The reason than makes “Mona
Lisa” famous
The
reason that I think that make Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” famous is its
mystery. The famous painting “Mona Lisa” was painted in early 15-century, even
though it is painted in 500 years ago, but until now, we still can’t fully
understand the painting. “Mona Lisa” is a painting with so many mystery, it’s
painting technique, it’s composite, and even its model.
Throughout
the centuries, Mona Lisa isn’t always under peoples’ spotlight, it become
famous until the year 1911. August of 1911, at the Louvre museum located at
Paris, a handyman named Vincenzo Peruggia prized “Mona Lisa” from its frame
after the museum have been locked. On the next day, he walks out with the
portrait tucked under his arm. Its remain unnoticed for a whole day before
anyone found out the masterpiece have been stolen. This incident makes “Mona
Lisa” hits the headline, in overnight, the portrait has become well known to
nearly everyone. “Mona Lisa” remain missing until the year 1913, Vincenzo hid
the portrait for over 2 years, until he get caught when trying to sell the
portrait, and the mystery of “Mona Lisa” begin when the portrait remain
missing.
Around
the time that “Mona Lisa” go missing, an art dealer travelling through England,
get an intriguing offer when he is visiting Somerset. When he saw the “offer”,
it was a portrait, at the moment he saw the portrait, it looks like the “Mona
Lisa”, but when he takes a closer look, it seems different, it looks like a
younger version of her, and it is called “Isleworth Mona Lisa”.
Until
today, there are 2 theories about the paintings. The first one state that there
is only 1 portrait which is located in the Louvre, and the other suggest there
is 2 completely different painting. The mystery of “Mona Lisa” begin back in
Italy, during the 15th and 16th centuries, the
Renaissance. Leonardo’s usual patrons were royal families member, and
high-ranking peoples, but in 1503, he had taken on an offer to paint a portrait
of a silk merchants wife. The silk merchant name Francesco del Giocondo, and
his wife name Lisa, Mona Lisa, which in Italian word, “Mona” is mean “Lady”,
but does the portrait really is the famous “Mona Lisa” that hang in the Louvre now?
In
1550, Giorgio Vasari had published a seminal work on art from the Renaissance,
which consider as the preeminent source of information on the period. He wrote
the manuscript with full access to Leonardo’s record and eyewitnesses, in his
manuscript, he describes that the portrait with sentence such as “the lashes
demanded greatest delicacy of execution”, “the eyebrows could not be more
natural” and “the mouth seemed in truth to be not colors but flesh”. Giorgio
Vasari’s manuscript, mentions that eyelashes as an important detail, but the
portrait that hanging behind the bulletproof glass have no trace of the
eyelashes lips and eyebrows. If he is describing the portrait, where is the
eyelashes and eyebrows? Or is he describing another portrait?
A
French technician name Pascal Cottle uses the state of the art cameras to try
to solve the mystery of the missing eyebrows. He use a high resolution sensor
records images in different wavelength of light, as the result, he found out
that the eyebrows does exists, it just very thin and painted very close to the
surface of the painting. He said that there is no clear scientific answer to
explain the reason that cause the eyebrows disappear, he can only make a
supposition that someone remove the eyebrows from the portrait when cleaning
the varnish on top of it. But this doesn’t seem justify Vasari description, it
could be he had seen a different version of “Mona Lisa”?
Back
in the day, to hire Leonardo da Vinci would be a huge expense for the silk
merchant. Back in 15 centuries, Florence’s tax system required citizen submit
detail record of income and expenses, but until now, there is no evidence or
record to prove that the portrait had been paid, in addition, back in 1503 to
1506, when Leonardo living in Florence, there is no record of the Gioconda
family spending any money at a painting.
Leonardo
famous art work, such as the “Virgin and Child with Saint Anne”, “Saint John
the Baptist” and “The virgin of the rock”, which they all painted on wood, on
the other hand, the younger version of “Mona Lisa”, Isleworth Mona Lisa is
painted on canvas, why would Leonardo make a canvas version of painting on
wood? One of Leonardo writing, the Codex Urbanus have an entire chapter of
technique of working on canvas, the Isleworth Mona Lisa might be the result of
these experiments.
