Chiaroscuro

The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds some of the most influential and historic art work. One famous painting, Oedipus and the Sphinx by Gustave Moreau was created in 1864. Gustave Moreau was a French painter born on April 6, 1826 and died on April 18, 1898. His painting, Oedipus and the Sphinx is 6′ 9″ x 3′ 5″ in dimension and the medium used was oil paint on canvas. His famous painting was first exhibited at the French Salon of 1864 and has became a successful piece to this day and was the…

Artworks have the capacity to express deep emotions and influence generations. A variety of art forms such as paintings, sculptures, architecture, music, literature, etcetera, have profoundly emphasized past cultures and contributed to present day. Numerous works of art, even from prehistoric times are able to inspire artists because they are everlasting imprints. Similar stylistic forms and structural designs are utilized by different artists due to their impacts on one another. Artists create…

Raphael Sanzio was a well known Italian painter as well as an architect for the Pope of the High Renaissance. He was born on April 6, 1483 in Urbino, Italy. In 1491, his mother died and his father later followed on August 1, 1494. He was soon orphaned at age eleven, however, he lived with his uncle who was engaged in litigation with his stepmother. When not living as an apprentice of his master, he would live with his stepmother. He was an apprentice of Pietro Perugino from around 1500 because…

Film Noir, launched just before USA’s entry into the World War II and peaking during the Cold War, was a hybrid of glamour and grittiness, exposing a seamy underside of America during the mid century. Film Noir was cast with wised-up men and wordly women who might not have had the right answers, but certainly had all the right moves. More than often, they held mixed motives and malign agendas. The name ”Film Noir” was coined by french film critics whom, after the trade-blockade following the…

This painting is one of many versions of the biblical story of Judith beheading Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi, a well-known female painter of the Baroque period. Although she gained acclaim as a painter, few women of her time had the opportunity to become an artist, a privilege afforded to her in part because her father owned a studio and painted, as well. In the Bible, Holofernes, an Assyrian bully and enemy to Israel, slaughtered his way into the city of Bethulia, a town at the entrance…

Struck by death: Goliath and David in masterpieces by Caravaggio and Nicholas Poussin The biblical story of David and Goliath is told in 1 Samuel 17. The background for the well-known battle was the war between Philistines and Israelites. Goliath, a gigantic champion on the side of Philistines, was ready to fight one-on-one a warrior from the Israelites camp. ‘Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not…

of the dress around the bosom flowing around the shoulder and elbow are painted to show the transparent quality with golden fringes on the edges. With a golden bow tied across the back of the dress fading into the dark background, similar to the chiaroscuro effect used by many artists. The simplistic pose of Marie-Antoinette depicts her occupied by some flower arrangements she is tending to, and only glancing at the viewer for a moment . Although deliberately done, you get the sense that she…

Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-LeBrun, a Rococo era painter turned Neoclassical, was born in Paris on April 16, 1755. She lived to be eighty—seven as “one of the foremost portraitists in Europe at the end of the eighteenth century and during the first three decades of the nineteenth” (NGA, web) (May, 1). Spanning a long career with over 600 paintings, Vigée-LeBrun is “characterized” and marveled “…as the much sought-after portraitist of not only European royalty and nobility, but also of notable…