Task_Ass_Hist
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Applied Humanities
Themes in Visual Art
Subject vs. Theme
2 Module Two: Introduction to the Humanities, continued / Page 2.1.1 Subject vs.
Theme
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Objective: Learn what themes are and how to identify them.
What is this thing called “theme”? Funny you should ask! At its most basic, a theme is
an idea or message that is presented by a work. The theme is often a concept that is
complex and therefore difficult to understand. Artistic works explore such themes,
sometimes offering a perspective, sometimes just raising questions. In literature,
themes are found by examining and analyzing elements of a work, such as plot, action,
setting, characters, and dialogue. In music, the theme is found in the emotional content
that is produced by factors such as key, instrumentation, tempo, timbre, and repetition.
In visual art, themes are found in what is presented and how it is presented, the
relationship of elements within the work, the relationship of the work to others, and so
on.
Theme is usually less obvious than simple subject matter. The famous poem “The
Giving Tree,” for example, has more important concerns than arboreal fascination. The
theme of the poem could be longstanding friendship, the difficulties of aging,
frustration with relationships, or nearly anything else. (Note that a theme is usually a
short phrase that encompasses a large idea.) Importantly, a theme is universal because
it addresses some aspect of humanity and is therefore relevant to all humans.
Works set during different time periods, or within vastly different cultural
circumstances, may actually have extremely similar themes. Many works include more
than one theme, and many can be interpreted as having different themes. But to claim
that a theme is “in” a work, you’ll want to support your argument with evidence from
the work.
Theme is everywhere, not just in fine art. Popular music, magazine stories, theme parks,
political campaigns, satirical T-shirts—all use theme to convey a message to their
audiences. It can sometimes be difficult to find the root theme in a work, so let’s first
explore the theme of a TV commercial. Commercials tend to make their themes
apparent clearly and quickly.
Watch the video below and answer the following question, then continue reading.
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http://allpoetry.com/poem/8538991-The-Giving-Tree-by-Shel-Silverstein
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YouTube video. https://youtu.be/owGykVbfgUE. Uploaded February 4, 2010, by Old
Spice. To activate captions, first click the play button and then click the CC button in the
embedded player. For a text transcript, follow the link below.
Read Text Transcript
Response Board
What do you think is the underlying theme of this commercial? Take a moment to
think about it, and then post your thoughts in the space below.
No response saved yet.
Most viewers would probably conclude that the theme of this ad is masculinity. The
spokesman clearly has something to say about manhood: what it takes to be a man and
what a man should wear, look like, or even smell like. The commercial implies that if
you’re a real man, you will be irresistible to women, be able to produce wondrous things
effortlessly, and smell fantastic.
To dig a little deeper, let’s examine a couple of themes in literature. These tend to be
less explicit than the theme in a deodorant commercial, however, so you have to use
careful analysis to pick up on them. To help you with this, and to demonstrate what
we’re talking about, we’ve provided two excerpts below and identified their common
Share your thoughts with your peers…
Old Spice | The Man Your Man Could Smell LikeOld Spice | The Man Your Man Could Smell Like
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theme. Later in the course, when you have to make thematic comparisons on your own,
you can look back at this example.
The theme that we’ve tried to draw out here is tradition. As you read these two
passages, pay special attention to the dialogue, setting, characters, and plot to
determine how we’ve selected this theme.
The first excerpt we’ll look at comes from “The Thirteenth Night” by Ichiyo Higuchi.
This short story was published in Japan in 1895. The main character, Oseki, is married
to an abusive man, Isamu Harada, and they have a son, Taro. She is seeking permission
from her parents to divorce her husband, but her family will all suffer disgrace and
hardship should she go through with it. Consider how this excerpt confronts the
tradition in Japan of putting family ahead of the individual.
“Well, no one can say you’re being unreasonable,” her father sighed. “I’m
sure it’s been hard on you. It sounds like a dreadful marriage.” For a long
time he studied Oseki’s appearance. Almost without a father’s recognizing it,
his daughter had become the perfect matron: the proper hairdo fastened
with a gold circlet, the black crepe jacket, it was all very tasteful. How could
he watch her throw these things away? How could he let her change into a
work coat, with her sleeves tied up and her hair pulled back, the better to
take in washing or to tackle the scrubbing? And there was Taro to think of. A
moment’s anger could dismantle a hundred years of good fortune, and she
would then be the butt of ridicule. Once she went back to being the daughter
of Saito Kazue, all the laughter and tears in the world could never reinstate
her as the mother of Harada Taro. She might well have no fondness for her
husband, but forgetting her child would not be so easy. After they were
separated, she would find herself yearning for him more and more. She
would come to long for those days when she endured the ordeal for the sake
of being with Taro. It was Oseki’s misfortune to have been born so beautiful,
and to have married above herself.
The next excerpt we’ll look at comes from Beowulf, a famous epic poem from the
Middle Ages about a monster-fighting warrior who becomes a beloved king. After ruling
his kingdom in peace for 50 years, the elderly Beowulf is suddenly confronted with a
new fire-breathing threat. He recruits a band of warriors to help him take on the
dragon, but he is abandoned by all but one of them after the dragon deals him a fatal
blow. The remaining warrior, Wiglaf, recoils in shock from this desertion.
Filled with anger
toward his false comrades,
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Wiglaf shouted
words of reproach:
“I remember once
at the mead-drinking,
while we swilled his beer,
how we solemnly vowed
to the great chieftain
who gave us rings
that we would pay him back
for these precious gifts,
this dazzling war-gear,
if danger should ever
approach him. Today
he picked us out
from among his troops,
imagining
we were loyal friends,
and loaded us with gifts
because he thought us all
thanes he could trust,
honor-bound men,
though it was always his hope,
as king of the country,
to accomplish this feat
all alone,
for all our sakes,
since he was aware
of the wonderful deeds
he had done in the past.
Now the day has come
when our noble lord
needs the support
of good companions.
We must go forward
to help our leader
while this heat torments him,
this grim firestorm.
God knows
it would be far better
that flames should devour me
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than that I should outlive
my lord and master.”
Are you able to see why we chose tradition as the theme underlying these two works,
even though they were composed at different times and places, and by different
authors?
As you try to uncover a work’s theme, it may be helpful to think about the following
questions:
What ideas, symbols, allusions, or concepts are prominent or repeated (even if they
are repeated in different ways)?
Does the title have any special relationship to the plot or characters?
What greater meaning can be found in the details, descriptions, and dialogue? Is
the cigar really a cigar?
It’s important to note that themes are not always constructed with intention. The
author of the medieval epic Beowulf, for example, probably did not think about how he
would create a long poem that reveals the theme of tradition. In all likelihood, he simply
had a story in mind and then wrote it down. Themes (like tradition) are often revealed
only after the artifact has been created and can be evaluated.
Remember, we the readers are interacting with the text, and our analysis helps us
derive value from the experience. Seeking to understand the theme helps us come to
grips with what a story is “about” and inevitably invites connection to other works. That
connection between two different works along a common theme is at the heart of your
project and should suggest to you that the creators of this course at SNHU want, more
than anything else, for you to be able to see themes in works of art, connect them, and
discuss them well.
Multiple-Choice Question
Which of the following is the BEST definition of theme?
a succinct judgment that determines a work’s value
a symbol contained in a work
a plot summary of a work
a recurring idea that conveys a work’s message
Multiple-Choice Question
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Which of the following questions can be helpful to ask when attempting to
identify the theme of a work?
What was the creator’s childhood like?
How well does this work accord with the latest scientific findings?
How much did it cost to create this work?
What symbols and ideas are most prominent in the work?
Response Board
Choose a book, short story, television episode, or movie that you recently read or
watched, and pick out a theme (or multiple themes) from it.
No response saved yet.
Response Board
Compare any two works included in the previous module or in the gallery in
section 2.4 of this chapter. Answer the following question: What is a common
theme of the two works? Provide evidence for your answer with at least one
citation from each work.
No response saved yet.
close
Share your thoughts with your peers…
Share your thoughts with your peers…
11/4/2020 HUM-200 – Page 2.1.2 – Caillebotte
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Applied Humanities
Themes in Visual Art
Caillebotte
By James Romaine
2 Module Two: Introduction to the Humanities, continued / Page 2.1.2 Caillebotte
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Objective: Analyze a painting by Gustave Caillebotte to identify its theme.
The painting on this page exemplifies what many viewers think of as “art.” The main
subject seems immediately apparent. However, as with all great works of art, there are
layers of significance that are revealed over time—through closer study, critical
thinking, and research.
On this page, you will examine elements of an Impressionist painting by Gustave
Caillebotte to determine its theme. Use the information and images provided to answer
the questions below.
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Paris Street; Rainy Day
This is an oil painting of a Parisian intersection in the late 1800s. It has overcast skies and
is apparently raining. Almost all of the pedestrians are walking with umbrellas. The couple
in the foreground are sharing an umbrella. She is dressed in a fur-trimmed skirt, jacket,
and hat. There is an earring visible in her left ear. She is holding on to her companion’s
left arm with her right hand. He is dressed in pants, a buttoned vest, white shirt, bow tie,
coat, and top hat. He is holding the umbrella. They are both looking to their right. A man
with his back to the viewer is passing the couple on their left. He is wearing a top hat and
coat and carrying an umbrella. The viewer sees only half of him. In the background are
other pedestrians crossing the street and walking on the sidewalks. There is a triangular
building in the background. The streets are paved with rectangular stones. There is a
lamppost visible behind the couple sharing the umbrella. The painting is realistic and
looks almost like a photograph.
Click to enlarge
Gustave Caillebotte. Paris Street; Rainy Day, 1877. Oil on canvas. 212.2 x 276.2 cm (83
1/2 x 108 3/4 in.). Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection, 1964.336. The Art
Institute of Chicago.
Gustave Caillebotte
Paris Street; Rainy Day, 1877
Era/Culture/Movement: Impressionism
Medium: Oil on canvas
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Dimensions: 6′ 11.5″ × 9′ 0.75″
Location: Art Institute of Chicago
Several figures navigate the streets of the modern city of Paris.
As you view this work for the first time, think about its theme. This painting explores
how human experience and relationships are shaped by the environment of the modern
city.
Short-Answer Question
After this first viewing, what do you see in this painting that explores how
human experience and relationships are shaped by the environment of the
modern city?
No response saved yet.
Gustave Caillebotte’s Paris Street; Rainy Day is like a postcard from the past—albeit a
very large one. At nearly seven feet by nine feet, this painting makes viewers feel as if
they could walk right into the painting and be in Paris. Conversely, the figures in the
painting seem like they could step into our world.
Working in late 19th-century France, Caillebotte was active in a movement that became
known as Impressionism. The Impressionists were a loosely affiliated group of artists
who showed their work together in self-organized exhibitions. Coming from a wealthy
family, Caillebotte helped to financially support this movement. Paris Street; Rainy
Day was included in the third Impressionist exhibition.
One feature of the Impressionist movement was an emphasis on subjects drawn from
everyday life. Caillebotte’s painting demonstrates that art based on observation, such as
images of modern men and women, is no less creative than art based on invention, such
as classical depictions of mythological gods and goddesses (a point that many art critics
of the late 19th century would not have agreed with).
At a time when the art establishment favored works of art depicting historical,
mythological, or biblical subjects, Caillebotte boldly turned his attention to a transitory
moment. Employing a dramatic perspective that might have reminded viewers of
Italian Renaissance paintings in the Louvre, Paris Street; Rainy Day was a celebration
of the ordinary. Like Édouard Manet and Claude Monet, Caillebotte embraced the
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challenge put forward by the poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire to be a “painter of
modern life.”
Paris Street; Rainy Day depicts a specific place in Paris (one that still exists today). The
intersection of boulevards becomes the setting for a cross section of social classes.
Caillebotte captures the energy of the city as figures stroll past each other, all of them on
their way to some destination outside the frame of the painting. Some of the figures are
in pairs; others are on their own.
The piece is unusual for a 19th-century painting in that it has no single fixed focal point.
Depicting a seemingly random moment of figures in motion, this work evokes the
recently developed medium of photography. Figures move to the right and left, toward
the viewer and away from the viewer. Their movements are framed by the urban
architecture’s geometric order.
The seeming spontaneity of the moment depicted is supported by the painting’s
carefully organized construction. The off-center—but not off-balance—composition is
oriented around a gaslight lamppost. This post, and its reflection on the wet pavement,
divides the painting from top to bottom. Caillebotte has balanced larger figures at the
right with an illusion of a greater depth of space at the left. The city and the people are
actually balanced by each other. The compositional and conceptual success of this
painting lies in the subtle equilibrium that Caillebotte achieves, a harmony that holds
the painting, and the city, together.
Paris Street; Rainy Day is also visually unified by light. The composition is replete with
open umbrellas, each capturing a soft tone of light that comes from the upper left.
But the calm orderliness of the scene disguises some of the uncertainty present. The
wide boulevards that meet in the middle of the picture had only recently been
constructed as part of a large urban redesign. In the 1850s and 1860s, Paris experienced
a transformation that was both beautiful and brutal. At the direction of Baron Georges
Haussmann, the city’s maze of dark streets was transformed into a system of wide
boulevards filled with light. These long, straight avenues, which radiated out from city
centers, were lined with Beaux-Arts architecture. To create these new plazas and parks,
however, entire communities had to be forcibly evicted, and neighborhoods were
demolished.
The aspirations and anxieties of the modern world form the undercurrent of Paris
Street; Rainy Day. Certain details of Caillebotte’s painting, such as scaffolding in the
center background or the man in the middle ground carrying a ladder, suggest that the
renovations to the city are never finished. Having a life of its own, the city keeps
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changing. The people that we see in the painting are still discovering how the urban
redesign of Paris affects how they live their lives.
As stated above, Paris Street; Rainy Day explores how human experience and
relationships are shaped by the environment of the modern city. The most obvious way
in which Caillebotte carries out this exploration is in his use of architecture. The
buildings not only divide the world depicted in the painting; they also organize the
composition of the painting itself. This deliberate connection between the subject
depicted and the means by which it is depicted is part of what keeps the painting fresh
for the viewer and of interest to scholars.
There aren’t very many paintings of rainy weather in the history of art, and so art
historians have speculated about why Caillebotte chose this subject. Of course, the
answer to this question may be that he simply liked rainy weather. Or perhaps the artist
found that the wet surfaces of the cobblestone streets and umbrellas had a certain visual
effect, a shimmer, that captured light in a particular way.
There is another possible motivation for painting people walking with umbrellas. The
umbrella delineates a personal or private space. In Caillebotte’s painting, everyone
shares the public spaces of the streets and sidewalks. But their umbrellas visualize the
fact that they all have to negotiate this public space while attempting to respect the
space of others and maintain their own sense of personal space. If we look more closely
at the painting, it seems as if the rain has perhaps stopped, and light has filled the
space. The brightness of the sky (now even more evident after a restoration that
removed old layers of yellowing varnish) suggests that the sunlight is beginning to
break through. Yet all the umbrellas are still up, because they serve the artist’s larger
purpose.
Caillebotte’s use of umbrellas is one of several devices in Paris Street; Rainy Day that
help to visualize the tension between public and private space in a crowded city. In the
lower right corner, for example, a man enters the frame of the painting. He is directly in
the path of a man and woman who, looking to their right (our left), seem entirely
unaware of him. Initially, the way in which the painting’s composition stations the three
figures side by side disguises their impending collision. But the longer we look at the
painting, the more the undercurrent of urban tension rises to the surface.
Because it is more than merely an image of middle-class Parisians created for the
viewer’s delight and imagination, Paris Street; Rainy Day can still address the 21st-
century viewer. As the world becomes increasingly urbanized and interconnected,
perhaps our challenges are not so different from those of Caillebotte’s figures. This
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painting demonstrates how a work of art can relate something about the human
experience in the past to the viewer’s experiences in the present.
Paris Street; Rainy Day
This is an oil painting of a Parisian intersection in the late 1800s. It has overcast skies and
is apparently raining. Almost all of the pedestrians are walking with umbrellas. The couple
in the foreground are sharing an umbrella. She is dressed in a fur-trimmed skirt, jacket,
and hat. There is an earring visible in her left ear. She is holding on to her companion’s
left arm with her right hand. He is dressed in pants, a buttoned vest, white shirt, bow tie,
coat, and top hat. He is holding the umbrella. They are both looking to their right. A man
with his back to the viewer is passing the couple on their left. He is wearing a top hat and
coat and carrying an umbrella. The viewer sees only half of him. In the background are
other pedestrians crossing the street and walking on the sidewalks. There is a triangular
building in the background. The streets are paved with rectangular stones. There is a
lamppost visible behind the couple sharing the umbrella. The painting is realistic and
looks almost like a photograph.
Click to enlarge
Gustave Caillebotte. Paris Street; Rainy Day, 1877. Oil on canvas. 212.2 x 276.2 cm (83
1/2 x 108 3/4 in.). Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection, 1964.336. The Art
Institute of Chicago.
Short-Answer Question
Count and describe the people in Caillebotte’s Paris Street; Rainy Day.
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No response saved yet.
Short-Answer Question
Where are they going? What are they doing? Are they together or alone?
Can we tell anything about how they are feeling or what they are thinking?
No response saved yet.
