Limerick School

History Of Art
Seventh form
(Cuadernillo de Historia del Arte de Séptimo Grado)

Student’s name: _________________________________

Teacher’s name: _________________________________

2017

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WHAT IS ART?

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 What is art?
Here are some famous quotations from people who throughout
history which try to describe what art meant to them.

―Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an

artist once he grows up.‖
Pablo Picasso 1881 –1973: Painter

―Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the

same time.‖
Thomas Merton 1915-1968: Writer

―He who works with his hands is a laborer.

He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is
an artist.‖
Francis of Assisi 1182-1226: Catholic friar and preacher

―The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance

of things, but their inward significance.‖ Aristotle 384-322
BC: Philosopher

―Every artist was first an amateur.‖

Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803 –1882: Essayist

―If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist,

will answer you: I am here to live out loud.‖
Emilee Zola: 1840-1902: Writer

―Creativity takes courage.‖

Henri Matisse 1869-1954: Painter

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 The Artist's toolkit
Find the right name for each tool that artists usually use to create
art:

Canvas – Palette – Eraser – Paint – Pencil – Sheet of paper –

Paintbrush – Palette knife

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The word art can be used to describe anything from prehistoric
cave paintings to a heap of junk in the corner of a gallery. It can
even be used to refer to music and literature, but more often than
not, it means visual art, or things which are made to be looked at –
especially paintings.

The great debate:

People have argued about
art, what it is and why it´s so
great, for centuries. Artist
and experts often have very
different ideas, leading to
some violent disputes. The
French painter Manet
disagreed with a critic so
strongly that he challenged
him to a duel. There are
lots of controversial
questions, but no right or
wrong answers. Everyone
has different tastes and
opinions, so it is up to you to decide what you think.

Some people think art should be

beautiful or life-like; others think it is
more important to capture a mood or
a feeling. Just compare the two
paintings on this page. One looks
almost like a photograph. The other is
much sketchier and painted with only
a few colours, but very atmospheric.
Some people believe art should be
about ideas. Others prefer to enjoy art
for its own sake. Some feel it is
important to paint scenes of modern
life; others are more interested in
exploring the effect of light on objects.

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What´s it worth?
People often disagree wildly about the value of art. Vincent van
Gogh died in poverty, because no one would buy his paintings –
even his friends said they looked like the work of a madman. Now,
they are among the most valuable pictures in the world.

But is it art?
Today, there is an
enormous emphasis on
making new and
original art – and
radical artists are
constantly challenging
our ideas about what
art actually is. So there
is more and more
controversy about it,
and about the high
prices collectors sometimes pay for it. Things artists have exhibited
include a bicycle wheel on a stool, a painting of a pipe labelled ´This
is not a pipe´, a row of bricks and even a pile of rubbish from a party
(later thrown away by mistake). Does that sound like art to you?
Some of them weren´t even made by the artist – they were just
things he or she had found. You might not expect to find them in a
gallery at all. Does seeing them there make them art? They can
certainly provoke strong reactions and make you see things in a
new way – which traditional paintings often do, too.

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Looking at paintings
You don´t have to know much about art to enjoy looking at it, but
you may find you get more out of it if you do. These paragraphs
suggest things to look for and think about in paintings.

What´s it all about?

One of the first things to decide about a painting is what it´s about.
Paintings are divided into different groups, or genres, according to
what they depict. The main genres are story-telling scenes,
portraits, landscapes and still lifes or arrangements of objects.
This picture, by Raphael, is a scene from a story about a knight and
a dream he had. The women are meant to be from the dream, not
real people.

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How is it arranged?
Scenes are usually arranged, or composed, to make you look at
them in a certain way. Important figures or objects may be bigger,
brighter or more centrally placed, to make you notice them first. So
here, you automatically look at the knight first. He lies in the middle
of picture, beneath the gaze of the two women.
What does it mean? Artists often put in hidden clues, or symbols, to
help you guess what a picture means. Sometimes, the clues
represent general ideas. For example, the book and sword in the
picture above symbolize learning and action, while the sprig of
flowers represents beauty and pleasure. Symbols can also help
identify who´s in the picture. Well-kwon characters, such as saints,
are often shown with a symbol from their lives, so experts can tell
who they are meant to be.

Why was it made?

When you look at a picture, it helps to know the motive behind it.
Was it meant to decorate a grand palace, or to hang in a church to
help people pray? Or was it just made to be seen in an art gallery,
where people can admire its beauty or think about the ideas behind
it? Was it meant to have a political, social or moral message, or was
it made to express an
emotion?
Raphael´s painting was made
to order, so he would have
been told what to paint. It
was probably a gift for a
young nobleman, and was
meant to make him think. But
the painting on this page was
made for pleasure – it
doesn´t have an obvious
message. The artist, Pierre-
Auguste Renoir, painted what
he wanted, and people
bought his pictures just
because the liked what they
looked like.
Do you like it?
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Another question to ask yourself is whether you like a painting or
not, and why. People have very personal feelings about art, so this
is a matter of taste and tastes change. When paintings like Renoir´s
first appeared, some critics attacked them for looking to sketchy.
But now they are greatly admired. There are no rules. It is up to you
to decide what you think about the picture you see.

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Look at these three artworks and write your opinion about what you
feel:

A: The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli

B: Guernica by Pablo Picasso

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C: Number 14 by Jackson Pollock
 World War I: The war that changed the world
It became known as The Great War because it affected people all
over the world and was the biggest war anyone had ever known.
The war was fought between two powerful groups.

Triple Alliance and Triple Entente sides

The opposing sides were:

 The Triple Alliance - made up of Germany, Austria-Hungary and

Italy
 The Triple Entente - made up of Great Britain, France and Russia
Divided
Long before the war began, the countries in these groups had made
arrangements to work together and help one another if there was a
war. So when war did break out in 1914, parts of Europe were
already divided into two sides.

Each of the countries involved got their troops ready to fight. Troops
were groups that fought together and included both
the army (people who fight on land) and the navy (people who fight
on the seas). Although part of the Triple Alliance, Italy declared
neutrality at the outbreak of war. Italy then entered the war on the
side of the Triple Entente in 1915.

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The war saw lots of battles take place in different countries,
especially France and Belgium. Later, many other countries also
become involved, some on the side of the Triple Alliance and
others of the side on the Triple Entente.

The crew of HMS Swift, a British high speed destroyer ship on deck during World War One

Causes
There was no single event that caused World War One. War happened
because of several different events that took place in the years building up to
1914.

Empire and alliances

Empire
Firstly, there was the role of empire. Great Britain, Germany,
Austria-Hungary and Russia all had empires. This meant that they
ruled many countries (colonies) all over the world. Each of these
countries wanted to keep their empire strong and was afraid of
other countries taking over new territories. They saw this as a threat
to their own empires. So when Germany and Austria-Hungary took
control of smaller countries like Bosnia and Morocco, it looked to
the rest of the world like they were being aggressive.
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 Alliances
Secondly, many countries had made alliances with one other. They
agreed to protect one another. This meant that if one country was
attacked, the others would get involved to defend that country.
Franz Ferdinand

Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of Austria-

Hungary
On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne
of Austria-Hungary, was shot (assassinated) while he was visiting
Sarajevo in Bosnia. He was killed by a Serbian person, who thought
that Serbia should control Bosnia instead of Austria. Because its
leader had been shot, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. As
a result:

1. Russia got involved because Russia had an alliance with Serbia

2. Germany then declared war on Russia because Germany had an
alliance with Austria-Hungary
3. Britain declared war on Germany because of its invasion of neutral
Belgium - Britain had agreements to protect both Belgium and
France.
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The war not only affected the soldiers fighting in the battles.

