As mythology has always piqued my interest, Roman and Greek mainly, it is only natural that Saturn Devouring His Son by Francisco Goya stopped me from turning the page. This piece has been burned in my head since I was a junior in high school. The painting doesn’t have a lot of color, light, patterns, or textures but it draws you in instantly. It is a horrific image to look at, but the same time you can’t look away at this man savagely eating another human. As gross at this painting may be I believe it holds some strong messages.
This painting is classified as a romanticism painting as the artist has one job and that is to convey his point in his audience. Looking at the piece it has an equally balance of positive and negative space, the negative space being the dark black background in which Saturn looks like he emerging from it. The positive space is Saturn himself, which is where the emphasis is. In doing this, Goya was very successful in getting his message across that this was a dark time.
The colors are very dark giving a sense, to me, of dread and death. The greys, black, and fleshy browns are very harmonious. Goya kept from using light colors expect for the focal points. In my opinion, there is more than one focal point or that the focal point is large, from Saturn’s face to the lifeless body. The corpse is hanging in Saturn’s tight grip is deathly white and has bright blood red where the head and arm had been. I think that is a symbol, the body being faceless and no way to tell the gender, besides from the title, means that it could represent anyone. Also, if you look Saturn’s knuckles are white to as if he is squeezing the body as if it may get away from him. He also uses the technique chiaroscuro. The light draws y...
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...th color, the way he used color when it was used conveyed what was important in the piece. The body as it hangs lifeless from Saturn’s death grip is dripping with blood and it is even between the white knuckles of Saturn. In having Saturn’s knuckles white it emphasizes his grip that is so strong on the body he is drawing blood from the back. It is showing his passion in that the deed has to be done. His expression is wild and his stance is cowardly showing that he may not have wanted to do what he was doing. The message in the painting is that time consumes us all, and that is by having the god of time eating a faceless body. There is another message in this too, I believe and it is that people will do almost anything to keep their reign in power. I found this painting very stimulating and gave me many emotions. I think just because of that the piece is successful.
The painting clearly shows Mars and Venus being tied together by a cupid. So I can see why this is the most popular translation of this painting. My personal response was really strong after seeing the painting for the first time. As soon as I saw this painting I knew that it had a deeper meaning to it; and not just some people being tied together by a cupid. I knew right away that it had to do with Roman mythology just from the names. After looking at this painting for a while there is still something that the artist is trying to portray, that is really tough. It feels like there is more going on than what seems. The painting has such a calm tone to it but it gives a little hint of roughness with the sword and the horse, which I think, helps to balance this painting.
In terms of colours, the white colour dominates in this painting. It signifies purity, freedom and change. In the past the rulers have dominated over the people but now the prevailing power is in the hands of the peasants. The large green leaves, echoing the horse`s mane in the painting symbolise the revival of the human mind and notify of the arriving change in people`s lives.
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.
When first viewing this piece, the viewer is confronted by a hellish image painted on a delicate porcelain bowl. It is painted in grotesque colors that could be potentially representing human anatomy, an idea of being within oneself. The scene consists of abstracted and deformed figures that appear to be exerting themselves toward demonic forms. These archaic forms were believed to have been developed from Pollock’s own haunting subconscious. Located in the center of these demons stands a small, glowing figure that appears to be surrounded by a halo of bright light. This figure could be interpreted as Pollock’s attempt to fight off his own inner demons. Naturally, the viewer’s eye is drawn to this moment first, as it is located in the center of the piece. It is a powerful moment, that leaves the viewer wondering where exactly the figure is headed in the bright
He uses vibrant colors at the bottom of the painting. This portion is made up of all different lifeforms, representing all life in this world. The majority of the life is frogs; they are shown at every stage in life and this symbolizes the value of all life, no matter the age. Rockman chose vibrant colors here, that would really stand out to symbolize the importance of life and immediately draw the eye of anyone looking at this painting. At first glance, it seems like the overall message of the painting is the value of life, however, after a more in-depth look at this painting the darker colors begin to stand out. Because the background is completely made up of darker colors, it seems huge and this sense makes the life, at the bottom, appear to be smaller and less important in the overall meaning. The dark colors represent the problems and evils in society. The contrasting colors are used to show that even though we may think that we are the most important thing, there is so much more to the
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, or more commonly known as Goya, was a Spanish Romantic artist during the late 18th and early 19th century. Goya was one of the first artists to appear in the Romantic period and is now referred to as the most influential artist of the time. For a majority of his career, Goya suffered through hearing loss, causing him to express his internal thoughts through paintings he did inside of his home. The paintings depicted many characteristics of the Romantic style with his use of intense emotions and ideas such as death and horror. These romantic aspects were especially distinguished in his most famous pieces The Third of May 1808, Saturn Devouring His Son, and Witches’ Sabbath.
Vincent Van Gogh created The Sower, a 12 3⁄5˝ × 15 3⁄4 Oil on canvas, in 1888. The subject of The Sower is a man working in a field all day all alone, in the hot overbearing sun, who is far from home. Gogh uses the visual elements and principles of design listed below to describe a lonely soul. The painting illustrates how long and hard a day or life can be and depicts a home that is far away. The colors of the field represent the joy the sower has in his work.
many other emotions that the artist is trying to display in his painting. Although we can try and
...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.
One of the visual elements of this painting is the color he really uses the color to get people's attention because he uses watercolors to blend them together to make such a wonderful painting. He blends many different colors together to make new ones there is not a spot in this painting that there isn’t color. The second visual element is the people in the painting they are naked and dancing around like nobody's looking. The people in the painting are relaxing and enjoying one another and various ways. Some are even having sexual contact in the painting it’s expressing themselves from one to
My second piece that I choose was Vincent van Gogh’s, Olive Trees made of oil on canvas in 1889. I have always loved this piece so this was an easy piece to choose. When looking up the dimensions of the piece it was hard to find. There are fifteen different canvases of this series, so it told me all of them. To make a rough estimate I would say it is about 4 feet high and 3 feet width wise.
A major aspect of Romantic poetry is the surreal concept of the sublime. Sublime to romantics meant a heightened emotion expressed through terror, especially seen in nature. It gives evidence of the God’s power- a theme that artists and poets explored as romantics. This term conveys the human emotion people experience when they see something that leaves them in awe; for example, magnificent landscapes, the endless sea or horizon, or finding themselves in certain situations that can inflict feelings like fear or admiration. The sublime is used by Turner and many other Pre-Romantic painters. in the painting, the sails of the ship are rolled up, and water splashes and flies around and over it the ship, almost consuming it. The jagged, dark, clouds point to a forming storm and just shows how utterly consuming and unpredictable nature can be. In addition to the water and storm clouds, the symbolism of the blood-red color of the sunset, and the brown of the
...s of the people that cared about Jesus and also to see the anger that God had for what the people had done to his son by showing the stormy clouds and gloomy surroundings. But he also wanted us to see that even among the gloom that good can come because Jesus has died on the cross for our sins so that we may join him in Heave with our father. I believe he shows this by the light surrounding Jesus. I think this is a great master piece. Tintoretto has so much going on throughout the painting that you can go back and look again and find something going on in the picture that you missed before.
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...
To me the painting is a way of showing you what everyone else is seeing. That the painter had the men looking right at each other so they can see themselves running away. In turn I got to see myself doing the same thing and was able to change because of it. When other people look at the painting they probably see something else. That is why I choose to do the painting, it gives you the choice too interpret it any way you see fit. Or it can just be a beautiful painting to look at, but the painting was so much more to me. It painted a thousand words for me.