How Does Steiner See Beauty and the Role of the Model Reemerging in Contemporary Art?

Early representations of the human trunk were for sacred or religious purposes.

The lack of perspective makes Egyptian figures seem contorted to the modern center. Nevertheless, the artists' system of proportions was remarkably accurate!

Both common people and mythological figures are depicted in Hellenistic sculpture.

The idealization of the human effigy in Classical Greek art was tremendously influential to later artists, most notably artists in the Renaissance.

The Greeks idealized the proportions of the body and showed information technology in athletic poses and heroic acts.

Classical and Hellenistic sculptures were very dynamic, often showing the figure in dramatic or active poses.

Many of the sculptures from the Parthenon are on view in the British Museum.

The Romans extended the Greek tradition of idealizing the figure, but their portraits were often more individual and revealing.

To support the Roman empire, the Romans idealized warlike attributes in many of their sculptures.

Narrative relief sculpture was the newspaper front page of Roman times, the place where events were recorded and communicated to the populace.

African and Japanese artists of the Renaissance era often represented the human form with exaggerated features, but for very different reasons.

The woodblock art of the Uyiko-e flow provided an amusing instruction manual on sexuality. This representation of the trunk occurred centuries earlier Western artists explored this theme.

	Ancient Arab republic of egypt

In the last lecture, nosotros learned about the architecture of aboriginal Egypt. In this lecture, nosotros will brainstorm by examining the Egyptians' treatment and representation of the human body.

To grasp their approach to representing the human being figure, we must first learn about the Egyptians' mental attitude towards life and death. In a word, nosotros demand to talk about:

Mummification

Have you e'er wondered why the Egyptians embalmed and mummified corpses? The Egyptians believed that a person's body must exist preserved after death, if his soul was to live on in the afterlife. And so they embalmed their dead kings, wrapping them in layers of fabric, and placing the mummy in a series of coffins inside other coffins. (The procedure was like a Russian matrioska doll, in which the smaller wooden doll goes inside a bigger i, and so on.)

The tomb of the pharoah Tutankhamen (1327 BC) is the site of the near famous mummification in history. Tutankhamen's tomb consisted of three coffins, ii outer ones made of wood, and an interior i made of solid golden. The outside bury conformed to the shapes of the king'south trunk, showing Tutankhamen in a rigid frontal pose, with his arms crossed across his chest.

This frontal pose is ane of 2 common human poses in Egyptian imagery. In a variation, sometimes the arms are shown extended downwards past the sides, with the hands closed in tight fists.

Tutankhamen's mask. The golden layer of the mask indicates that the king is of a college social status than his subjects. Tutankhamen wears a stern yet benevolent expression that is fitting for a king.

The second pose used frequently by Egyptian artists was a contour pose in which each part of the body was shown from its near characteristic angle. In this type of pose, the caput is generally shown in contour, just with a unmarried centre pointing forwards. Similarly, while the torso might be in contour, the shoulders and chest would be seen from the front, then that we can see how the arms are hinged to the body. Arms and legs are shown sideways, and both feet are seen from the within, to clearly outline the foot from the big toe upwardly.

The characteristic profile pose tin exist seen in this reproduction of Egyptian wall paintings.

This approach to depicting the figure in profile tin be seen on the wooden etching Portrait Panel of Hesy-ra, from Saqquara (c. 2660 BC).

Near Egyptian carvings, paintings, and sculptures depict Pharaohs or high-ranking officials and their wives. Well-nigh of the human representations are statues recovered from funerary temples or tombs. 1 of the finest is that of Chefren (c. 2500 BC), from Giza. It is carved out of diorite—a very difficult stone—and it shows the King seated at his throne.

Proportion

Viewed with modern eyes, the Egyptians' pictures of the effigy in profile seem very flat and contorted. The artists had non all the same developed an arroyo to portraying the human figure in perspective from a single bespeak of view.

However, it should be noted that the Egyptians did follow a very strict catechism of proportion for drawing, painting, or sculpting the human torso.

The surface on which a effigy was portrayed was divided into a filigree of squares, each equivalent to the width of the figure'south fist. The Egyptians would and so apply the length of the fist to keep everything in proportion.

On boilerplate, the Egyptian artists calculated that the distance from the hairline to the footing was xviii fists. The distance from the base of the olfactory organ to the shoulder was found to be 1 fist, while from the fingers of a clenched fist to the elbow it was four and half fists. The length of a pes (from heel to toe) was estimated to be three and a half fists.

Egyptian etching demonstrating proportion. Take your time to prove the Egyptian canon in this image. With a ruler and pencil, you can count 18 fists in the body length of the biggest figure.

Following a organization of exact proportions made possible it for Egyptian artists to maintain continuity in style for over 2,000 years.

Later the civilization of ancient Egypt waned, Ancient Greece emerged to go the birthplace of western civilization, well-nigh 2,500 years ago. The nifty achievements of the Greeks still influence our lives, non only in the arts, but as well science, philosophy, and politics.

Few Greek paintings have survived. Our knowledge of Greek painting comes mainly from painted pottery, though some mosaics and frescoes remain. We tin can understand how the Greeks depicted the homo body by examining different historical periods and pottery techniques.

Historic Styles of Pottery

The first style of pottery to emerge in aboriginal Hellenic republic was the geometric mode (one thousand-700 BC). The ancient Greeks would decorate a vase called an amphora and use information technology every bit a grave marking. Around the side of each amphora, artists would inscribe scenes depicting mourning rituals. In the geometric mode, the human torso was represented past a apartment black triangle for the torso, a round caput, and slightly-formed sticks for the arms and legs.

Particular from an urn showing the geometrical style.

This style evolved into the orientalizing style (700-600 BC). Under the influence of Egyptian canons, the figure became larger and more curvilinear than those in the geometric style. The contour view of the figure was the same as the contorted Egyptian one. Mythological scenes start to announced at this time.

