Rembrandt self portraits

 Rembrandt. Self-Portrait. 1640

 Self-Portrait1658

 Self-portrait in a cap, with eyes wide open, etching and burin, 1630

 my drawing in class

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born in Leiden in the Netherlands in July 15, 1606– October 4, 1669 is generally considered one of the greatest painters in Western art history, and the most important Dutch painter of the 17th century. Rembrandt was also a proficient engraver and made many drawings. he depicted himself in approximately forty to fifty extant paintings, Rembrandt's self-portraits increasingly became a means for gaining self-knowledge, just like a lonely old man communicating with himself while he painted.  It carries out its first corporately portrait: the Lesson of anatomy of Doctor Nicolaes Tulp (1632) remarkable fabric by its pictorial smoothness near to the art of Van Dyck. The other portraits of years 1630 strike by their plastic force, by the simplification of the harmonies, like the rate/rhythm symbolic system of the hands and the faces, generally painted a gray bottom, which confer on the size unit and monumental.Small etchings made before the mirror are among Rembrandt's earliest efforts at recording his own likeness. about 1627–30 he display a range of techniques and facial expressions. A boyish study shows his youthful anxiousness, emphasized by the frenzied quality of the etched line. Others depicts him in a perturbed mood, staring disapprovingly at the viewer, or with furrowed brow, appearing to be shouting. In a more finished example he employed dramatic side lighting and high contrasts of light and shadow. Here, he expresses surprise and wide-eyed wonder. One of his better ones is the Self Portrait painted in 1658. It depicts him in an outfit from the middle ages, but he looks so serious. This comedian factor juxtaposed with such solemnity is common is most of his self portraits.

reference - Rembrandt. retrieved, 22 August 2011, wikipedia, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rembrandt

rembrandtpainting Selected Self Portraits. retrieved, 22 August 2011 from http://www.rembrandtpainting.net/slf_prtrts/frick.htm

Olga's Gallery Rembrandt. Self-Portrait. retrieved, 22 August 2011 fromhttp://www.abcgallery.com/R/rembrandt/rembrandt88.html

Research on The Birth of Venus

 

The Birth of Venus

The Birth of Venus is created from year between 1484–1486 in Renaissance era, by Sandro Botticelli was an

Italian artist from Florence, Italy, and was one of the first artists to include the nude outside of Christian themes

of the start of the Renaissance. The Birth of Venus is painted on canvas of the height of 172.5cm and width of

278.5cm by tempera. The Birth of Venus descripts an event of birth of the goddess of love.

Detail of Venus

As we can see in the middle of the painting, Venus is the nude women standing on a seashell and bout to step

onto the shore. Her right foot poised on the rim and left on the brown curl of the underside. Her left hand

covered public region with her long golden hair, right hand covered her right breast. Her body slightly slanting

to right and her head indented to left while her hair blown to right. She having long neck and shoulders and left

arm which seems dislocated.

Detail of Zephyr and Chloris

On the left of the painting, there are 2 figure which is zephyr the male and Chloris the female. They blowing air

filled with roses towards Venus. Zephyr’s checks were puffed white line of wind blown out, his black hair

blown back and body slanting to right. His right leg posted diagonal straight and left lifted up. His right hand

throwing out and left hand clasps to Chloris. He and Chloris having a black fur wing and wearing a cape which

only covered half of his body surface and Chloris’s breast shown. Chloris put her arm about his chest and she

wrapped around Zephyr with her leg.

Detail of Horae

On the right of the painting, there is a female name Horae. She is wearing a garment and a sash of pink rose.

Her body and leg slightly slanting to left and hold out a flowered cloak toward Venus with the right hand lifted

up. The background included the stimulated texture on shell, cloth, flower, tree and waves.  There is some lines

involve in this painting, which is geometric line on sea and tree, curve line on hair and organic line on cloth and

human figure. All of the figure and most of the object like plant and seashell is in 3D shape. The color that has

used in this painting is more to cold color on the space of background green on land and blue on sky and sea,

which the warm color will be on the skin tone figure, pink roses, light brown shell and orange cloak.

