Art Studies

Name: Decemei Cuabo Block: 2A

Course: BS-BIOLOGY

Activity #1

ART CRITIQUE

In the box, paste your favorite artwork.

David Bailly, “Selbstbildnis Mit Vanitassymbolen” (Self-Portrait with Vanitas Symbols), (1651).
Oil on panel. Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden.

Look at the art carefully then answer the following questions.

1. What are the things you see in the artwork? What kinds of lines, or colors get your
attention?

The artwork “Selbstbildnis Mit Vanitassymbolen” is truly exceptional and unique. I truly
wanted to own the piece not just because it’s my favorite among all pieces of artwork
ever done before; but because the painting itself shows and expresses more than one
meaning to the onlookers, as well as to my part.

The thing that I like about the artwork is its hidden meaning and especially the content
or the things that can be seen in the painting, as one can see there are various things
in the four corners of the painting. There’s a candle, pearl necklace, human skull, pink
flowers, sculptures, knife, wine glass, stick, hourglass, silver and gold coins, vase, soap
bubbles, champagne glass, curtains, self-portraits, books, sketches, palette, table cloth,
flute, candle holder, scattered papers, pipe, tables, black clothes, young man, and a
extinguished smoke. All of these various things have a great contribution to the overall
meaning that the author wants to convey towards the people. On the other hand, “line”
is one of the seven basic elements of art; and is defined as the identifiable path created
by a moving point in space where its length is greater than its width. Looking deeply in
the artwork one would see that it consists of a combination of horizontal and vertical
lines which communicate stability and solidity to the piece, and diagonal lines that slant
in any direction that conveys movements. The other element is called “color”, an element
that perhaps enhances the appeal of an artwork. In the painting we can see various
colors, and these colors in my opinion are meant to be in a form of “monochromatic
harmonies” in which it uses variations of hue to suggest a particular mood and be able
to communicate a feeling towards the onlookers.

2. What do you think the art is about?

The painting entitled “Selbstbildnis Mit Vanitassymbolen'' (Self Portrait with Vanitas
Symbol) was created in 1651 by one the famous painter named David Bally. The origin
of the term “Vanitas'' can be traced back in the Latin biblical adage from the book of
Ecclesiastes (1:2) that says “vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas” that means “vanity of
vanities; all is vanity”. Looking closely in the painting one could see that it is full of
various stories and feelings; but foremost it shows a gloomy and dark atmosphere
together with the different symbolic objects that can be found in the four corners of the
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painting. The author makes sure to present something that shows and gives exquisite
content to the viewers because as far I can understand; the painting itself presents the
finiteness of human life, the inevitability of death, and the brevity of one’s own pleasure
and achievements; so the author used his talent to create his own self portrait and
expressed what he feel, think, and the thoughts he has in the human life.

In the painting we can see a man dressed in a black coat and it’s definitely David Bally,
a depiction of his younger self around 20’s and he’s holding a painting of a present and
a more older version of himself. The setting shows how time changes people and it
reminds us the finiteness of human life— that we won’t last and we won’t exist forever
through time, thus it reminds us that “as long as we are still breathing we must make
our remaining life worth living for”. Behind the self portrait of David Bally an oval
portrait of a woman is seen that I believed to be his lover or wife, on the table there’s a
candle that produces an extinguished smoke of a fainting woman, an hourglass, few
withered flowers, and a human skull. It clearly shows that his wife has already passed
away and to sum-up the aforementioned objects it quite depicts the inevitability of
death— the certain fact that we will once again become part of the earth just like what
the book of Genesis (3:19) says “by the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until
you return to the ground because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust
you shall return” It therefore reminds people that death walks along with us, waiting for
the moment where it’s ready to surpass the line; so we must spend more time with the
people we care and love to create precious memories, to enjoy every seconds of our life,
and do things that we love to so that we won’t regret living in this world.

In the upper part of the younger version of the painter we can see few sketches; and an
unused palette showing that he has passion towards art, there’s a few books on the
table that presents how he works so hard to achieve what he wants in life, scattered
papers is very evident on the table, piles of silver and gold coins that show how his
career blooms, a wine a wine glass and a flute of champagne that’s used to celebrate
various occasions and achievements in life, a special knife that’s used for carving, a pipe
that must be one of his life pleasures, a kind of stick that supports him from creating
artworks, and a few jewels. All of them presents how he live his life and acquire the
different achievements he owned— but again he expressed the thought that everything
doesn’t last forever that there’s a limit or brevity to everything we own in life; that even
the riches we received are temporary, but even though our achievements and pleasures
are short-lived all of them is what makes the human life more meaningful and enjoyable.
Therefore, David Bally is linking the universal wisdom to the finiteness of his own
existence and also expressed that we need to enjoy our life, search for something that
we will enjoy along the way, spend more time on what makes us happy, and make use
of our living time in a meaningful way because just like the bubbles inside the painting;
it conveys that life is impermanent and fragile and one day it will be taken from us in
an unexpected moment.

3. How does the artwork make you feel?

The artwork makes me feel alive and motivated. It may sound weird but I do feel alive
whenever I look at this piece of work by David Bailly. Alive in a sense that whenever I
look at the artwork it always reminds me that I only have one borrowed life in this world,
so even though death is inevitable and there’s finiteness of one’s life; it’s not an
hindrance of spending one’s life to its fullest. I’m young and still breathing and feeling
the world around me— so the piece urged me to enjoy every second of my life in this
world; where I spent it by doing the things I really love, spending ample time with the
people I truly treasure and love, experience new thrills, learn various things, and find
the good things in myself. The artwork also makes me feel motivated; in which it
motivates me to gently push myself further in life, therefore it allows me to drive myself
for the betterment. Take for an instance, in my whole entire life I already know that I
have a special talent in creating art pieces, and way back before I didn't have the drive
to enhance my skill. The moment I saw this piece of art circulating online; it started to
pique my interest and I found myself reading a few articles of its origin and meanings.
It’s like an eye opener because I found myself doing the things I love and motivating
myself to enhancing these talents because I believe that it what makes life more
meaningful and valuable. This artwork of David Bailly is extremely dear to me because
it speaks a lot about numerous manners, and it keeps me on the ground of life.
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4. If you could change the artwork’s title or name, how would you call it? Why?

The name or title that I would gladly give to the artwork if ever I’m given a chance to
change it is “Life: The Beginning and the End”. It’s because inside the painting there are
various things that symbolize how the beginning of life is composed of, and there are
also things that shows that the end of life exists in this world. Mainly, it is titled “life”
because the author of the piece wants to convey how his life exist and how he realized
that death or end of life is inevitable, to do so he created this piece in a unique way
where he utilized various things that symbolize something in his life, and allows the
viewers of his work to feel, engaged, and see the similarities of what he experienced.