Wednesday, September 30, 2009

"Bruegel's Macchia" by Hans Sedlmayr
















What points or observations does Sedlmayr make that we also made in class on Tuesday? What things in the picture did Sedlmayr convince you to see that you hadn't seen previously? Do you agree with Sedlmayr's analysis?

I would also like you to explain what Sedlmayr means by "Macchia" -- what is Macchia and how do we experience it?

After answering these questions, you should find at least 10 sentences that are strictly formal descriptions of a particular painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Do not include any sentence where Sedlmayr interprets what he sees. Similarly, do not include sentences where Sedlmayr is speaking broadly about Bruegel's paintings and images in general. If a sentence is divided up by a ";" or ":" or a connecting word like "similarly", "instead", etc., and there seem to be two separate observations within the compound sentence, you may count these as 2 sentences.

Number your entries 1.-10. Type the sentence. Give the page number where you found the sentence.

You submission should look something like this (without reusing my examples):

1. The round cakes covering the roof at the upper left of Netherlandish Proverbs do not follow the sharp spatial shift of the roof's surface. (327)

2. Instead [the round cakes] remain, regardless of the bend in their support, unforeshortened and on the same unified plane as the disintegrating figures. (327)


Come prepared to talk about the article, because it is an important article (and one of my very favorite art-historical readings of all time)

Leave your response in the "Comments" section, (accompanied by enough of your name to identify yourself to me) before 12:30pm next Thursday, 1 October 2009.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Heinrich Wölfflin : Principles of Art History



For this blog post you will provide links to two online images, not mentioned in the reading, that you consider to be examples of artworks displaying "Open" and "Closed" Form and explain why you have chosen these two images.

Leave your 200 (or more) word response in the "Comments" section, (accompanied by enough of your name to identify yourself to me (by checking the box marked "Name/URL")) before 12:30pm next Tuesday, 22 September 2009. No late blog entries will be accepted.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Erwin Panofsky, Perspective as Symbolic Form



Why does Panofsky say that Perspective is a Symbolic Form? What does he say this "Form" is "Symbolic" of?

Leave your 300 (or more) word response in the "Comments" section, (accompanied by enough of your name to identify yourself to me (by checking the box marked "Name/URL")) before 12:30pm next Thursday, 17 September 2009. No late blog entries will be accepted.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Giorgio Agamben “The Open: Man and Animal”



What do you suppose is the primary connection between Koerner's discussion of Caspar David Friedrich's art and Agamben's discussion of Jakob von Uexküll's ideas of the "Umgebung" and "Umwelt"?

Leave your 300 (or more) word response in the "Comments" section, (accompanied by enough of your name to identify yourself to me (by checking the box marked "Name/URL")) before 12:30pm next Thursday, 10 September 2009. No late blog entries will be accepted. (For real this time!!)

Friday, September 4, 2009

Rubens: Supplemental information...


Above is a painting of Saint Veronica by Hans Memling.


And this is "Sancta Veronica Ierosolymitana which the Vatican Museum declares to be the oldest picture of Jesus. A Syrian text from Kamulia in Cappadocia from the 500s tells us that the image was "drawn out of the water" and "not painted by human hand." (read more here)

You can also read about Saint Veronica on the Wikipedia

This is the "Shroud of Turin":

Which you can read more about on the Wikipedia

This is part of the (terrible) movie "The Passion of the Christ" - it is very violent and bloody, but if you are interested it will give you some idea of the moment in the story of Jesus that Rubens' is depicting in his oil sketch: You can see how differently the artist and the director approach the telling of the story.



Veronica appear about 9 minutes and 44 seconds into this clip if you want to fast forward...