Venus having an unusual long neck, her shoulder and left arm seems dislocated, as well as Chloris, her leg is

wrapped around Zephyr which they two having inaccurate human proportion and scale. The entire figure having

the movement of diagonal implied line, which Zephyrs and Chloris moving towards right and breath blow the

wind to Venus. Horae move to left and holding the cloak that created movement. The implied lines of the hair

blown on every figure create a flow of movement by the wind.Movement also created on the repetition of the

organic line on cloth and texture of sea waves, also the shape on roses flow. Asymmetrical balance is applied

which the position of left figure contain less space and right figure ground contain more space which the overall

space is a horizon infinite on sea and sky. The color uses of light pink roses on the left are balance with the red

cloak with the print of blossom tipped with gold on right. The color value in this painting having dark tone on

land and trees that has a gold spine and outline on the leaf, light tone on sky which the early spring morning

with sunlight and sea which the brighter tone will be on human figure, mostly on Venus. The technique used in

this painting which is tempera pigments with little fat covered with layer of pure egg white, it resembles fresco

in freshness and brightness on a large scale canvas. The subjective view of this painting is creating warm mood

which Zephyrs and Chloris is sending Venus to shore by their warm breeze and spring flower shows also

peaceful mood. It is lovely that Horae is about to receive and cover Venus with cloak in this birth celebration

event.

The artist intention included of the inspiration of poem and painting. Botticelli influenced by Angelo Poliziano’s

poems and especially by Marsilio Ficino’ philosophical ideas, most often cited classical sources on Homeric

Hymns which published in Florence in 1488 by the Greek refugee Demetrioss Chalcondyles.

Of august gold-wreathed and beautiful

Aphrodite I shall sing to whose domain

belong the battlements of all sea-loved

Cyprus where, blown by the moist breath

of Zephyros, she was carried over the

waves of the resounding sea on soft foam.

The gold-filleted Horae happily welcomed

her and clothed her with heavenly raiment.

Lorenzo de Medici’s poems, Ruticus and Stanze are also considered.

A Pompeian mural of Venus Anadyomene

Botticelli also inspired by the ancient painting by Apelles name “Anadyomene Venus”, after written description

by the 2^nd century historian Lucian of masterpieces of ancient Greece, the title was also used for Botticelli’s

painting. The Birth of Venus having a scene of event that created from the poem by Angelo Poliziano and a

model reference of Simonetta Cattaneo Vespucci which is the mistress of Alexander the Great. She was not

coincidentally born in the Tuscan seaside town of Portovenere also the port of Venus, so she chosen to be the

model for the lost Venus executed by the legendary Apelles. Emotionalism has also involved in this painting,

the message in this painting may feel deeply in tune of love, the love of paradise. Venus having the expression

of remote and sad maybe she knows that mortals cannot look upon love unclothed. She becomes a

personification of the Christian church which offers a spiritual transport back to the pure love of eternal

salvation; it’s a traditionally symbolic pilgrimage context. She is the earthly goddess who aroused humans to

physical love or a heavenly goodness who inspired intellectual love in them. Zephyrs the Greek god of west

wind having a symbol of spiritual passion as the messenger of spring. Chloris the goddess of Aura with gentle

breeze and domain flower. Horae, the goddess of the seasons named “goddess of spring”. All of the goddess is

celebrating and greeting the birth of ultimate symbol of love. At last the painting became a function of gift with

another famous painting from Botticelli the La Primavera gave to Lorenzo de Medici’s young 2^nd cousin

Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco for the decoration of his new Villa di Castello as a celebration of his marriage with

Semiramide Appiani.