The archaic style emerged around 600-480 BC. While the style of cartoon the human figure remained consistent, the techniques and materials used began to change. The painting technique used during this period is called black figure. The artists painted figures in black silhouettes with a paste made of clay and h2o. Details were incised with a sharp tool, exposing the orange clay below. After the vase was baked, the painted parts remained black and the surface of the vase turned ruddy-orange.

Exekias (c. 550 BC) is the best-known blackness figure artist. Figures during this menstruation are notwithstanding depicted sideways, with the Egyptian frontal middle, simply their postures are rendered in a more three-dimensional manner.

Achilles and Ajax - Exekias. Move and a lively quality is obtained past the pose of two figures engaged in some sort of board game.

Midway through the primitive period, the classical style (530-400 BC) emerged. This style involved a red effigy technique that was basically the reverse of the black figure technique. Figures were left in red against a black painted background, and details were painted in black. This arroyo permitted the representation of more than natural forms and the orangish dirt was close to the actual pare colour of the Greeks.

Particular of a classical Greek vessel. The figures are less stiff than in the black effigy technique, although the scene is however apartment and lacking in perspective.

Every bit the Classical period drew to a close, the well-known Hellenistic style (450-ane BC) took the stage and white-ground vases were introduced. In this style, a wash of white dirt formed the background. Figures were then added in blackness, and additional colors were sometimes added after the blistering procedure was complete.

Illusionism was in vogue, so figures were depicted every bit naturalistically equally possible, from any view and in whatever pose. Zeuxis was a Hellenistic painter who perfected trompe l'oeil (fooling the eye). He was reputed to have painted grapes that were so perfect they fooled a bird who tried to option them.

Classical Sculpture

Greek sculptors portrayed figures of gods, goddesses, and human beings. Sculptures were produced in every era of Greek civilisation, but in this course, we will focus on the classical and Hellenistic periods of sculpture, when the bully masterpieces were produced.

Classical artists (450-323 BC) idealized the man course. Sculpted figures in this period are usually young, with no trace of physical defect. They are well proportioned and symmetrical in form, simply they lack personality and expression. Most of the figures were inspired by athletes, who enjoyed a high rank in the social strata.

One of the most impressive works of this period is the Discobolus (Discus Thrower, c. 450 BC) past Myron. The original does not exist, only a Roman marble copy exists. Discobolus consists of a freestanding statue of an athlete set up to throw the discus. The twisted body of the athlete in perfect remainder conveys the essence of the action.

Discobolus (460 - 450 BC) - Myron. This sculpture reflects the fascination of the Greeks with the human figure and their total understatement in representing remainder and perfection in human being beefcake and able-bodied activity.

Another great figure sculptor of this period is Phidias. He directed the sculpture carvings of the Parthenon (448-432 BC), which has some of the finest sculptures and friezes of all time. Each effigy portrayed is infused with life and movement, from the mortals to the divinities with their rippling draperies, to the horses that gallop across the frieze.

Praxiteles is some other tardily classical sculptor well known for mastering feminine grace and for the sensuous evocation of the flesh through his art. His most acclaimed statues are Demeter (340-330 BC), Cnidian Aphrodite (350 BC), and Hermes and Infant Dyionisius (340 BC). Lyssipos of Sikyon sculpted mainly youths. He favored thinner bodies and smaller heads. In his Apoxymenos (320 BC) he increased the move of freestanding sculpture, making the whole appearance of his work lighter and livelier. He is a cardinal artist in the transition from late classical to Hellenistic mode.

Hellenistic Sculpture

The Hellenistic menses (323-31 BC) started with the death of Alexander the Great and lasted until the Romans took command of Greece. The sculpture in this period leaned toward a more expressive and dramatic mode. Figures in the sculpture began to exhibit extremes of emotions: pain and pleasure, anguish and sugariness, withered one-time age and the flower of youth, victorious athletes and those who take been crushed, and most of all, imperial battles.

This dramatic effect can be seen in The Altar from Zeus in Pergamon (164-156 BC). The grouping of figures in the sculpture represents a battle between the Titans and the Gods. The scene rages with terrible violence, frenzy, and pathos. Information technology is very different from the harmony and refinement of early Greek sculpture.

Another Hellenistic masterpiece is the Nike or Winged Victory of Samothrace (190 BC). It depicts a winged goddess descending from the skies. The drapery of the effigy'south dress evokes the pressure of the current of air as she comes down from the heavens. Her stretched out wings indicate that she hasn't yet settled to earth.

Winged Victory of Samothrace (Discovered 1863) . Though the body is non twisted as in the Discobolus sculpture, there is a sense of movement and action provided by the wonderful carving of the effigy's robes.

Probably the greatest example of Hellenistic sculpture is the larger than life sized marble Laocoon and His Ii Sons (175-150 BC). What remains today is a Roman accommodation. It depicts an incident from the finish of the Trojan State of war in which Laocoon and his sons are devoured by a pair of giant serpents. The sculptors were Athanodorus, Hagesandros, and Polydorus of Rhodes.

Roman sculptors and painters (509 BC - 337 Advertizement) borrowed from the Greek artists in their idealization of human being form. However, Roman artists went further in creating realistic sculptural portraits that revealed the individual personalities of their subjects.

The virtually pop discipline matter for Roman artists was the important events of the day, and the most important medium was sculpture depicting figures in a narrative relief. Painting was used for decorative purposes; big wall paintings showing garden landscapes, still-life images, mythology, and everyday life scenes adorned the houses of wealthy Romans.

In this section, we will concentrate on the study of sculptural portraits and narrative relief, areas of Roman art that employed the man body every bit their master subject thing.

Portraiture

I of the most characteristic types of Roman portrait was the human head discrete from the body, or bust. Busts were usually carved in marble, often from a wax mask, so that even the effectively physiognomic details were preserved.

Bust of a Roman youth from forty AD.

