Course of Empire Destruction
Destruction is a exterior of tragedy that may come in many forms. When people hear the word destruction they may think of their own personal experience of destruction or tragedy. That may range from a house being torn apart by a tornado to a loss of a family member or president being assassinated. The effects of destruction are tremendous and terrible. That could affect one to thousands of people at a time; resulting in massively spread pain and suffering. In the painting Course of Empire Destruction, by Thomas Cole (1836), there is a mass tragedy being painted. The Vandals’ attack on Rome in 455, to be exact. The pain and devastation, was captured in this painting perfectly. Through many colors and symbols. Which affected thousands of people in many different ways. Cole used many techniques to show the enemy warriors taking over the town. Cole use of color and symbols reflect
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A old sandy color bridge is cast upon the middle of the painting, which is crumbling apart and crashing into the water. The water in this painting is dark blue and white showing the choppiness of the water. In the middle of the painting is a white statue with its head broken off, but still standing, holding a black shield leaning forward towards the center of the painting. In the background fire and gray and black smoke cover the landscape. The gray skies linger over the town with a dark depressing tone. While the river banks are roaring with fire. In the lower center of the painting is a woman dressed in white jumping to off the river bank with a warrior behind her. In the lower portion of the painting ships are on fire. Throughout the whole painting you will see thousands of people, some enemy warriors some townspeople. The enemy warriors are wearing red. While the townspeople are dressed in typical daily life clothing
Wayne, transforms this painting into a three dimensional abstract piece of art. The focal point of the painting are the figures that look like letters and numbers that are in the front of the piece of art. This is where your eyes expend more time, also sometimes forgiving the background. The way the artist is trying to present this piece is showing happiness, excitement, and dreams. Happiness because he transmits with the bright colours. After probably 15 minutes on front of the painting I can feel that the artist tries to show his happiness, but in serene calm. The excitement that he presents with the letters, numbers and figures is a signal that he feels anxious about what the future is going to bring. Also in the way that the colors in the background are present he is showing that no matter how dark our day can be always will be light to
Liu encountered these families during her four years in the countryside. The painting depicts two men, perhaps a father and son, working together to pull a boat upstream. Although the boat is not in the picture, one can sense the weight from the postures, effort and strength of the men. Two men are contrasted by small images of the fragile, precious snuff bottles and the delicate dragonfly in the corner, both traditional Chinese symbols. The painting shows the 2 men in perfect rhythm with the appearance of sweat falling from their efforts. The positive focus is the 2 men in the picture with many negative white and dark colors. I believe the artist wanted you to feel the darkness and the sadness of the men as they did what that had to do to survive. You can almost feel the pain as they stress their bodies to the limits. I was truly intrigued by this piece of work, and would love to learn more about the artist’s
An Empire Divided by Andrew O’Shaughnessy conveyed the reasons for non-participation on the part of the British West Indies during the American Revolution. He explores concepts such as double consciousness on part of the planters, as well as economic and political ideologies of the planters and the slaves during the late 1700s.
Often art is lost or destroyed through out the many dangers of time. Art is sometimes used to convey thoughts or ideas of a time or people. If works are lost or destroyed we may lose important information from this time or the people who created the art. This matter is shown best in the movie titled The Rape of Europa.
In the Wood’s painting, it shows a wider scale of the town while in the N.C. Wyeth’s illustration it shows a close up of Paul Revere galloping by on a horse alarming the people in the
The back of the painting shows brick red buildings which are billowing smoke out of the top of them. The red in the buildings could be symbolizing the red
The representation of the new age of exploration, which serves as an allusion to man’s potential, is starkly contrasted with the depiction of Icarus that serves as an allegory for man’s limits, indicating the shift from a euro-centric universe. This painting is an oil canvas landscape of the sun setting on the horizon of the ocean sea, while the ships were sailing through the body of water. The focus on humanism during this period is clearly portrayed by the presence of the plowman, shepherd, and fisherman performing their daily task. Lighter colors are used, which differ from the darker colors that were emphasized during the Dark Age or Medieval period. Shadows can be seen on the ground next to the plowman, showing the increasing artistic methods that begin to be utilized.
