Introduction

- Great Sphinx combines human intelligence (Khafra) and animal strength (lion) to show power of ruler- Sphinx symbolizes mysterious wisdom and immortality- Creators used imagination and skill to create art

What is Art?- Art is no dependent on ideal of beauty or skill of artist- Art = Latin word is ars or skill, Greek word is tekne or technique- Aristotle and Plato considered art in intellectual terms, study of beauty and truth led to universal good- Aesthetics is consideration of nature and creation of beauty and art- Aristotle evaluated art based on mimesis (imitation) = how they record the natural world

Led to styles or manners of representation, which are realistic or unrealistic Fictions (ex. unicorns) can have a realistic style

- Plato thought great works were shadows of material world, removed from reality Ideal style = harmony created by symmetry and proportion When this idealism occurred in Greece, the term classical emerged Classic also defines peak of perfection in any time period

- Triumph of human reason over nature shown through perfect balance and harmony- Shows no imperfections or irregularities- Carved top, or capital, of a Corinthian column, a type or order or column, shows no blemishes

Nature or Art?- Greeks enjoyed realistic styles, shown through story about rival Greek painters, Zeuxis and Parrhasios- Zeuxis painted grapes, birds pecked at them- Parrhasios painted a curtain, Zeuxis thought it was real and covering his painting- Adriaen van der Spelt and Frans van Mieris- Flower Piece with Curtain = blue curtain drawn to show garland of flowers

References tale of Pausias who painted garlands of Glykera Raised question of who was the artist, painter or maker

- Iconography, significance and interpretation of subject, can show meaning of work Flowers were most expensive of time, symbolize wealth and power Garland symbolizes passage of time and fleeting quality of human riches Flower piece is a still life of flowers, popular in Netherlands at the time

Styles of Representation- Painting or modern photography can show beauty of plants at the right time- Edward Weston’s Succulent used straightforward camera work- Made photography expressionistic with a close- up view to evoke emotional response- Leonardo da Vinci said painters who copied nature were acting only as a mirror- True artists should attempt to capture inner life (energy and power)- Georgia O’ Keeffe’s Red Canna created abstract beauty by painting the essence- David Smith’s Cubi works are nonrepresentational = so abstract it doesn’t represent natural world- Abstract has subject and content matter, nonrepresentational has meaning- Cubi represents how mechanistic society challenges nature- Meaning can change over time so no interpretation is definitive = contextualism

The Human Body as Idea and Ideal- Human body has been used to express ideas, popular culture obsessed with beauty- Medici Venus = goddess of love, represented peak of female beauty- Sculpture was generalized to stick to classical canon (rule) of proportions- Leone Leoni’s bronze statue, Charles V Triumphing Over Fury

Muscular, athletic torso shows authoritarian rule Body of Greek or Roman god shows portrait of living man

- Kitagawa Utamoro’s woodblock print, Woman at the Height of Her Beauty Complex society regulated by convention and ritual Abstract, simple yet elegant

- Bronze sculpture from India, Punitavati Beautiful and generous woman, offered her beauty to Shiva Shiva turned her into a fanged hag Punitavati provides music for Shiva as he keeps universe in motion

Why Do We Need Art?- Art speculates on nature of things and meaning of life- Fulfill our need to understand and need to communicate

Art and the Search for Meaning?- James Hampton’s Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly- New Testament imagery on right, Old Testament on left- Monument to his faith, created out of worthless materials- People use special objects in rituals, outsiders do not know their significance- Chalice of Abbot Suger = used in ceremony for Christian religion

Christians = communication between God and humans, Last Supper Catholic Christians = wine into blood of Christ Protestants = wine is symbol of blood

- Abbot Suger added handles, stones, to a vase (secular to chalice)- Yoruba offering bowl, in Africa, used to communicate w/ gods- Calls on the god Olodumare (or Olorun, the god of destiny, certainty, order)- Carved by Olowe of Ise

Men and women support the bowl Child suggests life- giving power of women and Olodumare

Art and the Social Context- Goverments can use art to strengthen unity- In Venice, officials ordered Veronese to fill ceiling of Council Chamber- Triumph of Venice = show peace, abundance, fame, happiness, honor, security, freedom

Venice was personified as a woman Lion of Venice (symbol of city) and patron, St. Mark oversee everything

Who Are Artists?- Artists were considered skilled workers and craftspeople, until the Renaissance- Il Guercino thought saints and angels made art, through humans w/ divine gifts

Saint Luke Displaying a Painting of the Virgin Many thought Luke painted the portrait of Virgin Mary

If St. Luke was a divinely endowed artist, there had to be others- Teams often conceived a single art piece, but one person was “creative center”- Dale Chihuly made complex glassworks, w/ multiple parts- The pieces take on different meaning when they are reassembled

