Large scale

Energy and movement

Dynamic balance (curves, countercurves, etc.)

High contrast (dark & light, etc.)

Emotion

Element of time

Naturalism of renaissance 

•Patronage more and more from rising middle-class merchants, bankers, and other private collectors
•New subject matter: portraits, views of home interiors, still lifes, genre scenes (depiction of everyday life) and landscapes

Frans Hals:

Interested in humor

Found models in bars and was said to have painted some of his pictures there

Rembrandt:

Many self portraits (like Durer)—over 60, done throughout his life; why so many? List possible reasons

Resource for studying life, expression, aging

Ready model; maybe he was a narcissist?

Drama

Large scale

Energy and movement

Dynamic balance (curves, countercurves, etc.)

High contrast (dark & light, etc.)

Emotion

Element of time

Naturalism of the Renaissance

Caravaggio: tenebrism; uses light symbolically (Christ lightest)

Like Bernini, uses naturalism to show supernatural forces, energy

Naturalism of plants, dog, armor more northern in tradition (love of detail); mix of north and south 

Expressive

Influence of Titian, Tintoretto: rich, vibrant color

Stark diagonal, heroic and victorious Christ: wanted to portray strength of Catholic Church: Message: “Catholicism continues to be victorious”
-Italian: muscular figures, heroic, 

Baroque: in the act of raising, strenuous, momentary, dynamic balance
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Famous for portraits emphasized costume, pose, detail, virtuosity

King Charles favored a studied nonchalance and casualness called sprezzatura

Hat is at an informal angle, casually bends left knee

None of the traditional symbols of royalty, such as crown or heraldic device

Stresses gentlemanly demeanor and the doctrine of divinely guided kingship

More informal for court portraits because outside; still grand (king of all I see?); off-center but still focal point: Why? He stands ramrod straight, looks right at us (and down at us)

(civil war; Charles I beheaded)

Although historians are now demonstrating that Charles was well aware of the dangers that faced him, none of them are apparent here

Flanders, workshop of Rubens; 

Who would this appeal to?

Liked mythological and drinking scenes; Epiphany, or Three Kings day, Jan 6; king chose, also queen, musician, jester

Jordaens uses this painting to express his distaste for drunkenness with the motto inscribed at the top that translates "Nothing seems more like a madman than a drunkard

 “To find the dog in the pot.”-To come home late for dinner and find that all the dinner has been eaten 

Features his father-in-law and artist

-Snyders worked with Rubens; became specialist at game

-suggestion of a struggle between virtue and vice 

-Menace threatens the shopkeeper in the form of a boy picking his pocket. On the ground below, a sinister cat waits with glowing eyes to pounce on the weaker of two cocks fighting. Other game animals reinforce the contrast between good and evil. A peacock, traditionally a symbol of vanity and pride, and a wild boar, an emblem of lust and gluttony, lie alongside a deer, often associated with purity of heart.

In addition to its visual appeal, the canvas provides documentation of the open sale of game in Antwerp to middle-class citizens, a result of the liberalization of laws that had previously reserved game hunting and consumption for aristocrats.

One of first still life artists—not even called still lifes until 1650; breakfast pieces or banquet pieces

Also one of first artists to combine food and flowers

Immediacy of the scene: most of the objects are close to the picture plane; also, we have to look down upon the table as if we are seated there

Peeters deceives us by combining flowers—daffodils, tulips, poppies, irises, roses, and peonies—that bloom at different times of the year

Flower paintings were the most popular kind of still life; sometimes sold for more than history paintings by artists as famous as Rembrandt

Born in Antwerp, few records of her life but back of some canvases have the stamp of the Antwerp guild; some works as a teenager so must have had access to training

the artist reflected several times in the metal pieces (see pewter pitcher and golden goblet)

Elaborate displays of food, flowers, dishes against austere backgrounds; notice reflections, surfaces, folds in cloth, details (faces, creatures on dishes)

Why did still-lifes become so popular in the 17th century?

Small, affordable, sized for homes

Documented one’s possessions, life-style

Virtuosity in technique

Everyone can relate

Moral? God’s bounteous gifts, vanitas (fleeting nature of life); memento mori (remember you will die) 

Detail of coins so accurate they used to date painting

Knife special kind given as wedding gifts: “fidelity” and “temperence” engraved on it; also her own name (celebration of her own marriage?)

