Architectural & Art History Analysis
Warehouses Carson Pirie Scott
Added Information
Name: Warehouses Carson Pirie Scott
Author: Louis Sullivan
Date: 1899 – 1904
Place: Chicago
Style: Chicago School
Type: Civil
Materials: Iron and glass
Living Author
L. Sullivan is the most important architect of the Chicago school. He studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the School of Fine Arts in Paris. In Paris, he was influenced by modernist trends. His progressive work began in Boston and then moved to Chicago. He decided to investigate the potential of metal statues.
Historic Context
During the second half of the 19th century, Paris was the most important European art center. It became the creator and receiver of all types of trends: realism, modernism, impressionism, post-impressionism, and symbolism. Rome, however, was declining as a focus of art.
Formal Analysis: The Front
The front of the Carson stores has two distinct parts: the base occupies the mezzanine and first floor with large, closed glass windows situated in rows. The prominent ornamental ironwork in this part has a naturalistic feature, made with acanthus leaves and spiral bands that frame the windows.
The Second Part
The second part is a repetition of the same model, with uniform horizontal windows. Louis Sullivan resolves the breaking of the corner flag by raising a loop along the lines of the first section.
On the Whole
The facade is designed to let in light, which was especially indispensable. Its basic elements are called Chicago school windows, which are elongated and horizontal. This makes sense given the building’s height, although it has 10 apartments, and thus achieves greater adaptation to its environment. The large windows and doors of the side loop create a draft between the inside and outside, ensuring continuity between the street and the lobby.
Urban Environment and Integration
The warehouses are located within the commercial district of Chicago and were built after the Great Fire of 1871, which devastated the city center. The reconstruction involved a change of use for the buildings and the centralization of administrative and economic activities. Businesses were placed in the city center. This part of the city is associated with department stores and trade, so the importance of being on a corner, where the building’s monumentality dominates the visual field, is noteworthy.
Interpreting the Architectural Work
The building functioned as a department store specializing in clothing, shoes, jewelry, etc., until 2007. These stores are considered one of Sullivan’s most important buildings and one of the most significant of the Chicago school. Every part of the building reflects its function, which can be summarized as Sullivan said: “Form follows function.”
Role Models and Influences
Sullivan maintained the decorative ornamental style of modernist architecture he studied in Paris but also reflected the essence of the Chicago school’s innovations. He worked with new materials like concrete, iron, and glass. He created an internal iron structure, allowing for taller buildings and large windows to let in light. In addition to these innovations, Sullivan believed that form should be subject to function, not the other way around.
Mid-Nineteenth Century
The mid-19th century saw the innovative technique of using iron as a construction material in architecture.
The Thinker
Cataloging
Title: The Thinker
Author: Auguste Rodin
Date: 1880 – 1900
Style: Impressionism
Material: Bronze
Location: Rodin Museum (Paris)
Colors: Monochrome
Living Author
In 1875, Rodin traveled to Italy, where he was attracted by the treatment of movement and muscles in the works of Renaissance sculptors like Donatello and Michelangelo. When he returned to Paris, he gained public recognition, expressing the characteristics of his style based on a hardness in the form of laborious modeling and texture.
Historical Context
Impressionism is a pictorial movement born in France from 1874 to 1886, marking the breakdown of modern art with the academy.
Formal Analysis
The sculpture is made of bronze and shaped in relief. It is a free-standing, monochrome sculpture. Rodin depicted a naked man sitting on a rock with his arms, hands, and feet visible. The torso leans slightly forward, his head resting on his right hand while the left rests relaxed on his knee. This sculpture clearly reflects a thoughtful attitude.
Composition
The sculpture shows a clear centripetal composition, focused inward towards the self and giving a feeling of detachment from the outside.
Imbalance and Modeling
Apart from the imbalance of some limbs, the surprising modeling highlights the tension in all the body’s muscles (not seen because he is thinking), as if he were making a great effort rather than a mental exercise. This paradox should be understood from the artist’s will to give life and movement to the sculptures, making it intentional.
Elaborate Fingers
The fingers are very elaborate to give greater vitality and incorporate the play of light.
