The Arts

Page Contents:

Painting

.....Mona Lisa

.....American Gothic

.....Whistler's Mother

.....The Sistine Ceiling

Leonardo Da Vanci

Claude Monet

Raphael

Sculpture

.....Michelangelo's David

PAINTING

Art literally means effort, or attempt, so we have words like artful, artisan, artistic, etc. All of these imply that in some way, humans have intended or planned something. Most dictionary definitions of art involve words like production, expression, arrangement and effort. That means that there is a difference between a rock we happen to sit on and a rock we have dragged out of the woods and arranged in our garden with four other rocks, to make a circle of seats. The latter is a kind of art because we have chosen materials and assembled them in a way not merely useful but also somehow satisfying to us, the artists. So in many ways, art has as much to do with the artist's intentions as with the art itself

Spanish surrealist Salvador Dali had his wife pose for the face ofChrist in his painting "Sacrament of the Last Supper."

The only painting Vincent van Gogh sold in his lifetime was The Red Vineyard.

Artist Edgar Degas was so fascinated with ballet dancers that he became obsessed with representing them in his art. It is estimated Degas made approximately 1500 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings of dancers.

Florentine master painter Giotto di Bondone (1267 -1337) was also an accomplished architect. In 1334 Giotto's architectural skills were employed when he was put in charge of the building operations of Florence Cathedral for which he painted several panel pieces. The most celebrated piece being Ognisanti Madonna.

John James Audubon painted 435 watercolours of birds in his life time. He was born on the Carribean island of Santo Domingo in 1784. In 1802 he moved to the United States where he fell in love with the bird life and made it his life's work to paint a picture of every species of bird in America.

Mona Lisa
The subject of the Mona Lisa, one of history's most famous paintings, was a Florentine merchant's wife. Have you ever noticed that she has no eyebrows? It was customary in Florence in those days to shave them off. X-rays of the Mona Lisa show that there are three completely different versions of the same subject, all painted by Leonardo, under the final portrait. Leonardo da Vinci's name for the Mona Lisa was "La Gioconda." It was named for the wife of Francesco del Giocondo. The painting was in progress during 1503-1506.

Hers may be the most famous face in all art history. Painted by the Italian Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci in the early 16th century, she's been purchased by a king (France's François I), spent time in the bedroom of an emperor (Napoleon Bonaparte), and been stolen by a patriotic Italian in history's most famous art heist.

But for all her fame, scholars have never been entirely sure who she is. Some have argued that she's not Mona (short for Madonna, meaning Mrs.) Lisa at all. Now, a German researcher says he can prove it--with notes a Florentine official made in a book more than 500 years ago.

Fault for the long-running dispute over Mona Lisa's identity lies largely with Leonardo, who didn't label the painting or mention it in his notes (though he evidently carried it with him as a sort of PowerPoint presentation). The name we know comes from Giorgio Vasari's history of Renaissance art, published 31 years after Leonardo died.

According to Vasari, "Leonardo undertook to paint for Francesco del Giocondo a portrait of Mona Lisa his wife, but having spent four years upon it, left it unfinished." Now, Francesco del Giocondo was a wealthy Tuscan merchant, his third wife was Lisa Gherardini, and "Mrs. Lisa" was in her twenties when Leonardo painted the Mona Lisa.

Trouble is, Vasari's book is riddled with errors--and, prior to Vasari, the painting we know as the Mona Lisa was described both as a portrait of a "certain Florentine lady" and as a picture of "a courtesan in a gauze veil." What's more, though Vasari describes the portrait in detail, he almost certainly never saw it. By the time he wrote, the Mona Lisa was in France, in the keep of King François I.

Such factual foibles have left the field wide open for would-be "real" Mona Lisas, and plenty of contenders for the title have emerged over the years. Some scholars think the woman depicted may have been the lover of Giuliano de' Medici, one of Leonardo's biggest supporters. Others say she was Costanza d'Avalos, Leonardo's patroness.