The war also affected the governments, ordinary adults and ordinary children.

The war years were tough on everybody, no matter who they were.

Trench warfare
In the beginning the war mostly took place in Europe. There were many
battles on the land, on the sea and in the air.

Battle of the Somme

One of the most famous battles was the Battle of the Somme which
started in July 1916 in France. It involved Britain, France and
Germany.

This battle was an example of trench warfare, where long ditches or

'trenches' were dug in the ground.

Soldiers lived in the trenches and sometimes they climbed out of

them to attack.
The land between the opposing trenches which soldiers had to
cross was called no man's land.

The Battle of the Somme was a very bloody battle. In total, around
one million soldiers were killed, wounded or missing: 420,000 from
Britain, 200,000 from France and 500,000 from Germany.

An army General called Sir Douglas Haig commanded the British

army. After the war was over, many people blamed him for so many
deaths and casualties. They thought that he had not led his troops
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in the right way. People felt that very little ground was gained for so
many deaths and that he should have changed his tactics after
19,000 British soldiers were killed on the first day of the battle.

British troops
A total of 65 million troops from around the world fought in the war.
This included the British army, which was made up of around 4
million men from England, 558,000 men from Scotland, 273,000
men from Wales and 134,000 men from Ireland. Just under 1
million British troops died.
America

Later in the war, Germany announced that it would attack any

ship that sailed towards Britain.

At this point, the United States of America decided Germany was

breaking international treaties and Europe needed help. The US
President declared war on Germany in April 1917. He thought that
he could help bring peace to Europe.

World War One ended at 11am on the eleventh day of the

eleventh month, in 1918. Germany signed an armistice (an
agreement for peace and no more fighting) that had been
prepared by Britain and France.

At the start of 1918, Germany was in a strong position and

expected to win the war. Russia had already left the year before
which made Germany even stronger.

The end of war

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World War One ended at 11am on the eleventh day of the
eleventh month, in 1918. Germany signed an armistice (an
agreement for peace and no more fighting) that had been
prepared by Britain and France.

At the start of 1918, Germany was in a strong position and

expected to win the war. Russia had already left the year before
which made Germany even stronger.
Germany launched the 'Michael Offensive' in March 1918, where
they pushed Britain far back across the old Somme battlefield.
However their plan for a quick victory failed when Britain and
France counter-attacked.

Germany and her allies realised it was no longer possible to win the
war. The Triple Alliance had been damaged. Some reasons for
this included the fact that the Schlieffen Plan had failed in 1914 and
the Verdun Offensive had failed in 1916. Germany was now losing
the Great Battle in France and the German Navy had gone on strike
and refused to carry on fighting. Furthermore, the United States
joined the war in April 1917, which gave the Triple Entente greater
power.

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Germany was not strong enough to continue fighting, especially as
the USA had joined the war and hundreds of thousands of fresh
American soldiers were arriving in France. This added greater
military strength to the Triple Entente forces.

The leaders of the German army told the German government to

end the fighting. Kaiser Wilhelm, Germany's leader, abdicated (left
his job) on 9 November 1918.

Two days later, Germany signed the armistice and the guns fell
silent. People in Britain, France and all of the countries that
supported them, celebrated the end of war - a war that had lasted
four years and four months. In London, a huge crowd gathered in
Trafalgar Square.

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DADAISM

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 Dada had only one rule: Never follow any
known rules
Dadaism or Dada is a post-World War I cultural movement in visual
art as well as literature (mainly poetry), theatre and graphic design.
The movement rose, among other things, as a protest against the
barbarity of the War: Dadaists believed that there was an
oppressive intellectual stiffness in both art and everyday society;
their works were characterized by a deliberate irrationality and the
rejection of the prevailing standards of art. It influenced later
movements including Surrealism.

According to its supporters, Dada was not

art; it was anti-art. For everything that art
stood for, Dada was to represent the
opposite. Where art was concerned with
aesthetics, Dada ignored it. If art is to have
at least an implicit or latent message, Dada
strives to have no meaning. If art is to
appeal to sensibilities, Dada offends.
Perhaps it is then ironic that Dada is an
influential movement in Modern art.

The artists of the

Dada movement
had become
disillusioned by art,
art history and
history in general.
Many of them were
veterans of World
War I and had
grown cynical of
humanity after
seeing what men
were capable of
doing to one
another on the battlefields of Europe. Thus, they became attracted
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to a nihilistic view of the world (they thought that nothing mankind
had achieved was worthwhile, not even art), and created art in
which chance and randomness formed the basis of creation. The
basis of Dada is nonsense. After the world order had been
destroyed by World War I, Dada was a way to express the
confusion that was felt by many people as their world had been
turned upside down.

There was no predominant medium in Dadaist art. Everything from

geometric tapestries to glass, plaster and wooden relief were
regarded as useful. It's worth noting, though, that assemblage,
collage, photomontage and the use of ready-made objects all
gained wide acceptance due to their use in Dada art.

Readymade art

One of the most famous Dada creations ever is

Marcel Duchamp´s Fountain – a urinal lying on
its back and signed “R. Mutt, 1917”. Duchamp
referred to works which used manufactured
objects like this as “ready-mades”. By
presenting a factory – made item as a work of
art, Duchamp challenged the idea that art
should be unique and produced by a skilled
artist.
Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) was a French-
American painter, sculptor, chess player, and
writer whose work is associated with Dadaism.
Duchamp is considered by many to be one of the most important
artists of the 20th century, and his works influenced the
development of post–World War I Western art.
Duchamp has had an immense impact on twentieth-century and
twenty first-century art. By World War I, he had rejected the work of
many of his fellow artists (like Henri Matisse) as "retinal" art, i.e.
intended only to please the eye. Instead, Duchamp wanted to put
art back in the service of the mind.

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For Duchamp, are artist´s ideas mattered
more than his actual art. According to
him, “whether Mister Mutt has made the
fountain with his own hands or not is
without importance. He chose it, he
created a new thought for this object”. But
not everyone agreed. When Duchamp
tried to exhibit Fountain in a show held by
the Society of Independent Artist, they
refused to let him, and he resigned from
the society in protest.

Bicycle Wheel – Marcel Duchamp

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The Dadaists protested through their art the war and the current
culture. Raoul Hausmann’s The Mechanical Head shows a man
who cannot think for himself but accepts everything he is told. He
has a wooden head with tight lips and eyes that show no
expression. The mechanical man will never argue or share an
opinion of his own. Look for yourself:

The practical joke that launched an artistic revolution

Three men met for lunch in New York early in April 1917. They were
the American painter Joseph Stella, Walter Arensberg, and Marcel
Duchamp. After their meal, they made their way to the JL Mott
Ironworks, a plumbing suppliers company situated at 118 Fifth
Avenue.

