The formal analysis of The 3rd of May, 1808, Francisco Goya, 1814, oil on canvas. In the following written composition I will examine The 3rd of May, 1808 in a context which will allow me to identify formal elements that Goya manipulated to influence the viewers with a specific outlining message. This work was completed in 1814 using oil on canvas medium. This piece of art stands at approximately 266 by 345cm. This was common for historical paintings to be substantially grander in size. Goya’s goal in this specific painting is to depict the sorrow and heartache connected with the Peninsular war. In this specific work The 3rd of May 1808 he highlights the honor of the massacred Spanish rebellions opposed to the savage French troops. This formal analysis will examine the important technique used by Goya to organize societies depiction of the visual information. Within this work I will concentrate on these elements of color, texture, shape, lines, space, and the value to bring about my own opinion of Goya’s work. Using this strategy applied to The 3rd of May, 1808 work I hope to demonstrate a comprehension how to translate what I see into written words.
When speaking about color we have to recognize that they’re categorized into “primary colors red, yellow and blue and also three secondary color are orange, green, and violet”1. As shown in Goya’s work yellow is used to highlight the Spaniards. The protagonist is shown wearing yellow as well as another man laying dead besides the doomed onlookers. Goya’s use of yellow as the primary color has an overwhelming influence to direct the viewers eyes. This is one of the first things I noticed when I began to examine the painting myself. Our eyes are drawn to these figures even more as th...
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...s work The 3rd of May, 1808 is a very detailed and dramatic narrative within a collection of war themed works by the artist. I believe that by using the formal elements of color, texture, shape, lines, space, and the value I was able to sufficiently provide evidence that Goya offers a sequential order of direction for the audience to comprehend from their personal viewing. The twisted and grief stricken work creates a massive emotional connection and the artist plans for the viewers’ to grow and understand this message. The subject highlighted is obvious that Goya is passionate on his stance and outlook on war is suggested in the work. It’s obvious that Goya’s formal organization of his color palette, variation of brushes, repeating shapes, and play with lighting all correspond to depict man’s savage and at times monstrous actions are justified during war.
This new technological development defines the emergence of universal/total war that changed the field of combat before and during WWI. This piece was obviously painted in 1911 right before WWI, but it presents the historical change from horse-driven combat to the more industrialized methods of canon warfare. By WWI, the rise of tanks and artillery made the French Calvary obsolete, and it gave rise to the modern French infantry. Much like Levinthal’s photographic depiction of tanks and soldiers in WWII, the development of those technologies are defined in Fresnaye’s acute sense of movement in military maneuvers. The use of artillery in WWI would now make it possible to kill hundreds of thousands of soldiers with more advanced industrial development of machine technology. Certainly, Fresnaye is depicting the power and masculinity of the French infantry in terms of the coming devastation that WWI would bring to Europe. The use of artillery was a major change in the field of combat during WWI, which defined the horrors of universal war in the modern psyche. Fresnaye’s cubism illustrates the advancing modernism of early 20th century warfare in the angular and geometric depiction of men and artillery as a new phenomenon in the art world. Certainly, Fresnaye’s painting illustrates the modern psyche of total/universal war in the depiction of modern
George Gittoes (b.1949) creates works that that communicate the issue of the graphic horror of war. A social realist painter, photographer and filmmaker, his approach to art is that ‘he layers and accumulates material until, out of apparent chaos, there is a synthesis of idea, passion and image’ (Mendelssohn, 2014). As an eyewitness to the world's war zones, Gittoes clearly uses his work as a means of communication to society.
... the Durer landscapes seen in Giulio Campagnola’s Saturn. Campbell’s analysis of poesia is a strong illustration of the examination of works in the field of Art History. Art historians obviously study the physical marks and meanings of a piece of work, but also need to critically analyze the influences and historical context of the time period to get a stronger understanding of the artist and his intentions. As a good art historian, Campbell has taken apart the elements of different images and tied in extrinsic factors, like contemporary events and works, to create a bigger picture.
The Interpretation/Meaning (III) will be written without any guideline points, the aim of this part will be to determine what the painter wanted to express with his piece of work and what it tells us in a symbolic or not instantly clear way. This part will also handle why the artist drew the painting the way he did it and why he chose various techniques or tools.
Pablo Picasso is one of the most famous and well-documented artists of the twentieth century. Picasso, unlike most painters, is even more special because he did not confine himself to canvas, but also produced sculpture, poetry, and ceramics in profusion. Although much is known about this genius, there is still a lust after more knowledge concerning Picasso, his life and the creative forces that motivated him. This information can be obtained only through a careful study of the events that played out during his lifetime and the ways in which they manifested themselves in his creations (Penrose).
Artists are masters of manipulation. They create unimaginably realistic works of art by using tools, be it a paintbrush or a chisel as vehicles for their imagination to convey certain emotions or thoughts. Olympia, by Manet and Bierstadt’s Sierra Nevada Mountains both are mid nineteenth century paintings that provide the viewer with different levels of domain over the subject.
