Jan Van Eyck's Arnolfini Wedding

We are also shown how these different forms of art change over time and how different cultures have adopted them and used them as their own form of art to express emotion, love, creativity, and passion. This book teaches us how art is viewed in different ways by the church and was very informative for me to obtain a better and deeper understanding of art and how the churches valued it.

One of the most celebrated paintings in the Robert Lehman Collection, this jewel-like representation of the Annunciation is set in an architectural interior constructed according to a rigorous system of one-point perspective. The panel was almost certainly commissioned as a private devotional image, not as part of a larger structure. While the identity of the patron is not known, the work was in the famed Barberini collection in Rome in the seventeenth century.

John Szarkowski is an American photographer and curator, whose opinions on a photograph’s narrative and direction are highly valued. In his time he analyzed many works of art, and produced many different interpretations, one being the ideals of mirrors and windows.

There are two particular paintings currently on display at The Museum of the Fine Arts, Houston that are so similar in appearance and content, but their intentions and purposes differ dramatically. These two paintings, both relating to the virgin and the child, are the Master of the Straus Madonna’s Virgin and Child (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston), dated c. 1395-1400, and created much later, Antoniazzo Romano’s Virgin and Child with Donor (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston), dated c. 1430-1512. Within a hundred years, these two artists, as well as many others, developed pieces of grandeur that have been the subject of speculation and analyzation to this day. Why? Because of their nuances that make them traditional in their own isolated ways. Whether

“The Ghent Altarpiece” by Jan Van Eyck, is a piece of art worth writing about. The subject matter of this work of art is God enthroned with golden jewelry, fine clothing, and just basically surrounded by gold and is even sitting on a golden throne. I think the content is quite simple. I think Van Eyck is trying to say that God is a ruler that deeply values worldly things. This contradicts the belief that God is an advocate for self-sacrifice and humbleness.

The couple's outfits are thick and even have fur, although the painting suggests that it is spring or summer, due to the amount of sunlight entering from the window and the fresh oranges (most oranges are harvest during the spring). The furniture and the drapery is impressive, and the oranges themselves are rare and are therefore a symbol of wealth. The painting also illustrates the relationship between the two subjects through various objects. The painting suggests that the subjects are married. There is a dog in between the couple, which represents loyalty. Both characters have rings on their ring fingers, which suggests that they are both married. Also, the painting shows that both characters have removed their shoes, which implies that they are standing on holy ground, such as Moses was when speaking to god through a burning bush in the bible. The reason they are on holy ground is because a holy ceremony has taken place, that is, a wedding. Notice the characters' body language is composed of the dominant husband and the submissive wife. There is also various references to the newlywed couple's intentions of starting a family. Not only does the wife's attire exaggerate her belly, making her seem as if she were pregnant, but behind here there is a statue of Saint Margaret, the saint of childbirth and fertility. When the individual objects of this painting are viewed as a whole, the message becomes clear. Jan van

All is Vanity is a drawing by Charles Allan Gilbert. At first it appears to depict a skull. However, upon further inspection, it is revealed that the ‘eyes’ of the skull are merely a woman’s dark-haired head and its reflection. The ‘nose’ is really the reflection of some drapes or curtains that have been pulled back. A collection of bottles on the vanity in the picture make up the ‘teeth’ of the skull. And the ‘jawbone’ is really a cloth draped over the vanity. The top of the skull itself is the shape of the mirror. So in truth, the subject matter of this painting is a woman sitting at a vanity, in portrait orientation. This work is especially unique because it contains the qualities of an optical illusion; you see two different images (the skull and the woman) in one picture.

Besides allegorical interpretations, some scholars have pointed to naturalism as the prime window through which this work should be viewed. This view sees van Eyck as attempting to depict the scene completely naturally, or in all of its total, unembellished glory. For example, Carrier quotes Ludwig Baldass as saying of the mirror behind the couple: “The convex diminishing mirror is there in order that the whole of the room may be seen Convex mirrors are always round, for which reason the roundness in this case is not to be interpreted as a symbol of the world. Stated in another way, the mirror is there to show everyone the entirety of the event, including the witnesses, leaving no allegorical description necessary. The same naturalism

