In the following essay I’m going to compare and contrast two 17th century artworks – “Las Meninas” by Diego Velazquez (1656) and “The Allegory of Painting” by Johannes Vermeer. Paintings depict artists working on a portrait, however, in Velasquez’s work the viewer is the person who is being painted and in Vermeer’s the viewer is just an observer of the artistic process. The only reason the observer knows that he is the center object of the future fictional painting is in the mirror on the back wall. The couple in the reflection is King Philip IV and his wife, Mariana. (Foucault, 8).…
Most people stopped doing religious drawings to having their minds flow and creating one’s unique work. As a result, portraits and landscapes from around 1300s to the modern time had become more realistic than before 1300s with the help of increasing individualism in the…
The Path Between The Seas was written by David McCullough in the year 1977. This book has the privilege of being the winner of the national book award in history. The book was published by Simon & Schuster Paperbacks. The book opens with the United States showing a great interest in a navigable connection between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.…
Throughout history art has been a major aspect of human civilization. Over time art has evolved and shifted from different eras and civilizations. For my report, I chose to visit the Timken Museum, in Balboa Park, where I saw the View of Volterra by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. The scene in Camille Corot’s the View of Volterra depicts a distant view of the town of Volterra. In the scene we see a lush countryside, with a man on a horse who appears to be talking to someone sitting, in the shade of a tree, besides the trail leading up to the town sitting in the background.…
Shamanism is a front running hypothesis and is associated with magico-religious expression through the form of cave art. However, it’s a highly contentious subject with some people fiercely opposing this theory and branding its advocates as ‘shamaniacs’. Perhaps the contention lies with “the loose use of labels and names such as shamanism that has led to some of the confusion” (Taçon, 2006). Often shamanism has been used to rationalize almost everything in a way that suggests it was “shamans and their initiates that were the main or even exclusive producers of rock art” (Taçon, 2006). Even though shamanism has been a long standing theory for cave art interpretations, it has only been taken seriously in the scientific field within the last two decades, and is based on ethnographic data linked to San rock art in Southern Africa.…
1. Whitley uses the phrase of "graphic clarity" to describe the way that artists would display their master pieces. Whitely states that the artist creating this type of art had to be confident and precise with the lines they were making in order for the art to last around fourteen thousand years. An example of this type of "graphic clarity" art would be similar to the bison painted in the Lascaux cave located in France. The paintings are detailed in a way they seem to teach a lesson, but archeologist do not know the exact story of why the artists illustrated art in this form or the reason why they were created.…
Considering his arguments, however, it is not so difficult to, at the very least, comprehend the surface of his somewhat radical views on the dangers of the arts. It does not accurately reflect reality, which in turn can create a false image of the truth, spread by the individual who perceives it in that way. He argues that although we do get enjoyment from art, art in excess can change our own behaviours for the worse. In the end, art can only ever depict outward appearances to the ignorant observer, and that, in itself, is very dangerous…
The ancient art from chapter 17 that I feel comes in close comparison to my ethnicity is “Venus of Willendorf”. The images “pear shape” reminds me of a sense of femininity, strength, and a woman’s figure whom might be pregnant. I’m of African American decent and currently 6 months pregnant. My curves and body is very similar to the woman in this image. As weeks and months pass my own figure becomes more pear shaped and plump.…
Paintings have been used as a representation of people since human race originated. Through time it has become very lifelike and realistic due to the advancement in materials and techniques used by some talented artists. This paper discusses two types of paintings through their similarities and differences, as the first one being David’s Oath of the Horatii, 1784. Oil on canvas, 10’ 10” * 13’ 11”. And, Goya’s The Third of May 1808, 1814.…
At its core, art is a universal language that communicates ideas, beliefs, and emotions and transcends many barriers in the world. Furthermore, each person is influenced by their environment and therefore artwork is both a product and a producer of culture. And through visual representation alone, art has the power to convey information on the history, practices, and values of one’s civilization. Therefore, examining the historical significance of artwork can shed light on the culture of civilizations from the past, such as the culture of the Minoans and Vikings. Beginning with the fresco of bull leaping, it is clear that the Minoan civilization valued bull leaping as a sport and it significantly played a role in the Minoan’s culture.…
An artist must encompass every characteristic, if not, then the artist is no more an artist than myself. Throughout my life, I have had an innumerable amount of ideas; however, I do not have the skill, ability, devotion, and passion necessary to express those ideas through art, therefore I am not nor will I ever be an artist. For these reasons, I believe it is essential that an artist craft their work without the use of…
Percy Shelly the author of the sonnet Ozymandias, is an infamous poet known for his many politically radical poems denunciating institutional religion, aristocracy, and monarchy. The poem Ozymandias can be said to be one of Shelly’ most famous and most anthologized oeuvres. This poem has, and continues to make great scholars and all who reads it question its true meanings and Shelly’s intentions. Shelly did not only write this poem so that the readers would see its irony in that the only thing that is left of this great ruler named Ozymandias, who claimed himself to be the “king of kings” and boasts of his great works, is a tattered and weathered sculpture of his head and legs, lying in the long lost deserts of Egypt. I feel that this is a…
The Renaissance and how it changed man’s view of man. The Renaissance is the rebirth of many ideas and it’s a time period where changes were being made. The Renaissance took place in Europe and began around the year of 1400 and went on till about 1700. Many people were hugely impacted during this powerful life changing time.…
Art is meant to capture the viewer’s attention and affect them on a deep level. Many times, it leads the audience to examine human beings at a rudimentary state. In Théodore Géricault’s painting, Raft of the Medusa, 1818-1819, Oil on canvas, the viewer does exactly that. In his painting, about 20 men are strewn on a makeshift raft from the remnants of their ship. Some are dead and some are franticly waving pieces of cloth in the air at a ship in the horizon.…
The first pieces of art date back 700,000 years ago when people carved objects and drawings on stone during the stone age, but why did said people feel the initial impulsion to start chipping away on rocks in the first place? Why we indulge in art, literature, media is completely analytical, for we are humans and all humans strive for one thing-power. When we watch media we gain a sense of today’s culture and activities, when we read literature we gain knowledge, when we look at and discuss art we gain notoriety, which are all three things one needs to climb the ladder of prestige. Of course not everybody wants to be categorized into one large group so we use pieces of literature to help further define us. Literature provides a reader with…