Brushstrokes (Part 1) - The Early Masters

Brushstrokes (Part 1) - The Early Masters - YouTube

what is it about a painting that allows

us to differentiate one artist from

another how is it that we can

distinguish a saison for example from a

Rembrandt part of it is the artists

selection of colors and their

perspective on subject matter but

paintings are also unique because of the

brushstrokes used by the artist in this

video we're going to explore the

development of brushstrokes and the

masters that made them famous we'll take

a look at how the various strokes

influenced artistic style as we trace

their progression through history

beginning with the Middle Ages from the

5th century all the way to the start of

the Renaissance in the 1300s there was a

limited variety of brushstrokes

available to artists because of the

nature of the painting mediums that were

popular at the time back then artists

primarily worked in either fresco or egg

tempera fresco and egg tempera limited

artists abilities primarily because of

their fast drying time a stroke of egg

tempera can dry within 5 seconds and

that means that shortly after laying

down a stroke of paint it would dry and

could then very easily leave a hard edge

which would create an obvious brush line

both paints are pretty much permanent as

well so they presented some challenges

for artists

because of these limitations much of the

artwork seen throughout the Middle Ages

which would include Byzantine Romanesque

and gothic art has a similar look

so what brushstrokes did fresco egg

tempera and even watercolor artists use

at that time in basic terms there were

three ways that they would apply the

paint one method was to apply strokes of

paint next to one another in hopes that

they would remain wet long enough to

blend before drying they would typically

paint in the direction of the form so

that any visible lines would coordinate

with the image and in egg tempera which

had to be applied in very thin layers a

section painted this way would be

referred to as a glazed glazing which we

see throughout history and in oil

painting is the slow buildup of thin

layers of paint
now egg tempera and fresco painters

could also use a hatching technique or

cross hatching to do this brushstrokes

are applied in rapid repetition in the

same direction and sometimes also at

perpendicular angles which is called

cross hatching it's reported that

Michelangelo used this technique when

painting the Sistine Chapel frescoes and

finally an artist could simply paint

lines and shapes directly called direct

painting intending them to stand alone

to communicate something such as a

boundary of an eye

so when did ole painting come into use

well prior to the start of the

Renaissance we find that artists did

have some knowledge of oil paint but it

wasn't until Flemish painter yan van

Eyck perfected its use in the early

1400s that the medium started to gain

recognition it's important to keep in

mind that most artists at this time had

been trained in or worked with egg

tempera or other water media paints so

initially they used oil in the same way

in fact today experts sometimes have a

hard time distinguishing whether

paintings during this time of transition

were painted in oil or egg tempera oil

paint stays wet much longer than the

other paints and has a denser buttery or

consistency making it remarkably easy to

achieve smooth blends artists especially

the innovative ones like Van Eyck must

have been thrilled to discover that when

they painted strokes side by side as

they had with the egg tempera they could

now easily blend them together at a

relaxed pace producing virtually

invisible brush strokes and resulting in

beautifully smooth color or value

transitions amidst then made the

effectiveness of glazing even more

powerful when done in oil the transition

to oil as a primary painting medium was

gradual through the first part of the

Renaissance yan Van Dyck was a critical

part of this transitional time period

the style he developed was characterized

by incredible realism minut detail

natural light and brilliant color all

made possible through his ingenious use

of oil paints he had absolutely seamless

brushwork and his art appears so fresh

as if they could have been painted

yesterday some of the artists during

this time of transition would actually

use both mediums in the same painting

including the ingenious Renaissance

artist Leonardo da Vinci da Vinci who

was quite an innovator perfected a brush

technique called sfumato where the

outlines of forms are softened and

shadows painted so gently that the image

conveys a soft almost misty appearance

referred to as Leonardo's smoke he

achieved it by painting multiple thin

layers and making the changes in value

very very gradual it's one of the

reasons his paintings had a very unique

lifelike appearance around 1500 we see

the artist Titian come into the public

eye another incredibly important figure

in art and someone that would inspire

many future generations Titian is really

the first artists to show vigorous

expressive brushwork often called

painterly brushwork a style in which the

artist doesn't care whether a stroke

shows and in fact uses the lines of the

individual stroke to impact the painting

even use his brush to dab scrape smooth

then scumble

a freedom of expression that would

increase as he progressed in his career

he's also one of the first to use thick

paint called impasto beyond emphasizing

highlights

as we'll see once you add impasto paint

as a type of application the thicker

paint opens up the door to a wide

variety of brushwork

another dramatic step in the progression

of brush work is seen in the work of El

Greco who painted in the late 1500s he

completely broke with tradition through

his use of very thick paint very unusual

colors and a distortion of his figures

El Greco looked at Tisha's vigorous

brushwork for inspiration rather than

the smooth techniques used by many of

his contemporaries and started allowing

his brush or painting knife to express

emotion

El Greco is one of the first artists to

use a very stiff hog hair bristle brush

and he would use it to create textural

brush lines

you can tell when an artist uses hog

hair bristles because unless they smooth

it afterwards with a soft bristle brush

the bristle lines are visible in the

paint

he's also one of the first artists to

use an early version of a palette knife

for painting a close look at his artwork

shows that both his brush or knife

strokes are broken and he makes no real

attempt to smooth the paint his

contemporaries thought this was really

crude but today critics consider his

work an early form of Expressionism now

if we compare El Greco's rough creative

style with that of his contemporary

Caravaggio who also had an incredible

impact on the world of painting if we

forget about their difference in subject

matter and color palette and just look

strictly at the artist's style in their

brushwork you can see an amazing

difference and you can see how the

diametrically different brushwork

impacts the piece they both had major

impacts on future artists Caravaggio's

use of light has seamless glazes and his

invisible brushwork would inspire

artists like Velasquez Rembrandt and

Vermeer while El Greco's imaginative

expressive brushwork would inspire more

modern artists like men a saison Picasso

as the use of oil became established

artists continued to discover the

mediums capabilities they began to see

that they didn't need to be so rigid

with their brush the paint gave them the

opportunity to innovate

which is exactly what artists like

ribbons Velasquez house and Rembrandt

would do throughout the Baroque period

these artists would also famously expand

the use of impasto using it to more

interestingly portray fabrics jewelry

and skin texture while artists like

Vermeer stuck to the traditional glazing

methods

peter paul rubens was an admirer of

Titian 'he's work and his own work

reflected that he was known for his

variety of brushwork and is the first

artist known to thin his paints with

turpentine

as he aged his brushwork loosened and

began to take on a kind of energy that

later artists would incorporate into

their own style

both spanish artist diego velázquez and

Dutch artist Franz house would paint

realistic portraits and figures and

would find ways to individualize their

brushwork Velazquez through a feathered

kind of a dry brush technique and Hal's

through vivid quick strokes and dabs in

fact van Gogh said in a letter to his

brother what a joy it is to see Franz

house how different it is from the

paintings so many of them where

everything is carefully smoothed out in

the same manner

house and Velasquez set the stage for

Rembrandt a later contemporary and one

of the greatest of all Dutch painters

his early work uses the thin smooth

glazes common to the period but he

became highly influenced by the variety

of fluid vigorous brushwork seen in the

work of both Titian and Rubens

Alaska is house and Rembrandt to me

represent an important step in the

history of art not only do they

masterfully combine thin and thick paint

application methods but they begin to

popularize the single stroke expression

or bravura brushwork which is basically

bold daring brushwork in fact Rembrandt

has said to have done in one stroke what

would have taken others of five passes

to accomplish house and Rembrandt were

also the first great masters of what we

call directional brush strokes where the

strokes are intentionally left visible

and are painted in a direction or with a

certain motion in order to convey an

object or an aspect of the painting now

around this same time period landscape

painting began to take a prominent role

in art Jacob fawn Rosedale one of the

greatest Dutch landscape painters

developed new methods of applying paint

in order to better communicate aspects

of a landscape he picks up on the idea

of using impasto paint to emphasize

texture in nature

John Constable who was popular in the

early 1800s was distinctly influenced by

the work of race down but he felt that

landscapes should represent which you

see not the idealized version that was

seen in the Baroque period constable

painted oil studies on location in order

to better reflect realism what's

interesting is his work in these studies

is very similar to what we'll see in the

work of some of the post-impressionists

at the end of that century he developed

lively free brush techniques in order to

capture the quickly changing elements of

nature this freedom initially resembled

the style of race Dale and as his career

progressed his self-expression did as

well he took the use of impasto even

further than Royce Dale had were they

using a brush or a palette knife and he

would Fleck on little bits of off-white

paint to add texture to his water in

skies which proved to be a slight

irritation to his contemporaries and

critics

you could almost call some of constables

work messy due to the incredible amount

of textural brushwork that he has in

some of his paintings it's not until you

see it from a distance that it pulls

together to convey reality

and of note towards the end of his

career he picked up watercolor as a

painting medium and employed some of the

same brushstrokes and his vision of

nature to that medium including using

washes of color and scumbling

one of constables contemporaries was JMW

Turner who was also very innovative

especially in the portrayals lighten

atmosphere

Turner worked in both watercolor and oil

paints because of his work with

watercolor and he was considered one of

the greatest watercolorists of his time

he had an additional knowledge of

transparency and the benefits of using

white surface Turner increasingly used

less detail in his work as he advanced

in his career his methods of application

included thin transparent glazes soft

scumbling impasto paint and pallet knife

work but he also used directional

brushstrokes to the extreme producing an

intense sense of drama in his work

Turner had a major influence on the

Impressionists who were to come shortly

after including Claude Monet who

discovered Turner's work on a trip to

England

Vermeer: Master of Light (COMPLETE Documentary) [No Ads] -

YouTube
((Subtitles are complete but in process of being edited to be more readable - punctuation, keeping
sentences whole, etc. - September 23rd, 2017))

Johannes Vermeer was a painter of light. He lived and worked in Delft in the

heart of the Netherlands but little else is known about this artist. Names of his

masters, the nature of his training, the period of his apprenticeship all remain

mysteries. He left no letters, sketches or drawings.

