vince’s ear

Widely considered to have expressed the most of the ideals of the High Renaissance, Raphael’s talent was truly a force to be reckoned with, and competed with his much older contemporaries Leonardo and Michelangelo. Like the other men, Raphael was trained in several disciplines to include painting as well as sculpting, and receiving a humanist education.

The delicate grace with which he portrays the Madonna in the Madonna of the Chair shows a mastery of painterly skill. It shows Mary, the Mother of Jesus who she holds, with Jesus’ cousin Saint John the Baptist wearing contemporary clothes in an elegant chair. It depicts a mother and child well at ease and comfortable, and invites the viewer to feel the same. This is different from Leonardo who often portrayed people with a deep complexity, and Michelangelo whose powerful subjects were far from at ease. He also differed in personality. While the other two artists were solitary people, Raphael was known to be quite sociable and well liked.

Pope Julius II would call on Raphael to come to Rome in 1508, where he stayed for the rest of his life. There he was commissioned to decorate the walls of the Stanze in the Vatican, and he completed his most prized work, “The School of Athens” (see above). The popularity of the work in the Vatican put Raphael’s work in such high demand that many of his paintings from then on were executed by assistants. In his later years, he was wholly responsible for many of his portraits, with subtle beauty that rivals those of Leonardo. His work after the Vatican “Raphael Rooms” would later lay the foundations for Mannerism, depicted the ideals of Christianity with the grace of Classical times. Raphael is one of the most influential Renaissance artists and is considered by many to be the greatest painter of all time.

It is impossible to calculate the exact influence this Florentine Renaissance Man has had on the art world in the centuries since his death. He was a painter, sculptor, architect, draughtsman, and poet, and was a master in all these trades. Few painters or sculptors have matched his grace and attention to detail when it came to the human body. His David as well as the Ignudi painted around the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel show a mastery of human anatomy as well as an insight into humanity rarely achieved. While previous artist represented humans as being ideally crafted, Michelangelo chose rather to emphasize the real beauty of the body. Man was created in God’s image, and his true form should be depicted in all its glory.

He was born near Tuscany in 1475, and moved to Florence as a young boy. There he studied with the humanist scholar Fransesco da Urbino but showed little interest in his studies, preferring to copy famous paintings and work on his art. Soon he would take an apprenticeship for sculpting as well as painting. He left the apprenticeship after a short period and was drawn to the humanist circles of Lorenzo de Medici. After the death of Lorenzo, Michelangelo left Florence for Rome where he completed his first sculpture Bacchus. By the time he was thirty, he had already sculpted the Pieta and the David.

In 1505 Michelangelo met and received patronage from Pope Julius II, and would receive two commissions which would take years of his life, and cause much hardship and turmoil. Two monumental jobs were given around the same time by the Pope, one of which would never be completed. The gigantic tomb for Julius was to be designed and completed with forty figures to be sculpted by the artist. Also Julius had desired the ceiling of his chapel, the Sistene, named for Pope Sixtus IV. The latter would finally be completed after four years but resulted in several serious health problems for the painter, including eye infections from the paint dripping while he was on his back on the scaffolding. The Pope was unyielding with his deadlines and nagging, but Michelangelo, though working mostly alone, finally completed one of the most famous frescoes in art history.

Michelangelo never even considered himself a painter and had begrudgingly accepted the commission at the insistence of Pope Julius. He wrote, while working on the project, “I am not in a good place, nor am I a painter,” which pretty well sums up his thoughts at the time. He even considered his frescoes to be “dead paintings.” Nonetheless, his mastery as a painter is unmatched by contemporaries, save perhaps by Leonardo and Raphael, which, of course, is subjective and debatable. Though most of his art was commissioned by the Church, it was he himself, not the subjects of his artwork, who his contemporaries called “Divine.”

