Observation 14: like mother like son

Art Embodied: Romanticism

Whip out the red roses and conversation hearts everybody, this week I studied the human figure in art of the Romantic Era for my independent study project 'Art Embodied'.

Figuring I better take advantage of the amazingly diverse artistic resources Paris has to offer, and honestly a little over-Louvred, I headed to the Musee de la Vie Romantique this week. The museum occupies a totally cool old french house that belonged at one point to George Sand, British author and Chopin's lover. It's in the north of the city, quietly resting at the end of a long cobblestone path that dips off of a non-assuming Parisian street.

From the outside it looks like a tastefully decorated, humble yet adorable abode. You walk inside and the impression of understated taste is quickly shattered (see frighteningly elaborate living room below).

The Romantic movement was launched during the aftermath of the French Revolution in 1789. Spearheaded by several artists emerging from the studio of acclaimed painter Jacques Louis David, notably Jean Ingres and Eugene Delacroix, Romanticism dominated the arts scene until midway through the 19th century. Works such as "The Apotheosis of Homer" by Ingres and "Death of Sardanapolus" by Delacroix occupy the gray area between neoclassism and romanticism. These artistic movements are commonly placed in opposition to one another, but in fact neoclassism exerted strong influence on early Romantic works. These works are not in the Musee of the Romantics, but here are some pics of them to give you an idea of the aesthetic (first Ingres, then Delacroix). In short, when Romanticism emerged as a full-forced movement, reason and order were out, and high-drama emotional-wracking imagery was in.  

Romanticism is a movement that stressed feeling over thought. The movement was a reaction to the wave of rationalism that washed over Europe during the 18th century, known as the Enlightenment. By the end of the French Revolution in 1789, Enlightenment values were considered too sterile to explain the dramatic and bloody events of the past decades. Society was disillusioned with the notion that logic and reason — epitomized by economics, mathematics and the social sciences — were sufficient explanations of the human experience. 

The trinity of nature, reason and antiquity were no longer considered adequately nuanced to describe the depth and emotional entensity of being human. Artists gravitated toward depicting 'la verite de la passion,' the truth of passion. Romantic artists placed great value in the imagination and sought to portray emotional intensity. Reminents of the Enlightenment era such as the pretention of the sublime and eloquent logic-dominated discourse were pushed to the sidelines as gut-wrenching sentiment took to the stage.

Aligned with the emotionally-geared goals of Romantic artists, subjectivity and individuality were also highly valued. Romantic artists embraced the format of the portrait as a vehicle for communicating individuality. Portrait artists focused on individualizing the portraits and expressing a wide range of emotional states. The portrait below is an example of a highly personalized and somber portrait from the Romantic museum. Notice the artist's attainment to individualized details such as the woman's brooch, sash, and hairpiece. Other portraits in the museum depicted subjects tearing up, staring vacantly at something outside of the frame, or serenly pondering life's biggest questions.

One offshoot of the newfound-emphasis on individuality that emerged during the Romanic era was a change in how the artistic endeavor was conceived. During the 19th century art was viewed as an intimate vocation guided by the artist's passion and individuality. Artists were no longer slave to the 'official taste' of the culture, and were more free to paint what interested them. Many museums and salons in Paris stopped accepting anonamous works at this time.

Below is another painting from the Musee de la vie Romantique. Some sort of angel or saint descends, bathed in light, toward what appears to be a political figure. Religious imagery played a role, but does not dominate Romantic art. In fact, Romantic art features a variety of subject matter. Some paintings herald back to a Middle Ages chivalry and chastity. Nationalism and patriotism are also common themes, especially promoted by Delacroix and Goya. In addition, Orientalism and fragments of the exotic are present in many works. 

Nature is also heavily featured in Romantic art, often dwarfing the human figures. During the Englightenment nature was viewed as a controllable entity, something humans could master with reason, science and knowledge. The Romantic era took a vastly different stance toward nature, with artists depicting it as an unpredictable and violent force. Romantic nature scenes were meant to induce terror and awe, simultaneously stunning the spectator with the mere magnitude of nature's force. Shipwreaks and other man/nature confrontations, such as 'Raft of the Medusa', emerged as a prevalent subject matter. Additionally, animals are a common motif in Romantic art, functioning as minnions of nature's force, symbols of man's primal state, or convenient metaphors for human morality and behavior. 

