The second visual essay in John Berger's “Ways of Seeing” is a showcase of images that depict the wealth and values of the upper class, and the productions of oil painting in the 16th,17th, and 18th century. The images in the second visual essay suggest that the subject matter of the paintings is dictated by the patron, and the values of the dominating upper class . I will investigate the following images more specifically in relation to this argument: “Still Life (The Butchers Counter) by Francisco Goya (18th Century)” , “Love Seducing Innocence, Pleasure Leading Her On, and Remorse Following” by Pierre Paul Prud'han (18th Century), and “Emmanuel Filbert of Savoy by Anthony Van Dyck (17th Century). My argument will be supported by Berger in the following chapter of the visual essay. The images in the second visual essay are controlled by the values and their production is influenced by the upper class, and this control leads to the specific, material subject matter depicted in traditional oil painting.
The upper class controls the commissioning of and funding for oil paintings, in particular the select three from Berger's fourth chapter in his essay “The Ways of Seeing”. The three oil paintings “Still Life (The Butchers Counter) by Francisco Goya (18th Century)” , “Love Seducing Innocence, Pleasure Leading Her On, Remorse Following” by Pierre Paul Prud'han (18th Century) , and “Emmanuel Filbert of Savoy by Anthony Van Dyck (17th Century) are three of the images that were included in one of Berger's visual essays. All of the three artworks are examples of upper class commission and funding for oil paintings. When discussing the oil paintings from the visual essay, Berger uses information from Levi Strauss to explain the fu...
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...s of seeing. London: British Broadcasting Corp. :, 19731972. 159,160.
Berger, John. "5." In Ways of seeing. London: British Broadcasting Corp. :, 19731972. 83.
Ibid Berger, 83
Ibid National Gallery of Canada
Berger, John .“5”. In Ways of Seeing. London : British Broadcasting Corp. :, 19731972. 99.
Zirpolo, Lilian H.. "Madonna of the Rosary." In Historical dictionary of Baroque art and architecture. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2010. 342.
Berger, John. "5." In Ways of seeing. London: British Broadcasting Corp. :, 19731972. 84, 85
Ibid Web Gallery of Art
Ibid National Gallery of Canada
Ibid “Madonna of the Rosary” Zirpolo
Ibid Berger, 86
Ibid Berger, 83
Ibid Berger, 83
Ibid Berger, 99
Ibid Berger, 85
Ibid Berger, 99
Ibid Berger, 88
Ibid Berger, 84
Ibid Berger, 86
Ibid Berger, 99
Ibid Berger, 90
Ibid Berger, 103
Ibid, Berger 103
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.
Schirato, T. and Webb, J. (2004). Reading the visual. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin.
Allison, Dorothy. “This Is Our World.” Seeing and Writing. Ed. D. McQuade & C. McQuade. 1st ed. vol. 1 Boston: Bedford St. Martins, 2000. 155-60.
In the Enseigne, art is also shown to serve a function that it has always fulfilled in every society founded on class differences. As a luxury commodity it is an index of social status. It marks the distinction between those who have the leisure and wealth to know about art and posses it, and those who do not. In Gersaint’s signboard, art is presented in a context where its social function is openly and self-consciously declared. In summary, Watteau reveals art to be a product of society, nevertheless he refashions past artistic traditions. Other than other contemporary painters however, his relationship to the past is not presented as a revolt, but rather like the appreciative, attentive commentary of a conversational partner.
Artists have a knowledge of all the artists that preceding them, creating a visual vocabulary from the art that they have seen and understand. For Jean-Michel Basquiat, that knowledge translates into his work, despite never having formal training in an art school. It is his awareness and understanding of the culture that surrounds him that brings a layer of sophistication to his painting, setting it apart from street graffiti that has been painted on canvas. Basquiat’s Untitled (Julius Caesar on Gold) (1981) is a confrontation of his own identity that is created with the visual vocabulary of artists that preceded him.
In her essay “Seeing”, Annie Dillard focuses on showing how different people have different perceptions. Dillard gives multiple examples to support her main idea, which is that preconceived and inherited notions influence our perceptions. Dillard discusses the different ways of seeing, how people with different backgrounds have different experiences with seeing, and many more. While Dillard’s idea about perceptions is definitely relevant and accurate, but are certainly not complete as there are multiple things that influence our perceptions.
Kleege, Georgina. "Call It Blindness." The Presence of Others. 3rd ed. Ed. Andrea A. Lunsford and John J. Ruszkiewicz. New York: Bedford, 2000. 389-407.
Hoy, Pat C. II and Robert DiYanni, eds. Encounters: Readings and the World. 1st ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997.
Debord, Guy. "Society of the Spectacle." Society of the Spectacle. N.p., 1967. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
Barsam, Richard. Looking at Movies An Introduction to Film, Second Edition (Set with DVD). New York: W. W. Norton, 2006. Print.
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...
Boggs, J. & Petrie, J. (2008). The Art of Watching Films. New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies. p. 2-463.
Painting in the 19th century, still highly influenced by the spirit of Romanticism, proved to be a far more sensitive medium for the kind of personal expression one should expect from the romantic subjectivity of the time. At the very beginning of the “modern period” stands the imposing figure of Francisco Goya (1746-1828), the great independent painter from Spain. With much indebtedness to Velazquez, Rembrandt and the wonders of the natural world, Goya occupies the status of an artistic giant. His artistic range goes from the late Venetian Baroque through the brilliant impressionistic realism of his own to a late expressionism in which dark and powerful distor...
In the early 1940’s, television was something not many Americans had heard of. During this decade television had one basic goal: development. At this time World War II was coming to an end, having a few months left in 1945. In this period, the government only used the use of television’s limited resources in the terms of research and development for communicating the war. “They wanted to be able to use the technology for many different things such as guided missile systems using an ‘electronic eye’ that broadcasted images to a remote location where an operator was stationed (Television in the 1940s)”. The greatest lasting impact the war had on television was the development o...
The book titled as “ways of seeing" John Berger is written based on the famous film the BBC and was first published after its premiere in 1972. The critics wrote that Berger is not just opens your eyes to how we see the work of art, it is almost certain to change the very perception of the art audience. "Theory and Practice" begin cooperation with the publishing house and published the first edition of this essay, in which the writer behind Walter Benjamin talks about the changing role of art in the age of mechanical reproduction.