The photograph symbolizes the effects of expectations can have on a person by examining the features of the character. The focus of the image is on the ballerina whose position is uncomfortable, and stressed from the hunch which portrays escapism. She is hunched over, beginning to step into the other side where there is a world with no precision. As a dancer, she wants to get away from the expectations of perfection that a ballerina has, and the innocence shown in her white dress. Her attire is a white luminated dress that signifies, “mental clarity, promoting feelings of fresh beginnings and renewal, clearing obstacles and clutter, and encouraging the purification of thoughts and actions” that represents her want of freedom from expectations (Bourn, Web). The placement, and space of the ballerina is closer towards the left where the distorted mirror is brightly highlighted than the darker side. This is used to provide insights into what is important in the image, which is her desire to be set free, and to escape to a whole different world. As seen in the image, the concentration of the light aimed at the

The Madonna: a picturesque representation of Judeo-Christian ideology’s mother Mary and her young prophetical child, an infant Christ – an innocent and thus, oppressive trope of renaissance art that echoes throughout art history as subject matter for masters from Byzantine proto-renaissance, mannerist, and baroque, to contemporary artists alike. The Madonna was, just like nearly everything with religious epithets, a means of influencing followers. Being no exception, the Madonna represents something sinister. Despite the lamb-wool-white façade incumbent to its subject, the subjugation of women through assigning their role as conclusively maternal and depriving them of their sexuality. The Madonna facilitates the mentality that women are merely complementary means to men that are solely meant to execute the role of maternal figures. Two grossly contrasting works accentuate a critical contemporary perspective on the evolution of feminine roles from early Christian ideologies. Jan Van Eyck’s 1436 painting, Lucca Madonna, and Catherine Opie’s 2004 photograph, Self-Portrait Nursing, exercise formal elements to criticize the sociocultural value of women from early 15th century Europe from a contemporary view. Although created nearly 600 years apart, both works are weighty representations of the climate surrounding their society’s perspective on femininity and reduce it to a trite set of visual stereotypes: namely, a primary culprit of contemporary gender inequality that is the

The story of Cupid and Psyche is one of the most popular classical myths that painters used as a subject in their painting. The beauty of the story is that it encompasses the journey of true love, while also incorporating a metaphysical allegory of Psyche as a human soul (Bulfinch). Like painters of the Renaissance, I, too, was captivated by this subject and was especially intrigued by the painting. This painting by Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée is unique as it shows the same subject and event as other paintings, yet it has a slightly different title. Instead of the oft-used title, Cupid and Psyche, Lagrenée called his painting Amor and Psyche. Lagrenée centered the painting on Psyche, depicting the moment when she first fell in love with Amor.

The present work is focused on undertaking an in-depth analysis of two famous religious paintings: The Virgin and Child by Barnaba da Modena, an Italian painter from the fourteenth century, and The Elevation of the Cross by Peter Paul Rubens, a seventeenth century Flemish artist and diplomat. Following, by comparison, a thorough account of the two works' features, careful observation reveals more than one interpretation.

In this beautiful composition by Jan van Eyck my eye goes straight to the pregnant woman and then my eyes wonder all through out the room. This painting was done in orthogonal perspective, using this technique makes the painting come to life inside the room. This painting has lots of symbols that represent Italy during that time. The pregnant women is gently holding her husbands hand and also holding her pregnant stomach. She looks very sad and worried about her future with her husband. The husband looks wealthy, confident and noble. His big black hat represents a higher level of social class. The couples clothing represent a wealthy and comfortable life style. The small dog, shoes on the floor mirror with their reflection, fruit next to

When one thinks of art and religion, one may think of gender role defiance and non-conformism. While this may be generally true in present times, it was not always this way. Women and men have had distinctly different places in society, these places often being unequal. Generally most well-known works throughout the ages have adhered to and represented what society regarded as the proper gender roles for men and women. This is represented in three works of art which will be discussed: Hamlet by William Shakespeare, The Courtier: Book 3 by Baldassare Castiglione, and Luncheon on the Grass by Eduoard Manet. While these three forms of art come from different times and are of different mediums, they are connected in that they follow and represent the gender roles of their time.

In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Stephen Dedalus defines beauty and the artist's comprehension of his/her own art. Stephen uses his esthetic theory with theories borrowed from St. Thomas Aquinas and Plato. The discourse can be broken down into three main sections: 1) A definitions of beauty and art. 2) The apprehension and qualifications of beauty. 3) The artist's view of his/her own work. I will explain how the first two sections of his esthetic theory relate to Stephen. Furthermore, I will argue that in the last section, Joyce is speaking of Stephen Dedalus and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man as his art.