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Visual Journal 5

  Throughout the years many artists do their work on the same topic or feature art of the same scene but portray them in different aspects. One famous example of this is with the sculpture of David from David and Goliath, in which David, a small person is able to defeat Goliath, who is a giant by throwing a stone at his head. One famous artist who sculpted David is Michelangelo. In Michelangelo’s David we are able to notice a manly structure, which is what the artist is known for in his other works such as his portrayal of Jesus in a part of the Sistine Chapel. Another noticeable feature is his overly large hands, perhaps to create an image of David holding a stone in them. Michelangelo’s David is very unique, however other artists were able to give a different portrayal of David. Donatello, another famous artist, also sculpted David. However in his version, David appears much less muscular and masculine as he holds a less manly but more cheeky pose. He is also wielding a sword even though David did not wield one. He has longer hair, a hat, and he is actually standing on top of Goliath’s head to show that he has already been victorious in his fight against him whereas in Michelangelo’s David, it is probably a sculpture of David before his fight. Both of these artists sculpted the same person, but because of their different stylistic approaches and points in time of which they depict, the sculptures turned out very different from one another. One final sculpture of David made by Bernini, proves to be much different from both of these sculptures. In Bernini’s David, instead of being depicted before or after the fight, David is depicted during his fight with Goliath. This makes for a very interesting sculpture in that we get to see David in the process of throwing the rock with his slingshot at Goliath. Unlike the previous two Davids, this one has a much more intense look on his face when preparing to slingshot the rock. Bernini expertly creates a scene of tension by the look on his face as well as his defined body motion of being in the process of throwing. The first two have slight knee bends while the third has leg motions consistent with that of someone throwing something. In addition Bernini’s David is wearing clothing. Donatello’s David is wearing nothing but a pair of boots. Finally, Michelangelo’s David is completely naked. When comparing the platforms that each David stands upon there are immediate differences. Donatello's is standing on Goliath’s head as mentioned before, Michelangelo’s is standing on a small platform, and Bernini’s is standing on a much larger platform so that it can accommodate the sculpture in motion. After comparing all three of the Davids it is clear that although one may be doing a work of art on a certain subject or person, there is certainly room for change and differences of that piece of art as it can be portrayed in many different ways.

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Visual Journal 4

Leonardo Da Vinci is a very famous artist. His most well known work is probably the Mona Lisa, however he has created multiple masterpieces in which he shows off multiple art forms and techniques to create amazing paintings. One example of this is his work, “Madonna of the Carnation”. This painting was created around 1480 and it features a woman with her baby. However these are not just random people. Because the woman is wearing blue along with other tell tale signs, we know that the woman is the Virgin Mary and the baby is Jesus Christ. One technique that is used in this work is chiaroscuro. This refers to an art technique in which light and shadows are rendered on an artwork to create perception and depth. It is no surprise that we find chiaroscuro here in this artwork because DaVinci is often credited as the one to bring this technique into prominence. Some examples of other works that he uses this technique in are “The Adoration of the Magi” in which he masterfully uses the art form to portray different objects appearing at different distances such as the stairs and columns in the back. In this piece Vinci uses chiaroscuro by brightening the faces of Mary and Jesus. He then leaves the columns dark to show that the two people stand before the columns. This helps the viewer gain a perspective of depth. He also uses the technique on the mountains in the background. By shading some parts and leaving other parts light, it shows where the sun is and gives overall perspective of what is going on. Another technique that Da Vinci expertly uses in this painting as well as many others is sfumato. Sfumato can be described as the technique in which objects blend into each other rather than having a clear outline. The most obvious case in which he uses it is when he created the Mona Lisa. The background of that painting has no clear outlines of structures, but rather the color blend together to create a sfumato look. Much like in the Mona Lisa, in “Madonna of the Carnation”, Da Vinci uses sfumato in the background again. This time he uses it when painting the mountains in the back. This is especially noticeable when the mountains blend into the sky. Rather than giving the mountains a clear outline, he uses this art technique to blend the two together. To turn our focus to the main attraction of the painting, we see that the baby looks extremely real. This is probably because Leonardo da Vinci spent a large amount of time observing and studying the human body. This made it easy for him to create a baby that looks very real. Overall it is very easy to tell that Da Vinci painted this because he uses many of his iconic techniques in it.

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Visual Journal 3

   This specific piece of art is from the popular comic strip “Peanuts”. It depicts a funny story in which the main character, Charlie Brown is fooled by a female character named Lucy. This comic is unique because it shows a female character tricking a male character. This is not normal for usual art pieces in the olden days because women were not depicted in such a manner. Most pieces show men in a dominant position over women, or women shown for their feminine characteristics and beauty just like in Bernini’s Rape of Proserpina or in Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Although this is much different from a simple comic strip, these can be compared in the way in which they portray women. There are very few artworks which show females in a position of power over males, however the other way around is shown all the time. Another thing to note is that this artwork tells a progressive story with the same characters. This can be compared to the Column of Trajan, in which there is an extremely large column covered in art which tells a progressive story. Much like in the “Peanuts” story. There is a main character who appears throughout the art multiple times. In the comic strip it is Charlie Brown and Lucy, while in the column it is the hero Trajan who is shown multiple times while the story of his victory in the Dacian war unfolds. The comic seems much more simplistic however because it is just drawn on a paper whereas the column’s story is carved into the column which must have taken a huge amount of work. Another similarity of this artwork and others throughout history is the symbolism that each character has in the story in order for the viewer to recognize them. FOr example, the Virgin Mary is always shown wearing blue so that the audience is never confused as to who that is. Similarly, Charlie Brown has certain tells and so does Lucy. For Charlie Brown it is his one single hair on his head that makes him distinguishable and not confusable for any other character. For Lucy it is her black hair and dress that she is always seen wearing. This helps the viewer not get confused as to which character is which because it can be hard to tell when everything is in black and white. One final comparison that can be made is shown in the art piece “The Tribute Money”. The “Peanuts” comic strip can be compared to this work in the same way that it was compared with the Column of Trajan. This is because all three of them feature a character that is repeated multiple times. In the “tribute Money” the same character with blue and yellow robes can be spotted three separate times. First, in the left, when he is bending near the river, second in the crowd with the rest of the men, and third to the right talking to the other man. This painting much like the comic strip takes an approach in which we get to see a timeline of events all in the same artwork.

