vince’s ear

The Agony and the Ecstasy ***½
Just a few days ago I posted about Films About Painters and how you can use movies to learn. I don’t need to tell you movies are the most fun way to go about this. I mentioned the movie The Agony and the Ecstasy about the 16th century Italian artist Michelangelo Buonarotti.

It was made in 1965, you know, when Hollywood actually put effort into their movies, and aimed to educate and entertain at the same time. Not only will you walk away entertained, but you will learn something. The movie even starts out with a good twelve minute introduction showing some of Michelangelo’s sculptures from different periods of his career.

The main premise of the film is Michelangelo painting the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel, and dealing with the abusive Pope Julius II. Julius was a military man, and constantly at battle attempting to reclaim the Papal states for the Vatican. I found it humorous hearing the line, “ATTACK,” to which was replied “Yes, your holiness.”

The best parts of this movie really get into the tension between Pope and artist. Keep in mind that the Florentine artist considered himself a sculptor and not a painter, but the Pope cared not about what Michelangelo wanted and would not take “no” for an answer.

Some of the problems between the two were due the Pope skimping on the payments while attempting to fund his never ending wars. The Pope tells Michelangelo he will be paid, “Three…uh, two thousand ducats- less the rent, of course.” At one point Michelangelo is ecstatic that a message comes from the Vatican treasury, thinking he finally got paid. But when he opens it, he almost falls off the scaffolding when he reads it is a bill for two months rent. One humorous scene shows Julius making a cardinal out of an obviously young and inexperienced priest for payment to pay for the ceiling.

Meanwhile the Pope constantly asks when the ceiling will be completed (it took four years), and claims it an endless “purgatory of a ceiling.” The Holy Father and the feisty artist constantly clash. Michelangelo several times attempts to give up on the ceiling, once when he collapses of exhaustion. The Pope at this point releases Michelangelo, saying that he has already hired Raphael to finish it. This of course won’t do, and the sick Michelangelo agrees to get back to work at once. Later, when the Pope has retreated his armies and almost loses his fight for Rome, Michelangelo tells the sick Pontiff he will not finish his ceiling, if the Holy Pope will not finish his own work.

I gave this movie three and a half stars for its entertaining value, excellent acting, excellent dialogue, and plenty of artwork including numerous closeups of the ceiling’s themes and subjects, such as the Creation of Adam. Charleton Heston as usual acted well, and I was particularly pleased with Rex Harrison as Julius II. Much of the movie’s humor came from Harrison, and he made a very convincing 16th century Pope/ military commander. Very good/excellent film, giving the viewers a glimpse of what it must have been like in 16th century Rome, and an idea of the life and hardships of one of the most important Renaissance artists, Michelangelo Bounarotti.

Auguste Rodin

Yesterday you saw how the casting of bronze sculptures is done on the How Is A Sculpture Made? post. Today I want to show you who made them, namely one of the most famous bronze sculptors of the nineteenth century.

The French artist Auguste Rodin was considered one of the most important sculptors in his time for bringing the art back after it had taken a backstage importance to the public. At around that time sculpture was largely for decoration only, but he succeeded in turning the art into a form of expression. His attention to detail to human anatomy and his great skill have given us a mastery of human portrayal in sculpture which to this day has not been surpassed.

Like many of the best artists in history, Rodin was born into the lower class and had a rough and tumble early career, barely making ends meet. For over twenty years he performed menial sculpting tasks just to pay the bills. There is a sculpture of a head at the Philadelphia Rodin Museum with the back of it missing, due to the artist not being able to afford heat, thus causing the clay to break off in the freezing cold. He kept trying to get somewhere but suffered rejection after rejection.

Finally his big break came when he escaped from Paris, thus liberating him from academic art. He moved to Italy, where he got a healthy dose of some of the fine sculptures and statuary there. It was there where he was inspired by the works of Michelangelo Bounarotti, particularly Dying Slave, and created his first major work, The Age of Bronze. This statue had caused controversy because it was so lifelike that critics said he had cast a mold of a live model. This helped his rise to fame. In 1880 the statue was purchased by the State.

Soon after Rodin received other commissions by the State to include the monumental Gates of Hell. This project would obsess the artist for the rest of his life, and it would never be fully completed. Many of the figures on the Gates were reproduced in greater size, including The Kiss, and the famous Thinker.

Another great work by Rodin is the Burghers of Calais. The story goes that when the French city of Calais was besieged by Edward III in the Hundred Years War, the whole town was ordered to be slaughtered. An agreement was made however that the townspeople would be spared if six of the prominent citizens offered their heads instead. So six volunteered to save the population, but were pardon when the Queen convinced Edward to let them live. Rodin was commissioned to commemorate these six heroes. His sculpture shows the men with ropes around their necks, holding the keys to the city, separate from each other and walking in a circle, uneasy about their fates. The statue weighs two tons, and is meant to be placed at ground level so the viewers can walk around it and “penetrate to the heart of the subject.”