In sum, while the human experience remained the core of art produced during this era, Romantic artists really diversified in terms of subject matter. The human body, and thus anatomy, was an element of many works, but was not omnipresent. The exterior, physical body was viewed as drastically less interesting than the turbulent interior. This period marks a time when artists had access to anatomical knowledge, but were not judged as harshly on their ability to depict it accurately. Many artists utilized the human figure, and depicted it in a relatively realistic way, but with the goal of packing emotional punch. Passion, not truth, was the guiding force.

I did a lot of sketching this week of Romantic-era paintings to get a better sense of how they depicted the human figure. I greatly enjoyed deciphering and trying to interpret the tangled limbs and contorted bodies in the dramatic and complicated works of this era. Here are a few sketches based on works by the old masters. First, a sketch I did of "Raft of the Medusa," painting in 1819 by french painter Theodore Gericault. This well-known Romantic work captures the theatrical taste of the Romantic era.

The sketch below is a reprise of "Le Duc d'Orleans Montre son Maitresse au Duc de Bourgogne," painted by Eugene Delacroix in 1825. While the subject matter is about as mysoginistic as you get, the work is reflective of the dominance of the bourgeoise in Romantic-era society.

The sketch below is based on an Ary Scheffer work titled "Les Ombres de Francesca da Rimni et de Pado Malasesta Apparaissent a Dante et a Virgile," painted in 1855.

This next sketch is based off of an 1826 Horace Vernet work titled "Mazeppa aux loups." In the original painting the horse jumps over a fallen log as it is chased by wolves.

This final skech is modeled off of another Delacroix work, "Scenes des Massacres de Scio," painted in 1824. The sketch depicts only two of the figures that form the emotionally-wracked mass in this high-drama masterpiece. The full painting is at the beginning of this blog post.

Tune in next week, things will get real.  I'll check out depictions of the human figure in art created when Realism dominated the arts scene.

Portfolio: La Chanson de la Lyre

tryptic, acrylic on acrylic paper, 11.7" x 16.5"

This piece was created as a tryptic. Above is the full tryptic, and below are the individual pieces.

 acrylic on acrylic paper, 11.7" x 16.5"

 acrylic on acrylic paper, 11.7" x 16.5"

 acrylic on acrylic paper, 11.7" x 16.5"

Portfolio: L'escalier

acrylic on canvas, 20" x 24"

Art Girl takes a squat

Well, she finds a squat.

The Aftersquat. It's an artist commune on 59 Rue de Rivoli. It was one of those things Art Girl ambled into when she was wandering around Paris. Sometimes good things come to those who have no internal navigational compass.

The Aftersquat is a 5-story series of thirty art studios built around an insanely-painted staircase. You can check out their website here. Artists apply for studio space, and if accepted have around six months to create in this colorful, lively and artsy- shmartsy wonderland. The public can amble around and chat up the artists every afternoon but Monday. The squat is a hub of activity, hosting concerts and gallery shows and creaking under the feet of the swarm of visiters that traverse it's old wooden floors. I was mostly entranced by the staircase, a piece of art in and of itself. The bustling warmth of this studio, vivid with color and chock-full of art makes it a seriously cool spot. I should get lost more often.

Portfolio: Le Lanceur du Disque

charcoal, 16.5" x 23.5"

Art Embodied: anatomical drawing 4

charcoal, 16.5" x 23.5"

This anatomical drawing is inspired by Neoclassicism and the way in which artists such as David and Ingres revisited works from classical antiquity to find inspiration in form and content. Following Ingres' advice to 'copy the old masters', I created this piece on a gorgeous day in the Luxembourg Gardens. The garden is full of sculptures, but this sculpture's balanced pose, emphasized muscles and stoic expression stood out to me as evocative of Neoclassical principles. I also like the way in which the figure was on a pedestal, and included that element in the piece. The presence of the pedestal is meant to represent the way in which the Neoclassical artists idealized the human form and sought to represent it in all it's idealized glory. I selected charcoal as the medium because it is well-suited to drawing in situ. I also thought charcoal was well-adapted to model the smooth light and careful contours of Neoclassical art.

