Ganymede And The Eagle Analysis

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The first artwork that I chose was Bertel Thorvaldsen’s, Ganymede and the Eagle made between the years of 1817-1829. He finally finished the sculpture in 1829 out of marble. As I said I really admire Greek and Roman art, so this was an easy pick. The dimensions of this sculpture I would say are around height wise of 35 inches and width wise about 20. I could not find the exact measurements so that is a rough estimate.
DESCRIBE:
The thing I first noticed about the piece was texture and detail of the bird’s feathers and the man’s hair. Well, really all the little details of the whole piece, from the claws of the eagle to the cloth behind the man’s leg. There is a certain beauty about the piece, simple but yet detailed and meaningful. The
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Mass would be the number one visual element that most would see because it is a sculpture and takes of volume. This would be a mass in three dimensions meaning that you can see it from every angle or it is a full-round sculpture. Also, I believe that this sculpture would be considered a closed form due to that it is in fact carved from a greater mass. One definition of a closed form is “A solid mass that was the pre-modern traditions of carved stone and modeled bronze.” In which this sculpture truly shows open form from another mass, which was marble. The next visual element I saw was implied motion. I said this because when looking at the piece it looks as if the bird is eating from the cup. Thorvaldsen makes it look as if it was happening right there. The look that Ganymede is giving the eagle looks as if he were waiting and just watching him eat. The last visual element I saw was texture, as I said earlier the attention to detail and texture in this is excellent. The feathers on the eagle look life like even the claws. You can even see the eagles tongue as if he were really eating. The one part that really fascinated me was the curls in his hair and the detail that went into them. If you look even closer you can actually see the fingernails on his fingers. Moving on to principles of design, some that I noticed where unity, emphasis, and scale. I said unity because there is a sense of wholeness in the piece. It all works well together, it makes the story whole. In the book, it says that in the work of art the elements seem to belong together and that if we changed anything that it would diminish the quality of the work, which I think is true in this piece. Say if he were to change the look of the man looking at the eagle I feel it wouldn’t fit all together anymore. Another principle of design that I saw was emphasis on the relationship between Ganymede and

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