ART APP ACTIVITY: MIDTERM

1. What are the hurdles of accessing art in terms of its subject and content?
ANSWER: When we talk about hurdles it means obstacle or difficulty. The hurdles in accessing art in terms of its subject
and content is that, art is unpredictable, very crucial. Art cannot be as easy as what others think. It has a deep meaning in
every art, or it portrays a lot of meanings. Even the subject of the painting portrays an undetermined or very unusual
meaning as well as the content on why it is considered as art, we have different perspective in viewing one's opinion and it
depends upon the viewer on how they will interpret that kind of artwork . The notion that for one to appreciate art, one
must be able to extract a specific image and derive a certain meaning from the work.

2. Where do artists source their subjects?

ANSWER: Artists source their subject based on their imaginations, ideas, and experiences. Because we all know that art is
a product of mind and emotions. Also, artists can source their subject from nature, religious connection, and history.

3. Name an example of an artwork and speculate on the content of the artwork based on its factual, conventional, and subjective
meaning.

ANSWER: Artwork: MONA LISA BY LEONARDO DA VINCI. Factual Meaning: Mona Lisa, also known as La Gioconda, is the
wife of Francesco del Giocondo. This painting is painted as oil on wood. The original painting size is 77 x 53 cm (30 x 20 7/8
in) and is owned by the Government of France and is on the wall in the Louvre in Paris, France. This figure of a woman,
dressed in the Florentine fashion of her day and seated in a visionary, mountainous landscape, is a remarkable instance of
Leonardo's sfumato technique of soft, heavily shaded modeling. The Mona Lisa's enigmatic expression, which seems both
alluring and aloof, has given the portrait universal fame.
The Mona Lisa's famous smile represents the sitter in the same way that the juniper branches represent Ginevra Benci and the
ermine represents Cecilia Gallerani in their portraits, in Washington and Krakow respectively. It is a visual representation of
the idea of happiness suggested by the word "gioconda" in Italian. Leonardo made this notion of happiness the central motif of
the portrait: it is this notion which makes the work such an ideal. The nature of the landscape also plays a role. The middle
distance, on the same level as the sitter's chest, is in warm colors. Men live in this space: there is a winding road and a bridge.
This space represents the transition between the space of the sitter and the far distance, where the landscape becomes a wild
and uninhabited space of rocks and water which stretches to the horizon, which Leonardo has cleverly drawn at the level of the
sitter's eyes. The painting was among the first portraits to depict the sitter before an imaginary landscape and Leonardo was
one of the first painters to use aerial perspective. The enigmatic woman is portrayed seated in what appears to be an open
loggia with dark pillar bases on either side. Behind her a vast landscape recedes to icy mountains. Winding paths and a distant
bridge give only the slightest indications of human presence. The sensuous curves of the woman's hair and clothing, created
through sfumato, are echoed in the undulating imaginary valleys and rivers behind her. The blurred outlines, graceful figure,
dramatic contrasts of light and dark, and overall feeling of calm are characteristic of da Vinci's style. Due to the expressive
synthesis that da Vinci achieved between sitter and landscape, it is arguable whether Mona Lisa should be considered as a
traditional portrait, for it represents an ideal rather than a real woman. The sense of overall harmony achieved in the
painting especially apparent in the sitter's faint smile reflects the idea of a link connecting humanity and nature. In the
Renaissance which brought together all human activities, art meant science, art meant truth to life: Leonardo da Vinci was a
great figure because he embodied the epic endeavor of Italian art to conquer universal values: he who combined within
himself the fluctuating sensitivity of the artist and the deep wisdom of the scientist, he, the poet and the master. In his Mona
Lisa, the individual, a sort of miraculous creation of nature, represents at the same time the species: the portrait goes beyond
its social limitations and acquires a universal meaning. Although Leonardo worked on this picture as a scholar and thinker,
not only as a painter and poet, the scientific and philosophical aspects of his research inspired no following. But the formal
aspect - the new presentation, the nobler attitude, and the increased dignity of the model - had a decisive influence over
Florentine portraits of the next twenty years, over the classical portrait. With his Mona Lisa, Leonardo created a new formula,
at the same time more monumental and more lively, more concrete and yet more poetic than that of his predecessors. Before
him, portraits had lacked mystery; artists only represented outward appearances without any soul, or, if they showed the soul,
they tried to express it through gestures, symbolic objects, or inscriptions. The Mona Lisa alone is a living enigma: the soul is
there, but inaccessible.