The Magdalen With The Smoking Flame Summary

Then there are also many psychological lines to be seen in the work. One such line is of the woman and the floor, where she is staring down towards it. Another is from the young child and the store clerk, showing a defiance between the two. Next, light and value are not very contrasting in this painting, with only the basic highlights and the shadows seen. It isn’t completely contrasting or contradicting since the colors blend well together with close to the same value ranges, dark colors seen throughout except for the people’s pale faces. There also seems to be a variety of light sources since the woman’s face along with the shop clerk and the young boy’s is lit up by what seems to be a light bulb since they’re much brighter and highlighted and then the men and women in the back aren’t really as bright, except for the ones who close to the open door, creating a blue tinge from the outside light. The shapes shown through the painting is shown to be either very round or very geometrical. There are organic shapes in things such as the umbrella or even the back of the chair, but mostly it is either straight lines and geometrical shapes. The volume shown in the painting is very much implied, correctly showing the

The focal point of the painting is the woman with infant. This is shown by the lighting in the painting being directly on her, the bright red that she is wearing, and the circling of the putti around her figure along with the majority of their gazes being directed at her. The bright light directly behind her and the infant could possibly be coming from the sun behind the clouds in the sky, the putti to her upper right holding the torch, or it could be symbolic in that it is the infant’s halo and representative of his divine nature. The overall piece is not overly dark but the lighting seems to be most focused on the woman, infant, her other children, and the flying putti. This is an example of tenebrism.

The painting that I chose to write my formal analysis on is called “The Café Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, At Night”. This piece was created by Vincent Van Gogh in Arles, France and was completed sometime in September of 1888. This painting is oil on canvas, and it is currently housed in the Kroller-Muller Museum located in Otterlo, The Netherlands in Europe.

As the name suggests the skull instantly draws the eye, the hollow face of the skull is in the center of the oil on wood painting. The skull extends to the right where one sees an empty glass on its side resting at an angle to the skull. The glass is reflecting light along its curve but does not give one an actual reflection. Beneath both the skull and glass is a book and a sheaf of papers in a portfolio. The book’s binding is brown and the pages are yellowing, whereas the papers in the moss green portfolio are a contrasting white. The presence of paper fits with the other object in the title the writing quill, whose feather rests on the book and sheaf. The head of the quill points to the right of the painting where it rests on an overturned ink well. In the background of this painting smoke is rising off a recently extinguished oil lamp, partially in

     When I look at the texture of the painting, I do get a true sense of a wood floor, a wooden bed frame and a piece of fabric hanging from a nail. I think he might have used different techniques for creating various textures in the room. I think the floorboards are of multiple layers of paint, as to create the tones of the wood. I think that the bed frame, however, is just a single layer of paint, almost thin in nature. The texture of the glass in the window gives you a sense that there is an actual surface to the glass. His use of texture gives me a sense that I can walk right into this room.

It is almost a reflection of the man’s trident. That same pitchfork shape also appears in the window of the house that sits in between both figure’s heads. Repetition can also be seen in the dotted pattern of the woman’s outfit, which also appears in the material of the curtain that hangs in the house’s window. The echo of verticals in this painting is also strong. The faces and bodies of the figures seem to be stretched, and narrowed. The pitchfork’s slender prongs and the green stripes on the man’s shirt also add to the elongation of their frame. The copious amounts of vertical wood boards that make up the house and the barn, keep the viewer’s eye moving up and down the picture plane. Wood’s use of verticality in this painting is overwhelming.

This is just one of the paintings by Eugène Delacroix that model the Romantic era. The fire and the still way Rebecca lies offers a

The painting is organized simply. The background of the painting is painted in an Impressionist style. The blurring of edges, however, starkly

The texture of the painting itself is probably rough. The artist makes no great attempt at conveying implied texture to the viewer. It seems as though implying texture may detract from the overall attitude of the piece. Altogether texture doesn’t play a huge role in this work of art.

Ilan Stavans says that Juan Rulfo’s book, The Plain in Flames, is best represented by the phrase realismo crudo. Stavans defines this phrase as “a type of realism interested in the rawness of life”, meaning that he characterizes Rulfo’s writing as an unfiltered view into the lives of the average Mexican (Stavans, xi). By writing in this style, Rulfo is able to provide “an image—instead of just a description—of our landscape” as stated by Octavio Paz (xv). To create this image, Rulfo broke his story writing the process down into three separate steps. As paraphrased by Ilan Stavans, the first step “is to create a character”, the second step “is to place him in an environment where he might move around” and the third step “is to discover how the character expresses himself” (xiii). Rulfo was able to repeatedly crafted stories that were filled with high levels of realismo crudo by using that special three-step process. By creating his protagonist, crafting an environment for said protagonist, and allowing the character to express themselves within this environment, Rulfo crafted a three-tier image of post-revolutionary life in Mexico that has never been seen before.

I believe, as do others, Judith and the Maidservant with the head of Holofernes is perhaps homage to her rape and subsequent treatment during her adolescent years. Her painting`s inspiration also plays tribute to the biblical story of Judith, who sleeps with the King Holofernes and than decapitates the drunk King in his sleep. Both Judith and the maidservant are now dominate in the painting over the dead male, they are quiet, unobtrusive and tense. A single candle burns within the dark room creating stark contrast between light and dark. The artist`s great skill can be seen in the bright highlighted details of Judith's hand and in the folds of clothing of the two. Depth and dark core detail can also be seen in the dark and reflective shadow areas within the room. Judith's hand covers the candlelight as she peers at the outside world, perhaps in an attempt to help in

“Rhythmic waves, high dunes, ancient maritime forests, historic landmarks and glimpses of wildlife—Fire Island has been a special place for diverse plants, animals and people for centuries”

Next is the use of color, or lack thereof. The colors in the background are very quiet and muted, mostly subdued blues and grays with hints of a deep red and brownish yellow peeking though. The colors used for the figure are browns and tans, almost as if the was painted with mud, like she is all-natural and from the earth. The range of colors would seem to have a cool tone if you were looking at them on a painter’s palette but the arrangement of color on the canvas gives the piece a warm feeling.

The skull is a symbolizes of tension, sadness and obviously death. It pops up again and again before actually being a sculpture. Demoiselle D'avignon 1907 is the start of cubism in which Picasso painting the skull on one of the subjects head. Next came the Skill and Pitcher and Leeks and after World War II, Death’s Head. The first painting described of Skull and Pitcher I thought of it as a standoff happening between the two, then when skull turns around to the pitcher, the skull develop like arms that were choking the pitcher. When the painting can be seen in color there brings that even a different type of emotion it. Skull and pitcher has vibrant warm colors but personally I feel the skull has dull cool colors to it. The light source is pure white which is dividing the table and separating the subjects. The use of warm colors, I feel, is a distraction to what the paintings is trying message

This major innovation that Georges adds to his Caravaggio inspired paintings would be showing the light source of the painting to the viewer, and putting the light source directly in the center of the piece. In his painting, Mary Magdalen with the Smoking Flame, Georges’ goal was to create a calm, reflective state of a follower of Christ. This painting shows Mary Magdalen, a repentive prostitute, putting aside her jewels and rich clothing to meditate on mortality while looking into a flickering flame. Georges creates subtle hints of religious meaning through items throughout the painting. The skull sitting in her lap refers to morality and the vanity of human life, the books of scripture refer to her following of Christ, and the scourge refers to the pain and suffering that Mary may have been experiencing in the past or during her