symbolism/story

“Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump” story/symbols?

The main theme is celebrating subjects in enlightenment, involves new technology and innovation.

Success in this instance shows women and men separate, showcasing the gender division and stereotypes that happened at the time. women were seen as emotional, they are clinging to one another and distraught/crying as they watch the bird in the experiment. men are more rational they are studied and focused on the bird

The actual experiment parallels the resurrection, since when they lift the lid they revive the bird and put it back in the cage. 

the red color the main scientist is wearing gives a mysterious/madness vibe the lion mane on his head also helps with the idea that he’s passionate and romantic (mad scientist). he’s also looking at the viewer, shows success of his experiment. his clothing communicates his role in society.

The club of lunatics, “lunar society” met during the full moon so it is present in many works of art

“The Marriage Contract from Marriage a la mode” story/symbols? 

small genre painting in a series of about 6-8 paintings of one theme: this was about social climbers, people would buy tittles by moving classes through marriage

this is a photo of two men negotiating the marriage between their children. one man is wearing a basic and conservative costume, simple and grey: shows he’s a self made man who made his own fortune. the other is in a detailed costume (gold), with stockings, has crutches and a bandaged foot from an illness, also sitting under a baldachin: family tree is on scroll showing him as william the conqueror so he’s from an aristocratic bloodline, lord squander field (title and no money). he’s getting anew home built and so he needs money, that’s why he’s marrying off his son.

the son is focused on his own reflection, narcissism, dressed in Frenchs style with the blue lately selves and red shoes. he’s taking a pill known as “the cure” (just mercury tablets) to fix his std.

the daughter is clearly distraught/unhappy, she’s in white to show her purity, she’s sad because once she becomes titled he will get all of her money. very close with her attorney (silver tongue)

dogs are shackled in reference to the marriage. heavy frames on paintings were references to Caravaggios medusa, references the marriage.

Hogarth thought that people needed to be strictly English with no French rococo

What are other stories about “a la mode”?

breakfast scene: shows the husband still has std, he has been out all night (hat still on), ladies underwear next to him. he’s changed his fashion because no more blue. she has just had a party (turned over table, playing cards, candles).

the lack of fire burning shows them, irony. the ledger is over the two of them since they’re spending all their money 

other scenes: they keep the odalisque paintings in the dining room which is not classy. shows that you shouldn’t marry out of your class or else you and your child will get syphilis and die. 

“Death of General Wolfe” story/symbols?

presented real event incorrectly on purpose. people looked down on him for being a colonist, was outsider or half-savage, so he retells this patriotic and popular British subject of their beloved General Wolfe. He wanted to take something the British loved and show them he was a good painter too even if he’s a colonist.

he romanticizes the event. shows applying pressure to wound (without blood to preserve his dignity as a hero), the men are huddled around him very concerned. he is idealizing him.

this also appropriates the lamentation scene, he is descending from the flag (cross) has wounds in hand and torso, he was sacrificed for the cause. this gives it a biblical theme of a history painting, so now he’s created the contemporary history painting, new idea that the British mistook from him just being stupid (but he was being strategic).

the Native American is in the foreground. he has a more detached and objective look showing what people thought of NA at the time (they couold’t understand these events, they were savages and exotic). British people were obsessed and fascinated with native Americans though so him adding them shows his knowledge of what would appeal to the British public. he would also make up stories of his time with the natives, playing up to his “exotic colonist” name. really wanted to appeal to emotions of British.

“Oath of Horatii” story/symbols?

classical story of Horus and his sons, the men are saluting to defend to the death because they are going to fight in the war. they are very confident in the face and body language. They are specifically fighting the Curiatii, who are the wives family members.

wives are slumped and show curve and rounded bodies, showing a gender difference again. they are weeping because the women will suffer loss of husbands and family no matter who wins.

moment of pride and loss amongst the indivduals

was created for Louis the 16th but because of the French revolution at the time the people interpreted the painting as a call to defend the country, even if it wasn’t intended for this purpose

“Death of Marat” story/symbols?

