Cathedral Project

Roman and Christian Art

              In the transition from the period of Roman art to Christian art, it is very important to not only notice the change in style of human portrayal in sculptures and paintings, but also the use of symbolism to effectively convey messages about what each culture valued and felt was important.  In Roman art, humans were portrayed in an idealistic form, which emphasized the importance of physically perfect bodies that had defined muscles and chiseled faces that tended to lack emotion.  As artwork progressed to become more religious in context, humans were portrayed with less defined bodies and more prominent emotion on their faces.  The most interesting examples of art from the very middle of this transition are set apart because they include human forms that resemble the Roman ideals of a human but also contain much Christian symbolism within the content of the artwork. 

            An example of a Roman sculpture from the high classical period is The Scraper, see above.  This statue exemplifies a human in its idealized form and also in a stance that really engages the audience.  This particular stance is only characteristic of Roman statues in that time period, but not of earlier statues as much.  This is also a sign that Roman art is moving toward a more emotionally connected portrayal of its subjects rather than a distanced portrayal.  An example of a piece of work done during the middle of the transition between Roman and Christian art is the Sarcouphagus of Judas, which actually shows examples of both Roman and Christian iconography.  In one part of the sculpture, Jesus is shown riding into town on a steed instead of a donkey.  This is not historically correct, but it would have been the proper custom for him to ride in on a horse if he had been a Roman ruler.  A piece of work that also exemplifies Roman and Christian tradition is the narrative piece shown above in which Jesus is shown having his first bath.  Although there is nothing in scripture about this, it would be a custom that would only take place if Jesus had actually been born a Roman ruler.  As the artwork moves from Roman to Christian, the biggest change that occurs is the use of symbolism to represent events entirely separate from the action going on in the painting.  An example of this is in the painting Mary and the Angel.  The lily that is painted in this picture is actually a symbol of the crucifixion of Christ, which obviously doesn’t occur until many years after the subject matter represented in this painting. 

Parthenon Pictures!!!!

The picture on the left is the statue of Athena that we saw.  Although she was daunting in size, her facial characteristics were not especially aesthetically pleasing.  The picture on the right is a replica of the East Pediment which depicts the birth of Athena.

Greek Painted Vases - Amphora

            This vase was completed around 490 bc by a famous artist of the time, referred to as the Berlin artist. This artist was known for forgoing the use of rigid frames to outline his figures so that the contour of the vase is still prominent and the focus of the piece is on the solitary figure in the middle.  This particular figure is a musician, who is playing a kithara, which is a wooden string instrument.  The figure on the other side is said to be either an instructor or a judge who is actively listening to the kitharode (as the musician was referred to).  The purpose of these amphora vases was to hold or transport grapes, olive oil, wine, oil, or grains.  I chose this vase because I find its shape very aesthetically pleasing.

Egypt Presentation

Link: http://prezi.com/30hvlce-yfdi/copy-of-art-history-egypt-today

Iamikan's lines walls of Core Consciousness

      by: Vikki Matsis, October 14, 2010, Charleston Scene
      http://www.charlestonscene.com/news/2010/oct/14/iamikans-artwork-lines-walls-of-core-consciousness/

      This artist's main concern is staying true to nature, by means of choosing mediums and materials only directly found in nature.  His name is Courts Iamikan and he developed these methods while living in Turkey.  How did he come to use such atypical painting methods?  First, let me describe to you the way that his paintings take form.  He mixes pigment with anything from seawater to salt crystals and lets any natural chemical changes take place.  Vikki Matsis interviewed him about his mysterious techniques and he had this to say: "We are all magicians. I let the results speak for themselves. No need to break down the synchronicity of what you are doing, that takes away all the magic of what art is anyhow. Nature continues to be the greatest magician to mankind."  
      This artist has never picked up a paintbrush either.  Surprising?  He is completely self-taught in these methods and uses mainly his fingers to apply paint to unusual surfaces such as glass, canvas, steel, wood, and acrylic glass.  This is actually part that he says is most difficult; getting the paint to adhere to these surfaces.  However, one way that he combats this problem is by allowing pieces to sit in total darkness once completed.  He lets his paintings sit in darkness for up to three months to all the materials to fuse without the influence of perception.  I think that this man's techniques are very unique and clever and display a substantial knowledge of what makes good art, with a primary focus on how art is made.  Although the pieces themselves are beautiful, it is the process by which they were made that sets them apart.  I liked this article because I enjoyed hearing an artist's perspective that is very different from mine.

