Renaissance Period: The Annunciation by Leonardo Da Vinci
-It was Leonardo’s first painting at only 20 years old
-First appearance in Uffizi, 1867 during the Renaissance period. It was thought to be Domenico Ghirlandaio’s work but Karl Eduard von Liphart of Florence recognized it as Leonardo’s.
-It has a touch of both Verrocchio and Leonardo. Verrocchio used lead painting on a heavy brush then Leonardo finished up the background and the angel using light strokes without lead.
- Leonardo then added a preparatory drawing of the Angel’s wings.
-The Annunciation is a heavenly masterpiece depicting a flawless majestic angel, a fragile yet beautiful virgin and a serene cascading landscape.
Baroque Period: Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer
-It was painted in 1665 in Netherlands during the Baroque movement. Formerly known as the Girl with a Turban.
-The painting measures 44.50 cm in height by 39.00 cm in length and is signed ‘IVMeer’
-Johannes intensively uses red and brown ochre on the girl’s skin. The top of the turban, the neck and the fabric is accentuated with ultramarine color.
-He uniquely blends creamy tones for the girl’s skin so it seems very realistic.
-Johannes uses very fine, clear and linear strokes to create a smooth clear-cut painting of the girl’s skin texture and clothing.
-Johannes Vermeer sensually expresses a woman’s gracefulness and stillness. This painting captures a girl’s pure innocence with an air of mystery around her identity.
Johannes Vermeer is a well-known artist who created realistic paintings. Most of his realist paintings are portraits of Dutch girls during the time. It is believed that the girl in ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ is his daughter, Maria.
What captures my attention most about this painting is the girl’s face. I find it hard to believe that it is a painting and not an actual camera picture. The way she turns her head with her red lips parting widely and her shining earring dangling from her ear is an elegant pose that reveals total femininity.
I find the color of both the turban and the end of her headscarf to perfectly match the faded blue color of the linen which cannot be seen from just a glance. One has to take a second look to notice this matching color. Johannes uses color to reveal a contrast and illuminate the girl’s face and part of her linen. The contrast of the color clearly brings out the shining pearl earring.
Part B
Romanticism- The Raft of Medusa
I have always wanted to feel how it is to be an artist, to create something real and so captivating that everyone drools over. I very much adore and respect ancient painters and lithographers because of their ingenuity. One painter in particular was Therodore Gericault, a French artist during the Romanticism period. I am as nearly obsessed about his work as I am about Leonardo Da Vinci’s.
So I was surfing on the internet as I usually do during my free time, going through a website about arts called Artable. It is a website that discusses all the famous ancient paintings. It was during the time that I came across a strangely familiar painting of people in a raft who appeared to be sailors in distress in the middle of a sea. They seemed to have wrecked their boat because there is one person who has raised a cloth in his arm calling for help. The rest of the crew are seated with eight people looking very sickly or dead.
At first, I dismissed the picture as any other illustrations until I came across the story of a French shipwreck, Medusa. Thing is, I have always known Medusa as a Greek monster woman with snakes on her head that objectified people (literally). I was intrigued to find out the relationship between the two but I later found out that there was none whatsoever. On the other hand, it was the best thing to ever happen to me because I have never been the same since then. I immediately got hooked on the story however heartbreaking I found it to be. I also found a movie based on the story, ‘The Raft of the Medusa’ directed by Richard Heslop and Jeremy Mortimer.
Theodore brings out human misery in a magical way that captures the eye. It was in the later years that I became invested in the paintings of the Romanticism movement. There are honestly not enough words to describe the feeling one gets from observing this painting.