Once there, Duchamp selected a "Bedfordshire" model porcelain

urinal. On returning to his studio, he turned it through 90 degrees,

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so that it rested on its back, signed it, "R. MUTT 1917", and entitled
this new work Fountain.

Thus begun the

existence of one of the
most influential artwork
of the 20th century.
Fountain will be crucial
in the forthcoming
exhibition at Tate
Modern.
Besides that it was also
a highly successful
practical joke.

Duchamp, who valued

humour, told a New
York newspaper that,
"People took modern art
very seriously when it
first reached America
because they believed
we took ourselves very
seriously. A great deal
of modern art is meant The Fountain – Marcel Duchamp
to be amusing."

The context for the purchase and naming of Fountain was a worthy
exhibition by the Society of Independent Artists, formed on the
model of the Parisian Salon des Indépendants. It was to show
works by anyone with a fee of $1 for membership and $5 annual
dues. Duchamp himself, as a celebrated foreign artist, was on the
board, as were various prominent American painters and art world
figures. From the very beginning, however, Duchamp seemed
tempted to subvert the whole enterprise.

But, not content, Duchamp further added to the mayhem with the
submission of Fountain, accompanied by the non-existent R Mutt's
$6 fee and an invented address in Philadelphia. It was a missile
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aimed with brilliant precision at the basis of the exhibition - its
democratic open admission. Here was an unmentionable object -
press reports at the time referred to it as a "bathroom appliance" - it
was signed and dated, but was it a work of art? If not, why not?

In the event, the board narrowly voted not to show Fountain, and,
according to an account, it was hidden behind a screen. Duchamp
must have been pleased with his work, quite apart from the
satisfactory ruckus it caused, because shortly afterwards, he
arranged to have it photographed by Alfred Stieglitz, taking a good
deal of trouble over the result.

This image is the only remaining record of the original object. It was
reproduced with an anonymous manifesto the following May in an
avant-garde magazine called The Blind Man. The accompanying
text made a crucial claim to much later modern art: "Whether Mr
Mutt made the fountain with his own hands or not is of no
importance. He chose it. He took an article of life, placed it so that
its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of
view - created a new thought for that object."

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Picture me!
Now that we have discussed Dada, it’s your turn. Could you create
a self-portrait as Hausmann did?

Raoul Hausman: ABCD (Self-portrait) 1923-24

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WORLD WAR II

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The Second World War (World War 2) lasted from 1939 to 1945. It
was fought in Europe, in Russia, North Africa and in Asia. 60 million
people died in World War 2. About 40 million were civilians.
Children as well as adults were affected by the war.

 Who fought in the war?

World War 2 was fought between
two groups of countries. On one
side were the Axis Powers,
including Germany, Italy and
Japan. On the other side were
the Allies. They included Britain,
France, Australia, Canada, New
Zealand, India, the Soviet Union,
China and the United States of
America.
Germany was ruled by Adolf
Hitler and the Nazi Party. Hitler
wanted Germany to control
Europe. Japan wanted to control
Asia and the Pacific. In 1937 Japan
attacked China. In 1939 Germany
invaded Poland. This is how World
War 2 began.
Some countries did not join the war, but stayed neutral (on neither
side). Spain, Sweden and Switzerland were neutral countries. So
was Ireland, though many Irish people helped the Allies.
The war spreads
Britain and France went to war with Germany in September
1939.They wanted to help Poland after it was invaded, but they
were too late. Poland was occupied by the Nazis. By the summer of
1940 they had conquered Holland, Belgium, France, Denmark and
Norway. Enemy planes dropped bombs on cities in Britain. Allied
ships were sunk by submarines.

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 In July 1940, German
planes started bombing
British coastal towns,
defences and ships in
the English Channel in
order to gain control of
the skies in the South
of England. By mid-
September 1940, after
many battles, Germany
postponed their
planned land invasion
of Britain as the RAF effectively fought off the German Luftwaffe.
This period is known as The Battle of Britain.
Commonwealth nations, such as Canada and Australia, helped
Britain. In 1941 the Soviet Union (Russia) was attacked by
Germany. In 1941 America also joined the war, after Japan
attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
 How did the war end?
By 1943 the Allies were winning. One reason was that Allied
factories were building thousands of tanks, ships and planes. In
1944, a huge Allied army crossed from Britain to liberate (free)
France. Then Allied armies invaded Germany. By May 1945 the war
in Europe was over.
The Pacific war went on until August
1945. There was fierce
fighting on Pacific islands and big
naval battles at sea. Finally, the Allies
dropped atomic bombs on two
Japanese cities, Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. The damage was so terrible
that Japan surrendered. World War 2
had ended.

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 The Holocaust
In 1945 Allied troops freed prisoners from Nazi concentration camps. In
these camps, millions of Jews and other prisoners had been killed or had
died from hunger, disease and cruelty.

This terrible war

crime became known as
the Holocaust. It's thought
6 million Jews were
killed. Among the victims
were many children. One
young girl left a diary of
her life in hiding, before
she was captured. Her
name was Anne Frank.
She died, aged 15, in 1945
at the Bergen-Belsen
prison camp.

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32
 SURREALISM
After world war II (1945) in Paris, a group of artists began to create
strange, dream-like works. They wanted to rebel against the
rational, everyday world and, by drawing from their imagination and
dreams, they hoped to create a new reality, or “surreality”. Their
movement became known as Surrealism.

More than real

Surrealism is known for its bizarre imagery, but it was not meant to
be un-real. The name actually means more than real (sur is French
for “above”). Breton said the movement rose from the ashes of
dada.
It also grew out of a new interest in the workings of the mind.
Surrealists were inspired by Sigmund Freud. He is one of the most
famous psychiatrist of all time. He said that much of what we do is
triggered by unconscious thoughts and desires, and that these can
be revealed in dreams.

The Surrealists believed the unconscious is the source of creative

genius, and employed some unusual techniques to try to have
access to it. Many tried “automatic” drawing, or drawing without
thinking. They created strange, doodle-like pictures, which they
believed, were really shaped by their unconscious thoughts and
impulses. Spanish painter Joan Miró even claimed to have starved
himself to bring on hallucinations.

