What is the first thing that comes to mind when the word “art” is presented? Is it a magnificent painting, such as the Mona Lisa? Perhaps it is a pop song that is heard on the radio. Perhaps it is an orchestral combination that unites with an operatic solo to create the symphonic finale of a Broadway production. Maybe it is a poem or a story. It could be a grand display of architecture, a pencil sketch of this display, or a photograph of a glorious sunset on a mountain range. It may possibly be a flawless plot line in a Hollywood production. It could even be a public address presented with excellent communication skills. There are so many different types of art. The varieties in which it comes are endless. Though some art forms are similar …show more content…
to others, each is unique in its own way. Each specific type of art form can be divided into various categories or subdivisions. For example, vocal music can be separated into opera, rap, hip hop, pop, blues, reggae, and many more. Among these art forms is that of sculpture, a 3-dimensional representation of a person, place, or thing. Sculpture can either be a literal representation or a figurative representation, which is otherwise known as abstract. Matteo Pugliese is one of the various sculptors of our day who specializes in sculpture with figurative representation. Figurative sculpture represents the visible world. It is generally associated with historical works and created with traditional mediums such as marble and bronze (Artsy.net 1). Matteo Pugliese is a master of figurative sculpture. Pugliese was born in Milan, Italy in 1969 and grew up in Sardinia. During his youth, Pugliese developed a strong love for drawing and sculpture. He returned to Milan to attend college as a modern literature major with a graduation thesis on art criticism. Encouraged by friends, Pugliese eventually decided to organize his first exhibition. Since then, he has works on permanent display all over the world, including New York, Hong Kong, London, Madrid, and Paris (Matteopugliese.com 1). His work is beautiful, and the whole world recognizes it. The impeccable work of Matteo Pugliese is some of the most aesthetically pleasing art in our society, and this is why he should be noted as one of the best artists of our time. Just like every other piece of artwork, the work of Pugliese can be judged and critiqued based upon certain criteria that make up a marvelous masterpiece. Each division of art, however, cannot be evaluated based on the same sets of criteria. A musical solo, for example, would be judged based upon confidence, tone quality, rhythm, and dynamics. Though each of these can be categorized under an aesthetic evaluation, they are different then the criterion that would be used to judge a figurative sculpture. A figurative sculpture can be judged aesthetically in multiple ways. The few chosen here display the larger subdivisions of criteria used to evaluate sculpture. A sculpture can be assessed based upon its proportion, movement, texture, economy, as well as how the piece can be viewed. Proportionality is an extremely essential element to look for when evaluating a sculpture. Google defines proportion as, “A part…considered in comparative relation to a whole” (Google.com 1). This means that when comparing one thing to another it can neither be too big or too small. Without this element, the sculpture would become unbalanced. This is commonly known as abstract. Take an egg for example. An egg is completely uniform and proportionate as long as it is unblemished and unbroken. Once the egg is broken, however, it becomes non-uniform and disproportionate. In other words, the egg becomes abstract. The work of Matteo Pugliese is like an unbroken egg. It is not abstract. His sculptures often display wonderful configurations of the human body. In them a figure, which is typically male, looks as if they are either leaping out of the wall in which they are confined or seeking refuge inside. The shadows created by the figure add to the beauty of the sculpture and accent its shape. Although his work is defined as figurative sculpture, it is arguable that his sculptures have more of a literal approach on the human body due to their extreme proportionality.
Pugliese’s ability to create accurate depictions of the human body is nearly unparalleled. Without proportionate depictions, it would be much more difficult to create the allusion of movement. The artwork created by Matteo Pugliese is also an excellent representation of movement captured in sculpture. His ability to capture this essence is what makes his work so distinctly unique. Not only this, but each piece of his artwork displays a completely different appearance of movement. Pugliese changes and diversifies his pieces to add individualism and interest (Kepple 2). No two pieces of art are the same. In addition to the sense of movement comes a sense of emotion. The figures emit a sense of distress, anger, or freedom which is directly correlated with the state of movement in their …show more content…
bodies. An example of this in one of his sculptures is one where a figure is escaping from the wall that he seems to be contained inside. The man appears to be running. This conclusion can be drawn on behalf of his bent knee that is protruding from the wall along with the top half of his torso. It is apparent that his arms are counteracting one another just like when a person is running. The figure, however, is leaning forward much more than the average street jogger would be. This adds to the allusion that he is literally leaping out of the wall in an attempt to free himself from the bond of containment. The man’s facial expression is dormant yet determined which is similar to that of a runner. The strain visible on his muscles also gives the viewer an idea of which specific muscle groups are being exercised, and this allows them to infer which way the man would move if at any second the sculpture came to life. This sense of direction and physical position change is not by any means easily attainable.
