Works of art provoke thought, questions, and emotions. Although all art is vastly different, the common thread its ability to create emotion. Whether those emotions are positive, negative, intense, or subtle. A very common theme between pieces can be sorrow. This is a feeling more intense than just sadness. Sorrow affects the whole body and can make a person just collapse. When looking into a piece with this theme the observer can get a quick glimpse into exactly how the artist was feeling. It’s a window into their soul. This theme has been present in paintings from the 1400s and even in the 1900s. Michelangelo’s Pieta and Van Gogh’s Old Man in Sorrow show this theme perfectly. Many would think to compare paintings hundreds of years apart, …show more content…
Michelangelo was an artist like no other. His detail to the human body was almost untouchable. His marble pieces showed details of the human body that were not commonly shown in art before this time. The Pieta was one of his most remarkable pieces. It shows mother Mary cradling the body of her son Jesus after he was crucified. “Art Through the Ages” textbook stated, “Also breathtaking is the tender sadness of the beautiful and youthful Mary as she mourns the death of her son” (Kleiner 634). The viewer can feel the pain and sorrow she is feeling. She is looking slightly down toward her son. Humanism plays a huge role in making the viewer feel the sorrow of Mary. It portrays her as a mother grieving the lost life of her only son. People can relate to that sorrow and grieve alongside her. It shows that daily life problems are not as bad as losing a child. There is a lot of controversy over this work of art though. Many believe that Mary looks too young to be a mother of Jesus as a man (Kleiner 634). Michelangelo explained that since she is the Virgin Mother she has ageless beauty. Pieta brings issues of life back into …show more content…
Both artists show people being defeated by their emotions. The sorrow the man and Mother Mary are feeling is forcing them to no longer be able to hold up their heads. The viewer can almost start to feel their pain and suffer with them. Humanism plays a huge role in these pieces as well. People can look at these works of art and feel like they are right there. The details in Pieta make people feel like they are really sitting at the feet of Mary holding the body of her son and the angle of Old Man in Sorrow makes it seem like the viewer can just reach out on put their hand on the man’s shoulder for comfort. This makes the scene and emotion more relevant for humans. Even though this two pieces were created in different centuries they share the common theme of
...elationship between the people in the composition and their feelings in each other’s company. The viewer is forced to think critically about the people in the painting and their feelings and body language.
The Jihlava Pieta was sculpted of stone by a Bohemian artist around 1400-1410. This composition is formed by a seated Madonna, and the diagonal is marked by a rigid Christ. (p. 32 textbook) Mary almost looks happy to see her once suffering son dead, and this is somewhat disturbing.
“The Met’s very own Mona Lisa” (Tomkins 9). That is what Duccio di Buoninsegna’s Madonna and Child painting is known as today. “The Metropolitan Museum of Art bought the Madonna and Child for forty-five to fifty million dollars” (Tomkins 1). However, the painting was not always in public hands; in fact, the Met purchased the last known work of Duccio in private hands. Originally, the painting was held in the private hands of Adolphe Stoclet and his wife. When the couple died, their house and their collection went to their son, Jacques who held onto the painting, and passed it down to his daughters who lent it to an exhibition in Siena of Duccio and his school. The painting was eventually withdrawn from the exhibition and sold (Tomkins 2). Madonna and Child painting dated 1300 and was painted by Duccio di Buoninsegna a Sienese painter, who is considered the founder of modern Italian painting. I chose to research this painting because the subject matter of religious imagery and symbols interests me. Also because when I looked at the painting the emotion on the Madonna’s face almost jumped out at me. It is as if, she is looking at her newborn child with this deep sadness, which almost makes you think that the painting is foreshadowing the death of Jesus Christ. In addition, the burns of the side of the frame peaked my interest, as to why they were there. Art critics were also interested in this work they even consider Madonna and Child one of Duccio’s perfect works, and it said to be worth all the other paintings exhibited under the name of Duccio (Christiansen 14). The Madonna and Child painting’s iconography, imagery, emotional appeal to the viewers, and meaning all make this painting still a great work of art today.
many other emotions that the artist is trying to display in his painting. Although we can try and
For Michelangelo sculpture was much more gratifying and he loved getting his hands dirty and laboring in his works. He could apply his beliefs of Neo-Platonism to sculpting simply, out of what began as a meaningless piece of marble. Michelangelo also showed his neo-platonic ideas through the use of proportions and mathematical views, to make the sculpture appear perfect to the eye. Through two of his greatest sculptures are his David, and Pieta. You can see this in his portrayal of David; Michelangelo depicted him as the strong but stead king he would become. Michelangelo also fused Pagan and Christian beliefs by portraying the biblical David as being entirely
There are many different types of artworks that express the artist feelings but the ones that capture my eyes the most are the works that are muted and more hidden then in your face. The artworks that scream out the artist feeling do not need as much studying in my mind then the ones that invite you to a quite space to breathe and look. Gaela Erwin works are that, her works are about the hidden feelings that people hide from others.