Short-Answer Question
How does the artist use the arrangement of the boulevards and the
structure of the architecture to give organization to the image?
No response saved yet.
Short-Answer Question
What does this work tell us about life in Paris in the late 19th century?
No response saved yet.
Short-Answer Question
What can we learn from this painting about the human experience that can
be applied to our own experience?
No response saved yet.
Response Board
Imagine yourself in this painting. What sorts of sounds and smells might you
experience?
No response saved yet.
Short-Answer Question
Share your thoughts with your peers…
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After reading the context and analysis above and looking more closely at
the painting, what do you now see in this painting that explores how human
experiences and relationships are shaped by the environment of the
modern city?
No response saved yet.
close
11/4/2020 HUM-200 – Page 2.2.3 – Woolf
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Applied Humanities
Themes in Literature
Woolf
By Eric Steineger
2 Module Two: Introduction to the Humanities, continued / Page 2.2.3 Woolf
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Objective: Analyze a speech by Virginia Woolf to identify its theme.
In this speech given in 1931, Virginia Woolf describes what it was like to be a female
writer. At the time, women were just getting the right to vote in many countries, and
they enjoyed fewer freedoms than men—freedom to pursue their interests, make a
living, and lead an independent lifestyle. And yet Woolf had at this point attained these
freedoms for herself as a writer. She states, “The cheapness of writing paper is, of
course, the reason why women have succeeded as writers before they have succeeded in
the other professions.”
However, Woolf also credits previous authors (Austen, Behn, Burney) for “making the
path smooth” and “regulating [her] steps.” And she notes that not only is she able to
write, but her profession in literature enables her to earn a living by writing.
Professions for Women
Short-Answer Question
After your first reading, what themes do you see in this speech?
No response saved yet.
Short-Answer Question
List some of the barriers of entry for women writers.
No response saved yet.
Woolf says she had to kill “the Angel in the House” in order to become her own writer
(and person). This Angel is described as selfless to a fault. Woolf killed her because the
Angel was a serious impediment to her writing, but eliminating her was a struggle: “It is
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far harder to kill a phantom than a reality.” So, the Angel was an ideal that real women
tried to live up to.
Think about the two impediments to writing that Woolf mentions: (1) the Angel of the
House, and (2) “telling the truth about my own experiences as a body.” Consider what it
took for women to submit work to a literary journal during that era—not in terms of
having to “flatter” or “deceive” a man when reviewing his work, but the actual process of
sending out their own work.
Short-Answer Question
Describe your understanding of what Woolf means by “the Angel in the
House.”
No response saved yet.
close
11/4/2020 HUM-200 – Page 2.2.2 – Hass
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Applied Humanities
Themes in Literature
Hass
By Eric Steineger
2 Module Two: Introduction to the Humanities, continued / Page 2.2.2 Hass
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Objective: Analyze a poem by Robert Hass to identify its theme.
A former poet laureate of the United States, Robert Hass has a reputation as an
intellectual; an artist; and an accessible, almost fatherly figure—one who is equally at
home discussing 17th-century painters as he is relaying a personal narrative. Words,
feelings, and remembrance are discussed in this poem.
Meditation at Lagunitas
By Robert Hass
All the new thinking is about loss.
In this it resembles all the old thinking.
The idea, for example, that each particular erases
the luminous clarity of a general idea. That the clown-
faced woodpecker probing the dead sculpted trunk
of that black birch is, by his presence,
some tragic falling off from a first world
of undivided light. Or the other notion that,
because there is in this world no one thing
to which the bramble of blackberry corresponds,
a word is elegy to what it signifies.
We talked about it late last night and in the voice
of my friend, there was a thin wire of grief, a tone
almost querulous. After a while I understood that,
talking this way, everything dissolves: justice,
pine, hair, woman, you and I. There was a woman
I made love to and I remembered how, holding
her small shoulders in my hands sometimes,
I felt a violent wonder at her presence
like a thirst for salt, for my childhood river
with its island willows, silly music from the pleasure boat,
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muddy places where we caught the little orange-silver fish
called pumpkinseed. It hardly had to do with her.
Longing, we say, because desire is full
of endless distances. I must have been the same to her.
But I remember so much, the way her hands dismantled bread,
the thing her father said that hurt her, what
she dreamed. There are moments when the body is as numinous
as words, days that are the good flesh continuing.
Such tenderness, those afternoons and evenings,
saying blackberry, blackberry, blackberry.
“Meditation at Lagunitas” from PRAISE by Robert Hass. Copyright © 1979 by Robert
Hass. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers. © Robert Hass.
Response Board
What stands out to you after your first reading?
No response saved yet.
Multiple-Choice Question
How does the narrator set up the poem in the first line?
with a belief he will defend throughout the poem
with a statement, which he will support in the coming lines
with a puzzle, to be solved in the rest of the poem
with a question, which he will answer in the coming lines
Short-Answer Question
Quote at least two lines in which the poet defends his claim that the new
(and old) thinking is about loss.
No response saved yet.
Multiple-Choice Question
Which of these seems MOST likely to be a prominent theme of this poem?
Share your thoughts with your peers…
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the relationship of words to experience and reality
the futility of thinking
the pain of lost love from years past
blackberries
close
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Applied Humanities
Themes in Literature
Forché
By Eric Steineger
2 Module Two: Introduction to the Humanities, continued / Page 2.2.1 Forché
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Objective: Analyze a poem by Carolyn Forché to identify its theme.
Our study of the next four works—“The Colonel,” “Meditation at Lagunitas,”
“Professions for Women,” and “The Hare’s Self-Sacrifice”—will focus on themes in
literature.
This prose poem recalls an encounter with a colonel during El Salvador’s civil war. Our
narrator and a friend dine at the colonel’s house while the family maid serves them food
and the colonel’s wife attends to their needs. The poem exudes Carolyn Forché’s “poetry
of witness” ethos, as she has championed human rights and egalitarianism for decades.
Forché edited a 1993 anthology titled Against Forgetting: Twentieth-Century Poetry of
Witness.
The Colonel
By Carolyn Forché
WHAT YOU HAVE HEARD is true. I was in his house. His wife carried
a tray of coffee and sugar. His daughter filed her nails, his son went
out for the night. There were daily papers, pet dogs, a pistol on the
cushion beside him. The moon swung bare on its black cord over
the house. On the television was a cop show. It was in English.
Broken bottles were embedded in the walls around the house to
scoop the kneecaps from a man’s legs or cut his hands to lace. On
the windows there were gratings like those in liquor stores. We had
dinner, rack of lamb, good wine, a gold bell was on the table for
calling the maid. The maid brought green mangoes, salt, a type of
bread. I was asked how I enjoyed the country. There was a brief
commercial in Spanish. His wife took everything away. There was
some talk then of how difficult it had become to govern. The parrot
said hello on the terrace. The colonel told it to shut up, and pushed
himself from the table. My friend said to me with his eyes: say
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nothing. The colonel returned with a sack used to bring groceries
home. He spilled many human ears on the table. They were like
dried peach halves. There is no other way to say this. He took one
of them in his hands, shook it in our faces, dropped it into a water
glass. It came alive there. I am tired of fooling around he said. As
for the rights of anyone, tell your people they can go fuck them-
selves. He swept the ears to the floor with his arm and held the last
of his wine in the air. Something for your poetry, no? he said. Some
of the ears on the floor caught this scrap of his voice. Some of the
ears on the floor were pressed to the ground.
May 1978
All text from “The Colonel” from The Country Between Us by Carolyn Forché.
Copyright © 1981 by Carolyn Forché. Originally appeared in Women’s International
Resource Exchange. Reprinted by permission of Harper Collins Publishers.
Response Board
During your first reading, what stood out to you? What was impactful (if
anything)? What didn’t make sense (if anything)?
No response saved yet.
Sensory details (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell) factor prominently in any genre of
creative writing. The eyes and the ears have priority in “The Colonel.”
Multiple-Choice Question
Which of the following statements accurately describes the senses that are
most prominent in the poem?
The poem begins with not seeing and ends with not hearing.
The poem begins with hearing and ends with seeing.
The poem begins and ends with hearing, with seeing and hearing in the
middle.
The poem begins with seeing and ends with hearing.
Share your thoughts with your peers…
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A popular saying goes like this: “Believe only half of what you see and nothing that you
hear.” However, Forché stresses the importance of the observer’s ear: “WHAT YOU
HAVE HEARD is true” (emphasis added). This statement, placed at the beginning of
the poem, serves to validate the story that follows. After dinner, however, questions
remain.
Troubling to any citizen of the world is the casualness of this scene. On the surface, this
could be any ordinary family (the son goes out, the daughter files her nails, there’s a
show on TV). The reminiscent perspective of storytelling at the table sounds familiar—
this happened, then that happened—until suddenly we’re confronted with barbarism.
Consider how the narrator responds when faced with this barbarism. How might her
choice to share this encounter show the theme of resilience? Remember that we can
think of theme as the “overallness” of the work, the central ideas that float to the
surface.
Short-Answer Question
If resilience is a theme that applies to “The Colonel,” what does it refer to?
No response saved yet.
Short-Answer Question
We’ve been taught to examine the poem for what information is there. But
consider what’s NOT there in “The Colonel.” What does this encounter
suggest about the responsibility of a witness?
No response saved yet.
close
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Applied Humanities
Review the Gallery
Analyze Part One of Your Course Project
2 Module Two: Introduction to the Humanities, continued / Page 2.4.1 Course Project:
Analyze Part One of Your Course Project
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Objective: Analyze the assignment for part one of your course project.
Structure
Now you’re ready to dig into the structure of your course project. This webtext will walk
you through each step using the writing templates on later pages. But for now, review
the project to understand the critical elements so you can consider what you need to do
to develop each one.
Part One: Exploration Document
The exploration document will not be structured like an academic essay, but will
instead directly address a series of critical elements, which are described below. These
critical elements will walk you through the process of researching and preparing to
create your presentation in part two.
While you won’t be writing a formal essay, you will need to respond to the critical
elements thoroughly, using complete sentences and following the grammar and
punctuation rules of professional and academic writing.
You will submit your final exploration document through Brightspace for grading, but
the webtext will first walk you through the process of drafting answers to the critical
elements.
Your exploration document assignment: Choose two cultural artifacts to analyze.
These artifacts may take the form of any artistic medium, such as literature, poetry,
music, film, ballet, painting, or sculpture. Then identify a common theme and compare
your examples to one another as expressions of the same theme in different cultural
artifacts.
Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:
1. Describe the cultural artifacts that you have chosen. Consider questions such as
these in your response: What is the name or title of the artifact? Who is the author
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or artist? What is the date or time period when the artifact was created? What is
the cultural setting or physical location of the artifact? In addition, you could
consider including a photograph or image of any visual artifacts.
2. Identify at least one common theme that will serve as the framework of your
exploration document. How is the theme expressed in your artifacts?
3. Explain how the theme you identified is related to your personal experience.
For instance, you could discuss how the expression of the theme in your cultural
artifacts is connected to you personally.
4. Discuss a profession that could be impacted by the theme you identified. In other
words, how is the theme you identified related to professional experiences? How
could a working knowledge of the humanities be useful in this field?
5. Describe at least three humanities resources that you could use to investigate
your theme and artifacts. Your resources must be relevant to your theme and of an
appropriate academic nature. In your description, consider questions such as:
What are the similarities and differences in the content of your resources? What
makes them appropriate and relevant for investigating your issue? What was your
thought process when you were searching for resources? How did you make
choices? Did you encounter any obstacles, and, if so, how did you overcome them?
If you did not, why do you think it was so easy to find what you needed?
6. Use the humanities resources that you selected to research your theme and cultural
artifacts, making sure that you cite your sources. Based on your research, do the
following:
A. Discuss the relationship between each cultural artifact and its historical
context. In other words, what were the circumstances under which each
artifact was created?
B. Explain the similarities and differences that you observe in the cultural
artifacts you selected, in relation to the theme. For instance, do the artifacts
contain any symbolism? If so, how are the symbols both similar and different?
What do the symbols tell you about each artifact?
C. Discuss the medium—such as literature, music, or sculpture—through which
your cultural artifacts were created. For instance, how did the creator(s) of
each artifact use the medium to convey something about the meaning of the
artifact?
7. Based on your research, develop a thesis statement that conveys the claim you
plan to make about your theme and artifacts. Your thesis statement should be
clear, specific, and arguable.
8. Based on your research, identify an audience that would be interested in your
theme and thesis statement. For example, who would benefit most from hearing
your message?
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9. Describe how and why you can tailor your message to your audience, providing
specific examples based on your research. For example, will your audience
understand the terminology and principles used by humanities scholars, or will
you need to explain these? How will you communicate effectively with your
audience?
10. Provide a reference list that includes all of the humanities resources you used to
research your artifacts, theme, and thesis statement. Ensure that your list is
formatted according to current APA guidelines (or another format, with instructor
permission).
Questions You May Have
Q: Can I compare across mediums—by comparing a painting to a novel, for
example?
A: Sure! That’s a great way to explore a theme.
Q: Can I select my own artifacts that are not in the webtext’s gallery?
A: Sure! But run your choice by your instructor before you invest too much time, and
make sure you’ll be able to find good scholarly resources about the artifacts you’re
choosing.
Q: Can I choose something today and change my mind later?
A: Yes. In fact, many (if not most) people change one or both artifacts as they dive into
the research and learn more about the pieces.
Format
Once you know the apparent purpose of a given assignment, you should look for details
about the format. This will help you understand the scope of the project on which you
are embarking.
For this assignment, your exploration document should adhere to the following
formatting requirements: three to five pages, double-spaced, 12-point Times New
Roman font, and one-inch margins. You should use APA Style guidelines (or guidelines
for another format approved by your instructor) for your citations and reference list.
Multiple-Choice Question
In this course, what do we mean by a “cultural artifact”?
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anything we study in this course, and nothing else
anything found in a museum, and nothing else
anything discovered by an archeologist
anything with an artistic dimension created by humans
Multiple-Choice Question
Which of the following is the BEST example of a “theme,” according to our
definition of the word in this course?
The main theme of the Hulk’s character is that he is always angry.
The theme of the first Star Wars film was composed by John Williams.
One theme of Batman’s story is that all his gear is black or very dark grey.
A theme found in many superhero films is “good versus evil.”
Multiple-Choice Question
Based on the way the term is used on this page, what is a “humanities
resource”?
the same thing as a cultural artifact
a credible article, lecture, or book about the cultural artifacts, artists, or
themes you are investigating
any painting, book, or musical composition
a place, such as a museum, library, or concert hall, that provides the
humanities to the public
Response Board
What part of this assignment looks most challenging or most time-consuming to
you?
No response saved yet.
close
Share your thoughts with your peers…
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Applied Humanities
Themes in Visual Art
Kahlo
By James Romaine
2 Module Two: Introduction to the Humanities, continued / Page 2.1.5 Kahlo
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Objective: Analyze a painting by Frida Kahlo to identify its theme.
Now we come to our most challenging example. Frida Kahlo’s use of symbols that have
multiple meanings, combined with the complex relationship between her life and art,
makes the act of interpreting the painting particularly personal for the viewer.
On this page, you will examine elements of a modernist self-portrait by Frida Kahlo to
determine its theme. Use the images and information provided to answer the questions
below.
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Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird
This is an oil painting the artist, Frida Kahlo, made of herself. The background has large
green leaves and one yellow leaf behind the artist’s head. There are two dragonflies, each
on a leaf, almost symmetrically on each side of Frida’s head. There is a black cat behind
Frida’s left shoulder. There is a monkey behind her right shoulder. Frida is looking
directly out from the painting. She has dark hair, dark eyebrows almost joined in the
middle, and a slight mustache. Her lips are red. She wears a solemn expression. Her hair
is braided and wrapped around her head. She has a red ribbon woven through her hair.
There are butterflies on the ribbon, one above each eyebrow. Frida is wearing a white top.
She wears a necklace of thorns that reaches to her shoulders and trails in tendrils down
her chest. The monkey is holding onto the necklace. The thorns are making Frida bleed.
There is a hummingbird hanging from the middle of the necklace.
Click to enlarge
© 2016 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F./Artists
Rights Society (ARS), New York
Frida Kahlo
Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, 1940
Era/Culture/Movement: Modernism
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 2′ × 1′ 6.5″
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Location: Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin
By transforming Christ’s crown of thorns into her own necklace, Kahlo explores a
paradox between feminine beauty and suffering, between death (the dead
hummingbird) and new life (the butterflies in her hair).
The genre of self-portraiture was central to Frida Kahlo’s art: she painted at least 55
self-portraits, including some of the most memorable self-portraits of the 20th century.
She said, “I paint myself because I am so often alone, because I am the subject I know
best.”
Kahlo herself is immediately recognizable by her distinctive black unibrow, which for
her was a sign of her Mexican heritage and a statement of her independence from the
expectations of others (in this case, expectations associated with a particular conception
of feminine beauty). On her shoulders are a monkey and a cat. Although the subject of
this painting is the artist herself, the image is much more than a visual representation of
Kahlo’s appearance. Demonstrating how a work of art is about more than creating a
depiction of appearances, this self-portrait explores aspects of Kahlo’s personality and
sense of personhood that are not visible. For example, by transforming Christ’s crown
of thorns into her own necklace, Kahlo explores a paradox between feminine beauty and
suffering, between death (the dead hummingbird) and new life (the butterflies in her
hair). The interpretation of this work is complicated by the fact that Frida Kahlo
employs symbols that are personal to her.
