The Crucifixion of Saint Peter, Caravaggio.

The Crucifixion of Saint Peter was made by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. It was painted in 1601 in Rome. Its commissioner was Tiberio Cerasi. He commissioned this painting and another one (The Conversion of Saint Paul in the road of Damascus) in 1600, and they were made in 1601. Here you have a portrait of Caravaggio:

In this painting, Caravaggio used the oil on canvas. It is 230 centimetres high and 175 centimetres wide. It represents the crucifixion of Saint Peter, who wanted to be crucified in the opposite way in order not to imitate to Christ. In the painting are other three men, they are Roman henchmen, whose faces are hidden. They are trying to raise the cross, although, according to Roberto Longhi's opinion, they seem to be workers and not to be executioners. This conclusion is due to their positions and their way of raising the cross and their clothes. The painting doesn’t show a bloody crucifixion, but the pain is present. It is a diagonal zig-zag that shows the martyrdom. Caravaggio used colors that contrasted light and shadow.

The subject is religious. The Crucifixion of Saint Peter is a Baroque painting, for this reason Caravaggio used oil on canvas. The chiaroscuro was used too, in which he created contrasts of lights and shadows. Predominance of color over drawing was present. For example, Caravaggio used contrast in the background because he painted it all with/in the same color. And he used also shadows, such as in the legs of the man in the yellow trousers. There are also foreshortened figures. As we can see, in the painting, the man who is on the left side is shortened because we can’t see his complete arm, and the cross too because we can’t see the whole cross. Caravaggio, as the rest of Baroque artists, used a complex composition for her work.

Here you have some photos that explain the characteristics of Baroque related to this painting:

Here you can see better the

contrast between the

background and the people.

We can see in this picture the

shadow of the man's leg.

Here we can see that the

man’s arm is shortened.

With these pictures we can explain what Roberto Longhi 
said. They seem to be workers due to their clothes, in this 
case, this man hasn’t shoes.

In these two next pictures you can see the complex composition they used during the Baroque.

A curious piece of information is that when Velázquez arrived to Rome, he was very influenced by Caravaggio’s paintings. Caravaggio's style had a great influence on Baroque painting.

Sources of the information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucifixion_of_St._Peter_(Caravaggio)

And some other information, I have found in other sites web but very few more. And the influence of Caravaggio’s paintings were explained by Paqui in a lesson.

Sources of the pictures:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravaggio

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/great-works-crucifixion-of-st-peter-1601-230cm-x-175cm-caravaggio-6259925.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/great-works-crucifixion-of-st-peter-1601-230cm-x-175cm-caravaggio-6259925.html

The picture of the leg men’s shadow has been edited by me.

http://historiadelartecomentarios.blogspot.com.es/2008_05_01_archive.html

http://beatrizolivenza.blogspot.com.es/2014/07/a-los-pies-de-caravaggio.html

https://lh4.ggpht.com/eCxykbBUxIqej6iOYLNMJoJycWX8eLVD3vyHK7m7OoDzj3d0QB2968298oIWljKe2dbF=s85

https://alvarengomez.wordpress.com/2010/09/01/crucifixion-de-san-pedro-caravaggio/

I have used wordreference too to look for the meaning of words I didn’t know. http://www.wordreference.com/

Square and Colonnade of Saint Peter’s basilica, Bernini.

This architectural work is placed at the Vatican City, in Rome, Italy. It is a massive square located in front of St. Peter’s Basilica. At the center of the square there is an Egyptian obelisk, erected at the current place in 1586. Gian Lorenzo Bernini was the man who designed this marvelous architecture, including the colonnades and a granite fountain. The construction of this architectural work was between 1656 and 1667. It was reformed after the construction of the basilica. It’s part of a religious building and enclosing the square, there is a colonnade that contains 140 statues of saints and martyrs of the catholic history.

The commissioner of this architectural work was the Pope.

The open space placed before the basilica was redesigned by Bernini from 1565 to 1667, he was directed by the Pope Alexander VII. Bernini had worked in the interior of the basilica a lot of time, for decades. It was an urban architecture with religious symbolism.

