A Day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
I. Jan van Eyck’s “Last Judgment”
Jan van Eyck was active since 1422 and died in 1441. He was the most celebrated painter of the fifteen-century in Europe. One of his famous works is “The Last Judgment”. At first sight this work immediately attracted my attention. The painting’s stunning colors and the fact that it reminded me of a previous similar work I have seen, triggered in my mind. The material that is used is oil on canvas, transferred from wood. The size of this work is 22 1/4 *7 2/3 in. (56.5 * 19.7cm).
As I closely approached the painting I began to realize the differences between Jan van Eyck and Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment”. Contrary to Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment”, Jan van Eyck’s work has specifically distinguished “Good” and “Evil”. It is separated into three tiers. In the upper portion of this work of art only heaven is represented. Jesus Christ is on the top, above all the people in heaven, having Maria next to him, on his right hand side and surrounded by angels. In the middle part of Jan van Eyck’s “Last Judgment” limbo is represented. This is state midway between heaven and hell. Hell is represented at the bottom part of Jan van Eyck’s work. To clarify the separation between limbo and hell, death is vividly drawn.
However, in Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment” each figure preserves its own individuality and both the single figure and the groups need their own background. In the depths of the scene figures are rising from their graves. Naked skeletons are covered with new flesh and dead men help each other to rise from the earth.
II. El Greco’s “Christ Carrying the Cross”
El Greco’s real name is Domenikos Theotokopoulos and his Greek...
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...hnestock Hubbard, in memory of her father. It belongs to the Bashfored Dead Memorial Collection.
At the begging, the idea that I had to visit a museum for my assignment did not make me feel happy and amused. It was the opposite. I was thinking that it would be really stupid and boring going there, spending my day looking at some expensive “drawings”. However, when I saw the museum as a building, it really impressed me. The structure and architecture was really beautiful. As I was looking for the pieces of works that I had find information about. I was attracted by other gorgeous paintings as well. I saw paintings and sculptures from different cultures, which I never had heard before. My day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art was really a pleasure and fun. Apart from pleasure and fun, I got an idea of art which is very important to anyone of us.
Two of the most extensively analyzed works of art are Diego Velasquez's Las Meninas and Jan Van Eyck's Arnolfini Double Portrait. Both of these artist's talent won them recognition not only during their lifetime but after as well. Both Velasquez and Van Eyck have a justly earned title as the most talented artists of their respective times. A detailed examination of the details and intricacies of these artist's respective masterpieces, their similarities, and what sets them apart not just from each other but from other paintings from their time period and style, will lead the viewer to a better understanding of the mentalities of these gifted artists and how they transcend their respective genres and contemporaries to create their own artistic identities.
The works of Van Eyck and Memlinc as they both share the intention of the Flemish school, in particular in devotional paintings. They differ in innovation of other secular fields such as technique and portraiture. While this essay has not been able to focus in detail in all areas of the two artists work - such as narrative religious paintings and the authorship and signing of artworks - it aimed to focus on the polarisations of both artists; where they branched away from the Flemish school, or embraced its traditions, intending to show the overarching innovations of the Northern Renaissance.
Both Jan van Eyck and Fra Angelico were revered artists for the advances in art that they created and displayed for the world to see. Their renditions of the Annunciation were both very different, however unique and perfect display of the typical styles used during the Renaissance. Jan van Eyck’s panel painting Annunciation held all the characteristics of the Northern Renaissance with its overwhelming symbolism and detail. Fra Angelico’s fresco Annunciation grasped the key elements used in the Italian Renaissance with usage of perspective as well as displaying the interest and knowledge of the classical arts.
At this time, Brussels was part of the Netherlands, and due to his geographical location, his artwork was different when compared to the Italian artists of the time. Van Der Weyden used oil paints to paint the Last Judgement, which was very common among the Northern European artists of the time, such as Jan Van Eyck. Many scholars agree that Van Der Weyden had an amazing talent of bringing out human emotions in his painting by creating very dramatic and intense scenes from the Bible, and the Last Judgement Altarpiece is no exception to this (Kleiner & Mamiya, 554). The Last Judgement Altarpiece was commissioned by Nicholas Rolin, and was to be placed in Hotel-Dieu, Beaune, France, a hospital. Many of the patients at the hospital believed that they were being punished by God. The Altarpiece provided a place for the inhabitants of the hospital to pray for God’s forgiveness (Kleiner & Mamiya,
As I walked into the first gallery, I saw a wood sculpture that stood in the center of the room. This carving depicted “the crucified Christ, flanked by the Virgin Mary and St. John the Evangelist with Angels holding instruments of the Passion”. It was painted oak and very appealing to the eye. It stood approximately 15 feet in the air. The origin of this sculpture is unknown, but it was found in a Belgium church. This kind of sculpture usually stood at the entrance or at the center of the alter in the church facing the congregation. This image of the suffering Christ relates to the Christian ideas of suffering and Christ’s salvation of all mankind.
When Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506) make this canvas , now very well know like "Lamentation over the dead Christ" as properly called this work between 1470 and 1480, produced a revolution in the history of art: A painting- from the quattrocento- was no longer simply a flat surface before the spectator, now this it gives the impression of entering the reality inside the environment, and it is represented together with the bold use of foreshortening and the renowned virtuosity of the painter with the prospect. According to video on You Tube: “The son of Mantegna called it The Foreshortened Christ” (Khan).