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Salvador Dalí
Salvador Dali is one of the most
recognizable 20th century
artists. He produced hundreds of
paintings in his lifetime, the most
famous being "The Persistence of
Memory," painted in 1931 and
featuring floppy, melting clock
faces. Dali's pranks and strange
antics almost overshadowed his art
later in his lifetime, but his paintings
remain striking in their juxtaposition
of strange and disconcerting images
rendered in a highly realistic style.
Early Life
Salvador Dali was born in Spain in 1904. He showed artistic talent
early on in his life and first exhibited his works at age 14. He
attended an arts academy in Madrid but was expelled when he
declared he knew more than his instructors. Soon afterward, he
moved to Paris, where he met the Surrealists.
Painting Dreams
The art movement known as surrealism concentrated on creating
art using the imagery of an artist's subconscious. Dali, influenced by
the work of Sigmund Freud, soon set out to explicitly paint the
content of his dreams. He called his method of producing the
peculiar imagery of his paintings "the paranoiac-critical method."
Starting in 1929 and continuing until the eve of World War II, Dali
produced his most famous paintings, including "The Persistence of
Memory" and the vivid "Soft Construction with Boiled Beans
(Premonition of War)," incorporating his fears of the Spanish Civil
War. Many of the paintings in this period repeat personal symbols
as motifs, such as the grasshoppers that Dali feared and the ants
that represent death and decay to him.
Gala
Dali met his future wife, Gala, in Paris in 1929. At the time, Gala, an
emigrant from Russia, was still married to fellow Surrealist artist
Paul Eluard. Slowly but surely, however, Dali wooed Gala away
from Eluard. He painted her dozens of times through the rest of
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their lives together, treating her as his muse. She, in turn, ran the
business side of their relationship.
Moustache
Dali's moustache was almost as famous as his paintings. The artist
liked to keep it long and thoroughly waxed, and often he styled it
into various provocative shapes. The moustache was the epitome
of his flamboyant personal style, which sometimes included
dressing in a long cape and carrying a cane, or in one case, lying
on a bed in a New York City bookstore dressed in a golden robe.
The Dali Museum
After World War II, Dali split his time between New York City and
his native Spain. In 1974 his home town of Figueres opened up the
Dali Theatre-Museum in his honor. It now houses more than 4,000
works of art by Dali and pieces from other related artists.

Analizing “The Persistence of Memory” by Dalí

The Persistence of Memory, by Spanish Salvador Dalí, shows a
golden landscape dominated by drooping watches and a
misshapen, fleshy creature lying on the ground. Three of the
watches are melting, while the case of a fourth watch is crawling
with ants, as if it is being eaten. The hard, mechanical watches are

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soft and decaying, no longer able to measure the passage of time.
The cliffs in the distance are actually based on the coast of
Catalonia, where Dalí grew up. So perhaps the title is meant to refer
to the artist´s childhood memories. Ants were a childhood phobia of
his. And the creature in the middle is actually a distorted version of
his own profile, its long-lashed eye shut as if he is asleep or dead,
unaware of, or out of, time. The mysterious dream-like imagery
makes this a very strange scene. But Dalí painted it so realistically
that it almost looks photographic. In fact, he called his works “hand-
painted dream photographs”. By presenting an imaginary scene in
such a lifelike way, he intended to blur the boundary between
imagination and reality. He said he wanted his paintings to spread
confusion, in order to “discredit completely the world of reality”.

ACTIVITY

Give your opinion about this quote. What do you think he was trying
to say with this? Could you state a relation between that statement
and his artistic work?
Once Dalí said:
"There is only one difference between a madman and me. The
madman thinks he is sane. I know I am mad."

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 Surrealist photographer
recreates his dreams in real life
Ronen Goldman, a photographer in Tel Aviv, Israel, explores
images in his dreams through imaginative and surreal conceptual
photography. He shoots all the subjects on location, then layers the
photos into a single composite image, removing people and objects
as needed to create the optical illusion. View more of his work at his
website, Ronengoldman.com

His own words:

My name is Ronen Goldman, I am a
conceptual photographer from Israel. For the
past six years I have been recreating my
dreams through photos. Each photo takes
weeks and even months of preparation from
dreaming it, writing down the main elements,
planning, shooting and post production.
I don't always fully understand the
meaning of these images- much like dreams
they sometimes reveal themselves only months
after being created.
All elements of all the images were actually shot on location on
the same day and combined together.
These works have been exhibited at art fairs in Spain,
England, Brussels and Singapore. As a result, I work with ad
agencies to create surreal visuals.

Activity
Explain with your own words the following sentence: “I don't always fully
understand the meaning of these images- much like dreams they sometimes
reveal themselves only months after being created.”

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POP ART

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 WHAT IS POP ART?

Pop Art is art made from commercial items and cultural icons such as product

labels, advertisements, and movie stars. In a way, Pop Art was a reaction to the

seriousness of Abstract Expressionist Art. Pop Art is meant to be fun.

When was the Pop Art

movement?

Pop Art began in the 1950s,

but it became very popular in the

1960s. It started in the United

Kingdom, but became a true art

movement in New York City with

artists like Andy Warhol and

Jasper Johns.

What was Pop Art?

It was one of the biggest art movements of the twentieth century and is

characterized by themes and techniques drawn from popular mass culture, such as

television, movies, advertising and comic books.

Pop Art aimed to employ images of popular culture as opposed to elitist culture in

art, often emphasizing kitsch and thus targeted a broad audience. It was easy to

understand, easy to recognize because it was iconic and accessible to the mass public.

Pop art is sometimes considered to be very academic and unconventional, but it was

always easy to interpret.

Historical Background

The end of WWII in 1945 brought about a post-war economic boom in the U.S. It

also brought about an enormous spike in the birth rate, known as ―the baby boom.‖

39
Between 1945 and 1957 nearly 76 million babies were born in America. By the middle

1960s, most of these kids were young adults.

As young people do, these ―baby boomers‖ questioned America‘s materialism and

conservative cultural and political norms. During the 1960s a youth movement

emerged, seeking to create an egalitarian society free from discrimination. The

feminist movement and the Black movement are a direct result of this evolution.

In this context, Pop art attempted to break down the barriers between high (old-

fashioned) art and contemporary culture.

Pop Art emphasized the kitschy elements of popular culture as a protest against the

elitist art culture and the seriousness that surrounded it. It marked a return to

sharp paintwork and representational art. It glorified unappreciated objects and

ordinary business. In doing so, it aimed to make art more meaningful for everyday

people and came to target a broad audience. Although it gained many supporters for

the way it was easy to comprehend, critics saw pop art as vulgar.

What are the characteristics of Pop Art?

Pop Art uses images and icons that are popular in the modern world. This

includes famous celebrities, like movie stars and rock stars, commercial items like

soup cans and soft drinks, comic books, and any other items that are popular in the

commercial world. There are a number of ways that artists use these items to create

art, such as repeating the item over and over again, changing the color or texture of

the item, and putting different items together to make a picture.

40
EXAMPLES OF POP ART

Drowning Girl by Roy Lichtenstein

This painting is made to look like a scene from a comic book. The girl is

drowning and she yells out "I don't care! I'd rather sink, than call Brad for help!" The

artist even painted the picture with the dots that are often seen in the color areas

on comic books.

41
Eight Elvises by Andy Warhol

Eight Elvises uses a picture of Elvis Presley pulling a pistol out and aiming it at
the viewer like a gunslinger from the Wild West. The picture of Elvis is repeated

eight times. The repeating pictures get closer together as they move to the right and

overlap each other giving the picture a feeling of infinity. This painting sold for over

$100 million in 2009.

42
ACTIVITY

Look at this picture:

Do you think it depicts what pop art means? Give your opinion taking into account

the information you have been reading in this page.