Fruits and flowers represent hope for bounteous life

Also vehicle for showing skill as painter, reflection of light, naturalism

Artist uses realism as a means of bringing the viewer into a state of mystical communion with the divine

Addresses itself to the individual worshipper kneeling before it: only from a position directly beneath can it be seen that Christ’s eyes are open

Learned still life from Dutch painters; borrow super naturalism but make their own style

Stark; clear order; Caravaggio light; effective shadow, makes it almost mystical; space: cucumber juts out, enters our space

Discuss balance, composition, principles of design

San Diego Museum of Art

Influence of Caravaggio? Like still life: black background gives starkness, simplicity, purity pictorially and spiritually

Dramatic light and dark; beautiful folds in drapery

Mood? Quiet intensity, piety; invokes wonder, reverence (spiritual experience through looking at art); hung in funerary chapel of monastery

St. Serapion murdered by pirates in 1240

Christ figure; we identify with his strength more than his suffering

Naturalism

Balance; composition

Signature and label of St. Serapion on paper

  tenebrism

  unflinching focus on suffering; unidealized skin textures, strained, awkward musculature

  mocking jeers

Philip is at the mercy of his torturers

Action is close to us, comes into our space (foreshortened head)

Viewer involvement—woman looks at us and implicates us

Bacchus puts a wreath on the head of a soldier; he is surrounded by poor and ragged peasants who look to him to bring deliverance from misery and hardship

Look for CONTRAST:

  light/dark

  idealism of the god, realism of the humans

  youth vs. age

  direct eye contact vs. looking away

  lack of detail in background to vivid detail in foreground (textures of jugs)

  low-life, high life

-Court painter to Philip IV of Spain, favorite  of the king

Famed as a portrait painter; his enslaved assistant and servant (tear in sleeve); shows dignity

Months after he painted the portrait, Velazquez signed a contract that would liberate him from bondage in 1654;

From that point forward, Pareja worked as an independent painter in Madrid

How does Pareja feel about himself?

Writing topic: Without being humble, tell what you value deeply about yourself

Colors: 

Loose brushwork. This technique not only compensates for the subdued autumnal palette, but also imbues the subject with a vitality that is almost palpable. A contemporary noted that the portrait was so striking in its similitude that when it was sent to some friends for their criticism, “they stood looking at it and Pareja in awe . . . not knowing to whom they should speak or who would answer them.”

n Las Hilanderas, Velázquez developed a layered composition, an approach he had often used in his earlier bodegones, such as the Kitchen Scene with Christ in the House of Martha and Mary. In the foreground is the contest. The goddess Athena, disguised as an old woman, is on the left and Arachne, in a white top facing away from the viewer, is on the right. Three helpers assist them. In the background, a raised platform (perhaps a stage) displays the finished tapestries. The one visible to us is Arachne's, showing The Rape of Europa — another Greek myth. This is in fact a copy of Titian's painting of the subject, which was in the Spanish royal collection.

The painting has been interpreted as an allegory of the arts and even as a commentary on the range of creative endeavor, with the fine arts represented by the goddess and the crafts represented by Arachne. Others think that Velázquez' message was simply that to create great works of art, both great creativity and hard technical work are required. 

Colorist like Titian: brushstoke streaks

Moment in time: natural human gestures and expressions (ordinary moment in the artist’s studio)

Who is center of interest? Princess Marguerita: lightest, center, attended to

King and queen (Philip IV and Maria Anna) image in mirror (could be us); different levels of illusion, portraiture

Claim to nobility of artist; used to be looked down on, used their hands; elevates both himself and the profession of painting

Emphasis on light; brushwork (had seen Titians in kings collection)

The painting is likely to have been influenced by Jan van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait, of 1434. At the time, van Eyck's painting hung in Philip's palace, and would have been familiar to Velázquez.