Sigmund Freud claimed (of course) that the Mona Lisa was really Leonardo's mother. More recently, Dr. Lillian Schwartz--a computer graphics specialist at Bell Labs--has argued that the Mona Lisa is a self-portrait of Leonardo himself!

But all of those arguments have now become a bit more difficult to sustain, thanks to the work of German librarian and manuscript expert Armin Schlechter. He found a handwritten note, dated 1503, in a book that once belonged to one of Leonardo's Florentine friends. The note says the artist was then working on a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo--at just the time the Mona Lisa was apparently painted.

For many art historians, that's just the evidence they needed to close the book on Mona Lisa's true identity once and for all. But it still doesn't answer the biggest question about Leo's lady: Why is she smiling like that?

--Steve Sampson KnowledgeNews is brought to you by Every Learner, Inc., an independent small business dedicated to supporting lifelong learners. Copyright © 2008, Every Learner, Inc. All rights reserved.

American Gothic

American Gothic is a painting by Grant Wood, from 1930. Portraying a pitchfork-holding man and a woman in front of a house of Carpenter Gothic style, it is one of the most familiar images in 20th century American art. The models, who sat for the painting separately, were the artist's sister, Nan, and his dentist, Dr. Byron McKeeby. The house is located in Eldon, Iowa. The painting resides at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Wood wanted to depict the traditional roles of men and women as the man is holding a pitchfork symbolizing hand labor. Wood placed plants behind the woman to convey the image of a domestic housewife.

Grant Wood's American Gothic caused a stir in 1930 when it was exhibited for the first time at The Art Institute of Chicago and awarded a prize of 300 dollars. Newspapers across the country carried the story, and the painting of a farm couple posed before a white house brought the artist instant fame.

Some believe that Wood used this painting to satirize the narrow-mindedness and repression that has been said to characterize Midwestern culture, an accusation he denied. The painting may also be read as a glorification of the moral virtue of rural America or even as an ambiguous mixture of praise and satire.

Possibly, although it's certainly one of the most parodied. American Gothic is one of the most reproduced, and parodied, images ever. Many artists have replaced the two people with other known couples and replaced the house with well known houses. References and parodies of the image have been numerous for generations, appearing regularly in such media as postcards, magazines, animated cartoons, advertisements, comic books, and television shows.

Seen in this 1942 photo, Nan Wood Graham, Grant Wood's sister, and Dr. B.H. McKeeby, the family dentist, served as the models for American Gothic. Photo: Cedar Rapids Museum of Art archives

Whistler's Mother

Arrangement in Grey and Black: The Artist's Mother, famous under its colloquial name Whistler's Mother, is an 1871 oil-on-canvas painting by James McNeill Whistler. Anna McNeill Whistler posed for the painting while living in London with her son. Several unverifiable stories surround the making of the painting itself; one is that Anna Whistler acted as a replacement for another model who couldn't make the appointment. Another is that Whistler originally envisioned painting the model standing up, but that his mother was too uncomfortable to pose standing for an extended period.

The sensibilities of a Victorian era viewing audience would not accept what was ostensibly a portrait being exhibited as a mere "arrangement"; thus the explanatory title "Portrait of the Artist's Mother" was appended. It was from this that the work acquired its popular name. After Thomas Carlyle viewed the painting, he agreed to sit for a similar composition, this one being titled Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2. Thus the previous painting became Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 1 more or less by default.

Whistler would eventually pawn the painting, which was acquired in 1891 by Paris' Musee du Luxembourg. Whistler's works, including this one, had attracted a number of imitators and a number of similarly posed and restricted color palette paintings soon appeared particularly by American expatriate painters. For Whistler, having one of his painting displayed in a major museum helped attract wealthy patrons.

