art history

Hunters in the Snow . Pieter Bruegel the Elder. 1565 C.E. Oil on wood. WORLD LOCKED IN WINTER; HUNTERS AND DOGS, ICE SKATERS; IMAGE OF DAILY LIFE; CONTRAST OF COLORS; MOUNTAINS IN FOREGROUND; NOT REAL; NETHERLANDS IS FLAT; TOOK INSPIRATION FROM SEVERAL EUROPEAN COUNTRIES; DOWNTRODDEN HEADS OF HUNTERS AND DOGS SIGNIFY DEFEAT

Mont Sainte Victoire . Paul Cézanne. 1902–1904 C.E. Oil on canvas. Impressionist paintings usually done on-site, rapidly, in the moment Artist died two years after it was completed; feels unfinished; trees half formed, white canvas visible; mountain seems to be in the process of forming  We can see clouds, trees, skies, farmland, mountains; if we look closely, they all fall apart. Creates a sense of optical movement and change. Does not create believable space; defies high finish, brush strokes very much visible.  Intimacy; man has seen the mountain so many times.  Geometric shapes, artist important figure in Cubism; denies illusionism present in Western painting beginning in the Renaissance.  Cezanne treats every part of the canvas the same way; delineates distance by color; brings one color into another; does not capture transitory effect of light and atmosphere; no confrontation, permanence.  It can be difficult to estimate, by eye, just how f...

The Starry Night. Vincent van Gogh. 1889 C.E. Oil on canvas. The curving, swirling lines of hills, mountains, and sky, the brilliantly contrasting blues and yellows, the large, flame-like cypress trees, and the thickly layered brushstrokes of Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night are ingrained in the minds of many as an expression of the artist’s turbulent state-of-mind. His favored subjects were irises, sunflowers, or wheat fields; night landscapes are rare.  Van Gogh had had the subject of a blue night sky dotted with yellow stars in mind for many months before he painted The Starry Night; It presented a few technical challenges he wished to confront—namely the use of contrasting color and the complications of painting outdoors at night.  He was hospitalized in an asylum; mentally ill; painted from his window, it is assumed that Van Gogh composed The Starry Night using elements of a few previously completed works still stored in his studio, as well as aspects...

The Valley of Mexico from the Hillside of Santa Isabel (El Valle de México desde el Cerro de Santa Isabel) . Jose María Velasco. 1905 C.E. Oil on canvas. This important school fostered Romantic and Neoclassical aesthetics Students emerging from the new school at the Academy began to illustrate local vistas of the Valley of Mexico.  This imagery offered an opportunity to highlight symbols of patriotism valuable to a newly independent society.  After the 1821 war of independence (from Spain), Mexico sought to establish its identity through artistic endeavors. United ancient and contemporary Roman historical subjects.  The development of the practice of national landscape painting was part of the dictator López de Santa Anna’s efforts to re-establish the art academy after decades of neglect following the formation of Mexico as an independent nation.  Artist had an Italian Mentor: Eugenio Landesio. Trainer in landscape/nature painting.  Towards t...

The Oxbow (View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm). Thomas Cole. 1836 C.E. Oil on canvas. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Hudson River School Painting. Founder of American Landscape painting; landscape ranked very low by the academies in Europe.  Painting not respected in American society; didn’t aim for anything extravagant, no grand, mythological scenes; Americans wanted portraits, or landscapes, or views.  Five or six feet wide: point Cole wanted to make. Landscape painting was considered lowly; made it in a campus comparable to highly renowned paintings.  He tries to use landscapes to say something big, convey a greater meaning; this is seen in his other works. Ambitious; Represents transformation, metamorphosis. It’s about America and what it’ll become. On the right, we see a storm-ravaged landscape; broken trees, rain the background, lightning bolts; birds are frantic.  Lush landscapes represents Eden: America as...