When Pina dies in the arms of Don Pietro in Rome, Open City the pose can be comparable to Michelangelo’s Pieta. In the famous sculpture, Michelangelo depicts the Virgin Mary cradling Jesus Christ’s dead body. However, in the movie, one of the main characters, Pina, is seen running after her husband that’s been captured by the Nazis and thrown in a truck to be taken away. Unfortunately, she’s shot to death and Don Pietro, the patriot priest hurries over to her side and cradles her in a “pieta” pose. Throughout the movie, Don Pietro can be looked at as a reference to Jesus Christ himself. Even up until the last scene of the movie where Don Pietro is executed, he says, “God, forgive them…end this now.” This quote can be directly compared to the
Ziegler, Joanna E. “Michelangelo and the Medieval Pietà: The Sculpture of Devotion or the Art
As I enter the Gioconda and Joseph King Gallery at the Norton Museum of Art the first thing that Caught my attention was a painting measuring approximately at 4 ft. by 10 ft. on the side wall in a well- light area. As I further examine the painting the first thing I notice is that it has super realism. It also has color, texture, implied space, stopped time, and that it is a representational piece. The foreign man sitting on the chair next to a bed has a disturbed look on his face and is deep into his own thoughts. It’s as if someone he loved dearly just experienced a tragic and untimely death. He is in early depression. I could feel the pain depicted in his eyes. A book titled The Unquiet Grave lying open on the floor by the unmade bed suggesting something is left unresolved. The scattered photos and papers by the bedside cause redintegration. The picture of Medusa’s head screaming on the headboard is a silent scream filled with anger and pain, yet it cannot be heard. I feel as if I am in the one sitting in the chair and I can feel the anger, and regret.
In the scene where Theo is escaping with Kee in a wheelchair through the ruined streets, the camera focuses on the main story, following Theo and Kee running for safety, but is preoccupied and caught by a woman in the background cradling her dead son on the ground. This image can also be referenced as a citation to a piece of art previously mentioned in the “Ark of the Arts” scene as Michelangelo’s La Pietà. The image of the mother holding her son is attributing to the statue with Mary holding the recently crucified Jesus Christ, drawing on the similar question regarding the cruelty of men. This image also invokes Picasso’s Guernica, also previously seen in the “Arts Scene”, which depicts a woman crying out as she holds her dead child in the lower left hand corner, which is sectioned off and highlighted in one of the shots from the scene. While the “Ark of the Arts” scene shows the extracted art placed in a symbolic ivory tower, Cuarón puts art back on the ground where it belongs and brings it alive through ancient and current contexts as well as a background for the main
Art affects everyone differently, and with me there are very few artists that affect me at all. Vincent Van Gogh’s artwork makes me see another perspective, another world much different than my own. Van Gogh’s life was plagued by mental illness, the extent of which varied throughout his life and is visible is his work. I believe his artwork was greatly influenced by his early life and mental health, especially The Starry Night, Café Terrace at Night, and Sorrow.
Each drawing. Each painting. Each sculpture. It can give you a glimpse of what is going on in the artist’s head. Take the painting “El Autobus” by Frida Kahlo as an example. It has been said that the painting is in reference of the accident Frida Kahlo had where she got impaled by a metal handrail. The painting is of a bench with people sitting on it just before boarding the bus. This kind of artwork, where the artist puts a little bit of him/her self in it is something I strive for. I want to make art that reflects me, or that means something to me. I don’t want to make something just because, I want it to be where the viewer could possibly see the hard work, the passion, the emotion behind it. Things that most times get
The painting of Penitent Mary Magdalene was created by Titian. This painting specifically proved to be one of Titian's most popular inventions. His original idea was occasioned in 1531.Titian’s made this painting shows her entirely nude, covered by abundant hair using extravagant waves of lush hair which covers while still exposing the body of the transformed sinner. Her hair is not painted onto the flesh, rather it meets it, her head hair cascades down much like that in Botticelli's Birth of Venus to cover only her pubic area. Otherwise, her body is covered in a sort of hairy pelt, except for her head, neck, hands, knees, feet, and breasts, which are left bare. it is showing her sexual power, with passion. Her sexual passion must be minimized so that. Her breasts are revealed although her arms are slightly crossed holding her hair against her chest; she is seen in a rocky grotto; if it is night is hard to say but the sky is certainly very dark.
Michelangelo’s sculpture, pieta demonstrates both Hellenic and Hellenistic qualities. For Hellenic qualities Pieta shows the theme of humanism, by focusing on bring the marble to life by having muscle, bone, and veins within Jesus’s body as he is being held by mother Mary. Through this detail has the entire focus of this sculpture as a creation of humanity. As for Hellenistic qualities Pieta shows examples of individualism and emotionalism. The theme of individualism defines the interest and in the individual and individual characteristics of a human being, which I believe is capture by the in-depth detail within the soft facial expression and the smooth contour of the body of Christ showing muscles and bone structure, bring a real sense of
The sorrowful tone of the Pieta evokes pity in the viewer. Michelangelo sculpted in such a manner as to make