I think it is also important to note that the objects of the paintings also tell us quite a bit of the locations and state of culture during these time periods. It's clear that Lascaux is a cave of a more sedentary tribe, with the “hut in a tree” as well as with the more domesticated animals as the cows. The fact that the dwellers of Lascaux had the time to craft different colors of pigments also leads me to believe they were more sedentary. In stark contrast to those in Lascaux, the paintings of Chauvet are of more predatory animals, such as panthers, suggesting that those dangerous creatures may be a sort of trophy, should one be adept enough to bring it down. The dwellers of Chauvet seem more concered with the glory of the hunt, than creating symbols, signs, or “Great Sorcerers.”…
As in Noah’s Ark, there is the evidence of acknowledgment of Egyptian wall paintings which ties into African heritage. The most prominent part of the painting is the story being told through the figures in the foreground. Starting on the left, the story begins with the slave worker in the fields picking cotton. As the story transitions to the right, the figures are no longer hunching over, but are standing tall and willing to fight for their freedom. In the background are the silhouettes of the armies that fought for and against the abolishment of slavery. The center figure, through the use of Art Deco inspired geometric shapes becomes the focal point, is pointing towards the north to lead the southerners to their economic freedom. Lastly, on the right side of the painting, emphasizes the cultural rebirth black Americans found in the…
Robert M. Utley stated that "The world remembers Sitting Bull not for what he achieved in his own culture but for his battle against the westward movement of American people… He lost not because of failings of leadership, or given his cultural outlook, failings of judgment, but because of impersonal forces beyond his control or even understanding." In other words, the failure of Sitting Bull was inevitable due to external forces, and his failure is not solely a reflection of his actions.…
This magnificent painting dates back to Lascaux, France 15,000-13,000 B.C.E. It was found on cave walls and it is said to represent one of the earliest examples of artistic expression. We can see that this piece was created during the Paleolithic period because; they are images walls using paint on limestone. We can see that the primitive people used natural rock contours, which suggested the animal’s volumes and portrayed real representations of a major role in their lives, which were the animals. We can see horses, bulls, deer, cows and more animals on the walls of these caves. Furthermore, the images of the animals are…
Sayre, H. (2007) A World of Art Fifth Edition. Upper Saddle River, N.J., Prentice Hall…
Her curriculum enabled me to find a starting point in the development of a thesis where I believe this Art form “The Mural” is able to describe a historical picture of life from one society to another through a Painted Medium. This thesis is preliminary in scope and needs to be defined more precisely in its description of historical life, though it is a beginning or a starting point for additional research.…
Gombrich, E. H. The Story of Art. 15th edition. All Saints Street, London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1999. Print…
Marilyn Stokstad, Michael Cothren. Art History, Volume 2, 4th Edition., 2010. South University. Web. 08 May 2013 .…
2. Stokstad, Marilyn, Michael Watt Cothren, and Frederick M. Asher. 2011. Art history. Boston: Prentice Hall.…
As I was walking across the 17th century art section at Walters Art Museum, hanging behind the big rectangular pillar in the middle of the hallway, an oil painting on panel by Trophime Bigot draws my attention. The high contrasting tones of colors and values and the artist capability to make the grotesque painting appealing interest me.…
Our ancestors began to express their creativity and individuality with the first forms of art. The two forms art were mural and portable art. “Mural art is paintings and engravings on the walls of caves” (Price 131). Mural art has been found mostly in France and Spain. The paint used for murals is a combination of minerals and cave water. The main colors are black, yellow, red and sometimes white. The mixture is long lasting as hundreds of murals exist today. Most of the murals that have survived are deep within the caves as oppose to the murals that may have been painted in the entrance of caves. There are several caves that have invaluable collections of mural art. One of them is the cave of Lascaux in France. The murals are mostly of animals, occasionally pregnant. There are few paintings of humans. “Portable art is cravings, figurines and other shaped or decorated pieces that can be moved from place to place (Price 131). Portable art has been found in Europe and most of the Old World. The amount of portable art many be a result of groups of people traveling during different seasons to more accommodating areas during the year. A remarkable example of portable art is from the site Dolni Vestonice. Two representations of the same woman have been found. One is a small ivory plaque and the other is a small carved ivory head of a woman with an asymmetrical face. At this site, “a skeleton of a woman with congenital nerve damage buried under two…