Whistler professed to be perplexed and annoyed by the insistence of others upon viewing his work as a "portrait." In his 1890 book, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, he writes: "Take the picture of my mother, exhibited at the Royal Academy as an 'Arrangement in Grey and Black.' Now that is what it is. To me it is interesting as a picture of my mother; but what can or ought the public to care about the identity of the portrait?" Given this outlook, whatever the level of affection Whistler may have felt for his own mother, one finds an even more divergent use of the image in the Victorian era and later, especially in the United States, as an icon for motherhood, affection for parents, and "family values" in general. For example, in 1934 the U.S. Post office issued a stamp engraved with a stylized image of "Whistler's Mother," accompanied by the slogan "In Memory and In Honor of the Mothers of America."

The painting was featured prominently in the 1997 film Bean, when Mr. Bean, played by Rowan Atkinson was sent to the United States from England to oversee the installation of the painting in a Californian art museum. After sneezing on it, Mr. Bean wipes the painting with his handkerchief, but accidentally smears the mother's face with blue ink instead. Bean then attempted to clean the ink off using paint thinner, which washed off the ink, as well as the face. Bean ends up replacing the painting with a poster, while taking the original home with him and placing it over his mantlepiece, with a cartoon head drawn over the blank space where the mother's head had been.

The Sistine Ceiling

Five hundred years after Michelangelo Buonnarroti painted it on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the "Creation of Adam" stands as one of the world's most famous artworks. But in 1508, when Pope Julius II offered Michelangelo the job, the artist tried to pass.

Michelangelo repeatedly explained to the pope that he considered himself a sculptor, not a painter. He was already renowned for two masterpieces: the deeply moving sculpture of Mary cradling Jesus's body--the "Pieta"--housed in St. Peter's Basilica, and the impressive statue of David in his hometown of Florence. But Julius knew that Michelangelo was no slouch with a paint brush. So when the artist tried to decline the commission, the pope made it an order.

Once he was committed to the project, Michelangelo didn't cut corners. Julius said he wanted to see portraits of the 12 apostles, but Michelangelo took it upon himself to cover the entire ceiling with more than 300 figures.

The original plan for decorating the chapel put the masterpieces on the walls. The pope who ordered the chapel's construction, Sixtus IV (whose name gives us "Sistine"), hired the leading artists of the 1480s to fill them with scenes from the lives of Moses and Jesus. The ceiling, at that time, was unobtrusive--just a deep blue backdrop with some gold stars.

Michelangelo decided that his "higher" contribution would show the earliest scenes from the Bible, as well as other famous figures. Down the center of the ceiling, he fleshed out stories from the Book of Genesis--the creation of Adam, the snake tempting Eve in the Garden of Eden, Noah's ark.

But these were just part of Michelangelo's vision. He filled the rest of the ceiling with portraits of prophets like Ezekiel and Isaiah. He added symbols of ancient times, like the Oracle at Delphi, to illustrate his belief that even the pagans of the past were waiting for the messiah. Then there are the naked guys, called "Ignudi," tucked into the corners of the Bible scenes. They've been interpreted a variety of ways.

Michelangelo rounded out the composition with smaller figures depicting 40 generations of Jesus's ancestors. In the end, just about the only people who weren't included were--you guessed it--the 12 apostles. Good thing Michelangelo got Julius II to let him paint whatever he wanted.

Michelangelo spent nearly four years working on a special six-story scaffold, craning his neck and stretching his arms out to paint the scenes in wet plaster. The fresco medium is much less forgiving than, say, oil painting. If you make a mistake in the wet plaster, you have to scrape it all off and start over. Michelangelo didn't really paint lying on his back, but it must have been exhausting work.

When it was done, Michelangelo had composed an artwork covering 5,400 square feet--and had painted every human figure with his own brush. (Italian masters often employed assistants, but Michelangelo wasn't very good at subcontracting.) In 1512, Pope Julius II held a special All Saints' Day Mass under the completed ceiling, and the finished work aroused a sensation. It's been generating buzz in the art world ever since.

Colleen Kelly
Copyright 2005, KnowledgeNews. All rights reserved.

