The Chris Ofili Controversy
Most people may not know who Chris Ofili is, but chances are that many of them know one of his works, his painting “The Holy Virgin Mary”, displayed at the Brooklyn Museum of Art’s “Sensation” exhibition in 1999. The painting was extremely controversial because of Mary’s exposed breast being made of elephant dung and because of the porno cutouts surrounding Mary. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and others, saying that such works were not appropriate for public display, immediately attacked the painting, along with the entire showcase of art by different artists. These sharp criticisms were an extreme injustice, condemning the work “The Holy Virgin Mary” based on prejudiced views of what is and what is not acceptable in art, rather than viewing the painting for its true meaning. Chris Ofili did not mean for his work to be offensive, but rather, meant to honor the Virgin Mary using traditional African symbolism.
Without being told, it is unlikely that anyone looking at Ofili’s painting would believe that it is of the Virgin Mary. In the portrait, the woman is black skinned, has a wide mouth, a splayed nose, and mismatched eyes. These are far departures from the European conventions of Mary, though it does have a traditional symbol; her robe is Marian blue and outlined by golden lines (Pops 1). However, this Africanized version of Mary, painted by an Anglo-African, is not what sparked such controversy, but rather, it was the unique materials that Ofili employed. In the painting, one of the Virgin’s breasts is exposed, and it is made of elephant dung. Ofili also sat the painting on two piles of dung, into which were inscribed the words “Virgin” and “Mary,” allowing the viewer to realize whom...
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Scaff, Susan von Rohr. “The Virgin Annunciate in Italian Art of the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance.” College Literature Summer 2002: 109-23. Wilson Select Full Text Plus. Melville Library, SUNY Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY. 9 Mar. 2003 <http://www.sunysb.edu/library>.
Vallance, Jeffrey. “Holy Shit! A Scatological Eschatology.” Art Issues Sept./Oct. 2000: 27-33. Wilson Select Full Text Plus. Melville Library, SUNY Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY. 6 Mar. 2003 <http://www.sunysb.edu/library>.
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Gentileschi’s Judith Slaying Holofernes epitomizes the style of artwork during the Italian Baroque era. By using a Catholic subject and key elements and techniques essential to baroque art such as chiaroscuro and foreshortening, she was able to create a piece that gushes drama and realism. Without the use of all of these elements the effect would be lost, but instead the piece is one that moves the viewer with its direct and gritty realism of the religious subject, evoking emotion in a way that leaves the viewer in awe.
By most accounts, the year 1500 was in the midst of the height of the Italian Renaissance. In that year, Flemmish artist Jean Hey, known as the “Master of Moulins,” painted “The Annunciation” to adorn a section of an alter piece for his royal French patrons. The painting tells the story of the angel Gabriel’s visit to the Virgin Mary to deliver the news that she will give birth to the son of God. As the story goes, Mary, an unwed woman, was initially terrified about the prospects of pregnancy, but eventually accepts her fate as God’s servant. “The Annunciation” is an oil painting on a modest canvas, three feet tall and half as wide. The setting of the painting is a study, Mary sitting at a desk in the bottom right hand corner reading, and the angel Gabriel behind her holding a golden scepter, perhaps floating and slightly off the canvas’s center to the left. Both figures are making distinct hand gestures, and a single white dove, in a glowing sphere of gold, floats directly above Mary’s head. The rest of the study is artistic but uncluttered: a tiled floor, a bed with red sheets, and Italian-style architecture. “The Annunciation” was painted at a momentous time, at what is now considered the end of the Early Renaissance (the majority of the 15th Century) and the beginning of the High Renaissance (roughly, 1495 – 1520). Because of its appropriate placement in the Renaissance’s timeline and its distinctly High Renaissance characteristics, Jean Hey’s “Annunciation” represents the culmination of the transition from the trial-and-error process of the Early Renaissance, to the technical perfection that embodied the High Renaissance. Specifically, “Annunciation” demonstrates technical advancements in the portrayal of the huma...
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Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 – 1652), daughter of a well-known Roman artist, was one of the first women to become recognized in her time for her work.. She was noted for being a genius in the world of art. But because she was displaying a talent thought to be exclusively for men, she was frowned upon. However by the time she turned seventeen she had created one of her best works. One of her more famous paintings was her stunning interpretation of Susanna and the Elders. This was all because of her father. He was an artist himself and he had trained her and introduced her to working artists of Rome, including Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. 1. In an era when women artists were limited to painting portraits, she was the first to paint major historical and religious scenes. After her death, people seemed to forget about her. Her works of art were often mistaken for those of her fathers. An art historian on Artemisia, Mary D. Garrard notes that Artemisia “has suffered a scholarly neglect that is unthinkable for an artist of her caliber.” Renewed and long overdue interest in Artemisia recently has helped to recognize her as a talented renaissance painter and one of the world’s greatest female artists. She played a very important role in the renaissance.
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The tendencies of Baroque translated differently in parts of Europe. In Italy, it reflected the return of intense piety through dense church ornamentations, complex architecture, and dynamic painting. Calabrese’s work exhibits the combined artistic stimuli of the 17th century and culminates in the acquired Caravagesque style that alters how paintings were composed from then on. Executed at the height of Calabrese’s most creative phase, St. John the Baptist Preaching is indicates the monumentality of change in urbanization as well as the return of Catholic permanence in the 1600’s. Aside from the Baroque power of the artwork, Calabrese’s St. John is a piece worth gravitating to and stands as reminder of the grandiose excesses of Baroque art.
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