History of art

History of Art 9TH September 2005 With Reference to Giotto's "Kiss of Judas" discuss Giotto's humanisation of religious figures, his use of space and light, his approach to narrative painting, his choice of setting and his use of colour. Giotto (1267-1337) was the most important painter of the14th centaury. He was a revolutionary painter breaking decisively from the Italo-Byzantine tradition, which consisted of Elongated two-dimensional figures that lacked weight. Giotto's most important and famous works were the frescos at the Arena chapel 1305-1310. He was commissioned to paint the frescos by Enrico Scrovegni, who built the chapel in order to get his father into heaven, due to his father being a non-Jewish money lender (a usurer), which was a great sin at the time. Giotto was commissioned because he was the most prestigious artist at the time. In this essay I will discuss Giotto's humanisation of religious figures, his use of space and light, his approach to narrative painting, his choice of setting and his use of colour in reference to "Kiss of Judas" on of the frescos in the Arena chapel. Contemporary scholars, who were very interested in humanism, influenced Giotto's humanisation of religious figures. In the 'Kiss of Judas' the figures are mad to look human, unlike earlier painter who were more concerned with making the figures have elegance and grace, Giotto made is

  • Word count: 646
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Art & Design
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Emily Carr's Adventure to Art

Emily Carr's Adventure to Art Bonnie Cheng Mrs. Talbot Grade 9 Art November 12, 2001 Emily Carr's Adventure to Art Emily Carr, one of Canada's favorite and best-known artists had accomplished a lot in her lifetime. She was born on December 13th, 1871 on Vancouver Island in a small town of Victoria. However she had sadly passed away on March 2nd 1945 because of poor health conditions. Her dreams were always to become an artist and create her own Canadian style. Yet, she had overcome lots of problems in which she faced them with courage, imagination and humor. Her inspirations of becoming an artist all started out when she was a child. She was nicknamed "Small" in her family since she was the smallest child out of five children who were all girls. Emily was different from all her sisters. They liked to play Ladies but she didn't. She even thought animals were better companions than her sisters. She longed for a dog when she was 8 years old but she wasn't allowed. So she decided to draw one and figured out drawing was fun. When she showed her father, he was impressed. He decided to arrange her into drawing lessons. She discovered drawing was so much fun that she couldn't stop at all. However she was always getting into trouble such as not listening in class. In order to avoid all the scolding from people, she decided to go out to the woods in where she had discovered the

  • Word count: 1486
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Art & Design
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Compare Two Photographs by Two Different Photographers

As Photography Key Skill Essay: Compare Two Photographs by Two Different Photographers The first photograph I'm going to analyse was taken by Bill Brandt in 1938. The photograph is composed of a policeman or what seems to be a policeman standing in a dark alley way in Bermondsey, central London. Bill Brandt was born in London in 1904; his parents were both partly of Russian descent. In 1929 he left a Swiss tuberculosis sanatorium to study with Man Ray in his studio for 3 months then continued to see him regularly for the next 2 years. Man Ray and his circle influenced Brandt profoundly and taught him the value of experimentation. After working freelance for Paris Magazine in 1930, Brandt returned to London and worked for magazines such as Lilliput, Harper's Bazaar, and the News Chronicle for which he documented the life of Britain in the very depths of the depression, post World War I. He photographed English middle- and upper-class life, publishing The English at Home in 1936, A Night in London in 1938, and The Camera in London in 1948. Working as a photojournalist his photography was both individual and idiosyncratic, a mix of the norm with a little added flavour, slightly eccentric to the age - the age of surrealism. Brandt lost interest in reporting towards the end of the war, and focused all his attention towards expressionism and surrealism. He worked extensively

  • Word count: 1271
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Art & Design
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Standing Female Nude