If there was one word to describe Leonardo, it is “Versatile.” Unlike Michelangelo, whose genius, though various, was mostly limited to the arts, Leonardo excelled at not only painting, and sculpting, but also in engineering, mathematics, and science. He is considered to be one of the greatest artists, as well as thinkers of the Renaissance. His contributions are enormous, helping to advance the fields of physics, philosophy and anatomy, among others. He was always pondering the secrets of the universe and making his own experiments. His ideas were way ahead of his time, even predicting airplanes, helicopters and other machines which would not be thought of for centuries.

Leonardo was born in Tuscany in 1452 and received a wide range of education, with training for decorative arts, sculpture and techniques of painting. He considered painting to be the sum of all the sciences, which led to a knowledge of the world from a recreation of it. From a very young age he was observing the world around him, in all its peculiarities and composed ways of expressing it with paint.

Disliking the art scene of the Tuscan workshops, Leonardo moved away and sought patronage from Ludovico the Moor in Lombardy, where he would spend the next twenty four years of his life. As a risk taker he was constantly trying new things, so when he received a commission by Ludovico he decided to disregard conventional methods of fresco in an attempt at a more subtle effect. Unfortunately this would result in the recent deteriorating of the Last Supper, which luckily has been recently restored. Besides using a new technique, other conventionalities were dropped as well. Traditionally the scene of the Last Supper was painted with a wall behind the table with Judas seated separately from the others. Here, Leonardo chose an open space with receding perspective, leading to windows, behind the group of apostles sitting in groups of three. The scene is the moment when Christ announces one of their betrayals. The instant we observe is the variety of emotions of the disciples ranging from shock, anger, disbelief, pain, dismay and fear, which Leonardo called, “The emotions of the soul.”

Besides being an inventor in the sciences, Leonardo was an innovative painter. His technique of sfumato comes from the Italian, “smoky,” and describes the effect of layers upon layers of thin paint added subsequently. This way subjects, particularly people, can be portrayed how they truly appear, without hard lines and borders. One of the best examples of this is the Mona Lisa, with as much as 40 layers of paint indicating what could or may not be a subtle smile.

His ideas toward portraying a sitter in a psychological way created the idea that a painter can be a thinker more than just a simple artisan. The Mona Lisa, as well as other portraits such as Lady With an Ermine (seen above), along with the Last Supper, are revolutionary in the sense that human emotion was not previously a selling point in a painting. Rather than simply painting people, Leonardo painted the passions of their inner souls.

Whether you believe in God or not you can’t deny the importance of religion in society. Atheists being a minority, a large percentage of the world’s population belongs and has belong throughout history to some form of religion or spiritual community. This is evident in the cultures across the world and the effect this has had on art throughout art history is tremendous.

Early Art

Saying the phrase “early religious art” would be redundant. It seems in much of early art history we see the majority of artistic expression involving some religious theme in one way or another. Cave paintings often depicted rituals and ceremonies. Even if it seems only wild animals running or a hunt, it is very possible the paintings themselves were meant as a sort of prayer for good luck to supply the people with meat.

Before alphabets were even invented, symbols and images of the air god and other deities decorated the buildings of ancient Mesopotamia. People from this earliest of civilizations believed in a higher power and held rituals for important events such as burials, and began to record their beliefs. Places of worship were erected to pay homage to their many gods. These temples would be important examples of architecture in the culture of ancient Mesopotamia as would the temples and houses of worship of every other culture through the ages to this day.

Temples were an important part of the indigenous peoples of the Americas such as the Mayans, Incas, and Aztecs. They believed in human sacrifice and would have stepped temples where the person would be offered to the god on top, closest to the sky. We know about the religions of these societies by studying their writing systems, which consisted of hieroglyphs. These hieroglyphs were a series of symbols painted on ceramics, or carved in wood, stone, or molded in stucco.