ANDY WARHOL

Andy Warhol was part of the Pop Art movement. He was

famous for exploring popular culture in his work, using images

of brands like Coca Cola, Listerine and Campbell‘s Soup (which

was one of his favourite things to eat).

43
 He liked to use bright colours and silk screening techniques to mass-produce

artworks based on publicity photographs of stars, like his famous image of Marilyn

Monroe.

Silk-screening is a process which can create lots of artworks/prints that look

the same. The design is

separated out into individual

colours, and the position of

each colour is marked out

by a stencil. By pushing ink

through the stencils one at

a time, the colours build up

to form a picture.

Sometimes Warhol would

switch colours around and

present a group of prints

with inverted or contrasting colours together.

Warhol‘s studio was called The Factory, which was a reference to the mass-produced

nature of his artworks. He saw art as a product, the same as a production line of Coca

Cola bottles.

He had a very particular personal

style. He had a shock of white/grey hair and

was usually seen wearing a lot of black,

leather jackets and glasses or

sunglasses. Very striking!

44
Activity:

Once Pollock said:

―I'm afraid that if you look at a thing long enough, it loses all of its meaning.‖
Give your opinion about this quote. What do you think he was trying to say with that

phrase? Could you state a relation between that statement and his artistic work?

BRITISH POP ART

EDUARDO PAOLOZZI (1924- 2005)

'I was a Rich Man's Plaything' , 1947 (collage)

45
The word 'POP' was first coined in 1954, by the British art critic Lawrence Alloway,

to describe a new type of art that was inspired by the imagery of popular culture.

Alloway, alongside the artists Richard Hamilton and Eduardo Paolozzi, was among the

founding members of the Independent Group, a collective of artists, architects, and

writers who explored radical approaches to contemporary visual culture during their

meetings at ICA in London between 1952 and 1955. They became the forerunners to

British Pop art. At their first meeting Paolozzi gave a visual lecture entitled 'Bunk'

(short for 'bunkum' meaning nonsense) which took an ironic look at the all-American

lifestyle. This was illustrated by a series collages created from American magazines

that he received from GI's still resident in Paris in the late 1940s. 'I was a Rich

Man's Plaything', one of the 'Bunk' series, was the first visual artwork to include the
word 'POP'.

Some young British artists in the 1950‘s, who grew up with the wartime austerity of

ration books and utility design, viewed the seductive imagery of American popular

culture and its consumerist lifestyle with a romantic sense of irony and a little bit of

envy. They saw America as being the land of the free - free from the crippling

conventions of a class ridden establishment that could suffocate the culture they

envisaged: a more inclusive, youthful culture that embraced the social influence of

mass media and mass production. Pop Art became their mode of expression in this

search for change and its language was adapted from Dada collages and assemblages.

The Dadaists had created irrational combinations of random images to provoke a

reaction from the establishment of their day. British Pop artists adopted a similar

visual technique but focused their attention on the mass imagery of popular culture

which they waved as a challenge in the face of the establishment.

46
POP COLLAGE AND MULTI-MEDIA

ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG (1925- 2008)

'Retroactive 1', 1964 (oil and silkscreen on canvas)

Robert Rauschenberg also used 'found images' in his art but, unlike Johns' images,

they are combined in a relationship with one another or with real objects. The work

of both these artists is often referred to as Neo-Dada as it draws on ‗found

elements‘, first explored by Dadaists like Marcel Duchamp and Kurt Schwitters.

Inspired by Schwitters who created collages from the refuse he picked up on the

street, Rauschenberg combined real objects, that he found in his New York

neighborhood, with collage and painting. He said, ―I actually had a house rule. If I

walked completely round the block and didn't have enough to work with, I could take
one other block and walk around it in any direction – but that was it.‖ He called these
multi-media assemblages ‗combines‘, which ―had to look at least as interesting as

anything that was going on outside the window‖. Rauschenberg believed that ―painting
is more like the real world if it's made out the real world‖.
47
Collage was Rauschenberg‘s natural language and he added to its vocabulary by

developing a method of combining oil painting with photographic silkscreen. This

allowed him to experiment with contemporary images gathered from newspapers,

magazines, television and film which he could reproduce in any size and color as a

compositional element on a canvas or print. He used these elements in a way that

mirrors our experience of mass-media. Everyday we are bombarded with images from

television, newspapers and magazines, disregarding most but retaining a few that

relate, either consciously or subconsciously, to our individual experience and

understanding. Rauschenberg's paintings capture this visual 'noise' in a framework of

images whose narratives suggest some kind of ironic allegory.

In'Retroactive 1' an astronaut parachutes back to earth only to land in an upturned

box of the 'forbidden fruit' - a symbol of how man's potential for evil has multiplied

in the modern world (in Latin, the words for 'apple' and 'evil' are identical in their

plural form: 'mala'). Rauschenberg extends his metaphor by illustrating in the top

right of the painting what the astronaut is returning to: Eden after the Fall - a world

polluted by industrialisation.

48
POP ART SCULPTURE

CLAES OLDENBURG (1922-), COOSJE VAN BRUGGEN (1942-2009)

‗Spoonbridge and Cherry‘ photo: Mike Hicks, 1985-88

(alluminium, stainless steel and paint)

Claes Oldenburg was the Pop Artist who gravitated towards sculpture more than any

of his contemporaries. At the start of 1960's he was involved in various 'Happenings':

spontaneous, improvised, artistic events where the experience of the participants

was more important than an end product - a kind of consumer art encounter for a

consumer culture.

Oldenburg found his inspiration in the imagery of consumer merchandise, "I am for

Kool-art, 7-UP art, Pepsi-art, Sunshine art, 39 cents art, 15 cents art, Vatronol Art,
Dro-bomb art, Vam art, Menthol art, L & M art, Ex-lax art, Venida art, Heaven Hill
art, Pamryl art, San-o-med art, Rx art, 9.99 art, Now art, New art, How art, Fire sale
art, Last Chance art, Only art, Diamond art, Tomorrow art, Franks art, Ducks art,
Meat-o-rama art." In 1961 he opened 'the Store' where he sold plaster replicas of

49
fast foodstuff and junk merchandise whose crudely painted surfaces were an obvious

parody of Abstract Expressionism. He used the front shop of 'The Store' as a

gallery while he replenished his stock from his studio in the back shop.

Oldenburg's work is full of humorous irony and contradiction: on one hand he makes

hard objects like a bathroom sink out soft sagging vinyl, while on the other he makes

soft objects like a cheeseburger out of hard painted plaster. He also subverts the

relative size of objects by taking small items like the spoon and cherry above and

recreating them on an architectural scale. He said, "I like to take a subject and

deprive it of its function completely." By undermining the form, scale and function of
an object Oldenburg contradicts its meaning and forces the spectator to reassess its

presence. When you see his large scale public works in their environmental settings,

they have a powerful surrealist quality like Gulliver at Brobdingnag.

