Art Mythology Themes

_________________________________________________________________________________________________ Exploring Themes in Art Histories: Mythology AVI 3M1: Grade 11 Visual Art

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Through out history we see many art including paintings and structures dedicated to their set beliefs. Mythology is “one belonging to a particular religious or cultural tradition.” Mythology can be a controversial topic because the topic may be based on someone’s belief and religion. Myths can also be about creation and magical
“Saturn Devouring his Children” was an oil mural, transferred to a 143cm x 81 cm canvas. Saturn was a God in the ancient Roman religion. He was the God of agriculture. A lot of Raman mythology was based upon and borrowed from Greek mythology. In Greek mythology Saturn is equivalent to the Greek God Cronus and therefore the two have a very similar story. It is said in Roman mythology that Saturn seizes power and overthrows his father Uranus. One day Saturn is told a prophecy that one day his own powerful son would overthrow him. To prevent this Saturn devoured all his children when they were born. Saturn’s wife Ops hid their sixth child named Jupiter on an island and gave Saturn a large stone wrapped in swaddling clothes; replacing Jupiter and Saturn devoured it. Jupiter grows older and eventually overthrows his father Saturn and the other Titans. It is believed the Goya was inspired by Peter Paul Rubens’ painting “Saturn Devouring His Son”. Goya purchased a house in 1819 named Villa of the Deaf Mann. The house was named after a previous occupant however Goya related he was also deaf after a fever in 1792. Goya painted the mural directly on his walls of his home. He produced fourteen other works, which were also painted directly on the walls of his home. The series of paintings on his wall are called the Black Paintings which all portray terrible, mythological and morbid
Marc Chagall was a Russian born French artist born on July 7,1887 in Vitebk (Russian Empire). He was a surrealism and expressionism artist who lived through both world wars. Chagall was raised as a devoted Jew who was degraded and discriminated during World War 2. The Nazi officials mocked his art. During the Nazi campaigns against modern art Chagall was in France working on Bible illustrations. Nazi’s soon invaded France. Chagall and his family decided to stay believing things would go better, however it didn’t and they decided to get a refugee at New York. He returned to France in 1948. Throughout Chagall’s life he created many paintings of Orpheus including Orphee, 1913; Orphee jouant, 1970 and The Myth of Orpheus, 1917. All the artworks about Orpheus are represented in a very positive and happy way. Orpheus was a mythical, legendary poet and musician. When he was young he was gifted a lyre and got taught how to play it. He became the Prince of Thrace and became one of the greatest musicians in the ancient world. His wife Eurydice whom he dearly loved died after a snake bit her. This devastated Orpheus and decided to go to the underworld to get his wife back. The leaders of the underworld were so moved by his music, they decided to return Eurydice to the Upper world. However, there condition was that Orpheus could not turn around to look at his wife as