In the Eastern hemisphere, art history is mostly dominated by Buddhist beliefs and thus Buddhist art. Starting around 1 A.D. in the Indian subcontinent, Buddhism would influence much of the culture of the whole of Asia and prevail for centuries. Buddha was mostly represented in sculpture and sometimes bas-reliefs. These Buddhas can be pre or post-enlightenment. The pre-enlightenment Buddhas have a whole subcategory called “Bodhisattvas.” These beings were on the way to enlightenment and offered support for others on their journey.

Medieval And Renaissance Art

The art of the Middle Ages is dominated by religion. The majority of paintings are mostly Christian-themed, representing stories mostly taken from the bible. The Church knew that most of the uneducated masses couldn’t read, so paintings were meant as a way for the peasantry and illiterate to learn the ways of God. These paintings and frescoes were painted all over churches and public walls and portrayed the lives of the saints, Jesus Christ with the Mother of God, and the Holy Spirit, as well as many other biblical passages.

Some of the finest pieces of architecture in European history belong to the magnificent cathedrals and churches that dot the landscape. In cities throughout the world, such as Philadelphia, there seems to be a church on every corner housing a plethora of different religions dating from all periods of time, some centuries old. Indeed these building structures were meant to last, with some cathedrals having about as much stone beneath the surface as was above. It is no surprise people took refuge in the old churches in time of war. The styles and attributes of these cathedrals with their arches, steeples, and flying buttresses are the subject of a much more detailed article to come in the future.

The people of the Middle Ages in general were a highly religious bunch. Christianity had a stronghold on most of the European countries and the priest and bishops were the highest ranking public officials. With plagues and other hardships, as well as basic philosophical unrest it was easy for the religious leaders to control the masses with promises of damnation or salvation. A tithe of 10% of one’s income ensured favor with the priest, thus buying favor of the saints. For a small fee one can reduce the time in purgatory of a recently deceased loved one. It is no surprise that the cardinals and popes of centuries ago as well as today are grandly dressed with gold jewelry and worshiping with fine holy instruments of precious metals.

Prayers were offered in the form of icons. Small art objects were made which were meant as an offering to God. To this day icons are an important part of religious art, ranging from modern crucifixes to tabernacles and chalices. To the people who pray and have prayed to these icons, the object is not a mere work of art, but rather a sacred object with a very special function. The making of these icons was a delicate task undertaken usually by a monk. Strict rules and guidelines had to be adhered to in order to make the object holy. The immaculate surface was painstakingly painted and was the equivalent to the writing of scriptures.

Throughout the Renaissance of the late Middle Ages, much of the early religious art stayed the same. Churches were built extravagantly in accordance to modern styles, and Christian art was still sacred and served a purpose for more than just viewing. But around this time, private patrons were beginning to commission and purchase art for themselves. Guilds of painters became artisans to serve the public, rather than just the Church and government. This meant subjects were beginning to stem away from dominant religious themes and the art was much more free. Religious themed art began to see the patrons themselves painted right alongside the saints or even the Holy Family. With advances such as the understanding of perspective, as well as the emergence of landscape paintings for their own sake, art in general started to become more diverse.

Some religious themes took on a more secular spin to them as well. Sculptors such as Michelangelo created artworks such as the biblical David but made them in a more realistic way rather than the usual religious practice of portraying people ideally. Caravaggio’s holy themes with simple humble looking subjects took the religious art world at storm. Portraying the Virgin Mary alongside peasants with dirt on their feet was a bit much for the traditional Catholics. But times were changing.

Religious Art of Modern Times

Wassily Kandinsky the Russian abstract painter stressed the importance of spirituality in art. His book, Concerning The Spiritual In Art tells us how spiritual life is like a large triangle with the point being occupied by only those who “bring sublime bread to man.” He says the artist has the task and mission of bringing others to the top through the use of his talent. During bad times, he says, souls fall to the bottom of the pyramid and seek only material success, and ignore the spiritual. Kandinsky goes on to explain some of the psychology involved in observing a painting. When we look at colors, he says, two things happen. One is a physical reaction to the colors which may bring us joy comparable to eating a tasty treat. The other is a spiritual vibrating of the soul.