While there is, of course, always a connection between an artist’s life and art, Kahlo
made this connection central to her project. By 1940, the year that she painted Self-
Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, Kahlo had survived a near-fatal
traffic accident and a tumultuous marriage to the artist Diego Rivera. (At the time she
painted this particular work, Kahlo was divorced from Rivera. They would remarry in
December 1940.)
Kahlo was born to a German father and Mexican mother; this mixed heritage was
important both to her identity and to her art. In Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and
Hummingbird, Kahlo develops a visual language, combining elements of native
Mexican art and European modernism, that is uniquely her own. When the French
writer André Breton, founder of the Surrealist movement, wanted to include Kahlo in
that group, she said, “They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn’t. I never painted
dreams. I painted my own reality.” Indeed, in her art (through her unique visual
language), Kahlo created her own reality.
Throughout history, artists have created self-portraits using mirrors, because the act of
painting a self-portrait requires artists to look at themselves. Kahlo, as a 20th-century
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artist, would also have had access to photographs of herself. This particular self-portrait
of hers combines intimacy and confrontation. The thick vegetation in the background
creates a shallow space that pushes Kahlo toward the viewer (there is only a bit of open
space at the top of the composition to offer some visual relief).
The directness of the artist’s gaze (at the viewer and at herself) seems to evoke the
questions “Who am I?” or “Who do you think that I am?” Kahlo’s work of art
deliberately, and successfully, evades answering these questions.
Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird
This is an oil painting the artist, Frida Kahlo, made of herself. The background has large
green leaves and one yellow leaf behind the artist’s head. There are two dragonflies, each
on a leaf, almost symmetrically on each side of Frida’s head. There is a black cat behind
Frida’s left shoulder. There is a monkey behind her right shoulder. Frida is looking
directly out from the painting. She has dark hair, dark eyebrows almost joined in the
middle, and a slight mustache. Her lips are red. She wears a solemn expression. Her hair
is braided and wrapped around her head. She has a red ribbon woven through her hair.
There are butterflies on the ribbon, one above each eyebrow. Frida is wearing a white top.
She wears a necklace of thorns that reaches to her shoulders and trails in tendrils down
her chest. The monkey is holding onto the necklace. The thorns are making Frida bleed.
There is a hummingbird hanging from the middle of the necklace.
Click to enlarge
© 2016 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F./Artists
Rights Society (ARS), New York
Short-Answer Question
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A painting is something that you look at; its appearance is everything. And
yet, as a work of art, this image goes beyond mere depiction of Frida Kahlo.
How does this work go beyond appearances?
No response saved yet.
Short-Answer Question
Self-portraiture, as a genre, treats the artist as the central motif of the
work. Are there any events in Frida Kahlo’s life that might be referenced in
this painting?
No response saved yet.
Short-Answer Question
Kahlo’s use of thorns makes an iconographic reference to what?
No response saved yet.
Short-Answer Question
The necklace is a symbol associated with beauty. This particular necklace,
however, is made of thorns, which are piercing Kahlo’s neck. What might a
necklace of thorns say about the burden of beauty?
No response saved yet.
Short-Answer Question
Kahlo said, “They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn’t. I never painted
dreams. I painted my own reality.” What do you think she meant by
“painting [her] own reality”?
No response saved yet.
Short-Answer Question
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Kahlo was married to the artist Diego Rivera, and they knew each other’s
work very well. What are some similarities (in subjects and visual
methods) between their art, and what are some differences?
No response saved yet.
Short-Answer Question
In art history, butterflies are often symbols of rebirth or resurrection. Why
might Kahlo use butterflies in her work?
No response saved yet.
Short-Answer Question
It has been suggested that the monkey, which in Mexican iconography can
be a symbol of lust, is there to represent Diego Rivera. Note that the
monkey is pulling on the thorns, causing Kahlo to bleed. Why might Kahlo
use the monkey to symbolize her ex-husband?
No response saved yet.
Short-Answer Question
Notice how Kahlo stares straight ahead but does not make eye contact with
the viewer. Does the painting suggest someone looking at herself in a
mirror, or someone interacting with her viewer?
No response saved yet.
Response Board
Consider how this painting makes you feel. Does it encourage you to adopt the
feelings of the artist?
No response saved yet.
Share your thoughts with your peers…
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close
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Applied Humanities
Themes in Visual Art
David
By James Romaine
2 Module Two: Introduction to the Humanities, continued / Page 2.1.3 David
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Objective: Analyze a painting by Jacques-Louis David to identify its theme.
This work is a bit more cryptic than Gustave Caillebotte’s Paris Street; Rainy Day. The
viewer’s first response to Jacques-Louis David’s painting might be, “Who are these
people and what are they doing?” But once the identity of the subject is established, it is
clear that both works touch on relatable themes.
On this page, you will examine elements of a neoclassical painting by Jacques-Louis
David to determine its theme. Use the images and information provided to answer the
questions below.
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Oath of the Horatii
This painting is set in a Roman hall. On the left side are three Roman soldiers. The man
closest to the viewer is holding a spear upright in his left hand. The man in the middle has
his arm around the waist of the man holding the spear. All three soldiers are wearing
sandals, short tunics, capes, and helmets. They are reaching toward swords being held by
an older man who is centered in the painting. He is wearing sandals, a short tunic, and a
cape. Behind the older man, three women are sitting on benches. One woman is
comforting two small children. The other two women are comforting each other.
Click to enlarge
Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY
Jacques-Louis David
Oath of the Horatii, 1784
Era/Culture/Movement: Neoclassicism
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 10′ 8″ x 13′ 9″
Location: Louvre Museum, Paris
Three brothers of the Horatius family swear an oath to their father that they will fight to
the death to defend the city of Rome.
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Jacques-Louis David’s Oath of the Horatii captures a moment of dramatic climax, an
act from which there could be no return. Three brothers of the Horatius family swear an
oath to their father that they will fight to the death to defend the city of Rome. To
demonstrate their allegiance, the brothers step forward, in unison, and raise their arms
in salute to the swords held in the air by their father.
The Horatii will battle against three brothers of the Curiatius family from the
neighboring city of Alba Longa. Around the year 669 BCE, war broke out between Alba
Longa and Rome. Rather than having their full armies wage battle, potentially leaving
both cities weak and vulnerable to other enemies, the opposing leaders agreed to settle
their dispute by sending out three warriors apiece. The last man standing alive—and the
city he represented—would be the victor. While two of the Horatii were killed in the
fight, the remaining brother won the victory for Rome.
At the right side of the painting (David organized his composition to be viewed from left
to right), the mother takes consolation in her grandchildren. The young boy looks on
stoically as his father takes the oath. At the far right, two young women are forlorn.
Their slumping posture is a contrast to the stiff resolve of the brothers, and David uses
the pose of the woman at the far right to redirect the viewer toward the center of the
composition. These women represent the family ties that connect the Horatii and
Curiatii. One of the women is a Curiatius daughter, now married to a Horatius. She is
united in grief with a Horatius daughter who is a betrothed to a Curiatius. For these
women, any outcome will mean the loss of a loved one.
The stoic poses of the brothers and the mournful poses of the women illustrate a
contrast of motivations between the honor of civic patriotism and the emotions of
personal attachment. One of the criticisms of this painting, and of David’s art more
broadly, is that he often depicted men as heroic and rational but women as passive and
emotional. (He did, however, sometimes paint heroic women, most notably in his 1799
work titled The Intervention of the Sabine Women.)
On the basis of this painting, and others like it, David became the leading proponent of
the neoclassical method. Inspired in part by the Enlightenment, this method was
characterized by a clinical precision of depiction (clarity of form equaled clarity of
thought) achieved through the careful delineation of every form. This exacting detail is
particularly applied to the human—especially the male—body. Without taking anything
away from David’s effective employment of color, such as his strong use of red to
visually unite parts of the composition, the colors are applied very deliberately within a
prearranged design.
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Although he was a French painter, David created this 1784 work in Rome, and the
frieze-like arrangement of overlapping figures evidences a classical-inspired visual
language. Given the number of figures in the painting and the dramatic action of some
of them, David’s composition is remarkably flat. All of the figures occupy a narrow
space, between the implied space of the viewer and the architectural background. This
horizontal flatness could be read like a classical frieze. Many buildings and monuments
of ancient Greece and Rome were decorated with carved sculptural figures, often
engaged in heroic activity. Because of the material and placement of these frieze
sculptures, they employed almost no depth of space. Instead, the compressed action
unfolded horizontally by means of overlapping figures. In employing a similar method,
even though painting would have allowed him to depict depth of pictorial space, David
asserts his own artistic allegiance.
While the subject is based on a history of classical antiquity, David could have expected
his viewers to be familiar with this story. However, the scene of oath-taking that David
depicts was actually his own invention. Despite the complicated nature of the narrative
(even the description above is simplified), David was able to capture the moral essence
of the story in a single moment, with clarity and immediacy. While the layers of the
painting unfold over repeated viewings, the image also has an instantaneous impact.
This visual articulation of virtuous sacrifice is achieved both through scale and through
clarity of form. At nearly 11 feet by 14 feet, it is an imposing painting, amplified in
particular by the severity of the figures and their poses.
Rather than showing the battle itself as a physical contest, David focuses on the will to
fight as a moral choice. As such, the painting engages the viewer with the same choice of
placing patriotic resolve above personal or even family loyalties. David visualizes this
choice, for example, through the way in which the feet of the Horatii, as they step
forward to take the oath, cross a line on the floor created by the design of the pavement.
When Oath of the Horatii was first exhibited in Paris, it was received with great
admiration, even by the king of France, Louis XVI. Although it depicted a subject from
antiquity, David’s contemporary viewers interpreted the painting as visualizing an
absolute and single-minded obedience to the state (and the king). Today, this 1784
painting’s expression of patriotism, sacrifice, loyalty, and solidarity is generally
interpreted as a premonition of the French Revolution, which commenced in 1789, and
in which David actively participated.
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Oath of the Horatii
This painting is set in a Roman hall. On the left side are three Roman soldiers. The man
closest to the viewer is holding a spear upright in his left hand. The man in the middle has
his arm around the waist of the man holding the spear. All three soldiers are wearing
sandals, short tunics, capes, and helmets. They are reaching toward swords being held by
an older man who is centered in the painting. He is wearing sandals, a short tunic, and a
cape. Behind the older man, three women are sitting on benches. One woman is
comforting two small children. The other two women are comforting each other.
Click to enlarge
Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY
Short-Answer Question
How does the exacting precision of Jacques-Louis David’s composition
visually reinforce the narrative of the Horatii brothers’ patriotic resolve?
No response saved yet.
Short-Answer Question
How does David employ the architectural background to visually organize
the unfolding (left to right) drama?
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No response saved yet.
Short-Answer Question
How does David’s composition focus the viewer’s eye on the swords?
No response saved yet.
Short-Answer Question
How does David’s treatment of the men and women reflect late 18th-
century perceptions of gender differences?
No response saved yet.
Response Board
Can you think of a more recent example of an image or work of art that has been
created or employed to stir patriotism?
No response saved yet.
Short-Answer Question
Imagery designed to call for war and revolution often doesn’t depict actual
conflict; instead, it tends to focus on more abstract concepts, such as love
of country. Why is this?
No response saved yet.
Short-Answer Question
How can historical events, even events that occur after a work of art was
created, potentially shape interpretations of that work of art?
No response saved yet.
close
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11/4/2020 HUM-200 – Page 2.4.8 – Part One:
Works and Theme
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Applied Humanities
Review the Gallery
Course Project Part One: Works and Theme
2 Module Two: Introduction to the Humanities, continued / Page 2.4.8 Course Project:
Part One: Works and Theme
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Objective: Identify and describe the two works you will compare for your course
project, and discuss the theme you will use to analyze them.
Works and Theme
On this page, you will use writing templates to begin work on part one of your course
project, the exploration document.
Prior to drafting your exploration document, you will turn in a description of the works
and theme you plan to use for your course project. The writing templates on this page
will guide you through the process of selecting your two works and discussing the theme
you’d like to use in your exploration document. Once you’ve completed all the writing
templates on this page, your responses will be combined into a document that you will
be able to download and submit to your instructor.
Choose Two Works
The first step in developing part one of your course project is to choose two artifacts
from the galleries you explored earlier in this learning block. Select two works that you
would like to compare, and remember that you’ll need to identify a theme that is
common to both artifacts.
Choose Two Works
In this first writing template, use the prompts to identify the two works
you’ll compare in your exploration document.
Writing Template
First work:
ItalicBold
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Rich text editor
Second work:
ItalicBold
Rich text editor
To complete this template, you must click the “Save Responses” button.
If the button cannot be clicked, make sure you have responded to all prompts in the
template.
Describe Your Works
The initial description of your two works deals primarily with the information required
to identify them. For each piece, use the identification information from the galleries to
convey the following details:
the title of the work
the name of the artist, author, or composer
the date (if known) and time period in which the work was created
the cultural setting or physical location of the artifact
the edition you’ve been reading (if the work is literary) and the name of the
translator (if the work was translated into English)
the performance you’ve been evaluating (if the work is musical)
Describe Your Works
Writing Template
You didn’t fully complete a previous writing template.
Scroll up and complete the writing template.
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Evaluate Your Response
Read over what you’ve written. Are there any typos or missing words?
Did you use complete sentences and proper punctuation?
Do your sentences include all the relevant details listed above?
If you find things you want to change, click Edit Response, make adjustments as
needed, and then save your response again.
Discuss Your Theme
Now that you’ve described your two works, you can move on to the next requirement,
which is to discuss the theme you will use to compare them. This theme will serve as the
framework or basis of your comparison of the two works. In your discussion of the
theme, be sure to do the following:
State the theme.
Explain how the theme is expressed in each of your two works, being as specific
and detailed as possible.
Point out differences between how the theme is expressed in the two works.
Discuss Your Theme
Writing Template
You didn’t fully complete a previous writing template.
Scroll up and complete the writing template.
Evaluate Your Response
Read over your response. Does everything look good?
Does your response fully address the prompt?
If your friends read this response, would they understand what theme you’re
addressing and how it is expressed in each of these artifacts?
Relate the Theme to Your Personal Experience
The next step is to reflect on the theme you’ve selected and relate it to your personal
experience. In this next writing template, be sure to do the following:
Explain how the theme is personally meaningful to you or how it relates to your
personal experience.
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Provide specific details to support your explanation.
Relate the Theme to Your Personal Experience
Writing Template
You didn’t fully complete a previous writing template.
Scroll up and complete the writing template.
Evaluate Your Response
Read over your response. Does everything look good?
Does your response fully address the prompt?
If your friends read this response, would they understand how the theme is related
to your personal experience?
Download Artifacts and Theme
Writing Template
You didn’t fully complete a previous writing template.
Scroll up and complete the writing template.
When you click the button to download Artifacts_and_Theme x in the writing
template above, the file may be automatically saved to your Downloads folder or to
another location you’ve specified, depending on your browser’s settings. To ensure that
your document is correctly formatted, you must open it in an application that fully
supports the DOCX format, such as Microsoft Word.
After downloading the document, review it for accuracy, readability, and so on. If you
need to make any edits, do so in the writing template rather than in the document itself,
and then download a new version of the document. Once you’re happy with your
downloaded Word document, use the link below to navigate to your course in
Brightspace and follow the steps to submit your file.
SNHU Brightspace
Congratulations! You’re on your way. If you decide to change the works you’re focusing
on before completing your exploration document draft on page 4.2.5, you can come
back to this page and begin again with a new work or two.
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You’ve reached the end of this module. Before moving on, take a break and reflect on
what you’ve learned here. When you’re ready, use the Table of Contents menu to select
the next module.
close
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Applied Humanities
Themes in Music
Beethoven
By Alisha Nypaver
2 Module Two: Introduction to the Humanities, continued / Page 2.3.2 Beethoven
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Objective: Learn how motifs can be used to tie a piece of music together and invest it
with meaning.
Example Two
On this page, you will analyze a musical work using the strategies outlined on the How
to Listen to Music page. Be sure to download the detailed description of the music—it
might help you with your analysis.
Now we will turn to the first movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, written
between 1804 and 1808. This iconic work features one of the most recognizable
openings of all time: short-short-short-long. This rhythmic motif becomes the main
building block of the entire first movement and appears in all three subsequent
movements of the work, albeit in a subtler form.
Beethoven: Symphony no. 5, Movement I (Allegro con brio)
Symphony no. 5 in C Minor, op. 67: Movement I. Allegro con brio, by Ludwig van
Beethoven. Performed by the RFCM Symphony Orchestra. For a detailed description of
the music, follow the transcript link below.
Read Text Transcript
Having trouble? Try our alternate player.
Impressions
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Like Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries,” it is likely that you have heard Beethoven’s Fifth
Symphony and its iconic opening, which has been featured in cartoons and movies, and
even appears in the theme music for the television show Judge Judy.
As you listen to this work, consider the following questions:
What one major emotion or idea do you think the music is trying to convey?
