This gallery has a distinct style that I am familiar with; namely the Mannerism movement that sprung up as an emphasis on unique aesthetics, color and form. The Mannerism movement is somewhat in between the elaborate Baroque and Northern Renaissance movements. Indeed, the lack of anatomical proportions in Medieval Art illustrates this transition. Mannerism embody this transitional phase in European painting.
This is a painting by El Greco, a Greek painter who resides in Spain. His works share many of the key tenets of Mannerism. For example, this figure has some very striking and high contrast colors to highlight his robes.In addition, the colors don't just extend itself to the clothes, it also manifests itself on the color of the man's skin. His skin has a distinctively gray tone to it. The overall atmosphere of the painting could be described as rather depressing due to the dark background. In contrast to Titian's paintings, El Greco did not put any meticulous detail into the way the clothing folds around his subject. Instead, he focus on really about four colors and minimized the clothing detail. I find his artistic sense to be very unique.
This painting isn't considered part of the Mannerism movement. Even still, There are some anatomical inaccuracies, notably those of the baby Jesus depicted in this rendition of the Birth of Christ. Also, the background of the country side is not very representative of real life distance scaling. In addition, there is a curious depiction of an dark-skinned man here, which flouts the notion that Jesus's visitors were only around the Middle East. Also, there is a lack of any depictions of angels, meaning that this painting was meant to convey the event from a mortal perspective. If I were to evaluate the color scheme, I would actually consider it to be superbly done because the background color, visitor's clothing are all complimentary to each other, This painting does not exhibit an cacophony of colors; rather does a excellent job of blend each color for a vibrant painting.
This is a diptych depicting Adam and Eve. Rather than a conventional connected diptych, this diptych actually consists of two separate frames. This is interesting because as displayed, this diptych are placed on level with each other with a bit of space in between. This is significant because the way the paints are perceived are affected by the relative position of each painting. Suppose you have these two paintings and another one depicting Eve and the Tree of Knowledge and place these two on the sides, it'll be interpreted as Adam and Eve's story in the Garden of Eden. Likewise, if there was a scene about Cain and Abel in the middle, it can be interpreted as the story or legacy of Adam and Eve's descendants. Considering all of these factors, it's also possible that the original orientation of these paintings is unknown, although the present configuration is the closest guess. There is isn't really much to be said about the contents of these two paintings other than the fact that the difference in skin tone reflects societal values on masculinity and femininity. Also, the supposedly graceful poses also seeks to convey the ideal of purity and innocence before Adam and Eve's removal from the Garden of Eden. Incidentally, the ivies that cover the pubic area are intentional forms of censorship, rather than a reflection of shame incited by the Tree of Knowledge.
Generally speaking, official portraits of important figures are one of the most consistent forms of European art throughout the early-modern period. In fact, the changes made to official portraits are mainly restricted to improved detail, lighting, perspective and backgrounds. Early portraits of this type are often flat, anatomically inaccurate and don't resolve correct use of frontal perspectives. What I mean by this is how sometimes the face may be depicted at an awkward angle in relation to their body such that the two parts of the body nearly exists on different planes. This results in a rather unnatural portrait. This one here is rather sophisticated - it has a good command of general anatomical form, color, lighting and a rather detailed background. In addition, the face of the noble appears to be relatively expressive with more realistic color. Indeed, all of these elements combine to create what I believe to be a very pleasing portrait.
This is really only one half of the current exhibit; I will review the other half of this gallery in a later post. The El Greco painting struck me in a deja vu because I could recognize the man's artistic style immediately. It was another of those moments where I saw an artist, painting or style with my own eyes. For me, that was one of the highlights of this particular exhibit.
No comments:
Post a Comment