Claes Oldenburg has collaborated with Dutch/American pop sculptor Coosje van

Bruggen since 1976. They were married in 1977. Coosje van Bruggen died in January,

2009

Op-Art (fl. 1965-70)

Op Art (a term coined in 1964 by Time magazine) is a form of abstract

art(specifically non-objective art) which relies on optical illusions in order to fool the

eye of the viewer. It is also called optical art or retinal art. A form ofkinetic art, it

relates to geometric designs that create feelings of movement or vibration. Op art

works were first produced in black-and-white, later in vibrant colour. Historically, the

Op-Art style may be said to have originated in the work of the kinetic artist Victor

Vasarely (1908-97), and also from Abstract Expressionism. Another major Op artist

is the British painter Bridget Riley(b.1931). Modern interest in the retinal art

movement stems from 1965 when a major Op Art exhibition in New York, entitled

"The Responsive Eye," caught public attention. As a consequence, the style began

50
appearing in print graphics, advertising and album art, as well as fashion design and

interior decorations. By the end of the 1960s the Op-Art movement had faded.

Bridget Riley, Movement in Squares, 1961

What is Op-Art? - Characteristics

Op Art can be defined as a type of abstract or concrete art consisting of non-

representational geometric shapes which create various types of optical illusion. For

instance, when viewed, Op Art pictures may cause the eye to detect a sense of

movement (eg. swelling, warping, flashing, vibration) on the surface of the painting.

And the patterns, shapes and colours used in these pictures are typically selected for

their illusional qualities, rather than for their substantive or emotional content. In

addition, Op artists use both positive and negative spaces to create the desired

illusions.

How Op-Art Works

Op art exploits the functional relationship between the eye's retina (the organ that

"sees" patterns) and the brain (the organ that interprets patterns). Certain patterns

cause confusion between these two organs, resulting in the perception of irrational

optical effects. These effects fall into two basic categories: first, movement caused
51
by certain specific black and white geometric patterns, such as those in Bridget

Riley's earlier works, or Getulio Alviani's aluminium surfaces, which can confuse the

eye even to the point of inducing physical dizziness. (Note: Op art's association with

the effects of movement is why it is regarded as a division of Kinetic art.) Second,

after-images which appear after viewing pictures with certain colours, or colour-

combinations. The interaction of differing colours in the painting - simultaneous

contrast, successive contrast, and reverse contrast - may cause additional retinal

effects. For example, in Richard Anuszkiewicz's "temple" paintings, the arrangement

of two highly contrasting colours makes it appears as if the architectural shape is

encroaching on the viewer's space.

Despite its strange, often nausea-inducing effects, Op-Art is perfectly in line with

traditional canons of fine art. All traditional painting is based upon the "illusion" of

depth and perspective: Op-Art merely broadens its inherently illusionary nature by

interfering with the rules governing optical perception.

Victor Vasarely, Zebra.

52
Famous Female Artists
Georgia O'Keeffe Biography

Georgia O'Keeffe is a 20th century American painter best known for her flower

canvases and southwestern landscapes.

Synopsis

Georgia O'Keeffe was born on November 15, 1887, in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin and

studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. Photographer Alfred Stieglitz gave O'Keefe

her first gallery show in 1916 and the couple married in 1924. O'Keeffe moved to

New Mexico after her husband's death and was inspired by the landscape to create

numerous well-known paintings. Georgia O'Keeffe died on March 6, 1986.

Early Life

Artist and painter Georgia O'Keeffe was born on November 15, 1887, in Sun Prairie,

Wisconsin. Known for her striking flower paintings and other captivating works,

O'Keeffe was one of the greatest American artists of the twentieth century. She

took to making art at a young age and went to study at the Art Institute of Chicago

in the early 1900s. Later, while living in New York, she studied with such artists as

William Merritt Chase as a member of the Art Students League.

53
Famed Artwork

O'Keeffe found an advocate in famed photographer and gallery owner Alfred

Stieglitz. He showed her work to the public for the first time in 1916 at his gallery

291. Married in 1924, the two formed a professional and personal partnership that

lasted until his death in 1946. Some of her popular works from this early period

include Black Iris (1926) and Oriental Poppies (1928). Living in New York, she

translated some of her environment onto the canvas with such paintings as Shelton

Hotel, N.Y. No. 1 (1926).

After frequently visiting New Mexico since the late 1920s, O'Keeffe moved there

for good in 1946 after her husband‘s death and explored the area's rugged

landscapes in many works. This environment inspired such paintings as Black Cross,

New Mexico (1929) and Cow's Skull with Calico Roses(1931).

Death and Legacy

O'Keeffe died on March 6, 1986, in Santa Fe, Mexico. As popular as ever, her works

can be seen at museums around the world as well as the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in

Santa Fe, New Mexico.

54
Georgia O'Keeffe, Oriental Poppies.

Georgia O'Keeffe, Shelton Hotel, New York, No. 1

Berthe Morisot Biography

Painter (1841–1895)

55
Édouard Manet, Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets (in mourning for her
father), 1872

Berthe Morisot was a French Impressionist painter who portrayed a wide range of

subjects—from landscapes and still lifes to domestic scenes and portraits.

Synopsis

Berthe Morisot was born January 14, 1841, in Bourges, France. She first exhibited

her work in the prestigious state-run art show, the Salon, in 1864. She would earn a

regular spot at show for the next decade. In 1868, she met Édouard Manet. In 1874,

she married Manet's brother. The marriage provided her with social and financial

stability while she continued to pursue her painting career.

Profile

Born January 14, 1841, in Bourges, France. Berthe Morisot's father was a high-

ranking government official and her grandfather was the influential Rococo painter

Jean-Honoré Fragonard. She and her sister Edma began painting as young girls.

Despite the fact that as women they were not allowed to join official arts

institutions, the sisters earned respect in art circles for their talent.

Berthe and Edma Morisot traveled to Paris to study and copy works by the Old

Masters at the Louvre Museum in the late 1850s under Joseph Guichard. They also

studied with landscape painter Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot to learn how to paint

outdoor scenes. Berthe Morisot worked with Corot for several years and first

exhibited her work in the prestigious state-run art show, the Salon, in 1864. She

would earn a regular spot at show for the next decade.

In 1868, fellow artist Henri Fantin-Latour introduced Berthe Morisot to Edouard

Manet. The two formed a lasting friendship and greatly influenced one another's

work. Berthe soon eschewed the paintings of her past with Corot, migrating instead
56
toward Manet's more unconventional and modern approach. She also befriended the

Impressionists Edgar Degas and Frédéric Bazille and in 1874, refused to show her

work at the Salon. She instead agreed to be in the first independent show of

Impressionist paintings, which included works by Degas, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-

Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, and Alfred Sisley. (Manet declined to be included in

the show, determined to find success at the official Salon.) Among the paintings

Morisot showed at the exhibition were The Cradle, The Harbor at Cherbourg, Hide

and Seek, and Reading.

In 1874, Berthe Morisot married Manet's younger brother, Eugne, also a painter. The

marriage provided her with social and financial stability while she continued to pursue

her painting career. Able to dedicate herself wholly to her craft, Morisot

participated in the Impressionist exhibitions every year except 1877, when she was

pregnant with her daughter.