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Visual Journal 2

This picture is the artwork for a character in a very popular video game called League of Legends. In the game the character is depicted as a statue that has come to life. His name is Galio. Although this is not a real life statue and it was never sculpted by anyone, there are clear parallels and allusion to real artists and their statue works. When creating the artwork for this character it is obvious that the artists tried to get a realistic aspect while maintaining that fictional fantasy look for the game. There are various examples of this that can be pointed out. For example, the Galio in the artwork has very similar muscular body structure as Michelangelo's Christ in the Last Judgement. Both works have very large and muscular upper bodies to show their immense powers. The artist of the Galio artwork not only draws ideas from other artists, but he also finds techniques to use such as the use of Chiaroscuro, a technique in which light and shadows are manipulated in a drawing to create depth and perception. The artist utilized this technique from the renaissance by manipulating the light and shadows of the figures to make the Galio statue look very big and powerful. He does this by positioning the statue directly in front of the sun. By doing this he is able to emphasize the large shadow in the picture to draw the audience's eye to how big Galio is. The artist also finds inspiration in another technique called sfumato. This technique is found most prominently in the popular work, “Mona Lisa”. Much like the background of that world famous painting, the artist here also attempts to blur the background colors slightly rather than create distinct lines. This is much in contrast with the objects toward the front of the artwork in which the lines are very solidly defined. Upon a closer inspection of the artwork, there is much more noticeable allusions to renaissance work. The entire background of the art seems to be painted in a renaissance landscape style. The artist uses similar colors as other renaissance paintings, using earthly browns and blending them with greens. Similar colors and backgrounds appear in the works of Titian, in paintings such as “Madonna”. Regarding the statue itself, unlike the realism that the greeks attempted to obtain, Galio looks very unrealistic and not human. His features include large hands with less fingers and toes than humans. In addition the structure of the face and body seem to not mimic humans in the slightest. This avoidance of realism is probably due to the fact that Galio is meant to impact the viewer as someone much stronger than humans. This is also emphasized by the small people in the bottom right of the painting running away. Overall this artwork seems to draw upon ideas from the artists and techniques of the renaissance, with a unique fantastical and modern twist in order to convince the viewer that Galio is very strong and powerful.

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Visual Journal 1: The Thinker

“The Thinker” is a sculpture created by Auguste Rodin in 1880, and was later resized in 1901. It was created as part of Rodins “Gates of Hell”. Originally Rodin had named it “The Poet”. However by 1896, everyone called it “The Thinker” instead. It was created to reflect Dante in the Divine Comedy. When he is asked to describe why the statue is considered to be thinking, he responded with, "What makes my Thinker think is that he thinks not only with his brain, with his knitted brow, his distended nostrils and compressed lips, but with every muscle of his arms, back, and legs, with his clenched fist and gripping toes." What caught my eye immediately was that unlike the sculptures we have visited in class, this is made from bronze, giving it the greenish tint that makes it different from the gray that is normally observed. Perhaps influenced by Michelangelo, “The Thinker” is clearly very muscular and has a strong large body much like the figures in Michelangelo’s “Sistine Chapel” in the Vatican. We can find more inspiration from Michelangelo when looking at the sculpture’s hands. Much like in Michelangelo “David”, “The Thinker” has abnormally large hands in comparison to the rest of his body. However the feet are different. They appear deformed and not shaped at all. Looking at the rest of the body, it is very noticeable that Rodin put immense detail into the structure of the human body including his bone and muscle structure. This can be most related to Bernini due to the fact that in his works, there is a large amount of realistic emphasis such as in “The Rape of Proserpina” or “ Ecstasy of Saint Teresa”. The thinker is very unique because his pose is much different than other statues. While a lot of statues are created with them standing up, the “Thinker” is aimed for realism so he takes a more realistic pose that can be found in nature. The figure is also naked because Rodin wanted a heroic figure that represented intellect and poetry. Upon close inspection of the facial features we get to see exactly what Rodin was referring to in his quote with his knitted brows, distended nostrils and compressed lips. This artwork is so good because it displays realism in that it shows the way a human would pose and act while in deep thought. No detail is left unaccounted for as it seems every muscle and bone in his body seems to be thinking about something. Much like Berninis work, this art piece is meant to be viewed from around the entire piece rather than just a frontal view. We can see similarities in Bernini’s “Rape of Proserpina”. Both of these works are put in center areas when on display so that people can view the entire piece the way it is meant to be viewed. Overall it is very clear to see the large amount of influences Rodin had as he managed to implement a lot of them in his work.