Many contemporary artists still produce religious art in traditional ways. God or gods and important scriptural stories are portrayed as they always were. Much religious art of today is kitschy, with statues of saints and Blessed Virgin Marys being produced by the thousands for the religious masses to consume. People wear jewelry such as crosses and other examples of religious artifacts that they probably take for granted.

Religion in general has inspired, and will continue to inspire, artists to express their beliefs as offerings or homages to a higher spiritual world, or as messages meant to influence, inspirit, or educate society at large.

Take a look at this picture. What do you see? A couple of stately gentlemen, probably fifteenth or early sixteenth century continental European, some instruments, globes, a gigantic four foot long skull, some books, a lute.

Wait, a gigantic skull?!

Look closely at the painting again, maybe you didn’t see it the first time. Did you catch that? Be honest. Don’t worry if you didn’t. Although you may think a humongous skull would be conspicuous, in this case the artist has shown it anamorphically. That’s right, he used anamorphic perspective, a perspective technique requiring the viewer to either use special instruments to see the object correctly, or in this case one must approach the canvas from the left to be able to see the perfect rendering of a large human skull.

Yesterday we saw some Trompe l’oeil examples and how paintings can fool the eye into believing what is seen is real. The term comes from Baroque times, but the use of perspective tricks is known since ancient times. With the advances of the Renaissance came better understandings of perspective, which brought back techniques such as Trompe l’oeil.

This particular painting is called The Ambassadors, and is by Hans Holbein the Younger, the same German artist who gave us the most famous Henry VIII portrait. It is a very interesting painting and has been studied intensely for its meanings. The sitters have been identified as Jean de Dinteville, French Ambassador to England on the left, and Georges de Selve, Bishop of Levaur, on the right. But recently de Selve seems out of the picture, and his elder brother Francois is thought to be the subject. This is still up for debate. What we do know is the inscription on the book by the subject on the right reads, “His age is 25,” while the inscription on the dagger of the subject on the left reads, “His age is 29.”

The painting is loaded with still life. They include items that reference the “Age of Exploration”- two globes (one the world and one the stars), astronomical tools, and a sundial. The symbolism and the whole composition with a secular man and a religious man can possibly mean a unification of capitalism and the Church.

Then there’s that skull. Let’s see it undistorted:

Including a skull in a painting is a Northern European style called vanitas, or “emptiness” meant to symbolize the transient nature of vanity- no matter who you are you will eventually become a pile of bones. Some believe this painting shows the three stages of existence- the heavens (astrolabe and celestial globe), the living world (books, musical instruments), and death (the creepy skewed skull).

While the exact meaning of Holbein’s work The Ambassadors leaves speculation, no one is unsure that this is the finest example of anamorphic perspective.

Technorati Tags: perspective, anamorphosis, holbein, renaissance

Larger Than Life Statue By A Larger Than Life Sculptor

When you look at this statue, what do you see? No doubt you are looking at the single most recognized sculpture in all of human history. Show a photo of the Renaissance sculpture to anybody, even a young child, and I’m sure they’ll be able to tell you at least the title, if not the sculptor. Is there another statue that epitomizes the beauty of the human body like this? Is there such a stone, marble, or block of clay which exhibits such precise human anatomy?

This statue is the achievement of a lifetime for Florentine artist Michelangelo Bounarotti and the high point of an enlightened period of history. It is David, the biblical king, who slew the giant Goliath.

A Young Shepherd Who Became King

David, the Israelite, son of Jesse, was a young man of not much consequence who guarded his father’s sheep. By chance he ended up in the service of King Saul to play the harp, because he was very gifted musically, to soothe the king when he was mentally tormented by demons. When the Israelites are in camp, facing the dreadful armies of the Philistines, David simply brings food for his brothers and the king.