The square has a trapezoidal and elliptical shape. Bernini did this shape in order to create a heightened perspective, and people always have praised it as a masterpiece of Baroque.

In the middle of the square there is a big Egyptian obelisk of red granite of 25.5 meters tall supported on bronze lions. The obelisk, at first, was originally erected at Heliopolis, an important city of the Ancient Egypt, and it has been successfully moved three times. The Vatican Obelisk is the only obelisk in Rome that has not toppled since ancient Roman times. In the square there were also two fountains, one designed by Bernini and the other one designed by Carlo Maderno. The surface of the square was of 340 x 240 metres.

In his colonnade, Bernini used the Tuscan (form) and the Doric order. The Tuscan colonnades are four deep colonnades. And there were 244 Doric columns. The idea was to show a strict and austere aspect to give more importance to the Basilica’s façade. This will increase the size when you look at it. The materials used to build the colonnade were stones and marble. They are 15 meters tall.

In the colonnades there is an important characteristic of Baroque art: Bernini tries to represent movement with the ovato tondo’s long axis, that was parallel to the basilica's façade. The colonnades form the square, also known as “piazza”. This colonnades define the space and mask a large selection of Vatican structures.

The paving is composed of radiating lines in travertine marble to relieve what might otherwise be a sea of cobblestones. In 1817 circular stones were used to mark the noon with this circulars stones’ shadows. For this reason, we can deduce that the obelisk is a giant sun clock.

In general, the theme of this work was religious, such as in the Baroque works of art.

A curious piece of information about this, is that the Palace of the Concorde was made by copying the square of Saint Peter’s Basilica, and the obelisk and the fountains of this palace are placed exactly in the same place that the obelisk and the fountains of the square of this basilica.

And here you have a photo of Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

Sources of the information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Peter%27s_Square

From this site web, I have read some things but I have not included anything: 

http://es.slideshare.net/claracan/plaza-y-baslica-de-san-pedro-4041134

http://www.disfrutaroma.com/plaza-san-pedro

Sources of the pictures:

http://www.loquehayqueverenitalia.es/la-plaza-de-san-pedro-en-el-vaticano/

http://de.yoyowall.com/wallpaper/piazza-san-pietro.html

http://www.venamimundo.com/GrandesPersonajes/Bernini.html

http://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/b/bernini.htm

I have used wordreference too to look for the meaning of words I didn’t know. 

http://www.wordreference.com/

The Forge of Vulcan

Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Vel%C3%A1zquez_-_La_Fragua_de_Vulcano_(Museo_del_Prado,_1630).jpg

This painting was created by Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez in 1630 in Rome in his first trip to Italy with oil painting above a canvas. Its measure is of 223cmX290cm. You can find it now in the Prado Museum, in Madrid.

The God Apollo met Vulcan to tell him that Venus, his wife and Goddess of the Beauty was unfaithful and she was lying him with Mars (God of the war). This is the moment of the shouting, that’s why the other  men who are with Vulcan have that expression, it's as they were surprised, because actually they are. The fact of represent the infidelity is so characteristic of Spanish painters of the Golden Century. When he received the news he got jaleous and furious.

Now, I’m going to tell you a secret about this painting. On the right down corner, you can see like a rectangular shaped Stone. Well, it contains a supposed secret self-portrait which Velazquez made of himself. That’s because he went to Italy and tried to copy the style of Michelanchello. Velazquez prove that Michellangello felt more a sculptor tan a painter. In the Final Judgement, Michelangello made a self portrait in a piece of an animal skin so Velazquez copied him (you can see it better but now you know where it is). This is not the only self portrait he made. He made another one also in the Meninas

(Source: by me)

This painting was made in the Baroque because the technique used in this paiting is the use of foreshortened and realistic figures because people aren’t looking at the receptor so this creates realism, Velazquez used oil painting, warm colours in Apollo and in the clothes, there’s a lot of contrast and shadows (chiaroscuro). If you look at the photo, it contains a lot of figures:

And finally, this is a portrait of Velazquez.