Leonardo Da Vinci

If Leonardo were a modern-day American, he probably wouldn't be in the movies. He'd be making movies. He might also be an engineer at NASA, and a leading researcher at the National Institutes of Health, and a special advisor to the president on matters of national security--all at once.

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Born in the town of Vinci (hence "da Vinci") in 1452, Leonardo became the quintessential "Renaissance man." He's been called the first great Renaissance master, the first scientist, even the first modern. His genius reached across a divide that few before or since have succeeded in bridging--the divide between transcendent, visionary, expressive artist and practical, methodical, mathematical scientist.

In addition to creating some of the world's most famous art, Leonardo conducted extensive research into human anatomy, dissecting by his own count more than 30 corpses. He served as a military engineer, preparing plans to overhaul fortifications, divert the river Arno around Pisa, and outfit Venetian "SEAL" teams with primitive scuba gear. And he advised some of the most powerful men of his time--including Cesare Borgia, the notoriously ruthless commander of the papal army, for whom he sketched maps that helped lay the groundwork for modern cartography.

He also endowed posterity with thousands of manuscript pages, written in his famous "mirror-style"--that is, right to left, so that they can be easily read only in a mirror. Within these pages are inquiries into the flight of birds, the construction of military fortifications, hydraulics, optics, human anatomy, perspective (in both art and science), observations on the moon's craters, a design for a flying machine (which looks something like a helicopter), and more. And, of course, there are still those other works--the ones for which Leonardo is most famous.

Completed between 1495 and 1498, Leonardo's Last Supper may be the world's second-most famous painting. The work reproduces the moment at which Christ, during a Passover meal, announces to his apostles that one of them will betray him. Except for Judas (and Christ, who calmly accepts his fate), each of the apostles displays the confusion and apprehension of the moment--disbelief, anger, frustration, sadness, fear, denial, and exasperation all at once.

Unfortunately, the Last Supper wasn't built to last. Leonardo had invented a new fresco technique for painting the masterpiece, but the technique didn't hold water. The painting began to deteriorate within a few years, and by the middle of the 16th century it was practically ruined. Leo fans have been trying to restore the work for centuries.

Leonardo's Mona Lisa is almost certainly the world's most famous painting. Leonardo completed the faintly smiling lady between 1503 and 1506. Its influence was immediate, setting the standard by which portraits would be judged for centuries to come. In fact, the young Raphael sketched the Mona Lisa while it was still a work in progress and was using it as a model for his own portraits by the time Leonardo was done.

No one knows for sure, but the woman in the picture is generally believed to be "Mrs. Lisa" Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, a prominent Florentine of the time. And her smile? Your guess is as good as anyone's.

Steve Sampson
Updated May 18, 2006

Claude Monet

Born in Paris in 1840, Claude Monet was a key player in the French impressionist movement, along with Alfred Sisley and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The revolutionary rule-breakers of their artistic time, the impressionists sought their subjects in everyday life, not history. They painted outside, not in studios. They defied convention by using choppy brushstrokes and bright, often unmixed, colors.

Critics called them crazy. Art historians now call them geniuses. And none more so than Monet, the son of a grocer who began his art career sketching caricatures for a few francs at the beach. His masterpieces now fetch millions. Of his own work, Monet said, "The only merit I have is to have painted directly from nature with the aim of conveying my impressions in front of the most fugitive effects."

Fugitive effects? "For me," Monet said, "a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment. But the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life--the light and the air which vary continually. For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true value." For Monet, in other words, a little atmosphere can make a big impression.

Steve Sampson

Raphael

Born in Urbino, Italy, in 1483, Raphael's artistic career began early. His father was a well-regarded artist in his own right, and Raphael likely helped tend the family studio from a young age. Sadly, both of Raphael's parents died before he reached his teens. He then lived with an uncle for a time before moving to Perugia to work with Perugino, a famous painter.

