Art and Its History

Why Study the Subject?

Art in Context: The Humanities

Art belongs to the field

It provides the context for the other humanities from a visual perspective

We may know the about the Iliad from Homer’s epic poems

But we can’t identify with the Battle of Troy without images (upper left)

Or their heroes like Achilles (lower left)

Humanities

The Study of the Human Condition

What is the human condition?

We remember the past

We imagine the future

We have emotions

We can reason

We know we will die

Taxonomy: We are Homo sapiens

We are the only human species worldwide

We can think

We can communicate using language

We can make and manipulate object

So we can paint, write, perform

We are bipedal

What Goes into Humanities? Language

Language is the backbone of the humanitiesCuneiform (left) was invented in the Near East. Classical Languages are key to understanding the Greeks and the RomansLatin was used by medieval churchmenWritten language (poetry, novels, drama)No language, no humanities

What Goes Into Humanities: History

Humanities appeals to the pastTraditionally, scholars have to know their classical historySystematic study of the families, societies and the great men (sometimes women)Today, history is more of a social science with a dimension of timeSantayana: “Who ignores the past is doomed to repeat it.”Faulkner: “The past is never dead: it isn’t even past.”

What Goes Into Humanities: Classics

Western Societies: The Greeks and the RomansThe philosophers: Plato (the ideal form) and Aristotle (empirical observation)The Playwrights: Sophocles, Virgil, Horace the satirist.Homer, the epic poetMesopotamia: the epic of Gilgamesh, killing the Bull of HeavenEgypt: The Book of the Dead (Last Judgment)China: Confucius; Lao Tzu on the TaoTibet: Its own Book of the Dead (karma)

What Goes Into Humanities: Law

Law comprise rules the govern human behaviorFound where there are states:The power holders make them; The police and army enforce themLaw is also based on philosophy;Values generate lawThis relief embodies law:Hammurabi the Lawgiver on the U.S. Supreme Court

What Goes into Humanities: Religion I

Concerns the supernatural: Things and events beyond the five senses Goes back to the Neolithic and beyond to animismHalf the world’s religions began with the patriarch AbrahamWho formed the root of Judaism, Christianity, and IslamThis symbology, too, is art

What Goes into Humanities: Religion II

Many are derived from the East with the doctrine of samsara (illusion), karma (consequences of past acts), and nirvana (liberation from samsara): Hinduism and Buddhism

Includes the question: where do we go after we die—the fundamental question of mortality

Including—what else—The Judgment (left)

What Goes into Humanities: Philosophy

Philosophy means “Love of Knowledge.”It asks who we are, what and how we knowThe Greeks, especially Plato and Aristotle, founded and developed philosophyAbove: Scene at the Lyceum, school begun by Aristotle

What goes into Humanities: The Visual Arts

SculptureGreek and Roman sculpture of the human formDrawings, from sketches to hatching to use of pastels (upper left, Escher’s Drawing Hands)Paintings, involving the application of a pigment within a medium and binder (glue) on a surface:(lower left Mona Lisa by Da Vinci)

Music is the interpretation of sound combined into melody and harmony

(Such as the nine symphonies of Beethoven, above)

Drama: the imitation of life on stage

(Below: Shakespeare included many historical re-enactments on stage—

Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Othello)

Both composer and dramatist portrayed in artists’ conceptions

What Goes into Humanities: Performing Arts I

What Goes into Humanities

Dance: An expression of human movement on stage performance

Such as this ballet scene from Swan Lake

Or sometimes in a spiritual setting

Such as the Whirling Dervishes of the Sufis founded by Rumi

In a reaction against Muslim worldliness

What is Art For?

We have seen ways that art fits into the humanities

But is there arts for art’s sake

The answer: it depends

Sometimes art can be very useful for that which is not art

Records of an Unwritten Past

Upper Paleolithic ThemesAnimals, such as the caves of Lascaux, depict concerns of huntingWomen, depict erotic themes or themes of fertility Left to right: Venuses of Dolni Vestonice, Czech Rep.; Willendorf, Austria, and Lespugne France, Required much inference

Archaeology Plays a Major Role

Archaeological Dating techniques:Stratigraphy: identifying relative age by comparing layersThe lower the layer, the older its contentsSeriation: identifying relative age by art styles, such as potteryAbsolute dating: dendrochronology, radiocarbon dating, others

Art as Window of Human Thought and Emotion

One can reconstruct thought and emotionVan Gogh’s self-portrait gives some cluesIs it a self-portrait he’s painting?Clues: colors on palate, intense orange in center (color of beard), and name (Visconti) and date (’88)

Art Refers to Three Types: Painting, Sculpture

Paintings: two-dimensional images of people or things or events

Derived from Latin: pingo, “I paint.”