Standing Female Nude Within the framework of recent critiques by women art historians of traditionalist male theorizing about the female body, this essay explores the way that Carol Ann Duffy's "Standing Female Nude" can be read as a similar challenging of the gender biases that inform Robert Browning's defense of a Renaissance painter of nudes in his poem, "With Francis Furini." My purpose in the following essay, therefore, is to explore the way that these two poems constitute a kind of intertextual equivalent of the debate about the female nude currently conducted by art historians. I will thus begin by briefly outlining the major features of Nead's critique of Clark's study, and then go on to show how Browning's poem invokes tradition, arguing in favor of the artist. Turning then to Duffy's poem, I will show how she encodes and deconstructs the ideology informing such arguments, whereby her poem functions as a defense of the model. In contrast to Browning's "defense of the artist" stance, Carol Ann Duffy's "Standing Female Nude" focuses attention on the subject of art, the model. Whereas Browning attempts to expunge gender and class difficulties, Duffy's poem moves through what Linda Kinnahan calls a "process of self-deconstruction" (2), to reveal the model as situated within or mediated by social discourses. In doing so, as Jane E. Thomas notes, Duffy not only

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Art & Design
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Line " the essence of art, the language of free expression.

"Line - the essence of art, the language of free expression." - Foundations of Art & Design, Lois Fichner-Rathus, 2008, Thomas Wadsworth, Belmont, CA Line is one of the basic elements in art as it is one-dimensional and can differ in terms of width, length and direction. It is used in various ways; straight or curved, thick or thin, horizontal, vertical or diagonal therefore can be used to create form. Line can be used to help the eye to see around the compositions and somewhat convey a story or message. Line is used everywhere in our lives. We can see it in everything from dirt to the sky. This essay will study the use of Line in Expressive Art because it is believed that line is one of the best elements used by any artist to express their feelings, emotions onto an artwork. It will study the different art movements that elaborate expressiveness through various techniques and media. In art, expression and line are fundamentally linked. With no expression, the Line we draw would mean nothing as Line are created through the connection of points and are defined as the side-by-side placement of an infinite number of points. In other words, line is infinite; line has no endpoint, and is ever going. The length of the line may become longer if the point moves on. However, a line has no measureable size because they have no width. Therefore, for Line to perceive in the world of

  • Word count: 3626
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Art & Design
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Art and Aesthetics Project

Art and Aesthetics Project Art is usually referred to as the visual arts, where a piece of work is judged through the aesthetics in which it creates. However, art refers to all human endeavors, including the product of one's creative impulse. In other words, art does not have to be innovative to be good. I believe art is the communication of an idea, be it visual, musical, communicative or other. Art is the interplay between the conscious and unconscious part of our being, between what is real and what is an illusion; it is the voice of our soul through color and form in a constant search for connection with something beyond. I think of art as the bridge between our souls and the physical world. I see art as both an interaction between our psychological existence and our cultural expression of that existence. Thus, this can include challenging and sometimes disturbing imagery as well as the aesthetically pleasing. The artist's conceptual vision and a person's ability to translate this to an audience is what transforms the ordinary experience to a historically and culturally significant event. Moreover, art has a purpose. It is a way of reaching out and sending out a message, of opening a different way of communicating something with others, in ways otherwise would not be possible to achieve. Culture definitely plays a big role on the different varieties of art we have in our

  • Word count: 1103
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Art & Design
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To what extent may the subjective nature of perception be regarded as an advantage for artists, but an obstacle to be overcome for scientists?

Meghan Woods September 25, 2004 TOK Essay To what extent may the subjective nature of perception be regarded as an advantage for artists, but an obstacle to be overcome for scientists? On the surface, it seems that art and the subjective nature of perception go hand in hand. Yet if one were to mention science, it seems to be associated with objectivity. Science is all about the objective truth, while art is about articulating subjective truths. However, the advantages of subjectivity for artists has its limits, specifically when it comes to judging artwork. Likewise, subjectivity is not always an obstacle for scientists, especially in the field of research. The subjective nature of perception is advantageous to artists because it allows for expression of their own experiences. Artists can express through their work whatever they see and feel, allowing the artwork to be labeled as "unique". Thus, because artwork is simply a canvas for the artist's feelings, the work can never be proved right or wrong. For example, artists will never discover that Leonardo Da Vinci's "Last Supper" needed a bit more red, or that Mahler's Eighth Symphony needed a few more rests. Moreover, art intends to evoke subjective states, making it even more difficult to prove a piece of art correct or incorrect. As Victor Shklovsky stated, "The purpose of art is to impart the sensation of things as

  • Word count: 1378
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Art & Design
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Economic Differences - Slave states versus Free states.