Lorenzo de Medici an Italian banker and also a politician, he probably commissioned the painting, as his poem

has given the inspiration to Botticelli and Botticelli is protected under Medici’s family. After that the painting

was commissioned to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco as a gift of celebrate his marriage from Lorenzo de Medici and

display at Castello Villa. Now the painting was commissioned to the Galleria degli Uffizi Florence, Italy for

exhibition and display purpose to public. Most of those art student, lecturer, and artist will appreciate the art

work because it might be used in their research and knowledge. The Florentine humanist would have

appreciated of the erudite on this painting. As well as Christian member which appreciated the presented of

goddess story and also can be suggest appropriate behavior to brides and grooms. While 15^th-century viewers

would more appreciated as looked at the painting and they felt their minds lifted to the realm of divine love.

Most of the audience will be the guest of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco that have been invited to his Castello Villa

on his wedding day would have the opportunity to view the painting and also those public who has visited the

Galleria degli Uffizi.

Reference

1.      David Bowman, (2008). Aiwaz.net, Birth of Venus and La Primavera conjoined, retrieved August 9^th 2011, from

      http://www.aiwaz.net/birth-of-venus-and-la-primavera-conjoined/a115

2.      Simonetta Vespucci (n.d.). retrieved August 9^th 2011, from Wikipedia

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simonetta_Cattaneo_Vespucci

3.      The Birth of Venus (Botticelli) (n.d.). retrieved August 9^th 2011, from Wikipedia

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_Venus_%28Botticelli%29

4.      Corbis. Cosmeo, Detail showing Zephyrs with Muse from The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli, retrieved August 8^th 2011, from

      http://www.cosmeo.com/viewPicture.cfm?guidImageId=0AF6E896-73E9-4AC4-A24A-677FC45DD247&&nodeid=

5.      Victor Epand (2008). Ezine articles, The history of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, retrieved August 8^th 2011, from

       http://www.cosmeo.com/viewPicture.cfm?guidImageId=0AF6E896-73E9-4AC4-A24A-677FC45DD247&&nodeid=

6.      Guy shaked (2005). Guy shaked, Botticelli’s Venus as Spring, retrieved August 8^th 2011, from

        http://www.guyshaked.com/botticelli.html

7.      Ronald Lightbown (1978). University of California Press, The Birth of Venus, retrieved August 6^th 2011, from

         http://www.pynchon.pomona.edu/v/birth.html

8.      (2011). Art to art palette journal, Venus on the half-shell, retrieved August 6^th 2011, from

         http://www.arttoartpalettejournal.com/2011/03/venus-on-the-half-shell/

9.      Jacques-edouard. Berger foundation, world art treasures, retrieved August 6^th 2011, from

         http://www.bergerfoundation.ch/Sandro/44venusprintemps2_english.html

10.  Lorenzo de’ Medici (1463-1503) (n.d.). Retrieved August 2^nd 2011, from

         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenzo_de%27_Medici_%281463%E2%80%931503%29

11.  Tonmod Kinnes (2001-2009). Oaks, Birth of Venus by Botticelli : The study, retrieved August 2^nd 2011, from

          http://oaks.nvg.org/venus-art.html

12.  (2011). Eroti cart, Botticelli, retrieved August 2^nd 2001, from

          http://www.eroti-cart.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=44_45_73

13.  Apelles (n.d.). Retrieved August 2^nd 2011, from Wikipedia

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apelles

14.  (2007). My thindex, Horae, retrieved August 1^st 2011, from

          http://www.mythindex.com/greek-mythology/H/Horae.html

15.  Venus Anadyomene (n.d.). Retrieved August 10^th 2011, from Wikipedia

           http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_Anadyomene

Principle of Organisation

Kitsch

Kitsch is a German word that's been adopted by a number of other languages, including English. It refers primarily to art that is overly sentimental or melodramatic, and so refers to aesthetics. is a form of art of an inferior and a tasteless copy of an extant style of art. it present the concept of deliberate use of elements in cultural icons and make cheap mass to produced unoriginal object. in 19th century kitsch art with aesthetics convey exaggerated sentimentality and melodramas well as sentimental art. The other definitions will be the artist and art are highly contingent on culture, resisting aesthetic prescription, in much the same way that the features constituting beauty and the beautiful, cannot be standardized easily without corruption into kitsch.it is also an aesthetically deficient as sentimental, glamorous, theatrical and creative gestures. It considered derogatory denoting works executed to pander to popular demanded alone. sometimes will be on commercial purpose rather then self expression by artist. kitsch art is more to artistic and emotional than reality.

