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Provides overview of principles of art, sculpture, and architecture, methods of analysis, and basics of composition.
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Art and Its History
Why Study the Subject?
Art in Context: The Humanities
Art belongs to the field
It provides the context for the other humanities from a visual perspective
We may know the about the Iliad from Homer’s epic poems
But we can’t identify with the Battle of Troy without images (upper left)
Or their heroes like Achilles (lower left)
Humanities
The Study of the Human Condition
What is the human condition?
We remember the past
We imagine the future
We have emotions
We can reason
We know we will die
Taxonomy: We are Homo sapiens
We are the only human species worldwide
We can think
We can communicate using language
We can make and manipulate object
So we can paint, write, perform
We are bipedal
What Goes into Humanities? Language
Language is the backbone of the humanitiesCuneiform (left) was invented in the Near East. Classical Languages are key to understanding the Greeks and the RomansLatin was used by medieval churchmenWritten language (poetry, novels, drama)No language, no humanities
What Goes Into Humanities: History
Humanities appeals to the pastTraditionally, scholars have to know their classical historySystematic study of the families, societies and the great men (sometimes women)Today, history is more of a social science with a dimension of timeSantayana: “Who ignores the past is doomed to repeat it.”Faulkner: “The past is never dead: it isn’t even past.”
What Goes Into Humanities: Classics
Western Societies: The Greeks and the RomansThe philosophers: Plato (the ideal form) and Aristotle (empirical observation)The Playwrights: Sophocles, Virgil, Horace the satirist.Homer, the epic poetMesopotamia: the epic of Gilgamesh, killing the Bull of HeavenEgypt: The Book of the Dead (Last Judgment)China: Confucius; Lao Tzu on the TaoTibet: Its own Book of the Dead (karma)
What Goes Into Humanities: Law
Law comprise rules the govern human behaviorFound where there are states:The power holders make them; The police and army enforce themLaw is also based on philosophy;Values generate lawThis relief embodies law:Hammurabi the Lawgiver on the U.S. Supreme Court
What Goes into Humanities: Religion I
Concerns the supernatural: Things and events beyond the five senses Goes back to the Neolithic and beyond to animismHalf the world’s religions began with the patriarch AbrahamWho formed the root of Judaism, Christianity, and IslamThis symbology, too, is art
What Goes into Humanities: Religion II
Many are derived from the East with the doctrine of samsara (illusion), karma (consequences of past acts), and nirvana (liberation from samsara): Hinduism and Buddhism
Includes the question: where do we go after we die—the fundamental question of mortality
Including—what else—The Judgment (left)
What Goes into Humanities: Philosophy
Philosophy means “Love of Knowledge.”It asks who we are, what and how we knowThe Greeks, especially Plato and Aristotle, founded and developed philosophyAbove: Scene at the Lyceum, school begun by Aristotle
What goes into Humanities: The Visual Arts
SculptureGreek and Roman sculpture of the human formDrawings, from sketches to hatching to use of pastels (upper left, Escher’s Drawing Hands)Paintings, involving the application of a pigment within a medium and binder (glue) on a surface:(lower left Mona Lisa by Da Vinci)
Music is the interpretation of sound combined into melody and harmony
(Such as the nine symphonies of Beethoven, above)
Drama: the imitation of life on stage
(Below: Shakespeare included many historical re-enactments on stage—
Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Othello)
Both composer and dramatist portrayed in artists’ conceptions
What Goes into Humanities: Performing Arts I
What Goes into Humanities
Dance: An expression of human movement on stage performance
Such as this ballet scene from Swan Lake
Or sometimes in a spiritual setting
Such as the Whirling Dervishes of the Sufis founded by Rumi
In a reaction against Muslim worldliness
What is Art For?
We have seen ways that art fits into the humanities
But is there arts for art’s sake
The answer: it depends
Sometimes art can be very useful for that which is not art
Records of an Unwritten Past
Upper Paleolithic ThemesAnimals, such as the caves of Lascaux, depict concerns of huntingWomen, depict erotic themes or themes of fertility Left to right: Venuses of Dolni Vestonice, Czech Rep.; Willendorf, Austria, and Lespugne France, Required much inference
Archaeology Plays a Major Role
Archaeological Dating techniques:Stratigraphy: identifying relative age by comparing layersThe lower the layer, the older its contentsSeriation: identifying relative age by art styles, such as potteryAbsolute dating: dendrochronology, radiocarbon dating, others
Art as Window of Human Thought and Emotion
One can reconstruct thought and emotionVan Gogh’s self-portrait gives some cluesIs it a self-portrait he’s painting?Clues: colors on palate, intense orange in center (color of beard), and name (Visconti) and date (’88)
Art Refers to Three Types: Painting, Sculpture
Paintings: two-dimensional images of people or things or events
Derived from Latin: pingo, “I paint.”