Marat was a pamphleteer, who published news like articles. He was assassinated by Charlotte Corday after she was given access to his home, stabbed him. 

in a bath because he needed medicinal baths for his illness, would conduct business there (similar to coffin). letter says how he died.

was made to commemorate Marat, David’s friend, who died for the revolution

pieta reference of sacrifice. serenity on face. simplified the narrative. 

“Grand Odalisque” story/symbols?

life size portrait of a contemporary French woman. Surrounded by props like exotic textiles, pipes, fan, embroidery, fur, satin, jewels, head scarf that they got from the near east (Napoleon took territories like Africa and now they were experiencing other cultures). The French were hungry for an exotic culture so they were very interested by this new types of products, even though they had never even seen a person from the actual culture.

The women is supposed to represent an exotic female from this culture. Its showing that these types of cultures were easily dominated and conquered, if they used a contemporary woman in exotic props it’s like a guise and it’s no longer scandalous or dirty to do odalisque style paintings. 

“3rd of May, 1808” story/symbols?

a contemporary history painting, based on the events from may 2nd to may 3rd, Goya heard of the event from gossip and newspapers and wanted to painting a real edition of the story. Wanted the public to be sympathetic of the Spanish who were being attacked. he was all about exposing the atrocity of the French, they were taking the men in the dark of night to somewhere outside of the city and shooting them like it was a big secret.

The men show terrified and confused faces, we can’t really see the French faces but only their uniforms and the guns which takes their humanity away and only sees them as weapons. 

lantern is giving the space the light, and the main figure is struck by this and shown like Jesus when he was crucified (shot in hand as well), to show he is being sacrificed. monk kneeling as well in prayer and was a victim of the French as well. 

foreground shows dead bodies and blood, which was new for art because you didn’t put the ugliest and realest picture right in front of the viewers face. He was trying to show the indignity of treatment as the face confronts the viewer and the bodies stack. no longer ideal here and so he wanted that major shock factor. 

“Raft of Medusa” story/symbols?

Was a contemporary image that was big and usually very grand. created in response to the frigate shipwreck. he took all the info he had learned from the interviews, media, and headlines from the survivors and started to plan out the story.

showed that mutiny was on the raft, they were killing each other, cannibalism, and a storm is approaching on the horizon as they are being rescued. he started doing his own interviews with the survivors to really understand what happened, he also got bodies from morgues and let them rot so he can see it and feel it and smell it.

did sketches and compositions to figure where to start the painting and then decides that the final rescue is most important. the rescue boat is small and far away from the horizon line as the waves are growing bigger and they’re getting ini danger. men are struggling against death, in despair and distraught in the bottom half, hopelessness in foreground, and in the top half there is a moment of hope.

the black man was waving his shirt to get attention, was hero of the rescue. showing a dramatic moment of fighting for survival. not supposed to be pretty or ideal but a hard and difficult topic that he wants us to look and feel with the figures.

told them to hang the painting down low so that the viewer could be at eye level with the foreground and engaging with the piece.

institutionalized after he finished the painting, like method acting.

“Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps”

Not a maritime scene but instead Italian alps, mountainous region in northern Italian peninsula. weather related sublime experience, figures around are silhouettes surrounded by jagged rocks in the big mountain range. struggle to survive with snow storm coming

we see vortex of alpine energy, snow being whipped into wind, sun isn’t visible, ferocity of the storm looks like a wave about to crash on the men sitting without shelter. we experience the terror of man surviving against terrifying nature. at this time though there is the Industrial Revolution where man is harnessing nature, so this challenges this idea, we can’t control nature.

hannibal story is a classical/ancient subject rendered into a romantic style. In punic wars, there were marching troops on elephants to invade Rome and they wanted to sneak attacked from the north Alps, showing hubris (pride). there army gets decimated and they lose because of how weak they were from hiking up the mountains. Hannibal was equated to Napoleon.

the army is so tiny in the painting to show the scale and contrast of size from human and nature.

