How Is the Human Figure Portrayed in the Earliest Art

Early representations of the human body were for sacred or religious purposes.

The lack of perspective makes Egyptian figures seem contorted to the modernistic center. Nevertheless, the artists' system of proportions was remarkably accurate!

Both common people and mythological figures are depicted in Hellenistic sculpture.

The idealization of the man figure in Classical Greek art was tremendously influential to afterwards artists, almost notably artists in the Renaissance.

The Greeks idealized the proportions of the body and showed it in able-bodied poses and heroic acts.

Classical and Hellenistic sculptures were very dynamic, often showing the figure in dramatic or active poses.

Many of the sculptures from the Parthenon are on view in the British Museum.

The Romans extended the Greek tradition of idealizing the figure, but their portraits were often more individual and revealing.

To support the Roman empire, the Romans arcadian warlike attributes in many of their sculptures.

Narrative relief sculpture was the newspaper front end folio of Roman times, the place where events were recorded and communicated to the populace.

African and Japanese artists of the Renaissance era often represented the human being form with exaggerated features, but for very different reasons.

The woodblock art of the Uyiko-e period provided an agreeable instruction transmission on sexuality. This representation of the body occurred centuries before Western artists explored this theme.

	Aboriginal Egypt

In the last lecture, nosotros learned nearly the architecture of ancient Egypt. In this lecture, we will brainstorm by examining the Egyptians' treatment and representation of the human torso.

To grasp their arroyo to representing the human being figure, we must first learn about the Egyptians' mental attitude towards life and death. In a give-and-take, nosotros need to talk about:

Mummification

Accept yous ever wondered why the Egyptians embalmed and mummified corpses? The Egyptians believed that a person's body must be preserved after death, if his soul was to alive on in the afterlife. And and so they embalmed their expressionless kings, wrapping them in layers of material, and placing the mummy in a series of coffins inside other coffins. (The process was like a Russian matrioska doll, in which the smaller wooden doll goes inside a bigger one, and and then on.)

The tomb of the pharoah Tutankhamen (1327 BC) is the site of the most famous mummification in history. Tutankhamen'due south tomb consisted of three coffins, two outer ones made of woods, and an interior i made of solid gilt. The exterior bury conformed to the shapes of the king's torso, showing Tutankhamen in a rigid frontal pose, with his arms crossed across his chest.

This frontal pose is 1 of two common human poses in Egyptian imagery. In a variation, sometimes the arms are shown extended downwards by the sides, with the hands closed in tight fists.

Tutankhamen'southward mask. The golden layer of the mask indicates that the male monarch is of a college social status than his subjects. Tutankhamen wears a stern however benevolent expression that is fitting for a king.

The 2d pose used ofttimes by Egyptian artists was a contour pose in which each office of the body was shown from its almost characteristic angle. In this blazon of pose, the head is by and large shown in profile, merely with a single eye pointing forwards. Similarly, while the torso might exist in profile, the shoulders and chest would be seen from the front, so that nosotros can come across how the arms are hinged to the trunk. Arms and legs are shown sideways, and both feet are seen from the inside, to conspicuously outline the foot from the big toe upwards.

The characteristic profile pose tin be seen in this reproduction of Egyptian wall paintings.

This approach to depicting the figure in profile can be seen on the wooden carving Portrait Panel of Hesy-ra, from Saqquara (c. 2660 BC).

Most Egyptian carvings, paintings, and sculptures depict Pharaohs or high-ranking officials and their wives. Almost of the human representations are statues recovered from funerary temples or tombs. One of the finest is that of Chefren (c. 2500 BC), from Giza. It is carved out of diorite—a very hard rock—and it shows the Rex seated at his throne.

Proportion

Viewed with modern eyes, the Egyptians' pictures of the figure in profile seem very flat and contorted. The artists had non still adult an arroyo to portraying the human figure in perspective from a unmarried point of view.

However, information technology should exist noted that the Egyptians did follow a very strict canon of proportion for drawing, painting, or sculpting the human torso.

The surface on which a figure was portrayed was divided into a grid of squares, each equivalent to the width of the figure's fist. The Egyptians would then utilise the length of the fist to keep everything in proportion.

On average, the Egyptian artists calculated that the distance from the hairline to the ground was 18 fists. The altitude from the base of the nose to the shoulder was found to be i fist, while from the fingers of a clenched fist to the elbow it was four and one-half fists. The length of a human foot (from heel to toe) was estimated to be three and a half fists.

Egyptian carving demonstrating proportion. Take your time to show the Egyptian canon in this image. With a ruler and pencil, y'all can count xviii fists in the body length of the biggest figure.

Following a system of verbal proportions made possible it for Egyptian artists to maintain continuity in style for over 2,000 years.

After the culture of ancient Egypt waned, Ancient Greece emerged to become the birthplace of western civilization, nigh two,500 years ago. The great achievements of the Greeks still influence our lives, not but in the arts, but also scientific discipline, philosophy, and politics.

Few Greek paintings have survived. Our noesis of Greek painting comes mainly from painted pottery, though some mosaics and frescoes remain. We can understand how the Greeks depicted the human body by examining dissimilar historical periods and pottery techniques.

Celebrated Styles of Pottery

The offset style of pottery to emerge in ancient Greece was the geometric fashion (1000-700 BC). The ancient Greeks would decorate a vase chosen an amphora and use information technology as a grave marker. Around the side of each amphora, artists would inscribe scenes depicting mourning rituals. In the geometric style, the human body was represented by a flat blackness triangle for the body, a circular head, and slightly-formed sticks for the arms and legs.

Detail from an urn showing the geometrical style.

This style evolved into the orientalizing mode (700-600 BC). Under the influence of Egyptian canons, the effigy became larger and more than curvilinear than those in the geometric style. The profile view of the effigy was the same every bit the contorted Egyptian one. Mythological scenes offset to appear at this time.