Sculptures: three-dimensional images of people, things, or events
Derived from Latin sculpere, “to carve”
Both concern images (Latin imago or “likeness”)
And Architecture
Architecture “High (archi) buiding (tecture)
Classic example: Parthenon dedicated to Athena,
Goddess of wisdom and war
Art Methodologies: Formalism
Formalism: “Art for Art’s sake”
Emphasis: Ideal of beauty (Plato) or of texture
Variation: modern art Bird by Brancusi
Or Furry Cup by Oppenheim
Both satirical formalism in reverse
Art Methodologies: Iconography
Art for content’s sake
Example: Bruegel’s Tower of Babel
Visualizes God’s fear that men would reach heaven by this ziggurat (temple designed as tower)
Cloud heightens this tension
Iconology: Group of Works
Definition: Rationale behind or interpretation of a group of works.
Program refers to this group
In Chartres Cathedral, the structure and its contents form a system of subjects within it
This will be illustrated in the context of Medieval architecture
Art Methodologies: Marxism
The method applies class analysis to artistic interpretationEmphasizes role of class exploitation in artAgain, Bruegel’s Tower portrays builders as Proletarian, God as bourgeoisieNebuchadnezzar as ruler—straw boss
Art Methodologies: Feminism
History of art is history of patriarchy
Female artists not represented before the 1970
Most nude themes are of women, starting with Willendorf Venus
Fur-covered cup is by a woman, Meret Oppenheim
Cup emphasizes domesticity
Art Methodologies: Autobiography and Biography
Self-portraits are dominant; Van Gogh or Albrecht Dürer (ca 1515)Sometimes family members are portrayed (Whistler’s Mother)Examples of biographical portraits are infinite: check your dollar bills of any denomination
Other Methodologies
Semiology: The study of signs
Structuralism: Binary opposites based on linguistics (Levi-Strauss)
Deconstruction: Reconstruction of meaning from symbols (text)
Psychoanalysis: Especially derived from Freud and the Oedipus complex
Techniques of Art: Composition
Overall plan or structure of artRelationship between the component parts is emphasized.Emphasizes the arrangement of the formal elementsComposition is distinct from content, theme, or subject matterIt comprises plane, balance, line, shape, color, and textureRefer to pp. 18-24 of Adams text for illustrations of these principles
Plane
Plane: a flat surface direction in space
Picture plane: all paintings are on a flat surface: stone wall to canvas
Plane of relief: surface of a relief sculpture in which an image is raised from a flat surface—stone or masonry
Balance
There is some equilibrium in the image
Symmetry (bilateral symmetry): exact correspondence on either side of image (Taj Mahal, upper left)
Asymmetrical balance; an equilibrium between two sides that are different (God as Architect, lower left)
Lines: Straight Lines
Shortest distance between two points
Vertical: “Stands at attention”
Horizontal: Lies down
Diagonal: Falling over
Zigzag: Aggressive quality
Wavy and cured line; more like a human body
Line: Interpretations
Parallel lines are harmonious
Perpendicular, converging, and intersecting lines: sense of force and counterforce
Thick lines: aggressive, forceful
Thin lines: delicate, even weak
Undulating lines: calmness, as a calm sea
Irregular wave imply choppiness, unsteadiness
Lines: Expressive Qualities
Straight line: implied a sense of purpose—but also rigidity
Circle and curves imply facial expression: upward curves signal happiness, downward implies sadness
Calder’s Cat combines lines with image
Shape
Regular shapes are geometric and have namesExamples: square, circle, rectangle, oval, triangle, trapezoid, polygon Irregular shapes are biomorphic, or shaped like life itselfAssociations: square implied solidity, reliability—and overconservatismCircle is considered a divine shape
Open versus Closed Shape
Open shape implies openness to new ideas or new content
Closed shape implies shutting off new influences or ideas
Navajo: Sand paintings never close a circle and always includes an imperfection: only the divine is perfect
Shape and Dimensionality
Portraying three dimensions on a flat surface
Example: hatching or cross-hatching create an illusion of mass or volume
Shading: gradual transition from light to dark
Light and Color
The physics: color is produced by different wavelengths striking the retina of the eye (left)
These vary from white to a spectrum to black
Projecting white light through a prism breaks it down to its constituent hues (right)
Color Wheel: Primary and Secondary Colors
Definition: Colors that cannot be produced by mixing any other colors
Red, yellow, and blue are the primary colors
Secondary Colors: Colors created by combination of two primary colors
Green: yellow and green
Orange: yellow and red
Purple: blue and red
Color Wheel: Tertiary Colors
Tertiary color mixes a primary with a secondary colorA color wheel places the primary colors equidistant among the colorsComplementary colors are those with the greatest contrast among the pairsValue: relative brightness or darknessIntensity (Saturation): relative brightness or dullness
Expressive Qualities of Color
Bright or warm colors convey feelings of gaiety or happiness: these are red, orange, and yellowCool colors: blue, green-blue, green, since they convey the quality of water or skyThey often convey sadness or pessimismSymbolic significance: Red: danger, extravagant welcome, exciting eventGreen: envy; yellow: cowardice; purple: rage
Texture
Quality of surface
Actual surface: Oppenheim’s furry cup
Mary’s Crown in Virgin in a Church, is simulated
Conclusion
There are three media of art: visual media, sculpture, and architecture
Art may be regarded as a quality in itself
It may also represent a content, a person, or a theme that is not art in and of itself
Methods vary in analyzing art
Techniques serve to evoke a particular emotion or value