Please add your one-paragraph summary as a comment to this post. Your paragraphs are due by November 10. Remember to revise, review, and proofread. Include the most important references.
ARTH 303: Methods of Art History
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Please add your one-paragraph summary as a comment to this post. Your paragraphs are due by November 10. Remember to revise, review, and proofread. Include the most important references.
The biblical narrative, Samson and Delilah, is told in the book of Judges. The story describes Samson with his superhuman strength and his downfall. Samson was a Nasserite sent by God to free the Israelites from the captivity of the Philistines. Samson however is not humble and easily falls to greed and; he does not thank God for the strength, but rather praises himself. Samson falls in love with a Philistine woman named Delilah. The two quickly become lovers. Delilah betrays Samson in the middle of the night. Three times she asks him where he gets his strength, and three times she reports to the Philistine leaders with his response. After acting upon the lies, and still finding themselves defeated by Samson, Delilah begs Samson to tell her his secret; if he does not, she says it is because he is not in love with her. He finally reveals his hair, which has never been cut is the key to his strength. Again Delilah betrays Samson, and the Philistines cut his hair and capture him in the middle of the night. It is this scene I chose to focus on for my paper. Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony Van Dyck have paintings depicting the final betrayal by Delilah. Comparing these two works shows how differently one can interpret literary narratives and their characters.
In the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve have been a main religious narrative. After Adam and Eve eat the apple from the tree they were told to stay away from, they are banished from Paradise. A lot of artists depict their interpretation of the literary narrative in order to convey a message. Artists such as Masaccio’s “Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden” focus on depicting the shame of Adam and Eve. He makes changes to the original narrative such as depicting Adam and Eve without clothing. Other artists such as Benjamin West’s “Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise” follow the story closely but will add new symbols in the work. He adds new symbols such as a lion and a eagle. The two works are from different time periods which explain the different painting styles. Both works depict the shame and anger of God.
The Pietà theme is based on the narrative of the dead Christ in the arms of his grieving mother. However, finding the literary source of this narrative has proved an open-ended investigation. While scholars have come to identify different literary sources they nevertheless agree the theme is noncanonical and concerns Mary’s lament. One important source is the channeling of Mary by St. Bridget, in which she describes the grotesque wounds on Christ’s body and the suffering of Mary in a way that corresponds with the early Pietà sculptures, such as the Roettgen Pietà. But the theme gained in popularity and developed as it spread across Europe. By the time Michelangelo created his Pietà the narrative was depicted differently. Instead of ghoulish and grotesque as in the early sculptures, Michelangelo’s Pietà presents the concerns of Italian Renaissance art in its focus on harmony, idealization, and composition.
The mythological tale of the birth of the goddess Venus has been around for thousands of years. The first written account appears from 700 BC by a poet named Hesiod. The poem was called Theogony and it was a great tale about the gods of Greece and their origins. Two artists by the names of Sandro Botticelli and Alexandre Cabanel were inspired by this myth, and took it upon themselves to create works of art depicting the birth of Venus, though the methods by which they achieved their masterpieces were very different. Botticelli focuses less on the technique of the painting, while focusing on the circumstances in which Venus was born and the details of the narrative. Cabanel, on the other hand, focuses more on the technique to portray who was born. He focuses on her purity and demeanor, rather than how she was born.
The tale of the Rape of Europa is from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In Ovid’s mythological tale, he describes that Jupiter(Zeus) fell in love with king Agenor’s daughter. Europa and her maidens were collecting flowers by the shore when Zeus transformed himself into a beautiful white bull. All her maidens approached him and began petting him, he approached Europa. Europa was unsure at first if she should trust the bull, but she eventually did. She then gets on the bulls back and at that moment he takes off with her on his back and takes her to Crete, where they had two sons together.
To represent this, I chose Titian’s Rape of Europa and Veronese’s version of the Rape of Europa. Each artwork is beautiful in its own unique way. Titian portrays his painting of her abduction, while Veronese focuses his attention to the scene before her abduction.
I chose to conpair Ghiberi and Caravaggio’s interpritions of the Sacrifice of Isaac. Dispate the differences in technique due to sculpture vs. painting, I found a more pressing contract to focus on. Caravaggio shows a violent, vengeful Abraham. The text states that Isaac was his only son, whom he loved dearly. Ghiberti’s more reluctant depiction stays truer to the source.
The literary narrative of the annunciation to the Virgin Mary had always played a dominant role in art history as it is te deliverance of te message of the birth and coming of Christ. The biblical story is reference in Luke 1:26-39. In the story, the archangel Gabriel delivers the need to Mary, a young girl, that she will give birth to the son of God. This very moment has been depicted in art history numerous times as it seves an emblem of Mary’s purity and the salvation of Christians. In my presentation and essay, I will use the Annunciation by Rubens (1623) and the Annunciation by Filippo Lippi (1443) to bring to light this literary narrative.
The Iliad is a Greek Epic that has been attributed to Homer since 800 BCE. It is the narrative of the Trojan War, and the stuggle between the Trojans and the Achaeans. However, the main focus of my literary narrative was the death of Patroclus. Patroclus was the very close friend of Achilles, the Achaean hero. However Achiles had left the Trojan war after having a rift with the Achaean leader Agamemnon over Briseis-his favorite female spoil of war. Agamemnon was denying Achilles access to Briseis, so Achilles left. As a result, the Achaeans lost their hero, and this disheartened them greatly and boosted the confidence of the Trojans. Agamemnon came up with the plan to dress Patroclus in the distinct armor of Achilles in order to convince the Trojans that Achilles was still in battle. Patroclus is slain and his death sets up the chain of events for the victory for the Achaeans. The artists Cy Twombly (1928-2011) and Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) both depict Patroclus death, and address the impact of the same moment. However, they both concentrate on the different effects of that narrative. Twombly examines the emotional and visceral reaction, while Rubens looks at the cause and effect while illustrating the narrative.