“The Oxbow” story?

Americas identity was landscapes because our land was so important for the natural architecture.

Made his landscapes big, to show they were just as important as history paintings.

left side is the wild dramatic side with a blasted tree struck by lightning and dark clouds, shows the uncontrolled side of the nature, sublime. right side is clear skies and landscape has been tamed and harnessed, controlled. shows natural bend of the Ohio River/Oxbow, tourist attraction with hotels in mountains. shows good progress and control, whereas the left needed that control

dead tree shows the history of the past and is also a reference time and the passage of time

the reality of the location was nothing like the painting. he created nostalgia and a reimagined view before humans took over. perspective is off because you can’t see the whole oxbow from that angle. he made it visible and flattened it to see. also added himself in the foreground of the painting.

Hebrew on the hill says “god almighty” time when US was gods land and paradise on earth, document?

“The Gleaners” story?

Glean meant to scavenge and was consider the lowest of the low. shows nothing vs everything, big piles of grain compiled that they don’t own. these women are looking for any bits they can get. genre painting of them doing actual work.

people got horrified by this “dangerous” painting, that showed realities that wealthy didn’t want to see. was put on exhibition for specifically the wealthy class and he was calling them out and trying to make them uncomfortable. Millet opposed slavery in the US, so he was often critiquing it.

“Luncheon on the Grass” story?

This was shocking to viewers and submitted then rejected by Salon des Refusés, seen as scandalous. lacked academic art and was rejected by the exhibition.

was his friend and brother in law of Manet’s, with two known contemporary women.

based his arrangement of figures on old sources, often asked the Salon why his was inappropriate if other composites looked the same. was a response to critics, the historic sources, and a reason to arrange the composition.

“Olympia” Story, with a small bit of style?

rejected again by the Salon des Refusés. was based on Venus of Urbino, but now it was a contemporary prostitute. the jewelry and ribbon emphasized the nakedness of the model. servant was giving the bouquet that was from a lover, speaks to diversity of Paris, modernization

black cat symbolized female anatomy and prostitution, dual nature and sexuality.

loose brushwork

“The Gross Clinic” story?

Painted for the Philadelphia Centennial Worlds Fair, showed the accomplishments of the nation, to celebrate it. Build a city for it, and it lasted for 6 months. Showed this at the art pavilion since Samuel Gross was a professor and surgeon at Jefferson Medical. Wanted to celebrate his scientific achievements. had to be exhibited as science and NOT art.

Gross’s larger forehead was to show he was a smart individual.

the scene shows a scene where Gross is causing to explain the surgery. They are moving diseased bone, people are knocking the patient out with chloroform, 4 assistants. parent or spouse of victim is recoiling in disgust, shows gender divide because she couldn’t look. the victim/patient probably died during this. Eakins is also in the work, liked to do that

“Banjo Lesson” story?

A banjo player was a black stereotypes in tv shows/public performances, showed as silly buffoons for white audiences. shows a mixed child, touching on the racial mixture from rapes. the father is not in the picture showing possible broken apart from slavery. subject shows realism of black community and tradition.

“Impression Sunrise” story?

This was displayed in an exhibition that opened before the academic Salon did, but was not popular. Louis Leroy was a critic who came and insulted the work.

Monet didn’t care and kept doing sketch work.

in 1841 an inventor, John Rand, creates a collapsable tube and puts paints in a portable package

“Mother and Child” but talked about from “The Childs Bath” (not on slide list) example story and style?

This was an example of how women had a different access to life and could only observe domestic spaces.

incorporates Japonisme, Japanese print making into her collection and style, which was popular in Europe at the time.

collapsing perspective with awkward weight placement, hand is bigger, legs aren’t bent.