 the Great Cat of Kuching

kitsch culture have applied in Malaysia more on the purpose of display and decorating, as well involve at building. A kitsch monument, antiques, excellent coffee shops and restaurants are also having in Malaysia. as like the Great Cat of Kuching, Trishaw and kl tower where the art is controlled and formulated by the needs of the market and given to a passive population which accepts it for the tourist attraction purpose. Malaysian combine thier culture to create kitsch art, as like the decoration of the cat and the decoration for the trishaw. Common-linguistically Kitsch stands mostly pejorative for a - from the observer's point of view - emotionally inferior, longing-like expression of feelings. In contrast to artistic effort towards truthfulness or beauty critics judge it as a path that is too simplistic to express feelings, too sentimental, trivial or kitschy. Psychological or social attributes of sensations considered kitschy are: conflict deficit, small bourgeois mentality, mass culture, hypocrisy, stereo classification, retarder, reality escape, fake security, silly comfort.

refer to the columns in Malaysia related to kitsch is still defining boundaries between kitsch and fine art since the beginning of postmodernism, the word kitsch still remains in common use to label anything seen as being in poor taste. the columns as the picture showing above is for supporting purpose, not much on decorating and not much people will notice how much the specialty is.

reference- Marco’s Tech (2009). around the world Kuala Lumpur. retrieved, 27 July 2011 from http://www.bernawebdesign.ch/blog/tagged/malaysia/


(2010). travel malaysia Jalan Pandungan. retrieved, 27 July 2011 from http://travel.malaysia.msn.com/destination-guide/malaysia/kuching/do/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4229079


xiao wei (2010). house vibe Graffiti as commercialism, Graffiti as a sign of declining values. retrived from 27 July 2011 from http://housevibe.cn/en/archives/2084


kitsch, retrieved 27 July 2011, Wikipedia from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitsch

Research on The Lady of Auxerre, Venus de Milo and The Caryatid

The Lady of Auxerre was discovered during (640-630 B.C.) and the Venus de Milo was created approximately (500 B.C.E- 1B.C.E). The Lady Of Axuerre height is 75cm and made up from yellow limestone while Venus de Milo is 203cm in height and made up by marble. Both of the sculpture was kept at Louvre Museum, Paris. The Caryatid was discovered during (420-410 B.C.E.). The sculpture height is 231cm. It was made up from marble and black limestone. It was believed created by Alcamenes and Vitrunius. For Venus de Milo, it is discovered on Aegeon Island of Milos.

The lady of Auxerre sculpture and Venus de Milo consists of vertical lines which form a pattern on her hair. There is also a horizontal line on the Lady of Auxerre hand and belt. Indeed, the sculpture contains texture since it was made up from limestone. The three sculptures have a U-shaped face and have human figure. Besides that, Caryatid sculpture is white in colour which contains curves lines on the basket and the cloth. Indeed, The Venus de Milo also has a horizontal line on lower part of the cloth.  Both of the sculpture contains a lot of shape and contains 3 dimension elements. In addition, The Venus de Milo is in cream colour over her body. The posture of sculpture also shows an S-shape. The Lady of Auxerre has a high, narrow waist and her hair style is similar to the female Egyptian. The sculpture is appear smaller compared to the actual size. It also misses some part of her face. The left hand appears stiffly at her side while right hand appears in front of her chest. The Caryatid has a braid hair and has a basket filled with canephora and Venus de Milo contains two holes on her arm. The two sculptures have a straight right leg and bent left leg. The rectangle shape peplos on the The Caryatid was used before 500 B.C. It also uses draping cloth and tubular cloth. Venus de Milo is wearing a draped linen cloth. The linen cloth was used since 36,000 B.P.

