Painting

Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1610) was more than the greatest sculptor of the Baroque period. He was also an architect, painter, playwright, composer and theater designer. A brilliant wit and caricaturist, he wrote comedies and operas when not carving marbles as easily as clay. More than any other artist, with his public foundations, religious art, and designs for St. Peter’s, he left his mark on the face of Rome (Strickland and Boswell, 1992). “The Ecstasy of St. Theresa” and “Apollo and Daphne” are evidences of Bernini’s outstanding skills.

Bernini’s marble sculpture, “The Ecstasy of St. Theresa”, represented the saint swooning on a cloud with an expression of mingled ecstasy and exhaustion on her face. Since the Counter Reformation Church stressed the value of its members reliving Christ’s passion, Bernini tried to induce an intense religious experience in worshipers (Strickland and Boswell, 1992). On the other hand, few works in the history of sculpture are more admired for the sheer skill of their carving than Bernini’s “Apollo and Daphne”.

Bernini began the “Apollo and “Daphne” in 1622 and had largely completed it by 1624, the last year of his employment with Cardinal Scipione Borghese. The “Apollo and Daphne” has come to stand as the perfect antithesis to the modernist principle of “truth to materials”, the ultimate illustration of the artist defying his medium’s very nature (Sofaer, 2007). For both works, Bernini used all the resources of operatic stagecraft, creating a total artistic environment (Strickland and Boswell, 1992). Being able to observe Bernini’s extraordinary skills in art is a truly noteworthy and significant experience.

Just watching his works through the video made me feel the ecstasy, the pursuit and the love contained within those works. Somehow, it makes me want to sculpt a masterpiece of my own, reflecting my own skill and my own knowledge. Michaelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio’s (1571-1610) genius resided in his ability to overlay one principle upon another, to cross aesthetic boundaries seamlessly while seldom calling attention to the means by which he did so. Moreover, even when he was painting the human figure, Caravaggio was a still-life painter at heart.

Caravaggio’s “Basket of Fruit” has been dated by modern scholars to the years 1593 to 1600, with most placing it closer to the end than the beginning of the first phase of his career. If indeed datable to the moment of his emergence as a public painter in the Contarelli Chapel, the little picture was not one of the realistic depictions of “flowers and fruit”. Coming at a critical juncture in his professional career, one can imagine the “Basket of Fruit” serving as a polemical expression of his ideas on the nature of creativity itself.

In this work, he blended the lowly method of Ligozzi’s mimetic and didactic illustrations with higher-minded emulations of ancient literary and visual sources, prompted perhaps by his awareness of the current fashion for Northern still-life painting among collectors like Del Monte himself (Varriano, 2006). In the first Roman years, Caravaggio was isolated. He was rushed to hospital for a malaria attack, as witnessed in the famous self-portrait “Sick Bacchus” in the Galleria Borghese (Pomella, 2004). The “Sick Bacchus” is a meditation on the theme of “love’s sting”, that is, on the woes of love gone awry.

During the Baroque, the awareness of point of view led, for the first time in Western history, to something which can be considered today as self-reflection, a self-consciousness of the human individual (Bal, 1999). Studying “The Incredulity of Saint Thomas’, also known as “Doubting Thomas”, it may come as no surprise to learn that Caravaggio failed to win the commission to paint a resurrection for the Jesuits. By the time he had completed this painting, Caravaggio’s notion of a “religious” image had already worried Counter-Reformation churchmen.

His reputation for painting in a style which has neither sacred, nor profane, but a hybrid of the two, had attracted uneasy commentary among potential ecclesiastical patrons. In this respect, the “Incredulity of St. Thomas” might almost be read as gauntlet thrown in the face of counter-reformation orthodoxy. This works is an evidence for Caravaggio’s decision to explore the central mystery of the Christian faith, the incarnation and the resurrection, with what might, tendentiously, be termed an almost Protestant literal-mindedness (Porter, 1997).

To be able to understand the personality of Caravaggio through his works, as observed from the video, is an unforgettable occurrence for me. It had shown me that sometimes, there are certain things which artists have to do that defies the society and still, defines them as a whole individual or as a skilled artist. It also made me understand that most of the time, the paintings or artworks do not simply show particular sceneries or another model, but reflects the skills, personality and visions of the creator itself. References Bal, M. (1999). Quoting Caravaggio: Contemporary Art, Preposterous History.

Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Pomella, A. (2004). Caravaggio: Art Courses. ATS Italia Editrice. Porter, R. (1997). Rewriting the Self: Histories from the Renaissance to the Present. New York: Routledge. Sofaer, J. (2007). Material Identities. Australia: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Strickland, C. and J. Boswell. (1992). The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-modern. Missouri: Andrews McMeel Publishing. Varriano, J. (2006). Caravaggio: The Art of Realism. Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press.

– Code’s and conventions essay The tracker (sic) is an Australian art house film that represents Australia’s history through the stereotypical associations of the 5 men: the tracker, The Fanatic, The Veteran, The Follower and The Fugitive. Rolf DeHeer’s film uses a broad range of feature film conventions, which help represent the Indigenous culture, in both a negative and positive lines of light. Traditional values of Indigenous culture dictate the culture as both un-knowledge and uncivilised with no right to power.

While the colonist culture was viewed as a civilised society, which could control the actions of others, but as times progressed the Indigenous culture was given more right to power and is now viewed as an equal to the European society by the minority of the country. Indigenous Australians were highly regarded to as the lower class citizens of Australia’s settlement, because their values and views were different to the Europeans as they could not read and write in English, but through time many aspects of the culture have grown in values of knowledge, language and rituals.

These changes are represented through the film in varying scenes and chapters. The film is said to represent not individuals, but the whole of society (this is represented by the use of historical, metonymic characters). In a close up shot of the tracker’s hand, holding a mixture of bush tucker represents the idea of the knowledge the traditional Indigenous culture actually held. The close up shot of the tracker’s hand filled with flowers, bugs and insects intertwined with the native bushes of South Australia reinforces the knowledge of the Indigenous culture.

It represents the idea of the tracker being a strong, wise individual with the knowledge and persistence to create an anaesthetic to drug the follower at a safe level, causing no harm. The need to keep the follower uninvolved in the murder of the fanatic, illustrates the tracker as a cultural character as he doesn’t want to be defined as ‘the villain’. In society this relates to an individual’s desire to be loved by other members of society and their acts to be viewed as ‘heroic’ and positive.

As the film progresses, the men travel through the bush further away from civilisation and further away from the colonist power. As they travel toward their destination acts of betrayal, knowledge and connection to the land are displayed. In a shot the tracker is seen in the foreground, with the 2 remaining European men behind on horseback. The tracker walked at a steady, loping pace leading the way. His eyes only left the ground to search the surrounding cliffs of the bush filled gullies around him.

The tracker comes to a stop after noticing the damp soil of where a rock once stood. To the tracker this was enough evidence to estimate how far ahead the fugitive was. In the dialogue of the shot the follower is heard questioning the wisdom of the tracker as he claims that he is leading the fanatic and the follower, but after explanation the follower is proven wrong and says ‘sorry’ to the tracker. The shot represents the cultural desire for an apology from the European culture to the Indigenous people, for the manslaughter, acts of violence, mockery and the stolen generation.

At this point in the film the progression of the power change is seen immensely as all hope is brought back into the trackers face. The director has used the soundtrack ‘all men walk the path they choose’ to dictate the importance of being an individual and standing up for what is right. The diagetic soundtrack is an important piece in the film, as it contrasts all the metonymic characters together. As a counterpoint to the stereotypical role is the powerful song ‘all men choose the path they walk’.

The song is is lyrically appropriate, which underscores the rhythm of the men’s walking pace as they walk/ride and each man has a featured verse that dictates their mood’s and feelings towards their journey. Apart from the soundtrack the director has used many appropriate patterns of progression to illustrate the growth of the character throughs; lose of power, removal of uniform, the chain, the separation at camps and the paintings symbolizing acts of violence, these are just some of the more obvious codes and conventions used within the film.

Throughout the film the tracker is seen removing his uniform, at first his hat is thrown off into the bush after leaving the colonial civilisation, his shirt and shoes are also removed after the fanatic has lost his power, and by the end of the movie the tracker is seen getting up on horseback. These shots represent the idea of the loss of colonial power within the group. Traditional values wouldn’t accept the idea of the fanatic being over powered and the tracker being wiser then a white man.