Spread to colonies in America

Two diagonals: along heads and along fruits

Torn clothings, dirty feet

We feel compassion (even though they are probably beggars and thieves)

-Viewer involvement

-Same composition as still-life with fruit

-Difference in age; might represent a chaperone

-Covering a smile or laugh was considered good etiquette among the aristocracy

Softer modeling than Caravaggio

“Stilleven” Dutch; literally “dead life” (paradoxical); often about the imminence of death

Valdes Leal was the main rival of Murillo in Seville

Tomb littered with earthly vanities: satin gown, books, papal tiara and crown, globe, swords, armour, crozier (a hooked staff carried by a bishop as a symbol of pastoral office.)

Above: skeleton with a scythe, coffin, and shroud; extinguishes the candle of life

Objects all relate to the papacy, esp. Spain’s Habsburg dynasty

Message: mortals should prepare to meet their Maker; even the great and powerful cannot escape death and will be judged

Influence of Michelangelo on his figures
-Born in Antwerp, family Protestant; left because of war with Spain; at 10, family returned, converted to Catholicism; Rubens committed to Catholicism

At 23, went to Italy to study art for 8 years; returned and painted this (the Raising of the Cross), his first masterpiece
-Rubens the most important and influential artist in Flanders (southern Netherlands;  now Belgium and part of France); still ruled by Spain, church commissions

Helped make Baroque style international; intellectual, knew several languages, knew classical literature and art; studied in Italy and absorbed Italian traditions
-Rubens lived and studied in Italy between 1600 and 1609, absorbing the country's cultural riches and artistic heritage. 
-

In Genoa, he encountered the majestic portraits Peter Paul Rubens had painted there in 1606
-Throughout his career Van Dyck competed with his immensely famous peer (and teacher) Rubens, whom he outlived by only a year. Van Dyck's style and approach were, nevertheless, distinctive
-Flemish like Rubens; most valued assistant before age 20; left so as not to be under  Rubens’ shadow

Became court painter to Charles I in England
-

Chose different textures and surfaces; shows off skill

Moralizing: peeled fruit (lemons rare; but don’t last), wine glass not full (pleasures don’t last); broken glass=transience of life, passing of earthly pleasures (vanitas again)

Feast for the eyes; super naturalism, handling of light, reflections (goes back to Jan van Eyck; but now the subject itself, not just background),

Almost monochromatic (unlike the ones from Flanders)

Father was a professor of anatomy and botany; she knew each flower and insect she used (all accurately depicted)

Fallen flower=vanitas again, brevity of life

Look for insects (I spy)

Still lifes ranked low in perceived quality so women were permitted to paint; theoreticians didn’t consider important, but people did! Loved to collect

“trompe l’oeil”= fool the eye: life size, flies or insects look real, drops of water; illusionism

Father was a professor of anatomy and botany; she knew each flower and insect she used (all accurately depicted)

Fallen flower=vanitas again, brevity of life

Look for insects (I spy)

Still lifes ranked low in perceived quality so women were permitted to paint; theoreticians didn’t consider important, but people did! Loved to collect

“trompe l’oeil”= fool the eye: life size, flies or insects look real, drops of water; illusionism

Reminds us of Last Supper; also fb

Looks like a moment in time but monumentalized by big curtain, flags, sashes

Dramatic moment from Caravaggio; spontaneity

Dashing brushstrokes (visible); suggest lace, etc.

Illusion of a quick sketch

Hals was 81 or 82 years old

Calvinist clothing, the women are not only representing their caretaking profession, but also the dominant religion of the Dutch Republic.

Today visitors can see The Women Regents and many other Hals paintings at the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem (above), which just so happens to be in the building of the former Old Men’s Almshouse.

Shows her as a portraitist and a genre painter (about age 21); also shows her status by her fancy clothing; member of artists’ guild in Haarlem, became a master with her own students; this is her “master” piece

Modestly dressed woman is deeply absorbed in her sewing; she ignores his advances and refuses to look up;

Embodiment of domestic virtue, restraint

Military company, night guards; each contributed money; R didn’t want it to be mechanically posed; some unhappy because not equally represented? legend; overlapping, Baroque lighting

Involves us psychologically—varied expressions, details; Widely admired


Compared to other civic guard portraits, Rembrandt’s Night Watch stands out significantly in terms of its originality. Rather than replicating the typical arrangement of boring rows of figures (see above), Rembrandt animates his portrait.  Sitters perform specific actions that define their roles as militiamen. A great deal of energy is generated as these citizens spring to action in response to their captain’s command. Indeed, the scene has the appearance of an actual historical event taking place although what we are truly witnessing is the creative genius of Rembrandt at work.