It is, however, completely crucial in order for a piece of art to attain a lifelike look. An example of a time where this essence cannot be found is in a sculpture created by Marcel Joosen. The work of Joosen is directly comparable to the work of Matteo Pugliese. The sculpture displays an adolescent male who is sitting on a block. There is no evidence of strained muscles or change in direction; the boy is simply sitting there. The piece is completely proportionate, so that is not where Joosen’s fault lies. This particular piece of art, however, does not display the amazing motion and realism that is captured in Pugliese’s sculptures. As human beings, we are constantly moving. Therefore, in order for a sculpture to be an accurate depiction of a human it needs to display movement in some way, shape, or form. Without it, the piece has the appearance of a statue and not a lifelike representation of a human being. Matteo Pugliese’s ability to capture movement in a sculpture is not the only aspect that makes his work so distinctly unique and
beautiful. In addition, Pugliese uses texture in his depiction of the human body that would not be on a typical person, but it adds to the aesthetics and individualism of his style. Texture can be defined as “the surface character of a material which can be experienced through touch or the allusion of touch” (Kepple 1). Every physical object has some sort of texture. Therefore, every sculpture does too. While analyzing sculptures done by Pugliese, it is clear to the viewers that the surface of his work is never smooth or flawless like a typical sculpture or human skin; it is rough. When asked to visualize a sculpture of the human body, many people would think of Michelangelo’s David or Venus de Milo. These sculptures are usually made to resemble the artwork of the Romans, but what do they have in common? They all have flawless complexion. The features of Greek and Roman sculptures were always intended to be perfect. This is because they were most always intended to be representations of their gods, and their gods were supposed to be the epitome of perfection in every way.
Another element of art used to guide the viewer through the artwork is movement. Both Caron and Albani use different scenes with different people who seem to have nothing in common with one another to come together and create a focal point for their paintings. In Augustus and the Sibyl, The people on the top of the stairway towards the left seem to be moving in the direc...
In addition, to the composition of the painting, the balance is also a dynamic factor. Both Ducci...
On the other hand, his well-defined upper body with broad shoulders, muscular chest, and burly biceps are exemplified with smooth and elegant carved lines symbolizing his youthfulness. However, these smooth and elegant lines do not weaken at all his powerfulness which is best illustrated with his straight hanging down arms while his fists are wrapped around some kind of circular solid rod. The viewer captures his youthfulness but still gets the notion of his strength through the indicated tension in his smooth naturalistic carved muscles in his underarms. It is the contrast of these two different usages of lines that gives the sculpture the balance between the strength of confidence and relaxed peace.
Bernini and Degas used very different materials and mediums to produce very different and compelling compositions that tell interesting stories through elements that were executed carefully. These carful hands displayed the importance of each figure in relation to the other figures and the style chosen.
In my examination of the works, I came across a particular sculpture that portrayed both beauty and craftsmanship. A 15th century sculpture (1490), made in Venice, Italy by Tullio Lombardo, shows a life-size figure of Adam. Titled Adam, the work is the most prominent in the gallery mostly because of its 6-foot standing. It immediately caught my attention and gave me a very realistic impression. One beige color and made of marble, Adam is depicted simply, yet the statue has intense emotions. His meaningful glance is seen in the upward and tilted head position. Adam has almost lifeless looking eyes and seems to be staring into the distance. With these sagging eyes, parted lips, and lacking posture I feel Adam’s guilt is displayed in this figure.
Michelangelo demonstrates his amazing ability to capture the human body in this piece. You can observe the veins popping in the right areas, the muscles and the joints molded perfectly. It idealizes the body of the time, and gives the people a model to work after.