The archaic style emerged effectually 600-480 BC. While the fashion of drawing the human figure remained consistent, the techniques and materials used began to alter. The painting technique used during this menses is called blackness figure. The artists painted figures in black silhouettes with a paste made of clay and water. Details were incised with a abrupt tool, exposing the orangish clay below. After the vase was baked, the painted parts remained black and the surface of the vase turned red-orange.

Exekias (c. 550 BC) is the best-known blackness figure creative person. Figures during this period are withal depicted sideways, with the Egyptian frontal eye, but their postures are rendered in a more iii-dimensional manner.

Achilles and Ajax - Exekias. Movement and a lively quality is obtained by the pose of two figures engaged in some sort of board game.

Midway through the archaic period, the classical style (530-400 BC) emerged. This style involved a ruddy effigy technique that was basically the reverse of the blackness figure technique. Figures were left in reddish against a blackness painted background, and details were painted in black. This arroyo permitted the representation of more than natural forms and the orange clay was close to the bodily pare color of the Greeks.

Detail of a classical Greek vessel. The figures are less stiff than in the black figure technique, although the scene is still flat and lacking in perspective.

As the Classical period drew to a close, the well-known Hellenistic style (450-ane BC) took the stage and white-ground vases were introduced. In this mode, a wash of white clay formed the background. Figures were then added in black, and additional colors were sometimes added after the baking procedure was complete.

Illusionism was in vogue, so figures were depicted every bit naturalistically as possible, from whatever view and in whatever pose. Zeuxis was a Hellenistic painter who perfected trompe fifty'oeil (fooling the center). He was reputed to have painted grapes that were so perfect they fooled a bird who tried to pick them.

Classical Sculpture

Greek sculptors portrayed figures of gods, goddesses, and human beings. Sculptures were produced in every era of Greek civilization, but in this course, we volition focus on the classical and Hellenistic periods of sculpture, when the great masterpieces were produced.

Classical artists (450-323 BC) idealized the human form. Sculpted figures in this flow are usually young, with no trace of concrete defect. They are well proportioned and symmetrical in form, but they lack personality and expression. About of the figures were inspired by athletes, who enjoyed a loftier rank in the social strata.

One of the nearly impressive works of this menstruum is the Discobolus (Discus Thrower, c. 450 BC) by Myron. The original does not be, but a Roman marble copy exists. Discobolus consists of a freestanding statue of an athlete ready to throw the discus. The twisted trunk of the athlete in perfect balance conveys the essence of the action.

Discobolus (460 - 450 BC) - Myron. This sculpture reflects the fascination of the Greeks with the human effigy and their full understatement in representing residuum and perfection in human anatomy and able-bodied action.

Some other great effigy sculptor of this menstruum is Phidias. He directed the sculpture carvings of the Parthenon (448-432 BC), which has some of the finest sculptures and friezes of all fourth dimension. Each figure portrayed is infused with life and movement, from the mortals to the divinities with their rippling draperies, to the horses that gallop across the frieze.

Praxiteles is another late classical sculptor well known for mastering feminine grace and for the sensuous evocation of the mankind through his art. His most acclaimed statues are Demeter (340-330 BC), Cnidian Aphrodite (350 BC), and Hermes and Infant Dyionisius (340 BC). Lyssipos of Sikyon sculpted mainly youths. He favored thinner bodies and smaller heads. In his Apoxymenos (320 BC) he increased the movement of freestanding sculpture, making the whole advent of his piece of work lighter and livelier. He is a key creative person in the transition from late classical to Hellenistic style.

Hellenistic Sculpture

The Hellenistic period (323-31 BC) started with the death of Alexander the Great and lasted until the Romans took control of Greece. The sculpture in this period leaned toward a more expressive and dramatic style. Figures in the sculpture began to showroom extremes of emotions: pain and pleasance, ache and sweetness, withered erstwhile historic period and the blossom of youth, victorious athletes and those who take been crushed, and most of all, majestic battles.

This dramatic effect can exist seen in The Altar from Zeus in Pergamon (164-156 BC). The group of figures in the sculpture represents a boxing between the Titans and the Gods. The scene rages with terrible violence, frenzy, and desolation. Information technology is very dissimilar from the harmony and refinement of early Greek sculpture.

Some other Hellenistic masterpiece is the Nike or Winged Victory of Samothrace (190 BC). It depicts a winged goddess descending from the skies. The drapery of the figure's clothes evokes the pressure of the wind as she comes down from the heavens. Her stretched out wings point that she hasn't all the same settled to earth.

Winged Victory of Samothrace (Discovered 1863) . Though the trunk is non twisted equally in the Discobolus sculpture, there is a sense of movement and action provided past the wonderful carving of the effigy's robes.

Probably the greatest example of Hellenistic sculpture is the larger than life sized marble Laocoon and His Two Sons (175-150 BC). What remains today is a Roman accommodation. It depicts an incident from the end of the Trojan War in which Laocoon and his sons are devoured past a pair of giant serpents. The sculptors were Athanodorus, Hagesandros, and Polydorus of Rhodes.

Roman sculptors and painters (509 BC - 337 Advert) borrowed from the Greek artists in their idealization of human form. However, Roman artists went further in creating realistic sculptural portraits that revealed the individual personalities of their subjects.

The most pop subject matter for Roman artists was the important events of the twenty-four hours, and the most important medium was sculpture depicting figures in a narrative relief. Painting was used for decorative purposes; large wall paintings showing garden landscapes, still-life images, mythology, and everyday life scenes adorned the houses of wealthy Romans.

In this department, we will concentrate on the study of sculptural portraits and narrative relief, areas of Roman fine art that employed the homo body equally their main field of study matter.

Portraiture

One of the most feature types of Roman portrait was the homo head discrete from the body, or bust. Busts were usually carved in marble, frequently from a wax mask, so that even the effectively physiognomic details were preserved.

Bust of a Roman youth from 40 Advertizing.