Art Embodied: Neoclassicism

"Make copies, young man, many copies. You can only become a good artist by copying the masters," wrote Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, poster child of the Neoclassical era between 1765 and 1830.

Overlooking the fact that Ingres addresses only young artists with a Y chromosome, the guy makes a point. Neoclassical art looked back to the artistic masters of antiquity for inspiration. They copied ancient works, sometimes simply regurgitating them, sometimes reinterpreting them. Frustrated by the drama queens of the Baroque era and the soap-opera nature of Romanticism artwork, Neoclassists decided to make art that evoked a time when the values were good and the living was clean. The Greeks and Romans were back in the hot seat.

This week for my independent study project 'Art Embodied' I have focused my attention on this period in art history, which involves a return to western classicism. I revisited the Louvre to get up close and personal with some of the striking and elegant paintings and statues made during this time. Inspired by Ingres' call to copy the masters and the perfect weather we've had in Paris this week, I hit up Luxembourg Gardens and the Tuilleries, parked myself in front of some statues, and sketched away:

Neoclassist works harbor a simplicity and symmetry in stark contrast with the ornamented, contorted, asymmetrical works of the early-18th century Baroque era. The human figures in Neoclassist artwork are evocative of human bodies in Greek and Roman works, and are sometimes exact copies of ancient models. 

Values held dear by Greek and Roman artists are thus reiterated in Neoclassist art. Their figures feature an elegance and grandeur in pose and expression. Stoicism and innate morality are common themes. Naturalism is a guiding value.

An especially important element of depictions of the human figure in Neoclassist art is the simplification and idealization of physical features. For these artists, the goal was to achieve universal beauty. The artist's job was to pick and choose the superior features in each individual and spit out perfection. The result? Human figures that look like Abercrombie and Fitch models — elegant, muscular and heavily air-brushed.

The postures of these figures are often relaxed and natural, with respect to the contorted postures featured in Baroque art. Anatomical accuracy was considered a fundamental aspect of the artist's education by this point, but often the artists took liberty in idealizing the figures. In male figures the muscles are emphasized, and commonly over-emphasized. Female figures are similarly idealized with clear skin luminescent under smooth light, perfect contours, and elongated facial features, spines and limbs.

Below is a piece by Theodore Chasseriau titled 'La toilette d'Esther'. Directly translated that means the toilet of Ester, but I'm quite sure it just means Ester is preparing herself to be presented to King Asserus. The sensual character of the body and the simplicity of form is typical of Chasseriau's depiction of the feminine form.

The next piece is also by Chasseriau. 'Andromede attachee au rocher par les Nereides', or 'Andromede attached to a rock by Nereides, was painted in 1840. The female figure appears anatomically-conscious, but is idealized with elongated limbs, a trim waist and luminescent skin. The female figure in the front seems especially neoclassical with the elongated spine, elegantly curved and simplified.  In terms of what's going on here, Andromede being offered as a sacrifice to the sea monster on the left. Don't worry, she's saved by Perseus.

'La Tentation du Christ' was made by Dutch artist Ary Scheffer in 1858 for the Gallery of Luxembourg palace. It took the guy the last ten years of his life to crank out. The experts see evidence of incessant modifications in composition and form as Scheffer sought to achieve perfection in the work. The only thing that was never altered or retouched is the face of Christ. The closeup below focuses on the leg of the figure on the right as you look at the painting. Individual muscles are emphasized, revealing Scheffer's attention to anatomy.

Many of the works in this blog post are by Ingres, a french painter who's work is featured heavily at the Louvre.  His work embraces many of the Neoclassist concepts, especially in regards to anatomy. Ingres wrote: "Muscles I know; they are my friends. But I have forgotten their names." While he may not have known the medical terms, Ingres was attuned to the structure of the human body. His figures are idealized but the undercurrent of naturalism is strong.

