WEEKS 10 & 11 LECTURES

On PAINTING, SCULPTURE, and ARCHITECTURE

I. PAINTING

• the art of applying pigments (coloring substances) to a surface using a vehicle or mixing
medium in order to present a picture of the subject

• different not only in their inherent qualities but also in the effects they produce: oil and fresco
used to be the favorite mediums of great painters in the second half of the last millennium.
Painters of today have turned to acrylic and poster colors already available in bookstores and
department stores; others are watercolor, tempera, pastel, acrylic, and encaustic.

* Medium

A. Oil (ground pigments: from minerals, coal, tar, vegetable matter, etc. mixed with linseed oil
and turpentine or thinner)

➢ long-lasting, easy to handle and manipulate texturally, capable of being corrected; slow in
drying.

e.g. Fernando Amorsolo’s “Farmer” and “Angelus”

B. Fresco (earth pigments mixed with water and applied to fresh plaster or glue which attaches
the color to the surface like a wall)
➢ durable, quick to dry; difficult to correct, not movable, subject to loss

e.g. The “The Creation of Man,” “The Fall of Man” and other biblical events on the ceiling of
the Sistine Chapel in Rome.

C. Water Color (ground pigments mixed with water applied to fine white paper, cambric,
parchment, ivory, and silk)

 easy to blend and manipulate, easy to dry, readily available and cheap; easy to fade/loss, not
durable,

D. Tempera [ground pigments mixed with a colloquial vehicle (egg yolk, gum, glue, or casein)]

➢ readily dries, luminosity of tone when applied to a wooden panel, with a little blending or
fusing of colors

E. Pastel (with the use of pastel colors closely resembling dry pigments bound to form crayons,
which are directly applied to the surface, oftentimes paper)
➢ very recent and very flexible medium, difficult to preserve

F. Acrylic (with the use of synthetic paints called acrylics mixed with a vehicle capable of being
 thinned with water)
➢ one of the most widely used due to its availability in the market; possesses the flexibility of
oil and the transparency and fast-drying ability of watercolor; solute in water; can be applied
in almost all surfaces, no tendency to crack to darken or yellow with age.

G. Encaustic (with the use of hot wax as a vehicle to bind pigments to a wooden panel or a wall)
➢ durable with its colors remaining vibrant and its surface maintaining a hard luster; not a
popular medium because difficult to manipulate;

* Subjects
• The prehistoric men painted animals and other things of nature on walls of caves;
• The early Egyptians painted fragments of life stories of the pharaohs;
• The ancient Greeks and Romans were so fond of their male and female deities;
• The Renaissance painters did portraits of Mary and Jesus and depicted biblical stories;
• Others had fun of doing landscapes, seascapes, cityscapes and the like

A. Portraiture (pictures of men and women singly or collectively)

➢ became popular before the invention of the camera; was enjoyed only by elite: kings and
noblemen; nowadays, charcoal is one of the mediums used in doing portraits.

e.g. Self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh

B. Animals and Plants (pictures of animals and plants)

➢ became the trend due to man’s first encounters with plants and animals for survival; even
now painter prefer animals and plants, specifically flowering plants as subjects for their
paintings.

C. Still Life (pictures of inanimate objects or non-living things placed on a table or another
setting)
➢ its available and capable to be organized.

e.g. a basket of fruits, a bag of groceries, a pack of cigarettes, a bunch of flowers, and a bucket
of chicken

D. Country Life (pictures of scenes happening daily in their community)

e.g. a barrio fiesta, a fluvial parade, a bountiful rice harvest, a big catch of fishes, and a natural
calamity; Amorsolo’s works of many realists and impressionists

E. Landscape (pictures of land forms)

e.g. the volcano, the mountain, the hill, the valley, the plain, the plateau, the cliff, and the `
like.

F. Seascape (pictures of any of the water forms)

e.g. the ocean, the sea, the river, the lake, the brook, the pond, the falls, and the like

G. Cityscape (pictures of an arial view of a city or a portion of it)

H. Events
e.g. “Spolarium,” and the “Blood Compact,” of Juan Luna and the Christian Virgins Exposed to
the Populace” of Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo; “Moses Commanding the Red Sea to Divide.”