(Sources: https://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/galeria-on-line/galeria-on-line/obra/la-fragua-de-vulcano/

http://arte.laguia2000.com/pintura/la-fragua-de-vulcano-de-velazquez )

(Source: http://www.paintingportraittips.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/767px-Vel%C3%A1zquez_-_La_Fragua_de_Vulcano_Museo_del_Prado_1630.jpg )

Saint Longinus by Bernini

It is clearly a Baroque work art because it represents a fleeting moment (the conversion of Longinus to Christianity, as I’ve said before) that makes the people amazed and it has a lot of details: in his face, his expression, his clothes, the decoration… The columns of this sculpture are solomonic columns Bernini added to this sculpture four relics related to Saint Peter:

-A piece of cranium of Saint Andrew (his brother).

-A piece of the Vera Cross (found by Saint Elena).

-The veil of Saint Verónica.
-A piece of the Lance of Passion of Christ.
It had a great influence on his disciples Alessandro Algardi and François Duquesnoy, who opened an important school dedicated to his genres and registers.

Some curiosities:

The author of this sculpture was Gian Lorenzo Bernini between 1628 and 1638 (Italy), an Italian sculptor, architect and painter. He was the most prestigious sculptor of the Baroque.

It is made up of marble, polychrome wood and bronze. It’s 300 cm high. It is nowadays in the Basilica of Saint Peter, in Rome. He made over twenty proves of Saint Longinus in mud. Bernini used to represent the most important part of the life of the people in his works, for example, in the Bible that explains Longinus was one of the Roman centurions who took Jesus Christ to the cross. When Jesus Christ was on the cross, he looked at him and said: “he was the real God’s son” so that is what the sculpture represents, his transformation to Christianity (and that’s why Bernini made him looking at a celestial light which passes through the dome). As we can see, Saint Longinus face represents the victory.

(Source: http://arte.laguia2000.com/escultura/san-longinos-de-bernini )

(Source of the photo: http://uploads5.wikiart.org/images/gian-lorenzo-bernini/st-longinus(1).jpg )

                                         

(Source: http://www.romeartlover.it/Andrea6.jpg )

Bernini liked to play with the mixture of materials to create shadows, movement and realism.

(Source: http://html.rincondelvago.com/escultura-de-gianlorenzo-bernini.html )

(Source of the self portrait http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Gian_Lorenzo_Bernini,_self-portrait,_c1623.jpg

(Source: http://www.lahornacina.com/semblanzasbernini.htm ) 

The Dream of Jacob by José de Ribera.

The Dream of Jacob

The Dream of Jacob was painted by José de Ribera.This painting was commissioned by Jerónimo de la Torre

who was Philip's IV State secretary for the Flanders' affairs. It was made in 1639 in Naples, during the visit of the author to Italy. At the moment, it's displayed at the Prado Museum.

The Dream of Jacob

Source: http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/artwork.php?artworkid=9536

Its size is 179 cm high x 233 cm wide and it's made up with oil over canvas painting. It's a religious painting.

The painting represents the patriarch Jacob sleeping supported on his left arm. Following the Genesis' story, Jacob is having a strange dream about a celestial staircase where angels are going up and down. Jacob is placed in the center asleep in the most realistic way, as if he was a shepherd. In fact, the celestial stairs are the strong spotlight which lights up Jacob's face. The angels of these celestial stairs are almost invisible.

In this photo we can see the angels in the celestial stairs.

Source: https://www.museodelprado.es/visita-el-museo/15-obras-maestras/ficha-obra/obra/el-sueno-de-jacob/

He creates areas of lights and shadows which are very contrasted by two spotlights of light. The nightfall natural one which gave to the painting beautiful blue, yellow, orange tonalities and a powerful flashlight which illuminate the protagonist's shape exalting his relaxed expression. The painter used a geometric cross composition and a foreshortened figure. In this painting, Ribera gets closer to the illumination and the colors of the Venetian School.

This is a Baroque painting because its features are realism and religiosity. The main commissioners were the kings and the Church; in this case, the commissioner is a secretary of the king. Oil was used to paint on canvas and there were also contrasts of light and shadows, foreshortened figures and a complex composition. In this painting we can see almost all this features.

