Daniel C. Paclibar Jr.

GE20 (8195) – Assignment – week 4-5

1. Michelangelo

Michelangelo's Creation of Adam is merely a little section of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, yet it
stands out for some reason. It is widely regarded as one of the most iconic pictures in the
history of European art. In some ways, this image symbolizes more than the creation of the
first man; it depicts the very beginning of what would eventually become the human race.
Adam's form is curved as he extends out to God, implying that man is fashioned in the image
of God himself. The way the two dominating figures link and correlate to each other suggests
Adam's strong relationship with his maker. Michelangelo designed Adam's Creation in such a
manner that the figure of Adam mimics the figure of God, almost as if one is nothing more
than an extension of the other.

2. John Trumbull

Trumbull represented a number of pivotal incidents in the battle of Princeton, New Jersey.
Brigadier General Hugh Mercer, cut off from his embattled soldiers and with his dying horse
beneath him, awaiting the deadly blow from a British bayonet in the middle. General George
Washington, on a brown horse and followed by Dr. Benjamin Rush, charges onto the field in
the middle distance to encourage his men. Trumbull switched the attention from Mercer's
death to the commander in chief, whose valor earned the American army a key victory, by
lowering the position of Mercer's horse's head, which had been lifted in a previous oil sketch
of this subject.
3. Hokusai

Katsushika Hokusai's "Great Wave" painting has become a symbol of not just tsunamis, but
also hurricanes and plane crashes into the sea. Because Under the Wave off Kanagawa has
been reinterpreted so many times, it has become a global symbol, as instantly identifiable as
a film or music celebrity. An impression of the print is now on display at the Museum of Fine
Arts in Boston as part of the exhibition Hokusai.

Waves are unpredictably unpredictable. They're there one minute and gone the next—and we
only see them in the act of disappearing. Hokusai had a remarkable ability to portray waves in
all their variation, and he returned to the subject often throughout the course of a six-decade
career, from the 1790s until his death in 1849. He created several variants on the "Great
Wave" drama of man and nature.

Reference:

https://www.michelangelo.net/creation-of-adam/
https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/101
https://www.getty.edu/news/why-the-iconic-great-wave-swept-the-world/