Why was the bust so pop? Portraits of upper-grade Romans were popular throughout the whole Roman empire. This reflects a patriarchal Roman custom that dates from antiquity. At the death of the head of the family, a waxen mold of his face up was preserved in a special family altar. In the 1st century BC, Roman families began to need to accept facial portraits duplicated in marble.

The "father epitome" spirit can be found in the life-size marble Portrait of a Roman (fourscore BC). The figure shows an elderly human being. His facial wrinkles are true to life, and the carver has treated them with a selective emphasis in order to bring out their distinctive personality: stern, rugged, and devoted to duty. Information technology is a father image of frightening authorisation.

Portraits of women became popular effectually the 1st century AD, when women began to enjoy increasing emancipation, retain their own legal identity, have independent wealth, and participate in politics and the arts. The Portrait of a Flavian Lady (ninety AD) shows a young woman with a fashionably curled crew that frames the softly carved confront. Her head is gracefully tilted and the glance of her wide eyes is gentle.

While everyday people were often captured in portrait, the almost important subject of Roman portraiture was the emperor himself. In that location were two major ways of depicting the emperor: freestanding sculptures, and the equestrian monument, a type of imperial portrait invented past the Romans.

One of the finest freestanding sculptures of an emperor is Augustus of Prima Porta (1st century AD). It is slightly larger than life-sized (6 foot, eight inches alpine) and it shows Augustus addressing his troops equally a general. Though Augustus was 76 years old when he died, the statue represents a self-confident, dominating, and youthful figure. Nosotros can perceive the Greek influence of idealizing the homo figure in this marble statue.

The almost impressive equestrian monument is a bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius (164-166 Advert). In this statue, the emperor is unarmed and his right arm is extended in the conventional gesture of an orator. Both domination and conquest are implied past equestrian iconography. The horse and rider are depicted in a highly illusionistic way, with veins, skin folds, and muscles all visible.

Statue of Marcus Aurelius. Simply emperors were depicted in this majestic way. I imagine Aurelius entering Rome from a successful campaign, greeted by his cheering citizens.

Later in the 4th century, the emperor Constantine (the showtime Christian emperor) was depicted in a colossal marble statue (313 AD). The monumental head alone is eight foot, 6 inches tall! Everything is and then out of proportion to the scale of ordinary men that we feel crushed past its immensity (probably an intended reaction). This piece is called superhuman non only because of its size, but too because it is an image of absolute imperial majesty. In the cease, the jumbo marble tells u.s.a. more most Constantine's view of himself than about his bodily physical appearance.

Narrative Relief

The focus on authorities and the military power is also present in the Romans' use of narrative relief, but the presentation is quite dissimilar.

In Roman order, the reliefs on commemorative architecture such equally arches, columns, or altars, functioned somewhat similar war reports in a newspaper today. In the infrequent Trajan's Column in Rome (114 Ad), a detailed chronicle of an emperor's campaigns is carved in a unique style that is most picture-similar. The documentary narrative of the battles is carved into rock, starting from the bottom of the cavalcade and winding effectually the cavalcade all the manner to its tiptop, 128 feet loftier.

Trajan'southward Column - Apollodorus of Damascus. The spiral composition reminds us of a movie curlicue. The impressive level of item shows us how of import historic monuments of this kind were to keeping the people of Rome informed.

The column depicts no fewer than 2500 figures in an exquisite depression relief, capturing moment-by-moment the fighting and acquisition. Information technology is a truthful cinematographic experience. In dissimilarity to the solemnity and stillness of Roman portraiture, narrative reliefs depict the human body in total action and vitality.

Other important works of commemorative compages of the period includes the Ara Pacis or Altar of Peace in Rome (13-9 BC) and the Curvation of Titus also in Rome (81 AD).

For more than on the homo figure, let'southward discuss the following piece of work, which you may already be somewhat familiar with.

Nosotros turn our attention now to Africa, where important homo figure artwork emerged effectually the aforementioned time equally that of the ancient Greeks and Romans.

Sculpture is the best-known African art form. The principal materials used by African artists are wood, iron, clay, bronze, ivory, and textiles. The human body is the master subject affair, and many African sculptures share the aforementioned characteristics: heads that are enlarged, big stomachs, arms held to the side, optics in the frontal position, weight equally distributed on both feet, and protruding navels. The head is ofttimes exaggerated because it is considered the center of character and emotion.

African artists through the ages combined naturalistic and geometric shapes to produce a recognizable man body. They also distorted human features and limbs in order to reach dramatic effects. African sculptures are religiously empowered—they are rarely displayed in public and are stored in shrines, buried, or placed in containers. African art was intended to not simply please the eye, but also to uphold moral values.

The longest surviving African sculptures are figures in terra cotta, dating dorsum to the 5th century BC (contemporary to ancient Hellenic republic's classical period). They are Nok sculptures (named for their tribe) from northwest Nigeria. Terra cotta figures have besides been plant in Ife (Nigeria) and Mali, dating from the twelfth to the 15th century AD.

A terra cotta Nok sculpture. The emphasis of the caput creates a disproportion in the figure. However, the statue enjoys a grace typical of African sculpture.

Almost wooden carvings have been lost throughout the years, because of the perishable attributes of wood and the fatal work of termites. However, some tribes mastered the statuary and metal casting technique. During the 15th century in Benin, powerful bronze and copper heads and life-sized masks were produced. They are surprisingly realistic.

Much later on and halfway around the world, a very unlike style and technique of representing the human effigy began to develop. During the Edo period in Japan (1600-1868), Uyiko-due east fine art flourished. Uyiko-east is the art of "the floating world of pleasures." The most usually used technique was woodblock printing that depicted the daily life of the common human being. Amid these everyday images, artists inspired by the pleasance and theater quarters of Edo (now Tokyo) produced romantically intimate and sexually explicit images chosen Shunga (spring pictures) or Makure-e (pillow pictures).

These pleasance-seeking woodblocks were used to inspire and instruct in the fine art of dearest. Many forms of homo sexuality were portrayed, though Shunga woodblocks do not portray actors or prostitutes. Instead, they show married couples of all ages, shy and inexperienced youngsters, adulterous wives and husbands, liaisons across class boundaries, and aforementioned-sex lovers.