Within the film there are countless acts of violence portrayed towards the Indigenous Australians. Out of respect oil paintings were produce to display the massacres and torture. Peter Coad was commissioned to paint 14 landscape and figurative works of art for inclusion in the film. The paintings were used ingeniously to display violence in the film, a method that works to both soften the impact of the actions, and also make them so much more powerful.

The works are portrayed beautifully into the landscape of the film, using dramatic and bold colour to depict the shocking and harsh nature of the Australian bush land. The director has used codes and conventions to accurately place the tracker as an Indigenous man that undoubtedly combines the best of both cultures, in his sense of what is appropriate. The characters that were capable of changed have done so while the others have perished in their journey. In today’s society the chicken twisties factory sell most of their products to penguins. _____ By Jaime Martens

Description In Pietro Lorenzetti’s triptych, Birth of the Virgin, the artist’s gift for pictorial illusionism is clearly evident. The painting is 6’1’‘X5’11’’ in dimensions and painted with tempera on wood. Lorenzetti enhances the illusion by using various vertical lines as well as painting a column through one of the figures. This creates an illusion of extended space within the painting. Lorenzetti uses shades of red, brown, green, black and blue. The clothing of the figures are darker in shade compared to the background of the scene which is painted in tints of yellow and white.

The contrast each other very well and draws more attention to the subject of the painting, Saint Anne. The strong contrast between the light and dark colors of the painting create a three dimensional illusion. Lorenzetti uses the tints of white and yellow to contrast the the wardrobe and appearance of the figures. The artist also used extensive shading on the wardrobe and curtains to add a three dimensional appearance to the painting. Lorenzetti was successful in creating depth within his painting for it shows the room as three dimensional rather that two dimensional.

Overall, the colors truly create a sense of drama within this painting. The subject of the triptych, St. Anne, is in a reclining posture. There are three scenes within this painting. First, we see the child informing Joachim on the birth of his daughter. We also see women bringing gifts to the new mother. Lastly, the midwives attend to and wash the new child. The painting has two triangular aspects in this painting with St. Anne at its highest point and also the dome at the top of the triptych as another high point.

Prehistoric man faced many challenges. For example, they had no means of communication and yet they had to work together to find and kill their own food. When making art, prehistoric man had to make their own paint brushes and create their paint. This makes prehistoric art so impressive because their paintings very accurately capture the proportions and look of the animals they drew. Prehistoric paintings are found in ceilings and high walls of caves which would have required resistor’s man to make some sort of ladder to reach these areas.

A last reason the art is so impressive is because they were able to symbolize important aspects of their life in artwork that still survives until today. 2. The images of people in prehistoric art are so unrealistic while animals are well observed because the animals were more important to them. In their lifestyle, animals served as a source of food and kept them alive; humans did not serve as something necessary to stay alive. Some theories formed to explain this are that resistor’s man thought they would find the animal they drew, also known as sympathetic magic.

It is also thought that prehistoric man believed a well drawn image of an animal would capture the soul of the animal. An example of the contrast between animal and man is shown in a pictograph depicting a group of men hunting a herd of deer. While the deer are perfectly detailed and proportioned, the hunters are stretched and seem boneless making them look extremely unrealistic. 3. The Venus of Wildflower is a small statue made from limestone in prehistoric times.

Certain body parts, such as the breasts, stomach, thighs, and butt, are grotesquely exaggerated. She has no arms and no face. The Venus of Wildflower looks like this because those parts of the body would be necessary for survival in tough times. If they could not find food to hunt then they would need to have stored fat previously to use during the time of famine. Prehistoric man exaggerated the areas that he responded to. For example, seagull chicks respond to a yellow stick with one red stripe on because it looks like a seagull chicks mother’s beak.

When shown a yellow stick with three stripes on it they react more vigorously because the red stripe is necessary for survival for chicks. When the chicks hatch they respond to the red stripe and go to it to receive food. Without having this response the seagull chicks will die after hatching. Similarly, specific areas on the Venus are exaggerated because prehistoric man responded to the specific areas that would aid their fight for survival. For instance, the stomach and thighs are exaggerated because having fat