Contextual Studies

Monday 26th September; 

'On the shoulder of giants.'

Today we looked at how culture is a reflection of the society in which its made, to understand people you need to understand their culture. I took this as if you look upon today's culture you can see that we are extremely media saturated, and looking back on our society in 20 years you will see that it is influenced by advertisements and furthering technology.

Cave art.

The earliest discovery of cave art was 30,000 years ago and some major locations of where these could be found is in Lascaux France, and Altamira in Spain. Cave art depicted true life and how the people survived in that era. So all their artwork was reflections of how they killed their prey, their drawings were extremely accurate of what the animals would look like, as they were documenting facts rather than trying to produce art. 

It is said that the history of art is not about making things accurate, its the way you express yourself and exaggerating and stylising features from replicas, a camera would record it exactly but you can now use special lenses and photoshop as a way of 'expressing yourself'.

One of the earliest forms of art that was found, was hundreds of tiny figurines to illustrate the ideal woman. she was a big woman to show that she was well fed and could provide for herself, with large breasts to feed her children. she also had large hips and genitals which would be ideal for producing offspring. in modern times the ideal woman is entirely different, she is not looked upon for raising children, she is aimed to be a sex symbol slim and attractive. In photography we can find a way of exaggerating the idea of the modern ideal woman by using photoshop and enhancing the characteristics of a person.

Monday 3rd October;
Egyptian, Greek and Roman culture.
Egypt: All architecture supported the Pharaoh and the relationship between the God's i believe this is to make the viewer have the feeling of awe. there is no real evidence in today's society of what the average Egyptian person did, it was all about the hierarchy and power. the Egyptians were extremely technical, and so had build many pyramids which were covered in hieroglyphics they tended to use low relief which was sculpted and carved into a flat piece of stone.



Greek: had the perfect depiction of the human body but then started to exaggerate features in a way helped symbolise the ideal human being for example exaggerating or un-exaggerating limbs the Greeks had a tendency to shrink the genitals of the male in artwork. 
the Greeks thought alot about the meaning of their work for example this can be shown in the Parthenon, where everything has a meaning to it. like the golden rectangle, which is a perfect rectangle that when a square is taken of it can continue to be divided down in to further rectangles. Also when building the Parthenon the Greeks thought about the design so when looking up at it you don't see it curve in as if it would looking at a sky scraper, they built it with a slight curve so as an optical illusion it looks perfectly straight.
In Greek sculptures they took inspiration from the Egyptians and had much deeper relief which emphasised the human form.



Roman:
Truscan which is the early roman period, they were open about their sexuality this was obvious from the excavation in Pompey where sexual graffiti had been uncovered. the art work of the Romans were heavily focused of mosaics and sculptures depicting images of the human form.

Monday 10th October
Before the Renaissance:
after the Romans had invaded there was an alternate lifestyle where the people lived of the land, this meant there was a lack of art. the only art that was produced was for the church/Christianity which was the dominant power, it could be seen as a product of this time so could be classed as advertising.

byzantine:
their artwork was free and loose, it seemed as if their work was worse than in the roman empire as they had lost all their infrastructure. an example of byzantine work is an image of Madonna


this image is an icon (which differentiates from an idol as with an idol you worship the objects, with an icon you worship the meaning of the painting.) it represents an image of Mary and Jesus, all the ways it was created has a symbolic meaning for example it is painted with egg white where when its dried it is hard, the egg symbolises soul. it is also decorated with gold which is representing gods eternal love.
Gothic:
in this era they appeared to be struggling with perspective. they needed to use the points of perspective of putting the 3D world into 2D art.

Picasso said that 'we all know art isn't the truth, arts a lie that makes us see the truth.' i realised that he meant when looking at a painting, it isn't the real depiction of the image, but it makes you see what the artwork is about and that you can relate to it.

Raphael Sposalizio:
he used a good perspective and depth, David Hockney put forward the idea that artists use technology and a camera obscurer which was basically a box with a hole in it, like a pinhole camera.

Van Eyck:


de-code the meaning of this painting but cant do this correctly now.

