VISUAL ANALYSIS: AN INTRODUCTION

PART TWO
AP ART HISTORY

Pietro Cavallini. Seated Apostles, detail of the Last Judgment, Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome, c. 1291, fresco The art of Pietro Cavallini demonstrates an early interest in the sculptural rendering of form. In this fragment of a badly damaged fresco in Rome, Cavallini, perhaps under the influence of Roman paintings now lost, abandoned Byzantine stylized dignity and replaced it will a long-lost impression of solidity.

He achieved this effect through careful depiction of light that illuminates the figures with highlights. The figures are modeled so that the drapery has weight and falls on the human form in a convincing manner.

Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi. Annunciation, 1333, tempera and gold leaf on wood In contrast to Cavallinis fresco, this work, created in the so-called International Gothic style, exhibits weightless figures defined by flowing lines and elegant shapes. Emphasis is placed here on the luxurious setting, the gold leaf background, the marble floor, and the blue silk worn by the Virgin.

Melchior Broederlam, outer wings of the Retable de Champmol, Annunciation and Visitation (left) and Presentation and Flight into Egypt (right), from the chapel of the Cartreuse de Champmol, Dijon, France, installed 1399

In International Gothic fashion, both interior and exterior of the building are shown in these two panels, and the floors are tilted up to give clear views of the action. The landscapes have been arranged to lead the eye up from the foreground and into the distance along a rising ground plane. While the figures are not proportionate to their settings, there is a desire expressed to situate them in space.

Dirk Bouts. Last Supper, center panel of the Altarpiece of the Holy Sacrament, Saint Peters Louvain, Belgium, 1464-1468, oil on wood
In order to suggest recession of space, this is one of the first northern paintings to demonstrate the use of a single vanishing point. All of the central rooms orthogonals (lines imagined to be behind and perpendicular to the picture plane that converge at a vanishing point) lead to a single vanishing point in the center of the mantelpiece above Christs head.

However, the small side room has its own vanishing point, and neither it nor the vanishing point of the main room falls on the horizon of the landscape seen through the windows. The viewer in this painting is situated at an elevated position so that the symbolic nature of the Eucharist (presented on the table) may be fully grasped. Christ is also larger (in hierarchical proportion) due to his importance in this scene.

Andrea del Castagno. Last Supper, SantApollonia, Florence, 1447, fresco This lavishly painted space that Christ and his 12 disciples occupy suggest Castagnos absorption with creating the illusion of three-dimensional space. However, closer scrutiny reveals inconsistencies, such as the fact that Renaissance perspectival systems make it impossible to see both the ceiling and the roof, as Castagno depicted. Further, the two side walls do not seem parallel.

Raphael. Madonna in the Meadow, 1505-1506, oil on panel In this painting, Raphael uses a different kind of perspective, aerial or atmospheric perspective. Not only do object that recede in space get smaller, they begin to take on a difference appearance. Colors become cooler and the contrast between value (lights and darks) is lessened. In the foreground, the colors are strong and vibrant. In the background, they are less saturated.

Giovanni Bellini. San Zaccaria Altarpiece, San Zaccaria, Venice, 1505, oil on wood During the High Renaissance, artists attempted to unify pictorial compositions through the manipulation of form and color. The figures here are more proportionate to their surroundings than the figures in the earlier Broederlam altarpiece above.

The painting radiates a feeling of serenity and spiritual calm. Viewers derive this sense less from the figures (no interaction occurs among them) than from the harmonious and balanced presentation of color and light. Bellinis method of painting here became softer and more luminous than in his earlier works. Line is not the chief agent of form; indeed, outlines dissolve in light and shadow. The impact of this work is due largely to glowing color- a soft radiance that envelops the forms with an atmospheric haze and enhances their majestic serenity.

Tintoretto. Last Supper, chancel of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, 1594, oil on canvas

In contrast to Bellinis balanced and harmonious sacred conversation, this painting by another Venetian, Tintoretto, is imbalanced and visually complex. Unlike the tranquil Christ of Castagnos Last Supper, Christ is above and beyond the converging perspective lines that race diagonally away from the the picture surface, creating disturbing effects of limitless depth and motion.

