Albrecht Durer, Adam and Eve

Danielle Vadala Blog Chpt. 21 (4-20-10)
Albrecht Durer, Adam and Eve 1504

Durer not only mastered the woodcut he became an “unparalleled engraver”
(130 Cole and Gault). Durer had the ability to make the copper plate yield diverse effects of line, light, shade, and texture. In the artwork Adam ad Eve Durer joined the quest for the ideal beauty and proportions of the humane figure that had inspired Italian masters of the time to look at surviving works of antiquity (130). The engraving is set in a dark German forest surrounded by local as well as exotic fauna. The two reflect the most perfect of God’s creation, who “through their disobidience to Him, doomed their descendents to physical as well as spiritual imperfection” (130).

Eve is holding a snake and Adam is holding a branch that has a bird on it also with a sign held on it that has the artist name on it. The engraving is black and white and has the two subjects nude with only leaves placed over their private parts. Both Adam and Eve’s hair is engraved perfectly and bold. According to Cole, Durer’s methodical burin has transcribed every wave of Eve’s luxuriant tresses, and every hair of the cat’s thick coat” (131). There are various animals on the ground; such as a mouse, cat, goat and rabbit. According to Cole and Gault, symbolically, the cat and all the other creatures explain the nature an the consequences of the Fall: as the cat traps the mouse, Eve caught Adam, and their sin of disobedience brought into being the four temperaments, or humors- the phlegmatic, choleric, sanguine, and melancholic personalities (131).
Durer’s growing interest in Italian art and his theoretical investigations are reflected in this 1504 engraving of Adam and Eve. It represents his first documented use of ideal human proportions based on Roman copies of ancient Greek sculpture. Behind his idealized human figures he represents plants and animals with typically northern European naturalistic detail (716).

Chapter 20 - Leonardo Da Vinci

Many of the western’s most legendary artists changed not only the direction of Western art but established the modern concept of the artists. Leonardo Da Vinci was trained in a traditional shop; apprenticed as a youth to a master, as he learned how to draw and how to copy. (Cole and Gealt, 138). According to Cole and Gealt, “Learning style and technique through imitation was a basic principle of the Western art until the19th century (138).
Innovation was discouraged in favor of tradition in the workshops, where the young Leonardo and many others learned their craft (138). “Yet when they emerged from their training, these great artists channeled what they had learned into something wholly original, personal, and largely inimitable” (139).
Leonardo’s most famous painting, Last Supper, in Milan, is tragically in ruin. Completed in about 1495-98, Leonardo used a novel technique, but the medium, an experimental variation of the fresco technique, soon deteriated, ‘leaving the present work a shadow of the original masterpiece’ (141).
The artwork is traditional in that it was popular for refectories, a place where monks gathered to take their meals and hear the scriptures read (141). Christ was always shown at the center of the table with the apostles divided into groups on either side, accept for Judas, who was traditionally isolated across the table (141).
According to Stokstad,” Leonardo incorporated a medieval tradition of numerical symbolism” (662).
The seated the apostles in groups of three. He also eliminated another symbolic element, the halo and substituted the natural light from a triple window framing Jesus’s head.
He painted on dry intonaco- a thin layer of smooth plaster with oil and tempura paint; for which the formula is unknown. The result was “disastrous” (663). The Last Supper represents gravity, balance, and order; it is a symbolic evocation of both Jesus’s coming sacrifice for the salvation of humankind and the institution of the ritual of Mass (662). Stokstad states the work’s qualities of stability, calm and timelessness, coupled with the established Renaissance forms modeled after those of classical sculpture, characterize the art of the Renaissance at the beginning of the sixteenth century” (664).
Since the seventeenth century, the work has barely survived, despite many attempts to halt its deterioration and restore its original appearance.

My trip to the Art Institute

Since the May 2009 grand opening of the Ryan Education Center/Crown Family Educator Resource Center I have been back many times especially with my own kids and or field trips with my students. It is located on the first floor of the modern wing. It is a large space for children to learn and explore. This art space allows children to absorb art in their own way at their own level. Free to all, The Ryan Education Center has a wide spectrum of activities for learners of all ages. It has many resource rooms and classrooms where art activities and events are offered throughout the year.
The staff in the Ryan Educational Center is there to help you engage your children in art. They teach tips and techniques that will help young visitors make the most out of their museum visit and enrich their encounters with art, both in the museum an at home.
Being a teacher for the last 11 years has been a great job, but teaching art to elementary and middle school aged children has been a dream of mine for many years. I find that art teachers today and current art curriculum deals with children using crayons and glue. I strongly believe that introducing art early is the best way to get children interested in art as well as getting them comfortable with creativity, culture, and art history. You wouldn’t believe how many 5th graders do not like art, because they know don’t know anything about it. I am always the teacher who organizes field trips for my students so when this new addition to the Art Institute opened I was thrilled. Children always love a new experience, especially one that is different, interesting, and engaging.
This new ‘state of the art’ educational facility features five classrooms, three large studios, a Family Educator Resource Center, a Family room and an Orientation room. The Crown Family Resource Center is for any teacher, librarian, parent and educators of all kinds! This new center houses larger workspaces, an expanded library of art and art history books, art curriculum materials, art project ideas, exhibition catalogues, gallery activities, interdisciplinary lesson plans, periodicals, research files, teacher manuals and videos. The ‘family room’; or to me what looks like a play room, is set up for kids to play with things such as; blocks, puzzles, games, books, computers, and interactive art manipulatives. In one of the classrooms they have kid friendly art easels, art tables and even a storyteller on hand to talk to children of all ages.
I visited recently with my 4 year old son who was able to do many fun things in the play/family room. He used the computers to match shapes and colors. He was able to design his own colored jewels on a shelf on one program and match shapes of original pieces or artwork on another. He computer programs were surprisingly easy enough for pre-schoolers to explore. I was happy to see that there is even flat screen TV’s in this room with continuous displays of artwork. While at the Art Institute I also went down stairs and showed him the miniature rooms that he enjoyed. He thought they looked like dollhouses. Downstairs by the miniatures my son saw the medieval suits of armor, which was his favorite part! ¬
There are classes and programs for all ages. I plan to take advantage of the “mini masters” educational art program offered for 3-5 year old on select Saturdays. It looked very interesting. These programs explore works of art using stories, games, hands on art activities and a brief gallery visit. Then they go into the studio and create a work of art to take home. Upcoming classes are: Animals in African Art, Musical Me, and Shape and Color.