The Temple of Aphaia

            With class discussions now revolving around Greek architecture and the role it played in Greek social society, I found that my favorite piece was not purely an architectural detail, but a sculpture intended to hide part of a structure that was not seen as aesthetically pleasing.  Lining the east pediment of the temple of Aphaia, a grouping of life-like three-dimensional figures illustrate the battle against Troy led by Herakles.  These figures are made three-dimensional so that they would be seen properly from all angles.  However, the placement of the figures according to their body position and their proximity to the ground was done so that the dark receding corners of the pediment area would be covered.  At the centermost part of this line of soldiers stands Athena, who is not only the main focus of the battle, but also the unifying point of the composition.  

            The realness of the skin and bone structure of these figures demonstrate the artist’s clear discipline in the area of anatomy.  My favorite of all the sculptures is the one titled the Fallen Warrior.  He is one of the figures in the overall layout whose horizontally sprawled body is functional in hiding one of the corners of the three-dimensional shape of the pediment.  He is depicted as being in his last moment alive and pulling an arrow out of his abdomen.  In the pictures below, he is the figure on the far left.  The treatment of his muscles and body positioning display a classic Greek treatment of the human body, which is that it is an idealistic portrayal of human size and proportions.

  

Downtown Presbyterian Church

              When my group discussed our feelings on the Egyptian architecture in the church, many different opinions arose.  Some people in my group were under the impression that for a place of worship (let alone Christian worship) to have any representation of a belief system that honored numerous gods was simply unacceptable and therefore not visually appealing.  Others in my group formed their opinions of the church's architecture completely separate from the building's purpose, and looked at it in a very non-objective way.  Personally, I chose to observe the church's architecture as a separate entity of its identity, and then critically question why a place of Christian worship would have been in favor of decorating its building in such a way.
               The architecture was most effective in transporting the visitor from downtown Nashville to a place across the Atlantic Ocean.  Certain techniques employed by the architect to achieve this visual effect were: showing large columns painted in perspective along the back wall, creating blue skies in the squares of the coffered ceiling, and including papyrus, lotus, and other river plants in the illustration of the stained glass windows.  The color palette was very specific to not only the time period that this style refers to, but the cultural origins that it stemmed from.  The main colors used in this design were: mustard yellow, greyish teal, bright blue, pink, and reddish browns.  The most occurring shapes in this building's design were triangles and trapezoids, which created a very geometric look.  Although curved lines were not typically found in the main structures built in ancient Egypt, they were sparingly included in the case of the illustration of Lotus or other flowers.

The Narmer Palette: Just as cool as the pyramids......

          Transitioning into talk about Egyptian culture and art this week, I was interested to learn about something in Egyptian art that was not just a part of the pyramids.  I have studied the pyramids in school before, and while I find them very interesting, I was hoping to talk about something just as important and similar in its historical meaning, but without hearing the same things I've heard before.  The Narmer Palette, therefore, intrigued me because it is a set of modest-sized carvings into green schist that conveys a very pertinent message from Egyptian history without being the size of a cruise ship.  The use of heiroglyphics spells out in pictures on the palette that upper and lower Egypt were to be united.  This was done by including the symbols papyrus and lotus flower, which represent lower and upper Egypt respectively.  

          These two palettes also explain much about the social classes at that time in Egypt.  By having the middle figure be the largest and placed in the compositional pose, he is designated as the character in this story with the most power.  This figure is meant to represent the king named Narmer who is shown with a fairly ambiguous face and no signs of his age at the time that the palette was completed.  This was custom in Egyptian art that portrayed powerful rulers because the Egyptians believed that a person would assume the identity they were portrayed with in carvings when they passed over into the afterlife.  

