, created from artists’s imagination rather than reality.
The Garden of Earthly Delights, Right Panel: Hell
Hieronymous Bosch, c. 1495-1505
-3 tier depiction of hell, bottom full of bodies, lighter than the rest, confusing, busy with various scenes of torture, perspective and sizing all over the place
-middle tier, creature/man as focal point, souls falling, sodomy, figures smaller - some sort of perspective/depth?, disturbing and uncomfortable images
-top tier, more general idea of suffering, silhouetted buildings burning, souls fighting/suffering
-sartirical but serious (strange hybrid creatures)
-some sort of distorted version of sinful pleasure?
-deciphering the symbols etc. has been deemed extremely difficult for a long time
-pig in bottom right definitely sartirical
BELTING - everything is man made, a lot of contrast a night theme alongside many different themes, “pandamonium”
-Bosch was seen as a heretic/lunatic.
-Bosch a devout Christian and highly praised artist in his time.
Lamentation of Christ (Pieta)
Titian, 1575-76
- Potentially Titian’s last ever painting.
- Titian leaning in to see Christ? Almost blind, a self-portrait? About death, a self-reflective imagining of what it would be like to die?
- made to go over his own tomb
- a lot darker than all of Titian’s other paintings
Satan’s Court
c. 1470
- Manuscript illumination, takes up the whole page.
- 5 demonic figures, grotesques, main figure - Satan, fade in crotch, a scaley texture, serpentine, suggestion of eden?, tallens for feel, hybrid grotseque
- symmetrical/balanced with the two figures either side
- standing outside of a border, a gateway to hell/court/judgement?
- imposing and unforgiving, primitive but monstrous, all figures breathing fire
- hierarchical, main figure demanding authority of viewer
- Part of a large illuminated manuscript Livre de la Vigne, for the monastery
- Book of hours made for male monks (french), hell imagey, detailed depictions of what may happen to sinful people
- strong contrast with Heavenly Court, a MS showing heaven and hell
- Dante’s inferno big inspiration in depictions of hell
Scripture of the 10 Kings
9th-10th Century
- 14 illustrations
- buddhism mixture of indian and chinese cultures (indian, karma, samsara-cyclicality, rebirth etc. & chinese, bureaucracy, filial piety-respect parents, ancestor worship, continuity of dead/living)
- 5th ‘seven’ of the journey through the underworld
- King Yama - most important figure in underworld story, ruler
- the mirror of action, karma mirror, always knows the truth, reveals truth when victims are lying etc.
- also dizang and daoming, bodhisattvas (check notes)
- when daoming leaving he sees dizang but does not recognise him because he’s adorned with jewels, dizang offended and says this is how he should be depicted.
- lion another bodhisattva - Wenshu
- earliest scrool found in Dunhuang, Library Cave.
- Stages go in sevens, 7 days then 9 then 1 year then 3 years
- good/bad?, 2. cross river, good cross on bridge/bad swim (swift current) 3. begin to realise how long the journey is, see ferocious demon 4.balance of actions, scales weighing up good and bad, karma scale 5.king yama - face ruler of underworld
- gain merit through art and scrolls, can turn to ancestors to help you
- sinful wear wooden blocks on their heads/bodies
- painting done first, small space for writing
Peasant Wedding
Pieter Bruegel, 1566-7
- shows banquet after wedding, a display of gluttony?
- made for the upper class, never seen by peasants, created to elevate the buyer?
- comical aspect?, seemingly giving light to peasant traditions but superficial?
- laughing at the rowdiness of the peasants?
- looking into maybe what the upper calss are missing, the relaxed, fun nature of the scene, seen as unruly
- bride seen through crowd, as one and the same as the others but also framed by fabric, air of nobility.
Terrace at Sainte-Adresse
Claude Monet 1867
- father, aunt and 2 cousins with empty seat perhaps suggesting Monet’s distance from father
- plants, Dollylocks & Gladioly (red and yellow) first introduced in 1840’s, flowers crossed with each other to create new breeds, showing how up to date the family is
- family time as well as fashionable asset
- garden as stage, space with boundaries, the sun catching he gravel like stage lights, like another room in the house
- influence from public gardens, part of the ‘great horticultural movement’ - Europe importing plants fro exotic places
- garden as stage for social exchange and family down time and area to display new artifices
- flower symbolism used a lot in art
The Dinner Party
Judy Chicago, 1974-79
- multi-media installation
- recreating of the last supper from the point of view of the women who cooked the meals throughout history
- representing 39 guests of honour with individual symbolic china-painted porcelain plates, ceramic cutlery/chalice, a table runner embroidered (images and symbols relating to accomplishments) and napkin.
- triangular shape, the earliest sign for women, ancient symbol for goddess, equalised shape symbolic of equalised ideal world.
- wing 1, from beginning of time to the end of the classical period, wing 2, from beginning of christianity to the reformation and wing 3, from american revolution to the present.