Why was the bust then popular? Portraits of upper-class Romans were popular throughout the whole Roman empire. This reflects a patriarchal Roman custom that dates from artifact. At the death of the head of the family, a waxen mold of his face up was preserved in a special family altar. In the 1st century BC, Roman families began to demand to have facial portraits duplicated in marble.

The "father image" spirit can be found in the life-size marble Portrait of a Roman (eighty BC). The figure shows an elderly man. His facial wrinkles are true to life, and the carver has treated them with a selective emphasis in order to bring out their distinctive personality: stern, rugged, and devoted to duty. It is a male parent paradigm of frightening authority.

Portraits of women became popular effectually the 1st century Advertising, when women began to enjoy increasing emancipation, retain their ain legal identity, have independent wealth, and participate in politics and the arts. The Portrait of a Flavian Lady (90 AD) shows a young woman with a fashionably curled coiffure that frames the softly carved face. Her caput is gracefully tilted and the glance of her wide eyes is gentle.

While everyday people were often captured in portrait, the almost important field of study of Roman portraiture was the emperor himself. There were ii major ways of depicting the emperor: freestanding sculptures, and the equestrian monument, a blazon of imperial portrait invented by the Romans.

1 of the finest freestanding sculptures of an emperor is Augustus of Prima Porta (1st century Advertisement). It is slightly larger than life-sized (6 human foot, 8 inches tall) and information technology shows Augustus addressing his troops as a general. Though Augustus was 76 years old when he died, the statue represents a self-confident, dominating, and youthful figure. We can perceive the Greek influence of idealizing the homo effigy in this marble statue.

The most impressive equestrian monument is a bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius (164-166 Advertising). In this statue, the emperor is unarmed and his right arm is extended in the conventional gesture of an orator. Both domination and conquest are implied by equestrian iconography. The horse and rider are depicted in a highly illusionistic way, with veins, peel folds, and muscles all visible.

Statue of Marcus Aurelius. Just emperors were depicted in this majestic fashion. I imagine Aurelius entering Rome from a successful campaign, greeted by his cheering citizens.

Afterward in the 4th century, the emperor Constantine (the first Christian emperor) was depicted in a colossal marble statue (313 AD). The monumental caput alone is 8 foot, 6 inches tall! Everything is and then out of proportion to the scale of ordinary men that we feel crushed by its immensity (probably an intended reaction). This slice is called superhuman not only considering of its size, but also because it is an image of absolute imperial majesty. In the end, the colossal marble tells united states of america more virtually Constantine's view of himself than about his actual physical appearance.

Narrative Relief

The focus on authorities and the military power is also present in the Romans' use of narrative relief, merely the presentation is quite unlike.

In Roman society, the reliefs on commemorative architecture such as arches, columns, or altars, functioned somewhat like state of war reports in a newspaper today. In the exceptional Trajan'southward Column in Rome (114 AD), a detailed chronicle of an emperor's campaigns is carved in a unique manner that is nigh picture-similar. The documentary narrative of the battles is carved into stone, starting from the bottom of the column and winding effectually the column all the fashion to its elevation, 128 feet high.

Trajan'due south Cavalcade - Apollodorus of Damascus. The screw limerick reminds us of a movie roll. The impressive level of particular shows u.s.a. how important historic monuments of this kind were to keeping the people of Rome informed.

The cavalcade depicts no fewer than 2500 figures in an exquisite low relief, capturing moment-past-moment the fighting and conquering. It is a true cinematographic experience. In contrast to the solemnity and stillness of Roman portraiture, narrative reliefs draw the human torso in full action and vitality.

Other important works of commemorative compages of the period includes the Ara Pacis or Altar of Peace in Rome (thirteen-9 BC) and the Arch of Titus also in Rome (81 Advertising).

For more on the homo figure, let's hash out the following piece of work, which you may already be somewhat familiar with.

We plough our attention at present to Africa, where important human figure artwork emerged around the same time as that of the aboriginal Greeks and Romans.

Sculpture is the best-known African art grade. The primary materials used by African artists are wood, iron, clay, bronze, ivory, and textiles. The homo trunk is the primary subject matter, and many African sculptures share the aforementioned characteristics: heads that are enlarged, big stomachs, artillery held to the side, eyes in the frontal position, weight as distributed on both feet, and protruding navels. The head is often exaggerated because it is considered the center of character and emotion.

African artists through the ages combined naturalistic and geometric shapes to produce a recognizable homo torso. They as well distorted human features and limbs in order to accomplish dramatic effects. African sculptures are religiously empowered—they are rarely displayed in public and are stored in shrines, buried, or placed in containers. African art was intended to not only please the centre, simply also to uphold moral values.

The longest surviving African sculptures are figures in terra cotta, dating back to the fifth century BC (contemporary to aboriginal Hellenic republic'southward classical period). They are Nok sculptures (named for their tribe) from northwest Nigeria. Terra cotta figures have also been constitute in Ife (Nigeria) and Mali, dating from the 12th to the 15th century AD.

A terra cotta Nok sculpture. The emphasis of the head creates a asymmetry in the figure. However, the statue enjoys a grace typical of African sculpture.

Nigh wooden carvings have been lost throughout the years, because of the perishable attributes of forest and the fatal work of termites. However, some tribes mastered the bronze and metal casting technique. During the 15th century in Republic of benin, powerful statuary and copper heads and life-sized masks were produced. They are surprisingly realistic.

Much later and halfway effectually the world, a very unlike way and technique of representing the man figure began to develop. During the Edo menstruation in Nippon (1600-1868), Uyiko-e art flourished. Uyiko-e is the art of "the floating world of pleasures." The most commonly used technique was woodblock press that depicted the daily life of the common man. Amidst these everyday images, artists inspired by the pleasure and theater quarters of Edo (now Tokyo) produced romantically intimate and sexually explicit images called Shunga (spring pictures) or Makure-east (pillow pictures).

