On one hand, images can reliable as they tell a person what is happening at the time it was taken or painted. It can tell historians what life was like hundreds of years ago, or what places looked like a couple of minutes ago. On another hand, they can be, in the sense that they could represent the person in the image and remind someone of what they mean to them, being someone they know personally or even a god. 

Plato theorised that images are a source of evil, ‘poetic mimesis corrupts the soul, weakening the rational impulse’. He speculates images inhabit some kind of power, spellbinding us to ignorance and that they are threatening.  Whereas, his student Aristotle states, ‘images belong to the rational soul in the manner of perceptions, and whenever it affirms or denies that something is good or bad, it pursues or avoids. Consequently, the soul never thinks without an image’.  Images are the representation of the subject and the individual’s point of view. He suggests that people can only think through images, and this can only be acquired through experience.

In my opinion, images are reliable as in the modern world because they help with globalisation as it helps us stay interconnected. 

 

‘Night-shining White’ by Han Gan is an example of this. It is a monochrome ink-n-paper painting created in the mid 8^thcentury. It depicts a cavalry horse owned by the emperor Xuanzong of the tan dynasty. This painting combines both painting and calligraphy, with the various ownership seals throughout the piece. Although here are a lot of seals everywhere, they don’t abstract the main feature of the painting, which s the cavalry horse. This piece is a lot different than a modern piece of art you would see, as the painter focused on only using lines, no colour and didn’t cover up any f his mistakes.

Writing this poem was quite difficult as I found it hard to describe the painting and what features of it I like. The structure of a poem is tough to wrap my head around when beginning to write my poem. I found it helpful making the list of features of the of the painting and colours to include in my poem, but putting them into proper sentences, was a little hard.

 

Not only did this piece of text help me understand the painting more but it also allowed me to enjoy the painting itself. The idea of if we should leave paintings the way they are or restore them to their original state was very interesting to me. With Vemeer’s ‘Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window’  the cover up of the Cupid panting in the background was very interesting. Having only been revealed recently. The painting initially showed a plain white wall , but the x-ray examination in 1979 showed the painting of Cupid behind it. At first, it was thought that Vemeer covered up the painting himself. But as technology improved, they realised that the overpainting was done several decades after Vemeer’s death. There doesn’t seem to be a reason on who and why the painting of Cupid was covered up, but it is known to be taken by the soviets after WW2 but then returned to Dresden after Stalin’s death. 

 

To the point of whether a painting should be restored to the original state or left the way it is, I believe that it depends on the painting. With Vemeer’s painting as an example, if it were to be intended to be covered up by the painter then it should be left that way. Like the goblet that was painted over with the green curtain. 

Both Bal’s and Tuyman’s understanding of Baroque is somewhat different. They both understand the origins of Baroque and the overall history of it in both an artistic and historical sense ,however, Bal focuses heavily on the historical background of the Baroque, whereas Tuyman takes a more literal approach to it and compares the work of the old masters to contemporary art.

Art is the expression of human creative skill and imagination. Art techniques and style should be individual to the artist, therefore keeping to the style of the time would be counterproductive when creating. 

For example, my processes include various methods and mediums, constantly changing and developing. My style changes with the weather or my current mood and usually centres around what’s going on in my life.

Modern education focuses on teaching students many different styles of art from many different periods as well as the artist’s inspirations, a lot of which do not have anything to do with the period they are creating art in. Later, students are asked to simply take inspiration from the artists they have studied and create pieces of work that are unique to them. 

Why should we conform to modern art when students are encouraged to express themselves using art from a variety of periods? 

There isn’t much of a point in learning several traditional techniques, including charcoal, oil painting, sculpting and print, if people are meant to only use techniques of their period, for example, digital media. 

The whole premise of art is to express oneself in all ways, so why must we adapt and limit our expressive abilities simply because they don’t fit into the era we’re living in?

One of the panelist’s suggests that creativity depends on looking around. Hargreaves took inspiration from another artist; Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, who is seen by some to be the greatest painter of the eighteenth century. Tiepolo’s artwork combines ancient history with myth, ultimately creating timeless pieces of art.

Hargreaves is almost adapting Tiepolo’s work to fit current issues in society, making sure to include Oprah Winfrey herself as well as many other important figures in American politics and pop culture. 

In the painting, we can see a monster under president Putin’s cave and celebrities cheering Oprah on. Although Hargreaves has successfully engaged with are of the past as well as modern American culture, this could be interpreted as something hateful by art critics. This is again because Tiepolo has been recognised as one of the best artists in history and many think he creates timeless, unique pieces of art. However, many will cheer him, on due to his ability to combine both historical art with current affairs.

In my opinion, this piece represents modern life because of its monochrome colour palette, various lines and boxes throughout the piece. Additionally, the photograph in the middle of the piece is also important. 

This piece overall seems to represent the mundane routine of the working class, with the photograph looking as if he is taking an id photo for company. His stoic expression, emphasised by his unibrow, is impactful in the piece, acting as the focal point for viewers and further emphasising the hardships of modern life.

This piece itself lines up with Baudelaire’s idea of modern art with him saying, ‘for any ‘modernity’ to be worthy of on day taking its place as ‘antiquity’, it is necessary for he mysterious beauty which human life accidentally puts not it to be distilled from it’. This means that ‘modern’ forms of art must be toned down significantly in order to beck a recognised ‘antique’, which is exactly what Benning has done, with the monochrome palette.