Impressionism Indeed

I personally love Impressionism art. I love how informal it is and how you can just use you imagination on some pieces to see everything in the painting. However there are some Impressionism pieces of art that are a little too formal for my taste, and to me don’t really fit into the category of Impressionism. Take Edgar Degas’ painting, The Dancing Class (painted in Paris, 1874), to me it is too formal to classify as an Impressionism piece. There are distinctive lines and structure in this piece, instead of just colors blended together to create a picture. Its more abstract than earlier art, but to me its not abstract enough to be considered Impressionism.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s painting, Le Moulin de la Galette (painted in Paris, 1876), now to me that is Impressionism at its best. If you look there are no real definite lines in the heart of the painting. There are some for chairs and lights, but the people are all made of colors. Renoir just blended colors into shapes instead of painting in the lines. I also love how the people have expressions on their face but no lines, so you as the observer can depict their expressions in your own way. This is definitely my favorite painting in the Impressionism category and that I have seen so far.

Impressionism art is much more fun than earlier art because its not so serious. I personally don’t like having to look at solemn men and women or religious beliefs when looking at a painting. I like to look at something happy or something I have to use my imagination to depict. The Baroque era is an excellent example of what Im talking about, all the paintings seem so serious, and theres really no imagination used when looking at one. The artist has told you exactly what to think and there is no deviation from it. For a quick example look at George de La Tour’s work, The Hurdy-Gurdy Player (painted in France, 1631-1636). There is not mystery in this painting, its just a man playing the Hurdy-Gurdy, theres no mystery. Where as the work above, Le Moulin de la Galette, you don’t know what everyone is thinking because their facial expressions are so vague that you the observer must figure it out. Art is suppose to inspire the imagination, and Impressionism art does that better than any other kinds of art we have studied so far. 

Resources

http://www.ocaiw.com/galleria_degas/index.php?gallery=ball&id=48 

http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/110003530

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/renoir/moulin-galette/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_de_La_Tour

Familiarity within the Melody

Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his 5^th Symphony in 1808. This was his most famous symphony and is known as “one of the most important works of the time”. This doesn’t come as a surprise to me because it is my favorite classical piece. I love how the melody repeats itself but changes tones, and how volume goes up and down through out the whole symphony. I have attached just a segment of the whole Symphony so you can enjoy it as much as I do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4IRMYuE1hI 

Beethoven’s 5^th Symphony is a classic example of how music changed to better the middle class. The melody repeats itself so it is predictable, but it changes slightly so it keeps it interesting. It follows the 4 movements of a symphony, 1- fast and generally dramatic, 2-slow and contemplative and a variation of the first melody, 3- livelier, 4- fast, but lively and happy. By Beethoven following this with his 5^th Symphony it is perfect for the middle class because it is easy to understand, but pleasant to listen to. Most likely it became so famous because it adds intensity and complexity, but then breaks it down and simplifies it. Also by repeating the same melody over and over again, and only slightly changing it every time it creates familiarity, which makes it so the audience can relate to the music.

References

Blackboard Lessons: Classical Era

 

 

The Influence of Council of Trent

The Crucifixion of Saint Peter by Michelangelo, he was also known as Caravaggio. This piece of artwork was created in 1600-01 in Santa Maria del Popola, Rome.

This piece of art work really shows how the Council of Trent influenced art work. This piece shows the crucifixion of Saint Peter in a plain and simple picture. You see four men in a close up with nothing in the background, this means that there isn’t anything to distract you from what is really going on.It also presents a lot of emotion on Saint Peters face which you can see up close because of how the piece is laid out. If you look closely you see that the look on his face is terror, but nobody is holding him down, as if he’s accepting his fate.

This correlates with what the Council of Trent wanted from art work; they wanted clarity, realism and emotion from art work. This piece shows all three of those aspects. The way that the piece is illustrated shows clarity because it only has one focus point, it isn’t jumbled or distracting, your eye is only drawn to one thing; Saint Peter on a cross. It also shows emotion with Saint Peters facial expressions, and by the other three men’s muscle structure. The emotion on Saint Peters face is terror, and you can see that he is tense because of his muscles and how they are flexed, this is common in tense situations. The muscular structure of the other three shows the same thing, they are tense because this act involves death, and they are also showing strain, because they are having to lift hundreds and hundreds of pounds. Finally realism is shown by Saint Peter. Even though he is terrified nobody is holding him down, so this means he is accepting his fate, he’s not fighting it by trying to run away, he is just accepting it. This whole piece is centralized around the values that Council of Trent wanted enforce.

Resources

https://classes.uaf.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_120117_1%26url%3D  

*Information was gathered from3.3 Influences During the Baroque Era and 3.4 Visual Arts During the Baroque Era under the name Caravaggio