Probably the most unusual feature is the mysterious girl who emerges from the darkness just behind the musketeer in red. With flowing blond hair and a fanciful gold dress, the young girl in all her brilliance draws considerable attention. Her most curious attribute, however, is the large white chicken that hangs upside down from her waistband. The significance of this bird, particularly its claws, lies in its direct reference to the Kloveniers. Each guild had its own emblem and for the Kloveniers it was a golden claw on a blue field. The girl then is not a real person, but acts as a personification of the company.

Public dissection took place once a year

Dutch artists looked to professional and merchant classes for patronage

Shows renewed interest in human anatomy; science comes to the fore

Cadaver of a criminal just hanged; realism in gray face

No face hidden; Rembrandt brings a shared moment—brings storytelling to the portrait

Emphasis on hands; Dr. Tulp shows tendons that make his own hands work; visible through Rembrandt’s hands

Dramatic light and shadow, but subtle gradations, textures, effects of light

Clothing: liked to dress sitters (and himself) up in costumes

Age 52, mature artist: frontal pose usually reserved for whom? Christ, kings (see next slide)

Rembrandt portrays himself as a king (with scepter)—but king of painting

Scepter is really painter’s tool: hold Mahlstick (with left hand against canvas, rest right hand to keep steady)

Frick Museum, NYC 

The paintings show how Dou was able to approach this subject in remarkably different ways. Dou still uses the device of the drawn back tapestry-curtain, delicate rendering of fabrics and textures, and the figure of the woman looking up from her playing (although this is definitely not a portrait of the same woman). However, our eye is drawn to the presence of other figures in a room beyond. Wine is flowing and the woman’s lover already sits waiting with glass in hand whilst another couple sing from songbooks, meanwhile a young serving boy tops up their drinks. The woman in the foreground plays a virginal: significantly louder than a clavichord and presumably intended to accompany the singers. In this way, the Young Lady Playing the Virginal is definitely a noisier and more hedonistic scene than A Woman Playing a Clavichord. In contrast to the intimate affair of the Dulwich painting, here the emphasis is very much on the pleasures of life. Whilst Woman Playing a Clavichord may have alluded to the possibility of a male lover, Young Lady Playing the Virginal makes more explicit the woman’s position as a courtesan-type figure whose role is to entertain men.

Family life: presents

Details of clothing, home interiors

Moral of jealousy, greed, pettiness (Children receiving gifts on St. Nicholas day)

Jan Steen arranges the various actors as though on a theatre stage. The gentle depth of the composition is based on a triangle, with the magnificently dressed young woman at its top point. Her clothing and seductive look identify her as a “loose-living” girl. She, however, is not the focus of the scene; that is provided by the lady of the house, who has fallen asleep at the table on the left. Her “absence” has resulted in the rest of the story: the dog is finishing the meat pie that was served on the table, one of the children is filching something from the cabinet on the wall (“opportunity makes the thief ”), the little girl’s brother is trying out a pipe, and the youngest child, sitting in his highchair, is playing carelessly with a string of pearls. His attention diverted to the side, a young man is trying to play a violin. Young people who continued to live at home were considered suspect in the popular culture of the Netherlands at the time. The prostitute in the foreground has already been mentioned: in a provocative gesture she holds a filled glass between the legs of the man of the house, while he dismisses with a grin the admonishment of the nun (a Beguine?) standing on the right. The duck on the shoulder of the man next to her identifies him as a Quaker, who urges the reading of pious texts. Finally, the pig in the doorway to the kitchen is an allusion to another proverb: “Neither cast ye your pearls [here: roses] before swine”. Hanging above the heads of these sinners are the symbols of the penalty to be expected for unbridled, lustful behaviour: a sword and a crutch in a basket suspended from the ceiling. The painting’s traditional German title “Die verkehrte Welt” (“The Topsy-Turvy World”) is not completely in accordance with the content, because this is really a humorous warning against one of the seven deadly sins, luxuria extravagance, later lust). An interesting biographic detail: at times Steen had to earn a living by running an inn and a brewery.

“This is in Saint Jerome’s vale, if you wish to withdraw to patience and meekness. For we must first descend if we wish to be raised.”