These pleasure-seeking woodblocks were used to inspire and instruct in the art of love. Many forms of human being sexuality were portrayed, though Shunga woodblocks do not portray actors or prostitutes. Instead, they show married couples of all ages, shy and inexperienced youngsters, adulterous wives and husbands, liaisons across class boundaries, and same-sex lovers.

Every bit dresses were almost identical for women every bit for men, the sexual differences in Shunga prints are explicitly stressed in oversized and minutely depicted genitals. Other parts of the body (with the exception of face up and legs) were usually concealed under superb folds of cloth. Many Shunga have comical texts and dialogues accompanying the graphics, which makes the genre essentially humorous.

The Adonis Institute (1815) - Katsushika Hokusai. Hokusai emphasizes the genitalia by showing them in extreme particular, while depicting other parts of the body in a less elaborate manner.

Shunga erotic pictures and volume illustrations were enjoyed by all ranks of society, and the woodblock printing technique fabricated it possible to mass-produce them at low price. I think the popularity of pornography, the graphic novel, and manga anime in modern Japan is, to some extent, the result of the popularity of Shunga books.

Many Shunga woodblocks were unsigned past the artists, only among its famous artists nosotros can count Hishikawa Moronobu (died c. 1695), Suzuki Harunobu (1725-1770), and Kitagawa Utamaro (1754-1806). They all produced colour and monochrome woodblock prints, but sometimes they would hand-color their pictures.

Da Vinci studied nigh every subject—anatomy, astronomy, botany, geology, geometry, y'all proper name information technology! He was the original "Renaissance man."

Dutch and Flemish painters of the Renaissance used oil painting to portray nature in meticulous, naturalistic item.

Van Eyck's phrase "Equally good as I can" is an inspiring motto for whatsoever artist.

In the Renaissance, the effigy of the artist himself became a more popular subject, through cocky portrait and also by inclusion in paintings of other people.

Bosch was among the beginning artists to show the human trunk disfigured and disarticulated, literally in pieces.

Mannerist artists showed the body in elongated, exaggerated, elegant, circuitous, and twisted poses.

"El Greco" means "the Greek," the popular name for Dominikos Theotokópulos. His piece of work inspired 20th century artists such as Picasso.

Dramatic poses and compositions are characteristic of Bizarre sculpture.

Study Carvaggio if yous need a lesson in contrast.

Realistic scenes featuring ordinary people were besides characteristic of Baroque painting.

The fleshy figures in Ruben's paintings show how changing standards of beauty are reflected in art.

Rembrandt was the king of the cocky-portrait; he painted hundreds of them.

Modern sculptors often reacted against Classical ideals of the figure by using imperfect models in imperfect poses.

Abstract sculptors of the 20th century attempted to reduce the body to its essentials parts—or to convey the essence of motion.

In the 20th century, the self portrait—portraying the artist and his or her experience—once once more became a primary focus of fine art.

In the last lecture, we looked at the representation of nature in the High Renaissance (1490-1527). While nature was important in the Renaissance, the menses is very much dominated by art representing the homo effigy. Masters such as Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael, each forged individual styles while taking the classical Roman treatment of the body and the canons of proportion into business relationship.

Perspective theory was to go the nearly of import new technique of the era. The written report of the human figure was and then precise that artists could describe a portrait of a person from any angle. For example, Michelangelo's painting at the Sistine Chapel must exist appreciated from beneath—a very difficult angle for a painter. Yet all the human figures seem impressively alive because they take naturalistic proportions and the laws of perspective are perfectly applied.

Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519) was one of the nearly versatile geniuses in history. A master painter, Da Vinci also studied anatomy, astronomy, botany, geology, geometry, and optics. He designed the plane, the parachute, and the catapult. He dissected human bodies and pioneered the study of embryology. He was an expert in human proportions. Ane of his about widely recognized drawings is the Vitruvian Human being (1492). In this cartoon, he demonstrates the statement by a Roman builder Vitruvius that a man should fit perfectly in a circle and a square.

Vitruvian Man (1492) - Leonardo Da Vinci. Leonardo'southward gesture of plumbing equipment a human trunk into geometric shapes reflects his desire for a scientific explanation for every natural phenomenon.

One of Da Vinci's primary contributions to painting was to develop a technique chosen sfumatto. In Italian, this literally ways "vanished in smoke."

Sfumatto can be seen in certain lighting conditions whereby delicate graduations of calorie-free and shade form a blurred outline. Da Vinci achieved information technology in oil painting through the use of glazes, producing a misty, dream-like outcome. We can see this technique in Da Vinci'southward about famous painting, the Mona Lisa (1503-1505). The picture shows a woman staring straight at the observer, with a mysterious expression: one-half grin, one-half daydreaming. Leonardo created parallels betwixt the human figure and the landscape, inviting comparisons of flesh to soil, bone to rocks, and blood to waterways.

Virgin of the Rocks (1506-1508) - Leonardo Da Vinci. Yous can run into the sfumatto technique in the confront and torso contours of the characters. This technique gave a soft quality to the skin texture.

Leonardo Da Vinci'south masterpieces include Virgin of the Rocks (1483), The Last Supper (1495-1498), Madonna and Child with St. Anne (1503-1506), and Woman with an Ermine (1483-1490).

Michelangelo Buonarroti

Like Da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) was an anatomy proficient. He was a painter, a sculptor, an architect, and a poet. His outset monumental sculpture is the marble Pietà (1498-1500), which depicts a immature Mary mourning the dead Christ. This sculpture has a unique rhythm guided past Christ'due south position and Mary'southward curtain work. Michelangelo had the chapters to lead the middle of the observer throughout the whole marble statue, then that viewers practice non miss a single particular.

Pietà (1498- 1499) - Michelangelo. Michelangelo guides our middle through the statue, starting at the virgin's face up, jumping to Christ's disturbing facial gesture, following his weakened trunk all the way to his feet, and ending on the folds of the virgin's elaborate habiliment.