Ribera lost his initial tenebrism and started painting with similar characteristics to the Venetian school. He was influenced by Caravaggio at first, but then he was influenced by Van Dyck and other painters. The local painters, such as Velázquez and Murillo, took the works that Ribera sent to Spain as a reference and some other painters like Fragonard, Manet and Henri Matisse... copied his works. In Italy he was known as Lo Spagnoletto («El Españolito»). This painting belonged to the Jerónimo de la Torre's family until 1718. In 1746 it was found among all queen Isabel of Farnesio's paintings. She bought it as a Murillo's canvas and it was attributed to this painter for a long time. 

Portrait of José de Ribera. 

Source: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_de_Ribera

Bibliography:

http://www.artble.com/artists/jusepe_de_ribera/paintings/jacob's_dream

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob's_Ladder

http://www.wikiart.org/en/jusepe-de-ribera/jacob-s-dream-1639

https://www.museodelprado.es/visita-el-museo/15-obras-maestras/ficha-obra/obra/el-sueno-de-jacob/

http://www.artehistoria.jcyl.es/v2/obras/863.htm

http://arte2bac.wordpress.com/2013/03/02/jose-de-rivera-el-sueno-de-jacob-2/

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_sue%C3%B1o_de_Jacob_(Ribera)

http://www.lastanosa.com/userfiles/La%20pintura%20en%20las%20colecciones%20de%20Vincencio%20Juan%20de%20Lastanosa.pdf

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_de_Ribera

Piety by Gregorio Fernández.

Piety

The Piety was made by Gregorio Fernández. It was made in Valladolid in 1616 and it was commissioned by the Illustrious Penitential Brotherhood of Our Lady of Anguish. It belonged to a processional float which was showed in the religious processions during the Holy Week with other sculptures, such as the “good thief” or Dimas and the “impenitent thief” or Gestas, Saint John and the Magdalen.

The Sixth Anguish or Piety.

Source: http://domuspucelae.blogspot.com.es/2012/04/visita-virtual-la-sexta-angustia-la.html

Its size is 1,75 m high x 2,18 m wide. It’s made up of wood and polychrome. At the moment, this sculpture is in the National Museum of Sculpture in Valladolid.

This a religious sculpture and it represents one of the final stages of Christ’s Passion. The Virgin is holding Christ’s body without life after he has been removed from the cross. The Virgin is standing her right hand as if she was begging and her other hand is placed in the Christ’s shoulder. Her face is expressing pain, that it’s the normal Baroque’s expression. Her clothes are polychrome with strong colors, like red and blue, while her face is polychrome with pastel colours and without brightness. This shows its reality. We can find some similarity with Juni’s models. The anatomy of the Christ’s is very detailed. We can see all his wounds and blood. While the Virgin is expressing her suffering, the Christ has a relaxed expression. The cloth folds are also very detailed in both sculptures.

Piety.

Source: http://seordelbiombo.blogspot.com.es/2012/03/analisis-y-comentario-de-la-piedad.html

Baroque sculptures were usually about religious themes for altarpieces or processional floats made with polychrome wood. All the images were realistic and dramatic because we can find wounds, blood and expressions of pain and suffering. As we have read before, all these characteristics agree with the Piety.

The author, Gregorio Fernández although he worked in Valladolid, he was born in Lugo. He became one of the best models of the Castilian school that was one of the artistic nucleus of religious sculpture of the 17th century. Later, in the 2º part of the 18th century, Salzillo would be inspired by Gregorio Fernández. Other sculptures he made were ‘Christ at the Column’, ‘Cristo de la Luz’ and ‘Inmaculada Concepción’.

Portrait of Gregorio Fernández.