De Hooch known for his orderly interiors and sunny courtyards

Space continues both directions

Map of Netherlands

Art dealer; how does he show knowledge of older and contemporary paintings?

Perspective (used pin and strings)

Tenebrism

Genre scene

Special light effects; may have used camera obscura, forerunner to modern camera: size of officer, beads of light

Light rays passed through pinhole in a box and reflected onto mirror; tends to blur outlines

Only about 35 of his paintings exist

Map of Netherlands

Art dealer; how does he show knowledge of older and contemporary paintings?

Perspective (used pin and strings)

Tenebrism

Genre scene

Special light effects; may have used camera obscura, forerunner to modern camera: size of officer, beads of light

Light rays passed through pinhole in a box and reflected onto mirror; tends to blur outlines

First work by Vermeer to enter an American collection

Shows artist’s interest in domestic themes

Reused settings and props from one painting to another

Map in background common decoration in Dutch homes; sign of pride in the nation’s preeminence in navigation and cartography

Dutch East Indies Company

Shows possessions in a middle class household; evidence of what was valued

Beauty of every day, presence of divine; poetic

Controlled composition; also spontaneity

What does woman weigh? Riches vs. spirituality? Her own life or her unborn child’s?

How is painting balanced? Vanishing point near her pinky

Still moments; private (not boisterous like most Dutch genre scenes); reverence, holiness of the ordinary

Natural light, shimmering beads of light

Careful compositions

Vermeer never sold this picture despite being up to his neck in debt

After his and his wife’s death, his mother-in-law Maria Thins inherited the picture; stored away for more than a hundred years

Purchased in 1813 by Hungarian Count

1860’s ascribed to Pieter de Hooch but eventually recognized as a Vermeer original by a French art critic Theophile Thore Burger

1940 Adolph Hitler purchased for his private collection; hidden in a salt mine during WWII

After the war, in 1946, it was handed over to the Austrian government and is today in the possession of the Austrian State

Vermeer: light on earring, lips; shows their wetness

How does she look at us? Reproach, sympathy, uncertainty, empathy? All of the above

First time in U.S. 2013

Like Caravaggio; night scene, shows spirituality through dramatic light

Classical: dignity, order, restraint (not outwardly dramatic), simplified forms; rational composition

Louvre

Penitent Magdalene became one of the most popular subjects in Baroque painting

Simple country woman, sitting before a rustic table in a darkened room with two old books, a lit candle, a penitential whip and a cross

Rope around Mary’s waist is a symbol of her spiritual vocation

Skull on her lap is a memento mori

Which one is the cheat?

They all have shifting eyes—none of them is trustworthy

Bright light highlights warm colors of clothes; dark background in contrast

Geometric simplicity looks back to Early Renaissance—ex. Piero della Francesca

La Tour spent whole life in the french province of Lorraine

One of his paintings was accepted as a gift by the king of France (Louis XIII), who liked it so much that he had all the works by other painters removed from his chambers.

brought “classicism” to forefront; spent entire career in Rome except for the two years he was summoned by Louis XIII; artists at French Royal Academy chose his style to be model for French artists.

One of first “heroic deathbed” scenes

In Rome: studied ancient sculpture, paintings of Raphael

Story: (19 A.D.): Germanicus was a Roman general fighting against Germanic tribes; his adoptive father, the ruler in Syria, poisoned him

Left: loyal soldiers swear revenge; right: mourning family

Architecture is stage; figures horizontal (classical frieze) deep space but curtain backdrop makes shallow space

Poussin’s Grand Manner: subject should be heroic, dignity in execution (not too much minute detail—wouldn’t have liked early northern Renaissance art) 

 felt Baroque was too excessive (so why do we call this Baroque? Does it share any characteristics?) not Renaissance; too much movement; not Mannerist; too classical, rational, severe: we call it Baroque classicism

  frozen in action like statues (not moment in time) see Giovanni Bologna, Rape of the Sabine Woman (next slide)

  intellectual style; logic and order; form and composition (mind) over color, senses (feeling)