Ingres was the best student of Jacques-Louis David, another major Neoclassical painter. He was also the nemesis of Delacroix, the superstar of Romanticism, which I will study next week. Ingres is considered the guardian of academic orthodoxy and the perfection of antiquity. He considered himself not an innovator, but a conservator of the elegant and idealized imagery and cultural values of Antiquity.

Below is an Ingres work titled 'Angelique', painted around 1819. The figure is strikingly corps-like, evocative of the Renaissance painters who modeled their figures directly from corpses propped up with strings.The figure, idealized under bright light, stands out against a plane of red.

'La baigneuse,' the bather, was created by Ingres in 1808. The figure is quiet, noble and serene. Ingres was attuned to the nuanced ways in which the soft light bounced off the subtle planar changes in the woman's back. This was the first of Ingres extensive and famous series of nude female figures.

'Le Bain Turc' is another Ingres work from 1862. Fifty years later and the guy's obsession with the female back was as strong as ever. The subject of the bath is a direct evocation of life during Antiquity, when bathing time was social hour. The eye is first drawn to idealized back of the woman in front, then moves right to rest on the fact of the lounging figure to her right. The nuanced soft lighting and elongated spine make this piece a standout, and about as classic neo-classical as you can get. On that note, keep is classy, and tune in next week when I check out the romantics.

Observation 13: the french love to kiss

In the metro. On the sidewalk. In a cafe. On a park bench. The french love to lock lips, and don't let the presence of old men with walkers, underaged children, well-groomed poodles, or twenty-year-old art girls in Paris stop them from getting it on. Kind of a no-brainer, given that the culture has an entire genre of kissing named after them. But alas, there's a reason. When it comes to kissing, the french rock it. While we are on the subject of the 'bisous,' check out this heart-warming short video by Tatia Pilieva, who films twenty absolute strangers kissing for the first time.

Art Girl looks out from her studio...

...and sees this. Life rocks.

Portfolio: 'Looking Sharp'

I created 'Looking Sharp' my Creation Pictorale course at the Sorbonne. The prompt was to make a painting that portrays the 'irreducible essence of painting,' with particular regard to the philosophy of Clement Greenberg, major American art critic of 20th century painting. This link has some good info on Greenberg if you are interested. He was a big champion of Abstract Expressionism, and advocated for the work of Jackson Pollock before Jackson Pollock was a sensation.

One element of abstract expressionist art is that the painting ceases to be a representation of something else, and is simply itself — a painting. To get this idea across abstract expressionists deftly employed color, texture and simplicity to bring the focus back to the physical object of the painting. 

In this way, the 'essence' of painting became it's presence as a physical object. Before, painting had merely been a means to an end. Now the painting itself was the end. In a sense, the painting gained a consciousness, it gained an awareness of self. 

In 'Looking Sharp,' a single painted blue circle regards itself in the mirror. The simplicity in composition heralds back to the abstract expressionists, and the mirror is meant to evoke the idea of painting gaining an awareness of itself and becoming it's own subject.

Portfolio: 'Le Lierre'

'Le Lierre,' or 'The Ivy,' was created in collaboration with Annika Klein, a Brown University visual arts concentrator also studying in Paris this semester. We made the piece for a French art course we are in called 'Creation Pictorale.' The assignment was to create a piece of art that confronts a space within the art building (pretty meta if you ask me). Using a black canvas and silver wire, we created this sculpture which clings to a metal grate that lines one wall of a hallway on the top floor. The piece partially blocks the hallway, forcing passerby to respond to the piece by adjusting their path. It's dimensions are approximately 3'x7'.

Check out Annika's photography blog at http://annikaklein.tumblr.com/.

Art Embodied: Baroque era

 And it's back to the Louvre this week to study Baroque painting!

This week I focused on the human figure in art during the Baroque period, an era in art history that kicked off around 1600 and remained popular throughout the century. The movement kicked off when the Catholic Church realized it's popularity rating was at an all-time low, thanks to the Renaissance's emphasis on rationality and humanism. To spark interest in religion and to inspire some good old-fashioned emotional drama that always gets the folks running to church, religious institutions adopted a new strategy, Baroque art.