Sorcha Brooks Stephen Germic First-Year Writing September 2012 An Analysis of Spotted Horses and Human Hands The art in the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras is some of the oldest known in human history, and has been found in Europe, Africa, Australia and Asia. Archaeologists have found wall paintings, carvings, sculptures, and tools. Authors Joseph Campbell and Karen Armstrong discuss mythic iconography in art from these periods, however, these articles offer limited interpretation of specific works of art. “Spotted Horses and Human Hands” is a cave painting on limestone found in the PechMerle cave. The horses are thought to have been painted in 25,000-24,000 BCE, and the hands around 15,000 BCE. “The head of the horse (on the right) follows the natural shape of the rock. Black dots surround areas of both horses and cover their bodies” (Stokstad, Cothren 1). To paint the main lines, artists could have “blown” the paint along the wall using their hands and arms as guidelines. The spots could have been made using a hole punched out of a piece of leather as a stencil. The horse was central to myth in the upper Paleolithic. But why the horse? Why not the more ferocious bear? The choice could have been a variety of factors. Aside from being visually appealing, the horse was not a threat to the people. The horse could be tamed, approached, and handled at virtually any age. Even if the evidence for riding horses is weak, the Paleolithic people could have seen the horse as a symbol of fertility. The mare, much more manageable than…
Well, like lots of cave art, most scenes portray large wild animals, such as bison, horses, or deer, with horses being the most common. Often, tracings of human hands and abstract patterns were also seen. Drawings of humans were rare and usually more schematic than the more detailed and naturalistic images of animal subjects.…
It was my first time at that museum and I am surely I will be back to do the audio tour. The artwork I chose was Lovers In the Park by Francois Boucher and was made in 1758. I was attracted to this piece because I instantly recognized the Rococo style of painting in which I really enjoy. To have the opportunity to experience and physically see a Rococo painting in person truly brings to life everything we discussed in class such as the gentle brushstrokes and meaningful colors that are involved and used in the Rococo style. I decided to challenge my skills and try to interpret the meaning of the painting on my own. From my first few glimpses of the painting, I noticed how the couple on the right had wealthy looking attire so I’m assuming they are aristocrats. To the left, there is another woman walking by and it seems as if the man is smirking at her in almost a flirtatious way while his girlfriend is unaware and stares into space. I also noticed that there are two baby statues above them that seem to aware of what was going on as they looked down at the couple. to me, the baby statues were a symbol of innocence and the dog next to the couple was a symbol of loyalty. The expressions on the figures faces were soft and pleasant. The image confirmed to express that at that time men were wealthy and powerful, and were able to get away with having more than one spouse, although you can tell the girlfriend in the painting seems somewhat uneasy with the situation. It turns out that the painting is Boucher's way of remarking on the endless game of love. "It invites the viewer to dream awhile" it continued to say and it successfully did that for…
I didn’t even notice it at first, it hardly stuck out against its counterparts. Most of the other paintings at the museum were splashed with dazzling colors that seemed to lift their two dimensional images out of the frame. “Hoeing” by Robert Gwathmey, seemed to do just the opposite, it drew me in. It must have been its distorted figures that first captured my attention. Surrounded by beautiful paintings that almost seemed life like, “Hoeing” in comparison, was an abstract oil painting of oddly shaped workers. Berger said, “The way we see thing is affected by what we know or what we believe”. (167) Having rarely been to museums except on school trips my exposure to art has been very limited. In fact, most of what I know to be art is derived from a single drawing course I took in high school. Everything in the course was directed towards making your drawing seem life like; proper shading, three-dimensional drawing. In whatever case, I came to believe “good” art was the piece that looked the prettiest. Standing in the museum hall, I wasn’t disappointed, most of the paintings there were so realistic they bordered on the difference between a painting or photo. But “Hoeing” was not attractive, or at least not in the traditional sense. Even the frame looked like it had been chipped away over half century. Looking at the painting I was surprised at how an arbitrary piece could make it into a museum. The painting itself portrayed a group of African-American famers laboring at multiple tasks. The two-dimensional figures were either prominently dark black or brown and were continually bent over from either work or exhaustion. The sky was a dull gray mixed with tints of blue while the ground was a scorched red and orange. The colors didn’t add for detail but rather for mood. The dark undertones brought a “tiresome” behavior to the painting that was complimented by the painting’s simplicity. This painting did not stick out to me for its…