We know only of his genius. His paintings have intrigued and fascinated viewers

for centuries. The themes he chose to paint were those he encountered in daily life:

a girl reading a letter in the center of a sunlit room,

a figure at work,

a woman pouring milk,

a girl in a red hat her lips parted her eyes lit with expectation looking at us.

What is it that draws us in? Is it the poetry and power of the images?

The use of reflected light? The saturation of color the softness and yet brilliance of
the image? Or the sense of timelessness?

It's mystery and meaning the celebration of ordinary tasks and daily life filled

with quiet contemplation the frozen moment in time. Its intimacy and mood:

a room filled with inner thoughts.

Or is it simply the virtuosity of an extraordinary craftsman?

What is it that makes a Vermeer a Vermeer?

There's a greater sense of light I think in Vermeer's painting than there is in

anybody else's and the light bathes as a room it lights on the figures the

figures seemed to glow that some of them seem to have a light OMERS within

themselves and there is this brilliant brilliant use of light that nearly

always comes through a window which is on one side of the scene when the

fascinating things I noticed is that you never see the outside you never see a

tree through the window you only see the light coming through but it is this

light that is incredible his use of this light playing on the various textures

that he wants to portray which have all the different meanings the supreme

quality of Vermeer's light is it is the daylight effect the clear daylight

effect is extraordinary daylight permeates his shadows and you

see that so beautifully in the milkmaid as you look into that corner of the room

where there is a wonderful still life of some kitchen implements a brass pot and

a wicker basket you're seeing the whole thing but you know it is in shadow and

one of the most beautiful things in the pictures of wall and back over and the

gradations of light were the intense light on the right side of the picture

and those gradations go from the most intense light to a darker light but the

shadows are transparent there's always this clarity form the forms are never

lost there's another thing that's exciting about this picture

it begins I have a kind of pointillism and if you look down at the loaves of

bread you have those solid forms but in them here's the touches of light he's

broken his forms with these little points of light and he uses that so

effectively and he use it beautifully in the view of Delft those boats which are
in the lower right hand corner there those little little touches of light

which means that the light bounces on to these dark forms and its wondrous

to behold the woman the balance is one of those supreme examples of Vermeer is

an artist's light coming in through the window is gently luminous the whole

interior it's a sort of a soft deep rich light but it's wonderful to watch it

happens wonderful to watch it evolve and Vermeer's gives you the sense of light

spilling across the interior of that space it passes by that orange curtain

you can see how the light goes from behind that curtain hits the wall

directly the gray of the wall and then it passes through the thickest part of

the curtain and it's a deep dark shadow at that point and then as it hits the

edge of the curtain it creates a golden globe that links together the gray of

the wall and the deepest part of the shadow as it comes into the room and

then the light passes down illuminating the table then the gold and the pearls

on the table come across caught by the edge of the table and then your eye is

drawn by your hand as it rests on the table and you're brought back up to see

her face it's wonderful quiet gentle face with her downcast eyes as she looks

down at the balances she holds him a hand light draws you in and encompass

the full scope of the painting

harnessing light is central to the power of Vermeer he transformed paint into

light in the most brilliant and mesmerizing way

you

he seduces us very quickly Vermeer does there's a magical quality

to his work beautiful it's simple but that's very deceptive he's concentrating

all the time he adjusts reality if you look at the art of painting as an artist

in an easel we seem from the back and he's painting a woman and she really

represents history and there's a map in the background and the foreground is set

so beautifully with a great carpet and the wonderful chandelier all those

details are ravishing but where is the right leg of the easel if you follow it

down you see the top of it and you come down and you see the artist is seated on
a stool and his foot is forward but there's no length of easel so where is

that leg if you look in that area where his leg is forward and there are the two

legs of a stool if the leg of the easel came down there it would come found that

whole area so he's either hidden it behind those two legs of the stool or

he's eliminated completely and if there's ever proof that Vermeer is not

an ape of nature he he just doesn't paint what he sees he makes adjustments

his pictures are so calculated carefully you don't see the calculation but I

assure you he has calculated his effects he's concentrated there's tremendous

intelligence at work your artistic intelligence Mamiya designs his

paintings so brilliantly so carefully that every part of the painting every

drop of paint every line every nuance of color has a deliberate meaning the

meaning and the composition and meaning in the power

every part of the story whatever it is everything has a meaning one of the most

wonderful examples is the woman in blue reading a letter it's a single figure

who's standing in the corner of a room and she's holding this letter and you

can see the kind of emotional intensity of her experience because just what she

clasped her arms by her side but Vermeer locks that gesture into space by placing

those hands right over the very strong horizontal bar that's the bottom of the

map that hangs on a wall behind her so this horizontal bar at the bottom

creates this tense concentration on those hands so the result is that you

feel nothing can move light also enters into this equation while there are all

these beautiful shadows and subtle shadow effects throughout the painting

she casts no shadow by not casting a shadow he somehow separates her out from

time this sends a passage of time that one senses with shadows the moving of

shadows doesn't exist with her so it enhances that a whole sense of

permanence it's very hard with Vermeer to separate one thing from another

because they're also into woven interlocked

in the woman holding a balance another example

it looks as though she will never move it's in large part created by the
gesture of the hand holding the balance because that hand is locked in space by

being juxtaposed over the vertical and horizontal elements of the frame the

little finger is extended horizontally it just holds that hand in space and

then for me reinforces that visual juxtaposition with a perspective if

you'll follow the perspective lines go right back to that finger that extended

finger the perspective of the table of the mirror on the wall in front of her

all we see the tooth at one point so that vanishing point reinforces the

importance of that gesture and it's very interesting infamy all the way through

is clear to see how we uses perspective he places the vanishing point because

the vanishing point tells us where he wants the eye to go an explanation of

everything making having a really serious part of the composition he's in

the woman with the balance when I first examined that painting before the

cleaning the frame of the Last Judgement lying behind the woman was entirely

black in the X radiograph you could see the frame on the right side of the

painting behind the woman's head had two light lines coming down these light

lines show there was a density there a dense material which could have been

white LED or led to in yellow further examination showed that this

frame had been over painted by somebody not by Vermeer very much later and that

two gold lines actually they were bright yellow had been painted out and painted

with a dark grey when that over paint was removed if the composition came to

life because you got on the right hand side the two gold lines you got on the

left-hand side the light coming in and the gold yellow curtain and the right in

the center is the gold little bit of her dress and there are these three very

very important points creating the strength of this composition with her

holding the balance without the gold lines of the frame behind the

composition was just failing it just didn't have the tension and the meaning

that it now has and that is a very good example of how every little thing in

Vermeer's every little point every little mark has a meaning and has a

purpose nothing is left to chance

Vermeer's masterwork the music lesson clearly shows that nothing is left to

chance on the far side of a sunlit room a woman stands playing a virginal a man

in elegant dress watches her and listens intently both figures are quiet as

though the music were measured and restrained this is one of the most

refined of Vermeer's works he carefully calculated every aspect of its

composition the figures the musical instruments the mirror table tile

patches and chairs however realistically presented are

conceived as interlocking patterns of color and shape

ramírez placement of the vanishing point creates a dynamic and clear focus

it falls on the sunlit sleeve of the woman a halo of reflected light in color

emphasizes its importance we can actually see the hole in the canvas left

by the pin Vermeer used to construct the perspective of the painting the power of

this work grows out of Vermeer's use of linear perspective the sharply receding

wall on the left coupled with the pronounced orthogonals

of the window frame leads the eye quickly to the woman she becomes the

fulcrum around which the painting revolves Vermeer further compresses the

space by filling the right side of the scene with a large tapestry covered

table the angle of its receding edge transports us quickly back to the

vanishing point the floor also plays a significant role in the perspective

construction its strong diagonal pattern leads us directly to the woman

the interlocking series of rectangular shapes surrounding the woman adds visual

emphasis to her importance Vermeer creates a strong vertical focus by

placing the mirror directly above the lid of the virginal so that the bottom

edge of its frame is overlapped by the top edge of the lid by including the

woman's reflection in the mirror he underscores her significance within the

painting the placement of the man and his relationship to the woman was of

concern to Vermeer infrared analysis reveals that he first painted the man

further forward and leaning more toward the woman she likewise had a more active

stance her head twisted back in his direction

Vermeer subsequently altered the figures the woman now stands directly facing the