In 1501, Michelangelo was deputed by the city of Florence to cleave a marble of David. The result is the masterpiece David (1501-1504), an impressive carving of heroic scale, depicting a young David in an alert pose, ready for battle. His hands are large in proportion to the rest of his torso, and his cervix and torso muscles and veins are strained, giving him an advent of ability and grandeur.

The statue of David consolidated Michelangelo's fame, and he was summoned by the Pope to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. This was to be his virtually impressive work. It took Michelangelo four years to cease the frescoes (1508-1512). It is said that during this time Michelangelo close himself up in the chapel and worked lying and standing on scaffolding he designed. He even used live male person models to plan the female characters. This gigantic piece of work (45' x 138') represents images from the Old Testament, including the famous creation of Adam. It is said that Leonardo and Michelangelo competed with each other to be considered the leading artist in Florence.

Raphael

Born Raffaello Sanzio (1483-1520), Raphael was a painter and an architect. He is well known for painting altarpieces, frescoes of historical and mythological scenes, and portraits. His most popular works are his gentle paintings of Virgin and Kid, such as Madonna of the Meadow (1505) and Madonna of the Goldfinch (1506). As an builder, he directed the construction of the St. Peter'due south Basilica in Rome. His portrait of Pope Julius Ii (1511-1512) captures the pope's personality, making it a psychological portrait, rather than an icon of power.

Portrait of Julius II - Raphael. Raphael depicts the Pope in a meditative attitude with a deep sadness in his eyes. The passing of time is implied not merely by his white bristles, just as well past the slight inclination of his caput.

Raphael mastered Leonardo'due south sfumatto technique, and he knew how to achieve a sense of depth without upsetting the residue of a blueprint. This can be seen in School of Athens (1509-1511), a fresco painted for the Pope's apartments at the Vatican. In it, he depicted non only Classical Greek philosophers, merely also portrayed creative personalities of the time such as Michelangelo and Leonardo. He even included a self-portrait in the limerick. In his final works, such equally The Nymph Galatea (1512-1514), Raphael shifted towards a mode of greater emotion and movement that would influence the next generation of Italian artists.

During the 15th and 16th centuries, artists in countries similar Germany, the Netherlands, and Flanders (office of mod day Kingdom of belgium), shared the Italian preference for representation of three-dimensional space and lifelike figures. Still, they were less affected by the classical revival. Artists in northern Europe continued to work primarily in a Gothic tradition of figure painting, which they integrated with elements of Renaissance style.

Meanwhile in Italy, panel paintings were mainly executed in tempera until the 16th century, Dutch and Flemish painters preferred oil paint because it satisfied their interest in meticulous, naturalistic detail. This arroyo characterizes much of the 15th and 16th century northern European painting.

Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) was the most famous painter and printmaker in the history of German art. A scholar and an author, he published books on geometry and perspective and the measurements of the human body. Betwixt the ages of 13 and 40, Dürer painted and drew a remarkable series of revealing self-portraits. The most famous 1 is Self-Portrait (1500), where he appears solemnly staring straight into the viewer's eye. The portrait has a Christ-like idealization of the features that asserts his sense of authority.

In his engraving Adam and Eve (1504), Dürer uses a biblical subject as an excuse for displaying 2 ideal nudes. Skin, muscles, and pilus are wonderfully represented, though the ballocks are strategically covered by twigs from nearby copse.

In 1514, Dürer made a portrait of his mother. The drawing, a blackness chalk on newspaper, is a true study of a worn old woman. The item of the wrinkles and saggy peel may daze us at first, only the cartoon has a tremendous sincerity. The beauty of the drawing does not lie in the dazzler of its subject, simply in the true rendering of man aging.

In his engravings and watercolors, Dürer also studied nature: animals and landscapes. He devoted much labor to his works. Though nosotros are studying the human body in this lecture, I want to betoken out Dürer's watercolor A Young Hare (1502). Every tiny pilus and whisker is carefully recorded. It is an excellent example of his loving patience towards all of his subjects.

A Young Hare (1502) - Albrecht Dürer. Dürer imparts tri-dimensionality to this unproblematic image by slightly shading the floor beside the hare. Note the attending put into every brush stroke.

January Van Eyck

Jan van Eyck (1380?-1441) also achieved stunning realistic effects through his mastery of the oil painting technique. Some scholars even say he invented this technique. He was certainly i of the first artists to adopt oil as his primary medium.

Amongst his masterpieces we can count the Ghent Altarpiece (completed in 1432) and The Crucifixion; The Terminal Judgment (1430-1425). It is believed he collaborated with Hubert van Eyck, probably his blood brother, in the realization of these art pieces.

Many of van Eyck's paintings include a disguised symbolism. The realistic objects in the pictures often have a deeper meaning. In his oil The Arnolfini Portrait (1434), a young merchant and his bride are exchanging nuptials vows. The ceremony is taking identify in the couple's room; a single candle burns in the chandelier as a symbol of unity. Their shoes are off to remind them of the holy ground every bit they substitution vows. The little dog represents fidelity in union. In a minor mirror on the dorsum wall, two persons are reflected: the witnesses, ane of them the artist himself. Over the mirror the phrase "Johannes de eyck fuit hic" (Jan van Eyck was hither) can confirm this.

The Arnolfini Portrait (1434) - January van Eyck. Van Eyck had the capacity to create many different textures in his oil painting. The skin quality is totally different from the velvet of the dresses and the hairy fur of the dog.

My favorite painting of all fourth dimension is a van Eyck painting called Man in a Red Turban (1433) and scholars say it may be a cocky-portrait. I am convinced this small (ten' 10 7') but powerful painting is van Eyck's self-portrait. He has a stern but piercing gaze, and his lips are tightly sealed as if something is worrying him. The carmine turban on his head is masterfully executed. Simply what really fascinates me nigh this picture is the gilded frame painted effectually it, creating an illusion of a real wooden frame, with the words engraved (really painted) on it. Information technology reads "Als Ich Kan" which can be loosely translated every bit "Equally expert every bit I can."

