Wall Text
The Nightwatch by Rembrandt van Rijn is an oil painting which features Captain Frans Banninck and his militia. It provides valuable cultural significance, showing how people interacted, what styles of clothing they wore, and and who would be found in a setting such as a militia. It was one of the first of its time to show a painting of a group actually interacting with the environment rather than posing and looking straight at the viewer, making it very notable.1 The painting is the impressive size of 379.5 cm by 453.5 cm.2 It has been subject to acts of destruction, known as iconoclasm, which demonstrate just how powerfully influential the painting is.3
Catalogue Entry
The Night Watch is a painting by Rembrandt van Rijn, done in 1642, and is currently located in Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.4 In the center of the
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This painting is considered to be one of the first to do this, resulting in some arguing that it “caused a scandal in its time”.7 This scandal could have resulted in iconophobia towards the painting - a fear, or mistrust towards it.8 However, others do not believe that the painting caused a scandal at all9. Others, such as Eugene Fromentin, have looked at the painting with a more formalist approach. Fromentin said the painting had a “lack of unity”,10 but was very impressed by the lighting used, marvelling at its painterly colours and shading.11 The Nightwatch has undergone multiple instances of iconoclasm.12 For example, in 1975 it was slashed with a knife. Following this attack, the museum chose not to look into reasoning for the attack, which Helen E. Scott believes to be because it allows the museum to “deny the symbolic power of such acts”.13 Then, Scott goes on to argue that museums should explore the motives for iconoclasm when it occurs because knowing the motives will help them to prevent it in the future.14 This act of iconoclasm links directly back to the theme of the exhibition, as it looks at the power that
Carol Armstrong begins her essay by pointing out the two main points that come about when discussing A Bar at the Folies-Bergere. These two points are the social context of the painting and its representation of 19th century Paris, and the internal structure of the painting itself with the use of space. She then goes on and addresses what she will be analyzing throughout her essay. She focuses on three main points, the still life of the counter and its commodities, the mirror and its “paintedness”, and the barmaid and her “infra-thin hinge” between the countertop and the mirror.
The view of the painting brings to mind the all the senses. Smell is the first to come to mind as the smoke from the candle billows up, the burning smell reaches the noise as well as the burning cigar. The fruity smell overshadows that of the smell of chicken and peas. The noise of a dropped tray and the breaking of glass as it hits the floor makes everyone turn to the right. People talking over each other to be heard. All of the senses are realized as the painting is viewed.
The face of the portrait is detailed, and more naturally painted than the rest of the composition. However, the left iris exceeds her eye and extends past the normal outline. The viewer can see every single brush stroke resulting in a unique approach to the capturing human emotion. The streaky texture combines with the smoothness flow of the artist’s hand creating contrast between the hair and the face. The woman’s hair is painted with thick and chunky globs of paint. The viewer can physically see the paint rising from the canvas and flowing into the movement of the waves of hair. Throughout the hair as well as the rest of the portrait Neel abandons basic painting studies and doesn’t clean her brush before applying the next color. Because of the deliberate choice to entangle the colors on the brush it creates a new muddy palate skewed throughout the canvas. Moving from the thick waves of hair, Neel abandons the thick painting style of the physical portrait and moves to a looser more abstract technique to paint the background. Despite the lack of linear perspective, Neel uses a dry brush technique for the colorful streaks in the background creating a messy illusion of a wall and a sense of space. The painting is not clean, precise, or complete; there are intentional empty spaces, allowing the canvas to pear through wide places in the portrait. Again, Neel abandons
Additionally, Lie placed tall trees in the foreground of the painting to give a sense of the scale between the observer’s perspective and surrounding objects. Furthermore, Lie used dark, cold colors, such as purple, blue and black, to depict the feeling of a winter’s afternoon. Lie also used snow on the ground as an obvious indicator of the time frame in which the painting is occurring. However, in contrast to the dark cold colors used, Lie also used subtle hints of orange, yellow and red to show that there is some presence of light in the piece. The background of the painting is a sheen of yellow, suggesting the presence of light and the forming sunset.