As dresses were almost identical for women as for men, the sexual differences in Shunga prints are explicitly stressed in oversized and minutely depicted genitals. Other parts of the trunk (with the exception of face and legs) were unremarkably concealed under superb folds of textile. Many Shunga have comical texts and dialogues accompanying the graphics, which makes the genre substantially humorous.

The Adonis Constitute (1815) - Katsushika Hokusai. Hokusai emphasizes the genitalia by showing them in extreme item, while depicting other parts of the trunk in a less elaborate style.

Shunga erotic pictures and book illustrations were enjoyed by all ranks of society, and the woodblock printing technique fabricated it possible to mass-produce them at low toll. I think the popularity of pornography, the graphic novel, and manga anime in modern Nihon is, to some extent, the result of the popularity of Shunga books.

Many Shunga woodblocks were unsigned by the artists, merely among its famous artists we tin count Hishikawa Moronobu (died c. 1695), Suzuki Harunobu (1725-1770), and Kitagawa Utamaro (1754-1806). They all produced colour and monochrome woodblock prints, only sometimes they would manus-color their pictures.

Da Vinci studied nearly every subject—anatomy, astronomy, botany, geology, geometry, yous name information technology! He was the original "Renaissance man."

Dutch and Flemish painters of the Renaissance used oil painting to portray nature in meticulous, naturalistic detail.

Van Eyck's phrase "Every bit expert equally I can" is an inspiring motto for whatsoever artist.

In the Renaissance, the figure of the artist himself became a more than popular subject, through self portrait and also by inclusion in paintings of other people.

Bosch was amid the first artists to show the human trunk disfigured and disarticulated, literally in pieces.

Mannerist artists showed the body in elongated, exaggerated, elegant, complex, and twisted poses.

"El Greco" ways "the Greek," the pop proper name for Dominikos Theotokópulos. His work inspired 20th century artists such as Picasso.

Dramatic poses and compositions are characteristic of Baroque sculpture.

Study Carvaggio if yous need a lesson in contrast.

Realistic scenes featuring ordinary people were likewise characteristic of Bizarre painting.

The fleshy figures in Ruben's paintings show how changing standards of beauty are reflected in art.

Rembrandt was the king of the self-portrait; he painted hundreds of them.

Modernistic sculptors often reacted against Classical ideals of the effigy by using imperfect models in imperfect poses.

Abstract sculptors of the 20th century attempted to reduce the body to its essentials parts—or to convey the essence of movement.

In the 20th century, the self portrait—portraying the artist and his or her experience—once over again became a master focus of fine art.

In the last lecture, nosotros looked at the representation of nature in the Loftier Renaissance (1490-1527). While nature was of import in the Renaissance, the catamenia is very much dominated by art representing the human effigy. Masters such equally Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael, each forged individual styles while taking the classical Roman treatment of the torso and the canons of proportion into account.

Perspective theory was to go the about important new technique of the era. The study of the human figure was so precise that artists could draw a portrait of a person from whatsoever angle. For example, Michelangelo's painting at the Sistine Chapel must exist appreciated from below—a very difficult angle for a painter. Yet all the human figures seem impressively live considering they accept naturalistic proportions and the laws of perspective are perfectly applied.

Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519) was one of the well-nigh versatile geniuses in history. A master painter, Da Vinci also studied beefcake, astronomy, botany, geology, geometry, and eyes. He designed the airplane, the parachute, and the catapult. He dissected human being bodies and pioneered the study of embryology. He was an good in human being proportions. One of his most widely recognized drawings is the Vitruvian Man (1492). In this drawing, he demonstrates the statement by a Roman builder Vitruvius that a man should fit perfectly in a circle and a square.

Vitruvian Human being (1492) - Leonardo Da Vinci. Leonardo'due south gesture of plumbing equipment a human trunk into geometric shapes reflects his want for a scientific explanation for every natural phenomenon.

One of Da Vinci's master contributions to painting was to develop a technique called sfumatto. In Italian, this literally ways "vanished in fume."

Sfumatto tin can be seen in sure lighting atmospheric condition whereby delicate graduations of lite and shade grade a blurred outline. Da Vinci accomplished information technology in oil painting through the utilise of glazes, producing a misty, dream-like effect. We tin see this technique in Da Vinci'due south most famous painting, the Mona Lisa (1503-1505). The picture shows a woman staring direct at the observer, with a mysterious expression: one-half smiling, half daydreaming. Leonardo created parallels between the man figure and the landscape, inviting comparisons of mankind to soil, bone to rocks, and claret to waterways.

Virgin of the Rocks (1506-1508) - Leonardo Da Vinci. Y'all tin can encounter the sfumatto technique in the face and torso contours of the characters. This technique gave a soft quality to the peel texture.

Leonardo Da Vinci'southward masterpieces include Virgin of the Rocks (1483), The Terminal Supper (1495-1498), Madonna and Child with St. Anne (1503-1506), and Woman with an Ermine (1483-1490).

Michelangelo Buonarroti

Like Da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) was an anatomy good. He was a painter, a sculptor, an architect, and a poet. His first monumental sculpture is the marble Pietà (1498-1500), which depicts a young Mary mourning the dead Christ. This sculpture has a unique rhythm guided by Christ's position and Mary'southward drapery work. Michelangelo had the capacity to lead the eye of the observer throughout the whole marble statue, then that viewers do not miss a single detail.

Pietà (1498- 1499) - Michelangelo. Michelangelo guides our center through the statue, starting at the virgin's face up, jumping to Christ's agonizing facial gesture, post-obit his weakened body all the style to his feet, and ending on the folds of the virgin'due south elaborate clothing.