Donatello's David - Chapter 19

According to Cole and Gealt the most famous sculpture commissioned for personal enjoyment is Donatello’s David. It was probably made in 1440 for Cosimo de’Medici (98). This figure was the most advanced, sensitive and beautiful; it’s portrayal of the nude human body (98). This life size sculpture was the first so be seen in the round since the ‘ancients made the human form their principal subject over thousands of years before (99). Cole and Gealt state that it “stands before the viewer independent of any justification except itself, and unabashedly nude” (98).
The statute is bronze and 5’ 2 ¼”. It is in Florence, and although I have been to Italy I did not see this statute.
It is believed that it stood in the atrium of the Palazzo Medici. David was probably situated so that he functioned as both private and a public image (100). David’s nudity underscored his moral victory; he won because God was on his side.
The base was inscribed:

“The victor is whoever defends the fatherland.
All-power God crushes the angry enemy.
Behold, a boy overcomes the great tyrant.
Conquer, O citizens!”

The boy is nude and only wearing a strange hat and tall boots. He is standing on a giant’s severed head and the helmet of the giant is going up David’s backside of his leg. The stance is non muscular; and he looks about 13 years old. He holds a feminine quality about him. The long nose looks straight and feminine. It looks as though his hair is long and he is holding something in his hand.

Stockstad states that “Donatello excelled for three reasons: his constant exploration of human emotions and expressions; his vision and insight in representing the formal problems inherent n his subjects; and his ability to solve the technical problems posed by various mediums, from bronze and marble to polychromed wood” (631).
The inscription suggests that he celebrated the triumph of Goliath.
Donatello ‘demonstrated his familiarity with antiquity, his understanding of narrative, and his knowledge of the human anatomy’ (100).


Art Of The Western World, Bruce Cole and Adelheid Gealt
Art History, Marilyn Stockstad

Personal Artwork

Pictures from Italy!

Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini

This week, I chose to write about the Jan van Eyck painting; called ‘Giovanni Arnolfini and his bride, double portrait’ of 1434; otherwise known as the ‘Arnolfini wedding’. This small portrait is of a man and woman. The man who is identified as Giovanni Arnolfini a member of an Italian merchant family living in Flaunders.

It is believed the two people in the portrait signed a contract of marriage in their home. The picture may be an engagement photo for them. The man is wearing an ugly, oversized black hat and a long coat. The man’s face is pale and he appears to be much older than the woman in the portrait. The gentleman’s right hand is raised up and his eyes are not looking at her, but rather looking straightforward. The girl in the portrait appears much younger than the man. She is wearing a fluffy, green winter dress with a blue under dress beneath. At first glance she looks pregnant, but is not. The young woman is lifting the front of her dress at the middle. She has a white veil that has lace embroidery; which represents it was a special occasion. Her hair is pulled back and she is not looking at the man, she is looking down.

The couple is not quite holding hands but rather the woman is resting her hand on top of his. They are standing in the middle of a tiny living room. There is a red day bed, a couch, a mirror, a brass chandelier and a dog in the room with them. There is a window with light showing threw behind the man. According to Cole and Gealt the objects in the room give specific character but also carry “symbolic messages that may gloss a wedding ceremony” (119).

There are many mysteries of content and symbolism within the artwork. On the windowsill, behind the man there are ripening oranges, which is symbols of fertility. “ The dog is an emblem of fidelity and the mirror stands for purity” (119). According to Cole and Gealt, marriage was a sacrament that was not needed to be performed in a church by a priest. Instead marriages were often solemnized at home, and it may be that the small figures reflected in the mirror are witnesses to the event; one being the artist himself (119).
This Jan van Eyck portrait is important because of it’s ability to reproduce, almost duplicate, the effects of light streaming in from the window; never before in the history of art had light been painted with such realism (118). This portrait reflects the increasing secularism of a burgeoning commercial society (117). It is striking in that the diminutive painting is the realism of its microcosmic world (117). According to Cole, Van Eyck probably chose to use oil paint because it allowed him to reproduce objects with greater fidelity than ever before (118). The colors in the painting are remarkable for their deep saturation and variety (118).
The realism appealed to the rich. This new art form by Van Eyck was of great realism and “crystalline clarity” it produced lasting visual and intellectual images (117). Van Eych was influenced by many before him; such as Philip the Bold, Philip the Good and the Limbourg brothers.


REFERENCES

Art Of The Western World, Bruce Cole and Adelheid Gealt, Summit Books, 1989.

Art History, Marilyn Stockstad