Some
suggest the Isleworth Mona Lisa was a fine copy from a talented copyist such as
Leonardo’s students or another famous Renaissance artist, Raphael, with had
visit Leonardo’s studio once and draw a copy of Mona Lisa, but this has been
subvert by a research physicist at University of California and San Diego, John
Asmus, he is the few peoples in the world that had been examine both Mona
Lisa’s. John Asmus believe that he can identify the hand of the artist by
comparing both of their color and brightness. He digitizes both of them,
compare their statistics of pixels, intensities, standard deviation and their
distributions, analyze right down to their individual brush stroke. He found
out that the histograms for the 2 Mona Lisa are virtually identical. He says
just by looking at the statistics of the 2 painting, he is confidents to say
that it’s 99% certain that the 2 painting come from the same hand.
The
last thing that left to the Isleworth Mona Lisa is why. Why Leonardo painted
his masterpiece twice? Some say it paint the Mona Lisa first, and some years
pass, he has perfected his skill, and repaint the Mona Lisa on canvas to reach
the top of his career. Even until today, there is no way that exam, or set of
exams, no scientist or group of scientists able to identify the artist that
made the Isleworth Mona Lisa by 100%. The mystery of Mona Lisa might never be
reveal, and this is what made her so mystery and famous.
VINCENT WILLEM VAN GOGH
Rationales.
Vincent
Willem van Gogh, or Vincent van Gogh for short, or Van Gogh for even shorter,
is an artist that active in the year 1880 till 1890. Van Gogh is a
Post-Impressionism painter, also a frontier of Expressionism.
The
reason that I chose Van Gogh as the subject of my final is because I am
attracted by his life. Unlike other artists, Van Gogh was not a painter that
shows his talent at a young age, he only started to paint when he is 27 years
old. During his artist life, he had created over 2000 artworks, which included
11 hundred sketches and 900 oil paintings. Unlike other famous artist, such as
Leonardo da Vinci, Peter Paul Rubens, who started to paint on a young age and
lives long enough to study and create more and more masterpieces, Van Gogh’s
artist life only lasted about a decade. On the year 1890, when he is 37 years
old, he committed suicide.
Beside
of it, I am also attracted by his painting style. I admire mostly on the night
scene that he painted, such as “The Starry Night”, “Starry Night Over the
Rhone”, and “Road with Cypress and Star”. For me, the night scene that he
painted with a strong brush stroke and spiral shape sky have strongly attracted
me. Van Gogh’s painting style is different with other artist at the same time
period, such as Paul Cezanne, Paul Signac and Georges Seurat that makes his artwork stand out from
others.
Last
but not least, is Van Gogh’s personality also be a reason that makes me chose
he as my subject in this research essay. Before Van Gogh decided to become an
artist, he used to be an evangelist. When he was doing missionary work at
northern Belgium. At that time, he nearly donated every last thing that he
owned to other, he even lives with the miners. When cataclysm happened at the
mining area, Van Gogh even ripped down his clothing and used it as bandages. Van
Gogh compassionate disposition is the one that makes me decided to choose him
as the subject of my final research essay.
2.1
The Artist’s Life/ Social Back Ground.
Vincent
Willem van Gogh, was born on 30 March 1853, and passed away on 29 July 1890 at
the young age of 37. Van Gogh born at Zundert, Netherlands, had two brothers
and three sisters. Van Gogh’s father was a Reformed Church’s clergy and his
mother is an amateur painter. Van Gogh had five uncles, and three of them were
art dealer, he closed to his uncles, and they often talked about art together,
thus, Van Gogh gained a lot knowledge of art through his uncles.
When
Van Gogh grew up, his uncle brought he to the largest art dealing company in
Europe, Goupils for internship. Due to Van Gogh’s profound knowledge of Europe
art, he earned the respect from his college in a short time. He should be had a
great and bright future in the industry, but after his broke up, he quitted the
job and become an evangelist. During his missionary work at northern Belgium, Van
Gogh nearly donated everything he own, he even moves in to one of the miner’s
house, make himself be with the miner, literality. When accident happened at
the mining area, he even ripped his clothes and used it as bandages. Van Gogh
compassion makes other members of the church think that he is not suitable to
become an evangelist, they said he should be guiding the miners to god, not
becoming one of them. After it, he calms down from religious fanaticism, and
begin into the field of painting.