These statues, as well as the Gates themselves have been reproduced by the artist himself numerous times and can now be seen in Philadelphia, Paris, and many other places across the globe. There are at least 60 Thinkers known. If you’re ever in Philadelphia and make it to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, don’t forget to stop by the Rodin museum just up the street. It’s the largest and most important Rodin collection outside of Paris, and has all the sculptures I talked about above.

I’m sure I can safely assume you’re not wondering how one carves or molds a sculpture. Although the carving and modeling methods require great skill, the techniques used are fairly simple- you basically use tools and your bare hands to “add” or “subtract” material until you get your desired product. Once you have carved away from a stone or other hard surface, you can sand it and polish it. If you were carving from clay the last step would be to fire it in a kiln or heat it in an oven.

But how are bronze and other cast sculptures made? It’s not like there’s a chunk of metal and the sculptor chisels away at it. Casting is a little more complicated than the other two types of sculpture. It takes a team of several people, a foundry, and a 10 step process that has been around since 3000 B.C. When completed, you will have a work of art that will be around for that same amount of time into the future.

In a nutshell founders reproduce in bronze a sculptor’s plaster original. The process is a back and forth system of molding until the final mold is made to withstand molten bronze. This is how it goes:

1. The sculptor creates a model, usually plaster, to send to the foundry.
2. Using elastic material in a solid container, the founder makes a mold of the model.
3. The mold is used to make a model of fireproof cement that will serve as the core of the bronze during casting. Iron shafts are inserted to make sure it remains stationary within the mold.
4. The surface of the core is worn down, creating a narrow space between it and the mold.
5. Melted wax is poured into the mold, filling the space between it and the cement core. The mold is then removed, revealing the core shape covered with a layer of wax. The artist’s signature, the casting number, and the foundry stamp are imprinted in the wax.
6. A network of conduits is created to allow the melted wax to run out of the mold when it is heated. Later the conduits will also be used to pour in the molten metal.
7. A second mold is created of fireproof clay. When it is sufficiently thick, and throughly dry, it is heated, both to melt the wax and to harden the clay.
8. The fireproof mold is then covered by an exterior mantle of fireproof cement.
9. The mold is fired at high temperature. Molten bronze (2850° F) is poured into the space formerly occupied by the wax. After the bronze cools, the mold is broken to reveal a bronze replica of the model.
10. The conduits and other protuberances are removed from the bronze figure, which is then finished with chisels, polished, and treated with chemical solutions to give its surface the desired patina.

So there you have it. An artist can have their sculptures cast in bronze by sending it to a founder and paying them to do all the hard work. After all, you’ve done the easy part by creating the object in the first place. It must be interesting to see the final result, one of your own sculptures actually made in bronze, to be around forever.

Next we’ll be looking at one of the most famous of the bronze sculptors, Auguste Rodin. That’s his in the picture above, taken at the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia, the largest Rodin collection outside of Paris.

“The Golden Age of Illustration,” is the period from the 1880s until right after World War I. New technology allowed illustrators to use vibrant colors, and produce clearer, better pictures. Newspapers, magazines and book publishers all sought the best of the trade to give the consumer what they wanted: witty cartoons, comical parodies and satires, and entertaining pictures to go along with their reading. And gave it to them they did indeed. The people ate it up, all while making celebrities of some illustrator greats such as Howard Pyle and N.C. Wyeth.

Around this time in Europe the print media was dominant as well and creative illustrators also found themselves in the spotlight. In France Edmund Dulac was delighting children with his illustrations such as Hans Christian Anderson stories, and the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. John Tenniel was popular for his cartoons and caricatures for the London magazine Punch, as well as illustrating many books including Alice’s Adventure’s In Wonderland. England also gave us Arthur Rackham.

Rackham was mostly known for doing children’s stories but he also did some work such as a Midsummer Night’s Dream and other Shakespeare works, and Wagner’s Ring of the Niblung. I was able to find a version of the Ring of the Niblung with full Rackham illustrations for you here.

As I said in the post about Old Book Illustrations, there are numerous resources available to you for finding decent illustrations, especially if they’re in the public domain. One of my favorite sites for surfing public domain material is Project Gutenberg. You can find their main site at projectgutenberg.org. You’ll see a search field to your left which will search thousands of books that have been scanned, including illustrations. There’s a treasury of good books available. You’ll find some Rackham illustrated ones such as Aesop’s Fables, with several color illustrations, as well as a whole bunch of good black and white ones too. He also did A Christmas Carol, English Fairy Tales, and Tales From Shakespeare. And they’re all worth checking out.

So I could go on about Arthur Rackham but you’ll probably find out more about him for yourself, just look at the books above. His illustrations speak for themselves.

Cinema is an art form in itself. Regardless of the subject, all films are judged by its mastery of cinematography, the creativity and genius of the director and screenwriters, and the skill and believability of the actors.

One need not forget that they are in fact watching a film, a representation of some subject. It’s like staring into a moving painting, as entire experience of sight, sound and imagination. Andy Warhol used to purposely put little mistakes and blips into his screen shots to remind the viewers that they are not actually seeing a situation as you would looking out your window, but rather you are experiencing a movie of one.

