Essay on Wright's "The Orrery"

What first catches the viewer 's eyes are the vivid colors used in the painting. Ultimately what jumps out the most is the man on the right 's red robe. The artist intended this for a reason, discussed later. The room where the men are standing is front lit. Also the atmosphere is

Red appears to dominate the painting and serves as an eye-catching color. The use of intensely saturated colors draws the attention to the front couple. Additionally, the red color plays with the mind of the onlooker without them thinking about it. It suggests deep passion, anger, and struggle. The artist intends to relay his feelings about the event to the viewer. His outlook consists of disgust towards the great depression that leaves many taken advantage of due to desperation.

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.

Concerning color, there is a stark contrast between the figure on the painting and the background. More specifically, the figure of the woman is predominantly delineated in white color, especially pale, ashen white, as far her apparel and facial complexion are concerned, while there are also various hues of grey, with respect to her hair and accessory feather. These white and grey shades are vividly contrasted with the prevailing red and crimson hues of the background (viz. the drape, armchair, and table). Moreover, one can detect colors of dark green (jewelry), some beige on the left (pillar), and darker or lighter shades of blue on the right side of the canvas (sky), which all in concert and in addition to the subtle purple hue forming the sun or moon exude a certain dramatic sentiment. Also, there is brown, which often easily segues into gold (viz. books and attire details respectively). The main contrast of colors between white and red would be interpreted as serving the purpose of rendering the figure of the woman, and especially her face, the focal point of the work, despite, paradoxically enough, the lush red shades at the background. Bearing that in mind, the significance of the woman’s face will be enlarged upon later, when discussing aspects of her identity.

“Man of All Work” by Richard Wright takes place in the 1950’s in the rural south right before the events of the Civil Rights Movement that further shaped America for all races. We follow one man named Carl who takes his wife’s name and clothing for a day to interview for a domestic job meant for woman for the Fairchild family. This short story further displays the difficult race relations in the South during this time, as well as the lack of respect that the whites had for African Americans. Through the Fairchilds’ oblivion of Lucy’s true gender in ‘Man of All Work”, Wright demonstrates the lack of compassion had by the White Supremacists toward African-Americans via a lack of observation of characteristics and through their lack of

The Man Who Was Almost a Man is a fictitious short story about an uneducated black boy's quest to become a man. Growing up in the early 1900's was a very hard task for most black people. The lack of education was one of the hardest hills they had to overcome to

starts school, which he begins at a later age than other boys because his mother

It is a famous example of Renaissance art showing portraiture, realism, and some perspective. In this painting there are four distinct characters. Each has a different expression that shows how they are feeling. There is also more detail in the faces then in any other parts of the painting. Another technique it demonstrates is heightened realism. Whereas before the Renaissance the figures may have been painted simply and in only enough detail to get the general idea across, these figures are shown more realistically. Lastly there is the technique of perspective as shown in the background of the painting. The sea stretches out into the sky and the land in the background is shown how it would look if the viewer was actually

"Whenever I thought of the essential bleakness of black life in America, I knew that Negroes had never been allowed to catch the full spirit of Western civilization, that they lived somehow in it but not of it. And when I brooded upon the cultural barrenness of black life, I wondered if clean, positive tenderness, love, honor, loyalty, and the capacity to remember were native with man. I asked myself if these human qualities were not fostered, won, struggled and suffered for, preserved in ritual from one generation to another." This passage written in Black Boy, the autobiography of Richard Wright shows the disadvantages of Black people in the 1930's. A man of many words, Richard Wrights is the father of the modern

One of Frank Lloyd Wright’s first periods was his work with Louis Sullivan, from whom he learn a lot as his draftsman and apprentice. He worked under Sullivan supervision until 1893, when he opened his own office in Oak Park. What is interesting is that Wright was

The shapes of the figures are sharply defined and the objects such as the table, book, and string instruments. There are diagonal rhythms throughout the painting in which it creates movement. The light source in the upper left allows the source light to have a more natural appearance throughout the painting. The shadows at the right-hand corner and the men wearing green in the middle contrast the main object with the most sources of lighting. The objects shadows and lighting create dimension and a vivid sense of more contrast. There are areas in the making with more contrast and the sharp contrast that creates movement in the painting. The shadows and the lighting throughout the painting show gradations and the highlights create more depth. Staring from the upper-left hand corner with the first figure of a gentleman wearing a hue of blue and yellow, the left side of his face and garment shows the source light in right above him. The source light above the

"The House of the Seven Gables" is a romantic novel set in a grand and rustic, old house with seven

Frank Lloyd Wright was a Nature lover and an architect. He reflected on the natural world and applied existing styles to his architecture. He was born in Wisconsin, on June 8, 1867, and died in Phoenix, Arizona, on April 9, 1959, at the age of 91. His architectural career spanned two centuries and lasted for 70 years. During the last year of his life he authored a book and was working on 166 different commissions; when asked about when he would slow down, he replied when the ideas stop coming to him.

This painting is divided into three equal parts by the arches in the background and the characters correspond to each of these arches (TV12). The father is in the middle portion of the painting. The lines of perspective created by the tiled floor, draws our attention to the swords that the father is holding and the vanishing point lies just behind the handles of the sword. Our angle of vision is such that we are looking directly at the main figures groups, particularly the father. A single light source from the left of the picture illuminates the characters and also focuses our attention to the father holding the sword. This creates a ‘theatrical’ effect. The background is simple and stark so our attention is focussed on the figure groups in the painting. The painting has a wide tonal range that makes the composition logical and balanced. The colours used in this

In Richard Wright’s Native Son, Bigger Thomas attempts to gain power over his environment through violence whenever he is in a position to do so.