Baroque Art: Using Movement and Drama to Reach Out to Viewer - Essay Sample

Introduction

Baroque art wants people to relate to images in their bodies and not what is in mind. Bernini uses it to reach out to the viewers' point of view. One can feel what David feels as sympathy is vital in baroque art. Unlike previous works in pyramids, his work shows a diagonal line. These lines suggest movement, drama, and energy (Harris and Zucker, 2015). This is different, unlike pyramid shape, which is immobile. The three views of David have been depicted in a way that many can relate to. The young figure of David represents the republic of Florence, which identified itself as David, who was blessed by God.

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The marble statue, Perseus, a Greek demigod holding the head of Medusa, was done between 1797 and 1801. He is standing in a triumphant pose and holds medusas in his left hand, grabbing the venomous snake. Medusa was a monster from Greek mythology. Anyone who beheld the head would be petrified. In the decapitated head, Canova expresses Medusa's face showing the horror of appearance and death. In his right hand, he has the harp sword owned by Zeus, his father. His left foot is at the front while the right foot is lifted; with this, Canova creates a sense of motion. That Perseus is moving forward. Initially, the sculptor modeled the work using clay and later on making a plaster mold. It helped to preserve the spontaneity and freshness of the model. It also conveyed a similar surface like the finished marble.

Comparison Two

The Bacchanal of the Andrians by Titian is a colorful figure painting commissioned by Alfonso. It one of a series of mythological works of the Romans. The scene is in Andros island. The followers of Bacchus wait for him to arrive at varying stages as they drink from the island's river of wine. Bacchus is not in the picture put; his ship can be seen from a distance. The people celebrate the effects of wine whose consumption makes them have spectacular features and emotions. It has a lot of content as it is full of detail and incident. It addresses its audience like a poem. It also creates a notion of mediation and an engagement of sensibility. It creates a scenario where one cannot drive definitive meaning.

The luncheon on the grass sparked a lot of controversies. It depicted a nude woman with men who were fully clothed. At the time, it was considered an insult. This was because of the stark nudity compared to the men, and that familiar model was used in the painting. The woman was a combination of his wife and one of his female models while the men were his brother and brother in law. It was controversial because there was a high rate of prostitution at the time in Paris. It was a taboo to mention it, and yet the artist, Manet, displayed it in an oversized canvas. He bridged the gap between realism and impressionism (Richman, 2018). It had three elements that distinguished it from other contemporary paintings: the subject matter, scale, and composition. Today it alludes for its context and importance to modern art movement.

Leonardo, Ginevra de' Benci and Mona Lisa (Reading by Garrard)

Ginevra de' BenciThe Ginevra de' Benci is an oil on panel portrait painting done by Leonardo da Vinci during the 15th century. In 1967, the oil on the wood portrait was acquired by Washington, D.C, by the National Gallery of art. Its dimensions are 38.1cm by 37cm.

Garrard's study shows that there could be a probability that Bembo did not commission it. An analysis of the painting and that of the dating of the manuscripts of Bembo's manuscripts having an emblem that resembles the reverse of the portrait. This causes her to reorder the chronology connection between Bembo and Ginevra's portrait, Garrard proposes it was for political reasons that Bembo used the preexisting emblem of the Florentine platonic. She considers Ginevra's role in the afterlife of her portrait, including new information about her and the context of the history of the Italian women in the 15th century.

The portrait has a lot of fame. This is because it is the only painting in America done by an artistic genius of renaissance who was most celebrated. During a significant exhibition, by the National Gallery, it was the centerpiece. Other female portraits were put in place to display as a group to show the qualities that the renaissance men valued and praised most in women. The catalog and wall labels helped to explain the feminist scholarship of the past two decades. They were presented to represent women's subordinate status in marriage, chivalric courtship, and betrothal. The images showed the renaissance women's social function as mothers, wives, and the economic assets of men.

Despite being situated among other female portraits, it was unique. It was the star of the show. The paintings recto and verso are clearly seen, and it easily commands the eye of any approaching viewer within the gallery. The portrait has a room of her own, and related works are also put in place. This included drawings, computer reconstructions, a sculpture, and comparative works that were small scale. The others were presented as a group, while Ginevra was presented individually. This rose tension. The conceptual framework of the exhibition did not show a coherent structure. Instead, it represented a head-on collision between the new and old historical values of art.

Leonardo's art displayed a view of the women, which was abnormal culturally in his day. It was done in a period where women were not socially nor politically empowered. The pose was for greater formal significance. Previously, women in Italian portraits would not look into the eye of the viewer, yet Leonardo captured it as in his famous aphorism, "the eye is said to be the window of the soul." In the day the worth of the bride was not considered, she was not an equal of her partner. However, the artist Ginevra de' Benci as a woman who is imbued with psychic life as she confronts a viewer with a stare that is icy and non-coquettish. The distinction is vital as it helps to show a difference between it and that of the other female portraits. Initially, a provocative gaze showed that a woman was not morally upright because renaissance wives did not engage the male's eye directly.

Ginevra de' Benci was not an ordinary renaissance wife. She came from a wealthy and educated family. The portrait painted by Leonardo has been identified as her marriage picture. The juniper bush is an identifying feature in the image. The bush behind her head is seen as an allusion to her name as it reappears as a spring on the obverse of the panel. Because of her beauty, she was a subject in ten poems written by Medici, Landino, and Alessandro that were commissioned by Bembo, who also had a profound platonic love for Ginevra.

Monalisa

It was the world's famous portrait. It displayed a woman who was only conjecturally someone's wife. It is a portrait that displays a wide range of philosophical ideas. It was owned by Leonardo until he left for France for his final three years of his life. Monalisa has been identified as a female archetype. She is a piece of her setting, and Leonardo made it famous despite its hypotonic strangeness due to his stylization of beauty that is different compared to living specimens.

The analogy used was ancient in the renaissance-the analogy between woman and nature. The artist used Mona Lisa to symbolize the generative and nutritive process of nature. Leonardo's faith in the ability of the human to control nature was limited. This was due to his own pessimism and the fact that he respected natures ultimate superiority. During renaissance Italy, this was not common as it was a period where dominance and the quest to master grew. His drawings can be understood as a response to man's wish of mastering nature.

Most scholars recognize the elements that are vital to drawing a clear meaning; alongside this, they still look at it as a photograph. The tradition that painting mimics sight has long-lived from the old ages to date. Many people, including art theorists, patrons, and ordinary spectators, have speculated at the art in the same way for over 500 years. The portrait has been viewed as the platonic love of the patron-an emblem of the virtue of feminism. The juniper bush alludes to her name. According to Garrard, the real details about the woman's life are not covered in the interpretations. This greatly disturbed her, leading her to recognize that every feature needs to be explained.

Currently, in today's world, Ginevra's poetry is not known as it was during Leonardo's time. At the time her fame on poetry was widespread. The portrait shows Leonardo's feminine side in the creation process, laurels, and palm. It is, therefore, explicit that there are similarities between Ginevra's portrait and that of Monalisa. For instance, the foreheads, overall proportions, noses, and chins.

References

Harris, B., and Zucker, S. (2015). Bernini, David. Khanacademy.org.

Richman, K. (2018). The Significance of Manets Large Scale Masterpiece "The Luncheon on the Grass." Mymodernnet.