Semester in Art History

This semester in Art History I learned more than I ever thought I would know about art in general. One of the big things that was quite interesting was the arcitecture parts of art history. To be honest, I never really considered arcitcture art. I thought many different types of architecture were interesting and cool looking but never in an art sense. This class gave me a whole new view on how I look at architecture. I constinatley find myself looking at architecture now and trying to find the different elements that we have learned in class. Architecture really is an art in itself. A lot of work goes into the making of buildings including the design, color, position of each piece, etc. Churches especially art huge art pieces that you could look over and over at without really thinking about it that way.
Another interesting part of class was when we learned about sculpture and how it evolved through history. The way that a sculptre protrayed their sculpture is an important key to learning about that time period. During some time periods such as the Classic Greek Art Period, scuptures shifted from being very stiff figures to a 3D view of them in action. Other times, the way that people would take care of a scupture was impotant. Take the scupture of the head of the Akkadian ruler for instance. Someone took out the eyes and ears of the sculpture after it was made. This was to take away the ruler's power of hearing and sight.

Roman and Christian Art

 

During the Republican period a new way of portaraying the human face came about. Instead of having the look of the "perfect" human being, artists began showing the signs of age and imperfection. In the portrait Head of An Elder bust from 80 BCE Rome we see those signs of age in the wrinkles and creases in his forhead and on his face. This isn't only to show the man's age but also to show that he was a thinker and had a lot of knowledge. They had such a respect for their ancestors that they used their likeness in art. Instead of having images of their ancestors in things like death masks, they were now portraying them in more realistic forms such as the portrait Head of An Elder.Many pieces of artwork during this time had a lot of color and iconography. In the Church of San Vitale there is an image of Christ Enthroned in the sanctuary apse. Christ is seated on a purple orb in the middle and you can tell it's Christ by the cross halo behind his head. During the time period that this was made, Christ was not yet shown with a beard as you can see. Below on the ground you can see Lilys which represents the crucifiction of Christ showing an example of the iconography of the time. Christ is surrounded by angels and Bishop Ecclesius who is holding a model of the church of San Vitale to offer to Christ. 
Roman and Christian art relate to each other on a couple levels especially since they are so close to each other in history. Christian art was surrounded around being kind of somber and with an emphasis on the church. The image of Christ Enthroned at the Church of San Vitale is a good example of the somber and emphasis of the church. The lilys representing the crucufuction of Christ show the somber side while the whole scene shows the emphasis on the church. Roman art had an emphasis on their ancestors and the Portrait Head of An Elder is an example of that. Many of the faces were very similar to the ones of their ancestors. Both art types would prove to survive through time to give us a glimpse into what it was lije back then.

Greek Pottery

Anything from red and black figures to more plain figures based on your income was a way to express onself through art in ancient greece. Black and red figures on pottery was a popular way to have pottery though. If the figures in the pottery were red, they usually stayed the color of the clay while the backround would turn black. If however you had a black figured vase, the background would stay the color of the clay while the figures turned black. There would be a strip that would be placed over the vase before it was piut into the fire and those areas of the strip would turn black. The red figures replaced the black ones after awhile because they could easily draw them instead of making it hard with making small cuts everywhere. Being able to paint with a brush allowed the painters to have more room to be creative and we would get some of the most beatuiful pieces of pottery known.



One of the interesting things about greek pottery is that there is evidence that not only men but also women were artists. Not many women in ancient greece would have been artists but they were quite good at creating some of the art we see today from that time period. We don't know much about if women were not allowed to enter contests that were open to the public but there are some pieces of art that show that maybe women did own places where people could make work such as pottery.

Nefertiti not as beautiful?