During
the year 1883 till 1885, Van Gogh live in a town name Nuenen, he buried himself
in painting. At the autumn of 1884, his neighbor’s daughter, 10 years older
than Van Gogh, Margot Begemann had always accompany with he while drawing. They
have fall in love and decided to marry each other, but they are opposed by
their parents. Margot Begemann tried to suicide with rat’s poison, but Van Gogh
manage to send her to a hospital nearby and save her life. On 26 March 1885,
Van Gogh’s father passed away due to heart attack.
On
August 1885, Van Gogh artwork, “The Potatoes Eaters” that he had created earlier that
year was exhibited publicly for the first time, at a show window that own by an
art dealer named Leurs in The Hague. At September of the same year, Van Gogh impregnated
his model, thus causes the priest forbid the villagers modelling for him.
During
his time at Nuenen, Van Gogh usually used dark color to do his painting,
especially dark brown. During the 2 years he lived in Nuenen, he done a huge number
of drawing and water-color painting, and nearly to 200 oil painting.
On
March 1886, Van Gogh moved to Paris and live with his younger brother, Theo. He
also started to studies under Fernand Cormon, a French painter. During his time
in Paris, he manages to get his hand on Japanese Ukiyo-e wood cut that he likes
for a long time, and even uses it to decorate his studio. He gathers hundreds
of them, adapted art style of it, and use a lot of the art style in his artwork.
On
February 1888, Van Gogh went lodging at Arles, a city at southern France. On
same year Christmas, Van Gogh left ear get cut off. Generally considered by the
public is Van Gogh had an argue with his friend, Paul Gauguin, and he leave Van
Gogh in anger. This event causes mental disorder to Van Gogh, and because of
his mental disorder, he cuts his own ear on December 23.
On
21st May 1890, he went to a village at northern Paris and being
treated for his mental disorder under a doctor named Paul Gachet. Later that
year, on July 27th, when Van Gogh go for a walk, he committed
suicide with a revolver. 2 days later, on 29th, he died due to wound
infection, at the young age of 37 years old.
2.2
The Art Movement Involved.
Art
is a process of nonstop creation, throughout the centuries, an infinity number
of art have been created by the artist, and there are many art movement as
well. The art movement that born in the past are Renaissance, Baroque,
Romanticism, Impressionism and many others. Unlike other artist, Van Gogh’s art
movement, which is Post-Impressionism, have inspired more than a single art
style, it also affects German Expressionism and Fauvism. Post-Impressionism, as
the name implies, is an art movement that after Impressionism. To understand
what is we will need to know what is Impressionism first.
Impression
is an art movement that started on 1860s at France, it name came from a
painting by Claude Monet, call “Impression, soleil levant”. A common
characteristic of Impressionism painting is their brushwork are unmodified and
can see clearly, Impressionism painter value the changing of light and shadow,
time, and use the ordinary items in their life as the subject in their
painting. During the 1860s, people are beginning to understand more and more
about color, an English scientist, Thomas Young, and a French Chemist,
Michel-Eugnen Chevreul conduct a series of research about human and light,
eventually they come out with many new color science theories. After that, the
artists use the theories in their painting, created tons of Impressionism
painting that show the light and shadow well. Impressionism value the moment of
nature, using painting to make that moment become forever, observe the light
and small changes of the subject, and put them in their painting. The
well-known artists of Impressionism are Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Edouard
Manet and Paul Cezenne. One of them, which is Paul Cezanne, is the one who
created the Post-Impressionism.
Unlike
Impressionism, Post-Impressionism is created when the artists are not being
satisfied by the stereotyped panting style, they craved for more, something
more than the light and shadow. Post-Impressionism
artists are focus more on the artist’s own feelings and their perspective,
emphasizing and express their own thought. As a result of
Post-Impressionism painting style, Post-Impressionism artist will paint with
their mood at the time. For instant, when the artist is in a bad mood, the
color he uses might be dark and cold, on the other hand, when he is in a good
mood, he might use a bright color, disregard what is the subject.