Berthe Morisot portrayed a wide range of subjects—from landscapes and still lifes to

domestic scenes and portraits. She also experimented with numerous media, including

oils, watercolors, pastels, and drawings. Most notable among her works during this

period is Woman at Her Toilette (c. 1879). Later works were more studied and less

spontaneous, such as The Cherry Tree (1891-92) and Girl with a Greyhound (1893).

After her husband died in 1892, Berthe Morisot continued to paint, although she was

never commercially successful during her lifetime. She did, however, outsell several

of her fellow Impressionists, including Monet, Renoir, and Sisley. She had her first

solo exhibition in 1892 and two years later the French government purchased her oil

painting Young Woman in a Ball Gown. Berthe Morisot contracted pneumonia and died

on March 2, 1895, at age 54.

57
Leonardo da Vinci Biography
Artist, Mathematician, Inventor, Writer (1452–1519)

QUICK FACTS
NAME
Leonardo da Vinci

OCCUPATION
Artist, Mathematician, Inventor,Writer

BIRTH DATE
April 15, 1452

DEATH DATE
May 2, 1519

PLACE OF BIRTH
Vinci, Italy

PLACE OF DEATH
Amboise, France

FULL NAME
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci was a leading artist and intellectual of the Italian Renaissance who's
known for his enduring works "The Last Supper" and "Mona Lisa."

Synopsis
Born on April 15, 1452, in Vinci, Italy, Leonardo da Vinci was the epitome of a

―Renaissance man.‖ Possessor of a curious mind and keen intellect, da Vinci studied

the laws of science and nature, which greatly informed his work as a painter, sculptor,

architect, inventor, military engineer and draftsman. His ideas and body of work—

which includes "Virgin of the Rocks," "The Last Supper" and "Mona Lisa"—have

influenced countless artists and made da Vinci a leading light of the Italian

Renaissance.

Humble Beginnings

58
Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452, in a farmhouse nestled amid the

undulating hills of Tuscany outside the village of Anchiano in present-day Italy. Born

out of wedlock to respected Florentine notary Ser Piero and a young peasant woman

named Caterina, he was raised by his father and his stepmothers. At the age of five,

he moved to his father‘s family estate in nearby Vinci, the Tuscan town from which

the surname associated with Leonardo derives, and lived with his uncle and

grandparents.

Young Leonardo received little formal education beyond basic reading, writing and

mathematics instruction, but his artistic talents were evident from an early age.

Around the age of 14, da Vinci began a lengthy apprenticeship with the noted artist

Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence. He learned a wide breadth of technical skills

including metalworking, leather arts, carpentry, drawing, painting and sculpting. His

earliest known dated work—a pen-and-ink drawing of a landscape in the Arno valley—

was sketched in 1473.

At the age of 20, da Vinci qualified for membership as a master artist in Florence‘s

Guild of Saint Luke and established his own workshop. However, he continued to

collaborate with his teacher for an additional five years. It is thought that

Verrocchio completed his ―Baptism of Christ‖ around 1475 with the help of his

student, who painted part of the background and the young angel holding the robe of

Jesus. According to Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects,

written around 1550 by artist Giorgio Vasari, Verrocchio was so humbled by the

superior talent of his pupil that he never picked up a paintbrush again. Most scholars,

however, dismiss Vasari‘s account as apocryphal.

59
“Renaissance Man” Emerges in Milan

After leaving Verrocchio‘s studio, da Vinci received his first independent commission

in 1478 for an altarpiece to reside in a chapel inside Florence‘s Palazzo Vecchio.

Three years later the Augustinian monks of Florence‘s San Donato a Scopeto tasked

him to paint ―Adoration of the Magi.‖ The young artist, however, would leave the city

and abandon both commissions without ever completing them.

In 1482, Florentine ruler Lorenzo de' Medici commissioned da Vinci to create a silver

lyre and bring it as a peace gesture to Ludovico Sforza, who ruled Milan as its regent.

After doing so, da Vinci lobbied Ludovico for a job and sent the future Duke of Milan

a letter that barely mentioned his considerable talents as an artist and instead

touted his more marketable skills as a military engineer. Using his inventive mind, da

Vinci sketched war machines such as a war chariot with scythe blades mounted on the

sides, an armored tank propelled by two men cranking a shaft and even an enormous

crossbow that required a small army of men to operate. The letter worked, and

Ludovico brought da Vinci to Milan for a tenure that would last 17 years.

His ability to be employed by the Sforza clan as an architecture and military

engineering advisor as well as a painter and sculptor spoke to da Vinci‘s keen intellect

and curiosity about a wide variety of subjects. Like many leaders of Renaissance

humanism, da Vinci did not see a divide between science and art. He viewed the two as

intertwined disciplines rather than separate ones. He believed studying science made

him a better artist.

Leonardo thought sight was humankind‘s most important sense and eyes the most

important organ. He stressed the importance of saper vedere, ―knowing how to see.‖

He believed in the accumulation of direct knowledge and facts through observation.

60
―A good painter has two chief objects to paint—man and the intention of his soul,‖ da

Vinci wrote. ―The former is easy, the latter hard, for it must be expressed by

gestures and the movement of the limbs.‖ To more accurately depict those gestures

and movements, da Vinci began to seriously study anatomy and dissect human and

animal bodies during the 1480s. His drawings of a fetus in utero, the heart and

vascular system, sex organs and other bone and muscular structures are some of the

first on human record.

In addition to his anatomical investigations, da Vinci studied botany, geology, zoology,

hydraulics, aeronautics and physics. He sketched his observations on loose sheets of

papers and pads that he tucked inside his belt. He placed the papers in notebooks and

arranged them around four broad themes—painting, architecture, mechanics and

human anatomy. He filled dozens of notebooks with finely drawn illustrations and

scientific observations. His ideas were mainly theoretical explanations, laid out in

exacting detail, but they were rarely experimental.

Art and science intersected perfectly in his sketch of ―Vitruvian Man,‖ which

depicted a male figure in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart

inside both a square and a circle. A man ahead of his time, da Vinci appeared to

prophesize the future with his sketches of machines resembling a bicycle, helicopter

and a flying machine based on the physiology of a bat.

Mona Lisa
The Mona Lisa is quite possibly the most well-known piece of painted artwork in the entire
world. It was painted by the Leonardo Da Vinci, the famous Italian artist, between 1504
and 1519, and is a half body commission for a woman named Lisa Gherardini. Her
husband, Francesco Del Giocondo requested the work by Da Vinci just after the turn of the
century. It is perhaps the most studied piece of artwork ever known. The subject’s facial
expression has brought about a source of debate for centuries, as her face remains largely

61
enigmatic in the portrait. Originally commissioned in Italy, it is now at home in the French
Republic, and hangs on display in the Louvre in Paris.