Holbein:

This photo is about the Ambassadors who were trying to stop Henry the 8th  dividing from the catholic church he again uses symbolism with the world being upside down, the lyre with the broken string and hymn book. the skull painted on the floor represents death, and behind the curtain you can slightly see a crucifix. this is all representing the christian faith and what Henry the 8th was trying to do to the church. this just shows that symbolism has always been used in time and not just photography.

Monday October 17th
the renessance:
this is an explosion in the way we have depicted the world there are three periods in the renessance which are: the Early, High and Late periods.

Early:
Da vinci:

the most talked about piece of art  is the last supper it has been painted in the church which is a continuatium of the church thats its been painted in.

another image that has been painted by Da Vinci is the Mona Lisa, it as been said to partially be a self portrait of himself. the eyes in this painting depict power as she's staring right at you its draws your attention and this goes back to instincts of being a hunter and concentrating on your prey. this is different to the way women were usually portrayed at this time as they were either looking up in rapture or down in humility. Da Vinci brought perspective into this painting as the background gets duller, which is the aerial perspective.

Botticelli:
was a painter in the early renaissance his most famous work was the 'Birth of Venus' and 'Primavera'.

this image represents the changing seasons, there is a story to the painting where Flora the nymph was taken by God and as compensation was turned into a goddess. the story is to the left of the painting. his work was not of christian myth, the roman gods were painted.







Titian:
through his life art was percieved differently, at first artists were seen as lower class crafts below joiners, but at the end of his career he was in the court of the king. he served a function within the church, he had a skill which made him valuable. his work became collectable with the rich.
he painted Mary Magdeline in rapture of God, she looks in awe in the painting. the use of highlights on the lady could represent the presence of god, and this could be why the background is a lot dimmer.

his image entitled Venus in nudity in classical context, her eyes are engaging with the viewer which creates a sense of intimacy and connection.

Velazques:
Las Meninas is showing a painting of velazques painting the king and queen of spain, it shows the environment around him with infanta margarita and the people around her, it also shows two dwarfs which he was fond of painting he captured them with tenderness and humanity, as the spanish king held a fascination for them. when he painted this it was seen as breaking the 4th wall, which means he is engaging with the artist, as he is in the painting.

Late Renessance

Michael Angelo:
there is bad perspective on the Adam, his head looks too small for his body and his legs are different lengths. this image represents god giving adam knowledge, which is quite ironic as the shape surrounding god is of a dissected brain. this could be interpreted that God is in the mind of a man. also with the sculpture of david, his head and hands are large in proportion to his body although he was designed to be looked up at, which gives a dramatic effect.

Monday 31st October
Vermeer:
was made famous for interiors depicting the life of middle class people, there is a lot of symbolism in his work which shows the movement away from religion into everyday life.
the milkmaid is a picture he painted of a maid attending to her master by getting milk, there is a good use of light in this image with the highlights on her face from the light coming through the window.  it represents real light and colours as you can imagine it being a crisp winter morning with the coldness to the light.

Another piece of Vermeers work is 'the girl with the pearl earring' which shows a maid which he made wear a pearl earring, the way the light highlights her face and the earring captures the attention of the viewer. Her gaze is like that of the 'Monalisa' where she is staring directly into the viewers eye, this creates a feel of intimacy.

Romanticism:
the idea of beauty seen as an earthly thing then there is the sublime- which creates a feeling of awe.

theodore gencault:
the raft of medusa, this is about contempory life a ship got into trouble and was run aground on the coast of Africa, they cut a raft loose and starved to death.

Eugene Delacroix:
'Liberty leading the people' this is a painting that is showing the French revolution. liberty is shown by a woman leading the men to war, she is the main figure to capture light and is brandishing the french flag and a musket. this was an extremely influencial painting to the people of France it shows all groups of class from working class to the Bourgeoisie.

Rembrandt:
was heavily influenced by Carravagio as he uses artificial light sources in his paintings. He painted comissions such as 'The nightwatch' where pre-police are patrolling the city at night, a young girl is lit up to represent the state in which the city's in as she looks fragile and scared.

modern art:
Goya:
Shootings 3rd May 1808