How Romantic of You

Despite his every attempt, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was unable to resist the attractive themes of Romanticism.  Ingres was one of Jaques-Louis David's understudies, but he didn't last for long.  David was educated in the Neoclassical style, but he pushed his students to expand the horizons and find their own artistic identity.  Ingres, fed up with this barbaric deviation from the strict Neoclassicism, left that school and went out on his own.  The main difference between Neoclassicism and Romanticism is that the first involves primarily the observed state of life, whereas the second usually involves an elaborate fictional story behind work.

Grande Odalisque

Many of his compositions, including the Apotheosis of Homer, were strictly Neoclassical, but his Grande Odalisque was demolished by critics for it's Romantic themes.  The reclining nude female is a common Greco-Roman, but by portraying her as a odalisque he used an exotic Romantic image.  An odalisque is a female slave most commonly found in the seraglio (female apartments) of the Turkish sultan.  The nude woman style can be seen in Titian's Venus of Urbino (1538).  The face is a near imitation of Raphel's soft featured and calm style, which can be seen in his Madonna in the Meadow (1505).  The extreme relaxation shown is similar to the Italian Mannerism artist Jacopo da Pontormo's style in his Madonna with the Long Neck and Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time.  Ingres also uses the same elongated body shape and the cool color scheme that creates a calm and relaxed feeling.  No matter how traditional the painting of the subject is, the subject itself is purely Romantic, which puts this work in the transitional period between Neoclassicism and the revolutionary Romanticism.

Venus of Urbino

Madonna in the Meadow

How Original...Not

Admit it, when we find things that are really clever or really good, we like to tell the world about it as if it is ours.  For example, for Lit class we had to write a 'riddle poem'.  I found a very clever one that went like this, "I drink the blood of the earth/and the trees fear my roar/yet a man may hold me in his hands."  Figure it out yet?  Didn't think so.  It is a chainsaw! Clever, right? I know.  This natural tendency that we have to take from our predecessors and incorporate or flat out copy it for our own uses is prevalent in art.

The Romanesque period is a prime example of that natural tendency.  A majority of the works from this period draw heavily from the Roman period, hence the name Romanesque.  A specific piece to look at is the head reliquary of Saint Alexander from Stavelot Abbey in Belgium. This piece, made in 1145 CE, is almost a copy of the face of Augustus in his statue in Primaporta, Italy, which was made around 30 CE.  The face on Polykleitos's Doryphoros, made in 450BCE, also matches that of Saint Alexanders.

Though made of two completely different materials, they have the same straight mouth, taught cheeks, prominent brow, and long nose.  Their hair even curls the same way; they must have had the same stylist.  Saint Augustine is made of silver repoussé, gilt bronze, gems, pearls and enamel, whereas Augustus is a marble copy of a bronze original. Both of these works were designed to show the calm power that the subject holds, or in the case of Saint Alexander, held.  Alexander's head rests upon a gold reliquary that carries influence from the byzantine age.  A reliquary is a container for holy relics, so in this case it would most likely be ashes or bones of some sort.

The eerie similarity of these two works calls into questions the plagiary rules back then and what morals these copiers had.  Also, the lack of protection for intellectual design is appalling.  Someone better be collecting copyright checks.

You Should Really Reconsider Entering!

For the often illiterate population, symbols and sculptures were the only way institutions were able to transfer messages.  The use of didactic sculpture has been used for ever but the most popular was during the Greek and Roman periods.  The reliefs on buildings like the Parthenon functioned as narratives for the people.  Used at practically every corner in Rome, the technique faded for a while until Romanesque architects renewed it.  In the 11th and 12th centuries, there was flurry of new narrative stone reliefs and sculptures.  The art work was transferred from the doors themselves to the surrounding areas of the door.

In the picture on the left you can see the standard design of a Romanesque church portal.  The most important part is the tympanum, which is the large lunette above the doorway that would house the main work.  The wedge shaped blocks that make up the archivolts around the tympanum are called voussoirs.  The lintel, which often holds images of worshipers, is the horizontal beam above the doorway.  Lastly, the columns holding the whole thing up have two different names.  The middle column is called trumeau and the side columns are jambs.

The typical tympanum depicts Jesus in the middle in a mandorla.  He is surrounded by scenes or references to the New or Old Testament.  Many are scary and are intended to scare the common worshiper into considering their actions.  One of them depicts Jesus in the middle with the good side and heaven to his right and the evil side and hell to his left.  We decided to model our tympanum in class after one similar to the good vs. bad one.  We chose to do a Star Wars theme, and chose Darth Vader as our 'Jesus'. On Darth Vader's right there is Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and finally Yoda.  On the Vader's left is Darth Maul and Jabba the Hut.  The figures in the lintel are matched with their particular side.  The good figures are Rebel fighter pilots and the evil figures are Federation battle droids.  Along the archivolt the images are matched to their respective sides as well.  On the good side they are Millenium Falcons and on the evil side they are Death Stars.  Obviously, we took some creative liberty making Vader the main guy.  This also opened my eyes to how bad of a painter I am and showed me that paining is not meant for detailed images without the right brush.