Economic Differences The cotton gin made cotton profitable. This machine was able to reduce the time it took to separate seeds from the cotton. The cotton gin made many more slaves work on plantations; plantations wanted to be as efficient as possible. The South was dependent on cotton and slavery. The South was based on the plantation system. North based on industry. The North had abandoned slavery. The North relied on transportation to finish and bring goods to stores for purchase. The American System and its improvement in transportation were vital; the Tariff of 1828 and 1832 accordingly as well. The North had great numbers of people. Many immigrants came to the North; they feared the slave labor of the South. The tariff paid for most improvements made by the federal government, such as roads, turnpikes, and canals. To keep tariffs low, the South preferred to do without these improvements; they also did the tariffs because they had to trade with other nations. States versus Federal rights The first government of the United States was under the Articles of Confederation. The weakness of the Articles made individuals create the US Constitution. People felt that the constitution ignored the rights of states to act independently, resulting in the idea of nullification, the states had the right to rule federal acts unconstitutional. The federal government denied states

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Art & Design
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Comment on the work of two still life painters whose work has impressed you. Which aspects of their work appealed to you and why? Refer to composition, atmosphere, tone colour and brushwork in your answer.

Art and Design Expressive Essay 3 Comment on the work of two still life painters whose work has impressed you. Which aspects of their work appealed to you and why? Refer to composition, atmosphere, tone colour and brushwork in your answer. Still life is a popular type of subject matter appealing to many artists. Many different movements are assosiated with still life. Due to this there are contrasting means of arranging composition and creating atmosphere. Use of colour, tone and brushwork is also very different in its style under differnet movements. The colourists produced distinctive and easily recognisable work with strong colour and the use of fluent brushwork. The colourists were also interented in pattern and the overall composition of the paintings. There were four key Scottish artists assosiated with this movement. These unique painters were, Samual John Peploe, Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell, George Leslie Hunter and John Duncan Fergusson. Their paintings were more advanced and original than anythnig seen in Britain before 1914. In the 1880s a group of Scottish colourists called the 'Glasgow Boys' discovered that due to artistic training in Paris, amny artists were being produced and they realised that there was lots of ew work opportunitties to be found in Paris. The colourists admired the 'Glasgow Boys'. Thye spent sometime in Paris at the time of the great

  • Word count: 686
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Art & Design
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Is Graffiti Art?

Is Graffiti Art? Graffiti has loomed between the borders of true art, mindless trash and a way of solely getting your name around, and more people seeing it. Is Graffiti the everyday scrawlings of misdirected teenagers or the well-laced masterpiece by a keen eye? For years the opinions have changed and shifted. Currently there is not a consensus about whether graffiti can yet be classed as art. Art to some people would be the great works of Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Bottachelli, Matisse, Van Gough, and Monet but in today's world anything can be classed as 'art'. Different forms and styles have arisen and most people have an opinion on what is art. A splatter of paint on canvas; art? Brush strokes on a page; art? A collage out of rubbish; art? Who decides what is art and what is not? How can someone say "that is not art" when the creator believes it to be exquisite? Why do some people perceive graffiti as nothing but paint on a wall and not the true masterpiece that others believe it really is. The many forms and styles of graffiti make it hard to distinguish the meaningless strokes from those that are clearly art if you choose to see them. Can some writers go over the top and do too much? Or not do enough for it to be classed as art? To understand this we have to look back at the history of graffiti. Graffiti originated with the Romans when they started to write on the

  • Word count: 3497
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Art & Design
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