I have chosen a famous oil on canvas painting: Venus and Cupid by Lorenzo Lotto made around the fifteenth and sixteenth century during the Italian Renaissance period. Overall, this piece is extremely intriguing to me, I cannot imagine how the artist created it with such detail and precision. Overall, this painting has this happy and positive mood, but it is also makes me curious as to what this painting is about. It also gives me this feeling to smile for Cupid and Venus in the painting, rather than with them, as there faces are conveyed as being happy together. Its colors similarly, just like the overall painting, has this beautiful bright and cheery color that seem to suit Venus and Cupid well.
The artistic creation is a fine and massive French Nineteenth Century Oil on Canvas painting that has been done within a baroque gild woodcut casing, delineating Jupiter (a god) and there is also an image of a bull with tends to show the winning conviction of Europa. Europa, on the other hand, is seen to wrap the horns of the bull with a crown of flowery branches and mounts the bull who is seen to take her off to the waters. The painting demonstrates Europa kidnapped as the lady of the hour. Around: Paris, Mid 1800's. The first, which measures more than 9 feet wide, is currently in the Dallas Museum of Art.
The Greek period, ca. 900-30 BCE, was famous for its developed ideals of human beauty, the concept of ideal heroic male nudes and what they depict, and progression from symbolic works to naturalism. Using the discussion of the following artworks, the (Anavysos)Kouros, the Kritios Boy and the Spear Bearer (Doryphoros), I will discuss their symbolic and naturalistic characteristics.
La Primavera is set in a grove, with fruit trees and many types of flowers blooming on the ground. The figure in the center is that of an elongated woman, her head tilted to the viewer’s left and her right hand held up as if she is indicating something on that side. Her gaze comes out of the painting, as if to entreat the viewer to step into the scene. Her form divides the space into two sides. The greenery around her creates a circular shape. Given the subject matter of Botticelli’s other paintings in this collection and the other figures represented, the woman is interpreted to be Venus. At the top of this circle, the figure of a blindfolded male toddler with wings has notched an arrow from the quiver on his back and points it to the left of the painting. His position over Venus and possession of the bow designates him to be Eros, the son of Venus. Following the point of the arrow and the right arm of Venus, there are three dancing women, draped in wispy white with their fingers interlaced. These figures are the Three Graces, identifiable by the way they connect with each other and their dance – in mythology, the Graces
Jusepe de Ribera’s The Five Senses: Touch (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston) of 1615-16, in its simplest description, is characterized as a man with closed eyes; sitting in a dark room, behind a table with a painting on top; and holding the head of a sculpture in his hands. Contrasts between light and shadow cut through the simple images and draw viewers into this painting, as the artist explores relationships between sight and touch. Within the painting, Jusepe de Ribera included the image of another painting, along with part of a sculpture, which appears to reference Classical Antiquity. These images give the viewer an opportunity to consider different forms of art and the relationship between art and the artist. The Five Senses: Touch employs the use of tenebrism and a dramatic theme to capture the interest of the viewer. In this paper, I will describe the formal characteristics of this work, focusing on
The topic of my final paper will be about the famous Venus de Milo and how two contemporary artists have responded to the artwork’s notoriety. Since the Venus de Milo is considered a symbol of female beauty, I would like to unpack how the sculpture achieved that recognition in the 19th and early 20th century. The methodologies I will use include giving a historical account of the object’s history (focusing primarily on French nationalism and the Europe’s hunger for collecting classical Greek sculptures in the 19th century) while using the work of Arman and Mary Duffy to discuss the issues that arise when describing the Venus de Milo as an objectively beautiful piece of artwork. For the former approach, I would write about Winckelmann’s adoration
Script: This painting of Paul Cezanne illustrates the unusual relation between a woman and the swan from “Leda and the swan”. Unlike many other portraits or sculptures, this painting does not intend to show sexual intercourse. Also, the background is not indicated the actual location. However, one common thing found in the painting is Leda’s face expression. According to the story that she was bound by Zeus’ spell, Paul Cezanne expressed her to be half-minded.
While Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s sculpture “Apollo and Daphne” depicts a Romanian story of forbidden love, Ron Mueck’s “Two Women” portray two elderly women hyper-realistically. By analysing the meaning behind the two sculptures, evidence is given that the two artists had different intentions for their work. The story “Apollo and Daphne” is from a roman poem named “Metamorphoses” by a man named Ovid. In the story, Apollo is hit by a magical arrow from a god of
The picture symbolizes the aftermath of incestuous actions. Venus is evidently present at the center of the painting, recognizable by the golden apple in her left hand from the Greek myth The Judgement of Paris. A robust adolescent male figure with wings can be seen entwined with her. It is her son, Cupid. The undeniable sexuality of their embrace has long been debated over as scandalous behavior. Rather than channeling the act of incest in itself, Bronzino exploits these two as symbols for the personification of male and female sexuality. Whichever case it may be, the erotic narrative of the painting becomes instantly clear. Venus, determined to get Cupid’s arrow submits to dire endeavors when Cupid refuses and tries to distract him by seducing him while she takes the arrow from him. Venus and Cupid are painted
The fixation is set on her in the center of the painting due to the triangle of light used to create a focal point for the viewer. Surrounding her on both sides are the linear equivelants of past and future. From the left we see her creators helping her along with strength and the force of the wind. To the right we see her handmaiden ready to usher her into the world, where she will be clothed and no longer represent innocence. Both exhibit two very different forms of love and caring to Venus.
To begin, the main figures in this piece are Europa, a mythological nymph, and Jupiter, the chief god who transformed himself into a white bull and kidnapped her. We know who the main figures are due to everyone looking at their direction and the number of details that make Europa and Jupiter stand out. Such details include the flower crown around the bull and the excess of fabric wrapping and flowing around Europa. As a viewer, it can be noted that this piece is composed of various flanking figures that range from notable sea deities to flying Cupids. Above Europa, we see a wind god blow air in her direction. Additionally, on the far right, a woman sits on a shell throne with a man wielding a trident whispering at her side. Overall, the figures refrain from assisting Europa on her kidnapping and prefer to remain on the sidelines.
The article also acknowledges how the sculpture is a unique find in art especially in terms of how well the sculpture has been preserved and how the damage to the sculpture were minimal as compared to other similar discovered Venus sculptures. Arenas acknowledges how there are also numerous interpretations and explanations on how the arms of the Venus de Milo actually look like or what they are actually doing. The article also presents sultrier take on Venus de Milo, seeing her in all her seductive glory. Through the eyes of Arenas, there is more human, yet otherworldly perspective of Venus de Milo, one which matches romanticized women in mythology. Arenas also envisions the sculpture in relation to feminine charm and how it and the sculpture represents a severed phallus come to life. This represents social and carnal anxiety as well as longing, potency and also impotence.
Throughout history, specifically in ancient Rome and Greece, people admired painting to the point where it was taught to every son of respectable families, yet forbidden to the slaves. This goes to show how this form of art in particular was considered fit only to those of high social class. Although it was reserved for the educated and cultured, painting attracted everyone and pleased them equally. In particular, “[n]ature herself delights in painting.”(Alberti 64) Alberti persists in showing us how painting is of nature; he first references nature by saying that Narcissus was the inventor of painting. In the myth of Narcissus, nature plays the role of the artist who paints a portrait so beautiful that Narcissus cannot take his eyes off of it. To further convince the reader of the pleasures painting gives, the author recounts a personal anecdote of how gratifying and relaxing painting can be.
The sculpture Apollo and Daphne, created by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, is based off a story from Book 1 of Ovid's Metamorphoses. It is a portrayal of when Daphne is turned into a tree when trying to escape Apollo after they were both shot with an arrow by Eros. The sculpture is a powerful visual of Daphne and Apollo’s emotions as Daphne was captured by him. To evaluate the photo further I will discuss the feeling of empathy the sculpture made me feel and two connections the sculpture has to Ovid’s story.
The visual work I have chosen is the Bith of Venus and is one of the world’s most famous works of art. Painted by Sandro Botticelli between 1482 and 1485, it is the first example of painting on canvas. The written work I have chosen is the Stanze per la Giostra. It was written by Angelo Poliziano, written between 1475-8. Both works are examples from the Italian Renaissance era, during the Medici rule, and share the theme of beauty and humanism. The works I've selected share the same subject matter, Venus, and is the perfect example of beauty and humanism. She is the epitome of beauty and her birth from the sea is an example of her metamorphosis of humanism. For this paper, I will compare both works then discuss how the shared theme is seen in contemporary works. How does Venus and her beautiful metamorphosis fit into contemporary forms of beauty and humanism?