Compare And Contrast Harbor With Roman Ruins

1193 Words3 Pages

Harbor with Roman Ruins and The Holy Family In this essay I will compare two oil paintings, Harbor with Roman Ruins and The Holy Family from the Honolulu Museum art. Both paintings differ totally in size (Harbor with Roman Ruins, approximately 7ft x 9 ft.; The Holy Family is 28 5/16 x 22 5/8 in.), although both subjects relate to historical and monumental matters. Both artists exhibit their mystic images by painting minute details with highly developed skills. Harbor with Roman Ruins is focused on painting dynamic classical architects, whereas The Holy Family lays the foundation on religious iconography.
Leonard Coccorante, born in Naples, Italy, painted Harbor with Roman Ruins in c.1740-50. Prior to painting this piece, he was hired …show more content…

In Harbor with Roman Ruins, burnt brownish colors and gray colors are used for stones for ruins and pavements. The light source strikes from the left, so that the areas reflecting the light look like shining gold and silver. Minimal amount of bright colors such as red and blue are used for people’s clothes; grayish blue for hazy sky; and dull yellow- sap green for lively ground. Coccorante succeeds by using limited color variation to draw a viewer’s attention first to the massive ruins, and then see the small figures on the lower area. To the contrary, in The Holy Family, a wide range of bright colors are used and are symbolic. Mary wears a purple dress with a blue robe. Purple is always associated with royalty, and blue is a symbol of heaven and spirituality. St. Anne’s dress is red and the robe is purple, and red indicates power and importance. Anne’s and Joseph’s robes, as well as the drapes in the canopy, are green, which symbolize nature, fertility, hope and bountifulness. White is used for Jesus’s wrap, the angels’ clothes, and the hair cover-veils for Mary and St. Anne. White is the symbol of purity, virginity, innocence and virtue. Thus, Bouts utilizes these colors effectively for connecting with spiritual symbols and emphasizing the importance of Christianity. The light source must be from the front because the entire picture plane is light and not much shadow is observed. This may suggest that the light is

Open Document