Source: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorio_Fern%C3%A1ndez

Bibliography:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet%C3%A0_(Gregorio_Fern%C3%A1ndez)

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorio_Fern%C3%A1ndez

http://lapiedad1578.blogspot.com.es/2012/05/la-sexta-angustia.html

http://seordelbiombo.blogspot.com.es/2012/03/analisis-y-comentario-de-la-piedad.html

http://arte.laguia2000.com/escultura/piedad-gregorio-fernandez

http://julioelperiodista.blogspot.com.es/2013/06/la-piedad-de-gregorio-fernandez.html

The Meninas, by Velázquez

The Meninas (or Philip IV’s family) is a baroque painting by the Spanish painter Diego Velázquez. It was finished in 1656. It is characterized for its big size. In the painting, the Meninas are the women who are next to Infant Margarita, who was Philip IV’s and Mariana of Austria’s daughter, whose silhouettes we can see reflected on the mirror at the background. We can appreciate the presence of humble figures, such as the dog, the Meninas and the dwarfs. At the background, in the wall, there are some paintings, which have been identified as copies of Rubens’ works. 

The Infant Margarita is the center of all the characters, who project from the Infant to the mirror, and to the door at the background (elements which give a great depth to the work. In this painting, Velázquez uses, simultaneously, long and fluid brush-strokes; and precise and short brush-strokes (as we can observe in the Infants’ dresses. This combination of brush-strokes gives realism to the painting, that is an important feature of Barroque art: there are different textures which make the image “go out” of the canvas and the scene seems to be alive.

Other Baroque painting characteristics we can observe in this painting are the use of oil painting, predominance of colour over drawing and contrast of light and shadow (known as chiaroscuro). The light has a great importance in this painting, which has two different light focuses: the one which is over the figures of the people and the dog at de foreground and the one on the door at the background. 

The softened outlines with the chiaroscuro make the painting deeper. There is great chromatic diversity: there is contrast between black, white and red. The scene took place in a bedroom in the Alcázar of Madrid, so we know that this painting belongs to the last years that Velázquez spent in Madrid. At the beginning this painting was called “Family Portrait”, but later it started being called “The Meninas” in 1843, due to the Portuguese word “Menina” which means maid of honor.

Diego Velázquez, born in Seville in 1599, is considered to be the most important baroque painter in Spain. His first works reflect the influence of Italian painters like Caravaggio, mainly in the use of chiaroscuro and naturalism in the images. Since he visited Rome, Venice and Naples, he was influenced by Venetian painters and he did looser brush-strokes.

Sources used:

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Meninas

https://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/galeria-on-line/galeria-on-line/obra/la-familia-de-felipe-iv-o-las-meninas/

http://www.artehistoria.jcyl.es/v2/obras/3.htm

https://www.museodelprado.es/enciclopedia/enciclopedia-on-line/voz/meninas-o-la-familia-de-felipe-iv-las-velazquez/

Church of San Luis de los Franceses (in Seville), by Leonardo de Figueroa

The Church of San Luis de los Franceses, in Seville, is a great example of Baroque architecture in the 18^th century. It was designed by Leonardo Figueroa and built between 1699 and 1730.

It’s built over the one that was the Enríquez de Ribera family’s house. This piece of land was given by Lucía de Medina in exchange for calling the church San Luis (in honor of Saint Luis IX, king of France), and burying her in its Major Chapel. The church was considered as a monument in 1946.

This church presents a rectangular, Greek Cross plan covered by a huge chapel over a tambour. There is a semicircular space placed at the end of each of the four ends of the cross (the frontal one was used to build the Major Chapel). In the interior there are Solomonic columns between which there are alcoves, chapels and tribunes, with a wide and decorated baseboard. In the bases of the columns, we can see the Great Virtues: chastity, obedience, poverty, humility and prayer.

The facade is divided into two sections, and it’s decorated as an altarpiece facade: stone and brick alternate as building materials. It’s asided by two octagonal towers. The second section has five windows, and the central one is between two Solomonic columns. Above the windows is the Spanish badge, crowned by culptures of the three archangels

.

The carvings on the bricks may be Leonardo Figueroa’s main artistic characteristic. We can know that it’s a baroque architecture work because of its exhuberance and its exaggerated art if we compare it with Renaissance and New Classicism. There’s a predominance of movement, realism in the representations and use of symbols (the main one might be the representation of the Great Virtues on the columns).