By 1500, when Raphael was just 17, people were describing him as a magister ("master"). By 1504, he was producing magisterial pieces like "Marriage of the Virgin", with its dazzling use of perspective and geometrical composition.

That same year, Raphael left Perugia for Florence, where he discovered new inspiration in the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Fra Bartolommeo. During his Florentine period, Raphael produced paintings like "La Belle Jardinere", featuring less geometry and more anatomy--not to mention the serenity that became one of his signatures.

In 1508, Pope Julius II called Raphael to Rome to paint frescoes on his palace walls. Raphael was just 25, and had little frescoing experience, but that didn't stop him from producing "The School of Athens", among other artistic marvels. Not content with being Rome's hottest painter, Raphael also delved into architecture. He mastered that, too, and for a time was put in charge of rebuilding St. Peter's Basilica (it was later re-rebuilt).

Despite a hectic schedule, Raphael continued to produce masterpieces--including the emotional "Transfiguration"--until his premature death from a fever in 1520. His work was inspirational to the end, and after. Over the centuries, countless critics have styled him the greatest painter of all time--the man aspiring artists should imitate. Imitation, of course, is the sincerest form of flattery, but it can make telling a real Raphael from a mere pretender pretty tricky.

--Steve Sampson

SCULPTURE

At the age of 26, Michelangelo began sculpting his monumental statue of David. He finished it seventeen months later, in January, 1504.

The red, yellow, and dark blue Renaissance uniform worn by the Swiss Guard at the Vatican was designed by Michaelangelo. It is one of several costumes worn by the Gendarmeria Pontifica.

"The Pieta" is the only sculpture on which Michelangelo is believed to have carved his name.

When Auguste Rodin exhibited his first important work, The Bronze Period, in 1878 it was so realistic that people thought he had sacrificed a live model inside the cast. Rodin died of frostbite in 1917 when the French government refused him financial aid for a flat, yet they kept his statues warmly housed in museums.

DAVID

Michelangelo's David

Michelangelo's David is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture and one of Michelangelo's works of sculpture, holding the title of the most recognizable and infamous statue in the history of art. It has become regarded as a symbol both of strength and youthful human beauty. The 17 foot marble statue portrays the Biblical King David at the moment that he decides to do battle with Goliath.

The history of Michelangelo's David goes back to 1464. The Operai had plans to commission a series of twelve large Old Testament sculptures and contracted Donatello's assistant, Agostino to create a sculpture of David. He only barely began to rough out the piece before quitting in 1466 and the block of marble remained neglected for twenty-five years, all the while exposed to the elements. This was of great concern, as such a large piece of marble was both costly, and involved a large amount of labor and danger in its transportation. In 1500, they ordered the block of stone (called The Giant) "raised on its feet" so that a master might examine it. Though Leonardo da Vinci and others were consulted, it was young Michelangelo, only 26 years old, who convinced the Operai that he deserved the commission.

Michelangelo's David differs from previous representations of the subject in that David is depicted before his battle with Goliath and not after the giant's defeat. Instead of being shown victorious over a foe much larger than he, David looks tense and ready for combat. His veins bulge out of his lowered right hand and the twist of his body effectively conveys to the viewer the feeling that he is in motion. The statue is meant to show David after he has made the decision to fight Goliath but before the battle has actually taken place. It is a representation of the moment between conscious choice and conscious action.

Michelangelo's David is based on the artistic discipline of disegno, which is built on knowledge of the male human form. Under this discipline, sculpture is considered to be the finest form of art because it mimics divine creation. Because Michelangelo adhered to the concepts of disegno, he worked under the premise that the image of David was already in the block of stone he was working on -- in much the same way as the human soul is thought by some to be found within the physical body.

The proportions are not quite true to the human form; the head and upper body are somewhat larger than the proportions of the lower body. While some have suggested that this is of the mannerist style, the most commonly accepted explanation is that the statue was originally intended to be placed on a church facade or high pedestal, and that the proportions would appear correct when the statue was viewed from some distance below.

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