August Masonheimer Art history final 1.

What makes Diego Riveras Making a Fresco a fresco within a fresco is that he depicts the painting of the building of the various things going on. Most thing in the same dimension with the exception of the upper right corner; which, despite being the same size as the wood workers, they are clearly not in the gallery space like the rest of the figures. The rest of the figures are what truly make the painting a fresco within a fresco, the center scene being the most responsible. The majority of the scene is simply painter painting what appears to be a mural of an unknown figure; this painting is what truly makes it a fresco within a fresco. On the upper left it shows the wood workers keeping the structure the painter are on from falling. The bottom left shows more painters working on either a separate painting or a continuation of the center one (I cant tell which one). The bottom center and the bottom right seem to depict what is presumably the people funding the project discussing the funding for the project and the planners planning for the rest of the project respectively. The planners and the people funding the painting also help show his point of view. He also shows the steel worker to depict the buildings of the time. The painting is located at the San Francisco art institute. 2. To begin with I have to say Im not quite sure how to answer this question. There isnt really a lot to compare between the two. They both contain a painting of a person (Bessells would be the actual painting while Riveras would be the center mural that is being painted.) Im probably going to fail this question but I honestly cant see much else in common. 3. Picassos La Guernica differs from earlier depictions of war in several different ways. Earlier depictions of war made it seem heroic and honorable for at least one side if not both. Picasso seems to completely discard this concept and depicts war as a monstrosity. He demonstrates this by distorting the figures from the natural look; instead favoring a twisted and confused looks. He shows the figures in complete agony with limbs scattered around the painting. While older paintings did depict gore they always made the sides look honorable. Picasso completely abandons honor and simply shows the pure carnage of war. When Picasso says: Painting is not done to decorate apartments. Its an instrument of war for attack and defense against the enemy. He simply means that true artists dont paint for money or fame; they paint to express things. These things can vary greatly; some could be just for free expression while others could be to express a point. Picasso himself tried to express the travesty and carnage of war in his painting La Guernica. What he means when he uses the word

enemy can also vary; but most likely it simply means the counter point to the artists idea (in Picassos painting La Guernica his enemy would be war). 4. It is not necessary at all for art to be beautiful. The main reason behind this is that beauty can vary greatly between people. Beauty is anything that pleases a persons senses and therefore will never be the exact same for more than one person. Someone may find a garden filled with fresh flowers beautiful while another person could find a decaying junk yard just as beautiful in their eyes. The same is true for paintings; A person can find a painting of a peaceful meadow filled with flowers disgusting, but turn around to see a gory scene depicting a great battle and find it beautiful. Another person could see both and have the exact opposite view, or even find both of them disgusting preferring a third or possibly fourth alternative. Therefore anything could be considered art even if it depicts something most people find disgusting. Although adding the concept of truth to a painting can completely alter its views. If a painting depicts something a person finds ugly but also depicts some sort of truth the person can completely change their views. If a person agrees strongly enough with the truth represented it can overpower the part of the brain that considers it ugly and therefore cause it to view the painting of beautiful. 4(B?). By creating the Greek plates (bowl in my case) it helped me understand the difficulties in creating them. I had it pretty easy because I already had the clay made, a picture to choose from and constantly look at (even to trace), tools specifically made to work on the bowl, and an instructor to tell me what to do. In the past they would have been lucky to have had half of these things; but they still managed to create great works of art that lasted and will last for centuries (I give the plates and bowls 15 years tops)