A champion of gargantuan proportions came to the front lines to challenge the Israelites in single one on one combat to decide the battle. Of course, the enemy forces were confident in their soon victory and the home camp didn’t know what to do. David, overhearing this rises to the challenge with an idea. The boy, being the youngest son of Jesse, was not thought of as a fierce warrior. So when the king heard David’s claims, he laughed at first, but reluctantly allowed the match, seeing no other choice.

The enemy forces at once erupted in laughter when the saw the young and slender shepherd boy accepting the challenge of the giant. The fight, however, did not take long, after the boy produces a simple sling and stone. With one sure shot he fired the projectile and hit the giant between the eyes, sure and true, killing the warrior instantly. Before the monster could hit the ground the enemies were fleeing in fear, thus securing the Israelite victory. David is hailed as a hero, made a commander of men, and wins many victories as well as the hearts of the people, eventually landing himself in the throne.

Recreating the Biblical David

During the Renaissance we saw a return to classical themes, to include many biblical stories. The story of David and Goliath is a popular one in art history and has been reproduced by painters and sculptors alike. After the Renaissance the painter Caravaggio would repeatedly return to the subject, even painting himself as the severed giant’s head, exposing his own fear of decapitation, as a result of a tortured life on the run from the authorities.

In terms of sculpture, many of the Renaissance’s greatest sculptors attempted the David and Goliath. Let’s first look at two earlier renditions.

Donatello (1430-1440)

• Donatello’s bronze David was the first male nude single standing sculpture since antiquity, so when it was unveiled, it caused quite a sensation.
• What we see is David after the fight, with a small smile on his face, with his foot on the head of the giant.
• David here is overconfident, knowing God is on his side, as he stands nonchalantly with hip out, hand on other hip.
• Decidedly the most effeminate of the Davids.

Andrea del Verrocchio (1476)

• Verrocchio’s bronze statue of David once again shows a very young a frail looking boy with a sword, after the battle.
• Like Donatello’s, the head of the slain giant rests on the ground, but this time next to David’s foot as opposed to under it; some historians have argued that Donatello intended the head to be between the feet.
• This sculpture is very similar to Donatello’s including the posture, and effeminate nature.
• Verrocchio intended the David to symbolize Florence: both were stronger than they seemed, and both were rising powers.

Michelangelo Bounarroti (1504)

• The Michelangelo is the only case where we see David before the battle. He holds the single stone in his right hand and the sling in his left, as he gazes, with a human uncertainty at the giant (close inspection shows intense eyebrows, and a piercing look from very human eyes). There is no sign of Goliath in the statue itself.
• The two notable Davids before this were bronze, Michelangelo carved his out of a giant block of marble.
• Truly larger than life, the statue is 17 feet tall.
• Unlike the others which have at least one article of clothing, Michelangelo’s David is completely nude.
• The artist was only 26 when he received the commission, and completed the sculpture in three years.
• Notice the proportions are somewhat off: the head and upper body are slightly larger than they would normally be. The statue might have originally been meant to be on a roof, where the viewers looking up at the statue would have seen correct proportions.
• Questions have arisen due to the statue’s historical accuracy regarding the genitalia of David. The King David of the bible would have been circumcised, yet this version shows an uncircumcised penis. Some have conjectured that Michelangelo did this purposely, adhering to the ancient Greek ideology that a circumcised penis is considered mutilated. The small size of the genitalia is possibly for effect: a larger member may distract from the statue as a whole.
• Queen Victoria was so shocked by the statue’s unapologetic nudity, that she commissioned a fig leaf to cover the genitalia. This fig leaf was kept on premise for subsequent royal visits.

Many Davids were produced after Michelangelo notably Giovani Lorenzo Bernini in 1624, and Antonin Mercie, much later in 1873, as well as many others. My conclusion is that none of them compare to Michelangelo’s David. Its mastery, its beauty and its glory surpass all other Davids before and after, and arguably all other sculptures in the history of art.