Leonardo de Figueroa was born in Utiel (Valencia) in 1654. He was Matías José and Ambrosio de Figueroa’s father, and Antonio de Figueroa’s grandfather. Apart from designing the Church of San Luis de los Franceses, he participated in other important projects, such as the Hospital of the Venerable Priests, in Seville, which was built in 1675, and which is, nowadays, Historic Patrimony of Spain. 

Sources used:

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iglesia_de_San_Luis_de_los_Franceses_(Sevilla)

http://sevillapedia.wikanda.es/wiki/Iglesia_de_San_Luis_de_los_Franceses

http://www.artehistoria.jcyl.es/v2/obras/16632.htm

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_IX_de_Francia

https://www.triporg.org/es/cities/63/sevilla/4692/iglesia-de-san-luis-de-los-franceses

http://www.monografias.com/trabajos32/arte-barroco/arte-barroco.shtml

To end with Baroque: Rembrandt's The Night Watch flash mob

This is a flash mob made last year in Amsterdam to commemorate the re-opening of the Rijksmuseum, where you can find many of Rembrandt's paintings. We watched this video in 4th ESO C-D the other day, but José Luis forgot to include it. I hope the people who didn't watch it can enjoy it now. 

Thursday, 30th October 2014

Hello everybody!!


Today in our Social Sciences lesson, Paqui have revised our homework from last class, that was copy from a Power Point Presentation the main features from Baroque Art (where does it come from, differences with Renaissance Art, etc). After this, she has explained the new scheme we had to do in our notebooks taking the information from our books. It has to contents these things:

-Baroque Architecture: Main Features and Main Artists and works.
-Baroque Sculpture: Main Features and Main Artists and works.
-Baroque Painting: Main Features and Main Artists and works.

We have spent twenty minutes of the class doing our scheme with information from our books. We have completed our schemes with information such us:

-In Baroque, in Architecture and Sculpture, the movement is a very important characteristic.
-The most importants architectures were: Bernini and Borromimi.
-The most importants sculptures were: Bernini and Nicola Salvi (he made the "Fontana di Trevi").
-In painting, there is a predominance of color over drawing, just in opposite as it was in Renaissance Art.
-The most important painters were from Italy, Flanders, and from the Low Countries: Michelangelo from Italy, Peter Paul Rubers from Flanders, and Van Rijin and Johannes Vemeer from the Low Countries. They made a lot of paintings.

After finishing our scheme, Paqui did a little explanation about a new project we have to do: a project about Baroque Art. In opossite as the previous project of Renaissance Art, this project will be done individualy and the deadline is on 20th of November.
In this project we have to analyse one work from Baroque, it could be from Architecture, Sculpture or from Painting. Paqui has assigned me the sculpture "Blessed Ludovica Albertoni" from Bernini. I hope i will like to do this project and we will learn a lot about Baroque Art.



Source: http://roma.andreapollett.com/S5/rione13b.htm

We're getting the exam next week, so we have to study a lot in this long weekend.

Bye!!

Instructions and guidance for your Baroque

Source: http://www.projectmanage.com/decision-making-whats-the-big-deal/

You may have received an e-mail with the names of the Baroque works of art you will have to study. This is what you will have to do: 

- Write an individual post about the two works of art you have to study. The post will have to include the following data compulsorily: Title, author, pictures to understand what you are explaining, the text you have written and the sources you have used to prepare it. 

- You should start looking for information about your work of art in Spanish. You have to make sure that you understand all the information before starting writing. Prepare a previous scheme and be sure that you don´t forget any part, review the main Baroque features and try to find them on your work of art. 

- Use different sources of information (not only Wikipedia), don´t copy and paste and don´t use the computer translator (I will know it if you do it and this may make you fail this project) Write simple and understandable sentences. 

- Copy the links of the websites you visit to include them at the end of your explanation and file them on a Word document. This way, you won't lose time looking for the links you've used when you finish your project.

- The names of the works of art have to be written in Italic font (cursiva) and with all the words in capital letters (nouns and verbs, not prepositions). For example: Saturn Devouring His Son, The Crucifixion of Saint Peter. 