My initial thought about this painting is that it seems to be incorrect. The reflection in the mirror shows that the lady is looking in the direction of the man standing in front of her. If the lady is looking at the man their reflections should not be off to the side. The second observation is the lady is sad or disappointed and is looking past the man standing in front of her. My last observation is there are three sections from left to right; bottles and the audience, the lady, and the reflections of the lady and man. The most interesting concept about this artwork is how the reflections seem to be inaccurate. If the bottles and the reflections of the lady and the man standing in front of her are at an angle, then why are the vertical lines perpendicular to each other?
The painting is organized simply. The background of the painting is painted in an Impressionist style. The blurring of edges, however, starkly contrasts with the sharp and hard contours of the figure in the foreground. The female figure is very sharp and clear compared to the background. The background paint is thick compared to the thin lines used to paint the figures in the foreground. The thick paint adds to the reduction of detail for the background. The colors used to paint the foreground figures are vibrant, as opposed to the whitened colors of the Impressionist background. The painting is mostly comprised of cool colors but there is a range of dark and light colors. The light colors are predominantly in the background and the darker colors are in the foreground. The vivid color of the robe contrasts with the muted colors of the background, resulting in an emphasis of the robe color. This emphasis leads the viewer's gaze to the focal part of the painting: the figures in the foreground. The female and baby in the foreground take up most of the canvas. The background was not painted as the artist saw it, but rather the impression t...
My main argument will cover what was behind Night and Fog. This controversial piece of art is entwined with post-war French politics and censorship - for example how France, post-war, wanted to be perceived in an official capacity durin...
“I shall always remember that smile. From what world did it come from?”([Wiesel],96). This quote refers to the smiles Wiesel saw at the concentration camps, he is wondering how any one could smile in such a troubling time like this. After everything they have been through they could potentionailly find happiness throughtout this. The Nazis dehumanized the Jews showing inhuman actions towards them. Inhuman, Inhumanity is the quality or state of being cruel or barbarous. In Night, Wiesel exhibits that exposure to a cold blooded, hostile world prompts the devastation of confidence and personality.
She captured herself in beautiful low-cut blue satin dress and the students in working dresses. The dress was painted in great detail and captured both the sheen and fluidity of satin. This was achieved by using shading and li...
She shows the true culture of her family’s life and how they act. Artistically, this frame includes lots of detail and is realistic. Behind the doors and windows is a blank, only shaded area. The conversation between the two sides shows the ignorance of her parents. While the child looks angry and seems to have looked everywhere (with the draws being opened already). This shows that the family does have transparency and doesn’t constantly cover-up the truth.
Color is used to draw attention to important characters and objects in the painting. The red of Mary’s shirt emphasizes her place as the main figure. A bright, yellow cloud floating above the room symbolizes the joy of the angelic figures. De Zurbaran uses warm colors in the foreground. The room, used as the background for the scene, is painted in dark colors utilizing different hues of gray and brown.
I was born with an inherent fascination for all things celestial. Ever since I was young, I have been staring at the night sky trying to find constellations, or using my juvenile imagination to create my own. My efforts to find, view, and mentally catalogue everything the heavenly bodies have to offer has led me to employ some over-the-top measures, but the most extreme of them all might be the night I stayed awake through the wee hours of the morning to catch a glimpse of a meteor shower. Over the course of an entire year, the memory of this stupefying event is still as lucent and vivid as it was that very night so long ago.
A distinction of colors exists within the painting: there is dreary dark blue background contrasted by the intense shades of red and white worn by the figures. A specific example of this the women flanking the Virgin Mary. The woman to the right of Mary attracts the most light and is the brightest in color. The Virgin Mary herself is dark, dull, and shadowed. The woman behind Mary, similar to the other woman, is wearing red and bright. In reality, the lighting of these figures do not make logical sense. If Rosso’s mission was the depict reality than the women would be shaded evenly from light to dark. Due to the overall lack of a single swath of colors, the eye is forced to look all over the painting rather than focus on one main
...ause the look of curiosity of the girl extends beyond the frame. This gives the painting a sense of curiosity.
...s of the people that cared about Jesus and also to see the anger that God had for what the people had done to his son by showing the stormy clouds and gloomy surroundings. But he also wanted us to see that even among the gloom that good can come because Jesus has died on the cross for our sins so that we may join him in Heave with our father. I believe he shows this by the light surrounding Jesus. I think this is a great master piece. Tintoretto has so much going on throughout the painting that you can go back and look again and find something going on in the picture that you missed before.