Picasso’s Guernica and Fortuny’s The Vicarage: Masterpieces of Art
Guernica (1937)
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Support: Canvas, 3.51 m x 7.82 m
Material: Oil
Formal Analysis
Color: Absence of color is made clear through a close monochromatic scale. Black, gray, and white symbolize the somberness of the event, internalizing and expressing the horror of the bombing. The lack of color represents death.
Light: Illuminates the figures that the artist wants to highlight. There are no shadows around them. The clear picture, color, and relief represent life removed.
Perspective:
Read MoreFilm Noir: Characteristics, History, and Influence
Unit 8: Film Noir
What is Film Noir?
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood’s classical film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key, black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography. Many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude
Read MoreVisual Elements and Photography: Composition and Capture
Visual Elements in Art and Design
We rely on the proposal by Donis A. Dondis. The point functions to identify and mark a space. Two points help to define the basic notion of distance. There are three types of points: geometric, leakage, and attention.
The Line
Two points define a line. It arises when points are so close to one another that they cannot be isolated and become a line. Its two main functions are to identify and signify. Plastic functions include providing depth, separating planes, organizing
Read MoreBaroque Architecture and Sculpture: Bernini’s Influence
Baroque Architecture and its Makers
The Baroque architecture begins with the breaking of the classical balance. It is manifested in:
- Materials: Stone, marble.
- Building elements: Columns following orders with entablatures, or giant proportions. Renaissance shafts are replaced by spiral columns, curved entablatures, waving façades, semicircular arches, barrel vaults, groin vaults, and hemispherical domes on outer shells.
- Decorative elements: Designs based on curves, plants, leather, and curtains. Decorative
Symbolism, Strength, and Setting in Ethan Frome
Symbolism in Ethan Frome
The course of events in Ethan Frome is punctuated by a series of symbolic devices, each illustrating the development of relationships among Ethan, Mattie, and Zeena.
- Mattie and the color red: Her red scarf and ribbon symbolize her vitality and attractiveness, contrasting with Zeena’s cold demeanor. It also represents her temptation of Ethan.
- The cat and broken dish: Symbolizes Zeena’s dominating presence in the household and her interference in Ethan and Mattie’s romance.
Jorge Manrique’s Verses & La Celestina: Themes, Characters, and Analysis
Verses on the Death of the Father of Joseph Manrique
This consists of 40 stanzas of verse, each containing two quebrado. Each foot is a sextuplet.
Structure:
- Couplets I-XIV: Jorge Manrique presents general considerations about life and death: the transience of life, the inconsistency of the mundane, the equalizing power of death, etc., through metaphors and allegories of the Christian vision of death and arrival. He presents life as a path in which man is preparing for a better life after death.
- Verses