When I lived in London, every time I had an artistic block or serious doubts about my practice, I would get to the National Gallery to look at this painting. You can meet it here. I would look at Mr. van Eyck's worried expression, and I would remind myself that even the masters endure from insecurities or doubts regarding the work. I also told myself that as long as "I did information technology equally best as I could" everything would be okay.

Rogier Van Der Weyden

Rogier van der Weyden (1399/1400-1463), known as Rogier, was strongly influenced by van Eyck, although his man figures are longer and larger in relation to their spatial setting. The painter's Descent from the Cross (1435) is a set of wooden panels depicting a biblical scene. The crowd around Jesus and the fainting Mary fills up the space, leaving no room for whatever kind of background.

In Saint Luke Depicting the Virgin (1435), Rogier captures the psychological attribute of the mother-child relationship. Mary looks down at Christ while she breast feeds him, while he gazes up at her. His physical pleasure in breastfeeding is revealed by his upturned toes and extended fingers.

Hans Holbein

Slightly after Rogier's fourth dimension came Hans Holbein, besides known as Hans Holbein the younger (1497?-1543). Holbein ranks among the world'southward greatest portrait painters. He portrayed many personalities of his time, notably the Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus (1523).

Portrait of Desiderius Erasmus (1532) - Hans Holbein. Erasmus is portrayed by Holbein equally a noble character, with his scholarship represented by his books. Notation the conscientious work on the details in the face details and hands.

In 1532, he became court painter to King Henry VIII of England, and in 1540 he illustrated Henry 8, reinforcing the Rex's stiff personality through his moving picture. Fusing manner with content, Holbein captures Henry's wealth, ability, self-conviction, determination, and political acumen in this film.

Hiëronymous Bosch and Pieter Brueghel

Bosch (1450-1516) is one of the most puzzling artists, taking a far plough from the artists nosotros but discussed. He has been chosen the "creator of devils" due to the outlandish conflicting creatures that populate his work. Bosch is the first artist who disarticulated and disfigured the human torso. Though about of his field of study affair is religious, he combines it with alchemist symbols, pop literature, Dutch proverbs and puns, star divination, and witchcraft.

Bosch's favored format was the triptych (a iii-paneled painting), which he populated with malformed people, fantastic demons, distorted animals, large and oddly-shaped pieces of food and, sometimes, unidentifiable objects. Bosch'south largest and about complex work is the triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights (1504). The left panel depicts the Garden of Eden, God presenting it to Adam and Eve. The key panel shows the world before the Flood. In this panel, humans are committing all kinds of folly and stupid acts, also engaging in sexual pursuits. Decadence is imminent. The correct console is hell. Humans are tortured in all possible ways past a legion of animal-like demons. An arrow pierces two ears with no head. Chaos reigns.

Hell (part of The Garden of Earthly Delights ) (1504) - Hiëronymous Bosch. The complexity of the composition makes Bosch a great story teller. He guides our middle from the frontal and lower plane upwards to the upper, darkest part of the movie.

Pieter Brueghel (1525-1569), or Brueghel the Elderberry, was a follower of Bosch. In his paintings instead of idealized humans, you can run across normal people: drunks, farmers, bullheaded-men and gossiping women. His works include Hunters in the Snow (1565), The Peasants' Wedding (1565), and Blind Leading the Blind (1569).

The Harvesters (c. 1560) - Pieter Brueghel. Normal people grow in this Brueghel painting; so normal, they are depicted eating and sleeping as well as working.

If classical Renaissance symmetry created a natural, stable feeling for the viewer, Mannerist fine art (1520-1600) did quite the opposite. The master subject field in Mannerism is the human torso, which is oftentimes elongated, exaggerated, elegant, and arranged in circuitous and twisted poses. A sense of instability in figures and objects is created. Spaces tend to be crowded and compressed, classical proportions are rejected, and odd juxtapositions of size, space, and colour often occur.

Famous Italian mannerist painters include Jacopo da Pontorno (1494-1557), who started experimenting with contorted poses and contrasting colors; Parmigiano (1503-1540), who stated that there is no single correct reality and that baloney is as natural equally the appearance of things; Angolo Bronzino (1503-1572), whose paintings were very sexually charged; Jacopo Tintoretto (1518-1594), who had both anti-classical just elegant effects in his piece of work; and Sofonisba Anguissola (1532-1625), the first renowned female artist since the heyday of Ancient Hellenic republic.

Self-Portrait (1554) - Sofonisba Anguissola. Sofonisba depicts herself in a girlish fashion, past enhancing the size of her head relative to her body, and enlarging her blueish eyes, which stare at united states of america with a kind of innocent glare.

Mannerism also was found in sculpture. Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571) created elaborate and richly-ornamented utilitarian objects, such every bit the golden Saltcellar of Francis I (1543), too as oversized bronzes, such as the statue of Perseus (1545-1555). Gianbologna (1529-1608) is known for his painting Mercury, a small bronze depicting the god stretched upwardly as if he is flight.

The most famous Mannerist creative person is El Greco (1541-1614). He was born in Crete but did nearly of his work in Spain. His paintings are washed with a mystical fervor and exalted emotion. His atypical style consists of over-elongated figures, acrid colors, and swirls of unreal atmospheric events. His best works include The Burial of Count Orgaz (1586), The Resurrection of Christ (1597-1610), and Laocoon (1610-1614).

Baptism of Christ (1590s) - El Greco. Greco's figures are distorted and seem to exist floating in infinite. The swirly characteristics of their bodies gives usa a sense of their loss of gravity in the h2o.

Slightly overlapping and post-obit the Mannerist period is the Baroque period. The Baroque era started around 1600 in Italy, spread through Europe, and lasted until around 1750 in areas of Germany and Austria.

Bizarre artists rejected the virtuosity and the stylization of the figure of the Mannerists, merely absorbed their use of chiaroscuro technique and their theatrical effects. Bizarre art achieved a new kind of naturalism, based in the straight study of nature.

