Hudson River School

I was reading the NY Times this morning when I stumbled across this article. Two paintings by a HRS artist, Jasper F. Cropsey, were brought in for appraisal after the original owner died. Her son had no idea what the two paintings were worth anything until he was told so by appraiser. It was kept in the basement rec room for as long as he could remember.

My favorite part of the article was the shoutout given to the "obligatory puny humans" Cropsey painted. Unfortunately, the mention was because the art historian of the Newington-Cropsey Foundation did not like how they were drawn.

Unicorn Tapestries Continued

So Samantha beat me to creating a post about the Unicorn Tapestries, but I would like to elaborate on them a little bit. I had done a presentation on Medieval art and architecture for my World History class, and here's a couple of interesting points about the tapestries.
(Be sure to check them out first on Samantha's link)

1. Some interpret the Unicorn to be a symbol for Jesus Christ.
If you take a look at the series of tapestries, it roughly follows the story of Jesus Christ: the healing/celebration, the persecution, the killing, and the resurrection. And that one seductive-looking lady has been thought to represent Mary Magdalene. The Biblical symbolism of the Unicorn is much like the sanctifying of the stag we read about in Cromwell. And if you think about it, Unicorns are more or less similar to stags, right?

2. The initials A and what looks like a backwards E are hidden in most tapestries.
In the first tapestry, the letters are depicted by tree branches, in the second one, they are decorations on the fountain, and so on. I find the discreet manipulation of nature (in this case branches) to indicate a name very interesting.

I hope this sparks further interest in the Unicorn Tapestries. They're really beautiful.
Manna

The Unicorn Tapestires

http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/unicorn/unicorn_inside.htm

This link gives a connection between the tapestries and "the noble sport of hunting."

J. M. W. Turner's Snowstorm

Read what Kenneth Clark has to say about Turner's Snowstorm:

"MY FIRST EMOTION is sharpened by amazement. There is nothing else remotely like it in European art, except, of course, other pictures by Turner, and I can understand why, until recently, critics brought up in the classical tradition were unwilling to accept such a freak. Not only is the subject exceptional, but the whole rhythmic organization is outside the accepted modulus of European landscape painting. We have been brought up to expect inside a frame a certain degree of balance and stability. But in Turner's Snowstorm nothing comes to rest. The swathes of snow and water swing about in a wholly unpredictable manner, and their impetus is deflected by contrary movements of spray and mysterious striations of light. To look at them for long is an uncomfortable, even an exhausting, experience."

Read more of Clark's essay at artchive.com .

Outdoor recreation in Bruegel

Nice discussion of Bruegel's Children's Games at http://www.artyfactory.com/perspective_drawing/perspective_14.htm , with closeups of some of the activities and analysis of what the artist is up to.


Lots of fun websites just on this painting, some with extreme closeups on more of the details, e.g., http://www.learn.columbia.edu/arthumanities/websites/bruegel/children/ .

great paper topic!!

Wal-Mart Museum

Hey, I found a website discussing the details about the Wal-Mart art museum we talked about today in class and wanted to share it with everyone.

Here is the link:

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2008-04-01-walmart-art-museum_N.htm

Adam Klaritch

The Unicorn Tapestries

After last Friday's class I got really interested in tapestries portraying the hunts in Medieval times. I was especially interested in the famed, Unicorn Tapestries so I did a little research and found a great website with a lot of really cool facts and information about the tapestries. You can look up whatever interests you, from the story behind the hunt itself, to the subjects in it, to the lore behind the legend of the unicorn. The part of the site I liked the best was the mention of what the hunstmen wore on the hunt and all the hidden allegories and allusions in just their clothes! Anyway, have fun exploring the site!

http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/unicorn/unicorn_splash.htm

More on Dutch landscape art

There is a large number of resources available online to study the art we will be looking at over the next few weeks. For example, The National Gallery of Art has a nice selection of Dutch landscape and seascape paintings available for viewing online, with accompanying narrative commentary.

Here is an excerpt that places Dutch art in context:

The emergence of the Dutch school of painting in the early seventeenth century is one of the most remarkable phenomena in the history of the visual arts. The Dutch Republic, a small country that had only become a political entity in 1579 and was still suffering from the effects of a long and arduous war with Spain, would hardly seem to have had the resources to nourish and sustain its artistic traditions. Nonetheless, in every respect, the Dutch seem to have drawn strength from adversity; they profited in terms of trade, political awareness, religious tolerance, wealth, and above all, self-esteem. They were proud of their achievements and were determined to provide for themselves a broad and lasting foundation that would define their unique social and cultural heritage.

The political and religious attitudes of the period are not readily apparent in the work of Dutch artists. The still lifes, portraits, landscapes, seascapes, and genre scenes that characterize this school of painting are surprisingly lacking in information on the major events of the day. Nevertheless, the philosophical bases from which artists worked are clearly the same as those governing decisions in contemporary political, military, and religious activities. This ideology was essentially threefold: that God's work is evident in the world itself; that, although things in this world are mortal and transitory, no facet of God's creation is too insubstantial to be noticed, valued, or represented; and that the Dutch, like the ancient Israelites, were a chosen people, favored and blessed by God's protection.

Underlying the essential realism of Dutch art, thus, is an allegorical view of nature that provided a means for conveying various messages to contemporary viewers. The Dutch, with their ingrained Calvinist beliefs, were a moralizing people. While they thoroughly enjoyed the sensual pleasures of life, they were aware of the consequences of wrong behavior. Paintings, even those representing everyday objects and events, often provide reminders about the brevity of life and the need for moderation and temperance in one's conduct. Subjects drawn from the Bible, mythology, and ancient history, likewise, were often chosen for their moralizing messages or for establishing parallels between the Dutch experience and great historical, literary, and political events of the past.

For further resources, check out some of the links on the "old" course web page.

Forest Scene, c. 1655
Jacob van Ruisdael