Art History Lec 6

10 April 2013

Rubens and Caravaggio

Difference defined by their polar positions Caravaggio is more underground Renaissance- Rebirth of classicism, 17th century taking influences from this

period and its roots starting from that period

Valasquez, Las Meninas

Left of painting is a convergence Linear perspective is defined by orthogonal lines from a single point Central point of group comes from the courtier’s elbow Central point of the painting is on the princess’s left eye Central point of room is in the mirror between the two figures Central points exist but don’t converge When writing, you have to write for an audience who does not know what

the picture is State the artist and when they painted it Then begin to describe the picture: From the left there is an artist who is depicted in his own artwork, to his left,

there are two figures in a mirror who are suspected to be King Philip and Queen Mariana, next to them in the back is a courtier who is suspected to be a relative of Valasquez

Valasquez is shown as a painter in the court of the king and has a very high role because of the cross drawn on the chest of his shirt

Way he uses whites and blacks and the brush marks Representations: Not about how things are or how they look, it refers to a

kind of system of visual representation based on how they are understood Ones ways of seeing, ones historical view changes over time Valasquez chooses the technique of a mirror which influences other painters

as well

Jan van Eych, Arnolfini Portrait

Shows a newly wed couple and a mirror behind them reflects them from behind and shows two other figures standing in the doorway

Even though it is a painting, it still reflects the fact that van Eyck was there and it represents some proof

Paintings are an object, but this painting is an illusion that it is not just a flat surface, but a depicted space in the painting

The artist is always present in front of the canvas, but we cant see which is not representative

The mirror in this portrait is not what we would think it should reflect, illusion of painting and an illusion in representation; we know it didn’t happen like in the painting

Caravaggio, Medusa

Doesn’t look like a mirror but is a shield which is reflective and shows Medusa’s head looking at herself

Type of displacement and fragmentation of presence

Parmigiano, Self-Portrait at the Mirror

Painting on flat surface in a convex mirror; artists ability to depict what he sees in the mirror

Showing distortion as one would actually see if looking into the mirror

Valasquez, Las Meninas

In the mirror, we should see the artist, but we see the king and queen The artist is shown in the painting, painting a picture, but the painting is not

shown But it is assumed that he is painting Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor), but

he is not facing them which means he is not painting them Figures are not formally posing, or they just fell out of the pose Everyday group portrait happening, includes royals and non royals and a self

portrait, and a portrait reflective in the painting Valasquez choosing to put the two paintings that he copied and depicts them

in his own; one is speculated to be Rubens, Pallas Athena and Arachne Positioning himself in the mind of great painters in at least Tition and Rubens

and depicts him as an heir to Rubens Honoring himself and honoring his patron, King Philip Figures in the picture (princess, maid and painter) are all looking at the same

point, slightly to the left, which means the painter is actually painting the king and queen

So its as if we see from the point of view of the king and queen but what we see in the mirror is the painting of the king and queen

Placing himself as a potential spectator, complex interchange of looking and seeing from the complex interplays of centering and reflecting