Sincere Advice to Future Art History Students

This class will change your perspective of the world.  You will see the human form in a different way. You will find yourself looking at houses on your street and finding antecedents to ancient architectural styles. You will wonder where the future of art is headed. Yet, in order to fully appreciate this new understanding, you must commit yourself to the course. You must set aside time each day to read a few pages in the book, and not try to cram before the tests. Do a blog post every Saturday morning. Go to museums. Watch documentaries. My only regrets are the chapters I did not fully learn because I didn't leave time for them. The chapters I did invest myself are the ones whose ideas I know I will remember for the rest of my life. So, make the choice early in the year to do your best in this course and you will really appreciate the fact that you did.

-Grace

TITIAN Venus of Urbino (1538)






If one seeks to understand the role or expectations of
women in a society, the answer can usually be
gleaned from looking at that society's art. Here,
an Italian woman is depicted reclining in the nude.
She is supposed to represent womanly beauty--
"the qualities he (the duke of Urbino) sought in
a bride." In contrast to this "ideal woman" is another,
Lady Feng, whose act of bravery is immortalized in
a Chinese scroll. Lady Feng's fight with a bear, to
"save the life of her emperor" was considered "a
perfect model of Confucian behavior." She was
celebrated for taking action, not just lying on a bed
naked. And through these two representations of
women, we can see how the men who painted them
viewed them, and how that effected their role in
society. Chinese women in the 300's were
encouraged to be brave, take action, do the right
thing, while most Italian women were only
celebrated for their external beauty.


(* quotations used are taken from Gardner's
Art through the Ages)

GU KAIZHI Lady Feng and the Bear (300's)

           

Towers of Bayon, Cambodia (c 1200)

These two monumental landmarks, both portraying the
faces of their respective areas' most important leaders seem like they
should have been  created with the same intention.  However, this is not
the case. The four Presidents' faces were carved into Mount Rushmore,
as a way to create a tourist attraction for South Dakota. The Bayon
Towers, however, were constructed in the capital itself, and designed
so that the giant faces of the king (or bodhisattva) would be watching
over the people. The Buddhist Cambodians were not seeking to make
extra money off of the Towers. The architects of Mount Rushmore were.
The mountain draws two million people to South Dakota each year.

Mount Rushmore, United States (1925)

Lamassu vs. Chinese Lions

Lamassu (Iraq c. 720 BC)

Chinese Lions (Japan, 1500's CE)



These two works of art were created thousands of years apart.  The Assyrians who carved the Lamassu lacked all of the modernity of the Japanese who painted the Lions. Yet, these images attest to the fact that regardless of the time or place, humans still desire to represent themselves with animalistic images of power. The Lamassu, half men, half beasts, stood guard outside of Sargon II's palace to ward off his enemies. And the Chinese Lions, painted by Kano Eitoku, were also mythical beasts, and ones that symbolized power and bravery. They were created for the warlord, Toyotomi Hideyoshi. For powerful, militant humans, something more than a human form is needed to convey the strong image they wish to impart on their followers and enemies.

Michelangelo once said, "A beautiful thing never gives so much pain as does failing to hear and see it." He took this to heart in his sculpture, chiseling each piece of marble away to reveal the beauty of a form underneath. This image of an "unfinished slave" shows his artistic process...

He was also a bit brazen about his art, saying, "Carving is easy, you just go down to the skin and stop." Right, Michelangelo, that is all you have to do! I mean, why didn't I think of this before? It is so simple, thank you for for the illumination. I should go buy a hammer and chisel and try my hand at making slaves...


No, but to Michelangelo it was easy, for his brain was naturally wired to look for the beauty in everything and be able to visualize a human form materializing from a block of stone.


Michelangelo makes me think of how much I fail to hear and see in a day. How many opportunities do I miss by not opening up my eyes, my mind? What if under someone's stony cold demeanor a beautiful soul is lurking? Yes, it takes effort to get to the bottom of things. It takes determination to invest yourself in something without an ascertainable future. For all you know, underneath the stone... could be just more stone. Perhaps you will end up with a cracked, less than ideal product. But it is worth uncovering every bit of potential beauty lurking around you. You may find a best friend, a new interest, an idea, a soul-mate. Follow Michelangelo's example and do not cease to dig beneath the surface until you have cracked away that last bit obscuring the truth from your view.

Asparagus-Eduard Manet

Manet painted a bunch of asparagus for Charles Ephruss. When Ephrus over-paid him by 200 dollars, Manet painted this additional work to make up for it.  It is currently at the Impressionist Exhibit at the Frist, which is where I saw it this weekend when I went with my family. It was a good trip. I got my art fix, my sister painted her own work of art, my mom and dad wore dorky outfits, and we ate a lot of food. Everyone who hasn't gone should go!

God as architect of the world
folio 1 verso of a moralized Bible
from Paris, France
c. 1220-1230

Whoever painted this didn't know what the world looks like.  I think a better title would have been:  "Bearded man claiming to represent god stabs a jellied squash with a protractor.  Let me rephrase that:  "stabs a jellied squash that has been swallowed by a watermelon with a protractor ." Yes, the people living in France in the 1200's wouldn't have had satellite imaging of the interior of the earth.  But that is why it is so funny to look back and see their guess as to how to represent what they didn't know. It is also curious to see how talented God was as an architect.  I mean, who else could hold the entire world in one hand, while using the other hand to measure it with a compass, not even looking at what he was doing...all while standing on one foot!  I guess he really is amazing.