read and answer questions
ARH 167 – TRADITION & INNOVATION IN THE ART OF THE WEST CLAUDE MONET & INNOVATION IN 19TH –CENTURY FRENCH PAINTING ARH 167 – TRADITION & INNOVATION IN THE ART OF THE WEST CLAUDE MONET & INNOVATION IN 19TH –CENTURY FRENCH PAINTING Professor H.R. Broderick FSA Lehman College/CUNY Important innovations in later 19th-centuryFrench art are preceded by the Neo-Classical style and Romanticism – read in Adams pp. 382-393.The painting that follows in the next slide, Jacques-Louis David’s (listen to the Google pronunciation of his French name) Death of Socrates of 1787 @ The Metropolitan Museum of Art is an excellent example of many aspects of this style in painting. Q1 – why is Socrates about to die here by ancient Greek capital punishment? Socrates himself, like Jesus, never wrote anything – what we know of his ideas/teaching is from the writings of his disciple Plato. Thought Question – what if people wanted to know five hundred years from now what the teachings were in one of your classes, but they only had your notes to go on? Q2 – again, why is Plato pointing up with one finger in Raphael’s School of Athens shown in the detail that follows? – a gesture echoed in David’s painting. As we had discussed in our exploration of the Baroque style in western painting & sculpture, the history of music can at times reflect values similar to those of the visual arts – not always – and the relationship is not a literal one idea for idea. So the artistic Neo-Classical style – with its emphasis on clarity, harmony, precision & rationality- finds a parallel in what is traditionally called the Classical style in music, largely of the 18th & early 19th centuries in Europe. Go to You-Tube and access Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music) as performed by the Ivy String Quartet. Q3 – what are some adjectives that could be used to describe this music and its effect on you as a listener? Neo-Classicism in art and literature is often seen in contrast to a movement referred to as Romanticism. Read in our text from pp. 394-399 and Q4 – write your own brief characterization/description of what Romanticism was all about in painting and literature. In the next slide we will see a painting by the artist Theodore Gericault called Raft of the Medusa of 1819 – Q5 – briefly what is the subject of this painting and how can that subject & the way the artist presents it be categorized as an example of Romanticism? And finally, go to You-Tube and access Richard Wagner’s Prelude to Lohengrin as presented by the London Philharmonic conducted by Sir Simon Rattle – Q6 – how does this example of Romanticism in music compare with the Mozart piece referred to above? What adjectives (descriptive words) come to mind? While looking @ this painting listen to Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain (Radig Filharmonish Ork) on U-Tube Many of the same qualities to be seen in Gericault’s painting can also be observed here in this painting of 1600, The Martyrdom of St. Matthew, by the Italian Baroque master Caravaggio (read in our text pp. 345-46 – Q7 – what are some of these similar qualities (visual aspects, style) – but what is one big difference about the two? It often appears to students new to the study of the history of art that it seems - especially as we come closer to our own time – that one ism is quickly followed by another – and such it is from time to time. Human activity, especially creative activity, derives a particular kind of energy by being in opposition or contradiction to something coming before – a reaction of INNOVATION in conflict, perhaps, with TRADITION. Such it is with the movement referred to as Realism in European art (read in our text pp. 413-426). Q8 – what are some of the outstanding characteristics of Realism in French painting? “Realism” as a term can be a bit deceptive at first as it doesn’t primarily mean that what is depicted looks “real” - we have been trying to emphasize the term “naturalistic” = looking more like nature to the general observer. Realism as an artistic style has more to do with certain attitudes & choices by artists about subject matter – the type of subjects depicted in their art. And that will become evident in our next example, a painting by the Realist master, Gustave Courbet, entitled Burial at Ornans of 1849 – (read pp. 414-15) in our text – Q9 – what does the word isocephaly on p.415 mean? Remarkable here is that we have no idea who is being buried – just a hole in the ground with even the dog @ R looking away in boredom or disinterest (although there may be a bit of irony here as dogs are traditional symbols of “faithfulness” – hence “Fido” Latin = Fides = Faith) as a nickname –check illus. 