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Joey's Art Page

Composition: The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci

Composition is the placement or arrangement of the visual elements in a work of art. This includes line, shape, color, texture, form, value, and space. Firstly, what will be discussed about the composition of the Last Supper is the position of Jesus. Jesus is placed right in the center or middle of the painting. This gives him emphasis and makes him the focal point. If you notice the shape around Jesus, he forms a triangle. This seems to give him somewhat of a calming and reassuring presence which is in sharp contrast to his apostles as they are all in expressive action and have undefined shapes. Jesus is also framed by the window in how he perfectly fits the window in the background. This helps to create a separate portrait within the actual painting. Secondly, is the composition of his twelve apostles. Around Jesus at the dinner table are his 12 apostles. There are four groups of apostles and each are grouped into threes. They seem to be separate from Jesus as Jesus is the subject of emphasis in the work. This helps to give the painting balance and contrast between Jesus and his apostles. Their actions are all very diverse, but balanced together enough as a whole to create great balance. Thirdly, a one point perspective is clearly used in the work as can be seen in the ceiling. The perspective lines are leading to Jesus as he is in the center of the painting. They lead to Jesus because in essence he is the point of perspective. Not only the ceiling, but also the windows in the back, on the side walls, and even the chair in the foreground all connect to Jesus.

Space: Mont Sainte-Victoire by Paul Cezanne.

There are two different kinds of space when it comes to art. Positive space is space that is taken up by anything and negative space is the space around something in an area. This painting by Cezanne uses a two-dimensional form. With this two-dimensional from, objects are deformed into and modeled on the flat surface of the canvas. Much of the Modernist works such as this one have this same two-dimensional form. Cezanne also manipulated space as can be seen in this work. He compressed the space between the objects as can be seen with the houses in the foreground and even the ones near the mountain. An extended amount of space can be seen with the mountain. By looking at it, it makes you know that there is more landscape than what is seen. This combination of condensing and expanding space was most likely done by Cezanne to add a sense of depth and possibly an auditory illusion. There space between the tips of the mountain and sky. There is also space used with the bridge in the distance and with the road in the middle. The large trees up the front are a long ways away from what is down below, so there is a grand amount of space in between here. The space between the branches also shows that there is more than one tree hanging atop the ridge. The contrast of height and depth in this way also leads to a more dynamic look and feel of space. As the reader, you can actually feel the range of space in between the cliff and the whole countryside down below.

Form: Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh

Form in art refers to the shape, visual appearance, or configuration. This also includes canvas texture, color, and brush texture. The painting Starry Night uses form in a wide variety of ways. The first way to be discussed with how Van Gogh used form is the use of his brush strokes. His brush strokes are swirly and seem to flow consistently throughout the painting. This includes not only the sky which is most obvious, but in the hills and the land near the houses. His brush strokes are also circular especially around the moon and around the stars. There are twelve stars in the night sky total and all of them resemble the shape of the brush strokes around the moon. They are all fiery and bright and resemble that of the moon. The night sky looks full of energy. On the contrary, the houses at the bottom look quiet and peaceful. The bright windows on the houses have the same fiery color quality to them as the stars and moon do. The placement of each of the stars suggests that we are looking at it from a far away angle like up on a hill. The canvas texture of The Starry Night is oil on canvas. This is what gives the painting a smooth polished look. The dark structure to the left of the painting up front seems to be isolated from the rest of the painting. This was most likely done by Van Gogh to help create a sense of depth when compared to the houses down below and to the sky up above. Its swirly lines mimic that of those in the night sky.

Tone: Supper at Emmaus by Caravaggio

Tone in art refers to the degree of lightness or darkness of an area. The overall environment of this painting is dark and intense. The emotion coming from Jesus' disciples complements the dark intriguing tone of the painting. The change in tone in this painting comes from going dark to light. The background behind the characters is a dark area in contrast to the light shown on the characters. It seems as if Caravaggio had the intention of putting more emphasis on Jesus with the use of tone. This includes not only the lighting but also the tone of various colors on his clothes. The shadow behind Jesus contrasts perfectly with the small area of light on the wall to the upper left. There is also shadow on the shirt of the man sitting down. Even on the cloth of the table, shadows can be seen. The food and drink on the table, on the contrary, is quite bright. What is also interesting about how Caravaggio used tone is the different shades of the same base colors. For example, the red on Jesus seems to be a much lighter red than on the disciple to his upper left. And, on the two disciples sitting down, the lightness and darkness of various hues is seen such as the green on their shirts and their skin color. The tone of the color used on Jesus' face is considerably lighter than on the faces of his disciples. They instead look darker and more affected by the shadow. Also, tone is used on the table. Various tones of white are used on the cloth such as dark and light grey. Also, the darkness of the colors yellow and orange is used on the food. Tones are clearly used well in this painting because you feel as the reader as a sense of harmony, balance, and wholeness when looking at it.

Color: Composition VII by Wassily Kadinsky

Color is the art element that is known to be the most expressive. Many colors are used in this painting. The primary colors used are red, blue, and yellow. These colors are mixed with another to create the other colors were seeing such as greens, purple, and orange. There is a great illusion of depth that the colors provide. The red seems to pop out to the viewer and blue seems to recede in the distance. If you stare at the reds and blues long enough, you can start to see this illusion of depth. This kind of dynamic that is applied provides for a great contrast between each of the colors. The black lines used mainly in the center of the work help to direct the motion of the painting. The black swerved line along the blue for example seems to create added depth to the colors on both sides of it. Being that this work is an abstract style of art, I think the color makes it even more abstract and makes you think more about what each drawing means. The way he uses colors in this work relates to the title of the work being a composition. The colors seem to be used as notes like in a real musical composition. I say this because of the way they are arranged and how there is clearly a great rhythm among them. It is clear to see that one of Kadinsky's goals with the use of color was to make them harmonious with one another. For example, the colors of red and orange next to one another evoke certain energy and connect with one another well. The blues and purples also mesh well being next to one another.

Subject: Guernica by Pablo Picasso

Guernica is a mural painting by Pablo Picasso dedicated to the events of the Spanish Civil War. The goal of this painting by Picasso was to show the suffering and tradegies that war can bring. Guernica's subject matter includes humans, animals, and buildings. All of these characters are shown to be suffering because of what happened to Spain. The woman under the bull with horns on the left is grieving because of the loss of her child from the bombing. There are also two women on the right which are looking at the giant lightbulb at the top. This giant lightbulb was made to look like Picasso to be a bomb. This shows the expression of the people as the bombs were taking place. Although, another posible interpretation of it is that it is the sun. There is also a bull and the horse in the work, which are known to be important aspects of Spanish culture. The bull is in the upper left of the painting. The horse in the middle appears to be in agony because a javelin has just struck its neck as can be seen with the hand above it. There is a building in the upper right that relates to the destruction on the city of Guernica which occured. The flames above it suggest it is on fire, which is most likely how the buildings actually looked when they were bombed. This painting says a lot by looking at it and provides for many ways of interpetation. How all the characters seem to be in a state of panic and fear relates to how they would have looked when the bombings were taking place. The use of black, white, and grey paint go perfectly with the mood of the painting and especially its subject matter.