The goal of much of Baroque art was to capture the spectator's eye and infuse them with emotional empathy in a religious context. For this reason the movement is frequently paired with the Counter Reformation that resulted in the Catholic Revival during the 17th century. Art created during this time is often theatrical in subject matter, with saturated colors and high contrast between shadows and lights. Renaissance art was rational, humanistic, naturalistic — but Baroque Art? Enter Drama Queen. The painting 'Pieta avec saint Francois et Sainte Marie-Madeleine,' painted by Annibale Carracci around 1605 and shown in the photo below, is pretty classic-Baroque, with high-contrast lighting, a theatrical composition with diagonal lines to heighten drama, and religious subject matter.

The human figure was an integral subject matter in Baroque art because it was inherently relatable and was conducive to eliciting emotional empathy in the viewer. Realism was valued — accurate depiction of the human form was considered a given. Thanks to the flurry of anatomical study launched in the century prior, artists now had access to texts and dissection theaters. Anatomical study was not only valued, it was considered a necessity. An increasingly intricate understanding of anatomy and newfound goals to depict the human form realistically in motion are illustrated by paintings such as the ones of Hercules, below. These two pieces are part of a four-work set painted by Bolognese artist Guido Reni in 1620 depicting the adventures of Hercules based off of vignettes from Ovide's Metamorphoses. The piece on the left is titled 'Hercule terrassant l'Hydre de Lerne', and to the right is 'Hercule sur le bucher.'

The Baroque-era paintings below are also good examples of anatomically-realistic human forms. These paintings are starkly different from Medievaldepictions of Christ, when the symbolism took absolute precedence over the art itself. Here, however, we can see that the accuracy of the image as well as it's emotional impact, motivated the work of the artist. Directly below is  'La Vierge pleurant le Christ mort,' painted by Bernardine Gatti from 1528-1530 for the church San Domenico de Cremone.

Also featuring the physical body of Christ, 'Le Christ mort couche sur son linceul', was created by Philippe de Champaigne in 1654 and displays an equal anatomical proximity to reality.

A string of continuity you'll find in all of these Baroque-era paintings is dramatic lighting. The harsh illumination in Baroque paintings created high contrast shadows and light patches on the human form. A solid understanding of the interior structures of the body, primarily the bones and skeletal muscles, was increasingly helpful for the Baroque artist. This 'high-contrast' aspect of Baroque art is especially evident in pieces such as this one painted by Daniel Seiter in 1685, titled 'Diane aupres du cadavre d'Orion'.

As I walked through the halls of the Louvre this week I was especially struck by depictions of the human figure in movement. The high-drama subject matter gave artists the license to really experiment with different postures, and as a result many of the paintings are very animated. Fortunately the increasing number of anatomical texts such as Vesalius' De Humani Corpus Fabrica were just the resources artists needed to understand how the human form responded to movement.

Looking back on my last several weeks of study, it is pretty incredible to consider what a large shift occured in terms of representing the human figure. To illustrate this point, check out the following two paintings, both depictions of the crucifixion of Christ.

This first painting, 'La Crucifixion du Parlement' was painted by Matitre de Dreux Bude in 1450 for the Grant Chamber of the Parisian Parliament. The figure is in traditional Renaissance style, with naturalistic lighting, attention to detail, and anatomical realism.

This Renaissance-era piece in in stark contrast to this other Crucifixion painting, made a century later during the height of the Baroque Era. The piece below is titled 'Le Christ en croix,' and was painted by Simon Vouet, who lived from 1590-1649. Comparing the two torsos, the Baroque-era painting appears much more natural. The surface of the skin looks more fleshy, and the slight curve in Christ's trunk is an example of subtle but realistically-depicted movement. Baroque art built upon the naturalistic and anatomically-accurate principles established during the Renaissance. Baroque artists applied the new wealth of anatomical connaissance to their depictions of the human figure, and deftly portrayed the human body as a moving, animated entity.

Inspired by the anatomical accuracy of painting launched during the Renaissance, I have begun my own anatomy studies using the text 'Classic Human Anatomy: The Artist's Guide to Form, Function, and Movement'. I tell myself 'just keep sketching, just keep sketching'....

Over and out, next week we'll get classy with the Neoclassical Era!