Technorati Tags: michelangelo, florence, renaissance, art, sculpture, sculptor, david

This is the third post in the 10 scariest paintings about death and with the word in its title. But that doesn’t surprise you, does it? Death is our foremost primal fear, along with the fear of the unknown in general. It is a part of life just as birth is, yet we agonize over its cruel selection of our friends and loved ones.

As agonizing as it is, the battle is a futile one as is clear in Pieter Brueghel the Elder’s “Triumph of Death” (detail above). Similar to Bruegel’s other display of demise, Mad Meg, and reminiscent of the terrors of Hieronymus Bosch, “Triumph” is a spectacle of horror with Death not only lurking around every corner but dominating every square inch of the landscape.

All walks of life from Prince to pauper are tortured, tormented, harassed and murdered by ungodly skeletons. Armies of the bony villains abound to drown, hang, bludgeon, stab, lacerate, and decapitate their wailing victims with scythes, swords, clubs and any other implement of horror. Nets of people are cast into the murky water to drown; a skeleton slits the throat of a bound unfortunate soul, while a dog eats the face off a dying woman nearby.

Off in the distance, the sea is littered with the sinking ships of refugees who attempt, in vain, to flee the massacre. Smoke covers the horizon, and bellows from the burning cities and villages. The flames can be seen for miles.

The tortured are left on the cartwheels which dot the landscape to be eaten by birds. This is a view of commonplace torture methods of the time, where one is “broken on the wheel” and the remains, sometimes still alive, are hoist on a pole for scavengers to feast.

A skeleton waits over the dying king with an hourglass as a cart of skulls slowly rides past, crushing people to death as the wheels turn. The driver rings a bell, the death knell, signaling the defeat of mankind. This fight is over. The battle is lost to the hordes of death minions who have spread over the world like apocalyptic parasites, to mercilessly and without reason or remorse, slaughter humanity into oblivion.

Interpret this fright show as you will. Historians say that it might be a representation of the political climate of 16th century Europe before the “80 Years War.” A more pessimistic view is shown with the antagonists being armies of skeletons, or dead people, rather than otherworldly demons or hellions as seen in Bosch’s doom warnings. This could be Brueghel didn’t want to show anything from Heaven or Hell, but simply to show the end of humankind into the void. Maybe Brueghel was just in a bad mood when he painted this.

However you interpret it, we can agree this village has seen better days.

Technorati Tags: death, scariest paintings, art, painting, renaissance

I feel it appropriate to complement a post on Pieter Bruegel with one on Hieronymus Bosh. The two men lived at different times but one can draw parallels between them. Both were active in the Low Countries of Renaissance Europe, both had a tendency for including peasants as the main characters in their paintings, both have a similar style- Bruegel was highly influenced by Bosch who died nine years before Bruegel was born.

The two are showcased currently at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in a special exhibition to run until February 7th, 2008. The small exhibition shows several works by both the artists as well as several of their followers done in each respective styles.

Hellish Hallucinations

Hieronymus Bosch was inspired by literary works such as “The Ship of Fools” and the writings and sermons of monks. He could possibly have been influenced by religious ideas but at the same time one can argue that his religious themes were often sacrilegious. It is difficult for art historians to judge his unique art as religious or not. It is difficult to make heads or tails of much of his work, as it was very different from the contemporaries of his time, and its feverish visions of hell and otherworldly beings have not been matched to this day.

Religious or not, much of his work tends to have moral messages. His “Hay Wain” is based on the Flemish proverb “All the world’s a mountain or hay, and everyone grabs as much as they can.” The mountain of hay symbolizes man’s greed, and is dragged along on a path to hell by half-human monstrosities. Everyone from the paupers to the Pope take part in this human procession, mad with worldly delights, unknowing of their impending doom. Above Christ watches, ignored, with hands outstretched as if to shrug and ask, “why?”

