Paintings for your Pleasure

I absolutely adore my Art History class. I have learned so much about history and how it is portrayed through art through the ages. I though I would share with you some of my new favorite paintings and if I can remember explain a little about them. So if your not an Art History buff, this may be boring but maybe you will learn something new for the day! (also this will help me for my final coming up! Also, want to let you know that there is some nudity in this so don't look if you don't want to see.)

This is called Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride by Jan Van Eyck. Okay, so first off I didn't like this painting at all because they people are obviously not in proportion or anatomically correct but after learning about it I started to love it. The first thing I said when my teacher asked, "What do you think about this painting?" I blurted out "Haha! He looks like the mad hatter!" I obviously have a deep thinking artistic mind. But what amazed me is the detail in the painting, its everywhere but the best part is that the artist painted a mirror in the back that is reflecting the artist and the priest that is performing this marriage. AWESOME! I loved that and more but there are way to many things that would probably bore you to tears and I have a few more paintings I want to share.

This is The French Ambassadors by Hans Holbein the Younger. This painting is awesome because how precise and detailed it is, but the coolest thing is the skull at the bottom of the painting. It is stretched and skewed so that you cant see what it is at first but the artist did this with out photoshop or anything, they think it was done with a mirror but it is seriously awesome. The symbolism behind it means something like death can be right in front of you and you can't see it.

This is Abduction of the Sabine Women by Bologna! Seriously not even kidding that is the artists last name, and now you will never forget it! I didn't like this at first because it seemed awkward that they were so stacked on each other, but that is exactly what the artist wanted you to feel when you looked at it. The reason I like it so much is because the story is the original 7 Brides for 7 Brothers. This is the Romans taking their women. Not only that but I can't believe at how realistic this sculpture is! You can even see the indentations of the Romans fingers in the Sabine woman's behind, and her feet look so real its just astounding that this is made with marble. Sorry for the nudity.

This is The Fate of the Animals by Marc. This artist just thought that humans were corrupt and that animals were the only pure things left on Earth, so he painted animals. I love the colors and lines in the painting. They make it so intriguing and beautiful to look at.

This is The Portuguese by Braque. If you look hard you can see that this is a painting of a Portuguese guitar player. This is an artist that worked along side Picasso and they discovered the cubist style of art together. This kind of art is basically painting a subject from many different points of perspectives. I love the simplicity of the color and the complexity of the dimensions. It is just to amazing to me. I immediately fell in love with this painting.

Sorry again for the nudity. This is called Luncheon on the Grass by Manet. I hated this painting the first time I looked at it. I hated that there were these 2 fully clothed men and a naked women and another almost naked woman bathing in that stream. I thought that this artist was one who would paint nudes just to paint them or that maybe the women were symbolic of something else and not really there (which was done a lot back then). But that is not the case at all. That naked women is really there, you can see her clothes off to the left. Come to find out that when this painting was done everyone hated it, and hated how the women was naked and didn't look flirtatious or embarrassed. Then I looked at her more closely and thought she is so at ease with the situation that she is looking at you in a way to make you feel uncomfortable. That is when I loved this painting. I was amazed that an artist could capture the exact expression and paint it to make her look confident, at ease, and evoke that kind of feeling in me with this one subject. Words can't describe how envious I am of that kind of talent.

Hope you learned something new and even found a new painting that you like!