Dramatic action, trigger-happy narrative, contrasting color and light, rich textures, and asymmetry were widely used in Baroque artists' compositions.

Baroque fine art was besides strongly influenced by the historical context: the perceived decadence of the Holy Roman Empire, the colonization of the "uncivilized" earth, rationalism, and the discovery that the sun is the center of the solar system. Let's come across some of the Baroque artists.

Italian Baroque Artists

Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) was the most famous Baroque sculptor. His life-size white-marble David (1623) represents a David in full activity. The fighter is leaning to his right and stretching his sling, while looking over his shoulder at Goliath. The body forms a dynamic diagonal, which extends from head to foot.

The diagonal plane is a recurrent style in Bizarre sculpture and painting. In dissimilarity to Michelangelo's David, this statue almost seems to move; the figure'due south facial expression indicates he is in the middle of a battle. Looking over his shoulder, he seems enlightened of the presence of Goliath, expanding the sculptural space psychologically also equally formally. This is a Baroque technique for involving the spectator in the piece of work.

Apollo and Daphne (1622-1625) - Gianlorenzo Bernini. The arms of the characters make a clear diagonal that gives movement to the composition, at the very moment when Daphne is turning into a bay tree.

Among Baroque painters, Caravaggio (1573-1610) was leader. He had an innovative style of working straight on the canvas without making preliminary drawings. Caravaggio's painting appealed to the ordinary observer and was not aimed at the elite. He studied nature and was able to render realistic images of the body. Far from painting classical, idealized bodies, however, he would paint everyday, imperfect humans in a "perfect" illusionistic way. His trigger-happy dissimilarity of light and shade is chosen tenebrism. His field of study affair ranges from biblical scenes to themes of a homoerotic nature. His masterpieces include Boy with a Basket of Fruit (1594), The Calling of Saint Mathew (1599-1600), and Doubting Thomas (1602-1603).

The Calling of Saint Matthew (1599-1600) - Caravaggio. Tenebrism is accomplished by dramatically shading the scene to heighten the event of the light inbound through the window. The ray of lite from the window points directly to the main character: a crouched St. Matthew.

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653) was ane of the first female artists to sally as a meaning personality in Europe. She was one of Caravaggio'southward followers, chosen the Caravaggisti. She is known for her pictures of heroic women and vehement scenes—they comprise an inner drama that is unique to her. Her most famous painting is Judith Slaying Holofernes (1614-1620).

Bizarre Outside of Italian republic

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) was a Flemish artist known for his sensual depiction of the man body and bright color palettes. Consequent with the beauty standards of his time, Ruben'southward characters are full and fleshy. The men in his paintings are mostly overweight or have exaggerated musculature. Women are circular and generous in flesh; past today'south standards, we might say they are slightly overweight. Children are chubby with red cheeks.

Self-Portrait with Isabella Brant in the Honeysuckle Bower (1610) - Peter Paul Rubens. Ruben's fascination for detail can be seen in his depiction of the muscles of his crossed legs, and in the dissimilar textures of the fabrics.

In Ruben's painting Venus and Adonis (1635), Venus is depicted nude, in an active and sensual pose. She is stretched forming a diagonal, trying to convince her lover to stay. Rubens emphasized her generous breasts and rippling, dimpled flesh. She has a round belly and ample hips. She even has a double mentum! For Rubens, such full figures reflected the Flemish equation of fleshiness with prosperity.

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) was built-in in Holland. Rembrandt is one of my favorite artists, partly considering he produced an amazing number of self-portraits (effectually 100 are known). I like to await at them and imagine what was passing through his head at the moment. No other creative person has left such an business relationship of the transformation of age, physical and emotional. He was a prolific etcher, drawer, and painter. Rembrandt was a genius at manipulating calorie-free and dark, which he used to create the characters of his figures. For me, he is the male parent of psychological portrayal—he would really clarify the personality of his bailiwick and bring it out in the portrait...starting with himself!

Self Portrait (c. 1660) - Rembrandt. The Dutch primary painted more than than 100 self portraits.

Rembrandt was an expert in facial expressions and gestures. His field of study matter included biblical scenes, mythology, portraiture, landscapes, brute studies, history, nudes, and everyday life scenes. His works include The Blinding of Samson (1636), Anatomy Lesson of Professor Tulp (1632), and the famous Dark Spotter (1642) that was brutally slashed with a knife by a mad person in the 1990s.

Night Watch (1642) - Rembrandt. Though this motion picture is dark, Rembrandt illuminates every face in the picture. Note that the vivid character on the left hand side is the merely female in the group.

Diego Velazquez (1599-1660) was the greatest Spanish painter of the Bizarre period. Velazquez was the courtroom painter of Philip IV. At court, Velazquez painted the royal family unit, too every bit dwarves, jokers, and servants who served at the palace. He portrayed both the beautiful and the ugly.

The painter's monumental masterpiece Las Meninas (1656) shows his apply of realism and his ability to control the viewer's gaze through the composition. On the left side, we see the painter himself working on a canvass, from which we only see the behind of the canvas. In the center, Princess Margarita has entered the room with her maids and entertainers. She seems to arrogantly despise a lilliputian drink that is existence offered to her. A dog lies peacefully on the right side, while a piddling person kicks him. In the back of the room, an open door lets us see a waiting nobleman, or perhaps another servant. Beside this door, a mirror reflects the King and Queen, who are probably the subject area of Velazquez'southward canvass.

Las Meninas (1656) - Velazquez. Annotation how every unmarried character in the picture is engaged in some sort of activity, giving the painting a unique dynamic quality and a sense of vitality.

Velazquez created an illusion of space both within and beyond the painting. Past including the reflection of the King and Queen, who would be standing where the viewers stand up, he includes the infinite in front of the sail as role of the composition. He also makes a tribute to the very art of painting, by including himself in action. Another one of his peachy works is the Surrender of Breda and Venus with a Mirror (1648).