New Orleans artists react to BP Oil Spill

              As a fundraiser to benefit the victims of the oil spill on the Gulf coast, a contest was held to create a work of art that would best express the emotional response to the disaster.  All of the pieces were sold to raise money to cover the various expenses from the oil spill.  In total, the contest raised $23,000 with an overall winner selected from all the admissions.  Helen Stoilas covered this story in The Art Newspaper in Issue 216 on September 10, 2010.  The chosen winner of the contest was political cartoonist Steve Breen of the San Diego Union-Tribute who came up with the design shown above.  The thing that makes this painting unique is that the artist actually mixed oil collected from the shores of Pensecola Beach, FL to make the paint.  His described technique was to water it down slightly to make it more fluid to paint with.  I chose this article because it focused on the role that artists play during and after natural disasters. Within the article, director of New Orleans’ Prospect Biennial, Dan Cameron,  described the crucial role the city’s artists have played during the oil spill “volunteering as first responders, supporting organisations that advocate for sustainable gulf economies, and documenting the crisis as it unfolds”.  I feel like this is a way in which I have never viewed artists and their connection to history, but it makes their relationship more clear to me now.

http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/New-Orleans-artists-react-to-BP-oil-spill/21346

A picture says a thousand words.....so take this!

            The elements in my collage all represent very unique characteristics of me; many of which most people wouldn’t know.  I chose two pictures of professional women’s’ softball pitchers since that is the position I play for Belmont.  I also included two small pictures taken in the Virgin Islands because that is my favorite place to visit.  I included a page out of a sudoku puzzle book because I have become quite obsessive with working them.  The words reading, “You’re Late - Again!” are sadly very descriptive of me, although I am working on being more punctual.  I included the blue and white couch in the lower right corner because it reflects my extreme interest in interior design and decorating.  The “Meet the Harmons” square introduces you to my family, including my dogs Gomer and Floyd.  My geographic location is described by the striped state of Tennessee in the top, right corner of the collage with a flower that marks Brentwood.  To represent “the world today”, I chose a bar graph that illustrates how our country compares to others in health care spending because this is an area of study I hope to get into when I graduate.  I illustrated the importance of art to me by including two pictures of myself next to famous paintings from the Art Institute in Chicago, where I visited this past December.  The couch I included in the corner also represents my view of history and art and how they have worked together to shape me into the kind of person I am.  I have always been intrigued by furniture design and how it has evolved over the years, and the more I have learned about it, the more my tastes have broadened.

            A few conscious decisions I made in making this collage were to not use very many pictures of myself and use more pictures of friends and family, as well as activities that I’m interested in.  I also chose to keep the background color palette fairly soft so as to let my subjects stand out the most on the poster.  The colors I chose in particular for my collage were yellow, light green, light blue, and brown.  I chose yellow because it is my favorite color and I chose the rest of them because they complimented yellow and went well together.  The light areas of my collage were mostly in the background while the darker parts of my collage were the subjects.  To create visual texture, I used a striped paper in the background in several places of the collage and had the stripes facing different ways so as to create a sense of movement in the collage.  The volume of my objects were typically created by each item’s highlighting ad shading; such as the diamond and the jar of almonds.  The implied lines of my collage are the edge of the green paper that can be followed diagonally from the center of the collage to the top right corner, as well as the three watches in the center, which actually lead the viewer’s eye to three corners of my collage.  To create the illusion of space in my collage, I made the green paper curl around the jar of almonds.  I also anchored the couch on ground so that the viewer would feel like they were looking into an actual room.  The four symbols in my collage are: the yellow pie in the upper left corner, which describes my mood, the different clothing labels which stand for my love of shopping, the three watches which symbolize my past, present, and future, and the bed shown in the woods which emphasizes that I love being outdoors and I also highly value naps.  