Sculptures: three-dimensional images of people, things, or events

Derived from Latin sculpere, “to carve”

Both concern images (Latin imago or “likeness”)

And Architecture

Architecture “High (archi) buiding (tecture)

Classic example: Parthenon dedicated to Athena,

Goddess of wisdom and war

Art Methodologies: Formalism

Formalism: “Art for Art’s sake”

Emphasis: Ideal of beauty (Plato) or of texture

Variation: modern art Bird by Brancusi

Or Furry Cup by Oppenheim

Both satirical formalism in reverse

Art Methodologies: Iconography

Art for content’s sake

Example: Bruegel’s Tower of Babel

Visualizes God’s fear that men would reach heaven by this ziggurat (temple designed as tower)

Cloud heightens this tension

Iconology: Group of Works

Definition: Rationale behind or interpretation of a group of works.

Program refers to this group

In Chartres Cathedral, the structure and its contents form a system of subjects within it

This will be illustrated in the context of Medieval architecture

Art Methodologies: Marxism

The method applies class analysis to artistic interpretationEmphasizes role of class exploitation in artAgain, Bruegel’s Tower portrays builders as Proletarian, God as bourgeoisieNebuchadnezzar as ruler—straw boss

Art Methodologies: Feminism

History of art is history of patriarchy

Female artists not represented before the 1970

Most nude themes are of women, starting with Willendorf Venus

Fur-covered cup is by a woman, Meret Oppenheim

Cup emphasizes domesticity

Art Methodologies: Autobiography and Biography

Self-portraits are dominant; Van Gogh or Albrecht Dürer (ca 1515)Sometimes family members are portrayed (Whistler’s Mother)Examples of biographical portraits are infinite: check your dollar bills of any denomination

Other Methodologies

Semiology: The study of signs

Structuralism: Binary opposites based on linguistics (Levi-Strauss)

Deconstruction: Reconstruction of meaning from symbols (text)

Psychoanalysis: Especially derived from Freud and the Oedipus complex

Techniques of Art: Composition

Overall plan or structure of artRelationship between the component parts is emphasized.Emphasizes the arrangement of the formal elementsComposition is distinct from content, theme, or subject matterIt comprises plane, balance, line, shape, color, and textureRefer to pp. 18-24 of Adams text for illustrations of these principles

Plane

Plane: a flat surface direction in space

Picture plane: all paintings are on a flat surface: stone wall to canvas

Plane of relief: surface of a relief sculpture in which an image is raised from a flat surface—stone or masonry

Balance

There is some equilibrium in the image

Symmetry (bilateral symmetry): exact correspondence on either side of image (Taj Mahal, upper left)

Asymmetrical balance; an equilibrium between two sides that are different (God as Architect, lower left)

Lines: Straight Lines

Shortest distance between two points

Vertical: “Stands at attention”

Horizontal: Lies down

Diagonal: Falling over

Zigzag: Aggressive quality

Wavy and cured line; more like a human body

Line: Interpretations

Parallel lines are harmonious

Perpendicular, converging, and intersecting lines: sense of force and counterforce

Thick lines: aggressive, forceful

Thin lines: delicate, even weak

Undulating lines: calmness, as a calm sea

Irregular wave imply choppiness, unsteadiness

Lines: Expressive Qualities

Straight line: implied a sense of purpose—but also rigidity

Circle and curves imply facial expression: upward curves signal happiness, downward implies sadness

Calder’s Cat combines lines with image

Shape

Regular shapes are geometric and have namesExamples: square, circle, rectangle, oval, triangle, trapezoid, polygon Irregular shapes are biomorphic, or shaped like life itselfAssociations: square implied solidity, reliability—and overconservatismCircle is considered a divine shape

Open versus Closed Shape

Open shape implies openness to new ideas or new content

Closed shape implies shutting off new influences or ideas

Navajo: Sand paintings never close a circle and always includes an imperfection: only the divine is perfect

Shape and Dimensionality

Portraying three dimensions on a flat surface

Example: hatching or cross-hatching create an illusion of mass or volume

Shading: gradual transition from light to dark

Light and Color

The physics: color is produced by different wavelengths striking the retina of the eye (left)

These vary from white to a spectrum to black

Projecting white light through a prism breaks it down to its constituent hues (right)

Color Wheel: Primary and Secondary Colors

Definition: Colors that cannot be produced by mixing any other colors

Red, yellow, and blue are the primary colors

Secondary Colors: Colors created by combination of two primary colors

Green: yellow and green

Orange: yellow and red

Purple: blue and red

Color Wheel: Tertiary Colors

Tertiary color mixes a primary with a secondary colorA color wheel places the primary colors equidistant among the colorsComplementary colors are those with the greatest contrast among the pairsValue: relative brightness or darknessIntensity (Saturation): relative brightness or dullness

Expressive Qualities of Color

Bright or warm colors convey feelings of gaiety or happiness: these are red, orange, and yellowCool colors: blue, green-blue, green, since they convey the quality of water or skyThey often convey sadness or pessimismSymbolic significance: Red: danger, extravagant welcome, exciting eventGreen: envy; yellow: cowardice; purple: rage

Texture

Quality of surface

Actual surface: Oppenheim’s furry cup

Mary’s Crown in Virgin in a Church, is simulated

Conclusion

There are three media of art: visual media, sculpture, and architecture

Art may be regarded as a quality in itself

It may also represent a content, a person, or a theme that is not art in and of itself

Methods vary in analyzing art

Techniques serve to evoke a particular emotion or value