We'll at present turn our attention back to sculpture, exploring some of the ways in which modern sculptors take represented the man body.

We showtime with the famous Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), a French sculptor who revolutionized the working methods of sculptors. He was primarily a modeler, preferring to work with clay or wax rather than etching in stone. Rodin would leave surfaces unpolished and rough, showing traces of the instruments used to model. He was interested in the experimental process of sculpting, rather than the finished piece of work.

Rodin would use unprofessional models in unprofessional poses. His figures had a not bad emotional intensity and explored a wide range of human passions. Their inner feelings were expressed by gestures that emphasized dissimilar parts of the body. Many of his figures are incomplete or fragmented: a torso, a head, or just hands.

My favorite Rodin piece, and one of the all-time known, is The Thinker (1879-1902). It depicts a seated human, manus holding his chin, carried away by deep thoughts. Information technology is a large muscular body that gives a sense of contained energy.

The Thinker (1876-1902) - Rodin. Discover how Rodin is able to imply the pose of the feet without having to detail every last nervus and muscle. Also note how different this texture is from the stone the subject is seated on.

While Rodin was inspired much by the sculptor's process and past specific feelings and gestures, Henri Matisse (1869-1954) was inspired past ethnographic sculpture. In his Reclining Nude I Aurora (1907), we can perceive a well-defined nude, despite the bulging distortions of the anatomy. He manipulates the homo figure to obtain an intricate rhythm and a muscular tension.

Taking a different approach to effigy representation was Humberto Boccioni (1882-1916), role of the Futurist movement. In his running figure entitled Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (1913), he attempts to represent not the human form itself, simply the imprint of its motion in the surrounding space. The result is a quasi-robot man, with flares protruding from the limbs that requite the sense of movement.

Henry Moore (1898-1986) was an English creative person with an abstruse arroyo. His sculptures are based on the human course, though they are abstruse expressions of the body. He did non attempt to make a trunk in stone, merely a stone which suggests a body. His figures are composed of flowing convex and concave curves that create rich contrasts of calorie-free and dark. His surfaces are polished smooth. I think of cliff or rock formations when I await at his work. A skilful example of how he treated the human figure is his rock Family unit Group (1955).

Three Piece Reclining Figure Draped (1976) - Henry Moore. In Moore's abstract work, the polished surface of the sculpture resembles the skin and though a complete human body is non depicted, we can recognize a cervix, an arm, and a leg. It can be constitute on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Engineering science.

Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) concentrated on human figures afterwards 1945 (the end of the World War II). These modeled and after bandage figures are small, thin, and elongated, every bit if they could disappear in any moment. They take rough surfaces and bare, expressionless faces. Whether unmarried figures or in groups, the sculptures are arranged to suggest a sense of loneliness, isolation, and existential anxiety.

To wrap upwards our wait at the human course in fine art history, we'll briefly explore some Expressionist pieces that exercise not necessarily represent specific figures at all. Rather than present a realistic or abstract effigy, the 20th century abstract Expressionists put their own human experience into their piece of work, mirroring human emotions and efforts, though not necessarily homo forms.

An important variant of Abstract Expressionism was action painting. Activeness painters developed characteristic methods of applying the paint. They dripped, splattered, sprayed, rolled, and threw pigment onto their canvases. The final image was a reflection of the artist'southward torso activeness in the creative process.

Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) is the all-time-known action painter. From 1947 onward, he used a dripping technique to produce his paintings. He engaged his whole body in the act of painting. He would stretch the canvas on the floor, instead of vertically, and he would control the drips with the motion of his arm and body. He would often leave hazard to have its course, but at that place is an underlying chromatic system in his canvases. His habit of cropping finished canvases adds to their dynamic quality, for the lines announced to move in and out the picture plane.

Autumn Rhythm (Number 30) (1950) - Jackson Pollock. The free energy in Pollock's paintings is elemental; it tin be compared to the forces of nature.

Other notable action painters are Franz Kline (1910-1962), Lee Krasner, and Wilem de Kooning.

Performance Art

Likewise called live art, or in some occasions "happenings," performance art originated in the early 20th century with the Dadaist performances in the Cabaret Voltaire (which nosotros will study in a subsequently lecture). However it was not until the 1960s that it exploded equally an art trend with the activeness of the Fluxus group.

Fluxus was a group of intellectuals organized by George Maciunas. It included musicians like John Cage, artists similar Yoko Ono, and video artists like Nam June Paik. Fluxus organized events that incorporated literature, music, theater, dance, video, and other materials. In a reaction to minimalism, artists sought to assert their presence once more, by condign, in consequence, living works of fine art.

Farbtest, Dice Rote Fahne ll (video installation) - Felix Gmelin. In this contemporary performance piece, Gmelin re-enacts an action fabricated by his father 30 years ago, by running with a carmine flag through the streets of a metropolis.

In performance art, a "performance" could consist of one person or a group. It could take place anywhere and terminal whatever length of fourth dimension. Performance art used (and still uses) the performer's torso as the principal art medium. It may be autobiographical or make a political statement. It often merges art with every day life.

The German creative person Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) was an important pioneer in performance art. For Beuys, life was a creative process in which everyone tin be an artist. In his piece Coyote, he spent one week caged up with a coyote in a New York gallery. The coyote represented America, a country he was visiting for the first fourth dimension, and with whom he intended to outset a relationship. Eventually the coyote and the creative person co-habitated in the space and got used to each other.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the English artists Gilbert and George combined elements of traditional sculpture with performance art. They would dress similar traditional English men and stand up over low platforms, sometimes singing, but generally assuming static poses. By calling themselves living sculptures, Gilbert and George explored the ambiguous areas between living and not-living, illusion and reality, and art and life.

Word
Share your thoughts on fine art history with your fellow students.

Exercise
Clarify artworks that represent men and women in different periods.

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Source: https://documents.sessions.edu/eforms/courseware/coursedocuments/history_of_art/lesson3.html

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