Boucher's Lady on her Day Bed

Francois Boucher was one of the leading artists in eighteenth-century France, who created not only paintings but also designs for prints, tapestries, and porcelain.  This small image, for which Boucher's wife posed as a model, might seem almost frivolous compared to the grand historical and religious narrative paintings we have seen in class thus far.  There is no ostensible story, and although it represents a specific individual (and thus overlaps with the genre of portraiture), there is as much emphasis on the stuff in the composition (like the objects displayed on the back wall) as on the figure herself.  Does this picture seem casual or posed, or a combination of the two?  Why do you say so?  Is it possible there there is no "point" to the painting beyond being a pleasant representation of Madame Boucher, or do any details seem to indicate an underlying message?

Rembrandt's Self-Portrait in his Studio

At the end of class this past Thursday, we looked at Velazquez's monumental painting "Las Meninas" (3.2 x 2.7 m), which includes among many other figures a self-portrait of the artist at his easel.  This painting by the young Rembrandt is by contrast very small (just 24.8 x 31.7 cm), yet it still makes a provocative claim about its maker.  Considering the question of how artists participate in the construction of their own myths and fame, as per our section discussions last week, how would you describe Rembrandt's compositional choices and self-presentation in this painting as similar to and/or different from that of Velazquez?  

Caravaggio's Conversion of Saint Paul and Bernini's Saint Longinus

This Thursday we will be discussing early seventeenth-century art in the context of the Counter-Reformation, the movement on the part of the Catholic church to revive religious art in the face of the Protestant attacks fomented by Martin Luther a century earlier.  Two artists in Italy, Caravaggio and Bernini -- in the media of painting and sculpture respectively -- exemplify the kinds of religious artworks created in this new Counter-Reformation context, as well as a new dramatic approach to representing narrative.  Comparing Caravaggio's painting of "The Conversion of Saint Paul" blinded by the light of God and fallen beneath his horse with Bernini's sculpture of "Saint Longinus" in the choir of St. Peter's in the Vatican, what do you notice to be common features and approaches in both artists' works?  You might compare/contrast the portrayal of the body, gesture, and the use of light, as well as the different media used by the artists.

Saint Paul's conversion, from Acts 9:1-6 (note that Saint Paul's original name was Saul):

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way [i.e. Christian believers], whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
  “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.  “I am Christ, whom you are persecuting,” he replied.  “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

Bruegel's Big Fish Eat Little Fish

Tuesday's lecture will focus on the impact of the Protestant Reformation, the radical break with the Catholic church fomented by the German preacher Martin Luther beginning in 1517, which comprised among many things a strong critique of perceived decadence and idolatry in Catholic religious images.  One practical result of the Reformation was the emergence of new genres of art that were not religious in subject matter, but comprised the representation of scenes from everyday life and popular culture.  A particularly remarkable example is this engraving by the Netherlandish artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder (published 1557), which illustrates the popular Dutch proverb "big fish eat little fish," a comment on the hierarchical man-eat-man (or fish-eat-fish) world of human society.  Remarkably, the print is not signed in the bottom left corner with Bruegel's own name but instead with the phrase "Hieronymus Bosch inventor," which would suggest that Bosch and not Bruegel designed it, even though this is not the case!  What connection do you see between Bruegel's "Big Fish" print and Bosch's works that we discussed earlier in the semester, which might justify the reference to Bruegel's artistic precursor?  And what you think might be possible explanations for why Bruegel and/or the publisher of this print used Bosch's name instead of Bruegel's?

To compare Bruegel's engraving with his preliminary drawing for the print in close detail, see this website:

http://80.57.84.48/Albertina/

Raphael's Stanza della Segnatura and Thomas Struth's 1990 photograph "Stanze di Raffaello II"

The contemporary photographer Thomas Struth created a celebrated series of images depicting visitors in front famous works of art and in popular museums like the Louvre in France.  Here he photographs tourists in Raphael's great Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican Palace in Rome, part of the papal apartments that the young artist frescoed in 1508-09 for Pope Julius II, and which includes one of the most well-known images from Renaissance art, the "School of Athens."  At the center of Raphael's fresco, the ancient philosophers Plato and Aristotle stand framed by an arcade while a group of other celebrated thinkers and creators spread out around them.  Looking at Struth's photograph, it is clear that he is asking us to think about the extent to which tourists really engage with the works they travel to see.  Raphael's "School of Athens" is not visible in Struth's photograph but is on the wall to the left of the crowd.  How might Struth be commenting on Raphael's fresco through his photograph?  Do you think he means the viewer  to compare/contrast the photographed scene with Raphael's fresco?  Are there similarities between the two compositions that invite this comparison, and what might we understand from the juxtaposition?