Poussin said the highest aim of painting is to represent noble and serious human actions (abducting women???—assured the future of Rome; women later acted as peacemakers between both sides); 

theatrical, but not spontaneous; felt pictures should be read like a book

The man at the right wears a yellow lorica made of leather

somber calm; stoic; rational, physical world showing spiritual, eternal ideals

Restraint, order imposed even on nature

John identified by eagle

Shows fall of different civilizations; Christianity will not fall (John is writing book of Revelation about apocalypse)

Places to rest in foreground, middle ground, background

 Idyllic: glowing color, light; soft transition between foreground, middle ground, and background; poetic (did sketches outdoors)

Also spent most of life in Rome, liked the countryside; made lots of drawings on site; also first artist known to have made oil studies outside

Still composed landscapes like Poussin; not interested in accuracy but in poetic quality; often based on ancient writings

Hazy atmosphere, How does he show space? gradual receding into space (but can identify foreground, middle ground, and background)

Elevated the status of landscape painting by adding historical, biblical, and mythological subjects

Influenced by Bernini, who made a trip to Paris to visit the royal court in 1665—fierceness and drama

A man of huge stature, he boasted that no one had ever brought him to his knees. It is said that he carried a live ox upon his shoulders through the stadium at Olympia, then ate it all in a single day. Tradition has it that in his old age, on seeing an oak tree partly split open with a wedge he tried to wrench it apart, but only succeeded in causing the wedge to fall out, thereby trapping his hands. He was left a helpless prey to the wild beast who soon finished him off

Compare with Bernini’s David

Hero attacked by a lion while his hand is trapped in a tree stump

Lion attacks from behind; Claws deep in thigh

Twists painfully, cries out in agony

Violent action recalls intensity of Laocoon; reference to antiquity might have gained the favor of Louis XIV

Continues light, movement, color from Baroque, applied to non-religious subjects

Comes from word “Rocaille”—decorative shell work used in gardens

Decorative, superficial

Luxury, opulence

Aristocratic tastes

Pastel colors

Subjects of love, flirtation, licentiousness

Fantasy

Private, intimate scenes

Lush landscapes

Loved Rubens; made many drawings after his style; sensual use of color; adds golden haze

Started career painting sets for theater; most of his works have quality of being on stage (like a dance)

Idyllic images of aristocratic life; elegant figures luxuriously dressed in outdoor settings (back to the Limbourg brothers book of hours)

Subject: not historical or mythological; didn’t fit categories at French Academy, so they created a new category of painting: fetes galantes—scenes of love, sentimentality, melancholy

Cythera=island of love in classical mythology, one of the settings for the birth of Aphrodite/Venus

Are they arriving or leaving? About to board boat? Looking back, melancholy, nostalgia

Sculpture of Venus on right; they pay homage to her; delicate colors suggest gentle nature of lovers’ relationships; subtle gradations of tone

Figures smaller in scale than most Baroque

After Watteau’s death, his art fell out of fashion. During the French Revolution, some eighty years after the work was painted, his depictions of lavishly set pastoral escapades were associated with the old days of the monarchy and a frivolous aristocracy. This particular piece, which had entered the collection of the Louvre in 1795, was used by art students for target practice; an account by Pierre Bergeret (1782–1863) describes the drawing students throwing bread pellets at it.[3] In the early 19th century the curator at the Louvre was forced to place it in storage until 1816 in order to protect the painting from angry protesters. It was not until the 1830s that Watteau and the Rococo returned into fashion.

Commedia dell’arte=an improvised kind of popular comedy in Italian theaters in the 16th–18th centuries, based on stock characters. Actors adapted their comic dialogue and action according to a few basic plots (commonly love intrigues) and to topical issues.

Costume by about 1680 comprised a striped jacket and knee-britches, a floppy hat, a ruff, and a short cape. Mezzetin was by turns interfering, devious, and lovelorn, but not languorous. His head and his large, angular hands are extraordinarily expressive.

Watteau introduces wistful elements of longing and loss

His lament falls on deaf ears; his only companion is a stone statue of a woman, who has her back turned in disdain

Ivy on left=enduring love

Garden is intimate stage for emotional expression

Posted outside of his friend’s art gallery

Watteau’s last work (died soon afterwards of tuberculosis at 36)

People admired natural, elegant poses of figures, satin and fabrics

Portrait of Louis XIV being put in crate (he just passed away; out with the old)

Appealed to sophistication: art collectors, artists, mirrors, clocks

Responding to the contemporary rage for pastorals depicting amorous countryside games, François Boucher here exhibited young, fashionable couples in the act of catching birds. In the 1700s, small birds played an important symbolic role in courtship ritual: the gift of a caged bird from a man to a woman signified her capture of his heart. 

