Romanesque and Gothic Art: Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting
General Features of Romanesque Architecture
- The architectural contribution is fundamental in the Romanesque, contingent upon the sculpture and painting.
- Almost all the elements of Romanesque architecture (ashlar walls, columns and pillars, arches, barrel vaults) can be found in the previous styles, but now appear with a new spirit, importing more space to their formal appearance.
- Most of the buildings are religious buildings, churches, cathedrals, and monasteries.
- Although there are plenty of civilian
Rodin’s The Thinker and Cézanne’s The Card Players
Rodin’s The Thinker
Material and Technique
Material: Bronze (an alloy of copper and tin), a durable material often cast using the lost wax technique. This involves creating a mold and coating it with clay or another refractory substance. Molten bronze is then poured in, melting the wax and taking its place. Rodin introduced variations to this process, such as adding texture to the fingers and hands for a rougher surface.
Form and Dimensions
Form: Free-standing sculpture, viewable from all angles.
Type:
Venus in Art: Carracci, Titian, Rubens, and Velázquez
Venus with Satyr and Cupids, A. Carracci, 1588
It’s in Venice (influenced by Venetian masters). From a compositional point of view, the composition is Mannerist. The bed in the foreground, upon which Venus rests, supports this rotation; this way, the scene would continue into our space. A cut scene in the foreground, in the Mannerist style, allows us to focus on the naked body of Venus, also in the foreground. We begin to find those contradictions: mythological paintings often give them a moralizing
Masterpieces of Modern Art: Braque, Kandinsky, and Mondrian
Landscape at L’Estaque
Author: Georges Braque
Year: 1908
Style: Cubist
Technique: Oil on Canvas
Subject: Landscape
Location: Kunstmuseum (Bern)
Georges Braque, alongside Picasso, was one of the most prominent artists of Cubism. After some early works close to Fauvism, in 1907 his work shifted towards geometrization, influenced by the Cézanne exhibition in Paris and his relationship with Picasso. Together, they experimented with the technique of collage, creating works very similar in thematic and formal
Read MoreThe Old Regime and Baroque Art in Spain: 15th-18th Centuries
The Old Regime and the Baroque
1. The Absolute Monarchy
The Old Regime is a system that characterizes the economy, politics, society, and European culture between the 15th and 18th centuries, though its fullness is attained in the 17th century.
Characteristics:
- Economy based on agriculture and livestock, subject to the cycles of nature.
- Capitalist system as complementary, resulting from a resurgence of trade. A new social group emerges: the bourgeoisie.
- Society is divided into estates: nobility, clergy,
Hercules at the Crossroads: Symbolism in Farnese Gallery
Barocci, *Virgin of the People*: Figure in the Background
Entering the lunette is the scene of Ulysses. In front, we have the brothers of Catania and Perseus and Medusa, a symbol of value. The story of these brothers is that during an eruption of Etna, lava invaded the city of Catania, then the two young men took their parents upon their shoulders.
Center of the Vault Box
It is a true picture. It differs from the rest because, instead of being a fresco painting, it is in oil. It’s a box set into the
Read More