Ex. Violet Persian Set with Red Lip Wraps- Jan Steen’s The Drawing Lesson = boy apprentice and young woman learning rudiments of art- They are learning from sculptures b/c women could not work from nude models- Rembrandt van Rijn studied da Vinci’s The Last Supper- The Last Supper = Christ announces that one of apostles will betray him- Despite the chaos, composition is symmetrical- Rembrandt copied The Last Supper in hard red chalk, made his own revisions is soft chalk- Shifted Jesus’s position to right, gave Judas more emphasis

What is a Patron?- Patrons who commissions a work has an impact on it- Ex. Great Sphinx designed by priests, statue of Charles V was to glorify totalitarian rule- Individuals, museums, national governments and more support arts

Individual Patrons- Patrons participate in creation of work, when they provide economic support- Christine de Pizan Presenting Her Book to the Queen of France

Queen Isabeau was de Pizan’s patron, de Pizan was Anataise’s patron- Sometimes, patrons don’t pay the artists, or artists don’t respect the patron’s wishes- Frederick Leyland had Whistler’s painting The Princess from the Land of Porcelain- Asked Whistler what color to paint shutters- Whistler went overboard and painted the entire room with turquoise, and gold- Became called Harmony in Blue and Gold, Leyland did not like it

Institutional Patronage: Museums and Civic Bodies- Curators acquire works of art for collections, and help patrons get fine pieces- Frank Lloyd Wright’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum avant- garde appearance w/ avant- garde works- Avant- garde = new, experimental, or radical at the time- Guggenheim Foundation opened new museum in Bilbao, Spain designed by Frank Gehry- Shows how museums can be works of art themselves- Athens practiced democracy, rebuilt civic and religious center, the Acropolis- Sir Lawrence Alma- Tadema’s Pheidias and the Frieze of the Parthenon

Artist Pheidias sculpting and painted the top of wall of Temple of Athena (Parthenon) Showing it to Pericles and his civic sponsors

What is Art History?- Art depends on skill, training, observation, time it was created, intention of creator, etc- Giorgio Vasari’s Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Architects, Painters, and Sculptors- Considered the very first art history book- Combines formal analysis (out of time and place) and contextualism (in historical and cultural context)

Studying Art Formally and Contextually- Connoisseurship is intense study of individual art objects

- Study of formal qualities that make up design and composition is formalism- Art historians use knowledge on social and political history to understand pieces- Results in understanding of =

Iconography = narrative and allegorical significance Context = social history Ex. Knowing to read hieroglyphs helps understand the Great Sphinx

- Anthropologists and archeologists study a range of material produced by a society- Art historians reject an idea of a fixed canon of superior pieces- Distinction that some mediums or techniques are better, disappeared

Defending Endangered Objects- Damaged or restored pieces are harder to interpret- Restorations can damage art pieces- Lacoon and his Sons = Lacoon warned Trojans about invasion in Greeks (Trojan War)- Goddess Athena sided with Greeks and sent serpents to strangle him and his sons

Lacoon represents a tragic hero, a virtuous person destroyed by unjust forces- Early restoration had Lacoon’s hands flinging out melodramatically- Modern conservation did not replace the lost pieces, put more of an impact on agony- Some people intentionally threaten art and architecture- Objects of cultural value in Iraq were being poached and sold illegally- War is the most destructive factor to art pieces- Architecture and art pieces were destroyed to confirm ideologies, or to celebrate victory in war- Natural disasters destroyed art also

Earthquake shook Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, destroying Gothic and Renaissance art- Art historians help to increase understanding of social and political factors

Uncovering Sociopolitical Intentions- Art has been used to promote political and educational agendas- Honore Daumier’s Rue Transonain, Le 15 Avril 1834 = criticized the French government

French National Guard fired on unarmed civilians Used lithography as cheap means of production to spread his message as widely as possible Government bought and destroyed all newspapers with the print

- Historical and political content needs to be known to understand a piece- Roger Shimomura’s Diary = about internment camps for Japanese

Grandmother writes in diary while mother and son are standing near door Door signifies not freedom, but containment (discrimination)

What is the Viewer’s Responsibility?- Viewers bring pieces to their own experiences, intelligence and prejudices- Styles change from time to time, and the change has a significance- Meanings of a piece can change from person to person

The Object Speaks: Large Plane Trees- Large Plane Trees by Vincent van Gogh- Depicts huge trees and men repairing a street in French town of Saint- Remy- Shows an ordinary scene, in an ordinary little town- Museum curators have traced the provenance, history of ownership

- When van Gogh painted this, he was depressed and living in an asylum- Freudian historians (psychoanalytical)

Despite the light and bright colors, the relationship between the trees and men is uneasy- Marxist ideas (humans are result of their environment)

Van Gogh worked as lay minister, identified with underclass- Ferdinand de Saussure developed structuralist theory = language as system of arbitrary signs- Can be applied to art = lines and colors are lines- Jacques Derrida’s deconstructionism helps more interpretations emerge