Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Passion: overwhelming erotic love. Passion: zeal, intense interest in a thought, ideal, belief, person, or activity. Passion: anger, rage, fury. Passion: suffering. Perhaps most commonly used in reference to romantic, erotic love in modern culture, the word passion actually evokes any strong, overpowering emotion. Mel Gibson's recent film The Passion of the Christ reminds viewers that in Christian thought, passion refers explicitly to Jesus's suffering. Christian passion is frequently depicted in the visual arts, but so too is the passion of romantic love, the inexplicable force drawing one person to another. Often mythological figures are employed to convey the archetype of passion; mythic figures suggest that passion is immutable, universal, and timeless. That which the gods can feel is by definition divine in nature. Titian's "Venus and Adonis" especially exemplifies a painter's rendering of archetypal passion onto the canvas. A Renaissance-era artist, Titian uses imagery from classical mythology to invoke in the viewer palpable sensations of emotional intensity and romantic love. The painting depicts the goddess Venus clinging desperately to her lover Adonis. She is nude, a paradigm of human sexuality. As the goddess of love, Venus epitomizes, embodies passion. Her lover Adonis is likewise representative of male sexuality: ruler of the hunt, he is clothed and prepared for hunting and brandishes a weapon proudly. Though his gaze onto Venus suggests that he might have once shared her affections, his passion encompasses his life's calling as...
In fact, Adonis seems proportionately dispassionate toward his bereft lover. Thus, in Titian's "Venus and Adonis," passion is shown to be both related to romance and eroticism as well as to independent vocation or sport, as when we say we are passionate about football.
63 x 77-inch canvas, "Venus and Adonis" is like a mural in size and scope. The sheer size of the painting imparts the magnitude of the subject matter: passion is larger-than-life, all-encompassing, and overpowering. Additionally, the medium of oil paints conveys intensity: the thickness of the paint and the corresponding brushstrokes suggests heaviness of feeling. Moreover, Titian's color scheme and palate are fairly dark and deep. Including the topaz-colored splash of cloud adorning the sky, the painting is mostly composed of jewel tones. Titian's media and color scheme hint at the theme of the painting: passion is rich, intense, and vibrant like the most precious gems.
Titian's composition draws attention to the couple. Depicted in the center of the canvas, Adonis is like to painting's protagonist. His head is framed by a halo of blue sky plus the sheen of golden clouds. Thus, Adonis is our hero. His right arm is extended overhead carrying his weapon, and his left arm is pointed down to the ground. The positioning of his arms suggests that he draws power from both heaven and earth; his passion is a spiritual, impersonal passion mirroring the forces that govern creation. Adonis's power and his desire to hunt come from the same source as…
Art History: The Impressionists Baroque The word baroque has no clear origin. Some says that it came from a medieval philosophical word connoting the strange or the ridiculous, some consider it as derived from the Spanish barueco or Portuguese referring to an irregular shaped pearl. As 18th century was coming to an end baroque find its way to art criticism terminology in form of epithet leveled against art of the 17th century,
Art History Of the Western World Raphael's Madonna of the Meadow is from the High Renaissance period, which lasted from the 14th Century to the 16th Century. The Italian term "Madonna" is a medieval term for a noble or important woman, but in Western art it has come to specifically refer to work that depicts the Virgin Mother Mary. Biblical subjects such as the Madonna were very important to Renaissance painters
Art History -- High Renaissance raphael, da vinci & MICHELANGELO: THE SUPREME MASTERS OF THE HIGH RENAISSANCE Within a thirty year span, beginning approximately in 1495, the city of Rome replaced Florence as the Italian seat of artistic pre-eminence. A series of powerful and ambitious popes, most notably Julius II and those associated with the rich and powerful De Medici family run by Cosimo De Medici and later on by Lorenzo De Medici,
The dress is refined, but oversized and ill-fitting as befits a young boy. Here too, an Americanism is no doubt being added. Rather than make Henry Pelham appear too formal, as the scion of some great house in a European portrait, Copley reminds us that his subject is quite young and probably wearing hand-me-downs, or else some cost-saving garment into which he will eventually grow. It is a budding
The rococo ethos symbolized this coming together of worldly knowledge and artistic accomplishment. It was a world of the few and the privileged, but in its promotion of careful inquiry and insightful debate, it was laying the groundwork for another era. The works of the philosophes quickly turned to an out and out criticism of the status quo. Men like Voltaire and woman like Madame de Stael, pursued avenues of
Art Please take a close look at two paintings of storms: Watteau's the Storm painting comparison Watteau's the Storm and Delacroix's the Sea of Galilee The two paintings in question refer to different time periods in art history and more importantly, to different views about art and life. These views are also reflected in the style and the technique of the two paintings. Art is often a reflection of the times in which it