Posed in front of the ruins of a temple to Vesta, the virgin goddess of the hearth, home, and family in Roman religion.

young aristocratic women dressed in exquisite finery play with small birds; some still hold them on strings while others daintily hold them on their fingers.

Influenced taste of her time; time of first fashion magazines

Luxurious room, opulent dress, surrounded by accomplishments as an educated woman (books, papers)

Rococo: pastel colors, opulence, leisurely pose, aristocratic taste; also seductive (references to Venus: cupid, roses)

Artfinder (Art of the Day): This sumptuous portrait embodies the joie de vivre of the French Rococo style in general and Boucher’s style in particular: the cool harmony of colors, luminous effect, and conspicuous leisure. Here the sumptuously attired mistress of Louis XV is depicted reclining gracefully on a pillow-strewn divan. The model of physical perfection, she is also the embodiment of style and cultivation. The drawings, books, maps, and writing instruments allude to her considerable intellectual gifts and interests. One of many portraits Boucher painted of Pompadour, this celebrates her official elevation as lady-in-waiting to her lover’s wife.

Miranda Voter: A portrait that has moved me and allowed me to think about it's area is the Portrait of Madame de Pompadour by Francois Boucher in 1756. It has really allowed me to see how God was being pushed away and how the life of man was changing into the modern society that we see today. Everyone now seems to only have one thing on their mind in all of the music and literature and try and make pieces of are always relate to the sexual mind of man. This portrait just makes me think about how our society is and what people find as pleasing. The Carob next to the clock looks angry to me as if the love that it once supported and encouraged is gone as it slouches back up against the motionless clock. Madame de Pompadour is almost mirroring the carobs pose but hers is more relaxed and impatient looking. She looks to the left as if she is waiting impatiently for her lover and the book is just their to sooth her wondering mind. The lavish colors flow around the painting symbolizing to me how the people on earth want all the best but forget that it is just an inanimate object. However beautiful the cloth may be it still lies out stiff and lifeless but the beauty is all most can see. The flowers on the ground are probably a gift but they are cast away in the ingratitude that this woman has for she wants action just as the modern world does today. These are only some of the things this woman makes me think of in the modern world but it is the one that has taught me to think about where I am and what I want to be doing and be grateful for.

Virtues of hard work, frugality, honesty, family life

Bubbles: vanitas symbol: brevity of life

Rococo: intimate, private moment; also play

National Gallery, Washington D.C./ Version in LACMA

Similar: quiet, indoor, private scene

Baroque: dramatic light, symbolism, serious

Rococo: softer brush, flirtation in back, informal pose

Informal leaning (servant)

Quiet, everyday life with clarity and order like Vermeer; but softer brushwork, less formal feel 

Surface details: floured loves, light on bottles, dishes

Shows impact of David’s Neoclassicism

Self taught because she was denied access to the Royal Academy; began painting portraits in her teens, but illegal because she didn’t have a license from the academy; 

Married a painter and art dealer who gave her powerful contacts; became a favorite portraitist of Queen Marie-Antoinette; because of the queen’s influence, she was accepted into the Royal Academy in 1783

Reflects taste for classical (togas, Roman-style hairdo and headband; austere wall); life has begun to imitate art!

Also showed ideal of Rousseau—greater parental involvement in child-rearing (young children started showing up more in portraiture with their parents); still Rococo influence; soft contours, curvilinear patterns

English painter; satire paintings of social evils popular among aristocracy and newly prosperous middle class in England; “modern moral subjects . . .similar to representations on the stage.” depicted moral decline, call for return to simpler times and values; very popular; master of storytelling details.

Series were engraved and sold in large editions; first copyright laws emerged because pirated; 

Lower classes had access; Hogarth knew they were his audience

Set in Rose Tavern, a famous brothel in London; full of visual clues (woman on his lap stealing his watch; black spots on their faces cover sores from syphilis) “ancestor to the storyboard” for films