15.35 in our text) In contrast, the next slide, El Greco’s Burial of the Conde Duque de Orgaz of 1586 shows this grand panoply of earth linked to heaven above with an angel flying up into heaven with the wraith-like soul of the deceased Count shown being lowered into his grave by St. Stephen & St. Augustine@ L & R – notice the small altar boy in C’s ptg. @ L & EG’s son, Jorge Manuel at lower L in the ptg. – falling out of his pocket is EG’s signature in Greek (nice touch!) According to a sort of art historical legend, Courbet was asked why he never painted an angel – his response was, supposedly – “Show me one & I’ll paint it!” Q10 -What does our author say on p. 414 about the sociological aspects of the subject here? Q11 – What would Raphael think of such a subject? What about Rembrandt? And finally, the classicist painter, Thomas Couture, in this satirical painting entitled “The Realist” is making fun of the Realist objectives in art – Q12 – which 2 specific items in the picture indicate Couture’s satire of the Realists? Religion in a sizeable portion of French 19th-cent. painting gets replaced by an interest in ordinary human life – as in Monet’s painting here @ L of 1867 – Le petit dejeuner (“The Breakfast”) – a secular parallel to the religious domesticity of Rembrandt’s Supper at Emmaus we discussed earlier. Our text had discussed a sociological aspect of Realism earlier in reference to Courbet - Q13 – What would a sociological analysis of the scene created here by Monet say about a certain aspect of French 19th-cent. life? For centuries, painting in western Europe had been primarily an indoor pursuit as we see in this picture by Rembrandt – Artist in His Studio (and guess who the artist is?) – where, almost like a prize fight we have the artist @ L with tools of the trade in hand vs. the blank canvas @ R (although here R is utilizing a wooden panel rather than the more often encountered at this point in time, cotton or linen “canvas”) Here we see the artist with the traditional “tools of the trade” – on the wall in the back is a wooden palette with a hole in it –Q14 – based on what you can see in the artist’s left hand in the picture, what do you think the hole is for? And what is the palette itself used for? In both hands the artist holds his brushes – wooden sticks of various sizes with different kinds of animal hair & fur at the ends (sable, pig bristle, etc.) basically to transport paint from the palette to the canvas (pretty basic technology – no?). In the crook of his pinky finger of his left hand R holds a mahlstick – a wooden stick w/ a padded ball @ the end that the artist can rest on the canvas as in the image below – Self-Portrait of Sophonisba Anguissola - that we talked about before where her teacher, Bernardino Campi, is shown using the mahlstick to rest his wrist on while working in more detail (to prevent the “shaky hand” syndrome that can sometimes afflict even the best of artists when trying to work slowly in detail). So much of this will change, not overnight, but in steps, especially among a younger group of artists who will come to call themselves Impressionists. In the following painting of 1873 by the artist Auguste Renoir (picture @ R) depicting Claude Monet painting in his garden, we see a number of revolutionary things that @ first don’t seem revolutionary. We see the artist @ R with easel and stretched canvas, paint brush in hand, palette on his left arm – what is revolutionary is that #1 the artist is painting out of doors Q14 – what is the French term for this discussed in our text on p. 440 and - #2 he seems to be painting just part of a rose bush - and #3 the way the paint is applied to the canvas seems highly visible, even “lumpy” almost impasto –like- Q15 – what does impasto mean? Many of the Impressionist painters, like Monet himself, were urban dwellers, but as the railway bridge @ R of this painting by Monet of 1874 – The Bridge at Argenteuil – indicates, could take advantage of what @ the time seemed super speedy, the steam engine train, to get to the suburbs or even more rural areas What has happened here? Q16 – What are some major differences here about these two works – their subject-matter? Their style? Their emotional impact? Monet uses here a technique often referred to as “visible brushstroke” where individual strokes of the brush as marks are clearly seen in the work for a wide variety of pictorial elements – water, sky, clouds. It’s hard to imagine that when audiences first encountered the paintings of Monet & the other artists associated with him they considered them rough, inartistic, not what ART should be about – where’s the narrative? Where’s the drama? Where’s the meaning? The position of French Impressionist painting today is like the old ad jingle for Sarah Lee bakery goods – “Nobody doesn’t like Sarah Lee” - Nobody doesn’t like French Impressionist painting – what’s not to like? Lliterally to get more “into” his subject, Monet rigged up a floating studio as we see in this painting by the artist MANET of Monet painting (yes, I know, we had Parthenon/Pantheon – now we have Monet/Manet – life is tough in the history of art!) Manet is not strictly speaking an Impressionist artist ( here he is being a sort of Impressionist wannabee) – Q17 -what is the subject of Manet’s painting discussed in our text on p. 426 – begin reading on p.424? Q18 – based on our brief experience here with Impressionism, what are 2 characterisitics of Manet’s painting that might be described as Impressionist? Q19 -Who was Mary Cassatt, the painter of this work called The Boating Party of 1893-94 (check Wikipedia)? Among her many outstanding accomplishments was the fact that she encouraged her family’s wealthy friends to buy this crazy French