In 1501, Michelangelo was deputed past the metropolis of Florence to carve a marble of David. The outcome is the masterpiece David (1501-1504), an impressive carving of heroic scale, depicting a immature David in an alert pose, ready for battle. His hands are large in proportion to the rest of his body, and his cervix and trunk muscles and veins are strained, giving him an advent of power and grandeur.

The statue of David consolidated Michelangelo'south fame, and he was summoned past the Pope to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. This was to be his near impressive work. It took Michelangelo 4 years to stop the frescoes (1508-1512). It is said that during this fourth dimension Michelangelo close himself upward in the chapel and worked lying and standing on scaffolding he designed. He fifty-fifty used live male models to program the female characters. This gigantic work (45' ten 138') represents images from the Old Attestation, including the famous creation of Adam. Information technology is said that Leonardo and Michelangelo competed with each other to be considered the leading creative person in Florence.

Raphael

Built-in Raffaello Sanzio (1483-1520), Raphael was a painter and an architect. He is well known for painting altarpieces, frescoes of historical and mythological scenes, and portraits. His most pop works are his gentle paintings of Virgin and Child, such every bit Madonna of the Meadow (1505) and Madonna of the Goldfinch (1506). Every bit an architect, he directed the construction of the St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. His portrait of Pope Julius II (1511-1512) captures the pope'south personality, making information technology a psychological portrait, rather than an icon of power.

Portrait of Julius Two - Raphael. Raphael depicts the Pope in a meditative attitude with a deep sadness in his eyes. The passing of fourth dimension is implied not just past his white beard, but also by the slight inclination of his head.

Raphael mastered Leonardo'southward sfumatto technique, and he knew how to achieve a sense of depth without upsetting the remainder of a design. This can be seen in School of Athens (1509-1511), a fresco painted for the Pope's apartments at the Vatican. In it, he depicted not only Classical Greek philosophers, merely also portrayed artistic personalities of the fourth dimension such as Michelangelo and Leonardo. He fifty-fifty included a cocky-portrait in the composition. In his final works, such as The Nymph Galatea (1512-1514), Raphael shifted towards a mode of greater emotion and movement that would influence the next generation of Italian artists.

During the 15th and 16th centuries, artists in countries similar Germany, the Netherlands, and Flanders (office of mod 24-hour interval Kingdom of belgium), shared the Italian preference for representation of 3-dimensional space and lifelike figures. Notwithstanding, they were less afflicted by the classical revival. Artists in northern Europe connected to work primarily in a Gothic tradition of figure painting, which they integrated with elements of Renaissance style.

Meanwhile in Italy, panel paintings were mainly executed in tempera until the 16th century, Dutch and Flemish painters preferred oil pigment because it satisfied their interest in meticulous, naturalistic detail. This approach characterizes much of the 15th and 16th century northern European painting.

Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) was the most famous painter and printmaker in the history of German art. A scholar and an author, he published books on geometry and perspective and the measurements of the human body. Between the ages of thirteen and twoscore, Dürer painted and drew a remarkable series of revealing self-portraits. The most famous one is Self-Portrait (1500), where he appears solemnly staring directly into the viewer'southward eye. The portrait has a Christ-like idealization of the features that asserts his sense of authority.

In his engraving Adam and Eve (1504), Dürer uses a biblical bailiwick every bit an excuse for displaying two ideal nudes. Skin, muscles, and pilus are wonderfully represented, though the genitalia are strategically covered past twigs from nearby copse.

In 1514, Dürer made a portrait of his female parent. The drawing, a black chalk on paper, is a truthful study of a worn old woman. The detail of the wrinkles and saggy skin may shock united states at first, merely the drawing has a tremendous sincerity. The beauty of the drawing does not lie in the beauty of its subject, but in the true rendering of human aging.

In his engravings and watercolors, Dürer also studied nature: animals and landscapes. He devoted much labor to his works. Though nosotros are studying the human body in this lecture, I desire to bespeak out Dürer'due south watercolor A Immature Hare (1502). Every tiny pilus and whisker is carefully recorded. It is an excellent instance of his loving patience towards all of his subjects.

A Immature Hare (1502) - Albrecht Dürer. Dürer imparts tri-dimensionality to this simple image by slightly shading the floor beside the hare. Note the attention put into every brush stroke.

Jan Van Eyck

Jan van Eyck (1380?-1441) too achieved stunning realistic effects through his mastery of the oil painting technique. Some scholars even say he invented this technique. He was certainly 1 of the kickoff artists to adopt oil every bit his primary medium.

Amidst his masterpieces we can count the Ghent Altarpiece (completed in 1432) and The Crucifixion; The Last Judgment (1430-1425). Information technology is believed he collaborated with Hubert van Eyck, probably his brother, in the realization of these art pieces.

Many of van Eyck's paintings include a disguised symbolism. The realistic objects in the pictures frequently have a deeper significant. In his oil The Arnolfini Portrait (1434), a young merchant and his bride are exchanging wedding vows. The ceremony is taking identify in the couple's room; a single candle burns in the chandelier as a symbol of unity. Their shoes are off to remind them of the holy basis equally they exchange vows. The trivial dog represents fidelity in union. In a small mirror on the back wall, two persons are reflected: the witnesses, one of them the artist himself. Over the mirror the phrase "Johannes de eyck fuit hic" (Jan van Eyck was here) tin confirm this.

The Arnolfini Portrait (1434) - January van Eyck. Van Eyck had the capacity to create many unlike textures in his oil painting. The pare quality is totally different from the velvet of the dresses and the hairy fur of the dog.

My favorite painting of all time is a van Eyck painting called Man in a Red Turban (1433) and scholars say it may exist a self-portrait. I am convinced this pocket-size (10' x vii') but powerful painting is van Eyck'southward cocky-portrait. He has a stern just piercing gaze, and his lips are tightly sealed as if something is worrying him. The red turban on his head is masterfully executed. But what really fascinates me well-nigh this picture is the golden frame painted around it, creating an illusion of a real wooden frame, with the words engraved (really painted) on it. It reads "Als Ich Kan" which tin be loosely translated as "Equally good as I can."