I. Religious Items
e.g. The Holy Family, Madonna and Child, Jesus Christ, angels, saints, and religious objects;
Raphael Sanzio’s Madonna paintings, “Madonna of the Rocks” is one of the paintings of
Leonardo da Vinci

J. Mythological, fictional, and cartoon characters

e.g. Raphael Sanzio’s “Galatea,” a mythological character; supernatural beings and fantasies,
technological items, and objects

* Tools

• Just like any worker, a painter makes use of several tools in completing his work;

• These include brush or brushes, the palette, the palette knife or spatula, the easel;
• Assorted brushes to have variety of strokes;
• Palette is one that contains the painting medium;
• Palette knife is used to mix the colors on the palette; used also to add colors to and to scrape
or remove colors from the painting surface;
• Easel is the frame that supports the painting; usually three legs.

II. SCULPTURE

A. Definition
• the art of carving or otherwise forming a three-dimensional work of art;
• originated from the Latin word sculpture meaning to carve;
• Other ways of sculpting: casting, molding, assembling and constructing materials into figures
of forms.

• Casting is the process of producing bronze sculpture.

• Molding is the process involved when clay or claylike substances are used as mediums.
• Assembling and constructing originated from collage, a painting process in which paper and
other materials are pasted to a picture surface.

B. Kinds

• Round Sculpture – also called a free-standing sculpture, a round sculpture or sculpture in the
round stands on its own and is capable of being viewed at all sides (front, rear, left, and right
 sides).
• Relief Sculpture – is contrary to round sculpture and does not stand on its own because it is
attached: either high relief or low relief.
✓High relief is almost the same as free-standing sculpture but differs from the latter because
it is attached so that the back part cannot be seen by an onlooker.
✓Low relief is almost the same as painting because it is somewhat flat and attached to a surface
but differs from the latter because it has volume and medium used varies from the mediums
used in painting.

• Sculptures are either static or mobile.

✓Static – incapable of moving, permanently attached to surfaces; almost all free-standing
sculptures are static;
✓ mobile. some round sculptures are mobile

C. Mediums

✓Wood, stone, paper, cloth, glass, cement, and plastic are some of the mediums for sculpture;
sometimes combination of these materials is employed by an artist to create a masterpiece;
the mediums are grouped into two: additive and subtractive

• Additive sculpture – the sculptor simply puts together the materials to come up with the
desired figure; e.g. Paper mache animal (by adding and adding paper until he has reached the
satisfactory level)
• Subtractive sculpture – the sculptor removes the unnecessary part of the medium he uses to
form the desired figure.

D. Subjects
• The subject of sculpture ranges from living to non-living organisms (people, animals, and
plants) to non-living things, places, events, etc.

III. ARCHITECTURE

A. Definition
• the art and science of designing and constructing buildings, bridges, and other structure to
satisfy individual and communal needs.
• a complex art inasmuch as the task of the architect is not only to create the design of the
exterior of the building or similar structure, but also to do the design of its interior.

B. Kinds
• Post and lintel – consists of a horizontal beam called lintel and two vertical posts to support
it; usually found in the doors and entrances.
• Cantilever – similar to the post and lintel, has two vertical posts for support and a horizontal
bean with one end more extended than the other; oftentimes, steel is used for this type
because of its tensile strength; at times, wood is also used less frequently because of its
tendency to warp, sag, and rot.
• Arch – consists of several wedge-shaped blocks of stone called voussoirs held together by a
key stone; it serves to support other structures such as roofs and to be a symbolic gateway.
• Dome – is a large hemispherical roof or ceiling that looks like an inverted cup; it is an extension
of the principle of the arch capable of enclosing a wide area.
• Vault – an arched structure of masonry usually forming a roof or ceiling; similar to the dome:
barrel vault, groined vault, cross vault, Welsh vault, and cloister vault.
• Truss – consists of a braced framework of beams or bars forming one or more triangles; an
assemblage of beams forming a rigid framework; usually used to support the roof.

C. Mediums
• Light materials include paper, nipa, bamboo, and other light wood; they allow for good
ventilation, but they are not resistant to fire and other natural elements; maybe described as
fire hazards.
• Heavy materials are not only fire-resistant but also durable and able to withstand natural
forces such as earthquakes, landslides, storms, and floods: hardwood, stone, concrete
(combination of cement, gravel, and sand), brick, steel, and cast iron; always form part of the
high-rise buildings.