What are some of the musical elements you find contributing to this emotion?
What similarities to “Ride of the Valkyries” do you hear?
Response Board
What major emotion or idea do you think the music is trying to convey?
No response saved yet.
Contextualization
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) is one of the most famous composers of Western
classical music. Unlike many composers who came before him who were under pressure
to write as much music as possible to please their listeners, Beethoven carefully crafted
and revised his masterpieces over and over again, often taking years to finish a single
piece as he experimented with different ways to express his musical ideas. For
comparative purposes, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a near-contemporary of Beethoven
who lived only to the age of 35, wrote 41 symphonies. Beethoven, who lived to be 56,
completed only nine. The Fifth Symphony alone took him four years to complete and
went through many transformations before it reached its final form.
Beethoven’s musical style is considered revolutionary. His work had a profound
influence on a large number of subsequent composers, including Richard Wagner.
Beethoven’s notable style built upon and expanded the forms and conventions of the
Classical era. His musical innovations are generally considered to be the impetus
behind the start of the Romantic era in music.
As you read on the previous page, Wagner used distinctive melodies throughout his
operas to represent and connect important characters and objects. The idea of linking
thematic material across the four movements in his 16-hour-long Ring cycle may have
come from Beethoven, who used the same rhythmic idea (known as a motif) to link all
four movements of his Fifth Symphony. This rhythmic idea, a pattern that can be
described as short-short-short-long (S-S-S-L), is the building block upon which the
entire first movement of the symphony is based. Using a common element to link
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symphonic movements may seem like an obvious thing to do, but it was actually quite
radical for the time.
While the enduring popularity of Beethoven’s music is a testament to its quality, his
music is doubly remarkable when you consider that the composer was deaf for much of
his adult life. In 1801, three years before he began work on the Fifth Symphony, he was
so distressed by his loss of hearing that he seriously contemplated ending his own life.
In a letter to his brothers, he claimed that he was on the “verge of despair” but that he
felt compelled to endure his “wretched existence” until he had produced all the music
he was destined to share with the world. After Beethoven pulled through this dark patch
in his life, his music began to take on a more powerful quality. See if you can hear that
power in this piece.
Analysis
Listen to the first movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, paying special attention to
the short-short-short-long (S-S-S-L) motif.
Beethoven: Symphony no. 5, Movement I (Allegro con brio)
Symphony no. 5 in C Minor, op. 67: Movement I. Allegro con brio, by Ludwig van
Beethoven. Performed by the RFCM Symphony Orchestra. For a detailed description of
the music, follow the transcript link below.
Read Text Transcript
Having trouble? Try our alternate player.
Timbre
There are four major families of instruments: strings, brass, woodwinds, and
percussion. Which group of instruments is featured at the very beginning?
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Does this group always get to play the S-S-S-L motif, or is it passed around to other
instruments?
Texture
The beginning of this work is played in unison, meaning that the instruments play the
same pitches at the same time. Writing a unison passage for a symphonic work was a
very unusual choice. It wasn’t Beethoven’s first choice, either; he left a number of
musical sketches for alternate openings, but ultimately he preferred the dramatic effect
of many instruments playing the same thing at the same time.
Short-Answer Question
Listen to the segment lasting from 0:46 to 1:41. Where in this segment does
another unison passage occur? Use time markers to make your answer
specific.
No response saved yet.
Pitch
In the beginning of the movement, the S-S-S-L motif consists of three of the same short
pitches followed by one longer, lower pitch. However, Beethoven does not always use
the same pitch pattern for this motif. For example, about one minute into the work, the
basses (the lowest members of the string family) play the motif in an inverted form,
low-low-low-high rather than high-high-high-low.
Short-Answer Question
Note the time of one other place where you hear the S-S-S-L motif, and
describe the pitch patterns.
No response saved yet.
Rhythm
The short-short-short-long rhythm dominates the first movement of this symphony, but
there are other rhythmic layers happening as well. At one point, Beethoven shapes the
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rhythmic motif into a “battle” between the strings and woodwinds. For example, from
3:35 to 3:44, the motif is reduced to a two-note call-and-response. The woodwinds and
brass start the call and are answered by the strings. Beethoven keeps breaking down
this motif until it is reduced to just one note tossed back and forth between the two
instrument families.
Short-Answer Question
At what time stamp do you hear the battle reach this point of tossing one
note back and forth?
No response saved yet.
Short-Answer Question
Allegro con brio means “fast” and “with fire.” What about this symphony is
“fiery”?
No response saved yet.
Dynamics
Short-Answer Question
This piece opens with a dramatic forte (loud) dynamic, and Beethoven
plays off the idea of loud versus soft throughout the symphony. What
dynamic level does he employ at the end of this movement, and how does it
contribute to the overall theme or meaning of the work?
No response saved yet.
Form
This movement follows a basic structural template called sonata form. Sonata form is
a three-part structure developed during the Classical era, and it consists of an
exposition, development, and a recapitulation. This movement also contains a coda, or
closing part, which gives the piece four distinct musical sections.
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The first section is called the exposition, and it introduces the main musical themes of
the movement. If you listen carefully, you will hear the entire exposition repeated
verbatim and ending around 2:49. Many composers wrote music in this form so that
their audience would remember the main musical themes and be able to recognize them
in whole or in part when they reappeared later in the piece.
Short-Answer Question
Where does the repeat of the exposition start in this recording?
No response saved yet.
In the second section, called the development (2:50 to 4:08), the main musical ideas
from the exposition are, as the name implies, developed. Listen to how the S-S-S-L
motif is expanded, broken down, inverted, and rearranged.
The recapitulation (4:09 to 5:44) follows the development. It provides a “recap” of
the exposition by playing it one more time before moving to a closing section known as
a coda (5:45 to end).
One interpretation of this S-S-S-L motif is that it represents fate knocking at the door.
As you listen again, think about this idea.
Beethoven: Symphony no. 5, Movement I (Allegro con brio)
Symphony no. 5 in C Minor, op. 67: Movement I. Allegro con brio, by Ludwig van
Beethoven. Performed by the RFCM Symphony Orchestra. For a detailed description of
the music, follow the transcript link below.
Read Text Transcript
Having trouble? Try our alternate player.
Short-Answer Question
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If this symphony is about the inevitability of fate (which, in Beethoven’s
case, was the tragic onset of his deafness), what statement do you think
Beethoven could have been trying to make in this first movement?
No response saved yet.
close
11/4/2020 HUM-200 – Page 2.3.1 – Wagner
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Applied Humanities
Themes in Music
Wagner
By Alisha Nypaver
2 Module Two: Introduction to the Humanities, continued / Page 2.3.1 Wagner
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Objective: Examine an excerpt from an opera by Richard Wagner to learn how
musical codes help establish the theme of a work.
As you have seen in examples of visual arts, artists often explore similar themes in their
work. As an example of how themes work in music, we will look at how two composers
depict the idea of power, particularly power in the realm of fantasy.
One way composers represent themes in music is through the use of musical codes.
Musical codes are created through combinations of musical elements that have
assumed a generally recognizable extra-musical meaning. Some codes are learned
through frequent reference in popular culture, such as the iconic music from the shower
scene in the movie Psycho. Even if you haven’t seen the film, you probably recognize
that this music represents something scary, because it has frequently been imitated or
parodied in conjunction with scary things. We learn to associate the specific idea of
“horror” with this code over time.
Other codes develop as many composers write variants of them using similar musical
elements. As these codes appear in art, music, films, and commercials, they become
generally recognized and associated with the ideas, emotions, or objects with which
they frequently appear. For instance, think about the theme song from The Pink
Panther.
Now imagine that you lived in a remote part of the world and had never been exposed to
music from outside your region. Do you think that these musical codes would evoke the
same feelings or emotions if you had no context or reference? Why or why not?
The question is whether these codes are always learned associations, or if there are
intrinsic qualities in the combinations of musical elements themselves that suggest
different emotions or feelings. For instance, the Psycho “shower scene” music features
harsh, screeching violins that almost mimic a human’s screams. If this kind of sound
were always used in the background of love scenes, would we eventually come to
associate this sound with love? Or would we always perceive it as representing
something negative?
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Many musical codes were created by Romantic-era composers such as Richard Wagner,
whose utilization of specific musical language in conjunction with the visual
representations on the opera stage had a profound impact on the work of 20th-century
film composers such as Erich Korngold, Bernard Hermann, and John Williams.
Example One
On this page, you will analyze a musical work using the strategies outlined on the How
to Listen to Music page. Be sure to download the detailed description of the music—it
might help you with your analysis.
First we will listen to “Ride of the Valkyries” from Die Walküre by Richard Wagner
(1856). This version was performed by the New York Metropolitan Opera, conducted by
James Levine and featuring Deborah Voigt as Brünnhilde.
Wagner: “Ride of the Valkyries”
A selection from “Ride of the Valkyries” by Richard Wagner. Performed by the MET
Orchestra, conducted by James Levine. For a detailed description of the music, follow the
transcript link below.
Read Text Transcript
Having trouble? Try our alternate player.
Impressions
You may have heard this iconic theme before. It has been referenced many times in pop
culture, including a prominent appearance in the movie Apocalypse Now. As you listen,
consider the following questions:
Why do you think this piece is still so popular today?
What do you think about when you hear this piece?
Response Board
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Wagner (the composer of this piece) chose a specific melody, specific dynamic
levels, and specific instruments in this work because he intended to convey a
certain mood. What do you think that mood is?
No response saved yet.
Contextualization
Composer Richard Wagner (1813–1883) wrote this song as the dramatic opening to the
third act of his opera Die Walküre (The Valkyrie). This opera is the second in a series of
four epic dramas that form a 16-hour saga called The Ring of the Nibelungen. The
operas have dozens of characters and a very complicated plot. To help audiences follow
the story and to make for a more integrated work, Wagner used musical codes to signify
recurring characters and plot points.
The Valkyries are warrior goddesses, the children of Wotan, who is a major deity in
Germanic pagan mythology. Their leader is Brünnhilde, Wotan’s favorite daughter. In
this scene, the Valkyrie sisters greet each other as they gather on a rock after a cosmic
ride on winged horses during a lightning storm. The warriors are preparing to fly to
their father’s castle, Valhalla, but they are waiting for Brünnhilde to arrive. At the end of
the ensemble, she appears, carrying the body of an unconscious woman whose life she
has saved in direct defiance of Wotan’s orders—a rebellious act that will cause trouble
for her later on.
“Ride of the Valkyries” was an instant hit, with the composer receiving numerous
requests for the piece to be performed as a stand-alone work. For many years, Wagner
withheld his permission, insisting that it remain in the context of the opera.
Listen to this work again, thinking about the story line and imagining what sort of
visuals you might see on stage if you were at a performance of this opera.
Share your thoughts with your peers…
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Wagner: “Ride of the Valkyries”
A selection from “Ride of the Valkyries” by Richard Wagner. Performed by the MET
Orchestra, conducted by James Levine. For a detailed description of the music, follow the
transcript link below.
Read Text Transcript
Having trouble? Try our alternate player.
Analysis
Timbre
For centuries, the string family was the heart of the orchestra, dominating the melodies
and remaining at the forefront of the work. To heighten the sense of power in this
opera, Wagner elects to use the brass family as his main timbral element. Even though a
typical brass section is already very powerful, it wasn’t powerful enough for Wagner,
who increased the number of brass players needed to perform this work. He even
invented a new instrument called the “Wagner tuba,” a cross between a French horn
and a trombone, in order to get just the right timbres. Notice how the main “Ride”
theme is played by horns, then trumpets, and then by an ensemble of brass
instruments. Brass instruments have long been used as musical codes to signify royalty,
war, and power—codes that all apply to the Valkyries.
Texture
There are a lot of musical layers in this piece, each competing for your attention. These
musical layers are made up of musical codes that are designed to tell you something
specific about what is happening in the opera. The first code, at the very beginning of
the piece, is created by swirling strings and woodwinds that generate an atmospheric
backdrop, setting the stage for the fantasy realm. The second code, at 0:07, is heard in
the brass accompanied by the strings, which signifies galloping horses, the Valkyries’
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preferred mode of transport. The third code, at 0:20, is the famous “Ride” melody.
Listen as all three combine in the dramatic opening of the song.
Pitch
The “Ride” melody is created with a series of ascending pitches. Upward motion can
also be a musical symbol of power. At first, the pitches outline a minor chord, but then
transform into major. This change from minor to major is often used to represent
triumph over adversity.
Rhythm
Part of the reason the “ride” sounds so confident and powerful is the use of the uneven
rhythmic pattern. Rather than have every note be the same rhythmic length, Wagner
made some notes shorter and others longer, which has a dramatic effect on the melody.
Dynamics
Generally, the idea of power in music is expressed by a loud dynamic level, and Wagner
doesn’t disappoint. Forte is the term composers use to indicate that a passage is meant
to be played loudly; the Italian word forte itself means “strong,” and strength and power
often go hand in hand.
Form
Wagner didn’t like the term “opera.” Instead, he preferred “music drama.” The form of a
typical opera is not unlike that of a modern-day musical in that there are set musical
numbers (called arias and ensembles) that are separated by a less melodic
combination of speech and song called recitative. Rather than mold his music into a
formulaic structure, Wagner wanted his operas to have the feeling of endless continuing
melody. In large part, he achieved this by overlapping musical ideas. Do you get the
sense of continuous melodic flow from this excerpt?
With these elements in mind, listen to the work again.
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Wagner: “Ride of the Valkyries”
A selection from “Ride of the Valkyries” by Richard Wagner. Performed by the MET
Orchestra, conducted by James Levine. For a detailed description of the music, follow the
transcript link below.
Read Text Transcript
Having trouble? Try our alternate player.
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11/4/2020 HUM-200 – Page 2.2.4 – Jātaka
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Applied Humanities
Themes in Literature
Jātaka
By Eric Steineger
2 Module Two: Introduction to the Humanities, continued / Page 2.2.4 Jātaka
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Objective: Analyze a traditional Buddhist fable to identify its theme.
This is a watercolor rendering of a rabbit jumping through concentric rings of yellow
toward a white circle. The movement is from the bottom left to the upper right.
The Hare on the Moon by Bridget Dunigan. Watercolor on canvas, 2012.
Bridget Dunigan
“The Hare’s Self-Sacrifice” is a Buddhist fable that focuses on four friends: a monkey, a
jackal, an otter, and the hare—who is the Bodhisatta. In this context, Bodhisatta can be
translated as “the Buddha,” though in later texts, it may mean anyone who wishes to
achieve enlightenment through a careful cultivation of the mind and spirit (Buddha
Sasana).
While these friends are autonomous and hunt and gather their own food on separate
plots in the jungle, “in the evening they again [come] together.” As the hare is imbued
with Buddha’s spirit, he reaches out accordingly: “The hare in his wisdom… preached
the Truth to his three companions, teaching that alms are to be given, the moral law to
be observed, and holy days to be kept. They accepted his admonition and went each to
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his own part of the jungle and dwelt there.” We might infer, as is suggested by the
fable’s title, that a careful cultivation of the mind and spirit is not without trial.
The Jātaka Tales: The Hare’s Self-Sacrifice
Short-Answer Question
On a first read, what themes do you see in this story?
No response saved yet.
To understand this text, it helps to understand its genre. Clearly the story was written a
long time ago and has religious significance. Animals are personified and talk to one
another. With such fantastical characters who drive the narrative and furnish a moral or
spiritual lesson, “The Hare’s Self-Sacrifice” qualifies as a fable rather than a parable, as
parables do not involve such characters and instead use humans to furnish lessons.
Most fables draw comparisons in order to bring the moral into the light. Consider the
famous tale of “The Tortoise and the Hare.” Not only do we see a comparison between
the characters’ actions (the Hare bursting ahead only to take a nap, the Tortoise slowly
plodding along), but we also see a difference in demeanor. The moral: slow and steady
wins the race.
Short-Answer Question
What are the key differences between how the hare in “The Hare’s Self-
Sacrifice” handles the challenge and how the others handle the challenge?
No response saved yet.
Short-Answer Question
What does the hare’s sacrifice suggest about the tenets of Buddhism?
No response saved yet.
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11/4/2020 HUM-200 – Page 2.3.3 – Stravinsky and Vivaldi
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Applied Humanities
Themes in Music
Stravinsky and Vivaldi
By Alisha Nypaver
2 Module Two: Introduction to the Humanities, continued / Page 2.3.3 Stravinsky and
Vivaldi
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Objective: Identify how the theme of spring is presented in musical works by Igor
Stravinsky and Antonio Vivaldi.
We’ve explored the theme of power. Now let’s take a look at how two different
composers explore another theme in music: spring. Artists the world over have long
been passionate about trying to capture nature, and springtime in particular has
inspired composers for centuries.
Example One
In this section, you will analyze a musical work using the strategies outlined on the How
to Listen to Music page. Be sure to download the detailed description of the music—it
might help you with your analysis.
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YouTube video. https://youtu.be/o_F8adQqKLc. Uploaded August 15, 2012, by Yale
Symphony Orchestra. For a detailed description of the music, follow the transcript link
below.
Read Text Transcript
Impressions
Response Board
Do you think this piece sounds especially “spring-like”? Explain why or why not.