virginal scene from behind her face is hidden from the viewer but her image in

the mirror was left as originally painted he moved the man slightly

placing him in a more upright position these adjustments were subtle but

crucial Vermeer transformed the figures from active poses to statuesque ones

emphasizing the permanence of their relationship the effect brings them into

harmony with the carefully ordered space Vermeer uses color to strengthen the

focus the yellow white of the woman's blouse the golden color of the virginal

and matching reflected light on the back wall highlight the figures the red of

the woman's skirt and Vermeer's selective use of black on the mirror the

virginal the clothing of the two figures and the pattern of the floor help lock

our eye into place the combination of overall contrasting

colors patterns and shapes create major and minor accents focused on the theme

of the painting Vermeer preserves the privacy of the couple by creating an

intimate space through the arrangement of objects on the right the strategic

placement of the chairs and the bass viola on the floor locked the couple

into the background protecting their private communication and separating

them from us the forward position of the table and the placement of the painting

on the back wall reinforce their intimate space by placing a chair

directly between the table and the vanishing point

Vermeer interrupts the perspective line slowing down our immediate access to the

couple we are outside looking in

the white elegantly proportioned pitcher sitting on the table is central to the

composition of painting its form echoes the curve of the gentleman's arm and

it's color helps to link the foreground to the background the purity of this

form gives it an almost sacramental character symbolically reinforcing the

theme of comfort and harmony provided by love the mirror is one of Vermeer's

primary creative tools using the mirror Vermeer allows us to look down on the

woman a carpeted table and the tiled floor of the room the sensitivity with
which he has rendered the reflection is remarkable he set it back into the

mirror rather than placing it on the surface by painting the forms softer and

smaller and by depicting the distorted reflections along the mirrors beveled

edge Vermeer uses the mirror to give us another viewpoint of the woman revealing

her most inner thoughts by leaving the woman's original position in the mirror

gazing at the man he suspends that psychological moment forever

it is this poetic image in the mirror that draws us emotionally into the heart

of the painting premier manipulated the angle of the

mirror for that purpose here we see the tilt of the mirror as he painted it but

in order to actually see the scene the mirror reflects it would have to be

drastically tilted by more than 30 degrees

Vermeer manipulated reality to intensify the psychological power of the painting

understanding the potential of light is a primary aspect of Vermeer's genius

here we see the room as it most likely would have been lit given the clues the

painting provides Vermeer then selectively manipulates the light to

strengthen the focus he eliminated the shadows that should exist on the back

wall to create an evenly illuminated white surface providing a backdrop to

emphasize the silhouettes of the figures while Vermeer drastically reduced the

shadow at the top of the virginal to allow the upper wall to be gently bathed

in light he darkened the shadow at the base of

the window and distorted its angle on the wall these two divergent shadows

hold the virginal in place the upper shadow leading the eye to the corner of

the lid and the lower shadow drawing our eye to where the leg meets the floor

Vermeer manipulated the shadows beneath the virginal by placing them closer to

each other than they would really be giving them greater substance and

emphasizing the silhouetted shapes of the legs

he eliminated the shadow of the virginals body against the rear wall in

order to reinforce this effect Vermeer completes this masterpiece by inserting

his own presence showing the reflection of his easel in the top of the mirror he
reminds us that the artist is clearly present and in complete control he is

the master of what we see the little Street is one incredible painting it's

really the one I would most like to have at home is one of these paintings that

somehow brings you back to your childhood makes you remember what it was

like to be a kid to look out across the way and see life going on just like it

always had gone on you'd see the woman sitting there doing a little thing you

see the kids playing on the street you see the little maid in the back they've

been there time after time after time you know something very comforting about

this world it's a very contained world it's a few

of a street but you its what's interesting is you don't feel like you

need to go left or right you're very happy right there

you're very happy you don't want to go anyplace else from here somehow has

created a sense of a street and you don't want to walk down it you just want

to stay and look at this little world that he's given you and one of the

magical things one of the reasons that that happens is because of that red

shutter that red shutter says stop that red shadow says you've gone far enough

you don't have to go any further so that red shutter is really important to

blocking limiting the giving that sense of comfort in that world he's created to

the left of the door you see that there's not nearly enough space for the

shutters on the two windows to the left to completely open so Vermeer has

actually adjust to the architecture of the building widen the space between the

window on the far right and the door to allow that shutter to

open flat because he needed that red there he knew he needed that red flat

against the wall in order to complete that composition so there is a wonderful

example of color being used for compositional purposes he's a colorist

from the word go from the very beginning is a great colorist and what changes in

its color is from a warm tonality from reds and yellows to the yellow and blue

to the cool and then the silvery quality of his light and I don't think he

divorced the light from the color it's all of a piece he can get the sheen and
the texture in a magical way Vermeer does this repaint satin it really looks

like Santa crisp you can almost hear it in a pile of a rug or the bread the

crustiness of a bread the color is doing that or the water and a view of Delft

the viscous water the fabric or the color of the of the clouds and mind you

that fault in the view of Delft that sky is just unbelievable you know you say

that Vermeer copies nature and sense those clouds he organized those clouds

clouds aren't that way clouds don't stand still for landscape painter he has

to figure out how am I going to arrange them and he keep some horizontal so his

sense of the great vault and then of the heavens and it goes back to the horizon

and he's doing that always color his color is intense he can use one color

next door to door to another with the most brilliant intensity there's a great

example in the girl with a red hat where she is wearing this beautiful blue

costume and the highlights instead of being lighter blue which is

what you would expect a yellow which is opposite to blue and therefore creates

this shimmer and this is this nobody else does this it is

absolutely extraordinary and that painting is a brilliant display of color

she's sitting against this rich woven tapestry marvellous interweaving at

these shapes all of which are brilliantly placed not one has a little

thing out of place they all play a part in getting this fabulous sense of this

moment of this girl turning towards you catching the light on her face and in

her hat and it's a brilliant brilliant piece of observation and translation of

that into this painting when you're able to hold the girl the red hat in your

hands that is a very special feeling and in doing that you really sense the

artist at work there's a whole different relationship that you have at that time

little things that are hard to pick up in the gallery for example for Mary

gives this radiance of her vision with a little turquoise highlight that he puts

in your eye and this wonderful pink highlight in the mouth it's little

accents like that that just make it come alive and have this kind of vivid

quality Vermeer works in glazes very thin glazes and the Blues particular are
very thinly painted he uses natural ultramarine which is a wonderful pure

pigment he prepared that area of the the blue robe with a reddish-brown under

painting and that gives a certain warmth to the blue so when he paints it very

thinly you have this warm glow that comes to the background so it's not just

a cool blue it has this inner WAMP that ties it in to the red of the Hat and the

orange of the cheeks and sort of the whole humanity of the image comes across

through that means and he uses his material and his techniques to enhance

the the emotional and psychological qualities of his work

the girl with the red hat is a sensuous painting it is intimate and immediate

she communicates directly with us for Muir's use of colour drives the

emotional power of this painting he sets the figure against the muted tones of a

tapestry concentrating colour on the flame red of her hat and the lushness of

her blue robe

ramier established an ochre base for the background of the painting the soft

tones of the tapestry elegantly emerge from that color

the Lionhead finials defined the foreground and placed the figure in

space quick strong strokes suggest the basic contours and structure of the

heads

using reddish-brown color for the base of the robe ramier covered it with deep

blue to establish its form the brown bleeds through and the combination of

colors creates an extraordinary sense of warmth he applied a delicate blue glaze

to define the folds of the fabric his use of thinly painted glazes creates

depth and the addition of ice blue highlights provides a shimmering quality

The face is established first in shadow.

Vermeer used an opaque deep red orange paint as the underground for the Hat.

The red is an intensely warm and active color. It heightens the immediacy of the girls gaze.

A succession of semi-transparent strokes of light red

and orange creates the feathery appearance of the Hat.

Vermeer demonstrates his sensitivity to the effects of reflected light by

placing a dark purple hue on the underside of the Hat.