Background

The work was requested by subject’s husband, Francesco Del Giocondo. Lisa was from a
well-known family known through Tuscany and Florence and married to Francesco Del
Giocondo who was a very wealthy silk merchant. The work was to celebrate their home’s
completion, as well as a celebration of the birth of their second son. Not until 2005 was the
identity ofMona Lisa‘s subject fully understood, though years of speculation have
suggested the true identity of the painting’s subject.
Leonardo da Vinci

The Mona Lisa is famous for a variety of reasons. One of the reasons, of course, for the
popularity of the painting is the artist himself. Leonardo da Vinci is perhaps the most
recognized artist in the world. Not only was Da Vinci an artist, but he was also a scientist,
inventor, and a doctor. His study of the human form came from the study of actual human
cadavers.

Because of his ability to study from the actual form of the human, he was able to draw and
paint it more accurately than any other artist of his time. While the Mona Lisa may be
revered as the greatest piece of artwork of all time, Da Vinci was known more for his ability
to draw than to paint. Currently there are only a handful of paintings of Da Vinci’s, mostly
because of his largely experimental style of art, and his habit of procrastination. Among his
most famous sketches is the Vitruvian Man, which anybody who has ever studied anatomy,
human biology, or art knows very well.

But most prominently Da Vinci has been known throughout the centuries as a scientist and
inventor. Amongst his ideas were a rudimentary helicopter and a tank. Some of his more
notable paintings include the Mona Lisa, of course, as well as The Last Supper. He used a
variety of different surfaces to paint on, attributing to a lot of his failures (and a lot of his
successes) as a painter. Many of his paintings are biblical in nature, but as his talent and
notoriety grew, he was commissioned more regularly for portraits.

62
Techniques Applied

The Mona Lisa is an oil painting, with a cottonwood panel as the surface. It is unusual in
that most paintings are commissioned as oil on canvas, but the cottonwood panel is part of
what has attributed to the fame of the painting. Because of the medium used for the image,
the Mona Lisa has survived for six centuries without ever having been restored–a trait
very unusual when considering the time period of the piece.

While most of the artwork of the Renaissance period depicts biblical scenes, it was the style
and technique of the paintings of this period which make them distinguished from other
eras of artwork. Anatomically correct features are one of the identifiable marks of this
period of history in art, and theMona Lisa stands out amongst the great paintings for the
detail in her hands, eyes, and lips. Da Vinci used a shadowing technique at the corners of
her lips as well as the corners of her eyes which give her an extremely lifelike appearance
and look of amusement. Her portrait is such that to an observer, they are standing right
before Lisa Del Giocondo, with the arms of her chair as the barrier between the observer
and the subject of the painting.

Da Vinci also created a background with aerial views and a beautiful landscape, but muted
from the vibrant lightness of the subject’s face and hands. The technique Da Vinci used in
executing the painting left behind no visible brush marks, something that was said to make
any master painter lose heart. It is truly a masterpiece.

Theft

The Mona Lisa disappeared from the Louvre in France in 1911. Pablo Picasso was on the
original list of suspects questioned and jailed for the theft, but he was later exonerated. For
two years, the masterpiece was thought to be forever lost. However in 1913, Italian patriot
Vincenzo Perugia was arrested for the crime of stealing the famous painting, and the
original artwork returned to its home at the Louvre in Paris. Perugia was an employee of
the Louvre at the time, and he believed the painting belonged to Italy. For two years he
kept the famous piece of art housed in his apartment, but was discovered when he tried
selling to a gallery in Florence, Italy.

Vandalism

63
Over the centuries, the famous painting has withstood attempts at vandalism as well. The
first occurrence of vandalism was in 1956 when somebody threw acid at the bottom half,
severely damaging the timeless masterpiece. That same year, another vandal threw a rock
at the work, removing a chip of paint from near her elbow. It was later painted over.
Afterwards, the piece was put under bulletproof glass as a means of protection has kept the
painting from further attempts at vandalism and destruction.

This painting has long been caricaturized in cartoons, has been replicated all over the
world, and has been studied by scholars and art enthusiasts alike. The painting is the most
widely recognized work of art in the entire world. The oil on cottonwood panel commission
of Francesco del Giocondo’s used such precise detail to give an unbelievably lifelike
appearance to the painting’s subject. This piece of Renaissance artwork completely
changed the techniques and style of painting, and is revered around the world as the
greatest masterpiece of all time.

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Jan van Eyck Biography
Painter (1395–c. 1441)

QUICK FACTS
NAME
Jan van Eyck

OCCUPATION
Painter

BIRTH DATE
1395

DEATH DATE
c. July 9, 1441

PLACE OF BIRTH
Maaseik, Bishopric of Liege, Holy Roman Empire

PLACE OF DEATH
Bruges, Netherlands

FULL NAME
Jan van Eyck
Synopsis
Jan van Eyck was born circa 1395. In 1425, he was employed under the service of

Duke Philip, the Good of Burgundy. In 1432, van Eyck painted "Adoration of the

Lamb," the altarpiece for the Church of St. Bavon, Ghent. In 1434, he created

another masterpiece, "Arnolfini Wedding." Throughout his career, van Eyck used oil

painting in his portraits and panel paintings. He died on July 9, 1441 in Bruges,

Netherlands.

Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife

1434
Oil on oak, 82 x 60 cm
National Gallery, London

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 "The Arnolfini Marriage" is a name that has been given to this untitled double

portrait by Jan van Eyck, now in the National Gallery, London. It is one of the

greatest celebrations of human mutuality. Like Rembrandt's "Jewish Bride", this

painting reveals to us the inner meaning of a true marriage.

Giovanni Arnolfini, a prosperous Italian banker who had settled in Bruges, and his

wife Giovanna Cenami, stand side by side in the bridal chamber, facing towards the

viewer. The husband is holding out his wife's hand.

Despite the restricted space, the painter has contrived to surround them with a

host of symbols. To the left, the oranges placed on the low table and the windowsill

are a reminder of an original innocence, of an age before sin. Unless, that is, they are

not in fact oranges but apples (it is difficult to be certain), in which case they would

represent the temptation of knowledge and the Fall. Above the couple's heads, the

candle that has been left burning in broad daylight on one of the branches of an

ornate copper chandelier can be interpreted as the nuptial flame, or as the eye of

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God. The small dog in the foreground is an emblem of fidelity and love. Meanwhile,

the marriage bed with its bright red curtains evokes the physical act of love which,

according to Christian doctrine, is an essential part of the perfect union of man and

wife.

Although all these different elements are highly charged with meaning, they are of

secondary importance compared to the mirror, the focal point of the whole

composition. It has often been noted that two tiny figures can be seen reflected in

it, their image captured as they cross the threshold of the room. They are the

painter himself and a young man, doubtless arriving to act as witnesses to the

marriage. The essential point, however, is the fact that the convex mirror is able to

absorb and reflect in a single image both the floor and the ceiling of the room, as well

as the sky and the garden outside, both of which are otherwise barely visible through

the side window. The mirror thus acts as a sort of hole in the texture of space. It

sucks the entire visual world into itself, transforming it into a representation.

The cubic space in which the Arnolfinis stand is itself a prefiguration of the

techniques of perspective which were still to come. Van Eyck practised perspective on

a purely heuristic basis, unaware of the laws by which it was governed. In this

picture, he uses the mirror precisely in order to explode the limits of the space to

which his technique gives him access as soon as it threatens to limit him.

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