Winter's Art 200X Blog

Introduction       The moral revolution that took place in Europe in the 1700s was a culmination of multiple cultural shifts and events that changed the path of art. After the blatant expression of values based around materialism, classism, wealth and exclusivity flaunted in the dominant era that preceded, Rococo, people began to question their rulers and churches. They began revolting against the shallow, harmful ideas and returning to the strong, virtuous morals represented in classical art. This, combined with the empowerment the Enlightenment brought through emphasis on intellect, reason, and humanism created art that embraced the Greco-Roman antiquity a time before and set a new moral standard for society and the art that reflected it. This can be illustrated through Psyché Revived by Cupid, The Oath of the Horatii & Portrait of Anna Pitt as Hebe .  Psyché Revived by Cupid       Psyché Revived by Cupid is a marble sculpture created by Italian artist, Anthony Canova. It was cr

Introduction During the Romantic Era, which began in the late 1770s and ended , a multitude of different artistic and cultural movements emerged, opposed one another, overlapped, and blended together. Among others, there were Romanticism and Realism, both with a lot to say about the chaotic world around them.  Romanticism Romantic art was an opposing reaction to Neoclassical art. The artists that composed this movement wanted their art to be less direct and more subjective than the era before them, allowing viewers to let the works take them places emotionally, ultimately reaching a message. These strong messages ranged from political and educational to naturalistic and awe-inspiring. Whichever it was, art from this period was seen as strikingly intense and highly emotion. It often depicted atrocities, dreams, landscapes and historical events. Some of these depictions were metaphoric and fictional, some were dramatizations of real life events. Two pieces that exhibit this range are Th

Introduction            Christ in the House of Martha and Mary , created in collaboration with Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Breughel the Younger , two masters of the Baroque era, is an oil-on-oak painting that illustrated  the stronghold of the  Catholic Church during what were historically turbulent times using a classic story from the Bible.  This piece was created in 1628 and currently  resides in the National Gallery of Ireland. It was most likely created in Belgium.  Although  Peter Paul Ruebens spent time in Italy absorbing the art and culture, he eventually returned. Since both collaborators are Flemish, it was probably made in when he returned home from this excursion. Backstory        Jan Breughel Younger, who painted the landscape and still life, and Rubens, to  whom the figures are attributed to,  speak of a people’s struggle to honor and hold on  to the only beliefs they had never known at that time, those of the Roman Catholic   Church. In this scene the artist refer to a ver

Introduction     The Rape of Europa  is an oil-on-canvas painting by Italian Renaissance artist Tiziano Vecelli, more commonly known as Titian. The painting was created between 1560 and 1562 in Venice, Italy. It now lives at the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It was the last of a collection of work commissioned by Philip II called  Titian's Poesie,  meaning "Titian's Poems" in French, which is how he saw the works. They were a series of dark, erotic mythologic paintings illustrating the events of  Ovid's Metamorphoses . The stories were taken from Greek and Roman mythology, and gave Titian the opportunity to paint interactions between mortal and immortal beings.  The Backstory      The painting conveys a story of abduction, where Zeus transforms himself into a docile white bull with the intention of kidnapping the beautiful Phoenician princess, Europa. Her family tries to find her, but their mortal abilities don't hold a candle to th