Benvenuto Cellini. Genius of Fontainebleau, 1543-1544, bronze

During the 16th century, Mannerist sculptors such as Benvenuto Cellini began responding to notions to idealized form by gracefully exaggerating the human form. For example, in this sculptural relief, the head is too small for the elongated body.

Giovanni Battista Gaulli. Triumph of the Name of Jesus, ceiling fresco with stucco figures in the vault of the Church of Il Gesu, Rome, 16761679
During the Baroque period, artists contrived ways of creating a dazzling spectacle of in ceiling frescoes. Church authorities realized that such paintings offered perfect opportunities to impress on viewers the glory and power of a Catholic Church battling the surging Protestant Reformation. The effect of looking from below upwards, known as di sotto en su, provides the viewer with a sense of the ceiling opening up to offer a glimpse of Heaven.

Here the painter glazed the gilded architecture to suggest shadows, thereby enhancing the scenes illusionistic quality. This approach is sometimes known as trompe loeil (or fool the eye). The viewers belief is suspended in order that he/she will accept the illusion as reality.
To further heighten the illusion, Gaulli painted many of the sinners on three-dimensional stucco extensions that project outside the paintings frame.

Diego Velazquez. Water Carrier of Seville, c. 1619, oil on canvas One of the best-known painters of the Baroque period was the Spanish Diego Velazquez. This work was painted when he was only 20. Velazquez was one of the first painters to take an interest in depicting scenes from everyday life. These are known as genre paintings.

Peter Paul Rubens. Elevation of the Cross, Antwerp Cathedral, Belgium, 1610, oil on panel Another well known Baroque painter was Peter Paul Rubens. Rubens demonstrates his knowledge of anatomy in this painting through the use of foreshortening. Rubens places the body of Christ on the cross as a diagonal that cuts dynamically across the picture while inclining back into it. Strong modeling in dark and light heightens the drama.

Gerrit van Honthorst. Supper Party, 1620, oil on canvas Typical of Dutch genre scenes is this work by Gerrit van Honthorst. Fascinated by nocturnal effects, van Honthorst frequently placed a hidden light source in his pictures and used it as a pretext to work with dramatic and violently contrasted dark and light effects, a technique known as tenebrism. Lighthearted genre scenes such as this were popular and widely produced in the Baroque period.

Louis Le Nain. Family of Country People, c. 1640, oil on canvas Subjects that in Dutch painting were opportunities for boisterous good humor were treated with somber stillness by the French. This work expresses the grave dignity of a family close to the soil, one made stoic and resigned by hardship. Because Le Nain depicted peasants with dignity and subservience, despite their harsh living conditions, some scholars have suggested that he intended to please wealthy urban patrons with these paintings.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Carceri 14, c. 1750 etching During the 18th century, artists made prints in order to reach a wider audience. In doing so, artists did not have to cater only to the tastes of a small, wealthy upper class. This print is part of a series where the artist conjures up awe-inspiring visions of architectural masses with small, insect-like human figures moving stealthily through them. These grim images pointed the way to a Romantic movement, where artist became fascinated with themes of death, destruction, and despair.

In an etching, an artist uses line to create value by hatching and crosshatching. To create an etching, a design is incised in a layer of wax or varnish on a metal plate. The parts of the plate left exposed are then etched (slightly eaten away) by the acid in which the plate is immersed after incising.

Theodore Gericault. Insane Woman (Envy), 1822-1823 Mental aberration and irrational states of mind hardly could have failed to interest the Romantic rebels against Enlightenment rationality of the 18th century. Gericault, like many of his contemporaries, examined the influence of mental states on the human face and believed, as others did, that a face accurately revealed character, especially in madness and at the moment of death.

John Singer Sargent. The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, 1882, oil on canvas A contrasting approach to portraiture is this painting of four girls, the children of one of the artists close friends. The informal, eccentric arrangement of their slight figures suggests how much at ease they are within this familiar space and with the objects within that space.

Unlike Gericaults portrait of an insane woman, the girls in Sargents painting maintain a distance from the viewer. Gericaults portrait derives its intensity from the fact that the woman fills the entire picture plane, sharing our space while the daughters occupy a space from which the viewer feels removed. Sargents casual positioning of the figures and seemingly random choice of the setting communicate a sense of spontaneity.