He subtly casts an orange-red reflection across the girl's face to accentuate the effect the red has on the
viewer

He then uses green, the complementary color of red,

to create the shadows on the face enhancing both colors Vermeer paints the

cravat in a brilliant white after laying the white down he scraped away some of

the paint to create definition the white in the center of the composition cradles

the face and focuses attention on her expression Vermeer draws upon the power

of light to increase the intensity of the color and to animate the painting

adding soft and shimmering highlights that crystallized the form of the

finials yellow highlights to enhance the blue of

the robe and accentuate the quality of its color delicate strokes finishing the

texture and lushness of her hat and highlights on the earring nose and lips

to bring the face to life his crowning touches are the placement of the pink on

her lips the turquoise in her eye

Vermeer's extraordinary use of color encourages a dialogue between the viewer

and the girl and enhances the sense of poetry that flows throughout his

paintings

Oh

you

premier was trying to emulate effects that he would have seen an optical

device called a camera obscura some of those qualities of this immediacy of

looking out of this more momentary character of this painting may and in

fact be partially explained by the inspiration of the camera obscura I did

really paint from a camera obscura he certainly didn't copy the camera obscura

but it was a way of seeing was way enriching the way he saw that he then

would apply and create and adapt in paintings such as this

camera obscura means darkened chamber its images were seen as magical in the

17th century often described as nature's paintings it's process is simple when
the camera faces an image on the outside rays of light enter into the darkened

chamber through a convex lens on the front of the box projecting an inverted

and reversed image on the surface of the glass viewing window at the back of the

camera the image contains optical effects such as diffused or soft

highlights this is an actual black-and-white image of a lion head

finial as seen through a camera obscura the impact of this optical effect can

clearly be seen when we place it next to Vermeer's painted finial and the girl

with the red hat those finials are a marvelous example of what you will see

from a camera obscura they're slightly out of focus in a way and yet he's

managed that light on them in the most brilliant way the highlights are made by

building up layers of paint starting with an opaque layer then building

translucent layers one on top of another and finishing with little spots of

bright white light and those spots bright white light are intense and in

fact they remind me of the pearls that you see absorbed in infamy as paintings

where he does exactly the same thing where he puts this circle of translucent

white paint grayish white paint to create the roundness of the pearl than

this little blob of white paint in the center which creates the light is

exactly the same way that he paints the finials is it's quite extraordinary I

think the most magical moment perhaps that all of Vermeer's work is in the

lacemaker what a wonderful painting and you have

this woman this intent woman who's busy with her activity of lace making in the

foreground you have this thread spilling out of this cushion totally diffuse I

mean you cannot make out what these are this incredible unfocused quality of

these threads it's amazing and that is such a wonderful example of what one

would see in a camera focused closely on an individual you focus the image on the

face of the individual and the foreground then gets entirely out of

focus with Vermeer there's this marvelous softness where outlines are

soft every layer flows into one another so you get this fabulous sense this

poetic sense of light and movement whether it be on a tabletop whether it

be on a ball whether it be on a person's face everything is very very soft and

flowing from one layer into another there are no hard edges to look out of a

mirror through a microscope is an extraordinary experience because you see

all this flowing all these soft soft edges you wonder whether you're looking

at the edge of the finger or something else when you're looking at a woman's

hand so soft are they and he achieved this by painting wet in wet now this is

very simple he would put down one layer let's say over Paik paint while it was

still wet he would put another layer on top and because the underlying layer was

still wet they would meld together soften together the edges would just

blur a little bit and there would be this flowing of these edges so if you

have a number of layers one on top of the other doing this this is creating

this extraordinary sense of atmosphere in diffusion of light this marvelous

feeling of the form without having to describe every little fine detail and a

very good example of this is the little Street and Delft the house which has

this facade of a brick wall where if you look at it you think that every little

brick is being painted very distinctly absolutely not when you look at it it's

a texture which gives you the sense of all this brickwork not every little

brick and so he's creating this movement throughout the whole surface of the

painting by this technique of painting wet-in-wet

it's quite ingenious there's illusion of texture in Vermeer's work the most

extraordinary textural effects are probably in the view of Delft and I

think the view of Delft is really amazing because there's a view of this

city seen from across the waterway and across the harbor and yet it seems so

immediate so real there's something so intense about that view that it just

comes out at you and it's color with its light but it's really texture that is at

the core that and any does lots of different things to create this effect

in this painting one of the amazing things if you look at the roof lines the

different types of roofs the orange tile roofs on the left for

example have a kind of a bumpy character that he creates by having a sand layer
mixed with LED white underneath the paint so it's a lumpy base specific to

that area so he very consciously wanted to create the effect of texture three

dimensionally and then he puts on it the orange and little highlights on top of

little little dots on top of it then when it comes to the boats this

wonderful feeling of light flickering off the water onto the sides of the

boats that he does without any three-dimensional texture but with all

his handling of paint with these various diffused layers these little circles

these diffuse highlights and then the opaque highlights on top of very

interweaving of thin and thick and then thick it's different in different parts

of the painting but it's all to serve a certain effect

it's really interesting the photographing for me because everything

always seems out of focus it's one of these changes things and even restorers

have been bothered by this and this painting alone writing letters is a

wonderful example where when we brought it into restoration the arm was in fact

quite precise and definition and we discovered that in fact the restorer had

made a contour line along that arms to make it defined in space sort of losing

the whole quality of life that Vermeer is creating that is so unlike Philly and

Vermeer did not create hard edges they were all soft and this repaint was quite

clearly much later than Vermeer and having established that this paint was

false it was removed very easily with no damage to the underlying and there you

see this typical lovely soft edge to her arm as she leans rather she caresses the

table in the same way that she's caressing letters the letter which she's

writing is the most intimate quiet painting in fact I think it's the most

quiet soulful of all of his paintings it's as far as I'm concerned

part of the magic infirmary's to create more than he then he actually is put

down it could be the sense of more there than there is and that happens a lot

with color and color he uses colors so selectively and you feel this wonderful

yellow of her jacket but when you look at it carefully you see and in fact that

there's very little yellow there it's only in those highlights where the light
is hitting the form that he's actually using the lead tin yellow to give that

focus for the rest it's really done an okras it's very subtle very understated

and this is something that he does throughout his career it's it's this

suggestion of form suggestion of color suggestion of space done with the most

minimum means suggestion of narrative suggestion of emotional energy

the feeling of mood is is just the hints of these things so what happens then is

that we complete them he leaves lots of room for us to enter

into these things and for us to become part of the whole experience to create

it to fulfill it to finish it in our own individual ways Vermeer is a man of

great dignity and we see it in in his mature works in a beautiful way the

servants are as dignified as the mistress of the household and the

milkmaid is to me a masterwork and it's a serving woman that he's representing

there is that the dignity of humankind because it doesn't embrace all of him

but it's the dignity of women I love it and I love women but there is this

wonderful sense of his love of women which comes through on every occasion

none of his women are hard none of them are angry in any way they're all

concerned with fairly deadly occupation very gentle very warm occupations that

he seemed to enjoy to me one of the most moving pictures most poetic pictures by

Vermeer is a painting in Berlin of a woman putting on a necklace in that

gesture of a woman doing nothing but just about to clasp the pearl necklace

that's something no writer can know if you know you can only see a woman put on

a necklace but to have captured that moment at me it's one of those beautiful

things that Vermeer ever created it's the life of women that he's painting

men don't come in very often but women reading a letter we've been writing a

letter woman delivering a letter this quiet existence of women that's much of

the poetry of Vermeer

what makes a Vermeer Vermeer that's a very difficult question I've been

worrying about that question for about 60 years

for me it is that extraordinary quality that he has of inviting you in and

keeping you away that an enigmatic feeling that he creates he is telling

you a story and yet there's almost like a veil between you and the painting

there is not an immediacy between you and the painting although you're fooled

into thinking there is one something so personal about a Vermeer painting it's

one of these kinds of images that you really want to see all by yourself you

don't want to be interrupted you don't want to hear noises around you oh you

can't put it into words really just as you when you see a great baseball player

whose forms fabulous what makes them so great or there's great cook and you have

a great meal what makes it so great well you can talk a bit about it but there's

always something you can't put into words he raises these scenes of life

into something that is very very special how come that our milk may just pouring

milk into a jug can produce this moment of magic on a canvas this extraordinary

sense of light and moment in which you feel there's so much depth there is so

much more than just this simple domestic act and he raises up these these

pictures into this into this ethereal level which is very hard for us to

comprehend comprehend and he really is a genius

at making these seems quite magical in quite mysterious at the same time it's

so universal something about that image that is meaningful to all of humanity

there's truths the underlying truth if they're fundamental truths about human

existence they're our sense of harmony of life relationship of man and nature

the joy of life the sense of of possibility in such an understated and

subtle way that's

you just come back to it over and over again and just feel enriched by the experience.

What makes a Vermeer of Vermeer? Perhaps there is no single answer

but rather it is a combination of answers which is different for each and every one of us.

This is at the very heart of what seeing is all about.