No response saved yet.
Multiple-Choice Question
Which of the following statements is TRUE?
This work begins with only one instrument, which is then joined by others.
This work begins with the full orchestra, and then gets softer.
This work begins with a forte dynamic level but gets increasingly softer.
This work features only string instruments, like the violins and cellos.
Share your thoughts with your peers…
Stravinsky – Rite of Spring (1/2): I – The Adoration of the EarthStravinsky – Rite of Spring (1/2): I – The Adoration of the Earth
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Response Board
What specific ideas or images do you think the composer is trying to conjure?
No response saved yet.
Contextualization
If this work sounds a bit “weird” to you, you’re not alone!
Igor Stravinsky was a Russian composer who was very avant-garde for his time. He
wrote The Rite of Spring for the Ballets Russes company, which premiered the work in
Paris in 1913. The ballet is set in pagan Russia and tells the story of an ancient tribe who
must sacrifice a young girl by forcing her to dance herself to death to propitiate the god
of spring.
Stravinsky claimed that his inspiration for the work came in part from the “violent
Russian spring, that seemed to begin in an hour and was like the whole earth cracking.”
His music was so violent and shocking to Parisians that there was a riot at the premiere,
with audience members hissing, booing, shouting at the musicians, and throwing things
at the dancers. Despite its rocky beginnings, The Rite of Spring is now widely regarded
as one of the most influential and important works of the early 20th century. Its
nonconformist features served as an inspiration to hundreds of composers, encouraging
them to explore new ways to compose music.
Today, The Rite of Spring is most commonly performed as a concert work, meaning
that the music is performed by an orchestra without the dancers. Parts of it appeared in
Disney’s 1940 animated film Fantasia (specifically the “Big Bang” and “Dinosaur Age”
segments).
As you listen again, focus on trying to identify which musical elements make it sound
unconventional, especially when compared to the other pieces we’ve analyzed.
Analysis
Timbre
Stravinsky uses all the different orchestra families to create a wide range of timbres.
Notice how he alternates which family (strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion) is most
prominently featured at any given time.
Share your thoughts with your peers…
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Stravinsky liked to push the boundaries of timbre. The ballet opens with a bassoon solo
that requires the instrumentalist to play higher notes than any other major orchestral
work had ever demanded a bassoonist play. People were not used to hearing the
bassoon play in this high range, and it created such an unusual timbre that some
audience members were confused. Composer Camille Saint-Saëns was at the premiere,
and reportedly asked a fellow concertgoer what instrument was playing. When the reply
was “a bassoon,” Saint-Saëns allegedly said, “If that’s a bassoon, then I’m a baboon!”
Texture
Stravinsky uses textural changes to create startling effects. He begins the work with only
one textural layer, the solo bassoon, and then uses a technique called additive
texture, bringing in more and more layers over the next two minutes of the work.
Eventually, the thick polyphonic texture grows to such a degree that it starts to sound
completely chaotic and wild at 2:22. Then, quite suddenly, all the layers drop out except
for the solo bassoon. It’s as if a host of animals had emerged from hibernation after a
long winter, then were suddenly scared back into their hiding places by the arrival of
the pagan tribe.
Pitch
Stravinsky often contrasts high and low pitches to draw our attention to the different
layers of sound. Listen to the pitch range in this section at 1:06, which is meant to
represent “the wriggling and gnawing of birds and beasts” as they emerge from
hibernation. In nature, there are often many creatures big and small moving and
interacting at once, and Stravinsky’s music captures that idea through his use of pitch.
Notice, too, how Stravinsky writes a series of descending pitches at 4:44, to create a
“waterfall” of notes.
There are also many harsh dissonances used throughout the piece. A dissonance is
created when two or more pitches “clash” and sound unstable or disharmonious.
Rhythm
One of the main characteristics of this piece is its dramatic use of syncopation, a
rhythmic technique that occurs when the accented (loudest) beats happen at a time
when they are not expected, breaking the rhythmic pattern. For example, try to clap
along with the accented beats in this section at 3:26. You may have to try it several
times to get your claps to match those unexpectedly loud notes. Do you see how they
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don’t occur in a predictable pattern? This use of syncopation helps Stravinsky recreate
the violent and unpredictable nature of a spring thunderstorm.
Response Board
Where else do you notice unusual or unpredictable rhythmic patterns in this work?
No response saved yet.
Dynamics
In general, Stravinsky uses loud dynamic levels throughout The Rite of Spring, making
the rarer use of softer dynamics all the more noticeable. For instance, in this section at
2:43, a sage elder arrives to bless the earth, and his blessing is accompanied by a
dramatic drop in dynamic level.
Form
This work is through-composed, meaning that it does not have any major sections
that repeat. Even though short melodic ideas may be repeated in succession (as is heard
here at 7:59), there is no overarching formal structure in the work.
As you listen again, think about what other musical elements could represent different
aspects of a violent springtime in pagan Russia.
Share your thoughts with your peers…
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YouTube video. https://youtu.be/o_F8adQqKLc. Uploaded August 15, 2012, by Yale
Symphony Orchestra. For a detailed description of the music, follow the transcript link
below.
Read Text Transcript
Response Board
What other aspects of the work evoke concepts or sensations of springtime to you?
No response saved yet.
Example Two
In this section, you will analyze another musical work using the strategies outlined on
the How to Listen to Music page. Be sure to download the detailed description of the
music—it might help you with your analysis.
Share your thoughts with your peers…
Stravinsky – Rite of Spring (1/2): I – The Adoration of the EarthStravinsky – Rite of Spring (1/2): I – The Adoration of the Earth
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Vivaldi: “La Primavera”
The first movement of Concerto no. 1, “La Primavera,” from The Four Seasons by
Antonio Vivaldi. For a detailed description of the music, follow the transcript link below.
Read Text Transcript
Having trouble? Try our alternate player.
Impressions
Response Board
Knowing that this piece is about spring, does it sound especially “spring-like” to
you? Explain why or why not.
No response saved yet.
Short-Answer Question
How is the music different from Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring?
No response saved yet.
Response Board
Which piece—Stravinksy’s The Rite of Spring or Vivaldi’s “La Primavera”—sounds
more “spring-like” to you? Explain why this is.
No response saved yet.
Contextualization
Share your thoughts with your peers…
Share your thoughts with your peers…
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Among the first things you’ll want to know about this piece are:
Who was Antonio Vivaldi?
Antonio Vivaldi was an Italian composer who is best known for his concertos, which are
works for a group of instruments (like an orchestra) that feature a soloist. His most
famous work is a set of four concertos that depict the four seasons.
What is a concerto?
Like symphonies, concertos are multi-movement works. We will look at the first
movement from the “spring” concerto, “La Primavera.”
What is unique about “La Primavera” for its time and place?
This piece is one of the earliest significant examples of program music, because each
concerto has an accompanying poem that Vivaldi translated into music.
Poem for the First Movement of “La Primavera”
Spring has arrived with joy
Welcomed by the birds with happy songs,
And the brooks, amidst gentle breezes,
Murmur sweetly as they flow.
The sky is caped in black, and
Thunder and lightning herald a storm.
When they fall silent, the birds
Take up again their delightful songs.
Each line of the poem represents a different section of this musical work. Read along
with the poem as you listen again. Where does each section start and end? Which
sections do not directly reflect the poem?
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Vivaldi: “La Primavera”
The first movement of Concerto no. 1, “La Primavera,” from The Four Seasons by
Antonio Vivaldi. For a detailed description of the music, follow the transcript link below.
Read Text Transcript
Having trouble? Try our alternate player.
Analysis
Timbre
Response Board
What instruments are present, and what instruments (that are typically in an
orchestra) are missing from this ensemble?
No response saved yet.
Pitch
Short-Answer Question
Pitch is an important element Vivaldi uses to recreate the poem in music.
How does he use pitch to show the bird calls versus the thunder?
No response saved yet.
Rhythm
Share your thoughts with your peers…
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Short-Answer Question
Contrast the rhythm used in the section that shows “brooks” and “gentle
breezes” with the rhythm used in the “thunderstorm” section. How are they
different?
No response saved yet.
Dynamics
Short-Answer Question
How do the dynamics change in each section to reflect the poem? Start by
considering which section is the loudest and which is the softest.
No response saved yet.
Form
The work alternates between the full orchestra and the soloist. Each time the soloist is
featured, that person plays a different melody that reflects the scene described in each
stanza.
Short-Answer Question
When the orchestra plays between the solo sections, does it play the same
melody each time—like a refrain—or does the melody change?
No response saved yet.
Listen to this work a few times to get the full sense of how Vivaldi uses musical elements
to evoke the sensations of springtime as described in the poem. The more you listen, the
more you’ll notice!
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close
11/4/2020 HUM-200 – Page 2.1.4 – Velázquez
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Applied Humanities
Themes in Visual Art
Velázquez
By James Romaine
2 Module Two: Introduction to the Humanities, continued / Page 2.1.4 Velázquez
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Objective: Analyze a painting by Diego Velázquez to identify its theme.
Las Meninas presents a more challenging example: since it is not what it initially might
appear to be, Diego Velázquez’s painting requires some more scrutiny. There are a lot of
details that need careful observation. What might seem to be the main subjects are, in
fact, the means of visualizing other more abstract themes.
On this page, you will examine elements of a Baroque painting by Diego Velázquez to
determine its theme. Use the images and information provided to answer the questions
below.
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Las Meninas (The Ladies-in-Waiting)
This is an oil painting. Centered in the painting is a young girl clothed in a hoop-skirted,
light-colored gown. There are two older girls, one on either side of her, also dressed in
hooped gowns. All of the girls have flowers fastened in their hair. The central girl’s hair is
long and blonde. The older girls have hair that is darker and shorter. The older girl on the
left is kneeling and holding the younger girl’s right hand. The girl on the right is standing,
slightly bent toward the younger girl. To the right of this girl are two children, gazing out
at the viewer. In front of them is a dog lying on the floor. To the left of the kneeling girl is a
man holding a paintbrush. He looks out at the viewer. In the background is the reflection
of a man and woman in a mirror, a man standing in a doorway on steps leading up, and a
man and woman.
Click to enlarge
Peter Horree/Alamy
Diego Velázquez
Las Meninas (The Ladies-in-Waiting), 1656
Era/Culture/Movement: Spanish Baroque
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 10′ 5.25″ × 9′ 0.75″
Location: Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain
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The artist is in the act of painting the king and queen of Spain, who stand in the implied
space of the viewer and can be seen in the reflection of the mirror in the background, as
they are greeted by the princess and her entourage.
In terms of theme, this work is constructed from layers of relationships. The painter
looks toward the viewer. Standing in the implied viewer’s space, and seen in the
reflection of the mirror in the background, are the king and queen. A collection of girls
and young women occupy the foreground of the painting, including the princess, who
gazes directly at the viewer and, by extension, her parents (the king and queen) posing
for their portrait. Although the subject of the painting initially seems to be a routine
moment in the life of the court, the larger subject is the social structure, particularly the
place of the artist himself within this social structure.
The Spanish phrase las meninas means “the ladies-in-waiting,” and the center of Diego
Velázquez’s composition is the five-year-old princess, Margaret Theresa. At her right
and left are her ladies-in-waiting. One of them offers the princess a cup. At the
composition’s right are two dwarfs, one of them attempting to awaken a resting mastiff.
Further back are a chaperone and a bodyguard; they dutifully stand at a respectful
distance behind the princess. At the very back, in the doorway, is the queen’s
chamberlain, José Nieto Velázquez (it is not certain whether he was a relative of the
artist). At the left, the artist looks out at the viewer.
Diego Velázquez stands before a very large canvas, about the size of Las Meninas. At
first glance, it might seem as though he is working on the very same painting that we
are looking at. However, a more careful examination of the painting reveals that this is
not the case. The subject of the canvas on which Velázquez is working is revealed in the
mirror at the back of the room. There we see reflections of King Philip IV and his second
wife, Mariana of Austria. This discovery both clarifies and complicates Las Meninas. If
Velázquez is painting portraits of the royal couple, perhaps the princess and her
entourage are present before her parents for the purpose of entertaining them during
the hours of boredom that were required for a portrait to be painted.
While this unfolding relationship of figures clarifies what is happening, it complicates
the viewer’s own place in the painting. In a painting such as Gustave Caillebotte’s Paris
Street; Rainy Day, the viewer has an implied place in relationship to the subject
depicted. In Las Meninas, Velázquez audaciously positions the viewer in the place of
the king and queen. It is as if Velázquez were painting our portrait.
The complexity of space within this painting is balanced by Velázquez’s attention to
detail. Looking, for example, at the princess, we can study every jewel in her bodice. Her
perfect regal posture is the fixed point around which the painting expands in every
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direction (including toward the viewer). It is the convincing illusion of the room as a
three-dimensional space that makes the subsequent revelation that this painting is itself
an illusion all the more intriguing. In the 17th century, paintings were expected to
conceal the means by which the illusion of the image was created. Depicting himself
standing at the canvas, Velázquez reminds the viewer that this is an illusion created by
paint. The paint on the palette that he holds, which is paint creating the illusion of
paint, is a particularly clever touch.
Las Meninas is an enigmatic work that continues to puzzle and delight viewers. Any
interpretation of this painting has to work through several layers of subject matter, both
depicted and implied. There is the painting that we see in the gallery of Museo del
Prado, and there is the painting we don’t see that Velázquez is working on. One of the
themes explored in Las Meninas is placement. Where are we in relationship to what we
see? What is our place? But this question of place has an additional meaning. In the
17th century, the Spanish court (and society more broadly) was highly stratified.
Everyone had a social place, and everyone was expected to know, and stay in, his or her
social place. In that context, the painting’s deliberate spatial complexity highlights these
relationships.
Painted for the king, this work was intended to remind His Majesty of Velázquez’s years
of faithful service. The painting’s calculated and self-conscious structure does not
undermine the social structure of the court. But although Velázquez was a loyal subject
of his king, the work does evidence the artist’s yearning to rise within that society.
Velázquez was not part of the nobility, and artists were not generally considered to have
a social status above that of a laborer. And yet, because of his unique skill (on display in
Las Meninas), Velázquez did manage to improve his position. Three years after
completing this painting, Velázquez was made a knight in the Order of Santiago (Saint
James). The artist then went back to this work and painted the Cross of Saint James on
his chest. He died the following year.
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Las Meninas (The Ladies-in-Waiting)
This is an oil painting. Centered in the painting is a young girl clothed in a hoop-skirted,
light-colored gown. There are two older girls, one on either side of her, also dressed in
hooped gowns. All of the girls have flowers fastened in their hair. The central girl’s hair is
long and blonde. The older girls have hair that is darker and shorter. The older girl on the
left is kneeling and holding the younger girl’s right hand. The girl on the right is standing,
slightly bent toward the younger girl. To the right of this girl are two children, gazing out
at the viewer. In front of them is a dog lying on the floor. To the left of the kneeling girl is a
man holding a paintbrush. He looks out at the viewer. In the background is the reflection
of a man and woman in a mirror, a man standing in a doorway on steps leading up, and a
man and woman.
Click to enlarge
Peter Horree/Alamy
Short-Answer Question
Why do you think that the painting is titled Las Meninas (The Ladies-in-
Waiting)?
No response saved yet.
Short-Answer Question
How does the placement or arrangement of the figures in the painting
affect where you as the viewer imagine yourself in relationship to the
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subject?
No response saved yet.
Short-Answer Question
Does the image of the reflection of the king and queen, two figures who are
outside the depicted space of the painting, change the relationship that you
imagine for yourself in relation to the subject?
No response saved yet.
Short-Answer Question
In the 17th century, a painting (which is of course only paint applied to a
flat canvas surface) was expected to create a convincing illusion of three-
dimensional space and figures acting within that space. What are some
ways in which Las Meninas succeeds in creating that illusion?
No response saved yet.
Short-Answer Question
Part of the fame of Las Meninas lies in Velázquez’s own self-consciousness
of the inherent illusion of his painting. What are some ways in which the
artist makes viewers aware that they are looking at an illusion?
No response saved yet.
Response Board
The painting captures only a single moment, but there are hints at possible
moments before and after this one (such as the ambiguous depiction of the man in
the doorway, who is either coming or going). What do you think might happen
next?
No response saved yet.
Share your thoughts with your peers…
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Short-Answer Question
How does Velázquez inject a hint of humor or playfulness into an otherwise
very formal setting?
No response saved yet.
Response Board
There are many details in this large painting that the viewer might not immediately
notice. Some of the details are not central to the narrative, but instead are placed
there by the artist to reward the viewer’s repeated study of the painting. As you
take another look at the work, what are some details that you might not have
noticed before?
No response saved yet.
Response Board
Imagine yourself in a depicted space of the painting or in the implied place of the
king and queen. What sorts of sounds might you hear there? Is the court a hushed
and formal place, or is it a more private space where some noises or conversations
might be heard?
No response saved yet.
Response Board
Would you like to be a member of the Spanish court, perhaps as the court painter?
Explain why or why not.
No response saved yet.
close
Share your thoughts with your peers…
Share your thoughts with your peers…
Share your thoughts with your peers…
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Applied Humanities
Review the Gallery
Art Gallery
2 Module Two: Introduction to the Humanities, continued / Page 2.4.2 Art Gallery
Objective: Review the visual-art options available for your exploration document.