The Lady of Auxerre has a wrong proportion of human body, the upper body is shorter but the longer body is longer. In term of proportion for the Caryatid, it has scale of 7 head from the head to the leg. The shape and line on her hand creates a movement when she moves up to her chest. The Caryatid also has an implied movement which the bent left leg creates diagonal lines. It also creates a rhythm when there is a repetition of horizontal line and vertical lines on her hair which also forms a pattern. The sculpture appears to be more solid and stiff. The Caryatid has the rhythm element which creates the flowing of lines on peplos. Indeed, there is a flow of fabric texture on peplos where repetition of lines creates flow movement. The texture makes breast and muscle appear to be more realistic. The style of leg posting creates diagonal lines which whole sculpture appear to be more natural.

The craving technique for Lady of Auverre was adapted from Egyptian concept which carved with Daedalic style to form a female-like sculpture. The Caryatid was sculptured to a draped female which carved from marble. The Venus de Milo is created through joint a few marbles together.

The statue of Lady of Auxerre is looks like a queen of Egyptian.The Caryatid appears to like a strong column which was used to support the metropolis. There is a unique feature where different faces on respective column. However, the Venus de Milo appears like a handicap person and need something like a pillar to support her weight.

The artist intention of the 3 sculpture had included the purpose of god. Lady of Auxerre resemble an archaic Greek goddess, it’s serve as a votary rather than the maiden goddess Persephore. While the purpose of Caryatid is watched the god of Parthenon and the direction of it was look forward to Parthenon. It serves as a bridge between Erechthein and old temple of Athena and also a marker to tomb of cecrops. Venus De Milo having the purpose of inspires women involve to love, marriage spring and fertility, while it was serve as a symbolic of a god of love.

Moreover the 3 sculpture has presented formalistic, the earliest Lady of Auxerre having the simplest lines which in inorganic and simplest structure that in inaccurate figure proportion. Don’t have much detail and the overall figure is stiff and rigid. Besides that, the other 2 sculpture have more improvement on curve, diagonal and organic line. More accurate figure proportion, detail and motion appear mostly on the clothing, hair and face expression. This 2 sculpture also presented imitative, caryatid show the dancing posture with a carried basket, it stand a important role in Athenian festival. While Venus De Milo has carried an apple on left hand with the dropping clothing it shows the emotionalism of elegant, peace and calm. For the other 2 sculpture is more to display and decorative purpose.

The final part of the discussion is the audience. Most of the sculpture work is commissioned by the king in past and the musem for now. Lady of Auxerre is commissioned mostly to Edouard Bourgoin and Auctioneer at past and for now it has commissioned to museum Louvre. For caryatid , it commissioned to Legendary King Erectheus in past and British museum for now. Besides that the copied of caryatid is commissioned to roman, but the art work has left out the Greek male hero Erichthonius with they presented as a female caryatid. Venus De Milo is commissioned to French King at past and Louvre museum for now. All the sculpture art work is more appreciated by artists, educators, archeologists, museums and governments.

References

1.      Ancient Greek Hairstyles,  retrieved by 17^th July 2011 from http://www.hairselect.com/greek.htm

2.      Mary Buckner , (4^th March 2011) , Aphrodite of Melos , retrieved by 17^th July 2011 from http://hum120.wordpress.com/2011/03/04/aphrodite-of-melos/

3.        Ken Hope, (JUNE 04, 2007) The Aphrodite of Melos (Venus de Milo), retrieved by 17^th July 2011 from http://idliketocallyourattentionto.blogspot.com/2007/06/aphrodite-of-melos-venus-de-milo.html

4.       Visual Art.com, Archaic Period (c.600-500), retrieved 17^th July 2011 from http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/greek-art.htm

5.      N.S. Gill (2011), Venus - The Goddess of Love and Beauty ,Retrieved  17^th July 2011 From http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/aphroditevenus/a/Venus.htm

6.      Stan Parchin, July 22, 2010, The Lady of Auxerre, 1 July 2011, http://artmuseumjournal.com/lady_of_auxerre.aspx