Realism and Naturalism
This sculpture displays unprecedented realism and naturalism rarely seen since the classical era.
Neat Sculpture
The neat sculpture creates strong shadows on its surface, helping to convey the thinker’s suffering. It is a closed sculpture in itself.
Theme
The thinker has become the representation of an anonymous person immersed in their concerns. Initially, this sculpture was made as the image of the Florentine poet Dante.
Interpretation
Although possibly part of a larger project for a wide door to the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris, whose famous book focuses on Dante, this project, called the Gates of Hell, was never finished. It included 186 figures, more than initially planned.
Models and Influences
The work cannot be understood without the influences of Michelangelo’s sculptures, reflected in the treatment of anatomical muscles and oversized volumes of some body parts.
Rodin’s Innovation
Rodin is considered the innovator of contemporary sculpture, both for his treatment of matter and his taste for rounded shapes, aspects that resonated in modernist sculpture.
Function
The thinker was initially part of the Gates of Hell, and most of these works are considered masterpieces in themselves, like Adam and Eve.
Historic Mission
Rodin believed that the sculptor had a historic mission to bring modern movements to the modern city.
Style
Despite being considered an Impressionist sculptor, Rodin has also been classified as Post-Impressionist, Expressionist, and Romantic, highlighting his innovative nature. He took influences from other artists like Michelangelo and Praxiteles to create a masterpiece for a modern city.
Treatment of Roughness
The roughness of the various surfaces, with imprecise or incomplete forms, aimed to give the sculpture more vitality and play of light.
The Trial of Horace
Added Information
Title: Trial of Horace
Author: Jacques-Louis David
Timeline: 1784
Style: Neoclassical
Technique: Oil on canvas
Topic: Literary
Local: Louvre Museum
Living Author
JL David is one of the most important figures of Neoclassicism, who admired classical antiquity, which is evident in his works. He was educated in Paris, where he painted his best historical-themed pictures. He actively participated in the Revolution of 1789, which was considered the official death of the artist. After Robespierre, he regained prestige with the arrival of Napoleon, who appointed him as the official painter. With the fall and subsequent exile of Napoleon, Jacques fled to Brussels, where he devoted himself to painting canvases and portraits of mythological and Napoleonic themes.
Historical Context
Neoclassicism is an art style inspired by classical art (Greco-Roman) and developed during the 18th and early 19th centuries as a reaction to the excesses of Baroque and Rococo. It adopted a clear and tidy artistic language. In France, the values of ancient Rome were associated with those of the Enlightenment based on reason.
Formal Analysis
JL David organized the composition with great balance, showing a perfect integration of the painted figures. The painting is clearly influenced by classical painting, demonstrated by its clarity, which was always adapted to the tastes of the time. It shows a refined style and is reflected in the colors used. All figures display perfect anatomical modeling, achieving maximum academic purity.
Priority in Lines
The painter prioritized straight lines in male characters and wavy lines in females, visually reinforcing the aggressive attitude of men and the more sentimental nature of women.
Colors
Shades of gray, ocher, and red dominate the scene. The darker shades are used for the background, and the lighter shades for the figures. The use of red in various parts of the characters’ attire is noteworthy, as it achieves chromatic balance in the scene. While red is a loud color, the author makes it a cool color, subordinate to the new taste of the period. The whole scene is bathed in soft light entering from the left, with no visible light source, unlike Caravaggio’s work. The red color of the robe symbolizes passion and blood.
Subject
The painting is inspired by the tragedy of Horace, a 17th-century French play by Pierre Corneille. David depicts the moment when the three Horace brothers (Roman children) swear before their father to fight to the death against the warriors of the neighboring city (the Curiatii). This war will decide who would control central Italy.
Background
In the background to the right are three women crying: one is a Horace sister married to a Curiatius; beside her is a Curiatius sister married to a Horace; and in the background is the mother of the Horace brothers, who cares for the other women. The light casts shadows on the brothers and their father. The tiled floor and walls create a linear perspective dominated by straight lines. Geometric shapes are also included; the three brothers and their father define a rectangle, while their open legs form a triangle. The energy and vitality of the central characters contrast with the tranquility and despair of the women.