As you search for works, or cultural artifacts, to include in your exploration document,
consider the works of art included in this art gallery. While some of these works will be
familiar (you studied them in previous sections of this module), others will be wholly
new.
Bust of Nefertiti
A bust of Nefertiti. The face is symmetrical, but the left eye lacks the inlay that is present
in the right. The bust is topped with a blue crown with a golden diadem band at the
bottom, and a cobra, which is broken, centered on the blue portion, above the golden
band. She wears a broad collar with a colorful floral pattern on it. The ears have some
damage.
Click to enlarge
Werner Forman/Art
Resource, NY
Thutmose
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Bust of Nefertiti, ca. 1345 BCE
Era/Culture/Movement: Ancient Egypt
Medium: Painted stucco over limestone
Dimensions: 1′ 7″ (height)
Location: Neues Museum, Berlin
Discovered in the studio of Thutmose, court sculptor to the pharaoh Akhenaten, this
unfinished portrait of the queen remains an enduring model of beauty.
Marble Statue of a Kouros
Carved marble statue of a human male figure. The figure stands naked, with his left leg
forward and his arms at his sides.
Click to enlarge
Image copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY.
Unknown
Marble statue of a kouros (youth),
ca. 590–580 BCE
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Era/Culture/Movement: Ancient Greece
Medium: Marble
Dimensions: 6′ 4.75″ × 1′ 8.25″
Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
As this perfectly poised nude figure strides forward, he exemplifies the Greek
philosophy of physical, mental, and spiritual discipline.
Marble Bust of a Man
Sculpted marble bust of a middle-aged or older man. He is bald. He has wrinkles and
creases on his forehead, cheeks, and chin. His mouth is turned slightly down.
Click to enlarge
Image copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY.
Unknown
Marble bust of a man, mid-first century CE
Era/Culture/Movement: Imperial Rome
Medium: Marble
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Dimensions: 1′ 2.5″ (height)
Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
While the stern and worn features of this man’s face suggest years of political and/or
military responsibility, the sculpture’s gravity demonstrates the reverence that Roman
families had for their ancestors.
Pensive Bodhisattva
The bodhisattva sits with his right leg crossing his left leg, his head and torso leaning
slightly forward, and the fingers of his right hand touching his cheek. He sits on a platform
covered by drapery folds. His crown is topped with an orb-and-crescent motif. He wears a
small cape covering his shoulders. The sides of the cape are joined by a flat necklace. His
torso is bare. He wears loose pants. His feet are bare.
Click to enlarge
Image copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY.
Unknown
Pensive bodhisattva, mid-seventh century
Era/Culture/Movement: Three Kingdoms Period, Korea
Medium: Gilt bronze
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Dimensions: 1″ × 4″ × 4.25″
Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
This elegantly elongated figure may possibly represent Maitreya, bodhisattva of the
future.
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The Lamentation
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In the foreground, the body of Christ is surrounded by nine people. There is a group of
mourners in the left near-background. In the center and right near-background are a
mountain and tree. In the far background are more mountains. Above the groups of
people are ten diminutive angels. Of the nine people in the foreground, four are women
with halos, three are men with halos, and two, without halos, are indistinguishable
because they are facing Christ and only their backs are visible. The body of Christ is held
slightly off the ground by three, or possibly four, of the people surrounding him. He has a
halo and is unclothed except for a wrap around his waist. Of the two without halos, one is
clothed in a blue robe and a white head covering. She or he is sitting on the ground at
Christ’s right hip. That person may be helping to hold His body off the ground. The other
person is clothed in a pale yellow robe and white head covering. She or he is holding her
or his right hand under Christ’s head. One of the women with a halo is clothed in a pink
gown trimmed with gold. She has an uncovered head. Her hair is brown. She is standing
to the left of Christ’s head. Her right hand is raised with her palm facing outward. One of
the women with a halo is clothed in dark blue. She has an uncovered head. Her hair is
brown. She has a braid encircling her head. She is sitting at Christ’s left side, by His head
and shoulders. She is cradling Christ’s head and torso in her lap. Her right arm is beneath
His shoulders; her left arm rests on His chest. One of the women with a halo is clothed in
pale blue or purple. She has a partially covered head. Her hair is brown. She is bending
over Christ at his left side by his legs. She is holding His hands, one in each of hers. One of
the women with a halo is clothed in a pink top, light red skirt, and green sash. She has an
uncovered head. Her hair is brown. She has a braid encircling her head. Long strands of
hair fall on each side of her face. She is sitting on the ground at Christ’s feet, holding a foot
in each of her hands. Of the three men with halos, one is wearing a pink robe with gold
trim. His hair is brown and wavy. He is standing, bent slightly at the waist, with his arms
outstretched behind him. He is standing to the right of the woman holding Christ’s hands.
The other two men with halos are standing behind and to the right of the woman holding
Christ’s feet. One of the men is partially bald. He has graying hair. He also has a beard,
mustache, and sideburns. He is wearing an orange robe with a white stole. His left hand is
holding the right side of his stole. His right hand and arm are concealed under the right-
hand side of his stole. The other man has dark hair, a beard, a mustache, and sideburns.
He is wearing a blue robe with gold trim. His hands are clasped in front of him. The group
of mourners in the left near-background bow their heads. Two of the mourners’ faces are
partially concealed. One mourner’s face is clearly visible and expressing grief. One
mourner is prominent and has her hands clasped together and is holding them against her
cheek. The mountain in the center and right near-background slopes upward to a leafless
tree. The angels all have wings, halos, and robes. They all are exhibiting sorrow in various
ways, including weeping, praying, and holding their heads in their hands.
Click to enlarge
Alfredo Dagli Orti/The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY
Giotto di Bondone
The Lamentation, 1305
Era/Culture/Movement: Italian Renaissance
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Medium: Fresco
Dimensions: 6′ 6.75″ × 6′ 0.75″
Location: Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy
The artist effectively humanizes Christ by depicting the dead body of Jesus being
mourned by his mother and followers as an emotion-filled moment in a naturalistic
space.
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The Mérode Altarpiece
This is a three-piece oil painting. Each endpiece is smaller than the middle piece. The left
endpiece shows a man and a woman kneeling in front of a partially open door. There is a
crenellated wall with an entranceway in the background. The man is wearing a sword and
a dark robe. The woman is wearing a red dress, a dark cape, and a white cowl. The middle
piece takes the viewer through the door of the left endpiece. It shows an interior room of a
house. There is a partially open window in the background. On the left side, in the
foreground, there is an angel kneeling by a table. The angel is wearing a white robe with a
blue sash belt. There is an open book, a candle in a candlestick, and lilies in a vase on the
table. There is a woman wearing a red dress sitting by the table. She is reading a book. Her
dress and the angel’s robe are touching on the floor. Behind the woman is a long bench
with a blue covering and blue pillow. Behind the bench is a fireplace. Above the angel, on
the wall, are two small oval windows. In the sun rays coming through the right-hand oval
window is a cherub carrying a cross. On the same wall as the partially open window is a
niche with a pot hanging in it. The third piece shows the interior of a room with a man
sitting on a bench. He is holding a piece of wood in his left hand and is using a tool on it.
There are other tools on the table in front of him. In the background is a window with the
shutters raised to the ceiling of the room. More buildings are seen in the distance through
the windows.
Click to enlarge
Image copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY.
Robert Campin
The Mérode Altarpiece, ca. 1427–1432
Era/Culture/Movement: Netherlandish Renaissance
Medium: Oil on oak panel
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Dimensions: 2′ 1.5″ × 3′ 10.5″
Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Campin depicts the Annunciation (the angel Gabriel announcing to the Virgin Mary
that she will be the mother of Jesus) as an event unfolding in a domestic space that
would have been contemporary to that of the work’s initial patrons, who witness the
scene through the open door.
The Adoration of the Magi
This is a painting depicting the three magi bringing gifts to the baby Jesus. Jesus, sitting
on Mary’s lap, Mary, and Joseph are surrounded by partially-built stone walls and
elevated from those around them. There is a grey-haired man, with his arms half-raised,
bowing in front of Jesus. There are two groups of people standing in the left- and right-
foregrounds. There are intricate details and vivid colors. The groups of people represent
the aristocracy and the peasantry. Both are clothed according to their station in life.
Click to enlarge
Alfredo Dagli Orti/The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY
Sandro Botticelli
The Adoration of the Magi, 1475
Era/Culture/Movement: Italian Renaissance
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Medium: Tempera on panel
Dimensions: 3′ 8″ × 4′ 5″
Location: Uffizi Gallery, Florence
By depicting members of the Medici family—who were the de facto rulers of Florence—
as the biblical magi in a scene observed by other prominent contemporary members of
Florentine society (including the artist at the right), this work combines sacred and
secular messages.
The Four Horsemen, from The Apocalypse
This is a black-and-white woodcut print. It depicts the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
They are arranged from top right to lower left across the print. Above the scene are clouds
and an angel flying with the horsemen. Below the horses’ hooves, people are being
trampled. The three horses and horsemen at the top of the picture appear to be well-fed
and healthy. The horse and horseman in the lower left appear sickly, with their ribs
showing. The topmost horseman has a bow and arrow in his hands. The next rider has a
sword. The next rider has scales. The last rider has a pitchfork.
Click to enlarge
Image copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY.
Albrecht Dürer
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The Four Horsemen, from The Apocalypse, 1498
Era/Culture/Movement: German Renaissance
Medium: Woodcut
Dimensions: 1′ 3.25″ × 11.5″
Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Depicting the end of the world as described in the biblical book of Revelation, the artist
personifies the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (from left to right): death, famine,
war, and plague.
Mona Lisa
This is a portrait painting of a woman. In the background, dirt paths wind beside a lake or
river to mountains in the distance. Mona Lisa is seated in a chair, centered in the frame of
the picture, and in three-quarter profile. Her left arm rests on the chair arm. Her right
hand rests on top of her left wrist. She has brown hair that reaches her shoulders. She is
wearing a dress and a wrap. She displays a hint of cleavage. She appears to be looking
directly at the viewer. She has a slight smile. She does not appear to have eyebrows or
eyelashes.
Click to enlarge
© RMN-Grand Palais/Art Resource, NY
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Leonardo da Vinci
Mona Lisa, 1503–1517
Era/Culture/Movement: Italian Renaissance
Medium: Oil on panel
Dimensions: 2′ 6″ × 1′ 9″
Location: Louvre Museum, Paris
Although this is one of the most famous images in the world, the identity of the sitter,
and what is on her mind, remain unsolvable mysteries.
The Moses
Moses is seated. His body faces forward. His head is turned slightly to the left. His hair is
curly and wavy. He has two horns on the top of his head. He leans his right arm on stone
tablets. His left hand holds the bottom of his long beard. His lap is covered with folds of
cloth. The muscles of his arms and bones of his hands are sculpted in detail. His right foot
rests on the ground and his left leg is bent so that only his toes touch the ground.
Click to enlarge
Scala/Art Resource, NY
Michelangelo Buonarroti (commonly referred to by his first name)
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The Moses, ca. 1513–1515
Era/Culture/Movement: Italian Renaissance
Medium: Marble
Dimensions: 7′ 8.5″ (height)
Location: San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome
Depicting the Jewish leader as a muscular hero, this figure of Moses has horns because
of a mistranslation in the Latin Vulgate Bible.
The Conversion of Saint Paul
This is an oil painting depicting the moment Jesus spoke to Saul (before he became Paul)
on the road to Damascus. Saul is shown lying on the ground on his outer garment beneath
his horse. His eyes are
close
d and his arms upraised. He is wearing a leather Roman
breastplate. His sword is by his left side. A man is holding his horse by the bit. The horse
has his right foreleg raised and is looking at Saul.
Click to enlarge
Niday Picture Library/Alamy
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (commonly referred to by his surname)
The Conversion of Saint Paul, 1601
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Era/Culture/Movement: Italian Baroque
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 7′ 7″ × 5′ 9″
Location: Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome
On the road to Damascus, Saul has a physically blinding and spiritually transforming
vision of Jesus and is converted to Paul.
Aristotle with a Bust of Homer
Aristotle is standing and resting his right hand on the top of a bust of Homer, which sits
on a table. Aristotle has a solemn expression. He is wearing a dark hat, a dark tunic, dark
pants, a light-colored, billowy over-garment, and a thick golden chain with a medallion
hanging from it. His left hand rests on his waist and is touching the chain. He has a ring
on his left pinkie finger. The chain is worn from the right shoulder to the left waist. He has
a dark beard and sideburns. His mustache is a lighter shade than his beard. The bust of
Homer is light colored. He has a beard and mustache. He has a small band around his
hair. The table is reddish.
Click to enlarge
Image copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY.
Rembrandt van Rijn
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Aristotle with a Bust of Homer, 1653
Era/Culture/Movement: Dutch Baroque
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 4′ 8.5″ × 4′ 5.75″
Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The philosopher Aristotle contemplates the respective achievements of the poet Homer
(depicted in the bust on the table) and the general Alexander the Great (depicted in the
medallion that hangs from a golden chain).
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Las Meninas (The Ladies-in-Waiting)
This is an oil painting. Centered in the painting is a young girl clothed in a hoop-skirted,
light-colored gown. There are two older girls, one on either side of her, also dressed in
hooped gowns. All of the girls have flowers fastened in their hair. The central girl’s hair is
long and blonde. The older girls have hair that is darker and shorter. The older girl on the
left is kneeling and holding the younger girl’s right hand. The girl on the right is standing,
slightly bent toward the younger girl. To the right of this girl are two children, gazing out
at the viewer. In front of them is a dog lying on the floor. To the left of the kneeling girl is a
man holding a paintbrush. He looks out at the viewer. In the background is the reflection
of a man and woman in a mirror, a man standing in a doorway on steps leading up, and a
man and woman.
Click to enlarge
Peter Horree/Alamy
Diego Velázquez
Las Meninas (The Ladies-in-Waiting), 1656
Era/Culture/Movement: Spanish Baroque
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 10′ 5.25″ × 9′ 0.75″
Location: Museo del Prado, Madrid
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The artist is in the act of painting the king and queen of Spain, who stand in the implied
space of the viewer and can be seen in the reflection of the mirror in the background, as
they are greeted by the princess and her entourage.
View of Haarlem with Bleaching Grounds
This is a landscape painting. In the foreground is a hill. Beyond that are gable-roofed
houses and a field with long lengths of linen spread out. The sun is shining on the houses
and linen. Trees surround three sides of the field. Beyond the field with the linens is
another field. The sun is shining on the middle of this field. It has a windmill on it. In the
far distance, a church and the roofs of town structures are visible. The cloudy sky takes up
two-thirds of the painting.
Click to enlarge
Scala/Art Resource, NY
Jacob van Ruisdael
View of Haarlem with Bleaching Grounds, ca. 1670–1675
Era/Culture/Movement: Dutch Baroque
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 1′ 9.9″ × 2′ 0.4″
Location: Mauritshuis, The Hague
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From a high vantage point, we see the artist’s hometown of Haarlem on the horizon, as
well as the surrounding fields.
Oath of the Horatii
This painting is set in a Roman hall. On the left side are three Roman soldiers. The man
closest to the viewer is holding a spear upright in his left hand. The man in the middle has
his arm around the waist of the man holding the spear. All three soldiers are wearing
sandals, short tunics, capes, and helmets. They are reaching toward swords being held by
an older man who is centered in the painting. He is wearing sandals, a short tunic, and a
cape. Behind the older man, three women are sitting on benches. One woman is
comforting two small children. The other two women are comforting each other.
Click to enlarge
Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY
Jacques-Louis David
Oath of the Horatii, 1784
Era/Culture/Movement: Neoclassicism
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 10′ 8″ x 13′ 9″
Location: Louvre Museum, Paris
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Three brothers of the Horatius family swear an oath to their father that they will fight to
the death to defend the city of Rome.
Self-Portrait (Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun)
This is a self-portrait of the artist as a young woman. She is positioned slightly off center.
She is seated at a partially finished portrait painting with a brush raised in her right hand.
In her left hand, at waist height, she holds several slightly used brushes. She holds her
palette on her left arm. She is dressed in a blue dress with a white lace collar and cuffs,
and a red sash with a bow around her waist. She has a white turban with a bow on her
head. Her hair is brown and curly. She has a slight smile. Her body is oriented toward the
partially finished portrait on her easel, with her face turned toward the viewer.
Click to enlarge
Wikimedia
Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun
Self-Portrait, 1790
Era/Culture/Movement: Neoclassicism
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 3′ 3.5″ × 2′ 8″
Location: Uffizi Gallery, Florence
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After serving as the favorite portraitist of Queen Marie Antoinette, Vigée Le Brun
painted this self-portrait while in exile in Italy.
The Ancient of Days
This is a watercolor etching. It shows an old man crouched in the center of an orange-red
circle. Around the circle are yellow and orange areas connected to rays shooting out
toward the bottom. There are dark clouds surrounding the yellow, orange, and red areas.
The old man’s hair and beard appear to be blowing to the viewer’s left. His left hand is
extending downward. He is holding a large drawing compass, which looks like a wide
upside-down V, to measure the darkness.