When I lived in London, every fourth dimension I had an artistic block or serious doubts about my exercise, I would get to the National Gallery to wait at this painting. You can come across information technology here. I would look at Mr. van Eyck'southward worried expression, and I would remind myself that fifty-fifty the masters suffer from insecurities or doubts regarding the work. I also told myself that as long as "I did information technology equally best every bit I could" everything would exist okay.

Rogier Van Der Weyden

Rogier van der Weyden (1399/1400-1463), known as Rogier, was strongly influenced by van Eyck, although his human figures are longer and larger in relation to their spatial setting. The painter's Descent from the Cross (1435) is a set of wooden panels depicting a biblical scene. The crowd around Jesus and the fainting Mary fills up the space, leaving no room for any kind of background.

In Saint Luke Depicting the Virgin (1435), Rogier captures the psychological aspect of the mother-child relationship. Mary looks down at Christ while she breast feeds him, while he gazes up at her. His physical pleasure in breastfeeding is revealed by his upturned toes and extended fingers.

Hans Holbein

Slightly after Rogier's time came Hans Holbein, as well known as Hans Holbein the younger (1497?-1543). Holbein ranks amidst the world's greatest portrait painters. He portrayed many personalities of his time, notably the Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus (1523).

Portrait of Desiderius Erasmus (1532) - Hans Holbein. Erasmus is portrayed by Holbein as a noble character, with his scholarship represented by his books. Note the careful work on the details in the face up details and easily.

In 1532, he became courtroom painter to King Henry VIII of England, and in 1540 he illustrated Henry Eight, reinforcing the King'southward strong personality through his picture. Fusing style with content, Holbein captures Henry'southward wealth, power, self-confidence, determination, and political acumen in this film.

Hiëronymous Bosch and Pieter Brueghel

Bosch (1450-1516) is i of the most puzzling artists, taking a far turn from the artists we just discussed. He has been chosen the "creator of devils" due to the outlandish alien creatures that populate his work. Bosch is the first artist who disarticulated and disfigured the human body. Though most of his subject matter is religious, he combines it with alchemist symbols, popular literature, Dutch proverbs and puns, astrology, and witchcraft.

Bosch's favored format was the triptych (a three-paneled painting), which he populated with malformed people, fantastic demons, distorted animals, big and oddly-shaped pieces of food and, sometimes, unidentifiable objects. Bosch'due south largest and well-nigh complex work is the triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights (1504). The left console depicts the Garden of Eden, God presenting it to Adam and Eve. The central panel shows the world before the Alluvion. In this panel, humans are committing all kinds of folly and stupid acts, also engaging in sexual pursuits. Decadence is imminent. The right panel is hell. Humans are tortured in all possible ways by a legion of animal-like demons. An arrow pierces two ears with no head. Anarchy reigns.

Hell (function of The Garden of Earthly Delights ) (1504) - Hiëronymous Bosch. The complexity of the composition makes Bosch a dandy story teller. He guides our eye from the frontal and lower airplane upwards to the upper, darkest part of the picture.

Pieter Brueghel (1525-1569), or Brueghel the Elderberry, was a follower of Bosch. In his paintings instead of idealized humans, you can see normal people: drunks, farmers, bullheaded-men and gossiping women. His works include Hunters in the Snow (1565), The Peasants' Wedding (1565), and Bullheaded Leading the Blind (1569).

The Harvesters (c. 1560) - Pieter Brueghel. Normal people abound in this Brueghel painting; and so normal, they are depicted eating and sleeping as well as working.

If classical Renaissance symmetry created a natural, stable feeling for the viewer, Mannerist art (1520-1600) did quite the reverse. The master subject in Mannerism is the man body, which is oft elongated, exaggerated, elegant, and arranged in complex and twisted poses. A sense of instability in figures and objects is created. Spaces tend to be crowded and compressed, classical proportions are rejected, and odd juxtapositions of size, space, and color often occur.

Famous Italian mannerist painters include Jacopo da Pontorno (1494-1557), who started experimenting with contorted poses and contrasting colors; Parmigiano (1503-1540), who stated that there is no single correct reality and that distortion is as natural equally the appearance of things; Angolo Bronzino (1503-1572), whose paintings were very sexually charged; Jacopo Tintoretto (1518-1594), who had both anti-classical simply elegant effects in his work; and Sofonisba Anguissola (1532-1625), the first renowned female artist since the heyday of Ancient Greece.

Self-Portrait (1554) - Sofonisba Anguissola. Sofonisba depicts herself in a girlish manner, by enhancing the size of her caput relative to her body, and enlarging her blue eyes, which stare at usa with a kind of innocent glare.

Mannerism also was found in sculpture. Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571) created elaborate and richly-ornamented utilitarian objects, such as the golden Saltcellar of Francis I (1543), too every bit oversized bronzes, such as the statue of Perseus (1545-1555). Gianbologna (1529-1608) is known for his painting Mercury, a pocket-sized statuary depicting the god stretched upwards equally if he is flight.

The near famous Mannerist artist is El Greco (1541-1614). He was born in Crete simply did most of his work in Spain. His paintings are washed with a mystical fervor and exalted emotion. His singular fashion consists of over-elongated figures, acrid colors, and swirls of unreal atmospheric events. His best works include The Burial of Count Orgaz (1586), The Resurrection of Christ (1597-1610), and Laocoon (1610-1614).

Baptism of Christ (1590s) - El Greco. Greco's figures are distorted and seem to exist floating in space. The swirly characteristics of their bodies gives the states a sense of their loss of gravity in the water.

Slightly overlapping and following the Mannerist period is the Baroque period. The Baroque era started around 1600 in Italy, spread through Europe, and lasted until around 1750 in areas of Frg and Austria.

Bizarre artists rejected the virtuosity and the stylization of the effigy of the Mannerists, but absorbed their utilise of chiaroscuro technique and their theatrical effects. Bizarre art achieved a new kind of naturalism, based in the direct study of nature.

