Art word of the week : COMPOSITION
According to Robert Schirramacher and Jill Englebright Fox, composition is "the overall mark of success, the standard of achievement, and the frosting on the cake" (p.142). This definition of composition reflects how I felt about the painting "the Massacre of the Innocents" as I was highly amazed after viewing it, and also it relates to how the artist used their whole composition in order to retell a historical story. This will now lead into a broader discussion of my trip to the Art Gallery of Ontario....
Last week our class took a visit to the AGO. At first I was not very enthusiastic about it, but after the visit I can say that I was extremely satisfied with my time spent that day. To me, the art gallery does not only hold paintings, sculptures, and artifacts which were created and belonged to famous artists and people. It also gives people a window into history. Being in the art gallery was both exciting and calming at the same time for me. There were so many pieces to see and enjoy, in such little time. With that said, I will definitely take another trip to the art gallery sometime again this year, and also bring my daughter along. During my visit, there were a couple of paintings which had stood out for me. The first one, David Heschler's "Death Stealing a Child" I decided to write about for my class assignment, and the second one I will discuss with you all today :)!
According to Robert Schirramacher and Jill Englebright Fox, composition is "the overall mark of success, the standard of achievement, and the frosting on the cake" (p.142). This definition of composition reflects how I felt about the painting "the Massacre of the Innocents" as I was highly amazed after viewing it, and also it relates to how the artist used their whole composition in order to retell a historical story. This will now lead into a broader discussion of my trip to the Art Gallery of Ontario....
Last week our class took a visit to the AGO. At first I was not very enthusiastic about it, but after the visit I can say that I was extremely satisfied with my time spent that day. To me, the art gallery does not only hold paintings, sculptures, and artifacts which were created and belonged to famous artists and people. It also gives people a window into history. Being in the art gallery was both exciting and calming at the same time for me. There were so many pieces to see and enjoy, in such little time. With that said, I will definitely take another trip to the art gallery sometime again this year, and also bring my daughter along. During my visit, there were a couple of paintings which had stood out for me. The first one, David Heschler's "Death Stealing a Child" I decided to write about for my class assignment, and the second one I will discuss with you all today :)!
The painting you all see above is called The massacre of the Innocents and is painted by Peter Paul Ruben. One may assume that I have chosen this painting today because of it being the most expensive painting in the AGO (as we discovered through our gallery tourist, Professor Patricia), but that is wrong. Although it did help me remember the name of the painting, it was not the reason to why this painting stood out to me the most.The biggest impression came from the violence, emotion, and rawness from the painting itself. Not to mention how finely painted it is, along with the 3D effect Mr. Paul Ruben had been able to create. To the bottom right of the painting is what captured my attention the most. Seeing these innocent little babies laying dead in a puddle of blood really got to me.
The reason why I think it bothered me to see this so much was not only because of the main and biggest reason which was because of the fact that they are innocent babies, but also because we do not see this type of rawness in society today. What I mean by rawness is what one may use the word explicit, authentic, or real for. Seeing such violence done to children is talked about, and even shown in episodes of t.v shows, however they are never shown just laying out in the open with no censor or covering of their death, and with all of that gore around them. Nevertheless, the author was communicating to us a story in the bible (once again as discovered through Patricia) of when King Herod ordered all of the first born sons , under the age of about 2 to be killed in attempt to find and kill baby Jesus Christ.
As mentioned before, the reason why this painting disturbed me was because it was not something I was used to seeing; being a bit too graphic. It gave me a feeling of shock, along with sadness, and empathy for the poor mothers of this time. I had also felt disgust and anger towards the vicious guards of King Herod. The mixed emotions really stuck to me after we were done viewing the painting. However, just as mentioned before, I am not only relying on my emotions to critique this painting. The detail, talent, colors, and technique used to paint this picture is also a factor to how and why I chose to critique this painting as well.
I really, really liked this picture because of colors and detailed used to paint it. While Professor Patricia was talking about the painting, she had pointed out that there had been a 3D effect to it. By looking at the picture from any angle I thought that the picture really stood out to me, but when she told us to stand and look from a certain angle, it really "wowed" me. The 3D effect really highlighted the whole picture for me which is something I feel the artist did intentionally as he wanted to tell a story by using the whole painting. But I feel that he intricately detailed the emotion and action of the people in this painting to create an authentic feel to it. So it would be just like we were there on the day of The Massacre of the Innocents.
Schirrmacher, R. , & Englebright Fox, J. . (2009). Art & creative development for young children. Belmont, California : Delmar Cengage Learning.
No comments:
Post a Comment