Click to enlarge
Image copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY.
William Blake
The Ancient of Days, 1794
Era/Culture/Movement: Romanticism
Medium: Hand-colored relief etching
Dimensions: 9.2″ × 6.6″
Location: British Museum, London
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The frontispiece to Blake’s Europe a Prophecy depicts a figure, possibly Urizen,
measuring the darkness.
Power Figure (Nkisi N’Kondi: Mangaaka)
This is a wooden sculpture of a human-like figure. The body is unclothed but wears a hat
with patterning. The face is elongated. On the head, the ears sit high and toward the back.
Overall, the sculpture is a dark color, but the eyes are white. The torso is bent slightly
forward. The hands are resting on the hips. There is an open hole in the abdomen. There
are nails and bits of metal hammered into various places on the body: along the jaw,
outlining where a beard would be; in the shoulders and torso; around the hole in the
abdomen; in the genital area; and in the knees and the feet. Each foot is placed on an
individual block.
Click to enlarge
Image copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY.
Unknown
Power Figure (Nkisi N’Kondi: Mangaaka), 19th century
Era/Culture/Movement: Yombe group, Africa
Medium: Wood, iron, resin, ceramic, plant fiber, textile, and pigment
Dimensions: 3′ 10.5″ × 1′ 7.5″ × 1′ 3.5″
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Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
This menacing figure was a spiritual guardian and enforcer of justice.
The Third of May 1808
This is an oil painting depicting a firing squad, those executed, and those about to be
executed. There is a building in the background with a tower. There are seven men in the
firing squad, each wearing a sword and hat. Their rifles are raised. The men wear pants
and long military jackets. Some of the jackets appear white, while some appear to be
darker colors. The men are positioned in the right foreground. There is a lantern casting a
bright light between the firing squad line, the bodies of those already shot, and those
about to be shot. There are bloody bodies lying on the ground in the left foreground. Just
off-center to the left, a man dressed in a white shirt and yellow pants has both arms raised
and outstretched. He appears to be the next man who will be shot. Next to him is a monk
or friar in a gray robe. Behind them are more men, one with his head in his hands. To the
left of this group of men are more men standing with their heads in their hands.
Click to enlarge
Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY
Francisco Goya
The Third of May 1808, 1814
Era/Culture/Movement: Romanticism
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Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 8′ 10″ × 11′ 5″
Location: Museo del Prado, Madrid
Commemorating a public uprising in Madrid against the French occupying army of
Napoleon Bonaparte, this work lionizes the political martyrs.
The Great Wave
This is a woodblock print. It shows large waves about to crash over three boats. One wave
is dominant and is forming a circle in the center of the image. This wave is about to engulf
the boat that is farthest away from the viewer. A second boat is at the bottom center,
closer to the viewer. The third boat, appearing at the far left, is mostly hidden from view
by the crest of a smaller wave. To the right, Mount Fuji appears in the background
beneath storm clouds, centered in the circle formed by the dominant wave. The mountain
is blue with a white snowcap. The waves are various shades of blue with whitecaps. The
boats appear to contain rowers as well as passengers. The rowers are in the rear of each
boat; the passengers are in the front. The sky is dark gray above Mount Fuji but is white
and beige elsewhere.
Click to enlarge
Image copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY.
Katsushika Hokusai
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The Great Wave, ca. 1830–1832
Era/Culture/Movement: Edo period, Japan
Medium: Polychrome woodblock print; ink and color on paper
Dimensions: 10.25″ × 1′ 3″
Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Part of a series of 36 prints depicting Mount Fuji (seen in the background) from
different points of view, this image focuses on the inhabitants of three boats attempting
to navigate through a group of large waves.
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Washington Crossing the Delaware
This is a painting of George Washington standing in a rowboat. He is wearing black boots,
which reach just below his knees; yellow pants; a blue jacket; a gray and red cape; and a
blue three-cornered hat. There are three men sitting in the boat in front of Washington.
They are all rowing. One man, a Western rifleman wearing a coonskin cap, faces forward.
Two men sitting next to each other, one in a Scottish bonnet and one of African descent,
face backward. There are three men directly behind Washington. One man, Lieutenant
James Monroe, is standing, wearing a blue officer’s coat and holding an American flag.
One is another Western rifleman wearing a coonskin cap. One is a soldier. Behind these
men are General Edward Hand, who is holding his hat on his head and wearing a blue
officer’s coat. There are two farmers with broad-brimmed hats huddling against the cold.
One farmer has a bandage around his head. There is an androgynous rower in a red shirt.
The last rower in the stern is wearing moccasins, pants, a green shirt, and a Native
American hat. There are more boats with men and horses crossing behind Washington.
Chunks of ice float in the river. The opposite shoreline is visible in the distance. The sky
appears overcast.
Click to enlarge
Image copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY.
Emanuel Leutze
Washington Crossing the Delaware, 1851
Era/Culture/Movement: American history
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 12′ 5″ × 21′ 3″
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Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Depicting a Christmas-night military maneuver during the American Revolutionary
War, this work celebrates General George Washington, the future first president of the
United States, as the model leader.
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
This is a painting of a canyon in Yellowstone National Park. In the distance, a winding
river is visible, as well as a waterfall with mist rising from it. The canyon walls are yellow,
brown, pink, and purple. There are evergreen trees in clumps in several places. In the
foreground, there is a large rock jutting out on the edge of a rocky slope. Details of the
rocks and trees are clear and distinct in the foreground. They become less distinct in the
background.
Click to enlarge
Smithsonian American Art Museum, lent by the Department of the Interior Museum
Thomas Moran
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, 1893–1901
Era/Culture/Movement: American landscape
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 8′ 0.5″ × 13′ 7.375″
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
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Visualizing the majestic landscape of the Western United States in an era before color
photography, this painting depicts nature itself as a hero.
The Gross Clinic (or The Clinic of Dr. Samuel Gross)
This is an oil painting. It shows an older man in a dark frock coat standing and lecturing
students in coats and ties while other men are seated or crouched over, performing
surgery on a patient. Behind and to the right of the lecturer is a man taking notes. The
setting is a surgical theater in the late 1800s. The students are seated in tiered rows. Three
men in frock coats and ties are actually performing the surgery. One man in a coat and tie
is administering anesthesia. There are two men standing in a doorway between the tiers of
students. There is a woman sitting just behind the lecturer shielding her face with her left
arm. There is a tray of surgical instruments in the foreground.
Click to enlarge
The Philadelphia Museum of Art
Thomas Eakins
The Gross Clinic (or The Clinic of Dr. Samuel Gross), 1875
Era/Culture/Movement: American realism
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 8′ × 6′ 6″
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Location: Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
The unflinching realism of this depiction of modern surgery, performed in front of a
group of medical students, was shocking to contemporary viewers more accustomed to
paintings of classical and idealized depictions of the human body.
Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare
This is an oil painting. It depicts a steam-powered train inside a Parisian train station. The
train station is large. It is partially roofed in glass. The smoke from the train’s smokestack
is dull gray inside the station, and bright white outside the station. The end of the station
that the viewer can see is open to the outside. The train is black. Passengers appear to be
waiting to board. This is an Impressionist painting and, as such, the train, the station, the
passengers, and the smoke are rendered with brush strokes that are not blended or
delineated.
Click to enlarge
Claude Monet. Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare, 1877. Oil on canvas.
60.3 x 80.2 cm (23 3/4 x 31 1/2 in.). Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection,
1933.1158. The Art
Institute of Chicago.
Claude Monet
Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare, 1877
Era/Culture/Movement: Impressionism
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Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 1′ 11.75″ × 2′ 7.5″
Location: Art Institute of Chicago
Monet transforms this smoke-filled modern train station into a cathedral of industrial
progress.
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Paris Street; Rainy Day
This is an oil painting of a Parisian intersection in the late 1800s. It has overcast skies and
is apparently raining. Almost all of the pedestrians are walking with umbrellas. The couple
in the foreground are sharing an umbrella. She is dressed in a fur-trimmed skirt, jacket,
and hat. There is an earring visible in her left ear. She is holding on to her companion’s
left arm with her right hand. He is dressed in pants, a buttoned vest, white shirt, bow tie,
coat, and top hat. He is holding the umbrella. They are both looking to their right. A man
with his back to the viewer is passing the couple on their left. He is wearing a top hat and
coat and carrying an umbrella. The viewer sees only half of him. In the background are
other pedestrians crossing the street and walking on the sidewalks. There is a triangular
building in the background. The streets are paved with rectangular stones. There is a
lamppost visible behind the couple sharing the umbrella. The painting is realistic and
looks almost like a photograph.
Click to enlarge
Gustave Caillebotte. Paris Street; Rainy Day, 1877. Oil on canvas. 212.2 x 276.2 cm (83
1/2 x 108 3/4 in.). Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection, 1964.336. The Art
Institute of Chicago.
Gustave Caillebotte
Paris Street; Rainy Day, 1877
Era/Culture/Movement: Impressionism
Medium: Oil on canvas
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Dimensions: 6′ 11.5″ × 9′ 0.75″
Location: Art Institute of Chicago
This painting explores how human experience and relationships are shaped by the
environment of the modern city.
Starry Night
Swirls of blue and yellow make up the night sky in this oil painting. A yellow crescent
moon is in the upper right corner. Venus, the morning star, is to the left of center,
surrounded by rings of yellow and white. Other stars are scattered among the swirls of
blue, each surrounded by white and yellow rings of various sizes. Under the sky is a
village; a church and its steeple are centered and prominent. Mountains undulate in the
background. The mountains are darker shades of blue. In the village, houses in various
locations have lights in their windows. A green cypress tree in the left foreground reaches
almost to the top of the painting.
Click to enlarge
Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY
Vincent van Gogh
Starry Night, 1889
Era/Culture/Movement: Post-Impressionism
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Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 2′ 5″ × 3′ 0.25″
Location: Museum of Modern Art, New York
Van Gogh transforms the local countryside of Saint-Rémy, in the south of France, into a
vision of dynamic spiritual movement from temporality to eternity.
The Thinker
This is a larger-than-life sculpture of a nude male figure sitting on a rock with his chin
resting on his right hand. His right elbow is resting on his left thigh. His left hand rests on
his left knee.
Click to enlarge
© RMN-Grand Palais/Art Resource, NY
Auguste Rodin
The Thinker, 1902
Era/Culture/Movement: Realism
Medium: Bronze
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Dimensions: 6′ 7″ × 4′ 3.25″ × 4′ 7.25″
Location: Rodin Museum, Philadelphia
Originally intended as a depiction of the poet Dante Alighieri, author of The Divine
Comedy, this figure personifies the human aspiration for knowledge and imagination.
Bird in Space
This sculpture of a bird does not have wings or feathers. The body is elongated. The head
and beak are rendered stylistically. The sculpture implies the movement of a bird rather
than the physical attributes of a bird.
Click to enlarge
© Succession Brancusi – All rights reserved (ARS) 2016/Image copyright © The
Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY.
Constantin Brancusi
Bird in Space, 1923
Era/Culture/Movement: Modernism
Medium: Marble
Dimensions: 4′ 8.75″ × 6.5″
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Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Rather than depicting a bird, this sculpture gives material form to the movement of the
bird in flight.
Guernica
This oil painting is violent and chaotic. On the left-hand side is the suggestion of an
opening made by a lighter shade of gray. There is a wide-eyed bull whose tail forms the
image of flames standing in front of the opening. Under the bull is a grieving woman
holding a dead child in her arms. The center is dominated by a horse with a large gaping
wound in its side. Under the horse is a dismembered man. The hand of his severed right
arm is clutching a broken sword. His left arm is stretched above his head and his left palm
is open. On his left palm is a five-pointed star. Above the horse is a light bulb. The rays of
the light bulb and the light bulb form an eye. To the upper right of the horse is the floating
head of a scared or shocked woman. Beside her floats a disembodied arm and hand
holding a lamp with a flame close to the light bulb. Under the floating head another
woman is partially bent over. She is blankly looking up at the lamp and light bulb. At the
very right of the painting is a woman with her arms raised. She is trapped by flames above
and below her. The bull, the horse, and the woman holding the dead child have sharply
pointed tongues. There is a bird on the back wall between the bull and horse. It has a slash
on its body with light coming through.
Click to enlarge
© 2016 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Arts Rights Society (ARS), New York. Art Resource, NY.
Pablo Picasso
Guernica, 1937
Era/Culture/Movement: Modernism
Medium: Oil on canvas
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Dimensions: 11′ 5.5″ × 25′ 5.5″
Location: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid
Mourning the aerial bombing of the Spanish town of Guernica, this painting visualizes
the human impact of mechanized war.
Let My People Go
This is an oil painting in purples, greens, and yellows. There is an outline of a man
kneeling in front of men with spears on horses and chariots. There is a yellow beam of
light coming from the sun illuminating the kneeling man. The men with spears are
different shades of purple. There are waves of purple about to crash over the kneeling
man. There are also waves of purple with yellow lightning bolts coming from them.
Click to enlarge
Image copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY.
Aaron Douglas
Let My People Go, ca. 1934–1939
Era/Culture/Movement: Modernism
Medium: Oil on Masonite
Dimensions: 4′ × 3′
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Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
This work employs the biblical narrative of the Exodus from Egypt as a metaphor for
the modern African American struggle for equality and justice.
Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird
This is an oil painting the artist, Frida Kahlo, made of herself. The background has large
green leaves and one yellow leaf behind the artist’s head. There are two dragonflies, each
on a leaf, almost symmetrically on each side of Frida’s head. There is a black cat behind
Frida’s left shoulder. There is a monkey behind her right shoulder. Frida is looking
directly out from the painting. She has dark hair, dark eyebrows almost joined in the
middle, and a slight mustache. Her lips are red. She wears a solemn expression. Her hair
is braided and wrapped around her head. She has a red ribbon woven through her hair.
There are butterflies on the ribbon, one above each eyebrow. Frida is wearing a white top.
She wears a necklace of thorns that reaches to her shoulders and trails in tendrils down
her chest. The monkey is holding onto the necklace. The thorns are making Frida bleed.
There is a hummingbird hanging from the middle of the necklace.
Click to enlarge
© 2016 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F./Artists
Rights Society (ARS), New York
Frida Kahlo
Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, 1940
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Era/Culture/Movement: Modernism
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 2′ × 1′ 6.5″
Location: Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin
By transforming Christ’s crown of thorns into her own necklace, Kahlo explores a
paradox between feminine beauty and suffering, between death (the dead
hummingbird) and new life (the butterflies in her hair).
Gold Marilyn
This portrait is on a publicity still from the 1953 film Niagara. The portrait of the actress,
Marilyn Monroe, is painted on a background of gold. Her hair is bright yellow. Her eyelids
and shirt collar are bright green. Her lips are vivid red. Her teeth are bright white. Her
face and neck are pink.
Click to enlarge
© 2016 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Artists Rights Society
(ARS), New York/Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art
Resource, NY
Andy Warhol
Gold Marilyn, 1962
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Era/Culture/Movement: Pop art
Medium: Silkscreen ink on synthetic polymer paint on canvas
Dimensions: 6′ 11.25″ × 4′ 9″
Location: Museum of Modern Art, New York
Comparing the movie star Marilyn Monroe (who had recently committed suicide) with
the Virgin Mary, Warhol explores the intersection of fame, identity, spirituality, and
loss.
Untitled Film Still #56
Black and white photograph of a woman looking at herself in a mirror. The perspective is
from the viewpoint of looking over her right shoulder. The reflection in the mirror shows
the right side of her face. The reflection of the left side of her face is blocked by her hair as
she looks in the mirror. She is neither smiling nor frowning. Her right eye is wide open.
Click to enlarge
© Cindy Sherman. Courtesy Metro Pictures, New York.
Cindy Sherman
Untitled Film Still #56, 1980
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Era/Culture/Movement: Contemporary American
Medium: Photograph
Dimensions: 8″ × 10″
Location: Museum of Modern Art, New York
This self-portrait, which imitates a generic scene from a classic-type movie, explores the
flexibility of feminine identity.
Betty
This is a realistic painting of a young girl. Her body is mostly facing front, but her head is
turned away as though looking at something behind her. She has blonde hair in a bun at
the nape of her neck. She is wearing a pink shirt with a red and white flowered shirt over
it.
Click to enlarge
Gerhard Richter
Gerhard Richter
Betty, 1988
Era/Culture/Movement: Contemporary European
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Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 3′ 4.25″ × 2′ 4.25″
Location: St. Louis Art Museum
Depicting the artist’s daughter, this work explores the mutability of painting in a culture
of digital photography.
close
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Applied Humanities
Themes in Visual Art
Seeing Connections
By James Romaine
2 Module Two: Introduction to the Humanities, continued / Page 2.1.6 Seeing
Connections
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Objective: Learn how to identify thematic and compositional connections both within
and across works of art.
Jackson Pollock’s painting Autumn Rhythm (Number 30) proposes a particular way of
looking and thinking. In its material and compositional construction, this work of art
urges us toward a greater attentiveness to detail and awareness of interconnectivity.
These are tools that we can also apply beyond the gallery.
Figure 1
This Jackson Pollock painting consists of many different splatters and streaks of black,
white, and brown paint strewn densely across a beige background.