Renaissance - Overview - Goodbye-Art Academy - YouTube

the Renaissance was a time of rebirth
and expansion for religious

interpretation scientific discovery

exploration of new lands and the

flourishing of the Arts it was a period

between the 14th and 16th centuries that

devalued the medieval era before it in

favor of a new and brighter era that

would draw inspiration from the Greek

and Roman traditions of antiquity a

great paradigm shift from the dark

medieval times occurred it would produce

innovative thinkers such as Nicholas

Copernicus Desiderius Erasmus and the

Renaissance artists that would become

some of the most recognizable and

well-loved masters in the world the

Renaissance took place primarily in

Italy but its innovation and ideas

reached far and wide the medieval values

that came before it encouraged obedience

and faith and authority the Renaissance

was a complete shift and placed high

value on knowledge and personal

responsibility the art during this time

is known for its realistic scenery

linear perspective and its innovative

light and dark shadowing known as Keira

sciutto the Renaissance began as a

literary movement with the texts of

antiquity being rediscovered but it was

quickly picked up by the visual arts and

sciences Italy's intermingling between

math science and art during this time

led to the discovery of perspective in

the arts perspective was an achievement

that allowed new space to be configured

in the paintings flattened stack space

was replaced with mathematically

accurate images with dimension and depth

one example of a Renaissance painting

before three dimensional perspective is

angle o Gotti's the coronation of the

virgin painted around 1370 the

coronation of the virgin depicts six

angels witnessing a central scene of

Jesus crowning his mother Mary after her

death on earth the painting is highly

detailed and features bright pastel

colors and a background of radiant gold

however the depiction is overall flat

and reminiscent of the two-dimensional

religious illustrations found in

medieval Bibles masaccio's Holy Trinity

is the earliest surviving painting to

use linear perspective to a cure

we represent an architectural space a

chapel where God the Virgin Mary and

Saint John the Baptist's witnessed the

crucifixion of Christ the realism of the

painted chapels depth would have

impressed viewers at the time same as 3d

movies do today the church as one of the

most powerful and wealthy institutions

in Italy was able to Commission artists

to create sculptures and architecture

that adorned and served church

iconography and function Christian

saints were painted and sculpted to

replace Byzantine mosaics and murals

with Greek mythological imagery but

direct influence from antiquity on form

and technique was still visible using

antiquity as a backdrop artists began

incorporating and fusing the Christian

iconography with the Greek and Roman

symbols and imagery this was most

apparent in the work of Botticelli

during this time of flourishing artistic

achievement Italy saw the rise of

powerful individuals and families Italy

was not a unified state during the time

of the Renaissance and while the church

had considerable power and wealth during

this time the Medici family owners of

Europe's largest bank became the most

powerful dynasty in the region gaining

their power through banking the Medici

were such a rich and political

dominating force that they were able to

Commission hundreds of works of art and

have powerful influence within the

church prominent artists and thinkers

sponsored by the Medici family include

Masaccio the painter who perfected and

popularized one-point linear perspective

fra angelico Donatello and even masters

like Galileo Leonardo da Vinci and

Michelangelo

although the Renaissance was already

spreading like wildfire across northern

and western Europe on its own it was

helped along by the Medicis power and

influence Leonardo was the

quintessential Renaissance man he was

skilled as an artist scientist and

architect his interest in worldliness

beauty love of learning and ideals of

antiquity led him to create novel and

breathtaking work his best-known work

and among the most famous paintings in

the world is

the last supper painted on the cafeteria

wall of the santa maria delle grazie

covenant in milan the last supper

portrays jesus's last meal on earth with

his disciples the disciples are riddled

with surprise and angst because jesus

has just revealed to them that one of

them will betray him and he will die

Leonardo's work remains in the Canon of

artwork but due to his constant

experimentation his works are falling

apart today and many of his ideas led to

failure or never saw fruition

Michelangelo was much like Leonardo but

instead of exploring all avenues he

concentrated his skill in the arts

although his true passion and ingenuity

was put into sculpture he designed

exquisite architecture as well and made

one of the most famous paintings of all

time on the ceiling of the Sistine

Chapel the Sistine Chapel took

michelangelo four years to complete

between 1508 and 1512 the expansive

ceiling features paintings of biblical

stories such as Jonah and the Whale Adam

and Eve biblical prophets the ancestors

of Jesus and God's creation of the world

which includes one of the most famous

paintings at the central point of the

ceiling the Creation of Adam the

Creation of Adam depicts God a grey

bearded man accompanied by angels

extending his finger to Adams out

reached finger to animate him with life

the Sistine Chapel is a testament

Michelangelo's skillful depiction of

intense emotion and advanced

understanding of human anatomy

Michelangelo had a distinct style that

matched finesse with stunning virtuosity

a rival painter of Michelangelo's

Raphael decorated the walls of the

Catholic popes library in the Vatican

between 1509 and 1511 one of these

Vatican walls features the School of

Athens Raphael's masterpiece the School

of Athens demonstrates Raphael's mastery

of linear perspective in its realistic

depiction of an elegant cross shaped

building crowded with philosophers

artists and patrons in the painting

philosophers like Plato Aristotle

Epicurus and Pythagoras debate

philosophical questions and read from

philosophy books statues of Apollo and

Minerva feature prominently in the

school inviting viewers to contemplate

the relationship between religion and

philosophy the Renaissance was the

beginning of an exploration in style and

virtuosity that can be traced through

the next three to four hundred years in

the arts the names of Leonardo da Vinci

Michelangelo and Raphael still holds

sway today and their work has become

standard in the history of the world the

Renaissance set in motion a series of

inquiries and discoveries that radically

changed the world and ushered in a new

way to approach the world what followed

the Renaissance in art was the Mannerist

period mannerism continue the legacy of

the Renaissance through its use of rich

bright colors religious and mythological

subjects and highly detailed works

however it moved away from the realism

of the Renaissance and towards distorted

figures that aim to emulate otherworldly

ideals the individualistic focus

mathematical and scientific exploration

of the Renaissance continues to

influence our world today the

Renaissance created a path that led to

what we consider modernity and

subsequently the contemporary world

you

John Berger / Ways of Seeing , Episode 1 (1972) - YouTube

NA
What Is The Treachery of Images? - YouTube
I started analyzing paintings as a way to confront the problem of not engaging with certain forms and
genres

of art. I mean, you stand at a museum, look at a Kandinsky or a Monet or a Seurat and wonder:

What exactly am I supposed to feel here?

Certain paintings seem particularly stubborn, unwilling to move even an inch in your direction,

leaving you with a massive void to fill with unanchored interpretation.

But what about paintings that do the opposite?

Rene Magritte's The Treachery of Images moves more than an inch in the direction of the viewer.

It goes all the way. The painting speaks in a language that we can understand, which is to say

language itself.

"Ceci n'est pas une pipe." This is not a pipe.

The painting actually says something, it engages, it talks. So, what's it trying to say?

First, let's talk for a moment about Rene Magritte, one of the most famous and lasting of the surrealist
artists,

a man who never really thought of himself as a painter, more a thinker that used images to express
himself.

Once he landed on an aesthetic style, it never really changed or evolved throughout his career.

Well versed in philosophical writing from Plato to Foucault, he used that style to investigate ideas.

His program was to confuse, to evoke mystery, to show us that what we want is always behind the thing
we see.

And that the obstruction can never be removed completely because it's not in the object.

It's in vision and thought itself. The Treachery of Images approaches these themes directly.

The painting at first is obvious in its message. It shows an image of a pipe and then underneath the
image

it tells, or reminds the viewer, that this not a pipe and we can infer the rest.

Obviously, that's not a pipe, it's a representation of a pipe and Magritte means to show us that

representations are not the real thing. They only resemble the real thing.

But of course, that's common sense. Who in the world would argue the opposite position?

But a curious question comes out of this. If someone showed you this image and asked you what is was,

what would you say? Probably you'd say, "It's an apple," right? Or, what about this image? It's a man.
Or this, this is a train. This is a house. This is a dog. This is a hand. This is a-

pipe.

The little accident of language is not really an accident at all. For many hundreds of years, human beings
have

supposed that language and reality had an organic relationship, that the names of things, in a way,

arose out of the things themselves, that a tree was, in fact, a tree. That Kanye West is, in fact, Kanye
West,

and that a pipe is really a pipe.

All of that was challenged by the famous linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, an extremely influential figure

who saw that a thing and its name have a totally arbitrary relationship, that we don't really know things;

but only access their shadow through language in which everything has a meaning in the context of the
system.

After so many centuries of trusting the word implicitly, these insights were hard-won.

So hard-won, that Magritte saw that the old wrongheaded ways of thinking about language

were still hiding in the way we thought and talked about images.

Realistic painting plays on resemblance and resemblance suggests a hierarchy, that the image

of a pipe resembles, that is points outside language to the thing in itself.

The falseness of this claim is what inspired the abstract artists to move beyond resemblance

into a field in which painting had no referent in reality as such.

Magritte, on the other hand, makes this point using the false premises of resemblance

and shatters them from within. The visual secret dependence on language is laid bare

in The Treachery of Images. Indeed, that dependence is the treachery of images.

Here was have an image and a sentence, laid out like a page from a botanical textbook, begging

to be connected. But why should we connect them? Why should the sentence and the image refer to
one another?

How do we know that the word "This" points upward? Of course, we don't know, but the pronoun,

the resemblance, and the name all make that connection inevitable. And it's that inevitability that's
made

real in every aspect of our lives. We go about our days confident that everything we see could be said

and that the images we say could be seen. But if you've ever used the phrase, "You had to be there,"
you know that these are two realities that do not overlap in the way we act like they do.

This is not a pipe, yes. But this is not a pipe either. And if this is not a pipe, then the sentence scrawled

in its cute schoolboy cursive is actually a contradiction, a contradiction that pulls the whole painting
apart

at the seams and makes it utter nonsense. I don't know if Magritte laughed about that but I hope he did.

Because what's more forceful? Not moving an inch in the direction of the viewer or moving a question

all the way into the center of the viewer's mind, that on the slightest prodding and examination

implodes?

Hey everybody, thanks for watching. Boy, that was really fun to do. I wanted to let you know that there
are only

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makes this channel possible. it wouldn't exist, the Nerdwriter would not exist without your help and I
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trying to build it up little by little. You know, it's a model for supporting content that I really believe in.