Artists portray gruesome events in many ways including poems and videos. Gruesome events are portrayed in similar ways and also different ways including what is put in and what is left out. Whether it be leaving out who started the war, telling the whole story, or emphasizing elements in different ways the artist clearly portrays the Civil War of Spain as a gruesome and horrifying event. Both mediums clearly show how life was before the war and how people have been hurt. Both artists give the reader a sense of how the war affected everyone in Spain and eventually give the rest of the world a reason to “come and see the blood in the streets”(1/5 voices).
Jacques-Louis David’s Oath of the Horatii and Francisco Goya’s Third of May, 1808 are both large scale paintings that contain an intense emotional element by using an oil medium on canvas. David’s Oath of the Horatii is a history painting, meaning that it has a moralizing message along with classical antiquity of a Roman legend. Jacques-Louis David was a member of the French Royal Academy, which was controlled by the monarchy. In contrast, Spanish artist Francisco Goya’s Third of May, 1808 is often referred to as the “world’s first modern painting,” as it shows the distress and suffering of the Spanish at the time. This painting is an example of Romanticism, as it shows Goya’s political sympathies.
In fact, some of the works presented depict mythological paintings that resemble the transcending Metaphysical matter of nature. Take for instance, the general aspect of the artworks presented in this chapter. They depict different social levels through the use of objects, emotions and various conditions. The lower status contradicts, the slaves to the wealthy and royalty, all delineate the role of the people present in the society and their everyday life. In the images, the poor and the slaves depicted with little to no possessions, looking tired and over-worked. Through their everyday labor, they must survive as a less fortunate person. In contrast to the images of the po...
Art is said to be the expression of the soul; however, quite often, one is unable to truly know the artist by his or her works alone. So is the case of the postimpressionist painter Paul Gauguin. while the paintings of Paul Gauguin do not reveal all of his life, the paintings are very much so a reflection of Gauguin’s views on life.
In this essay, I shall try to examine how great a role colour played in the evolution of Impressionism. Impressionism in itself can be seen as a linkage in a long chain of procedures, which led the art to the point it is today. In order to do so, colour in Impressionism needs to be placed within an art-historical context for us to see more clearly the role it has played in the evolution of modern painting. In the late eighteenth century, for example, ancient Greek and Roman examples provided the classical sources in art. At the same time, there was a revolt against the formalism of Neo-Classicism. The accepted style was characterised by appeal to reason and intellect, with a demand for a well-disciplined order and restraint in the work. The decisive Romantic movement emphasized the individual’s right in self-expression, in which imagination and emotion were given free reign and stressed colour rather than line; colour can be seen as the expression for emotion, whereas line is the expression of rationality. Their style was painterly rather than linear; colour offered a freedom that line denied. Among the Romanticists who had a strong influence on Impressionism were Joseph Mallord William Turner and Eugéne Delacroix. In Turner’s works, colour took precedence over the realistic portrayal of form; Delacroix led the way for the Impressionists to use unmixed hues. The transition between Romanticism and Impressionism was provided by a small group of artists who lived and worked at the village of Barbizon. Their naturalistic style was based entirely on their observation and painting of nature in the open air. In their natural landscape subjects, they paid careful attention to the colourful expression of light and atmosphere. For them, colour was as important as composition, and this visual approach, with its appeal to emotion, gradually displaced the more studied and forma, with its appeal to reason.
Georges Didi-Huberman is critical of the conventional approaches towards the study of art history. Didi-Huberman takes the view that art history is grounded in the primacy of knowledge, particularly in the vein of Kant, or what he calls a ‘spontaneous philosophy’. While art historians claim to be looking at images across the sweep of time, what they actually do might be described as a sort of forensics process, one in which they analyze, decode and deconstruct works of art in attempt to better understand the artist and purpose or expression. This paper will examine Didi-Huberman’s key claims in his book Confronting Images and apply his methodology to a still life painting by Juan Sánchez Cotán.
Francisco Goya’s The Third of May 1808 introduces the highly emotional style of Romanticism (French Revolution) and illustrates the themes of violent punishment, death, and the senseless brutality of war. Goya has made an image of actual historical events, but enhanced them for maximum dramatic effect. In the painting, the figures to the left of the composition demand the viewer’s attention more than the figures to the right. While the faceless French soldiers on the opposite side are rendered almost inhuman, the ill-fated Spanish “rebels” elicit both sympathy for their suffering and respect for their sacrifice.
The title of the painting, “The Face of War” gives a very clear understanding of what this painting is supposed to represent. When looking at the deeper meaning however, one has to consider the context of the painting. Because it was made during both a civil war-capital letters?? and the Second World War, many aspects of these wars are reflected upon in this piece.
Painting in the 19th century, still highly influenced by the spirit of Romanticism, proved to be a far more sensitive medium for the kind of personal expression one should expect from the romantic subjectivity of the time. At the very beginning of the “modern period” stands the imposing figure of Francisco Goya (1746-1828), the great independent painter from Spain. With much indebtedness to Velazquez, Rembrandt and the wonders of the natural world, Goya occupies the status of an artistic giant. His artistic range goes from the late Venetian Baroque through the brilliant impressionistic realism of his own to a late expressionism in which dark and powerful distor...