Autumn Rhythm (Number 30) by Jackson Pollock. Enamel on canvas, 1950. 8′ 9″ × 17′
3″.
© The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY.
Jackson Pollock’s Autumn Rhythm and the Art of Seeing
Connections
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In this section, you will analyze an abstract painting by Jackson Pollock. Use the
information and images provided to answer the questions below.
Creating Connections in the Studio
Looking at art is a process of seeing connections. However, the connection that we have
as viewers with a painting is, in many ways, the result of the connections that the artist
developed with the work of art while making it. As the painting took shape, the material
began to create connections with itself. Material that was being applied established
connections with other material that had already been applied. A mark in one part of
the composition could have a relationship with a mark in another area of the painting.
The entire painting thus became a network of these relationships. These connections
are what we observe and engage with as we look at the finished work of art. They
suggest that the process of us viewing a work of art is, in many ways, a reversal of the
process of the artist creatively interacting with his or her materials. Pollock’s Autumn
Rhythm exemplifies this reversal in how the painting so clearly evidences the process of
its creation.
Figure 2
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In this black-and-white photo, Jackson Pollock uses a paint brush to fling black paint
across a white canvas spread on the floor under his feet.
Jackson Pollock at work in his studio.
Photograph by Hans Namuth. Courtesy Center for Creative Photography, University of
Arizona. (c) 1991 Hans Namuth Estate.
Autumn Rhythm was created with a method that some viewers might find unusual
(Figure 2). Pollock would take a piece of unprimed canvas and lay it on his studio floor.
Using brushes and sticks, he would then drip, pour, and fling paint onto the canvas. As
Pollock himself explained:
My painting does not come from the easel…. On the floor I am more at ease. I
feel nearer, more a part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it,
work from the four sides and literally be in the painting. This is akin to the
method of the Indian sand painters of the West. (Pollock, 1948)
He elaborated on his immersive process:
When I am in my painting, I am not aware of what I’m doing. It is only after
a sort of “get acquainted” period that I see what I have been about. I have no
fears about making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting
has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact
with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony,
an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well. (Pollock, 1948)
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Pollock’s statement emphasized his connection with the material. The creative process
for the visual artist is one of taking material and giving it form in a way that
communicates meaning. This engagement with the materials, as Pollock noted, is one of
give and take. The successful result of this creative process is a work of art that has a life
of its own.
Multiple-Choice Question
What do you think Pollock might mean by a work having “a life of its own”?
As a painting starts to take shape, Pollock feels his role is to help it fully take
on that shape and identity.
The painter is working mostly subconsciously and really has no control over
how such works come out.
Once painted, the art exists apart from the artist and becomes whatever the
viewer sees.
The paintings come to Pollock as a vision, and his job is to faithfully transcribe
that vision.
Seeing Connections in the Gallery
Seeing connections in a work of art that we encounter in a gallery is, first of all, a matter
of looking carefully and being open to the work. The finished work of art is composed of
relationships. Our process of seeing and responding to these connections begins with a
careful visual study of the painting itself. Initially, Autumn Rhythm may seem to be a
weird and random web of paint. However, a
close
study of the painting’s details will
reveal that the paint has been applied with a high level of technical precision. For
example, if we look at a passage of paint near the center top (
Figure 3
and
Figure 3a
),
we can observe three parallel loops of paint.
Figure 3
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This Jackson Pollock painting consists of many different splatters and streaks of black,
white, and brown paint strewn densely across a beige background. An arrow has been
overlaid on the painting to indicate three parallel loops of black paint near the top of the
painting.
Detail from Pollock’s Autumn Rhythm.
© The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY.
Figure 3a
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This image is a zoomed-in portion of the same Jackson Pollock painting portrayed in the
previous image. An arrow has been overlaid on the painting to indicate three parallel
loops of black paint near the top of the painting.
Detail from Pollock’s Autumn Rhythm.
© The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY.
One of the common criticisms of Pollock’s paintings is the “I could do that” response.
While anyone could make a random mark by flinging paint, it would take a more skilled
painter to make a fluid loop.1 But how many artists could make that exact same mark a
second time? And could anyone, short of a painter of Pollock’s caliber, make a third
nearly identical mark? But Pollock did. After making a mark, he made two parallel
marks. This passage is not an isolated case. It, and others like it, demonstrate the skill
with which Pollock worked. These three marks also demonstrate how the life of Autumn
Rhythm emerges from the relationships of its material.
In looking carefully at Autumn Rhythm, we learn to trust the painting. In return, the
painting rewards our investment of careful and detailed observation. Thus a connection
is made between us and the painting.
Short-Answer Question
In your own words, summarize the above argument, which claims that
where the paint lands is not random, and that the painting provides
evidence of how the paint was thoughtfully and skillfully applied.
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Connecting the Parts to the Whole
While Autumn Rhythm was created by applying paint in a process that seems unusual
to many viewers (Pollock might object to this assessment of his process as
“nontraditional,” on the grounds that Native Americans have a tradition of making art
by pouring material on the ground), the painting’s composition is, by contrast, fairly
conventional.
The compositional structure that we find in Autumn Rhythm is principally created by
Pollock’s use of visual density. As the paint lies across the surface of the unprimed
canvas, which is visible throughout the painting, this paint is more compactly organized
in some places, and more loosely applied in others. Also, since dark colors read as
having more visual weight than light colors, the darker paint reads as solid and
immobile, while the light paint reads as more fluid. By using the material density and
visual weight of his colors, Pollock was able to create areas of the composition that are
more visually solid, and other areas that are visually open. For example, the
composition is more visually opaque across the bottom than across the top. More of the
raw canvas is visible through the open areas across the top.
The compositional impact of this visual density becomes more apparent if we turn
Autumn Rhythm upside down (
Figure 4
). Some of Pollock’s critics might suggest that
Autumn Rhythm looks the same turned upside down, but this is clearly not the case.
The visual solidity of the paint that Pollock placed across the bottom of his composition
becomes an unsupported visual weight, one that threatens to crash down onto us.
Figure 4
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This Jackson Pollock painting consists of many different splatters and streaks of black,
white, and brown paint strewn densely across a beige background. In this image, the
painting has been turned upside down.
Pollock’s Autumn Rhythm, inverted.
© The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY.
However, if we return the composition to Pollock’s orientation, the visual weight across
the bottom of the painting anchors the explosive composition.
Figure 1
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This Jackson Pollock painting consists of many different splatters and streaks of black,
white, and brown paint strewn densely across a beige background.
Pollock’s Autumn Rhythm in normal orientation.
© The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY.
Through his use of visual density, Pollock was also able to create forms and movement
within his composition. For example, in the painting’s lower left, the paint forms into a
clockwise rotating circle (
Figure 5
).
Figure 5
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This Jackson Pollock painting consists of many different splatters and streaks of black,
white, and brown paint strewn densely across a beige background. A circular arrow has
been laid over the lower left area of the painting to indicate a perceived clockwise rotation
of paint.
Detail from Pollock’s Autumn Rhythm.
© The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY.
Since, in Western art, we read an image starting from the lower left, this circle draws
our eye into the composition. Also, some of the most visually dense areas of the
composition are at the far right, especially the upper right (
Figure 6
).
Figure 6
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This Jackson Pollock painting consists of many different splatters and streaks of black,
white, and brown paint strewn densely across a beige background. Arrows point to a box
that has been laid over the rightmost quarter of the painting, indicating an area that is
denser with dark paint.
Detail from Pollock’s Autumn Rhythm.
© The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY.
As we read the painting from left to right, this visual impenetrability at the right
prevents us from visually exiting the painting and redirects us back into the
composition. The upper center of Autumn Rhythm is the least densely painted area.
This relative openness creates a visual core around which the rest of the composition
turns. Our study of Pollock’s composition not only further evidences his artistic skills; it
also demonstrates how the painting’s impact on us is born out of numerous connections
between its material and visual elements.
As we continue to carefully study Autumn Rhythm, we should not let our attention to its
details distract us from looking at the painting as a whole. A careful study of Pollock’s
composition reveals how it is deliberately created out of a unity of its elements. Pollock
has done a masterful job of interconnecting the parts of his composition without
making any of them stand out from the rest. His achievement was so impressive that art
historians created a term for his method: “all-over painting.” This means that our eye is
drawn all over the composition rather than being directed toward a single focal point.
While not every viewer will be familiar with the term “all-over painting,” seeing the
connections that make up Autumn Rhythm does not require any special knowledge
about the artist or art history. Seeing these connections requires only careful looking
and visual literacy.
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Short-Answer Question
Composers use timbre, texture, pitch, and dynamics, among other tools, to
create an impression on people who experience their work. List four of the
tools described above that are used by painters to create their works.
No response saved yet.
Seeing Connections Across Art History
In this section, you will compare aspects of Pollock’s work to those of works by other
artists. Use the information and images provided to answer the questions below.
While it is possible to have a very rich experience looking at Pollock’s Autumn Rhythm
without any knowledge of the artist or art history (only working with what we can
observe by looking carefully at the painting), there are subtle connections that
knowledge of the artist or art history can reveal. For example, Jackson Pollock was born
in Cody, Wyoming. The landscape of the American West, as well as how that landscape
had been depicted in art, was an important influence on him.
Figure 7
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This painting depicts a broad landscape in the Rocky Mountains. A tall, snowcapped peak
towers in the fading background over lesser mountains in the nearer distance and smaller
foothills near the foreground. Amid these foothills, a waterfall tumbles into a lake. The
foothills behind the lake and the flat ground to the left of it are covered in trees. A level
plain stretches in front of the lake, covering the foreground, and there is a group of Native
American people with tents and horses camped on the plain.
The Rocky Mountains, Lander’s Peak by Albert Bierstadt. Oil on canvas, 1863. 6′ 1.5″ ×
10′ 0.75″.
FineArt/Alamy
Therefore, if we compare (that is, pay attention to connections between) Autumn
Rhythm by Jackson Pollock and The Rocky Mountains, Lander’s Peak (Figure 7) by
Albert Bierstadt, we can see Pollock’s painting in a new way.2 For example, both
paintings are very large. That means that, as we stand in front of the painting, it
encompasses our entire field of vision. Both paintings draw us into a pictorial space, a
depiction of space within the painting, that is vast. Bierstadt’s landscape opens up with
a group of Native Americans in the foreground area. Behind them is a large lake. As we
travel (in our imaginations) further into the distance, we climb into the mountains. The
landscape seems to extend endlessly, suggesting a sense of boundless possibility.
Likewise, Autumn Rhythm presents us with an immeasurable distance. Looking at this
painting is like looking at the stars on a clear night. There is no point at which the space
within the painting comes to a definitive end. While Bierstadt’s painting suggests the
promise of a geographic, westward expansion, Pollock’s painting draws us into an
inward journey (what Carl Jung called the “collective unconscious”). Although these
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two paintings are separated by nearly a century, they share a common spirit. Both of
them visualize an ethos of limitless and inevitable possibility, a nod to the historical
concept of manifest destiny. Recognizing the connections between Pollock’s art and a
history of American aspiration and adventurism expands our appreciation of Autumn
Rhythm.
Figure 8
This engraving depicts ten naked men fighting each other in front of a cornfield and what
appears to be a crop of grapes. The men wield swords, axes, knives, and a bow and arrow.
Shields, scabbards, and discarded weapons lie on the ground at the combatants’ feet. To
the left of and just behind the leftmost man, there is a sign written in Latin. The words on
the sign are not clear.
Battle of the Naked Men by Antonio Pollaiuolo. Engraving, ca. 1465. 1′ 3.25″ × 1′ 11.25″.
Archivart/Alamy
Seeing Unintentional Connections
Our examination of Autumn Rhythm can also uncover connections that were
unintentional. For example, walking through the Metropolitan Museum of Art with
Pollock’s work fresh in our memory, we might encounter a print by the Italian
Renaissance artist Antonio Pollaiuolo entitled Battle of the Naked Men (Figure 8).
There is no evidence that Pollock knew this work (even though it is probably the most
famous engraving of the Italian Renaissance) or that he used it as a model. And yet the
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compositional structure in both Autumn Rhythm and Battle of the Naked Men is
similar. Both compositions have a circular, clockwise-moving form in the lower left
(Figure 9). In both works, the center of the composition consists of a group of
interconnected forms that revolve around an open core (
Figure 10
). At the right, in both
works, there is a density of material that visually blocks our exit from the composition
and redirects the eye toward the center (
Figure 11
).
Figure 9
This engraving depicts ten naked men fighting each other in front of a cornfield and what
appears to be a crop of grapes. The men wield swords, axes, knives, and a bow and arrow.
Shields, scabbards, and discarded weapons lie on the ground at the combatants’ feet. To
the left of and just behind the leftmost man, there is a sign written in Latin. The words on
the sign are not clear. Two circular arrows are laid over the image in the lower left corner,
where two of the men are struggling with each other on the ground. The arrows indicate a
clockwise movement in the poses of the two men.
Detail from Pollaiuolo’s Battle of the Naked Men.
Archivart/Alamy
Figure 10
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This engraving depicts ten naked men fighting each other in front of a cornfield and what
appears to be a crop of grapes. The men wield swords, axes, knives, and a bow and arrow.
Shields, scabbards, and discarded weapons lie on the ground at the combatants’ feet. To
the left of and just behind the leftmost man, there is a sign written in Latin. The words on
the sign are not clear. Two circular arrows are laid over the image in the upper central
area, where four men are battling. The arrows highlight how the poses of the four men
create a counterclockwise motion around an open central space between them all.
Detail from Pollaiuolo’s Battle of the Naked Men.
Archivart/Alamy
Figure 11
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This engraving depicts ten naked men fighting each other in front of a cornfield and what
appears to be a crop of grapes. The men wield swords, axes, knives, and a bow and arrow.
Shields, scabbards, and discarded weapons lie on the ground at the combatants’ feet. To
the left of and just behind the leftmost man, there is a sign written in Latin. The words on
the sign are not clear. Vertical arrows are overlaid on the right side of the engraving,
where one man is crouched over another, stabbing him, and a third man stands tall with
an axe raised over his head. The arrows indicate that this side of the image is very densely
packed with the men’s figures.
Detail from Pollaiuolo’s Battle of the Naked Men.
Archivart/Alamy
In Pollaiuolo’s print, these “forms” are figures in action. In Pollock’s painting, these
forms are abstract accumulations of fluid paint. Therefore, at least at first, the two
works might not “look” similar, especially if we are focused on what the image depicts
rather than how it is depicted. Nevertheless, as compositions, the structures of these
works are alike.
If, as we noted, Pollock was not using Pollaiuolo as a model, what accounts for these
compositional similarities? Both artists were aware that we would be reading their
composition starting from the lower left and moving toward the right. Both artists
wanted to create a dynamic and free-flowing composition that did not have only one
focal point. The fact that they arrived at comparable solutions is an interesting
observation, one that has the potential to further enrich our reading of both works.
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This comparison of Pollock and Pollaiuolo demonstrates how we have permission to
look for connections that the artist did not deliberately create. So long as these
connections are rooted in careful observation of the work of art itself and do not directly
contradict what we know about the artist and art history, we are at the point where the
connections find completion.
Multiple-Choice Question
When composing their works, what did both Pollaiuolo and Pollock assume
about their viewers?
Viewers would base their judgments of the works primarily on the colors used.
Viewers would be appreciative of the visual arts.
Viewers would read the composition from left to right.
Viewers would take time to discover the connections between the two works.
Conclusion
Jackson Pollock’s painting process was spontaneous and personal, but it was not
subjective or random. Autumn Rhythm cultivates in us a similar approach to viewing
art. Like Pollock’s method of painting, looking at art and seeing connections is a process
of practiced intuition. Our attentiveness to how meaning emerges from relationships
begins with a careful visual examination of the work of art. Here we should pay
attention to the internal connections, the relationships between the material and the
visual elements of the work of art. For some viewers, this is where the process ends. It is
possible to have a rich engagement with the work of art by simply noticing these
internal connections.
Of course, a richer understanding of the work can develop if we have some knowledge of
the artist and art history. Countless relationships are possible between two or more
works of art. In some cases, two works of art can even have a relationship that was not
deliberately created. However, each new connection adds another layer of meaning to
the work.
Response Board
What can you now see in this painting that you couldn’t see before?
No response saved yet.
Share your thoughts with your peers…
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Figure 1
This Jackson Pollock painting consists of many different splatters and streaks of black,
white, and brown paint strewn densely across a beige background.
Autumn Rhythm (Number 30) by Jackson Pollock. Enamel on canvas, 1950. 8′ 9″ × 17′
3″.
© The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY.
1 There is a famous story about the Renaissance artist Giotto in which he was
approached by representatives of the pope. The pope sought to commission some art
and wanted to know whether Giotto was skillful. The representative asked Giotto for a
drawing that would demonstrate his skills. Giotto took a piece of paper and drew,
freehand, a perfect circle. The representative was indignant, assuming that Giotto was
mocking his request. But the pope, who recognized that only a great artist could draw a
perfect circle without a compass, was impressed.
2 While we can’t definitively say that Pollock had seen Albert Bierstadt’s The Rocky
Mountains, Lander’s Peak, it is one of the best examples of a type of American
landscape painting with which Pollock would have been familiar.
close