As
an example, Van Gogh most famous artwork, “The Starry Night”, is painted with a
non-realistic sky, it is because this was how Van Gogh feel about the sky when
he is painting it, how he sees the moon, the stars, and the clouds. The color
he used when painting it also show his feelings at the moment. “The Starry
Night” is a painting that majority painted with blue, show that he is gloomy
and unhappy at the moment.
As
a conclusion, Post-Impressions is the exact opposite of Impressions.
Impressions painting emphasize painting subject with objectivity, the color,
light and shadow are painted with high authenticity, with this, if 10 artists
painted a same subject, they might come out with something closely to each
other. On the other hand, Post-Impressionism painting are different,
Post-Impressionism painting are bases on how the artist feels at the moment he
paints it, his feeling, his mood, and his thought. These factors majorly
decided how the artist is going to paint. With these, a single artist might
come out 10 different paintings depend on his mood when he paints.
2.3
Personal Artistic Style.
Throughout the history of art, artists had
dedicated most of their life to perfect their art. Some artists were so
talented, they did not satisfy by focusing on a single art style, they studied,
and developed more than a single art style in their work. Although there were many
artists performed multiple art style in their career, there is also some
artists that focus on a single art style, and dedicated their entire life, just
to perfect their art. Although these artists had different between them, but
there is one thing they shared, which is they put a lot of efforts and time in
it.
For Van Gogh, although his career as an
artist only lasted for 10 years, but his artistic style had changed several
times. On the 1883, during his time in Nuenen, Van Gogh painted his first
professional painting, “The Potatoes Eaters”, in this painting-we can tell that
during that period of time, Van Gogh loved to use earth tone and dark color in
his painting. During his time in Paris, he collected a lot of Japanese Ukiyo-e
wood cut and using the style of it, created a few paintings with the same
style.
During Van Gogh advance years, when he is under
his mental disorder treatment, his painted his most famous artworks, such as
“The Starry Night”, “Starry Night Over the Rhone” and “Road with Cypress and
Star”. In these 3 artworks, we can see there is some similarity between them. The
common characteristic they shared is the brush stroke, the way Van Gogh painted
the light, and the sky.
In these 3 artworks, we can see that his
painting style is nearly perfect toward Post-Impressions. These artworks show
his emotions and feelings during it. For an example, Van Gogh painted “Starry
Night” during his treatment for his mental disorder, thus the painting shows
his gloomy feelings and unstable emotions by using cold color such as blue and
green, and black. The spiral shape light from the moon and star show might show
that he is under medicine and caused he cannot see clearly.
Van Gogh’s life might be very short compare
to other painter of the time, but his personal artistic style had been through
a few signify changes. In his early years as an artist, his loved to use earth
tome, dark color. In is middle years, he adapted Japanese art style, and
created and copied painting with dark outline, and in his final years, he went
under a mental disorder, he is always under a gloomy and unstable emotion, thus
brought the effect to his final years’ artworks.
In a nutshell, Van Gogh’s life might consider
short by others, but during his 10 years as an artist, his personal artistic
style had been changed a few times rapidly. Van Gogh changes form an amateur
artist that loved to use earth tone, to a world-famous Post-Impressions artist
in a short period of time, the effort and passion that he put in is cannot be
judged by the modern eyes.
2.4
Artwork Critique.
“Starry Night Over the Rhone”, is an oil on
canvas painting that Van Gogh painted on September 1888. The location of the
painting, Rhone River is just a few minutes’ walk from his house that he was
renting at the time. The painting is 72.5cm * 92cm, and now is been display at
Musee d’Orsay, Paris.
In the painting, the first thing we can see,
is the color that Van Gogh used. In the painting, we can see that the colors
that he used, is yellow, blue, green, orange, and black. The colors that he
chose to use blue color to paint the sky, and used yellow to paint the stars on
the sky. The reason that I think that he uses these 2 colors, is because there is
a strong contrast between blue and yellow. The strong contrast causes the stars
seem brighter than usual. It also happened to the river and the lights. Other
than a strong contrast, the green color makes a harmony between the blue and
yellow.
