The Sixteen Luhammad Preaching Analysis

Painting is a very universal art form. Paintings are created in civilizations all over the world from all different time periods. The flexibility of paintings is wonderful, all that is needed is a pigment, which is the color, and a binder, such as egg or milk which allows the pigment to turn into a paste and be applied to a variety of surfaces including paper, wood, stone, and canvas. The purpose of paintings also vary greatly, paintings are used to tell stories or illustrate religious ideologies, they are even used to show people in the forms of portraits, these and many more showcase the universal uses of paintings. The paintings we will be looking at are Islamic and Chinese.
Islam is a monotheistic religion which worships the god Allah, …show more content…
We see a similar technique in "The Sixteen Luohans" with the layering of the boulders in the background, the angling of the tree and the man sitting under it also gives a three-dimensional effect. The colors used in "Prophet Muhammad Preaching" are much more vibrant than those used in "The Sixteen Luohans", with the rich blues, reds, gold, browns, white, black, oranges, and greens. "The Sixteen Luohans" only has pale greens, browns, white, and a small amount of red. The values of these paintings contrast, for example the only real dark places in "The Sixteen Luohans" are the leaves, otherwise the painting is very light. When it comes to "Prophet Muhammad Preaching" the value shifts from dark to light, this is seen in the robes the figures are wearing, Muhammad for instance is wearing a dark turban and light …show more content…
With "The Sixteen Luohans" it appears that the Luohan sitting under the tree is speaking, or maybe instructing based on their age difference, the second Luohan. In "Prophet Muhammad Preaching" Muhammad is shown preaching to his relatives. According to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Wu Bin the artist of "The Sixteen Luohans" could have possibly been inspired by religious drama going on at the time. Concept can sometimes be difficult to understand, especially in older works, but with these painting it is pretty straight forward. An added plus is that both the paintings have writing on them, although on "Prophet Muhammad Preaching" the text has not be translated yet, it is from a book titled "Murder of the House of the Prophet" which is about the martyrdom of one of Muhammad's grandsons (The Metropolitan Museum of Art). The context of "The Sixteen Luohans" and that it was actually signed by the artist gives us insight into the meaning behind the painting. Signatures are very beneficial as they allow us to pinpoint a date and location that a work of art was created, and this allows us to find out the social situation surrounding the creation of the painting. So the subject and concept of both of these paintings are similar with the prominence of religious figures, themes, and most likely