The never ending quest for knowledge takes us through books, articles, lectures, blogs, and so forth to teach us about any particular subject. It can also give us movies on our subject and this, of course, is the most exciting way of learning. Movies about art and art history can be found all over and there are plenty of good ones. Here I have a short list of some of the movies about painters, most of which I’ve seen. And of course, you can’t get away without having to put up with some of my opinions on them.

1. Basquait ***

This movie is great and filled with an all-star cast including David Bowie (as Warhol), and Dennis Hopper (as dealer Bruno Bishofberger), with parts played by Benicio del Toro and Gary Oldman, and cameo appearances by Christopher Walken and Courtney Love. Jeffrey Wright plays the New York “graffiti”-style artist Jean Michel Basquiat, and although he doesn’t look exactly like him, portrays the artist pretty well. The film is directed by artist Julian Schnabel.

This really is a fun, upbeat movie that gracefully goes from scene to scene with non stop entertainment. It follows the years of the American painter when he seemed to explode onto the art scene with his abstract graffiti inspired art. It centers on him catching the interest of the pop-artist Andy Warhol. This odd couple instantly forms a bond. The older, more experienced and successful Warhol used Basquiat’s young, new energy to re-inspire his own art, while Basquiat took the guidance and help from Warhol to get ahead. The two form a friendship and collaborate on some paintings.

If you want to catch the real artist at work, check out Downtown 81, which stars the young Basquiat himself in New York, and features some of his original artwork.

2. Caravaggio ****

I love this film for its uniqueness. This is truly one of those films about art that is a piece of art itself. Its main story involves the love triangle between the artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, a character named Lena, and Rannucio, who poses for some paintings. Just like the style of the Baroque painter, it blends historically accurate items and clothes with modern ones.

Not everything in movies needs to be believable, in fact this movie is only loosely based on the real life of Caravaggio. This film is high quality for its attention to detail and the poetic narration of the dying artist as he looks back on his life in his death bed. It was directed by Derek Jarman, with the production design by Christopher Hobbs, who also painted all the reproductions seen in the movie.

Of course, if I really like a movie, you can expect it to be weird. So I’d recommend watching this movie when you’re in that kind of mood.

3. Pollock

This one I admit I haven’t seen yet but will as soon as I can. I thought I’d share it with you because it looks interesting to me. It stars Ed Harris as abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock known for his drip paintings where he would lay linen or canvas on the floor and stand above it and splatter paint onto it with brushes, sticks, and anything else he could get his hands on.

This wouldn’t be the first time Harris played an artist, having acted as Beethoven in Copying Beethoven, which centered around the stormy final years of the German composer. Apparently Pollock was the quite the character and I’m curious to see Harris portraying him. Interestingly all the paintings in the movie were done by Ed Harris himself.

4. Surviving Picasso ***

“Only his passion for women could rival his passion for painting,” is what the poster says of 20th century Spanish painter Pablo Picasso. And that’s mostly what the movie is about, the interesting and often stormy relationships the artist had, leading double lives and falling in love with several women at the same time. It is about Picasso’s personal life as seen through the eyes of François Gilot.

This movie really got me into Picasso, partly because it was well acted with my favorite actor Anthony Hopkins excellently playing the artist. It’s very entertaining, and although not very many of the painter’s work is shown, it does show the man at work sometimes (the film makers did not have permission to show the paintings).

5. Love is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon ***

This one I discovered not too long ago about the Irish figurative painter Francis Bacon, played by Sir Derek Jacobi. I was very pleased with it in general: great acting, great cinematography, and interesting story. It follows the relationship Bacon had with George Dyer, 16 years his junior, who he had met, believe it or not, while Dyer was burgling Bacon’s apartment.

Like Caravaggio, it is poetically narrated, only this time giving us a glimpse into the mind of the painter responsible for such disturbing works as Head I and Head VI. Throughout the movie, faces are seen in mirrors and other reflective surfaces and often distorted, which is characteristic of Bacon’s work. It’s well written, and comical at times, although the movie as a whole is very dark and foreboding- with Dyer’s images of blood and death, leading up to his suicide ending a tortured life and relationship.

6. The Agony and the Ecstasy

This is another one on my list that I have yet to see. It follows the Italian painter Michelangelo and his difficult dealings with the church, namely Pope Julius II, who commissioned the painter to paint the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel. This job would take over ten years of the painter’s life, give him serious eye problems due to the paint dripping into them, and numerous other physical troubles, all without receiving very much gratitude at all.

I haven’t begun to get my fill of Michelangelo, so I’m looking forward to this one. I also like Charleton Heston, being a big fan of Ben Hur. So I’m sure the acting is good, and I hear several works of art are shown in the movie, including Raphael’s School of Athens, and the 12 Apostles and the Creation of Adam, being parts of the Sistene’s ceiling.

So I’ll check out Pollock, and The Agony and The Ecstasy and scope out some other movies about painters and I’ll let you know what I find. I’m sure I’ll think of some other ones. Any good ones I missed?

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