Dramatic action, violent narrative, contrasting color and light, rich textures, and disproportion were widely used in Bizarre artists' compositions.

Baroque art was besides strongly influenced past the historical context: the perceived decadence of the Holy Roman Empire, the colonization of the "uncivilized" world, rationalism, and the discovery that the sun is the center of the solar system. Let's run into some of the Bizarre artists.

Italian Bizarre Artists

Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) was the well-nigh famous Baroque sculptor. His life-size white-marble David (1623) represents a David in full action. The fighter is leaning to his correct and stretching his sling, while looking over his shoulder at Goliath. The body forms a dynamic diagonal, which extends from caput to foot.

The diagonal plane is a recurrent style in Baroque sculpture and painting. In dissimilarity to Michelangelo's David, this statue nigh seems to move; the figure's facial expression indicates he is in the middle of a boxing. Looking over his shoulder, he seems aware of the presence of Goliath, expanding the sculptural space psychologically likewise equally formally. This is a Baroque technique for involving the spectator in the piece of work.

Apollo and Daphne (1622-1625) - Gianlorenzo Bernini. The artillery of the characters make a clear diagonal that gives movement to the composition, at the very moment when Daphne is turning into a bay tree.

Among Baroque painters, Caravaggio (1573-1610) was leader. He had an innovative manner of working directly on the canvas without making preliminary drawings. Caravaggio'south painting appealed to the ordinary observer and was not aimed at the elite. He studied nature and was able to render realistic images of the body. Far from painting classical, idealized bodies, however, he would paint everyday, imperfect humans in a "perfect" illusionistic way. His violent dissimilarity of light and shade is called tenebrism. His subject matter ranges from biblical scenes to themes of a homoerotic nature. His masterpieces include Boy with a Basket of Fruit (1594), The Calling of Saint Mathew (1599-1600), and Doubting Thomas (1602-1603).

The Calling of Saint Matthew (1599-1600) - Caravaggio. Tenebrism is achieved by dramatically shading the scene to enhance the consequence of the lite entering through the window. The ray of light from the window points directly to the main character: a crouched St. Matthew.

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653) was i of the first female artists to sally as a significant personality in Europe. She was one of Caravaggio's followers, called the Caravaggisti. She is known for her pictures of heroic women and violent scenes—they contain an inner drama that is unique to her. Her most famous painting is Judith Slaying Holofernes (1614-1620).

Baroque Outside of Italian republic

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) was a Flemish creative person known for his sensual depiction of the human being trunk and brilliant color palettes. Consistent with the beauty standards of his fourth dimension, Ruben's characters are full and fleshy. The men in his paintings are more often than not overweight or have exaggerated musculature. Women are circular and generous in flesh; by today's standards, we might say they are slightly overweight. Children are chubby with blood-red cheeks.

Self-Portrait with Isabella Brant in the Honeysuckle Bower (1610) - Peter Paul Rubens. Ruben's fascination for particular can be seen in his depiction of the muscles of his crossed legs, and in the different textures of the fabrics.

In Ruben's painting Venus and Adonis (1635), Venus is depicted nude, in an active and sensual pose. She is stretched forming a diagonal, trying to convince her lover to stay. Rubens emphasized her generous breasts and rippling, dimpled flesh. She has a circular belly and ample hips. She even has a double mentum! For Rubens, such full figures reflected the Flemish equation of fleshiness with prosperity.

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) was born in Holland. Rembrandt is one of my favorite artists, partly because he produced an astonishing number of self-portraits (effectually 100 are known). I like to look at them and imagine what was passing through his head at the moment. No other artist has left such an account of the transformation of age, physical and emotional. He was a prolific etcher, drawer, and painter. Rembrandt was a genius at manipulating calorie-free and dark, which he used to create the characters of his figures. For me, he is the begetter of psychological portrayal—he would actually analyze the personality of his subject area and bring information technology out in the portrait...starting with himself!

Self Portrait (c. 1660) - Rembrandt. The Dutch master painted more 100 self portraits.

Rembrandt was an expert in facial expressions and gestures. His subject thing included biblical scenes, mythology, portraiture, landscapes, fauna studies, history, nudes, and everyday life scenes. His works include The Blinding of Samson (1636), Beefcake Lesson of Professor Tulp (1632), and the famous Night Lookout man (1642) that was brutally slashed with a knife by a mad person in the 1990s.

Night Watch (1642) - Rembrandt. Though this picture is dark, Rembrandt illuminates every face in the picture. Notation that the brilliant character on the left hand side is the only female in the grouping.

Diego Velazquez (1599-1660) was the greatest Spanish painter of the Baroque menstruum. Velazquez was the court painter of Philip Iv. At court, Velazquez painted the royal family, too equally dwarves, jokers, and servants who served at the palace. He portrayed both the beautiful and the ugly.

The painter'south monumental masterpiece Las Meninas (1656) shows his utilize of realism and his power to control the viewer's gaze through the composition. On the left side, we come across the painter himself working on a canvas, from which we only run across the backside of the sheet. In the heart, Princess Margarita has entered the room with her maids and entertainers. She seems to arrogantly despise a piddling drink that is existence offered to her. A domestic dog lies peacefully on the right side, while a piffling person kicks him. In the dorsum of the room, an open door lets us see a waiting nobleman, or perhaps another servant. Beside this door, a mirror reflects the King and Queen, who are probably the bailiwick of Velazquez'south canvas.

Las Meninas (1656) - Velazquez. Note how every unmarried graphic symbol in the picture is engaged in some sort of activity, giving the painting a unique dynamic quality and a sense of vitality.

Velazquez created an illusion of space both within and beyond the painting. Past including the reflection of the King and Queen, who would be standing where the viewers stand up, he includes the space in forepart of the canvas as function of the limerick. He likewise makes a tribute to the very art of painting, by including himself in activeness. Some other one of his swell works is the Surrender of Breda and Venus with a Mirror (1648).

