The painting Olive Trees, which is at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, is one of one of the paintings of olive orchards, which Van Gogh painted in 1889 while he was living at the asylum of Saint-Remy. The painting is a landscape painted in bright, beautiful colors, with Van Gogh’s lively brushwork. The image is divided into thirds, the trees being in the middle and highly capricious. The brushstrokes kind of depict the way the land is laid, the motion of the wind in the trees, and the gleam of the sun. In the painting the sun is misrepresented in size, and is also highlighted by an orange outline. The sun dominates the painting and more emphasis is put into it to show its importance. The curved trees all lean, even quiver further away from the center of the painting. The bottom of the trees are painted with red lines that ambiguously show where the sun would hit if it was directly above. The sun and mountains seems to be stable while the ground and the trees have some wave appearance. The main influences perceptible in this painting are those of Millet, Delacroix, and the Impressio...
The colors used in this painting are a combination of bright and dark, giving a sense of professionalism and unconventional feel to the ambassadors and their backdrop. Their clothing is brittle and complete. The composition of this painting is mainly “stuffed” into the center column of the image with the ambassadors substituting walls marking the end of the items in the composition as well as forming an area that our eyes are tensed
Contextual Theory: This painting depicts a portrait of life during the late 1800’s. The women’s clothing and hair style represent that era. Gorgeous landscape and a leisurely moment are captured by the artist in this work of
...is the focal point with the orthogonal of the gestures of the apostles lining up towards it. Masaccio makes good use of chiaroscuro, since his figures have soft, round edges and their bodies are apparent under their drapery. The drapery shows creases and edges which allow for that to happen. Masaccio also employs directed lighting in which the sun comes from the right and all the figures’ shadows are to the left, which is what would happen in real life. Furthermore, Masaccio uses soft, subdued colors, such as green, blue, and pink. The mood of Massacio’s painting is static with all the figures standing in contrapposto with their one knee sticking out and the individuals in Classical and naturalistic proportions. Masaccio placed his scene in the recognizable Arno Valley. Also, Masaccio’s story has no disguised symbolism and rather depicts a straightforward story.
The work depicts a family in plain clothing enclosed in a simple solitary room with a fading fire amidst the dark shadows of the background and another light source that extends from beyond the scope of the canvas. At first glance the influences of Caravaggio and Rembrandt are apparent. Their faces are neither, sad, sullen, angry, or joyful, but rather their emotional expression is plain and uncomplicated, adding a sense of timelessness to the painting. As in the description (20-34) of the piece which states; “It reflects 17th Century social theory, which celebrated the natural virtue of those that worked the soil”, (p. 609). The idea of portraying a classic simple lifestyle is a refreshing one and a concept which will reoccur in other works of the Baroque period.
My second piece that I choose was Vincent van Gogh’s, Olive Trees made of oil on canvas in 1889. I have always loved this piece so this was an easy piece to choose. When looking up the dimensions of the piece it was hard to find. There are fifteen different canvases of this series, so it told me all of them. To make a rough estimate I would say it is about 4 feet high and 3 feet width wise.
The Interpretation/Meaning (III) will be written without any guideline points, the aim of this part will be to determine what the painter wanted to express with his piece of work and what it tells us in a symbolic or not instantly clear way. This part will also handle why the artist drew the painting the way he did it and why he chose various techniques or tools.
The snail in the edge of Italian Renaissance painting is the detail that definitely attracts certain attention to it. Daniel Arasse, a French art historian, tries to express the reason why the snail is there in his essay “The Snail’s Gaze”.
images in this painting, all of which have the power to symbolize to us, the viewer, of the painter’s
The painting, in its simplest form, consists of a naked woman lying elegantly upon stately and rich cloths, while a young, also nude boy, is holding a mirror which contains her reflection. Upon first glance of this work, I was quickly able to make out the identity of the two subjects. ...
The painting was so popular, that he made its numerous versions with sightliest differences. The version presented in Metropolitan Museum, descended through the famil...
...laced on the style and materials presented in the painting. While evaluating and comparing various paintings the author feels that at the beginning of the Renaissance era the skill level of the artist was often not acknowledged whereas materials were, but at the end of the era, skill level played a larger factor in who was chosen to complete the artwork. Therefore, fresco painting, which emerged near the end of the period, changed this so called “deposit”, along with the relationship of the artist and the patron, allowing for the talent and skill of the artist to shine.
In addition, to the composition of the painting, the balance is also a dynamic factor. Both Ducci...
Millais ' rendering of the subject, however, is, on first inspection, characteristically unconventional. The formal features of the painting are unusual; the canvas filled with a hyper realistic natural setting, the only human element, Ophelia, paling into insignificance amongst the un-orderliness of the composition. (description of formality). The piece would appear to have been inspired from a more Northern European oeuvre than a classical one, using materials appropriate to the climate (i.e. not fresco), and drawing on an arguably Flemish style. There is also tension in the image insofar as Ophelia is definitely not real, only existing in literature/text, yet her depiction is painfully life-like, putting into question what this painting is trying to
In this essay, I shall try to examine how great a role colour played in the evolution of Impressionism. Impressionism in itself can be seen as a linkage in a long chain of procedures, which led the art to the point it is today. In order to do so, colour in Impressionism needs to be placed within an art-historical context for us to see more clearly the role it has played in the evolution of modern painting. In the late eighteenth century, for example, ancient Greek and Roman examples provided the classical sources in art. At the same time, there was a revolt against the formalism of Neo-Classicism. The accepted style was characterised by appeal to reason and intellect, with a demand for a well-disciplined order and restraint in the work. The decisive Romantic movement emphasized the individual’s right in self-expression, in which imagination and emotion were given free reign and stressed colour rather than line; colour can be seen as the expression for emotion, whereas line is the expression of rationality. Their style was painterly rather than linear; colour offered a freedom that line denied. Among the Romanticists who had a strong influence on Impressionism were Joseph Mallord William Turner and Eugéne Delacroix. In Turner’s works, colour took precedence over the realistic portrayal of form; Delacroix led the way for the Impressionists to use unmixed hues. The transition between Romanticism and Impressionism was provided by a small group of artists who lived and worked at the village of Barbizon. Their naturalistic style was based entirely on their observation and painting of nature in the open air. In their natural landscape subjects, they paid careful attention to the colourful expression of light and atmosphere. For them, colour was as important as composition, and this visual approach, with its appeal to emotion, gradually displaced the more studied and forma, with its appeal to reason.
Olive trees reflects the artist’s Dutch heritage by its origination and in his passion for bright colors, which comes from a Dutchman’s reaction and love for colors. The main influences perceptible in this painting are those of Millet, Romanticism, and the Impressionists.