Decorative Elements
The setting has no decorative elements, and the columns in the background are Tuscan, of Roman origin, much more serious than the Greek Doric columns. The French painter did not want to reproduce the historical fact but to reflect the cult of the strictest virtues and self-sacrifice. Honor and loyalty are clearly embodied in the attitude of the Horace brothers.
Interpretation
Models and Influences
Classical Greek and Roman art were undoubtedly the benchmark for David’s neoclassical work, both formally and thematically. The influence of Raphael, Poussin, and Caravaggio is also evident. From Raphael and Poussin, he adopted the perfectly balanced lines and the use of geometric structures in compositions. From Caravaggio, he took the treatment of collected light. JL David’s paintings were a reference point for many other neoclassical painters.
Neoclassical Painting
Neoclassical painting focuses on Rome. Unlike the typical compositions of Baroque or Rococo frescoes, its composition is simple: only a few figures, total calm, in positions similar to those of ancient statues.
Neoclassical Painters
Neoclassical painters did not have easy access to old painting models, unlike architecture and sculpture, of which many samples were preserved in Italy. They could turn to reliefs, but it was not easy to overcome the poverty of color they offered. The decoration of ceramic vases and bas-reliefs were almost the only references available to artists.
May 3
Cataloging
Title: The Third of May 1808
Author: Francisco Goya
Date: 1814
Technique: Oil on canvas
Style: Neoclassical / Romantic
Theme: Historical and allegorical
Location: The Prado, Madrid
Living Author
Francisco Goya is one of the most important painters of all time. He learned his trade in Zaragoza, and in 1770, he traveled to Italy, where he studied the masters and acquired Italian Neoclassical aesthetics and a taste for allegorical and mythological figures.
Historical Context
Neoclassicism is an artistic style inspired by classical art (Greco-Roman) and developed during the 18th and early 19th centuries as a reaction to the excesses of Baroque and Rococo.
Formal Analysis
This painting is articulated in three groups with a landscape of houses in the background. The three groups are: soldiers aiming, characters about to face death, and background characters covering their faces to avoid seeing the deaths. On the left are dead characters on the floor, and on the right is a platoon of soldiers diagonally arranged, with their guns pointed at the characters.
Light
The light illuminates the immediate area of the upcoming execution, highlighting the strong shadows of the soldiers.
Composition
The composition is articulated with the central figure, who has open arms, interpreted as facing the soldiers. The great expressiveness of the characters is noteworthy, with attitudes of violence, suffering, fear, etc.
French Soldiers
These soldiers represent the French and the definitive repression. The houses in the background place us in a particular location, possibly Madrid, and give the painting a realistic feel.
Colors
The color palette is quite limited. Ocher, black, white, yellow, and red are the colors that give the scene its dramatic feel. The light and colors create a sense of depth, with the darker background, ocher, and red in the foreground. The diagonal lines organize the characters in the composition.
Theme and Meaning
The Third of May 1808 is overwhelmingly paired with another painting, The Second of May 1808. The action takes place in the mountains of Príncipe Pío. The scene includes a woman and a barn, which adds credibility.
Iconographic Level
The man with crossed arms is related to the crucifixion of Jesus, and the use of yellow and blue, the heraldic symbols of the Pope, symbolizes the church. The light coming from this character is a metaphor for the presence of God.
Heroic Character
The heroic character of this painting (like The Oath of the Horatii) shows a clear role in denouncing the war and the French invader. The representation of this struggle for freedom is a main idea of Romanticism.
Interpretation
Role
It is unknown when the paintings were made or their intended role, whether as a decorative element for the memory of Ferdinand VII or a commemoration of the events of May 2.
Models and Influences
The Baroque plastic model is still visible in the way the shootings are depicted. Goya himself used the same expression in later paintings. The influence of this painting is evident in others, such as “The Execution of Maximilian” by Manet and “Massacre in Korea” by Picasso. Conceptually, the horror of war is related to Picasso’s Guernica.
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism adopted a clear and tidy artistic language. In France, the values of ancient Rome were associated with those of the Enlightenment based on reason.
ment based on reason.