Beside of the color, we can see his iconic
way of using brush. In “Starry Night Over the Rhone”, we can see that Van Gogh
used a strong and short brush stroke to paint the sky. Beside of it, the way
that he painted also different. Van Gogh used a thick pigment, stacking up on
each other, but manage to create a color gradient at the same time. On the
river, we can see that he used a finer brushstroke, compare to the sky. The
bright yellow that he used on the river to represent the reflection of light
from the houses that nearby the river. The reflection of the lights slowly
fading away as the light go further, and slowly mix with the blue color of the
river, thus it slowly become green.
For the composition of the painting, we can
see that “Starry Night Over the Rhone” is mainly focusing on the sky and river.
The color that he used for the sky and river express the cold and mysteries of
the night and river, and it’s unpredictable. The yellow color that he chose to
use as the light from the house, make it feels warm, and comfortable. The stars
that shine bright in the dark sky, make the emotions of the painting ascent to
a different grade. The stars show vitality in the painting, represent the
emotion of struggle in an adversity and fighting against it.
Last but not least, is the embellishment that
Van Gogh painted in the painting make “Starry night Over the Rhone” stand out
from another similar painting that he painted, the famous “Starry Night”. The
boats that mooring at the riverside, and the couple that walking along the
riverside, it something that we do not see in the “Starry Night”. The boats and
the walking couple give a leisurely and relaxed feeling in the painting, that
it something that the “Starry Night” cannot show.
“Road with Cypress and Star” was painted using oil on canvas on
May 1890. The painting is display at Kroller-Muller Museum at Netherlands. This
painting is the last painting he painted during his days in Saint-Remy.
Unlike the “Starry Night Over the Rhone”, we
can see that Van Gogh did not use a strong brushstroke and stacking up all the
pigment at this painting. Instead, he uses finer line to created different
layer of color and highlight on the painting. The technique can be see clearly
on the paddy field. This technique makes the paddies have irregular directions.
By using this technique with different color, such as light and dark color,
make the paddy field more layer and show different between each paddy. Van Gogh
also using the technique and the cypress tree, and created highlight, different
and depth on the tree leaves.
One of thing that grab my attention is how
Van Gogh painted the cypress tree. In “Road with Cypress and Star”, we can see
the cypress tree that Van Gogh paint do not look like a normal cypress tree
that grow straight up, instead he painted the cypress tree with a little spiral
top. With the concept of Post-Impressionism painting are bases on the artist
own perspective, the spiral shaped cypress might be what Van Gogh see at the
time he paints the painting. By judging by the time that when Van Gogh is
painting the “Road with Cypress and Star” is under his treatment for his mental
disorder, the spiral shaped tree might be the side effect of the medicine he
took.
Although the painting is about a night scene,
but the color that Van Gogh used this time unlike other night scene that he
painted, such as “The Starry Night” and “Starry Night Over the Rhone”. In this
“Road with Cypress and Star”, although this is a night scene, but Van Gogh did
not use dark blue as primary color for the sky like others, instead, he used
light blue and white brushstroke for it. Other that the sky, the foreground is
also interesting, Van Gogh chose to use bright color for the road in this
painting. The reason that he chose to use bright color instead of dark color,
might due to his own feeling of the road. Van Gogh might be thinking the people
are walking to a better place, thus the painted the road with a bright color.
Other than that, we can see that there are 2
peoples at the bottom walking together. The peoples walking together show that
he need support from other. Beside of it, the in this painting, we did not feel
any negative feelings such as cold and helpless from the sky, but instead, we feel
warm. Unlike the stars from “Starry Night Over the Rhone”, we can tell that the
star form “Road with Cypress and Star” is under a relax emotion, does not
struggle to shine.