- You have to understand what you explain because once the projects will be finished, I will ask you about them in class, in the same way we did with the Renaissance art projects. 

These are the specific guidelines for architecture, sculpture and painting

ANALYSIS OF A BUILDING

Palazzo Carignano, Guarino Guarini in Torino (Italy)

Source: http://www.museotorino.it/view/s/626afe674cf94760881325345648e4c6

The analysis of a building has to include: 

-  The title and author of the building

- The chronological and geographic context: where and when the sculpture was made and who commissioned the sculpture.

- Type of building and function

- Commissioner

- Materials used

- Description of its different parts: facade, floor plan and elevation, decorative elements used, proportions, integration in the space

- The features of the art style the building belongs to and the correspondence between the features of the building and the art style.

- Additional information: influence in other buildings

You can include one or several pictures of the building, its floor plan and also the portrait of its author. 

ANALYSIS OF A SCULPTURE

David, Bernini

Source: http://arte.laguia2000.com/escultura/david-de-bernini

The analysis of a sculpture has to include this information:

- The title and author of the sculpture.

- The chronological and geographic context: where and when the sculpture was made and who commissioned the sculpture.

- Technical data: size, material used, where the sculpture is at present...

- A description of the sculpture, taking into account this rule: first we have to talk about what we see and after we can add details of what we have learnt in our research. We have to include the material, technique, figures represented, light, movement, clothes, influences the author received, symbols and meaning.

- The features of the art style the sculpture belongs to and the correspondence between the features of the sculpture and the art style it belongs to.

- Additional interesting information: importance of the sculpture in the story of art, influence of the sculpture in other artists.

You can include one or several pictures of the sculpture and also the portrait of its author. 

You have an example of a sculpture analysis on page 115 of your book. Read it before writing your text. 

ANALYSIS OF A PAINTING

Saint Thomas' doubt, Caravaggio

Source: http://www.taringa.net/posts/arte/7418734/Maldito-Caravaggio.html

 The analysis of a painting has to include: 

- The title and author of the painting.

- The chronological and geographic context: where and when the painting was made and who commissioned the painting.

- Technical data: size, material used, where the painting is at present...

- A description of the painting: technique, people represented, places, colours and shapes, light, influences the author received, symbols and meaning.

- The features of the art style the painting belongs to and the correspondence between the features of the painting and the art style it belongs to.

- Additional interesting information: importance of the painting in the history of art, influence of the painting in other artists.

You can include one or several pictures of the painting and also the portrait of its author. 

You have an example of a painting analysis on page 88 of your book. Read it before writing your text. 

And finally, here you have some useful websites to find  good information: 

- Smart History: http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/

- About.com: http://arthistory.about.com/

- Bernini´s sculptures:

http://cherkas.com/romesartwork/berninissculptures.html

http://www.galleriaborghese.it/borghese/en/edafne.htm

- Fountains in Rome:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fountains_in_Rome
http://www.tours-italy.com/rome/fountains.htm

- El Prado Museum: Here you will find a lot of information about Velázquez, Murillo, Ribera, Ribalta, Rubens and Zurbarán:

http://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/galeria-on-line

- Velázquez´s paintings at the National Gallery:

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/search/vel%C3%A1zquez/1?filter=paintings

- Rembrandthuis: the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam:

http://www.rembrandthuis.nl/cms_pages/index_main.html

- Essential Vermeer: a very complete website about the painter Vermeer:
http://www.essentialvermeer.com/index.html

- Caravaggio´s paintings:

http://caravaggio.com/#

http://www.artble.com/artists/caravaggio/more_information/style_and_technique

REMEMBER THAT THE DEADLINE IS THE 20th OF NOVEMBER. 