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2010/09/19/2010-09-19_new_research_shows_egyptian_beauty_nefertiti_may_not_be_a_beauty_after_all.html


In this article we find yet another story of the dispute over whether or not Neferititi was as beautiful as historians have made her to be. Neferititi's name means, "A beautiful woman has come" and yet as the article goes on, it tells us of proof that might dispute that. Recently reasearchers have found that the famous bust of Neferititi might be hiding things when a CT scan was done over it. Underneath it showed that she had wrinkles under her eyes and a bent nose.I don't know that I agree that Neferititi wasn't just as beautiful as she was said to be. What exactly was beauty back then though compared to now in her area of the world? There is no way for sure that we can say that at the time she was not considered beautiful because at the time things like wrinkles and crooked noses could have been atractive. It even states in the article that Cleopatra was shown as having a crooked nose on a coin and she is also considered a beauty of her time. The other thing is that maybe she wasn't considered beautiful for her outter features. Maybe she had a beautiful heart and soul that many people praised her for being. It's just hard to say whether or not Neferititi was as beautiful as she is said to be because what we consider beauty today isn't neccisarily what beauty was then.

The statue of Khafre

http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/arth/images/109images/egyptian/chephren_ka.jpg

The statue of Khafre is found in the valley temple of Khafre in Giza. This statue was quite interesting to me when reading and talking about it in class. The first thing that stuck out to me was the color of the statue. The statue is of the pharoh Khafre and is made of a unique stone that is similar to diorite. When the sun hits the stone it gives the eye a surprise of making the statue have a blue glow. Pharohs were considered divine so the play that the light has on the statue ends up showing that divinity with the glow that illuminates from it. Another interesting about the statue is that sitting behind Khafre's head is Horus, the falcon god. Horus is shown as protecting Khafre by sitting behind him and looking over him protectively. Along the side of the throne that Khafre sits on we see Lions which are to symbolize his power as Pharoh, along with lotus and papyrus that show his rule in both Lower and Upper Egypt. Khafre is wearing the outfit of a pharoh and his arms are close in with the rest of his body. The features on him aren't very detailed and yet stylized like we talked about in class. At the time, the people sculpting were very much into making lifelike figures that you could walk all the way around if you wanted to and this statue is a prime example of it.    

Collage

The first thing I wanted to do with my collage was put the order of the subject matter basically in order. So in the collage from right to left it goes history, world, country, town/community, friends/family and then me. The reason I chose that order was because history is what shaped the world, the world in a sense shaped each country including our own, the country has shaped how my state/town/community is, my town/community is what shaped my family and friends besides what their cultures, beliefs and more has taught them, and all of these things shape who I am so that's why I am last in the order. You will also see that the sections for history, world, country, and town only each have one line while the family/friends and me section have two. That is because my family and my friends are VERY important not only to me but to who I am as a person both inside and out. For the section on me, I had a hard time describing me in one line and even two lines wasn't enough but I picked the most important aspects of me. No matter how big the poster is to make a collage, I don't think you can fully describe a person because some things about a person don't come in the from looking at pictures, paintings, drawing, etc. They come from that person's personality.

• Color: I picked earth tones as my borders around my pictures. The reason I did that is because I love to be outdoors and since the collage is about me, it only fits to symbolize my love for the outdoors.
• Light: I picked dark to light and then light to dark as you go across the collage to make it more appealing to the eye as well as kind of symbolize that as you go through each subject matter, it shines more and more light on who I am as a person.
• Texture: I decided that for texture I would make the borders of the pictures different sizes and different shapes. None of them are the exact same even and as you go in towards the middle of the collage the sizes get smaller and then back to bigger on the outside.
• Volume: I used different colors as my borders to do this part as well as the pictures on the outside are a little darker but as you go in some grow lighter.
• Line: I wanted to draw a line that took the viewer from left to right, so the pictures not only go in vertical lines most times but the colors coordinate with it so it draws the eye across the lines.
• Space: I picked dark to light and then light to dark as you go across to make it more appealing as well as have a background (white) and a foreground (the four shades that act as borders for the pictures).
• Scale: The size of the borders show no importance within the collage but some of the pictures are bigger then others to show important people, places, and things.   
• Symbolism: The earth tones of the borders symbolize my love for outdoors, the picture of the family huddled close in symbolizes my family and the love I have for them, the picture of the camera with the heart next to it symbolizes my love for photography and my eventual career, the picture of the music note with the Jesus fish as the flag is my tattoo I have and it symbolizes music and faith which are the two biggest things in my life (it's on my foot because I walk by faith and I wouldn't be walking without my faith and music) and the borders get smaller as you go into the middle where my name is because all of the things in the pictures are what makes me who I am.  