From the piece of artwork “Rain at the Auvers”. I can see roofs of houses that are tucked into a valley, trees hiding the town, black birds, clouds upon the horizon, hills, vegetation, a dark stormy sky and rain.
There were many reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire. Each one interweaved with the other. Many even blame the initiation of Christianity in 337 AD by Constantine the Great as the definitive cause while others blame it on increases in unemployment, inflation, military expenditure and slave labour while others blame it on the ethical issues such the decline in morals, the lack of discipline of the armies and the political corruption within the Empire. Three major contributions that led to the collapse of the once great empire were: the heavy military spending in order to expand the Empire, the over-reliance on slave labour which led to an increase in unemployment, and the political corruption and abuse of power by the Praetorian Guard leading to the unfair selection of many disreputable emperors and the assassination of those not favoured by the Guard.
The painting is organized simply. The background of the painting is painted in an Impressionist style. The blurring of edges, however, starkly contrasts with the sharp and hard contours of the figure in the foreground. The female figure is very sharp and clear compared to the background. The background paint is thick compared to the thin lines used to paint the figures in the foreground. The thick paint adds to the reduction of detail for the background. The colors used to paint the foreground figures are vibrant, as opposed to the whitened colors of the Impressionist background. The painting is mostly comprised of cool colors but there is a range of dark and light colors. The light colors are predominantly in the background and the darker colors are in the foreground. The vivid color of the robe contrasts with the muted colors of the background, resulting in an emphasis of the robe color. This emphasis leads the viewer's gaze to the focal part of the painting: the figures in the foreground. The female and baby in the foreground take up most of the canvas. The background was not painted as the artist saw it, but rather the impression t...
The decline and fall of the Roman Empire is a scholarly article written by Justin Ott about the Roman Empire and the events leading up to its fall. The article mostly focuses on the military and economy of Rome in the third century A.D. It lists in the beginning a few of the different theories people have of how Rome fell, including led poisoning and the spread of Christianity. The article seems to want to disprove these theories, showing how they are not the main causes for the collapse of Rome. “Gibbon’s arguments in these sections can be accurately summarized as “the insensible penetration of Christianity in the empire fatally undermined the genius of a great people.” The problem with this conclusion is two-fold. First of all, this explanation is too narrow as it is difficult to believe one single factor brought down the empire. More importantly, it is clear that the Eastern Roman Empire was by far more Christian than the West, therefore if Christianity was behind the fall, the East should have fallen first.” The article’s audience appears to be historians, or those who are interested in history, or just the Roman Empire. It
Most of the civilizations throughout history have been taken over or replaced by other civilizations due to disunity and chaos. Although an empire might seem prosperous, the decline and fall of empires are sometimes inevitable. Even though an empire might seem invincible, there are many factors that could lead to the sudden decline or fall of an empire. Over many centuries, historians have composed many reasons, such as weak militaries, economic burdens, dynastic successions, and external enemies, which have been known to contribute to the rise and fall of many once successful empires.
The subject of this artwork is a shipwreck. I see it looks like a storm in the ocean and there’s a ship but the ships mass and sails appear to be damaged. The crew is lowering lifeboats, suggesting that they have to abandon ship. A rescue boat is coming in on the right side of the painting and another boat and ship are coming in on the left side of the painting to help the crew from the distressed ship. There also appears to be a lighthouse at a distance. The action being conveyed is the waves crashing into the ship. The darkness in the waves and the colors he used made them seem like there real ocean waves. The art piece does seem to be telling ...
The painting was of a river flowing from a lake, surrounded by very tall grass. On each side of the river there are people standing. What was interesting is they were painted all black. They looked like shaded figures. They were all shaped differently but you can tell they were all men. On the top left side of the river there were five men. On the right bottom side of the river there were four men. On each side it looked as though the men were trying to cross over to the other side. They looked tired and scared. It looked as though they were hiding, and getting across the river was the only way to get to that safe haven.
The natural yet chaotic process of destruction is vividly depicted with contrasting images of destruction and purity throughout the poem, beginning with Pan entering the river in a disorderly