Presentations of Baroque art (general and in the Hispanic Monarchy)

Here you have the two presentations that correspond to Baroque art style: 

The figures in The Meninas and Dorset's version

Here you have the names of all the figures who appear in The Meninas: 

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Velazquez-Meninas-key3.jpg

The apparent centre of the painting is (1) Infanta Margarita Teresa, five- year old at the moment. She his attendent by two ladies-in-waiting or meninas, Doña Isabel de Velasco (2) and Doña Agustina Sarmiento de Sotomayor (3). This one is kneeling before Margarita and offering her a drink. To the right, there are two dwarfs, who acted as jesters: Maribarbola (4) and Nicolás Pertusato (5), who is bothering the dog. Behind this group, Doña Marcela de Ulloa (6), Margarita's chaperone and a guardadamas or bodyguard (7), who hasn´t been identified. In the background, to the right, the man in the doorway is José Nieto Velázquez (8), the queen's chamberlain and head of the royal tapestry works. One of his tasks was opening and closing the doors to the monarchs. Velázquez (9) portrayed himself in his workshop and retouched his chest some years later, when he was accepted as member or the Order of Santiago. Finally, the mirror in the background reflects the figures of Philip IV (10) and his wife Queen Mariana of Austria. 

There is a smaller version of The Meninas in the United Kingdom, preserved in the country house of Kingston Lacy, in Dorset. Its colours are lighter, the light is less strong, the monarchs are noy reflected in the mirror and there are pencil lines in the Infanta's face

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/oct/02/velazquez-las-meninas-pradio-museu-madrid

This painting was supposed to be a copy of the original one. But last October, professor Matías Díaz Padrón, former curator of El Prado Museum, affirmed that this painting might have been a model painted by Velázquez before finishing the big one, maybe to show the king the definitive version. However, there is no agreement about this. Other experts say that the Dorset version was painted later, because it reflects the definitive version and not the retouches made by Velázquez. Another opinion says that this version was painted by Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo, Velázquez's son-in-law. 

If you want to read more about these other Meninas, here you have an article from The Guardian:

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/oct/02/velazquez-las-meninas-pradio-museu-madrid

The Meninas in 3D

If you click on the painting, you will see a 3D recreation of Velázquez's most famous painting: 

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Something more about The Fable of Arachne

Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Velazquez-las_hilanderas.jpg

As we've been studying this week, Veláquez liked complex compositions and he used to represent the nain scene in the background and a secondary scene in the foreground. So he did in The Fable of Arachne, also known as The Spinners: the scene in the background refers to Arachne's myth and the scene in the foreground represents a workshop, where some spinners are working, but things are still more complex. Here you have a more detailed explanation of the painting: 

The whole scene appears to happen in the workshop of the Royal Factory of Tapestry of Santa Isabel, where some spinners are working and some others are visiting the factory and observing a tapestry, where the myth of Arachne is represented. But this is what Velázquez painted: 

- The main scene is in the background, where we can see Athena, with her helmet, punishing Arachne. This one was a young girl from Lydia, very skilled in the art of weaving, who defied Athena to a contest. Arachne wove a tapestry representing the rape of the nymph Europa by Zeus, Athena's father. Zeus transformed himself into a bull to possess Europa. Athena became very angry with Arachne's audacity and punished her, transforming her into a spider, and sentencing her to weave forever. On the painting we can see Athena punishing Arachne. The two women are not clients, but the two Lydians who witnessed the moment. The tapestry in the background is a copy of  The Rape of Europa, by Rubens, who had copied it from Titian

The Rape of Europa, by Rubens (1629)

Source: http://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/galeria-on-line/galeria-on-line/obra/el-rapto-de-europa-2/

 The Rape of Europa, by Titian (1562)

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_(mythology)

- The scene in the foreground also belongs to the myth: it represents the moment of the contest. Athena is the woman who is spinning at the wheel and Arachne is the young lady who is winding the wool. We can observe a pentimento in the head of the young girl to the right. 

Scholars think that with this painting Velázquez wanted to prove the nobility of painting and he also wanted to show how skilled he was, comparing his painting with masters like Titian and Rubens. 

This painting was painted for Pedro de Arce, the royal huntsman, and suffered damage during the fire in the Alcázar in 1734. Some parts were burnt and the painting had to be reduced in height and width. The painting we can admire now is smaller than the original one.