Another darker painting is the triptych (three paneled) “Temptation of Saint Anthony.” Here unfolds the story of Saint Anthony, forced to watch as a black mass is celebrated. The saint is carried away and dropped by a toad demon. Off to the right is a hermit, trying as best he can to read his holy books and ignore the insanity present all around him. Speaking of insanity is almost difficult to imagine a perfectly sane person conjuring up such a painting. With people riding flying fish, hybrid monsters torturing innocent people, flames, ghouls, skeleton, and beasts running amok, it might be correct to say that Bosch has probably seen this in a dream. What imagination!

The pièce de résistance of all this is clearly Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights.” It is considered by many to be the most enigmatic and widely interpreted work of art in all of Western art. It is a triptych (center panel shown above) with the creation of Eve on the left, the garden of Earthly delights in the center and hell on the right, all meant to be read in that order.

One could spend literally hours studying this painting. It is full of allegories, symbols, and hidden meanings and messages. Lust is a dominant theme in the whole of the triptych, with only the creation of Eve, rather than the whole story of Creation and the Garden of Eden. Even though the Eden on the left seems normal and serene, at closer inspection a strange black pond exists in the foreground with a black beast with a long nose reading a book symbolizing evil. This blends the panel into the center panel.

The center panel is full of people. Humanity going about their usual business, committing sin and acts of lust coming from the original creation of woman (Eve). A couple engrossed with each other float on a strange plant in a glass bubble signifying the Flemish proverb, “Happiness is like glass, easily shattered.” Strange beasts dot the landscape, with the usual flying fish and fairies; birds are everywhere in the picture, as well as elephants and giraffes and animals of exotic lands. Berries of all kinds symbolize greed. People live in fruit, plants, and strange orbs and danger seems to lurk by at every corner.

Then we move along to hell on the right panel. After living a life of lust and greed, our citizens of this horrible visions are to serve in eternity a miserable existence being tortured by lutes and hurdy-gurdies by demons of all shapes and types. Maniacal horror exists at every turn, with the people undoubtedly wishing they had changed their evil ways earlier in life. In the center of this panel, coming from tree stumps resting on boats, with demons shown inside taking a break in a bar, is the ridiculous mocking self portrait of Bosch. He has a rotating disk for a hat, with a bagpipe, a symbol for evil and lust. Off to the left is a knife slicing ears. Some interpretations have it that Bosch meant it to be the message that people should have listened to the New Testament, and other warnings of hell.

Technorati Tags: artist, art, painting, bosch, renaissance

As I look out my window I see a dark winter afternoon. Dark as it is, there is no snow and the temperature has not yet dropped to its bone chilling winter potential. But soon enough the landscape will once again be covered in snow. And as the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even, I’ll be forced to come about and gather winter fuel. Then I can warm my bones by the fire.

I love looking at wintry snowscapes in artwork. As long as I’m indoors I can find comfort knowing that I’m warm and out of the cruel elements. The same is true when reading poetry such as “Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost. When reading the poem you get to visualize the soft snowflakes drifting down, and the quiet forest. I do remember some good illustrations of that poem as well.

One of my favorite winter scenes is “Hunters In The Snow” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, as seen above. It was painted in the 16th century and depicting a time when the winters were quite rough for the poor. You can see a fire off to left and some peasants gathering around. The bare trees offer their sticks to contrast against the cold sky. Down below the frozen pond keeps the children busy with games and skating, with the adults going about daily activity in the village as best they can. Look closely at the water mill with the icicles. Off into the distance are icy mountains, with the threat of more snow no doubt nearby.

This was painted as part of a seasons series and is probably the most popular. The series most likely consisted of six panels, though only five survive. I had the opportunity to see “Harvesters” in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The “Harvesters” is as hot as “Hunters” is cold, showing the peasants in the foreground of a wheat field practically passing out from the heat.