The trip to the metropolitan museum was a great trip to learn and to study art. What is art you may ask, well art is an expression you use to show a visual picture. It can be through painting or through sculptures. Some other example of art is music, literature and dancing. For today 's paper we will be talking about art as a sculpture. The two sculptures in this photo are King Sahure and a Nome God and Marble Statue of Dionysos leaning on archaistic female figure (Hope Dionysos). You can find these statues in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. King Sahure and a Nome God is an Egyptian art that was made in 2458-2446 BCE. The artist is unknown. It was during the 5th dynasty and it also belong to the old kingdom. The Marble statue of Dionysos Leaning in the archaistic female figure is a Greco-Roman art. Belonging to the Roman imperial period of the late first century A.D. Augustan or Julio-Claudian period 27 B.C., to 68 AD. It is classified as a stone sculpture and it is made out of marble. The height of the statues is 82 ¾ inches. There is no evidence who was the original artist.
...hile ornamenting it with `figures' that functioned in the same way as a poet's figure of speech. Even those who disliked the fresco recognized this" (97-98), the reason for the Last Judgment to have received such bad criticism is: "the possibility of seeing a religious image as erotic seems to have become a problem only in the sixteenth century, possibly because by that time artists were more skilled in depicting the nude. But the sixteenth century was also a time when images once directed at a more exclusive audience" (87) "this is certainly the case with the Last Judgment. Although it was painted was painted where only a select audience could see it, reproductions, painted and printed, immediately became available to the general public. ... The real problem is not nudity or artificial movement, but the distribution of copies of the painting for all to see" (88).
Items displayed in museums hold historical significance and are representative of society’s culture. Preserving valuable collections for education and enjoyment is a primary role of museums. While fulfilling this role, the architecture of the museum is also an important factor. Historical buildings are converted into museums and architects must consider the use of the space and the museum’s purpose during their initial design. Other museums are built with a clear purpose in mind. As museums are designed, many characteristics are determined. Display and storage spaces as well as visitor services impacts museum’s functionality. Based on the function of a museum, architectural requirements are different.
We walked and walked looking at each art piece, which were all well displayed. Then as I looked at the back wall, a large oil canvas painting looked right back at me. I could feel its pain and so then, I decided to do my paper on this piece. The painting was The Ragpicker by Manet. (The Ragpicker. Edouard Manet.1865.Oil on canvas.) The painting was so enormous that it was hard to miss. Such a huge painting for one man, it almost looked life-like. The dimensions of this work is 76.75” x 51.25”. This scene seems to take place of a lower-class man late in his age, probably near his seventies, appears to be looking out of the corner of his eye. The ...
One pleasant afternoon, my classmates and I decided to visit the Houston Museum of Fine Arts to begin on our museum assignment in world literature class. According to Houston Museum of Fine Art’s staff, MFAH considers as one of the largest museums in the nation and it contains many variety forms of art with more than several thousand years of unique history. Also, I have never been in a museum in a very long time especially as big as MFAH, and my experience about the museum was unique and pleasant. Although I have observed many great types and forms of art in the museum, there were few that interested me the most.
The artists of the Baroque had a remarkably different style than artists of the Renaissance due to their different approach to form, space, and composition. This extreme differentiation in style resulted in a very different treatment of narrative. Perhaps this drastic stylistic difference between the Renaissance and Baroque in their treatment of form, space, and composition and how these characteristics effect the narrative of a painting cannot be seen more than in comparing Perugino’s Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to St. Peter from the Early Renaissance to Caravaggio’s Conversion of St. Paul from the Baroque.Perugino was one of the greatest masters of the Early Renaissance whose style ischaracterized by the Renaissance ideals of purity, simplicity, and exceptional symmetry of composition. His approach to form in Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to St.Peter was very linear. He outlined all the figures with a black line giving them a sense of stability, permanence, and power in their environment, but restricting the figures’ sense of movement. In fact, the figures seem to not move at all, but rather are merely locked at a specific moment in time by their rigid outline. Perugino’s approach to the figures’themselves is extremely humanistic and classical. He shines light on the figures in a clear, even way, keeping with the rational and uncluttered meaning of the work. His figures are all locked in a contrapposto pose engaging in intellectual conversation with their neighbor, giving a strong sense of classical rationality. The figures are repeated over and over such as this to convey a rational response and to show the viewer clarity. Perugino’s approach to space was also very rational and simple. He organizes space along three simple planes: foreground, middle ground, and background. Christ and Saint Peter occupy the center foreground and solemn choruses of saints and citizens occupy the rest of the foreground. The middle distance is filled with miscellaneous figures, which complement the front group, emphasizing its density and order, by their scattered arrangement. Buildings from the Renaissance and triumphal arches from Roman antiquity occupy the background, reinforcing the overall classical message to the
There has been few works of art that have created as much esteem, contestation and conjecture as The Last Supper, which was completed by Da Vinci in 1498. The painting depicts the scene of the last supper of Jesus with his disciples as depicted in the gospel of John 13:21: “When Jesus had said these things, he was troubled in the Spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.” The painting shows all of the disciples, Bartholomew, James, Andrew, Judas, Peter, John, Thomas, James the greater, Philip, Matthew, Jude Thaddeus, and Simon the zealot, all which are surprised by the accusation that Jesus made onto them, as depicted by Leonardo Da Vinci. What is the most captivating about this painting is not what we know, but what we don’t know. In other words, it is the enigma of this painting that enamors.
Leonardo’s version of the Last Supper was painted El fresco depicting the scene passively without emotion. The work has the supper table horizontal across the lower third and Jesus and his twelve disciples dining behind it, before a backdrop of both man made structure and natural landscape. The artwork is un-cluttered and simple. The lighting is subtle and non-dramatic. Colour is conservative and dull this is partly due to the limited paint available and the technique and decay of fresco painting. The wor...
For my first work, I chose Pieter Claesz's, Vanitas Still Life created in the early 1630's, oil on panel and compared it to Willem Claesz Heda's Banquet Piece with Mince Pie created in 1635, oil on canvas.