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How To Understand A Picasso - YouTube

so you're in a museum looking at a

picasso

you've heard the name a million times

you know the influence you know he's one

of the most important artists of the

20th century you know

he invented cubism you know he loved

women lots of women and you know he

wasn't that great to them

you know he had phases the blue period

the rose period neoclassicism surrealism

but the painting you're looking at the

one in front of you you've never seen it

before

it's called night fishing at antibes or

on t

you don't really know you don't speak

french the little card next to it

doesn't say much but you want to know

more about it

how the way i see it you can look at

any picasso in five different ways

the first and often the best way to

understand any painting

is simply to look at it describe to

yourself the objects and the actions

that you see

in night fishing for example what you

see is two spear fishermen hunting for

fish from a small boat

lit by a mesmerizing light at the top of

the canvas one fisherman

leans strongly into the water with his

spear hesitating before delivering the

final blow to a fish

while the other leans languidly over the

edge looking

anxious a fishing line tied to his foot

in the upper left we can see two towers

and a mass of purple shapes while

around the fishermen fly moths or

insects lit by the light

curving over the back of one of them

toward the right side of the frame where

two women one with

an ice cream cone and a bicycle gesture

to the men who don't seem to notice that

much

i find my first reactions to this entire

painting to be a bit

contradictory on the one hand there

seems to be a violent foreboding

character to the scene the central focus

is clearly the hand and the spear and

the fish

but there also seems to be an

equilibrium here in the balance of

colors and figures

and almost magical view into an all too

ordinary activity

of fishing at night by lamplight and

that brings us to the second way to

examine this painting

understanding the actual content of this

scene

it is of course a night fishing scene

and that light at the top is either the

moon

or an acetylene gas lamp which spear

fishermen use

to lure fish to the surface of the water

you can see another one under the boat

in the upper left we can bet that those

two towers in the mass of purple shapes

are

the chateau grimaldi which by the way

has since become

a picasso museum and the water is the

french riviera at

antib a resort town in the southeast of

france where picasso was vacationing in

the summer of 1939

according to his secretary picasso had

come across such fishing scenes walking

the town at night

after dinner and proceeded to lock

himself in his studio to work

on this really large canvas his largest

since

guernica which was completed two years

before

the form of night fishing is in keeping

with picasso's evolving style after

guernica which incorporates holdover

elements from the cubist period

and the flatness of the canvas and its

emphasis on geometrical shapes

but it also pulls from the painters

excursions into both

surrealism and primitivism where faces

become

masks indeed in so much of this painting

in the cubist period and beyond

the key point to remember is that

figures

are painted not as they're perceived but

as they're

conceived picasso adds to each body

elements that signify to other bodies

and to the canvas as a whole

for this reason the critic douglas

morgan is right to say that

we can't call picasso's people distorted

or grotesque

because they haven't been distorted from

anything there's no

version of reality in which they're

undistorted in night fishing the people

are not meant to be

sympathized with the normal reaction to

an undistorted figure

they're meant to be seen that naked

seeing that discernment

communicates his meanings more directly

and what are those meanings well there

are a couple ways we can

apply what we see in form and content to

find out

first it's worth it to look at the

historical context

the painting was completed in august

1939 just a couple weeks before the

outbreak

of world war ii life in europe was

extraordinarily

tense and it was exceptionally so for

picasso who was still reeling from the

sad conclusion of another conflict

the spanish civil war and the defeat of

the republican forces by francisco

franco

and his nationalist army picasso opposed

franco in his work most notably in

guernica which is

one of the most startling anti-war

paintings in history

and in some ways knight fishing in

antibes can be seen as

a companion piece to guernica instead of

depicting all the violence of the former

picasso shows

a moment of hesitation the spear is

likely to skewer the fish

but it hasn't yet a moment of choice

opens up

and with choice there's hope the painter

draws attention to this by making the

hand gripping the spear

the most realistic depiction in the

canvas and as we move outward from that

focal point things become increasingly

warped and yet even with this hesitation

the scene is suffused with a sense of

almost apocalyptic apprehension the

light at the top resembles

a spiraling comet as much as it does a

moon or a lamp

juxtaposed next to a frightening blotch

of red the painting's only use of that

color

the moths are like poor tents buzzing

around the heads of the fishermen the

jetty that the women stand on is

unsteady the town in the background is a

mess these feelings

could be a prescient imaging of the

coming destruction of europe

certainly the feeling in the air was

hard to miss but more likely these dark

undertones reflect an ongoing personal

struggle with the loss of picasso's

native spain

to a vicious dictator but we're still

missing one

giant piece of the puzzle the personal

context

what was going on in the artist's own

life in this respect it's worth it to

ask

who these people could possibly

represent first let's look at the women

while they both seek to get the

attention of the fishermen they do so in

different ways

the one closest to them and in the

closest proximity to the light

spreads her arms in a graceful pose the

other is more blase licking her ice

cream cone

her obviously really very obviously

phallic head and pronounced breasts

makes her

the more sensuous of the two and though

certainly a misogynistic distinction

these two women likely represent

picasso's wife olga

and a combination of his mistresses

maria therese walter and

doramar who was with picasso in antibes

and finally the spearing fisherman can

be read as picasso himself

or perhaps the version of himself that

he wants to be

headstrong looking forward at his goals

undaunted by

distraction but this man seems to be

linked with his partner

perhaps picasso's other half a side of

himself that is

passive that ties a fishing line to his

toe and

waits whereas the first fisherman is

defined by strong perpendicular lines

the second's body is a mass of

curved lines and contorted limbs

remembering the historical context and

the stark defiance that is guernica

what we might be seeing here is picasso

coming to grips not only with

passivity and weakness in his nature but

the artist's impotence

in the face of the world's brutality his

mother had died at the start of the year

and spain was lost maybe this is why the

boat floats in a weird

no man's land between the town and the

women maybe this is why the scene feels

uneasy despite being beautiful in its

rendering

there's more you can read into this

painting and the rest of picasso's work

but these five angles always start me

down some fruitful paths

and each individual method of

understanding is less important than the

ways all of them

connect and feed into each other the

historical context usually informs the

personal and the form grows out of the

content

and your first reaction is often

surprisingly incisive if you take the

time to voice it or write it down

picasso's legacy looms so large that the

scholarship on him

is vast and often contradictory

so my feeling is why not decide the

significance of his work

for yourself

Realism - Overview from Phil Hansen - YouTube

sometimes the paintings that have the

most impact on us are those that depict

familiar scenes from our everyday lives

art that makes us pause to feel and

think chief proponent of realism Gustave

Courbet believed that painting should

represent real and existing things this

was the driving force behind realism one

of the most important periods in French

art this was a time of revolution the

time when both the French Revolution and

Industrial Revolution spurred dramatic

change across the world the first seeds

of realism also referred to as

naturalism were sown soon after the

revolution of 1848 which included a wave

of over 50 countries in Europe and Latin

America the French public's desire for

more dramatic reforms manifested in the

realist art and literature that would

flourish from the 1840s until the 1880s

realists were the first generation of

artists to adopt a highly scientific

perspective in their art three of the

most influential thinkers were Charles

Darwin Karl Marx and Auguste Comte

Charles Darwin introduced the idea of

evolution and survival of the fittest

which came to be considered a

justification for the extreme wealth

inequality of the time Karl Marx whose

response to extreme wealth disparity was

equal distribution and increased worker

rights under communist government and

Auguste Comte stressed the importance of

positivism focusing on understanding the

relationship between cause and effect in

early times religion mythology and

philosophy were considered the highest

truths but during the mid and late 1880s

more than ever before the world that

people could see touch taste hear and

feel was considered objective truth

the French Royal Academy whose

endorsement was significant for artists

during this time thought that good art

should be beautiful classically inspired

and in line with French morality

realist artists challenged all these

ideas by painting non idealized everyday

scenes of middle-class and poor people

of modern times these themes were both a

response to the over idealization of the

romanticism and neoclassicism that came

before and a reflection of new

scientific worldview and concern for

human rights realism brought the issues

in lives of the working class to the

forefront painting a gritty picture of

the harsh realities as well as beautiful

joys of normal everyday lives realism in

painting was an art of changing times

realists abandoned classicism and

Romanticism preferring to create

compelling and socially critical

pictures based on direct observations of

the world around them common

characteristics of realist art was a

rejection of artistic theory rules a

break from religious and mythological

themes minimal idealization social

criticism and a scientific lens realist

art aim to portray people and scenes as

they really were as a leader of the

French realist movement Gustave Courbet

used rural and agrarian people from his

native region as well as scenes of

nature on a monumental scale at the

salon of Paris of 18-49 and 1850 cor

BAE's brilliant examples of realist

paintings took the nation by storm in

particular the stone breakers and a

burial at or nuns have come to be

regarded as groundbreaking paintings

that challenged convention and modern

perceptions the stone breakers shows the

state of poor peasant workers during the

industrial revolution

it reveals the hardships that miners

farmers and peasants faced at the hands

of factory owners and capitalists

the motionless faces and mellow colors