Individual Blog #1 part 2

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129598553

This article popped out at me right away when I read it. It's about how whether or not selling an art collection that was given to Fisk University by Georgia O'Keeffe here in Nashville would save the school from closing. The art is worth $75 million dollars all together and the school is trying to sell the artwork. Many don't think it is right to sell the art let alone take it from the south so both the Georgia O'Keeffe estate and the state of Tennessee have filed for them not to be sold.  I agree that it's on the brink of closing. I don't agree on the sale of the art that Frisk wants to do and I think in time, the school unfortunately will close unless they find a better way to fund the school. The author's thesis is that the school is on the brink of closing. The art collection donated by Georgia O'Keeffe  is a point of joy for many as well as being somewhat of a problem for the school. It is hard for the school to keep up the school and collection along with other collections within the school and yet for many it is a part of the south's history that needs to stay here. The author goes onto then talk about how there have been many court cases involved with the situation including the current one in which the school wants to sell the art "half-share" to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentoville, Ark where it would rotate between the school and the museum for $30 million dollars. The state of Tennessee has been given until September 8th to find a way to keep the art here in Nashville while Fisk has until October 8th to come up with a contract with the museum to works better with what Georgia O'Keeffe wanted done with the art. There is a lot about dispute in this article and many times there is dispute about a meaning behind a piece of art or over whether the art is worth a certain amount of money.   

Individual Blog #1

Frederic Churchs' The Parthenon is a painting that we talked a lot about in class this week. What I found really interesting is the horizontal line that runs through the background of the photo. The mountains or hills that are behind The Parthenon run a horizontal line through the painting. What is interesting about it is that the mountains/ hills is that they aren't higher than The Parthenon showing just how important that it is. During the time that The Parthenon was at its highest glory, it was a temple that was to Athena who they considered as a goddess who protected them. In the painting The Parthenon is higher than anything else maybe showing not only how important it is but also the importance of the protection that they believed Athena gave them. Light shines down on The Parthenon in the painting almost like the goddess herself was appearing or coming to appear in her temple.
 Another interesting thing I found in the painting was that the way that everything is set in the painting, there seems to be a triangle that runs the eye right into The Parthenon. The point of the triangle would be the Parthenon and the dark area that is in the shadow would be the sides while the base runs in the foreground. We see triangles in many of the older paintings and maybe this one was just as important as those with the triangles.

My Favorite Painting

Madame X by John Singer Sargent has been my favorite paintings since my freshman year of high school. I had a photography class and my teacher showed us how art throughout history was like photography. When she showed us Madame X I fell in love with it. When I got the chance to see it in person the following year the woman in the painting both fascinated and awed me for some reason and still does to this day. The painting at the time it was made caused a lot of scandal because of her low cut dress and her very white makeup. I don't think many thought at the time that it would be one day a beautiful painting to many. Even though she is very pale in a black dress making her look almost like a symbol of death and sadness, she grasps the viewer's attention and becomes more beautiful, radiant, and confident than ever before. Now how does this painting fit in with the Horowitz reading? Well, the colors in this painting are mainly earth tones with the exception of the surprising white tone of the woman's skin. There seems to be a glow around the woman and with the outer edges of the painting being darker, it draws us into the woman. The brushstrokes show an emphasis on the woman's figure and in some areas like on the dress are in fine detail. The focal point of this painting is on the woman. Your eyes is instantly drawn to her and she remains beautiful throughout time.