We'll now plow our attending back to sculpture, exploring some of the means in which modern sculptors take represented the human being body.

Nosotros start with the famous Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), a French sculptor who revolutionized the working methods of sculptors. He was primarily a modeler, preferring to work with clay or wax rather than carving in stone. Rodin would leave surfaces unpolished and rough, showing traces of the instruments used to model. He was interested in the experimental procedure of sculpting, rather than the finished work.

Rodin would utilise unprofessional models in unprofessional poses. His figures had a great emotional intensity and explored a wide range of human passions. Their inner feelings were expressed by gestures that emphasized different parts of the body. Many of his figures are incomplete or fragmented: a torso, a head, or merely hands.

My favorite Rodin piece, and ane of the all-time known, is The Thinker (1879-1902). It depicts a seated man, hand holding his chin, carried abroad by deep thoughts. It is a large muscular torso that gives a sense of contained energy.

The Thinker (1876-1902) - Rodin. Notice how Rodin is able to imply the pose of the feet without having to item every last nervus and muscle. Also note how different this texture is from the stone the subject is seated on.

While Rodin was inspired much past the sculptor'due south process and by specific feelings and gestures, Henri Matisse (1869-1954) was inspired by ethnographic sculpture. In his Reclining Nude I Aurora (1907), nosotros tin can perceive a well-defined nude, despite the bulging distortions of the anatomy. He manipulates the homo effigy to obtain an intricate rhythm and a muscular tension.

Taking a different arroyo to effigy representation was Humberto Boccioni (1882-1916), part of the Futurist move. In his running figure entitled Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (1913), he attempts to represent not the human form itself, but the imprint of its motion in the surrounding infinite. The consequence is a quasi-robot human, with flares protruding from the limbs that give the sense of movement.

Henry Moore (1898-1986) was an English artist with an abstruse approach. His sculptures are based on the human form, though they are abstract expressions of the body. He did non try to make a body in stone, but a stone which suggests a trunk. His figures are composed of flowing convex and concave curves that create rich contrasts of lite and dark. His surfaces are polished smooth. I think of cliff or rock formations when I expect at his work. A good example of how he treated the human effigy is his stone Family Group (1955).

Iii Piece Reclining Effigy Draped (1976) - Henry Moore. In Moore'due south abstruse work, the polished surface of the sculpture resembles the skin and though a consummate human torso is not depicted, we can recognize a cervix, an arm, and a leg. It tin be plant on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) concentrated on human figures subsequently 1945 (the finish of the World War II). These modeled and subsequently cast figures are small, sparse, and elongated, as if they could disappear in any moment. They have rough surfaces and blank, dead faces. Whether single figures or in groups, the sculptures are bundled to suggest a sense of loneliness, isolation, and existential anxiety.

To wrap up our look at the human course in art history, nosotros'll briefly explore some Expressionist pieces that do not necessarily represent specific figures at all. Rather than nowadays a realistic or abstract figure, the 20th century abstract Expressionists put their own human experience into their work, mirroring human emotions and efforts, though non necessarily human forms.

An important variant of Abstract Expressionism was activeness painting. Action painters developed characteristic methods of applying the paint. They dripped, splattered, sprayed, rolled, and threw paint onto their canvases. The concluding image was a reflection of the artist's body activity in the artistic procedure.

Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) is the all-time-known action painter. From 1947 onward, he used a dripping technique to produce his paintings. He engaged his whole trunk in the act of painting. He would stretch the sail on the floor, instead of vertically, and he would control the drips with the motion of his arm and body. He would often leave chance to have its course, simply in that location is an underlying chromatic organization in his canvases. His habit of cropping finished canvases adds to their dynamic quality, for the lines appear to move in and out the motion-picture show plane.

Fall Rhythm (Number 30) (1950) - Jackson Pollock. The energy in Pollock'southward paintings is elemental; it can be compared to the forces of nature.

Other notable activity painters are Franz Kline (1910-1962), Lee Krasner, and Wilem de Kooning.

Functioning Fine art

Likewise called live fine art, or in some occasions "happenings," performance art originated in the early 20th century with the Dadaist performances in the Cabaret Voltaire (which we will study in a afterward lecture). However it was not until the 1960s that information technology exploded every bit an art trend with the activeness of the Fluxus group.

Fluxus was a group of intellectuals organized by George Maciunas. Information technology included musicians like John Cage, artists like Yoko Ono, and video artists like Nam June Paik. Fluxus organized events that incorporated literature, music, theater, dance, video, and other materials. In a reaction to minimalism, artists sought to assert their presence once again, by becoming, in effect, living works of fine art.

Farbtest, Die Rote Fahne ll (video installation) - Felix Gmelin. In this contemporary performance piece, Gmelin re-enacts an action fabricated by his father 30 years ago, by running with a red flag through the streets of a city.

In performance art, a "performance" could consist of one person or a grouping. Information technology could take identify anywhere and final any length of time. Performance art used (and nevertheless uses) the performer'south body as the primary art medium. It may be autobiographical or make a political statement. It often merges fine art with every day life.

The German creative person Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) was an important pioneer in functioning art. For Beuys, life was a creative process in which everyone can exist an creative person. In his piece Coyote, he spent one week caged upwardly with a coyote in a New York gallery. The coyote represented America, a country he was visiting for the first time, and with whom he intended to start a relationship. Eventually the coyote and the artist co-habitated in the space and got used to each other.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the English artists Gilbert and George combined elements of traditional sculpture with functioning art. They would dress similar traditional English language men and stand over low platforms, sometimes singing, merely by and large assuming static poses. By calling themselves living sculptures, Gilbert and George explored the ambiguous areas betwixt living and non-living, illusion and reality, and art and life.

Give-and-take
Share your thoughts on fine art history with your swain students.

Practice
Clarify artworks that represent men and women in different periods.

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Source: https://documents.sessions.edu/eforms/courseware/coursedocuments/history_of_art/lesson3.html

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