Introduction to Historical Art

I find artwork very interesting. My favorite kind of art is historical art, mainly because every piece of art has a meaning of history or of what is going on at the time of the era. Art is known as the expression of human creative skill and imagination. It is typically used in visual forms such as pictures, paintings, literature, dance, music, and sculptures, producing this; works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty and emotional power.

People make art out of everything that themselves or the world is going through. Every painting has an incredible story, message, or meaning behind it. An example would be the painting of ‘Mona Lisa’ by Leonardo da Vinci, although it is still a mystery about who exactly the real Mona Lisa could be.

A German researcher found a 500-year-old note by Leonardo da Vinci’s friend on the year of 2005 saying that the artist was working on a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo in October 1503, around the same time da Vinci was known to have completed the Mona Lisa.

But the case was not quite closed because in 2011 a team of researchers dug up a skeleton in the same place they believed Lisa Giocondo died in 1942. They even used the skull to reconstruct her face so they could compare it to the woman in the painting, but there was still no evidence if it was her. Until now this is still a mystery.

Another example would be by Vincent van Gogh, The Painter on the Road to Tarascon made in 1888. It is a painting, oil on canvas. It is an unusual self-portrait by Van Gogh and how he displays himself, as he himself wrote, ‘laden with boxes, props, and canvas on the sunny road to Tarascon” in southern France.

“Everyone who seeks self-knowledge like Van Gogh must take a journey through life following the wisdom of past sages, religious or secular.” This painting is reported as destroyed, It is believed to be lost in fire from the Allied bombings of Magdeburg during World War II. However, “the Monuments Men Foundation has it on its ‘Most Wanted: Works of Art’ list.

The Foundation is based on the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section of the Allied armies organized in World War II to preserve and recover art and cultural pieces threatened during the war. The foundation lists the painting as “missing from the Stassfurt salt mines art repository … on April 12, 1945.”

This next one will also be one that was lost during the world war II, Rembrandt van Rijn, An Angel with Titus’ Features. This masterpiece was stored in the French countryside before the Nazis took it with them to Paris in 1943. There, it was set aside to be installed in Hitler’s museum along with three hundred and thirty-two other artworks.

One hundred and sixty-two of those pieces were found since but no leads for this piece of art. There were so many great painting that got “lost” during the war, most of them were burned or destroyed in other ways so people could not see or uncover the truth about what was really going on at this time.

This was the main reason all of this artwork would go missing so by the Nazis’s, and no, not all would be destroyed a lot of them were also seized and sold. We also had what was called The ‘firebombing of Dresden’ which involved an estimated three thousand, nine hundred tons of bombs and incendiaries, killing nearly twenty- five thousand and destructing a lot of the city and its cultural objects.

“The Dresden Gallery was one of those that got hit, and while much of it had been stored away, there are works from the noted museum that were forever lost. Some of it was actually taken and relocated to the Soviet Union after the war and sometime along the way between its removal and its return an estimated two hundred and six paintings were destroyed and four hundred and fifty still remain missing.” The researchers say that “

The Schloss Immendorf castle in Austria contained thirteen paintings by Gustav Klimt when the retreating Nazis demolished it with explosives. They included his paintings for Vienna University and numerous works from between 1898 to 1917, all originally placed in the castle for safekeeping.”

I am very pleased to have to do an essay based on my favorite two subjects in Art and History. I hope that this has taught you a little about art and the history behind it. No matter where or what you do these to subjects of history and art will always be around you. Everywhere you go there is art and behind that art, there is something meaningful behind it, which means there is also a history and a story to go with it. And that just makes it so much more interesting and worth it.