One of his other chillier paintings include “Census At Bethlehem,” which also consists of a village hustling and bustling in the cold air, with peasants taking advantage of the frozen pond carrying materials across town. The foreground is loaded with activity on the left with a crowd of people huddled toward the entrance to a building as if to feel what little heat they can get from inside and get out of the chill.

A good snowy depiction is “The Adoration of The Magi.” You can’t help but feel a little cold just looking at the snow falling. The painting shows the snowy Flemish village bustling with daily activity with the Magi merely there as extras, barely the center of attention of the painting.

Bruegel certainly had a talent for accurately portraying seasons. Of course he was great at portraying all kinds of things, mostly involving Flemish peasant life. His sons Pieter Brughel the Younger, and Jan Brughel The Elder, and grandson Jan Bruegel the Younger would follow in the elder Brughel’s footsteps and also have prolific careers as painters.

Throughout the centuries our primal fears have neither waned nor changed; what we fear today is not new. Mankind has been fearing the same things since evolution has made it possible to ponder. There is no deeper fear than the fear of death or the afterlife. No matter what our religious beliefs, the fear of the unknown is as basic a human quality as any other.

Danse Macabre

Art has represented this subject with an intimate vigor in all forms and media. In the Middle Ages, the Black Plague would wipe out up to two thirds of some populations of countries in Europe causing a change in human outlook toward mortality. With the chances of each day being their last extremely high, the people began to look deeply at their own lives and wondered about the uncertainty of death.

The Danse Macabre (French) resulted from the idea that no matter who you are in life, the Dance of Death unites all. Typical in the accompanying art movement were depictions of death of all sorts from demons and devils to skeletons, usually dancing juxtaposed with the living, who cower in fear. It was a general warning to all people that any day you may be visited by the grim reaper, and so you should prepare yourself and pray. The common theme was all folk from pope to pauper would face death sooner or later.

The Afterlife and The Bible

Perhaps no single person’s death has been painted more in the history of art than that of Jesus Christ. The gruesome reminding of this religious icon’s tortuous death hangs in Christian homes, churches, chapels, bedrooms, and anywhere else you can think of to this day. More often than not, the painting or sculpture gives an accurate depiction of the horror of what a crucifixion must have been like: nails, blood and all.

Many portrayals of the biblical stories show the aftermath of Christ’s death. The body in the arms of his mother, the distraught disciples’ executions, the tomb, the resurrection of Christ into Heaven, and the assumption of his mother into Heaven have all been depicted in paintings over the centuries.

There are many examples of a horrible post-mortem destination such as Hell, oftentimes intended to warn people of their unholy ways. Hieronymus Bosch was a strong advocate for religious moral values and a firm believer in an eternal afterlife. Many of paintings show his fellow Man, swimming in sin, on a path to Hell lest they change their ways.

Not all afterlife visions were gloomy, however, with plenty of visions of Heaven and angels accepting those penitent people who knew all along not to waste their lives in sin and debauchery.

Death and The Maiden

The idea of an innocent young girl being courted by Death has been a long and celebrated one through art history. The obsession of human mortality can be seen in the practice of putting beauty next to horror. Some good ones are by Egon Schiele, Edvard Munch, Hans Baldung, and Kathe Kollwitz’s “Death Embracing a Woman” (seen above) is probably the scariest one. And of course I must plug my own. In mine, the girl unfortunately doesn’t possess drop dead gorgeous looks, but I think the skull is pretty creepy.

Similar to the Death and the Maiden was the Gustav Klimt painting Death and Life. The twisted group of warm, sleeping people are being stalked by the cold and waiting skeleton.

I’ll end this post with somewhat of an antithesis. Shown here is Edvard Munch’s Vampire, the epitome of eternal life. I often wonder would I choose immortality such as this, or venture into the unknown that is Death…

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