The first thing that caught my eye as I entered into the next exhibit was this painting. Unlike the previous paintings that I have encountered, I could tell that this exhibit was going to be radically different than the previous one. For one thing, this exhibit has a completely different background color; a dark shade of blue. This shade of blue has given this exhibit an entirely different character not only from the previous one, but from what I've seen so far. All of the previous exhibit prominently feature white backgrounds. To see a blue one is truly refreshing.
I can tell immediately even the composition is completely different from the previous series of paintings. For one, there is a lot more going on than any previous paintings that I've reviewed thus far. This painting was supposed to be a collection of hunting kills brought onto a table in preparation for food. This painting is notable for including basically four different color schemes. It includes red, white, brown and black. There may be some symbolic significance to the usage of red; It namely demonizes the man as the killer. The swan represents some form of purity, especially since the bird itself is revered as such. This is perhaps meant to convey the notion that swans are not to be killed. This is reinforced by the brown deers that lay to the right; they represent the ordinary animals usually targeted by hunters. The black background is meant to frame the mood for the entire scene- as a depressing moment. For these reasons, I find this piece to be amazing in terms of depicting symbolism through color. Previous painting did not figure to practice such conventions.
Moving on, we get something that looks surprisingly eerie. Meaning that, we get something that looks very similar to the previous painting. I surmise this painting is part of the same artistic movement. This is because the overall background, picture frame, color depth and stylistic lines indicate such an conclusion. More importantly, I really like how mellow this painting's color scheme is. Each color is somewhat diluted and removed of extraneous details to reveal a clean painting with vibrant colors. While I have no idea what's going on, This painting clearly draws upon the artist's imagination when he decided to give the Romanesque people different colored togas. Roman togas rarely come in these different colors, but with paintings, it's possible to do just that. With the addition of colors, this artist is able to make a rather static scene more exciting by placing colors that once again conform to color theory.
This is probably one of the most overlooked artworks in the gallery. Trees? Beautiful sky? Boring. Actually, I think that this one is most interesting for the way the sky is depicted. I just think it is beautiful. If anything, this one serves to remind humanity that we are often not the real focus; nature is all around us and is a major part of our lives. This painting is a celebration of the outdoors beauty. I also notice who the trees seems to have slightly different colors. The top one has a definite green tone to it, while the bottom one has a yellowish tone. Unlike the previous paintings depicted above, this one does not focus on the people at all; they do not even bother to give the human subjects any trace of colorful clothing. Regardless, the natural perspective and interesting blue sky makes this painting a n absolute charm. Still, if the intention was to focus on nature, the artist could've removed the people all together. But that would somewhat of an antithesis against humanist values. The inclusion of people is to convey the sheer magnitude of nature.
Last I expected to see out of this exhibit (though I've only covered half of it) was this ivory slab here. If you consider the factor that making the walls white would make this hard to see and differentiate, I can begin to understand the reason for changing the color scheme of the current exhibit. There isn't much to say about this ivory tablet other than how much this particular piece stood out amongst all the paintings in this room. As stated, this is one of the few non paintings that I was able to find across all the exhibits. Finishing the first half of this second exhibit left me with more sense of confusion as to the overall structure of the museum. I couldn't find any continuation or concrete sense of direction. However, I must admit that I was enjoying every moment of exploring the museum.
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