James' Art Exploration

Impressionist  The "Impressionist" style of painting has the following attributes. According to artyfactory.com, these artists were: The first group of artists to embrace painting outside. This was partially due to the introduction of paint in tubes, which enabled artists to carry their equipment. They also found it necessary to paint outdoors because they were committed to observing the effects of light on color in nature.  Edgar Degas, Four Dancers , c. 1899, France Four Dancers  by Edgar Degas reflects the outdoor style that was popular in Impressionist paintings. Degas combines the use of small strokes to capture natural light, dancers, and the landscape. As the National Gallery of Art states, "Degas suppressed descriptive detail elsewhere in the painting, emphatic dark lines shape the heads and arms, underlining the artist's formal concerns."  The idea Degas may have been attempting to portray was that the dancers were ballerinas out in nature. He may have ...

  Joseph Wright of Derby, A Philosopher Giving a Lecture at the Orrery, c. 1763-65, Derby.  A key idea of the Age of Enlightenment; that empirical observation grounded in science and reason could best advance society is expressed by the faces of the individuals.  The events depicted do not give A Philosopher Lecturing at the Orrery its high dramatic impact. That responsibility falls on the painting's strong internal light source, the lamp that takes the role of the sun. Wright mimics Baroque artists like Caravaggio, who inserted strong light sources in otherwise dark compositions to create the dramatic effect. Most of these earlier works were Christian subjects, and the light sources were often simple candles. Wright flips the script with his scientific subject matter. The gas lamp which acts as the sun pulls double duty in the painting. It illuminates the scene, allowing the viewer to clearly see the figures within, and it symbolizes the active enlightenment in those fig...

  Above is a painting called The Calling of Saint Matthew by Caravaggio. This was painted in 1599-1600, using oil on canvas. This is located in the Contarelli chapel, San Luigi dei Francesci, Rome. This painting resembles a biblical story of the calling of Saint Matthew. Jesus singles Matthew out and calls on him to join him and his disciples. The characters seem to be dressed in contemporary clothing, setting this event in Caravaggio's time, rather than biblical times.  The Calling of Saint Matthew shows Caravaggio's use of tenebrism and stark contrasts between partially lit figures and dark backgrounds to dramatize the effect. Tenebrism is a term derived from the Italian 'tenebroso' which means darkened and obscuring. It is used to describe a certain type of painting in which significant details such as faces and hands are illuminated by highlights which are contrasted with a dark setting. Light plays an active role in furthering the action/plot, rather than merely c...

  Shown above is Michelangelo's drawing design of the Church of San Lorenzo facade in Florence, Italy. The Medici Pope Leo X gave Michelangelo the commission to design a facade in white Carrara marble in 1518. I find this piece fascinating due to the fact that Michelangelo was given top priority for this structure. Michelangelo is known as a sculptor, painter, architect, and poet during the Italian Renaissance.  Michelangelo's first contact with the Medici family was when he was a teenage apprentice of the Florentine painter Domenico Ghirlandaio. Michelangelo made a wooden model, which shows how he adjusted classical proportions of the facade.  I'm not sure if I would own a copy of this work, but it would be awesome to attempt a replica drawing of his in the San Lorenzo facade. I have a few friends that work as engineers and builders. Seeing their blueprints of buildings seems to amaze me just as much as this design.  Work Cited  Model for the Facade of San Lore...