are melancholic while also informing us

about the harsh realities faced by the

working-class Courbet is honest

simplistic portrayal of day to day

imagery was considered by critics as

crude and even anti-authoritarian

another example of core Bayes defiance

of conventional art methods and

perspectives is young woman from the

village which was exhibited at the salon

of Paris in 1852 the painting featured

three young girls

Courbet sisters dressed in countrified

costumes and representing the rural

middle class they are seen giving money

as charity to a poor cow herder critics

panned this painting calling it clumsy

and tasteless

despite continuous rejections from

critics Courbet continued undeterred

inspiring many fellow artists notably

jean-francois millet and honoré daumier

like corbeil jean francois Malay also

faced initial criticism but gained

popularity in the 1860s he is best known

for his depictions of rural life scenes

of peasants at work in particular Malay

left his home in Peretz to settle in

Barbizon in 18-49 in order to live in

closer proximity to his rural subjects

his sheep shearing beneath a tree in

crane and watercolor is one of his many

artworks on the subject of sheep

shearing one of his most emotional

compositions admired and copied by Van

Gogh his first steps depicts a father

putting down his tools and stretching

his arms out for his child's first steps

while the child's mother carefully

guides her movements malaise most famous

work the Gleaners depicts rural poverty

through three peasant women gleaning

grains bending over the ground all three

women have their eyes fixed firmly

downwards the scene portrays the

hardships faced by peasant women whose

job was to go out into the fields at

sunset and pick up ears of corn missed

by the harvesters malaise portrayal was

considered anti-authoritarian but his

conservative style was a far cry from

core bass less restrained technique

honoré daumier was a well-known

lithographer who had parodied King

louis-philippe in caricatures inspired

by the realism movement knowmia turned

to more realistic portrayals later in

his career his the first-class carriage

and the third-class carriage portray the

socio-economic distinctions of the time

through his experiences traveling in

different classes of rail coaches

Edouard Manet another eminent realist

painted people in natural settings as

seen in the landscape of his painting

luncheon on the grass artist John

Sargent practice his own form of realism

depicting human forms and his

characteristic glimmers of light as seen

in Madame X during the same time The

Naturalist literature complimented the

realist movement pushing the working

class into the realm of art and

literature flow bears Madame Bovary

Tolstoy's war and peace and Henry

James's portrait of a lady we're all

three realist works still popular today

at the time the harsh everyday realities

in these novels shocked readers but they

also struck a powerful chord realists

the literature was characterized by

simple plots and complex characters

social critique matter-of-fact style and

a focus on the lives and daily struggles

of lower and middle class characters

plays like imps ins a dollhouse and

Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard and three

sisters were influential works and

realist theater

the realist movement spawned two

offshoots the Barbizon School and Ashkan

school the Barbizon School was comprised

of French landscape painters in the town

of Barbizon the Ashkan school was in the

United States and depicted gritty scenes

from city life realism would go on to

influence the work of young progressive

artists and pave the way for

Impressionism and the late 1800s

Pablo Picasso - Guernica (1937) - YouTube

Art History online presents Guernica by Spanish Painter Pablo, Picasso

Picasso painted Guernica in 1937

Since 1992 the painting is hung in an especially built gallery in the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid the
capital of Spain

The size of the oil on Canvas painting resembles a mural painting since it measures almost three and a
half by eight meters

To understand the painting we need to know about the historic context and picasso's motives

Picasso was born on the 25th of October

1881 in the City of Malaga in the Andalusian region of Spain he also lived in Barcelona and Madrid

Picasso made his first trip to Paris in 1900 with already a year later. He definitely moved to the French
capital

Picasso always avoided being too political even though already for years prior to the Spanish Civil war
there was a political divided Spain Eventually leading to this war.
On the one hand there were the left republicans, pro-Democracy and the Spanish republic

On the other hand there were the right-wing nationalists, a rebelling group under the command of
general Francisco Franco

These parties weren't just [opposition's]. They were enemies demanding each other's annihilation,

The Nationalists eventually triumphed in 1939 and Franco ruled Spain until he died in 1975

when Franco attacked the Prado museum in Madrid in 1936

Picasso felt personally insulted

Suddenly he was protective of his own ancestry, the Spanish artistic heritage

Picasso visited spain for the last time in his life in 1934 but in 1936 he was assigned

as the honorary director in exile of the Prado museum in Madrid. By supporting the prado Museum

He chose the side of the republicans and took a stand against franco in January

1937 the Spanish Republic also commissioned picasso to make a mural for the Spanish Pavilion at the
world's fair 1937 in paris

Picasso immediately started sketching

But he changed this course after reading an article by Journalist George Steer about the attack on
Guernica. what happened in Guernica that startled Picasso?

Franco wanted to save Spain from Marxism, the Left-wing Republican and for this cause he was willing
to shoot half the country, "Viva La Muerte"

with the Nazis luftwaffe and the Italian fascists by his side he attacked the Basque town of Guernica

This town was seen as the Northern home base of the republican resistance. On the 26th of April

1937 in the end of the afternoon around 4 o'clock

Guernica was Overrun with a three hour-long bombing by german and Italian planes

Over 3,000 bombs were dropped on the Defenseless town turning it into an inferno

The citizens were unable to escape since the roads and bridges were destroyed first every moving
person was shut with machine guns

That day 1645 People died and thousands were Terribly wounded

Most of the victims were women and children since the men were away fighting for the republican
army.

This Brutal Terrorist attack was clearly a threatening message to the rest of Spain.

With these historic circumstances in mind we're going to analyze the painting

We can assume the painting depicts the bombing of Guernica

At first sight it's a very dynamic scene with several human and animal figures in an unknown space

consisting of Geometric shapes

Since this face is illuminated by a light bulb

Because there's a table and the ceiling is suggested the left side of the painting appears to be in interior

But the right side of the painting suggests an outdoor scene you can see the outside of one or two
houses in the foreground

We can see several separated body parts of a man his head and both arms in one hand holding a broken
sword

This defeated soldier is lying at the feet of a collapsing horse with the gaping wounds the central figure
on

The left there's a woman overcome with grief holding a senseless child she's in front of a massive bull on

The right side of the painting we can see a female figure leaning towards the agonized horse on

The far right there's another woman. She's screaming in front of burning house

partly covered by blazing wreckage

From a window a woman is curiously observing the wounded horse

She's holding a candle even though the scene is already lit by an electric light bulb

Besides these figures we can vaguely a could see you screeching birds on top of the table

Next to the hand of the soldier a flower is noticeable

Remarkably all the figures are portrayed en profil

Some argue the painting can be divided into three sections in accordance with the tradition of the
triptych

So it doesn't consist of three separate panels

Picasso applied a very complex composition. There's no singular triangular composition

Picasso implied a plural triangular design as well as several obvious triangular shapes

The use of light within the painting is unseparable from the composition the light source dictates the
main triangular composition

Following the light form as well the candle from the light bulb

even though the triangular design derives from the light sources

It leads the eyes of the viewer to the Central figures the horse it also connects elements on opposite
sides of the canvas

The Obvious triangular Shapes can be found throughout the painting on the right of the horse in
In the mother and child and in the woman in flames.

You can probably see more triangle since the painting is full of geometrical forms.

Actually, we can state that all the figures are formed by triangles or

Opposed so they form a triad for example

We can distinguish

triangular forms in a noses, tongues, the woman's hair, their breast in the roof of the bull and the horse
in the wounds

knees Etc

By repeating triangular form as well in the main design as in the figures

There's not only a sense of unity in the painting it also fortifies the suggested movement

Within the composition also the Bull is emphasized several lines derive from the bull or move towards it

It's remarkable that there is not a single but a variation of perspectives in this painting

besides, there's no clear background Horizon

Or whatsoever that want to spacious surrounding for the placement of the figures, we can hardly
distinguish a background

The disproportionate figures, especially their faces are dominant in the picture

even though the triangular shapes create a sense of space distance and movement

It's difficult to outline the fragmented figures

But there is some overlap noticeable; the mother and child partly overlay the bull

The soldier overlaps the horse, this overlap also contributes to the spaciousness in the depicted scene

The use of variation in perceived depth, the fragmentation and deformation of figures and the use of
geometrical Shapes are characteristics of cubist art.

Because of the repetition of triangular shapes, the use of several perspectives

the lack of background, the dominant faces, the overlapping figures and the enormous measurements

As the viewer you'll feel like you're there in Guernica in the middle of the painting.

As you've probably noticed, the colorful palette of the painting only exists of black and different shades
of gray

There appears to be some use of white, but that's a really light gray

Picasso created a contrast between the dark background and the light figures the contrasting colors
create the lines of the composition
We've analyzed before

Most interpreters agreed Picasso probably used black and gray

Since it's appropriate for the severity of the subject and to express pain and Chaos

Some say the stock monochromatic color sheen gives the painting the appearance of a newspaper photo

The vertical strokes applied on the horse seemed to constitute a newspaper print

these apparent references to newspapers could be a reminder that the depicted scene is a current event
a

newspaper article made picasso aware of the offense in Guernica.

newspapers with black and white photos were the main source of information at that time

Some say the newspaper elements were giving the painting the same sense of truth and horror as the
newspaper heads.

