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Popularity of the Mona Lisa is perhaps tenuous because a psychological mechanism recognized as the “mere-exposure effect” has likely played a role in shaping cultural preference for paintings. According to Prof. Cutting from Cornell University, students are grown to like the paintings which they have seen more in experiments, and thus even unconscious familiarity breeds affection (Intelligent Life). The scientific experiment offers a clue as to how canons are formed. In the history, the preferences of wealthy and influential collectors bestowed prestige on certain works, which made the works more likely to be hung in galleries and printed in anthologies. “Scholars”, Cutting argues, “are no different from the public in the effects of mere
Spending time looking at art is a way of trying to get into an artists’ mind and understand what he is trying to tell you through his work. The feeling is rewarding in two distinctive ways; one notices the differences in the style of painting and the common features that dominate the art world. When comparing the two paintings, The Kneeling Woman by Fernand Leger and Two Women on a Wharf by Willem de Kooning, one can see the similarities and differences in the subjects of the paintings, the use of colors, and the layout
Many might have been working on Good Friday, but many others were enjoying The Frist Museum of Visual Arts. A museum visitor visited this exhibit on April 14, 2017 early in the morning. The time that was spent at the art museum was approximately two hours and a half. The first impression that one received was that this place was a place of peace and also a place to expand the viewer’s imagination to understand what artists were expressing to the viewers. The viewer was very interested in all the art that was seen ,but there is so much one can absorb. The lighting in the museum was very low and some of the lighting was by direction LED lights. The artwork was spaciously
Though most works of art have some underlying, deeper meaning attached to them, our first impression of their significance comes through our initial visual interpretation. When we first view a painting or a statue or other piece of art, we notice first the visual details – its size, its medium, its color, and its condition, for example – before we begin to ponder its greater significance. Indeed, these visual clues are just as important as any other interpretation or meaning of a work, for they allow us to understand just what that deeper meaning is. The expression on a statue’s face tells us the emotion and message that the artist is trying to convey. Its color, too, can provide clues: darker or lighter colors can play a role in how we judge a piece of art. The type of lines used in a piece can send different messages. A sculpture, for example, may have been carved with hard, rough lines or it may have been carved with smoother, more flowing lines that portray a kind of gentleness.
In existential thought it is often questioned who decides what is right and what is wrong. Our everyday beliefs based on the assumption that not everything we are told may be true. This questioning has given light to the subjective perspective. This means that there is a lack of a singular view that is entirely devoid of predetermined values. These predetermined values are instilled upon society by various sources such as family to the media. On a societal level this has given rise to the philosophy of social hype. The idea of hype lies in society as the valuation of something purely off someone or some group of people valuing it. Hype has become one of the main driving forces behind what society considers to be good art and how successful artists can become while being the main component that leads to a wide spread belief, followed by its integration into subjective views. Its presence in the art world propagates trends, fads, and limits what we find to be good art. Our subjective outlook on art is powered by society’s feedback upon itself. The art world, high and low, is exploited by this social construction. Even when objective critique is the goal subjective remnants can still seep through and influence an opinion. Subjective thought in the art world has been self perpetuated through regulated museums, idolization of the author, and general social construction because of hype.
Walter Benjamin emphasizes in his essay, “The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility” that technology used to make an artwork has changed the way it was received, and its “aura”. Aura represents the originality and authenticity of a work of art that has not been reproduced. The Sistine Chapel in the Vatican is an example of a work that has been and truly a beacon of art. It has brought a benefit and enlightenment to the art of painting, and it has an exemplary aura that cannot be replaced. A picture taken of the Sistine Chapel is just an imaged “captured”, while the painting is still original, because it is not movable, and its cult value is still intact. He asserts that the origin of an artwork gave its aura and authenticity and since it is not moveable, it does not have the ability to be reproduced by other artists. Therefore, the aura and authenticity is autocratic. For instance, the Sistine Chapel is owned and controlled by the Vatican—Catholic Cardinals. They control its usage to the masses. Once art becomes available to the masses, it becomes in a way ‘successful.’ In addition, he calls to attention that the forces of commercialization have subjected the aura of an artwork to cheapening cult value, which is a positive outcome for the masses.
It appears to me that pictures have been over-valued; held up by a blind admiration as ideal things, and almost as standards by which nature is to be judged rather than the reverse; and this false estimate has been sanctioned by the extravagant epithets that have been applied to painters, and "the divine," "the inspired," and so forth. Yet in reality, what are the most sublime productions of the pencil but selections of some of the forms of nature, and copies of a few of her evanescent effects, and this is the result, not of inspiration, but of long and patient study, under the instruction of much good sense…
The movie Mona Lisa Smile is set in 1953; post-war and pre-feminism. Katherine Ann Watson, a progressive Art History teacher, is hired to teach at Wellesley. This selective all-women’s college is described in the opening scenes of the film as “the most conservative university in the country” (Newell, “Mona Lisa Smile”, 2003). Watson wants to teach at Wellesley in order to influence the next generation of women. Some of the brightest female students in the country attended Wellesley. Among these students are: Joan Brandwyn, a driven student with a 4.0 GPA, Betty Warren, the daughter of the Alumni Association president, Giselle Levy, a flirtatious and outgoing young woman who has had an affair with a Wellesley teacher (Bill Dunbar), and Connie Baker. These women are bright, and largely members of the upper class. Their social class not only affords them the Wellesley education but vacations abroad and elaborate parties and weddings.