The Bad, the Worse, and the Ugly: How "bad" art is making a splash in a world of refined tastes

Published in The New York Times, on September 2, 2010, Erik Piepenburg sheds some light on a few subjects that people may have preferred stay in the dark.  I'm speaking of the quirky, but well-respected realm of art referred to as "bad art".  Noted for not appearing to follow any rules of aesthetic beauty or balance, these worked of art are typically praised for just how horribly they were executed.  The man in the photo above, Judah Friedlander, is featured with his own work that depicts a Bigfoot holding onto a topless mermaid.  Friedlander says, "If a painting, whether it's at the Met or it's something that somebody threw away, gets a reaction out of me, gets me thinking, and gets me mentally and emotionally, I like it."  I think Piepenburg does a good job of presenting the material in this article without his own bias, although the people quoted in the article obviously approve of this so-called "bad" art.  I would define his thesis as stating that although we acknowledge that art has some understood rules of design that are typically involved in it, art can be just as impressive when those rules are broken as when they are followed.  He proves his thesis by using examples of art by Salvador Dali that many people find off-putting but also agree to be impressive art that has withstood the test of time.  This article related to what we have studied in class this week by basically considering an artist's conscious and unconscious decisions, and seeing what would happen if all the decisions were "unconscious" so to speak.  This appears to be the case in many examples of this "bad" art.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/arts/design/03badart.html?_r=1&ref=designIf a painting," said Mr. Friedlander, "whether it’s at the Met or it’s something somebody threw away, gets a reaction out of me and gets me thinking, and gets me mentally and emotionally, I like it.”

The Parthenon is "kind of a big deal".....or so it seems in class

               Of all the paintings we have discussed this week in class, the majority of them have been of the Parthenon. This particular one, however, has generated the most discussion.  Perhaps this was due to the unique placement of all the objects in this painting, not only including the Parthenon but also the structures around it.  The placement of the objects in this painting other than the Parthenon are considered part of an artist's conscious decisions when planning a painting.  Another example of a conscious decision in this painting is the placement and intensity of the light source.  If the light source in this painting was not shining directly on the Parthenon, it would completely change the mood and the message of the painting.  Also by having the light source shine directly on the Parthenon, it serves as a sign to the viewer that this is where their attention should be directed.
               The artist who did this painting was named Frederic Edwin Church, and he painted it in 1871 with oil paints.  The fact that this painting was done in oils gives the viewer a much better idea as to when it was completed.  Church actually attended the Hudson River School of Painting before he painted this painting.  It was obvious that Church had had some schooling because of his good execution of the medium.  It is also worth noting that there is a small figure standing in the foreground of a painting. This could easily be a symbol for the magnificence of the Parthenon compared to that of humans.  Along with the many conscious decisions Church made about this painting, he also made a few unconscious decisions such as choosing a fairly tranquil color palette except for in the areas of the shadowed part of the painting.

Jan Van Eyck's "The Arnolfini Wedding Portrait"

Although I have many favorite paintings, all of which seem to be very detailed, I do not appreciate another painting quite as much as this one by Jan Van Eyck.  This painting, titled The Arnolfini Wedding Portrait, has captured my attention since I first saw it in a textbook in high school.  Although my initial draw to this painting was due to its elemental characteristics, I became more fond of it when I learned of all the subliminal messages throughout the painting created by the particular placement of certain objects and inclusion of others.  For example, at a glance, a viewer would note that a man and a women appear to be in a bedroom having a conversation; accompanied by their dog.  However, the shoes that are placed in the lower left hand corner of the painting symbolize that the subjects are standing on holy ground, according to some scholars.  The dog is a symbol for fidelity or trust.  The stance of the both the man and the woman suggests that they are taking marriage vows, which justifies the meaning of the two previously mentioned symbols.  There are also two references to God in this painting: one being the single, lit candle and the other insinuated by the convex mirror behind the two figures.  One of the figures reflected in the mirror is Van Eyck himself, explained by the inscription above the mirror, which reads "Johannes de Eyck fuit hic".  The words translate into English that Van Eyck was present (http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/arth/arth214_folder/van_eyck/arnolfini.html).  These symbols add to the emotional depth of the painting and only serve as compliments to the incredible simulated textures shown in the woman's gown, the dog's fur, and the reflection in the mirror.  All of these elements combine to create what I have found to be a very visually striking and thought-provoking piece of art.