Some art historians attribute self reference to the Coliseum and newsprint his detail recurrence in
Picasso's early cubic art.

Though we've only pointed out some cubist element the painting is seen as a synthesis of Cubism,
surrealism

Ancient art and Picassos personal pictorial preoccupation, not only concerning its style, but also its
symbolism

There are many attributed meanings and picasso himself has made several statements about the
meaning of the painting

About Guernica, Picasso said: "My whole life as an artist has been nothing more than a continuous
struggle

Against reaction and the Death of art. In a picture I am painting which I shall call Guernica

I am expressing my horror of the military caste which is now plundering spain into an ocean of Misery
and death

Just like most of Picasso's work the precise meaning of the imagery in this painting remains ambiguous

Any symbol cannot many as contradictory explanations

To explain its symbolism Picasso said: "it isn't up to the painter to Define the symbol

Otherwise it would be better

If he wrote them out in so many words, the public who look at the picture must interpret the symbols as
they understand them"

He also said: if you give a meaning to certain things in my paintings it may be very true
But it's not my idea to give this meaning but ideas and conclusions you have got I obtained - but
instinctively

Unconsciously I make the paintings for painting. I paint the objects for what they are

Nevertheless we will be considering the common interpretation of individual picture element as well as
the entire scene

Some of the picture elements seem to originate directly in the event of Guernica the suffering caused by
the bombing the defenseless people and animals

But most noted seem to have an allegorical or ambiguous meaning

The main Characters the Bull and the horse have contradictory interpretations

Picasso himself [uses] characters to [play] many different roles over time which makes its explanation
unsure on

The one hand the bull is seen as the symbol of the traditional [republic] Spain

The Bull is the unofficial national symbol of Spain and bull fighting at the typical Spanish tradition. It's

inevitable to consider A

nationalistic meaning of the bull the painting Depicts several elements that are featured in traditional
bullfighting on a

bull or horse and a man with a sword or spear, a matador

Later on in his life Picasso actually made sketches featuring bull fights

The bull the horse and the matador, might be present in the painting

They're nothing like the usually victorious [matador] and the slaughtered bull in

This case the man is slaughtered, the weapon is broken and his horse is suffering. Though, the bull is not
triumphant Victory

He remains peaceful rather stoic in case of this interpretation the bull is the symbol of republic Spain

Still standing [even] after a brutal attack like in Guernica the horse then represents Franco's

Nationalism Picasso predicting its downfall on

The other hand the bull is interpreted as the brutality and the horse as a symbol for the people

It seems more likely to me since the horse is wounded and grouped with the other victims the citizens of
Guernica

Some interpreters think there are hidden symbols in Guernica

Which are favoring the bull as evil enemy for example the hidden bull overlaying the horse

This bull assualts the shrieking horse with his head and horns
[has] also an arrow visible not hidden but neither obvious this arrow points towards mother and the bull

Actually crossing the bulls genitals and the mother's [breasts] in some of picasso sketches for Guernica

there are sexual violence the bull is raping the female figure

The dying horse is representing the senseless death of the people without any hope is a disturbing [idea]

Though Picasso added a sign of Optimism in the lower center of the painting [a] single blooming flower

but this blooming flower also points out that life and hope is fragile [a]

third considered meaning of the bull opposed to the other figures

concerns the conflict of Gender the ungoing friction between the Masculine and the feminine an

Assumptive reflection of Picasso's personal life Picasso [versus] his lovers at the time he made Guernica

He was involved with three women his wife and two lovers

Conclusively it's ambiguous whether the bull and the horse will present the nationalist fighting the
loyalists

Franco versus the Spanish people or if they represent the main characters of Picasso's personal battles
or both?

The Bull can be the aggressor or the pacifist, the bad or the good guy depending on which interpretation
the viewer applies

Perhaps there is no evident enemy in painting and all subjects are victims the conflicting interpretations

Challenges the most basic notions of war as heroic it might purposely focus on war as a brutal act
perhaps even with self-destruction

Besides the bull and the horse the large lamp is a significant picture element

Some say it represents the sun an eartly light source the glimmer of hope though

It is clearly an artificial light an electric light bulb

The comparison of its form to the shape [of] a human eye seems plausible

In that case it could represent the eye of the painter showing his perception of the [event] or even the
eye of God

gazing upon the human Cruelty

in my opinion

It's more likely to represent the evil eye the eye of the death squad [to] targeting [bombers] aggressively
flickering

Under this flash ball the people of Guernica [are] consumed like Chaos pain and death
Coincidentally or not, the Spanish word for electric light bulb is very similar to the word bomb in Spanish
Bomba namely bombillo

The electric light is sometimes compared to the Lantern in Francisco

Goya's painting 'el tres de mayo' the 3rd of may this painting

depicts the execution of rebels in Madrid in

1808 the [Square] lantern Illuminates and blinds the victims they can't see the faces of the cowardly
executions

The interpretation of the electric light bulb as an evil eye is justified by the opposing candle light the
woman carrying the candle is

Commonly interpreted as the light bearer the bringer of light and joy then the juxtaposing of these two
light sources

indicates the battle between good and evil

[Franco] against the people maybe even war for his art and it seems the candle light is winning

Since it seems to be a stronger light source being the exact centre of the painting horizontally and
dictating a strong line

That's part of the composition

Some interpret the woman at the bottom right as a symbol for the hope of peace

They say that despite her leg injury she continues to pursue the light the ideal of [freedom] and peace

The woman with her deceased child strongly resembles the Christian motives of the pietà mother mary
cradling the dead body of Christ

But in the context of the painting it is more likely to be linked to Mater dolorosa

in Spanish art the image of Mater Dolorosa

Mother of sorrows has been depicted frequently this figure is a woman mourning for a child who has
died

Looking upwards with tears in her eyes

The woman causing flames is often discussed as a reference to 'el tres de mayo' by Goya

Like the Central figure in Goya's painting the woman raises her arms to heaven forming a cross

el tres de mayo was a message of resistance to the oppression

Guernica could be seen likewise though the woman isn't fearless and proud like Goya's heroes
resistance her eyes are shaped like tears

She's afraid and suffering

The soldier is mostly seen [as] a symbol of the defeat of the people
His broken swords points out his determination his willingness to die for his values

But it also symbolizes the unfair fight be an equality of arms

Republicans did not have the access to the same military resources as the nationalists possessed

Concerning the soldier again the comparison to el tres de mayo by goya is made

Both men have puncture wounds in the palms of their hands the stigmata of the martyred Christ

Both with their arms wide like a crucified christ dying a salvatious death

Opposites they [who] interpret the bull as the [Spanish] people

see the soldier as the defeated opponent and the broken sword as the symbol of peace

Some construed a bird on the table as a dove a universal symbol of peace

But this bird or the peace isn't clearly visible its fading this could mean the prospect of peace is far away

Or that is possible but Fragile like the flower

The main theme of Guernica seems to be death. Some are convinced a hidden symbol is reinforcing this

They think that a hidden skull in the center of the painting

influences the viewer subliminal impression

The skull is shown sideways like all the depicted figures and can be substracted from the body of the
horse in

Addition it is said that the mechanical appearance of the skull it in accordance with the Modern
weaponry used in the bombing of Guernica

this is a precarious assumption sice the entire painting can be classified as mechanical because of its
cubist imagery [even]

[though] the symbolic meaning of the distinct images is ambiguous and discussed we can state Guernica
can be classified as a war painting

The painting Depicts Picasso's interpretation of the horrors of war specifically the attack on the town of
Guernica

[it] is seen as a billboard sized anti-war image

It's an intense painting that doesn't just tell about the attack on Guernica

It makes us feel it, but the painting isn't just a [war] painting

It's also a synthesis of the excitement of modernism Picasso's obsession for art of the past and his
personal

experiences with love and grief

What makes Guernica such an outstanding work of art if the combination of its monumental
measurement the [purposeful]?

Composition the Monochromatic color sheen the cubist's imagery in the context of a political painting
and the ambiguous

symbolic meaning at

the World Fair in

1937 many viewers were repulsed by the directness of the painting and the fact they couldn't really
point out the bad guy in it

The picture didn't conform their notion of a political painting

Picasso responded. I paint this way because it's a resolve of my thoughts. I have worked for years to
obtain this resolve

I can't use an ordinary Manner. Just to have the satisfaction of being [understood]

Nowadays Guernica is seen as an icon as the first truly Modern history painting

During the second world war Picasso lived in Paris even though the German nazis occupied the city

Picasso was often arrested by the gestapo during a search of his apartment. they found a photograph of
the painting

They asked did you do that? Picasso replied no

you did

after the world fair the painting [travelled] across the world

Finally being on display in the museum of Modern art in New York for several years

Picasso stated he didn't want the painting to enter his native country until Franco's regime had fallen

Unfortunately Picasso wasn't able to experience the end of dictatorship since he [died] in 1973

Two years before Franco did in 1981 an occasion of the centenary of Picasso's birth Guernica. Finally
arrived in Spain

since 1992 its final destination [up] until now is the Reina Sofìa Museum in Madrid

Thank you for watching this video [by] art history online for questions and requests please comment