ARH202 Test 3

Question 1

Answer 1

• ANTOINE WATTEAU, Return from Cythera, 1717.
• outdoor celebration scene– lover’s utopia
• looks slightly like a genre scene of very upper class people
• stylistically rococo: light, feathery feeling to it; water receding into the background appearing to melt into the sky
• group of lovers hanging out in the park
  
  • on their way to the island of Aphrodite
  • everyone is enamored and in love
  • waiting to get on the golden ship
• appear to be dancing and not as affected by gravity
• intentional composition in regards to the figures
  
  • artist is showing off: look at all these different postures i can paint
• pays attention to the use of color

Question 2

Answer 2

• JEAN-BAPTISTE-SIMÉON CHARDIN, Saying Grace, 1740
• antithesis of rococo
  
  • poverty, less vibrant colors
• depiction of saying grace before meal
• tranquil and humble scene
• praises the simple goodness of domestic life
• very realistic
• lower middle class can relate to this better than to pieces from the rococo
• space corresponds to gender roles
• simplicity to the composition as well as the narrative details that underscore the humble message of the piece
• embrace of the so called natural in art return to simpler humbler subject matter that appealed to different patrons than the rococo

Question 3

Answer 3

• WILLIAM HOGARTH, Breakfast Scene, from Marriage à la Mode, ca. 1745.
• Hogarth was interested in the newly prosperous middle class in Britain who were struggling with class issues
• out of a series of six
• lively vivacious colors relates to rococo art in Paris
• humorless tone is distinctly British
• very narrative in their orientation
• enormously popular because they resonated with the changes taking place in the time period
• Hogarth series were designed to appear as prints
• husband is more promiscuous in what he’s doing
  
  • dog pulling out a woman’s night cap from his pocket

insinuates that he’s not the most faithful

Question 4

Answer 4

• JACQUES-LOUIS DAVID, Oath of the Horatii, 1784
• official painter of France during Napoleonic France
• spectacularly articulate example of neoclassicism
  • mindset as well as an artistic style— appreciation for all things classical
    
    • neoclassicism is defined by the crisp articulation of figures in space
    • believed art had to have a moral purpose
      
      • message of self sacrifice in this piece— example of virtue
• this piece represents a historical moment– historical genre painting
• representing a heroic moment
  
  • masculinity being emphasized
• predictable use of space
  
  • looks like a stage set that the figures are standing on
  • background fades off because we don’t need to know what’s back there
• idealized bodies of the males
• grief stricken woman comforting children

Question 5

Answer 5

• JACQUES-LOUIS DAVID, Napoleon Crossing the Saint-Bernard Pass, 1800–1801.
• recreates Europe
• this little man without any royal blood is able to overcome these mountains made by God
• Napoleon is depicted much larger than he is in real life
• equestrian portrait
• David is reaching back into a ready made iconography
  
  • neoclassical
  • Napoleon is crossing the Alps to further France’s power
• fantastic manipulation of what constitutes size and scale
• David is representing Napoleon in motion
  
  • France is on the move
  • the horse is galloping with the wind of God on his side
    
    • fixed and static painting
• Napoleon recognized the importance of art and used it in a propagandistic way
• elements of realism and romanticism
• David was the first painter of the empire
  
  • romanticism
    
    • uses qualities of Romanticism to make contemporary commentary
    • excites emotions and draws you into the narrative
  • neoclassical
    
    • clarity of form, arranged parallel to picture plane
    • coherence, anatomically correct

Question 6

Answer 6

• ANTOINE-JEAN GROS, Napoleon at the Pesthouse at Jaffa, 1804.
• relationship between Napoleon propaganda and Romanticism is important
• Gros was a pupil of David
• Syrian campaign in 1799
• bubonic plague broke out during this time period
  
  • not discriminate
  • in order to quell panic and hysteria Napoleon traveled to Jaffa
    
    • turned a religious sacred site into a hospital
• 3 major qualities to the painting
  
  • setting
  • seen as very exotic to the French
  • ring of dead and dying pressed right up against the picture plane (cast in shadow)
    Napoleon and his entourage placed in the light
• one of Napoleon’s men has a handkerchief held up to his face to cover the smell
  
  • graphic detail
• Napoleon is completely in control
  
  • has his glove off and is touching one of the sick
  • didn’t think he could get sick
  • almost as if he is Jesus able to cure someone with his touch
• disconnect between the meaningfulness of the body in neoclassical art and romantic art
  
  • the body has become diseased in this piece
  • very different conception of the body
• colonialism suggests the belief that whoever has the power has the right to colonize someone else
• context is important
• massive canvas

Question 7

Answer 7

• JEAN-AUGUSTE-DOMINIQUE INGRES, Grande Odalisque, 1814
• Ingres passed through David’s studio
• his work demonstrates just how far David’s students could depart from David’s style
• Romantic and Neoclassical elements
  
  • neoclassicism: figure is brightly lit pressed up against the picture plane, three dimensionality
  • no moral lesson to make this subject neoclassical
  • story all has to do with Romanticism
• mix of exoticism and eroticism
• working girl not Venus
• this is complete fabrication
• depiction of a fantasy
• shallow space
• black backdrop pushes her to the front of the picture plane
• Ingres loved Raphael
• body doesn’t make sense
  