For my last artwork critique, is one of Van
Gogh most famous human portrait, “Portrait of Dr. Gachet”. Although there is
there is 2 versions of painting. Both of them are oil on canvas painting. The 1st
version, it is a private collection and the 2nd version, been
display at Musee d’Orsay, Paris. Both of the paintings share a same dimension,
which is 67cm * 56cm Both of the painting is painted on the same year, which is
1890. The painting that I attached is the 1st version, and it is the
version that I am going to talk about.
In the portrait, we can see the subject of
“Portrait of Dr. Gachet”, which is Dr. Gachet is in a serene position. In the
painting, we can see that the position of Dr. Gachet is tilted diagonally
through the canvas, and using his arm to support himself. Although Dr. Gachet
is in a serene position, but he shows a melancholy and worried expression on
his face. The expression might cause by what he looking to at the moment, the
painter, Vincent Willem van Gogh. The reason that cause his expression is
obvious. The reason that Dr. Gachet will meet Van Gogh is because he is taking
care of Van Gogh after Van Gogh for his mental disorder after he quit Saint
Remy. Dr. Gachet’s expression
suggests that he is worrying about Van Gogh health condition.
In the painting, Van Gogh used blue color as
the background color. The blue color that he used as the background brought out
a gloomy emotion that fits Dr. Gachet’s expression. The choice of using cold
color as the background color done a great job of bringing out Dr. Gachet
emotion. On the other hand, the warm, orange-red color that Van Gogh use to
paint the table created a strong contrast with the green color of the plant,
and the blue color coat and background.
Beside the choice of color, how does Van Gogh
paint the portrait is also interesting. In Dr. Gachet coat, we can see that Van
Gogh used his iconic technique, putting light color on top of a dark base
color, creating highlight. He also used irregular brushstroke on the coat,
mixing black blue and white, but not fully blended together. The color
unblended brushstrokes and color also can be seen on the table and Dr. Gachet’s
face.
Last
but not least, is the plant that Van Gogh painted. The plant he painted is a
plant call “foxglove”. Foxglove is a plant that can be extracted and become
cardiac stimulant, for treating certain heart disease. The foxglove plant
symbolizes Dr. Gachat as a Doctor.
Conclusion
Vincent Willem van Gogh is no doubt one of
the most famous painter throughout the history of art. Some of his most famous
artworks, such as “Starry Night”, “Road with Cypress and Star”, and “Starry
Night Over the Rhone” is one of the artworks that is priceless, and his
artworks are even a national treasure.
For Van Gogh, his career as an artist, or
even his life was shorter than other, but Van Gogh did live a spectacular life.
He had been an artwork dealer and even an evangelist before he become an artist.
Van Gogh compassion toward his job, no matter which job that he is working on,
makes him always did a great job, in every field that he is working in.
For his career as an artist, even though his
life as an artist is just lasted for a decade, but he didn’t waste a single
second in his life. In his 10 years of artist life, he created over 2000
artworks, which included 900 pieces of oil on canvas painting and 1100 pieces
of sketch. The huge number of artworks that he did, is a number that some
artists that can’t even get close to it. Van Gogh’s painting does not just
represent his own art style, his painting also bring effect to expressionism,
modern art and fauvism.
To me, Van Gogh is an artist that put 110% of
effort into his work. His artworks are so detail that it took a lot of time
just to finish 1 of it, not to mention the 900 pieces of oil on canvas painting
that he did in 10 years. To continuously to do something over 10 years, without
getting bored and keeping innovation, is not something that can be done easily.
In my opinion, Van Gogh is able to draw and paint, is majorly because of his
love, passion, and enthusiasm toward art. Without it, his painting will not be
the same and his time as an artist might be shorter.
Bibliography
Book
1. Hulsker, Jan. Vincent and Theo van Gogh: A Dual Biography. Fuller
Publications. 1990. Print
2. Feilchenfeldt,
Walter. Vincent Van Gogh: The Years in France: Complete Paintings 1886–1890.
Philip Wilson. 2013
Websites
1. See
the Evolution and Growth of Van Gogh Style from Six Artworks. kknews.cc. Daily
Headlines. 26 Nov 2016. 1 page. web
CALENDAR S DESIGN
No comments:
Post a Comment