- 13 seats on each wing as there were 13 disciples at the last supper
- flowers/butterfly motifs
- tiles beneath/in the middle of piece contain 999 women who all had an impact
- history of coded messages in needlework
- ends of corners in white silk needlework with ‘m’ symbol standing for milennium
- rise and fall to symbolise want for freedom and distance from this, for everyone not just women
- made of ‘low art’
Elefanten Karawane
Hugo Ball, june 23rd 1916
- cubist version of Shaman, doctors hat and cardboard tube
- actor became transported into trance-like state. Pandemonium, simultaneity of light, sound, visuals - pushing boundaries of chaos and anarchy
- performed in zurich
- Ball sets up Cabaret Voltaire which came as a whole new form of entertainment
- Tristan Tzara, manifesto of Dadaism, about presence of the performer and piece, works to be misunderstood and stand out in this way.
- introduction of ‘Lautgedicht’, sound poems, freedom from syntax, pushing boundaries of communication and understanding, comment on the political climate
- a sort of theatre version of gesamtkunstwerk, ‘synthethis of all the arts’
- reminded him of attending Catholic mass, where the string of words with no meaning were recited
- costume made from every day material, sort of parody of serious avant garde costimes of the time.
Maximus Caesar Coin
Emperor Valens c. 217-238 CE ‘Historia Augusta Maximi: duo, I’’ - Giovanni de Matociis
Matociis a historical writer, but created relaistic portraist of rulers with his artist
Bias: large initials used only for Christian Emperors
Possible mistake: added anomalous number which was mistaken for the Constantinople mint mark.
DN: Dominus Noster, our lord
-ink drawing of emperor valens
-portrait is exceptionally lively, very individualised
-large initials planned for Christian emperors only
Easter Island Figure, Hoa Hakananai’s (‘lost or stolen friend’), Moai (ancestor figure)
Rapanui (indigenous people) 1000-1200
- primitive/abstract
- depiction of god/ancestral worship
- made from basalt stone, relating to the bird man religion (tangata manu)
- made on rapa nui, one of the only fourteen moai made from basalt, the rest made from a softer volcanic tuff, people made around 887 moai.
- probably originally amongst other stone statues towards the ocean, looking over and protecting the island
- eyes carved and decorated with red stone or coral and statue painted in red and white designs (which was lost in transportation/travelling)
- ideas of ‘complex economy of powers’ and ‘embodied and objectified cultural capital’, a hierarchy of spirituality in which all of society functions and interacts (Shore & Bourdieu)
- relatively small, the largest 10 metres high, shows great achievements in the creation and transportation of these statues
- monolithic statue (formed wholly of stone), first come across in Polynesia
- difficult to interpret since majority of population decimated by European influence
- usually kept in local temple
- people would make sacrifices to statues
- embodiment of ancestral manna, making the numinous physically manifest (experiencing/interacting with the supernatural a physical manifestation)
- offered ‘first fruit’ in return for good harvest
Map of Tenochtitlan
1524 Hernan Cortes
- plan of city, the capital of Aztecs
- economy based on farming
- solve problem of over-population by creating highly fertile islands in the lake, by using manure and plants-Chinampas
- canals and causeways sown to connect the whole system
- organised to align with 4 cardinal directions, each with different colours and plants.
- 4 clans expelled from Astland, each clan responsible for planting/building Chinampas
- Each direction had a god, N-Tezcatlipoca, E-Quetzalcoatl, S-Huitxilopochtli, W-Xolotl, all part of Tezcatlipoca.
- All parallel manifestations of one another as well as brothers, the social/political linked to spiritual.
- Tenochtitlan is important, its was the primary settlement of the Aztec-Mexica empire/people.
- Conquered in three years (1518-21) by Hernan Cortes.
- Influences from Olmec, Teotihuacan, Maya, Mixtec, in the sense of builidngs, rituals, horticulture, divine rule, bureaucracy, maths, astronomy, parchment and paper
- ritual landscape, landscae frames the religious activities
- architectural cosmogram, architecture a depiction of the cosmos. Entities in the universe now as well as all that came before linked and encorporated.
- Transubstantiation, priest able to perfoem supernatural experiences within the ritual landscape, for example human sacrifice for Aztlan people.
James IV with a Hawk
Daniel mytens, 1620-1636
- James IV housed bird in four different locations across Scotland including Stirling Castle
- with the bird to show social identity and prestige, hunting ony for the nobles
- Falconry an expensive hobby
- passionate about elevating the Scottish crown, portraiture important in this task, a way of expressing power and individualising rulers.
- Wealth conveyed through red clothing and fur lined doublet.
- relationship between James and the hawk shows control, trust and loyalty, showing admirable qualities in a ruler/man
Portrait of Robert de Montesquiou
Giovanni Boldini, 1897
-full realist portrait of a dandy, highly fashionable in well-fitted silk suit, gloves and cane. Holding cane like a sceptre - royalty. Combed back hair, moustache, slightly feminine and sophisticated
-‘Aesthete’ - symbolist poet/art collector, known for being arrogant (Baudelarian), sociablem dabdy, highly intellectual etc. 1880-1900 period
Revealing the personality of the sitter, nonchalance, sophistication, aristocratic elegance. Modern portrait as it is not aiing for photographic realism but rather a blanding with the painters style and the sitters style.
-Huysman novel based on him, symbolic of the decadent attitude of the end of the 1800’s
-surrounds himself with luxury and suffers from neurasthenia, exhaustion of the nerves due to too much nerve depleting activites such as sex, smoking, drinking, gambling etc. Decides to vut himself off and surround himself with luxury, novel critiquing the withdrawal from the real world, elements of fantasy