Popularised due to the increase of wealth in Italy during the Renaissance, Patronage played an important role in the development of individual geniuses in art. Many wealthy families of the aristocratic Italy contributed greatly to the success of many artists in this time. They did this by drawing attention to the arts and supporting the industry by commissioning visual propaganda, works of art for displays of prestige and memorials. Patronage involved the patron commissioning and specifying most of the aspects of an artwork to an artist. These aspects include size, medium, subject matter, and precious materials used within the artwork. Though the specificity of commissions seems to limit an artist greatly, artists were in high demand, and still, individual geniuses emerged over the masses. But to be considered a genius, an artist would have to have developed expertise in many areas and in a wide range of subj...
In history, there were two paintings that were very similar yet different. One was called the “Mona Lisa” which was painted by one of the most famous artists of the renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci. The other painting was called “Portrait of a Lady” by the flemish artist, Van der Weyden. They both were a huge influence in the art world during their lifetimes. And even after their deaths, their lives and works continue to inspire the minds and hearts of each generation.
In Confronting Images, Didi-Huberman considers disadvantages he sees in the academic approach of art history, and offers an alternative method for engaging art. His approach concentrates on that which is ‘visual’ long before coming to conclusive knowledge. Drawing support from the field of psycho analytics (Lacan, Freud, and Kant and Panofsky), Didi-Huberman argues that viewers connect with art through what he might describe as an instance of receptivity, as opposed to a linear, step-by-step analytical process. He underscores the perceptive mode of engaging the imagery of a painting or other work of art, which he argues comes before any rational ‘knowing’, thinking, or discerning. In other words, Didi-Huberman believes one’s mind ‘sees’ well before realizing and processing the object being looked at, let alone before understanding it. Well before the observer can gain any useful insights by scrutinizing and decoding what she sees, she is absorbed by the work of art in an irrational and unpredictable way. What Didi-Huberman is s...
The essay unlike the aforementioned literature is an early exploration into cult expression within art. Benjamin suggests that art in its origin was a ritualistic, magical and a religious tradition which found its mode of expression in cult value. Nevertheless, it is important to consider that the period in which Benjamin was writing had alternate connotations associated with the term cult. These associations were rooted in religion, rather than pop-culture. Benjamin argues that the introduction of mechanical reproduction has threatened the purity and cult value of art, which has in turn been replaced with an emphasis on exhibition value.
Just as other works that reflect art, pieces in the category of fine arts serve the important message of passing certain messages or portraying a special feeling towards a particular person, function or activity. At times due to the nature of a particular work, it can become so valuable that its viewers cannot place a price on it. It is not the nature or texture of an art that qualifies it, but the appreciation by those who look at it (Lewis & Lewis, 2008).
Imagine being inside a room with nothing inside. Afterwards, you proceed to empty your room and try to duplicate that room you were inside before. You stay inside your now emptied room. Does it feel like the same? Think of this activity as reproducing art.
Conversely, upon investigating the artwork’s factual information such as the painting’s context, the artist’s background, the genre and the school or movement associated with the painting, it is possible to obtain knowledge that combines objective information and subjective opinion, confirming that some degree of objectivity, albeit with our ‘cultural imprint’, is possible as an art observer.
The Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait of a woman that was painted by the famous artist Leonardo Da Vinci. This portrait was painted in oil on white Lombardy Panel Paper. It is an oil painting that utilizes the technique of sfumato. The painting technique sfumato overlays translucent layers of colors. This is used to create a blending of colors so there are no clear transitions seen. The materials used in sfumato are oil paints and a Lombardy Panel Paper. Sfumato is used to create a painting that appears to have no lines. The subject of this painting is said to be a women named Lisa del Giocondo. Meanwhile, many other artists and historians have suggested that the subject of the painting are various other people such as Costanza d’Avalos, Isabella of Aragon, Duchess of Francavilla, Isabella d’Este, Cecilia Gallerani, Pacifica Brandano, Caterina Sforza and Isabella Gualanda. Some theories also suggested the woman is actually Leonardo Da Vinci, the artist himself in his own painting. The woman portrayed in the Mona Lisa has no visible eyebrows or eyelashes. The women sits in a stance ...