  • drawn into the sensual evocation that the extension of line could give
• commissioned by Napoleon’s sister
• many felt angered by this piece
  
  • form and subject caused this

Question 8

Answer 8

• THÉODORE GÉRICAULT, Raft of the Medusa, 1818–1819
• Gericault embodied romanticism
• huge piece
• contemporary subject and political hot potato
  • depicts an event that actually happens
    
    • when the ship Medusa sank off the coast of Africa
    • not enough life rafts
• jumble of writhing bodies, dramatic contrast of lights and darks, garish qualities to the dying bodies that are meant to evoke despair and suffering
• moment he depicts is the most intensely Romantic moment
  
  • gruesome subject that doesn’t have a moral lesson (hope is fleating?)
• dead and decaying bodies right up against the picture plane capture your attention right away
• suffering & despair are the overwhelming feelings taken away from this piece
• a painting this large should have a message of heroism but it doesn’t

Question 9

Answer 9

• EUGÈNE DELACROIX, Scenes from the Massacre at Chios, 1822–1824
• art history battle was between Delacroix (artist who broke the traditions and depicted Romanticism) as opposed to Ingres (artist’s academicism and classicism)
• Delacroix didn’t use line but rather used color first to define forms
  
  • created a sketchy look that was identifiable with Romantic art
• depiction of the war for Greek independence
• he borrows from traditions that we recognize and yet departs from them at the same time
  
  • there’s a ring of death in the forefront of the scene
• scorched background
  
  • disconnect from the foreground
• chooses not to create a foreground, middle ground, and background
  
  • brings attention back to gruesome foreground
• intimately related to contemporary politics
• blend of Romantic style, allegory, and realism

Question 10

Answer 10

• GUSTAVE COURBET, Burial at Ornans, 1849
• huge piece
• irrelevant burial scene
• emphasizes facts of death
• the hole for the coffin is in the foreground
• supposed to feel relief by the cross
• outraged the public
  
  • too crass and unsuitable for a painting
• no heroism
• realism
  
  • movement in art
  • characterized French art in the 19th century
  • speaks to the political moment
• Courbet was interested in portraying the moment he was living in
  
  • interested in painting what the real world looks like
    
    • has a sort of scientific underpinning
• why people didn’t like it
  
  • broke expectations
  • scale didn’t make sense to them
  • people couldn’t read it - it was illegible to them
    
    • seeing is a technology that we learn
    • not everyone sees things in the same way
    • there are ways of reading information in paintings

Question 11

Answer 11

• ÉDOUARD MANET, Olympia, 1863
• realist who wasn’t interested in depicting the working poor
• prostitute being depicted
• appalled by her plain card flatness
  
  • why wouldn’t he at least paint her correctly
    
    • he wasn’t interested in that
    • all of these conventions are layered upon artists and Manet wasn’t playing the game
• detail in the shoes irritated people
• she’s staring out at us
• time period in which artist’s were engaging with the dynamism of urban life and were calling attention to a work of art and its formal elements rather than just the narrative elements
• black woman
  
  • naked woman’s worker
  • offering her flowers
    
    • from us?
• confronts people’s expectations of what art should be

Question 12

Answer 12

• Edward Manet, Claude Monet in his Studio Boat, 1874
• worked alongside the impressionists but never participated in their exhibitions (8 of them)
• impressionism is the most widely known style of art
  
  • they weren’t interested in painting in normal styles
  • they were interested in challenging traditional ways of constructing art
• impressionism wasn’t popular when it was first invented
• impressionists decided that working together would get their work to be more accepted
  
  • this willingness to stand outside the confines of the Academy was meteoric
    
    • suggests a kind of independence that characterizes modern art
• painting of Monet painting
  
  • reminding us that what these artists do isn’t simple and transparent with lessons of virtue or moments in Christian history
  • about engaging with the world
• doesn’t look finished
  
  • sketch like manner reminds us of the process of painting
• Monet is painting in a particular place
  
  • this is Argento- right outside Paris
  • Monet couldn’t afford to live in Paris
• one way that impressionists completely changed art is that they began painting outdoors
  
  • oversimplification
• not all impressionists painted outdoors
• those who did often went back to the studio to touch up their works
• impressionism was influenced by a number of other sources: Japanese prints as well as photography and the work of Mary Cassat who got impressionism popular in America

Question 13

Answer 13

• GEORGES SEURAT, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884–1886
• post impressionists were looking for something more enduring
• turned to a variety of different sources to do that
• this has impressionist subject matter
• turned to the sides of color theory of the time as a way of rendering his subjects with a kind of scientific precision
• creates a fleeting moment with a meticulousness

Question 14

Answer 14

• VINCENT VAN GOGH, Starry Night, 1889
• in contrast to color theory Van Gogh explored the possibilities of color and the distortion of form to heighten emotions and create a subjective expression
• symbolism
• rejection of the window of the world
• has a relationship to what the world looks like

Question 15

Answer 15

• PAUL CÉZANNE, Mont Sainte-Victoire, 1902–1904
• post impressionism
• traditional subjects
• didn’t explore them in search of the transitory but looked to understand the basic forms
• breaking down into basic structural images with lines, shapes, and colors
• rearrange those forms to create logic