...any of them worked their materials in ways that make complete natural properties, including color and texture. However, there has been a growing tendency to use bright artificial coloring as an important element in the design of sculpture. Sculpture is like poetry in that call forth certain feelings, certain emotions that function within our heart. They have something to them, something you cannot describe, and something just outside our vision. To be accurate, the sculpture needs structure and all other elements, but they also need to reach out to us. Therefore, holes, space in sculpture, which are as carefully shaped as the solid forms, and are of equal importance to the overall design are sometimes referred to as negative volumes. Overall, the sculpture is dominated by a series of repeated diagonal lines that move from lower right to upper left and vise versa.
a shift can be seen from idealized and nearly perfect sculptures to sculptures that had a natural and real feel to them. These newer statues were sculpted with the notion of Realism weighing more than the concept of Idealism. The subjects’ body was not in a state of military attention, they were placed in a more natural, yet still graceful position. Realistic sculptures also did not embellish the muscular physique of the subject; the muscle definition was displayed more subtly and naturally. The weight of Realistic statues is not distributed in a balanced, geometric fashion like the Ideal statues. The Realistic statues balance their weight just as a real person would in motion which gives the sculpture a more graceful and natural
The masculine and idealized form of the human body is an ever-present characteristic of Michelangelo’s sculpture. Many people over the years have speculated why this may be, but there has never been a definitive answer, and probably never will be. Through all of his sculpture there is a distinct classical influence, with both his subject matter and his inclination to artistically create something beautiful. In most cases, for Michelangelo, this means the idealized human figure, seeping with contraposto. This revival of classical influences is common for a Renaissance artisan, but the new, exaggerated form of the human body is new and unique to Michelangelo’s artistic style.
...-Baroque movements. Rodin believed that an individual’s physical revealed his character, therefore he asked his models to move naturally around his studio, which distinguished him from other contemporary artists and academism. Because of his talent on art of sculpture and his unconventional notions, he was able to make each part of body to represent for the whole. This feature can be easily found from many of Rodin’s sculptures, such as his well-known sculpture, The Walking Man; or the portrait of his beloved pupil and lover, The Thought. Rodin preferred keeping relevant fragments which could convey the information that he wanted to express and eliminating all other parts. Although he is considered as a pioneer of modern sculpture, he showed great respect for sculptural tradition by focusing on human form and using various materials such as bronze, marble, and clay.
This episode displays the details of Bernini's three most important sculptural works that are hardly imaginable in their technical accuracy. His work represented the Baroque style and his sculpture, church interiors and exteriors and town planning could be seen everywhere. He was also a painter, playwright, costume and theatre designer.
The terms Arte Povera can be translated to ‘Poor Art’ and was devised by the Italian art critic Germano Celant. Poor here means to its characteristic explorative variety of materials.1 The main purpose of the arte povera movement was to challenge or reject ideas around historical Italian art similar to ideas around Futurism again rejecting ideas of artistic tradition. Fundamentally, arte povera was interpreted to be based on the potential of movement, energy and material. It was also the demonstration of what was inanimate becoming animate. Some traditional examples of these ideas were in the work of Giovanni Anselmo’s Breathing, 1969.2 The piece presented two iron bars of 5m lengths that were sandwiched a sea sponge. As the metal contracts and expands, the sponge would almost breathe like a lung. Though unable to see the movement, Anselmo was presenting potential for movement, like fingernails growing. In one sense Arte Povera was a movement away from what can be seen as a dry and cerebral approach to artistic practice and theorisation accordingly to Artist Craig
...ked their materials in ways that make complete natural properties, including color and texture. More recently, however, there has been a growing tendency to use bright artificial coloring as an important element in the design of sculpture. Sculpture is like poetry in that call forth certain feelings, certain emotions that function within our heart. They have something to them, something you cannot describe, and something just outside our vision. To be accurate, the sculpture needs structure and all other elements, but they also need to reach out to us. Therefore, holes, space in sculpture, which are as carefully shaped as the solid forms, and are of equal importance to the overall design are sometimes referred to as negative volumes. Overall, the sculpture is dominated by a series of repeated diagonal lines that move from lower right to upper left and vise versa.
Many artists started experimenting with new styles of art throughout the Baroque Ages to the present time. These paintings and sculptures were famous for the detailed work and the beauty of art. To define male beauty, these arts have simplified the creativity in masculinity. For centuries, the art of male beauty has been constantly changing and the portrayal of men has become more feminine in many artworks. These changes in these artworks were caused by the increase of time that has passed and the occurrences that had influenced people to associate these experiences through their masterpieces. It is known that mainly known that artists like to express their emotions and show their imaginations that can easily show the meanings in a visual display. By having a representation of each masterpiece, the work to provide the visual views of male beauty can mostly be found through paintings and sculptures that revolves during each era.
Movement is shown through the direction of line or arrangement of color within the artistic frame. The size of objects arranged from smallest to the biggest also suggests movement. When objects are repeated within the artistic frame, they make the viewer’s eye follow a certain