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Showing posts from October, 2024

Romantic Era - The Clash of Styles: Realism and Post-Impressionism

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 The Romantic Era The Romantic Era heralds many art styles used by many well-known artists. Among these, the rise of Impressionism, Realism, Pre-Raphael art, and many more styles are seen during this era, making it one of the most significant flourishes of art. In this article I will be covering realism and post-impressionism and the differences between them. Realism Realism appears earlier in the Romantic era and often depicts subjects of ordinary life and individualistic ideals. The evolution of the art of the Classic era into realism can be seen as the realistic depictions track largely through into Realism, however there are key aspects differentiating the two. Reminiscences of 1865 by John Frederick Peto 1904, United States Realism is intuitively named after it's realistic, trompe l'oeil (fool the eye) style, mimicking reality. Realism also however carries with it further hidden meanings in the items depicted usually. beyond this, another distinguishing feature of Realism

Classical Era Exhibit - Morality in the Arts

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Morality of the Arts In the Classical Era With the Baroque era, art became a propagandistic measure and very serious in nature. The following Classical era resulted in more liberated images in art. Largely this shift was caused by the shift form the monarchy to the aristocracy. The aristocracy of the Classical era held the majority of the wealth and lived in a very lush fashion, laid back and drastically different than the average residents of the time. Above is the painting Pilgrimage to Cythera from 1717 by Antoine Watteau, an artist that largely led art in the direction of the Rococo style during the Classical Era. Antoine Watteau was among the the first artists to start painting in the fete galante style, with depictions of well dressed aristocrats in nature settings. This perfectly embodies to posh life that the aristocracy created for themselves during the time with extravagant clothing and accessories. Pilgrimage to Cythera also capture the nonchalance of the Classical era, that

Georges de La Tour's Mary Magdalene Paintings

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 The Magdalen Rather than focusing on a single artwork in this analysis, I will be covering a series of paintings from the artist Georges de La Tour that cover a similar subject. Below as pictured are The Repentant Magdalen , The Penitent Magdalen, and The Magdalen with the Smoking Flame respectively. The similarities in these painting is immediately evident in both name and visual aspects. Georges de La Tour painted these four figurative painting at relatively the same time, between 1635 and 1640. Each one of these pieces depicts Mary Magdalene, one of Jesus's disciples and witness to his resurrection according to the Bible. However, unlike the majority of representations of Mary Magdalene, La Tour chose to depict her alone, and not in direct relation to Jesus. This stark change of subject along with certain Baroque elements mark this piece in relation to the Council Trent. The relation to the the Council of Trent becomes evident when viewing the propagandistic approach that the c

Analysis of the School of Athens and Humanist Themes During the Renaissance

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 The School of Athens  by Raphael Sanzio da Urbino School of Athens  is a large scale fresco created by the well known Italian Renaissance artist Raphael Sanzio da Urbino. It was created some time around 1510 as a commission work to decorate a room in the Vatican (Pulimood 2024). The piece covers a large wall and stands slightly over 16 feet tall and just over 25 feet wide (over 4 meters tall and just under 8 meters wide). With the staggering size of this piece, it demands that the viewer looks up at the fresco, causing the strong sense of depth and point perspective present in the piece to be further enhanced. Color plays a large role in this piece, with the figures scattered across the hall all dressed in bright colors and a rather monotone background. The use of these bright colors draws the eye to the contrast with the people being the primary focus. Despite this the monotone background still holds immense detail with more figures and geometric patterns. The linear perspective natu